"When our attack aircraft were about 15,000 yards away from the German fleet, the enemy's large-caliber anti-aircraft shells were fired at us in a dense manner, and to everyone's great shock, these shrapnel did not explode early or late as expected. They exploded less than 70 feet from our planes, as if the Germans had sent shells directly to us to detonate them! In just two minutes, I saw 4 unlucky guys tumbling downwards in a cloud of black shell explosion smoke, and this was the result of the opponent's small-caliber anti-aircraft guns not joining the battle. Hit by this blow, our troops hurriedly disbanded their formations and attacked the opponent's aircraft carriers with all their might according to the predetermined tactics, but those large-caliber anti-aircraft shells were always around us, even when the distance was close to within 4,000 yards. There is no doubt that the Germans significantly upgraded their anti-aircraft fire control, which is an extremely unfavorable situation for us. Captain George of the American Air Force reacted to the senior generals of the fleet after the battle.

After experiencing the untraceable enemy Trek and the head-on interception of a large number of fighters, the American pilots who finally appeared above the German fleet found that the difficulties they faced did not end in the slightest; On the contrary, the harsh sea and air war has just begun. Although there were no battleships in the opposing fleet, the dozen or so "porcupines" (the US Navy's name for German air defense cruisers) full of anti-aircraft guns possessed ↙ anti-aircraft firepower that was not inferior to the former. If so, that's fine. After all, the 128-mm guns that the opponent is heavily equipped with are not very useful in close air defense. And in the present. These guns have a powerful efficiency that makes every American pilot tremble!

Compared with the 40 mm caliber anti-aircraft gun, which had to be directly hit to produce damage, the 128 mm gun can cause fatal damage to a fighter plane by detonating at close range with guò howitzer shotguns. For the German gunners, who had new shells, all they had to do now was to aim as far as they could. With the addition of more than 400 128-mm heavy anti-aircraft guns in the German fleet, the pressure on the American fleet increased dramatically, and they soon discovered that they were using new torpedo planes to improve their offensive capabilities. In the face of the opponent's sudden increase in air defense efficiency, it still seems to be not enough!

After 30 minutes of fierce fighting, the US plane finally returned home after throwing out the high-risk explosives. In total, they hit the German aircraft carrier with 4 bombs, and 2 aviation torpedoes hit the target. Under the early interception of German fighters and the fierce attack of massive anti-aircraft artillery, this was already the best result that this wave of US attack composed of 186 fighters could do. For a German heavy aircraft carrier, which was even better at resisting air attacks than its own battleships, such a blow would not cause fatal damage at all. The Mackensen ate a bomb on the aft deck, and the impact of the explosion on the unarmored parts reduced the effective length of its flight deck from 276 meters to 252 meters, reducing the ability to fly fighters in a single round by one squadron; The Hoffmann and Richthofen were each filled with nearly 1,000 tons of seawater, and a small amount of heavy oil used to absorb the blast energy was leaked. This was the case with the entire damage of the German aircraft carrier squadron commanded by Admiral Karls. Through the efforts of the damage management troops, the two aircraft carriers with mines relied on their deep internal force to withstand the damage without pressure; When the battleship was speeding at a high speed of more than 30 knots. Nor was the water inflow aggravated in the slightest by the rupture of the watertight chamber structure.

In order to achieve this result, the US military aircraft fleet paid an extremely heavy price. The number of attack waves released by 3 Essex and 2 Wasp-class. It was simply not enough to see in front of the air wall formed by the opponent's seven heavy aircraft carriers, and the anti-aircraft fire of the German fleet shocked the Americans even more. In total, 76 U.S. fighters were shot down in battle, and if you count the number of wounded, the battle loss rate of the U.S. attack wave would be a staggering 50%. On another battlefield, the huge group of German attack planes also ended the engagement with the other side, and the loss of US aviation will undoubtedly reach a new peak under the fluttering of the wings of these German war eagles!

"General, Air Force Colonel Hugo sent back a telegram that at the cost of losing 11 fighters, 8 bombers and 5 torpedo planes, they severely damaged a total of 3 US aircraft carriers on the spot, 2 large and 1 small, and a total of no less than 8 bombs and 3 torpedoes directly hit the core target!" The jubilant aide-de-camp hurried from the radio room to the navigation room and reported aloud to Admiral Kars, who was waiting for news. With the numerical superiority of the attack waves, the German carrier-based aviation once again inflicted heavy losses on the opponent, and this also made Kars's heart suddenly relaxed.

