With supplies abundant, Cai Tingyuan's troops bombarded the port of Tunis with heavy firepower, inflicting heavy losses on the Axis garrison. The loss of sea supremacy made the land war quite passive, and Halsey knew that this could not go on any longer, otherwise they would face a doomed defeat.

After communicating with the Axis air forces, they decided to join forces and fight to the death with the Predator fleet in order to regain sea supremacy in the Mediterranean, or Halsey's fleet would be destroyed.

After thorough preparations, the Axis bloc began a full-scale counteroffensive. Halsey sailed out of the Aegean Sea with a mixed fleet of forty-five of the last Axis aircraft carriers heading for the port of Benghazi, where the Predator fleet was stationed, where they would use themselves as bait to attack the opposing fleet in order to lure the opposing fleet closer to the northern coast and allow land-based aircraft to carry out the killing.

As early as a few days ago, Peng Dechao noticed an anomaly in the satellite photos, on the southern shore of the western continent, all the military airfields controlled by the Axis powers were busy, and a large number of planes were being transferred from the north to the south, as if there was some big operation.

Sure enough, a few days later, Halsey's fleet set sail, and as soon as they left the port, the Black Feather strategic reconnaissance plane, which was conducting reconnaissance at high altitude, discovered them.

After learning that the opponent's main fleet had sailed, Peng Dechao also re-checked the latest satellite images, and he found that many ports on the western coast of the Aegean Sea had become quite empty, and these places had always been stationed in the ports of the Halsi fleet.

After being sure that the opponent's main fleet had all left the port, Peng Dechao also ordered the Iron and Blood Army fleet to leave the port, but for the sake of insurance, he did not ask Feng Ju's fleet to leave the port to meet the battle, but let them be the second echelon, ready to reinforce at any time.

Feng Ju also sensed that this operation was not trivial, and he immediately notified Cai Tingyuan and Gao Hong of the Mediterranean Military Region by radio, telling them to be on strict alert. After receiving the news, the two also knew that the situation was serious, and they immediately took off their reconnaissance planes to closely monitor the enemy in front of them, and at the same time ordered the airfield to enter the first level of combat readiness.

Leading a huge fleet on the boundless sea, Halsey, who had just been promoted to the rank of marshal, was also sweating with his hands, and he was completely uncertain of victory. The aircraft carrier fleet, which was high-spirited and considered invincible at the beginning, now looks so weak.

Halsey and Nimitz were good friends, and before the war, they were also the most staunch admirals against war, in fact, although the naval superiority was the most obvious before the war, the admirals led by Nimitz and Halsey were the most vehemently opposed to war, because they knew very well that there was no luck in fighting at sea.

Land warfare may be able to take advantage of rugged terrain and various special climates to defeat the strong with the weak. But on the vast sea, battle is a head-to-head duel, and any bit of technological superiority can be infinitely expanded and transformed into a victory beyond numerical superiority, which is precisely what the Chinese Empire does best.

Under such circumstances, even with absolute numerical superiority, they still knew very well that the fleet of the Axis bloc could not defeat the Chinese Empire, especially in this era when air supremacy determined sea supremacy, and with island airfields densely scattered in the eastern ocean, the Chinese Empire was already invincible.

Although the two men were opposed to war, they were not ignorant of the general situation, and after the government declared war, they threw themselves into the war. Nimitz made a name for himself in the attack on Pearl Harbor, but then he was shelved by the Admiralty bureaucrats. Since his correct opinion was not accepted, resulting in the destruction of the entire ocean-going fleet of the Boston Empire, Halsey was now faced with an equally difficult choice.

If we retreat to the Aegean Sea and cede sea supremacy in the Mediterranean, we can indeed keep the last main fleet of the Axis bloc, but in that case, the Axis land forces that have lost sea supremacy will be constrained everywhere, and their living space will be slowly compressed. When the land is occupied by all NATO allies, Halsey's fleet will have only one way to surrender, unless, of course, he is willing to choose to sink himself like the Yaman navy.

The other option is what Halsey is doing now, using himself as a bait and relying on the power of land-based aircraft to try to inflict heavy damage or annihilation on the naval fleet of the Chinese Empire. Although Halsey knew that this was unlikely, he let him hide in the Aegean Sea and watch his side fall slowly, preferring to die a vigorous death on the battlefield in order to be worthy of his military duties.

After sailing out of the Aegean Sea, the Axis fleet deflected southwest and headed straight for the port of Benghazi. At this time, the Iron Army fleet had set sail from the port of Benghazi and several nearby ports, forming a formation of four aircraft carriers to meet the Axis fleet.

