Waikman had a bit of a headache, and he was in a very bad situation at the beginning of the exercise, first he was killed by a Sukhoi sneak attack and lost a man. Even Stalin scolded him for a bloody sprinkler and demanded that he immediately save face and give the clown who likes to play with airplanes a little color!

At first, Waikman was still very confident, he thought that Sukhoi was just a little clever, if it wasn't for his carelessness, how could he let that clown succeed? So when the exercise resumed, Wakman ordered his fleet to attack at full speed, ready to immediately take revenge on Sukhoi.

However, to Waikman's surprise, his pursuit plan fell short at the beginning, first of all, Sukhoi's fleet was faster than him on average, and when it ran away at a high speed of more than 30 knots, Wakman's Red Army fleet, which could only reach 27 knots at the fastest, could only sigh, not to mention that Sukhoi also had an advantage of more than three hours, which could not catch up with Wakman at all.

Not only could he not catch up, but what was worse was that Waikman had no luck, just when his fleet was moving at full speed, a cold snap suddenly collided with his fleet, the temperature plummeted and the wind was cold, and the wind and waves once exceeded level 8, and the hapless Wakeman had to order a slowdown, and his fleet could only barely maintain around 15 knots. By the time Waykman finally said goodbye to the cold air, Sukhoi had run away without a shadow.

As a result, Waikman was faced with a painful situation, at this time, his fleet had left the Gulf of Finland, compared with the narrow Gulf of Finland, the Åland Sea was much wider, and more importantly, this sea area was shared by several countries, and the shipping routes were dense and prosperous. It will be difficult to find Sukhoi's fleet in this area. Wakeman, in particular, can't go too far. After all, it is not necessary to pay attention to international influence.

And it's not just the search that is difficult. The main thing is that although Waikman's fleet has a numerical advantage, this advantage is not particularly significant, and he cannot disband the fleet and search separately, which is likely to be broken by Sukhoi with superior forces. And maintaining the formation but not being able to play the search efficiency, to be honest, is a bit torturous.

Waikman ordered: "Send out all the seaplanes, with a focus on the Gulf of Riga and the Gotland direction!" ”

Weckermann's six battleships and four light cruisers were armed with a total of 16 KR-1 (Russian copycats of the German He.55) water reconnaissance aircraft, which was Weckerman's only long-range reconnaissance force. In order to find the cunning enemy, Wekman sent all the reconnaissance planes out in one go, believing that the traces of the "enemy" would soon be discovered.

Sixteen KR-1s fanned southwest for a whole day, each of which flew four sorties, but no trace of Sukhoi was found.

"This can't be," Wakman slammed the chart table hard, pointed to the Gulf of Riga and said loudly, "That bastard must be hiding near the Gulf of Riga, continue to send reconnaissance planes, and must turn the Gulf of Riga back and forth for me!" ”

Wakeman's chief of staff asked, "Comrade commander." It was almost dark now, and the comrade pilot had already worked hard all day. And the dark night is also not suitable for reconnaissance work. ”

Waikman looked at the sunset on the sea and pouted his lips wistfully, it is really dangerous and difficult to carry out aviation operations at night, the Red Navy rarely conducts military operations at night, and there are even fewer pilots with night flight qualifications, and it is unrealistic to continue to send planes out to reconnoiter at night.

This made Wakman very angry, and it took him all day to catch the enemy's tail, which somewhat discouraged him, where the hell was that damn mustache hiding?

The question plagued Wakman overnight, so much so that the next morning all the staff officers saw that their commander had two distinct dark circles on his face. Waikman yawned and gave the order without question: "Send out reconnaissance planes, continue reconnaissance, contact Kronstadt by the way, and let them also send planes to cooperate with us to conduct reconnaissance, and we must find the enemy's traces as much as possible!" ”

This time, Waikman was a big move, and the only dozen or so TB-3s that could fly in Kronstadt were sent out, and the task was to search Riga Wan Chai carefully. As for the TB-1 and Yi series fighters, they were all sorted, and for a time the sky over Kronstadt was full of humming engine noise.

Throughout the morning, nearly 100 sorties were made from the Kronstadt airbase, almost all of which were able to be dispatched. However, Waikman was not satisfied, because these land-based aircraft have a big limitation, that is, the legs are short, except for the TB-3, which is suitable for long-distance reconnaissance, the other planes can only take a hurried trip around the Gulf of Riga and have to go home, and the reconnaissance efficiency is really not high.

And this made Waikman feel for the first time that the aircraft carriers were still useful, at least they could carry aircraft to accompany the fleet on missions, and his opponents had a great advantage in this regard compared to him. Waikman felt that if he also had aircraft carriers in his formation at this time, the reconnaissance force would be completely different, and he would not only be able to turn the Gulf of Riga upside down, but even search all the way to East Prussia. His enemies will have nowhere to hide, and if he finds their tracks, his incomparably powerful main fleet will immediately rush up and blast them to pieces with cannons.

