On the one hand, the task is critical, and on the other hand, it is because of confidence in the air defense capability of their own fleets, and this can be seen from the fact that the fleets of both sides know that the attack aircraft groups of the other side are approaching them, but they do not retreat but advance. Of course, the purpose of this is slightly different, Wegener is to make the avant-garde fleet, which no longer has a surprise role, join the rearguard fleet more quickly to strengthen its air defense capabilities, while Spruance is purely just to shorten the flight range of the next carrier-based aircraft attack, and the latter is obviously more confident, but it is no wonder that anyone with 11 aircraft carriers in hand will become so confident

Although the two German fleets were moving in opposite directions to converge as soon as possible, as Spruance had predicted, the planes were much faster than the warships, so the American attack aircraft group rushed to the German aircraft carrier fleet before the German fleet converged. In Spruance's view, although Wegener's ruse succeeded, it weakened the air defense capability of the aircraft carrier group, and perhaps he thought that it would take two attacks to kill most of the German aircraft carriers, but now he can achieve the goal with one attack, although even so, the losses of the American forces are not smaller than originally expected

However, the attack of this wave of attack planes by the US military was far more difficult and dangerous than Spruance expected, first of all, because this wave of attack planes was sent out to destroy the remnants of the enemy in the original plan, and the number of planes was not as large as that of the first wave, with a total of more than 300 planes, of which only more than 100 fighters, while Wegener unexpectedly left as many as 100 fighters to protect the aircraft carrier formation. Considering the disparity in the quality of the pilots of the two sides, this force alone is enough to pose a great threat to the US attack aircraft group.

In addition, the US military was also surprised to find that the German Navy, which has always been seriously short of auxiliary ships, has so many air defense auxiliary ships, and there are more than 30 on the avant-garde fleet, not because the Germans put the focus of air defense on that side, because there are more anti-aircraft auxiliary ships on the rearguard fleet, and the total number has reached an astonishing 45, although there are no cruisers with large tonnage, but all of them are Crescent-class destroyers with world-class air defense capabilities, plus the anti-aircraft firepower of the five aircraft carriers themselves. There were more than 400 large-caliber anti-aircraft guns alone. Although such a terrifying anti-aircraft firepower configuration could not compare with the main fleet of the US military, it was far beyond the imagination of the US pilots, and it was enough for them to leave a deep memory that they will never forget

The reason why a famous general like Spruance also has such a serious miscalculation is largely because the AWACS radar has a large detection range. However, the ability to distinguish at long distances is actually quite limited. Take, for example, the maritime reconnaissance. It can detect the general location and size of the target fleet, but it cannot determine the number of ships and the specific type of ships, and can only rely on the commander to guess according to the strength of the signal.

And because Germany has always been short of auxiliary ships before. As a result, Spruance appeared to have a mindset, taking it for granted that the German Navy now has less than fifty cruisers and destroyers, and even if there is such a number, the training must be very inadequate, as for why the signal detected by the radar of the AWACS aircraft is so strong, Spruance's explanation seems to be reasonable on the surface, the radar reflection characteristics of the supply ship are very obvious, one is worth several, or even more destroyers!

But Spruance didn't expect that because the endurance of the Crescent-class destroyers was very amazing, and they were not inferior to the capital ships, so in order to let the fleet have a higher speed and at the same time confuse the enemy by the way, Wegener did not bring a single supply ship this time

Spruance did not expect that Germany would be able to build no less than 50 Crescent-class destroyers in more than a year by using at most half of the shipbuilding capacity of the occupied territories, client states and allies. In terms of training, because Wegener absorbed the rapid experience of the Chinese Navy and persuaded Goering to poach a large number of people from the army, the antiaircraft artillery and radar units on the new ships were basically experienced veterans, although because the special training of the Navy did not produce results so quickly, these destroyers would certainly not be pleasing to go out to engage the destroyers of the allied countries, but in terms of air defense operations, they quickly reached a very high level, and in the battles between aircraft carrier formations, they only needed to do this job well

Although he regretted it in his heart, Spruance was a rare and excellent admiral after all, and after receiving the report, he not only did not let the attack aircraft group give up the mission and return home, but strictly ordered them to resolutely complete the mission, because although the German aircraft carrier formation had strong air defense capabilities, after all, it was the defending side, and the initiative was still in the hands of the American aircraft group that launched the initiative to attack. Moreover, although the German Guard Fleet had five aircraft carriers to enhance their air defense capability, it was difficult to cover all aspects of the formation, and it was impossible to be as invulnerable as the German Guard Fleet, and the US pilots could always find weaknesses in defense. And most importantly, the three aircraft carriers of the German Guard Fleet, which were purchased from Japan, were too incompetent

With the US military's tradition of attaching importance to the lives of officers and soldiers, it stands to reason that this kind of order, which is almost equivalent to asking everyone to die, should be resisted by the officers and men at the lower levels, but the US Navy, especially the group of carrier-based aircraft pilots, has their own unique culture. Because the accident rate of carrier-based aircraft is much higher than that of army aircraft, even in peacetime, the United States loses several hundred carrier-based aircraft pilots and crew members every year, and this proportion is actually quite staggering

Coupled with the fact that the battle did not happen suddenly, the pilots had already taken some "refreshing" drugs before the battle, so they were even more courageous. So much so that after hearing the words of the fleet commander on the radio, not only did everyone not complain, but they were like tigers that saw their prey, and they roared with excitement one by one

Although the fighting spirit did not increase much combat effectiveness for the aircraft, heavy losses under German fighter and anti-aircraft fire were inevitable. However, the air raiders always held the tactical initiative, and the American pilots worked desperately one by one as if they had taken medicine, so many planes still managed to storm the core area of the German Guard Fleet (to be continued......