The four Lombok-2 early warning planes rose to a high altitude early, and accompanied by 16 Sailfish-3B electronic warfare planes, they headed in all directions in a fan-shaped structure, and the active phased array radar was turned on with all its might, bringing a large area of sea and airspace into the search range.

The land-based Hawkeye radar planes had already taken off, and they flew far ahead of the Halsey fleet to conduct long-range reconnaissance for them. This kind of radar aircraft, which was improved from the B29 bomber, has a long range and is more than enough to patrol the Mediterranean, and they fly south at a speed of more than 500 kilometers per hour, while all the radars are turned on and the situation at sea is searched.

The Hawkeye radar plane's air search distance is 120 kilometers, and the sea search is only 70 kilometers, and this is still at the present time when there is no electronic interference, and as early as 300 kilometers away, the Lombok-2 early warning plane has already discovered its figure. Unbeknownst to the other side, several Sailfish 3B planes began to accelerate and rushed towards the Axis radar planes.

Axis officers who were trying to observe the radar suddenly discovered that the radar screen had turned into a clutter, as the Sailfish 3B electronic warfare aircraft had begun to interfere. The powerful electromagnetic interference wave speed made the Axis side completely blind, and the Axis officers and soldiers on the radar plane immediately knew that the enemy was approaching, so they quickly turned around and fled to their own airfield inland.

The Predator pilots refused to let the fat slip away, and they immediately began to accelerate, chasing after them at a supersonic speed close to Mach 2. Even if the Hawkeye radar plane flies at its fastest, it is only 574 kilometers per hour, how can such a speed evade the Sailfish 3B aircraft with a speed of more than 2,500 kilometers per hour?

Six electronic warfare planes, at maximum speed, caught up with the Axis radar aircraft in less than a minute. Despite being converted into electronic warfare aircraft, the Sailfish 3B retains basic air combat capabilities, carrying at least four Thunderbolt-5 close-range air-to-air missiles per aircraft.

After approaching within five kilometers, the Sailfish 3B fighter leader was the first to lock onto the bulky Hawkeye radar with an active phased array radar. The active phased array radar was locked on quite quickly, and in only a third of a second, the Hawkeye radar was firmly locked in the aperture, and the leader of the long plane quickly launched his own missile.

The new Thunderbolt-5 missile has achieved full active guidance and multiple guidance such as radar, laser, and infrared, and with the current level of aircraft manufacturing in the Axis countries, even the best F104 fighter has no possibility of escape.

I saw a short missile ignited on the wing, and the orange tail flame was instantly formed, and the missile quickly broke away from the wing and flew forward with the help of the propulsion of the engine.

The missiles equipped by the Predator have gotten rid of the previous cold launch mode, and in the past, the missiles had to be released from the pylons before ignition, so that it took more than two seconds to launch each time. The new launch method allows the missile to be ignited directly on the pylon, so that the missile launch process can be completed in only a quarter of a second, but this launch also requires much higher material requirements for the wings, because it has to withstand the ablation of the rocket engine tail flame of more than 6,000 degrees.

At this time, the Thunderbolt 5 missile had already broken away from the pylons of the leader and was rushing towards the Hawkeye radar plane not far ahead. The Boston machine gunner in the tail cabin widened his eyes as he watched the speeding missile, and he didn't have time to use the communicator to alert the captain that the missile flying at Mach 3 had hit the wing root of the left wing of the plane and exploded.

The violent explosion completely detached the left wing of the radar plane, and at the same time blew a large hole in the belly of the aircraft, and the three officers working there and the radar equipment were all reduced to shreds, and the left wing of the plane fell to the ground with two huge engines.

One side of the wing was destroyed, the plane could no longer maintain its balance, and despite the captain's efforts to break the operating stick, the radar plane still drew a half circle and plunged headlong into the sea below, under the attack of this missile, the prelude to the naval battle in the Aegean Sea finally began.

Seeing that the radar plane crashed into the sea, several planes of the Iron Army quickly turned around and returned to the side of the AWACS aircraft. The radar plane had not returned for three hours, and the Axis air force brass knew that the situation had changed, and that the radar plane was estimated to have been destroyed, so they left to inform Halsey of the situation. After receiving this news, Halsey knew that the Predator fleet might have attacked, but he could not yet determine where the other side was, so he immediately asked the Air Force to send fighter jets to reconnoitre.

The Air Force acceded to Halsey's request, and this time for safety, they dispatched sixty-four F104 fighters, which were divided into eight groups and fanned out in eight directions. Despite the fact that the combat radius of the F104 fighter is only nine hundred kilometers, in the narrow Mediterranean, such a range is sufficient.

A word to readers:

I recommend a good book "The Most Holy of Swords", the author Zhuge Ye is less, I hope you will collect more.