In Sukhoi's opinion, if his reconnaissance plane found the enemy, then he would never have engaged in any decisive battle with the main force, because it was very likely that he would have fled without waiting for the capital ship to reach the enemy. The right thing to do is to launch a direct air and sea attack and destroy the enemy with a powerful air offensive.

"Wakeman's location?" Sukhoi asked.

"According to the previous reconnaissance report, the enemy ...... in the direction of 20 nautical miles west of the island of Chiuma"

Sukhoi scoffed, "That fool thinks we're in the south!" ”

Before the words fell, there was a burst of laughter from the commander tower, and Sukhoi's staff officers were also a little proud, when the Red Army fleet was attacked by cold air, Sukhoi suddenly ordered the fleet to kill a horse pistol, and suddenly turned back on the mouth of the Gulf of Finland in the bad weather. It was almost a rub by Waikman's Red Army.

As Wakeman concentrated his search south. He had no idea that Sukhoi was still in the Gulf of Finland. This is the blind spot of the human mind. Wakman thought that Sukhoi could only flee south with his tail between his legs, but Sukhoi was going to do the opposite, which directly led to the fact that Wekman's reconnaissance operation was in vain.

Not only was the reconnaissance operation in vain, but what made Wakman even more faceless was that his large-scale aerial reconnaissance helped Sukhoi, who on the contrary discovered the location of his fleet lightly.

What's going on? Quite simply, Sukhoi initially only guessed that Weikman's fleet was heading south, but the exact location was not clear. So the reconnaissance plane he sent was also searching south. At this time, Wakman ordered land-based planes to go to support, and also ordered all the planes that could fly to move, so that the sky was full of planes sprayed with red five-pointed star symbols, and the Sukhoi boys were very arrogant and went to search for the location of Waikman's fleet.

On several occasions, Sukhoi's I-5K fighter jets swaggered past and back over Wakman's head, but Wakman didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, and if he knew that his every move was under Sukhoi's control, he would probably want to die head-on.

So why hasn't Sukhoi been on the offensive all this time? It stands to reason that after discovering the enemy's main formation, it should be decisive to attack. It's only right to send all the enemies into the sea in one go. Why didn't Sukhoi attack immediately?

The reason is simple, Sukhoi is well aware that there is a problem with the combat aircraft carried on two of his aircraft carriers. In addition to the fighter plane, there are only torpedo planes, and there is a lack of more accurate dive attack force, and from the experience he gained in the first battle, dive bombers are more efficient than torpedo planes, and it is unrealistic to expect to use torpedo planes to take down the enemy.

The speed of the T2B torpedo machine is too slow, the maximum speed of this slow torpedo machine is less than 180 kilometers per hour, even the TB-3 can surpass them, in front of the enemy's new I-15 and I-16, T2B is a live target, and now Waikman can also get land-based air support, a large number of I-15 and I-16 are operating in the sky above his formation, at this time it is obviously not suitable to use torpedo aircraft to adventure.

Sukhoi was waiting, he waited for Waikman's formation to continue south, and once they were out of the cover of the fighters, that was when he showed his skills!

Sukhoi was waiting for an opportunity, while Wakeman was suffering, and after a morning of searching outside the bay of Riga, there were certainly no enemies in the Gulf of Riga, and at this time Wakman had two options, one to continue the search to the south, and the other to turn around and search north.

He asked himself over and over again in his mind: "Is it possible that Sukhoi will go north to the Gulf of Bothnia instead of south?" ”

After repeated self-questioning and self-answering, Waikmann chose the negative answer again and again, because the weather in the Gulf of Bothnia was not very good in this month, and there was quite a lot of ice floes, which was not suitable for fleet activities, while the climate in the direction of East Prussia was getting better and better, and the sea area was relatively wide, which was more suitable for the activities of the Grand Fleet.

At noon on the same day, Wakeman made a decision: "The fleet continues to search south!" ”

"But Comrade Commander, please pay attention, if we continue to the south, we will be out of the cover of the fighters, and at that time, we will be very passive in the event of an air attack!"

Waikman just waved his hand: "Don't worry about air raids, planes will never be able to dominate naval battles, pay attention!" Never! ”

At half past twelve, under Waikman's orders, the Red fleet continued southward, and in an hour they would break out of the cover circle of the fighters, and when Waikman's decision was transmitted back to the director's office, Stalin's nose was crooked.

"Wakeman, this idiot, he's been fooled twice, he's been fooled twice, does he want to be fooled a third time!"

Stalin did have reason to be angry, as a member of the director's department, he could clearly see every move and every decision of the red and blue sides, and when Sukhoi used the cover of the cold snap to kill a horse gun and hide behind Waikman, even he was a little surprised, and could not help but applaud Sukhoi's genius idea.

Of course, this joy came and went as quickly as possible, and when Waikman stupidly searched south, and showed a tendency not to hit the south wall and not look back, Stalin was really anxious, obviously. Once Waikman was out of cover with fighters. Then Sukhoi will no longer be able to relent. In the first phase of the exercise, Sukhoi's torpedo planes had accurately sunk the target ship, and when the torpedo broke a former dreadnought battleship in two, Stalin knew that Sukhoi's planes had the ability to destroy the Wekeman capital ship.