Through Adjutant Guò's subsequent words, Kars also had a more detailed understanding of the naval and air battlefield 300 kilometers away: the HS-293 guided bombs launched by his own side seemed to be interfered with by other signals, and half of them failed to achieve normal control, and the speed at which the other side pulled the smoke was also quite fast, and almost immediately after the aircraft carrier was damaged, he opened the smoke canister and shrouded himself in the haze, ignoring the situation in the outside world. It was precisely because of these two reasons that the German aircraft group, which had twice the attack lineup, failed to achieve greater results. Judging from the number of hits achieved by this attack aircraft, the ideal situation is that the enemy has lost most of its aviation combat power, and in order to completely destroy it, it will have to carry out at least two waves of attacks.

"It seems that during this half a year, the Americans were not idle at all, but drummed up quite a lot of gadgets to resist the German front." Kars held his chin in his right hand and muttered to himself. In the battle that had just ended on his side, the US army's new torpedo plane changed its previous turtle speed and still achieved effective hits in the face of its own greatly improved air defense efficiency, which completely exceeded his pre-war expectations. If the German Navy had not launched this preventive war with a huge first-mover advantage, but had waited until the other side had completed its preparations for war, the outcome at sea might have been uncertain!

"Order, let the ships prepare for the second wave of attacks, we must leave a part of the American aircraft carriers." Kars glanced down at the clock on his wrist and immediately ordered. Although the first wave of attack aircraft would land in less than an hour, theoretically leaving little time for the German aircraft carriers to rebuild, it was clear that the beveled deck would not be a constraint on their flights. In the daily training of German aircraft carriers, the use of angled decks to take off and land fighters at the same time has long been a familiar item for officers and men, although because of the priority to meet the deck needs of landing planes, the aircraft carrier's ability to fly fighters in this situation is far less than that of a normal wave, but having this ability is already extremely valuable.

Just as the lieutenant saluted Kars and was about to turn away, the phone connected to the radar room suddenly emitted a shrill hum. Kars frowned slightly, grabbed the earpiece and put it to his ear; As soon as he revealed his identity, a nervous voice came from the other end of the phone. A field of air targets with a number of about 200 has appeared at 11 o'clock at a distance of 170 kilometers from the fleet, and these fighters with a speed of more than 300 kilometers per hour are flying in the direction of their own fleet!

"I knew that the Americans would not send only such a small number of troops into the Atlantic, they must have sent other fleets!" Kars put down the phone heavily and said loudly, "The ships cancel the preparations for the second wave of attacks, and immediately catapult fighters to take off; The fleet turned left five compass points, and the speed was increased to 30 knots! ”

Fortunately for Kars, perhaps due to the poor communication of the division of troops, the US fighters that appeared later did not effectively grasp their position. With great momentum, they pounced on a place more than 90 kilometers away from them, and that was exactly where their fleet was when the US planes had just discovered themselves nearly two hours ago. Although this distance is only ten minutes for the aircraft, the key point is that the aircraft group does not know which direction the target fleet is running! If the direction is wrong, the fleet will not be able to achieve any more results: because the fleet is also maneuvering at a speed of more than 50 kilometers per hour, the further back you go, the more slim the chance of spotting enemy ships, and the attack planes with bombs and torpedoes are limited by their range, and the time left for them to patrol is actually extremely limited.

As a result of this factor, the U.S. commander, who realized that he had pounced, chose to disperse the fleet and search in multiple directions. This has the advantage of almost certainly finding the location of the fleeing enemy fleet, but the disadvantage is that the group can only attack with a fraction of its strength: since a part of the forces has already been engaged in searching in the opposite direction, it is difficult to recall it in a hurry to regroup. In the end, the fleet commanded by Kars defended the opponent's more victorious attack with a more relaxed attitude, and more than 30 American fighters were shot down without causing substantial damage to the target aircraft carrier.

"Maybe we should get this new U.S. aircraft carrier fleet out." Relieved, Kars thought to himself. Compared to the original U.S. fleet, which had already been heavily attacked, the other fleet, which was still hidden in the fog of the battlefield, was obviously a more threatening and tricky fleet. (To be continued......)

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