And now, Wekman is already standing on the edge of the cliff, Stalin is nervously biting his nails, and he doesn't want to warn the stupid Waikman at this time. But this is also to think about, because in order to ensure the fairness of the exercise. Li Xiaofeng sent the KGB to protect the director's office, and the staff of the director's department were strictly forbidden to have contact with the outside world until the exercise was over, and any attempt to make a ghost would be regarded as treason and counter-revolutionary!

Li Xiaofeng not only sent additional manpower, but also sent a considerable number of technical personnel to monitor, every telephone line was monitored, and every radio station was also guarded 24 hours a day.

So at the moment Stalin can only do something in a hurry, and what makes Steel very angry is that someone next to him keeps saying cool words: "The decisive battle is about to begin, and I will block 100 rubles with you." Sukhoi can inflict heavy damage on Wakman with a single attack wave, and one pays ten. Bet? ”

Looking at a certain immortal who was proud, Stalin hated itchy, but this bet was obviously more likely for him to lose, and if he did, it would be even more embarrassing. Fortunately, Steel has a trick to deal with this faceless situation, he pretended not to hear it, and just smoked with his head down, but Li Xiaofeng could see that Steel probably always remembered Wakman who made him lose face.

Wekman is really unfortunate and lucky, he was hated by steel, and it will be very miserable, and it is polite to say that his future career will definitely be affected. But Waikman was lucky enough to meet a certain immortal crossing, and the steel purge would definitely not be possible, although his career would be affected, but there was no big worry about saving his life.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the exercise reached its final climax, and when the Leningrad and Moskva began to speed up against the wind to release the fighters, a returning TB-3 finally helped Wakman find Sukhoi's whereabouts.

An hour later, when Waikman received the telegram aboard the October Revolution, he was at first incredulous, then bewildered in inexplicable joy.

"Comrades, we have finally found traces of the enemy, these vile clowns hiding in the north, with the left full rudder, turning the course to 310 degrees and accelerating to 25 knots!"

Waikman issued a series of orders, and from his appearance, he was gearing up for a big fight. His staff officer later recalled that he said: "At that time Comrade Waikmann did not realize that danger was coming, and he fell into a kind of ecstasy that he could destroy the enemy when he found it, and he was preoccupied with the comparison on the chart, and from time to time he was concerned with the problem of speed. Apparently, he was worried that the enemy would speed up his escape! ”

Will Sukhoi run away? How is that possible? It was so easy for him to wait for the opportunity to attack, how could he escape? In fact, he threw all the torpedo planes into it in one go, and 80 torpedo planes on the two aircraft carriers pounced on Wakeman under the cover of 40 fighters.

At the same time, Sukhoi gave Kuznetsov an order: "Go at full speed and lead four battle cruisers to sweep the battlefield, my comrade!" ”

When Kuznetsov received this order, he was unimpressed, he felt that Sukhoi was poor and hypocritical, and what it means to sweep the battlefield, it sounded as if the plane could take out the main force of the red side. Kuznetsov did not believe this, he always believed that the victory was always determined by the big ships and the big guns, and he believed that Sukhoi did not need to make the battle so complicated at all, and that when he learned the location of the Wekman fleet a few hours earlier, his battle cruiser formation should have attacked, not just now.

Of course, it was better for Kuznetsov to make a late sortie than not to do it at all, and he still carried out Sukhoi's order with great interest, ready to fight a vigorous sea battle, but when he arrived on the battlefield, the situation was completely different......

Continuing back to Weckermann's side, after turning north, the commander of the Baltic Fleet suddenly remembered the enemy's air superiority, so he hurriedly gave Kronstadt an order. He ordered the air force to strike again, using a single means to strike at the enemy in the north.

At a quarter past three, Kronstadt Air Base, which received Waikman's order, immediately organized a wave of attacks, twenty TB-1 and ten barely able TB-3 climbed into the sky slowly, and under the cover of twenty cutting-edge I-16s, they killed Sukhoi's fleet, and Sukhoi will also face a wave of air raids in the future!

At four o'clock, when Sukhoi's attack wave arrived over the Wekeman fleet, this powerful fleet was still in a hurrying posture, and the entire fleet was advancing rapidly northward in two columns, with no air defense alert, let alone air defense formation. Waikman's fleet appeared in front of the pilots as if they were in line to be shot.

In the face of such a good thing, the young men of Sukhoi naturally would not be polite, and eighty torpedo planes rushed into the attack route and aimed at six battleships to simulate the projection of torpedoes. And the fighters responsible for covering, with nothing to do, are also constantly "diving and strafing".

When Wakeman saw the planes flying over the head of his battleship, he was a little unimpressed, thinking that it was a child's house, but when the referees who accompanied the ship began to perform their duties, the admiral, who had taken it for granted, suddenly collapsed...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to hzwangdd, spike potato, glorious charter and comrade Juventus!