But the target of the German planes was not the battleship King George V at all, but the four light cruisers and six destroyers of the British forward fleet, because the battleship Tirpitz and the heavy cruiser Admiral Hippel would have been torpedoed by them

Because the light cruiser had a large target, the German aircraft group naturally chose it as the primary target for attack, and seeing that the German planes had risen to a high altitude and were ready to dive, the British warships began to shell their own air without waiting for a unified order for the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns that could reach the range. However, the departure of the battleship King George V reduced the long-range anti-aircraft firepower of the forward fleet by at least one-third, and these British light warships were encircling the German battleship Tirpitz, and the air defense formation originally formed to protect the battleship King George V was disrupted to a certain extent, which led to the fact that when the German planes concentrated on a British light cruiser, the long-range anti-aircraft firepower of the British forward fleet was only less than one-third compared to the strongest time, and what was even worse was that The number of German aircraft was simply too many

Since the few remaining aircraft and skilled pilots of the British Royal Air Force were concentrated in England to protect the main industrial areas and shipbuilding bases, the Luftwaffe Aviation Regiment stationed in the Faroe Islands did not have any air combat missions for the time being, and the main target of this bombing was still the British light warships, the power of the bombs was not high, and the bomb load of the new German fighters was actually quite large, so the Germans not only sent out all the bombers that could fly in this bombing mission. Even fighter jets have been hung with high-explosive bombs weighing 500kg. The participation of cameo dive bombers in this mission made the total number of aircraft dispatched by the Luftwaffe this time exceed 100, even if the battleship King George V is still there, the British will not be able to completely block it, let alone the long-range anti-aircraft firepower has been greatly weakened now?

Although the anti-aircraft gunners on the British warships did their best, and their quality was the best, once the power of the barrage attack of the proximity fuse anti-aircraft artillery shells did not have density as a basis, the killing efficiency would decline exponentially, and the British forward fleet had only shot down three German planes, and some German fighters had already begun to enter the dive phase. With the level of science and technology during World War II. As soon as the plane starts to dive. Large-caliber anti-aircraft guns were basically powerless against them, and the British Royal Navy's small-caliber anti-aircraft guns not only did not have the help of gyroscopic sights now, but their own performance was also very average (the legendary ping-pong guns), and they could not stop the German fighters that emitted a breathtaking scream. Soon two 1-ton high-explosive bombs fell on the light cruiser with a displacement of more than 6000 tons. The terrifying force of the explosion directly left his bones behind. It was not even given a chance to float on the surface of the sea for a few more minutes, and by this time, the Germans had lost only five planes

In addition to these 5 downed planes. Three other planes lost their ability to attack ships by dropping bombs, although they were still able to stay in the group to disperse the enemy's anti-aircraft fire (although it was very dangerous to do so, the German pilots did not hesitate, perhaps because of the example of the Chinese army, and the German soldiers in this time and space were even more sacrificial than in history). But the decline in the attack capability of the fleet is unavoidable.

What is even more dangerous is that, according to the traditional dive bombing method, the hundreds of German planes would have to take off again to an altitude of 3,000 meters before they could "do it again" as they did in the first attack, during which the planes would have to suffer even greater losses than in the previous attack.

And the facts have proved this, after the second British light cruiser was sunk, there were only 90 German planes left (a total of 109 German planes participated in this air attack), of which 88 could still attack, at this rate of attrition, even if this air regiment could save its own two warships, it would be completely lost, and it would not be able to help at the most critical moment of this naval battle, unless these British light warships retreated by themselves, but this was obviously impossible

At this time, a young pilot reported to the commander of the aviation regiment on the radio in a slightly hesitant tone, "Commander, we don't actually have to pull up"

"You mean low-altitude horizontal bombing?" , the commander of the aviation regiment suddenly felt his eyes light up after hearing this. Although the rigidity of the Germans is deeply rooted in the bone marrow, they are not an ancient people, and in fact, at least in modern times, they have innovated much more than the admittedly nimble Chinese. What's more, the commander of the aviation regiment was a very good ace bomber pilot, and he was able to judge whether the young pilot's idea was feasible.

In his opinion, the low-altitude level flight of the aircraft will greatly weaken the role of large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, and everyone is basically carrying high-explosive bombs this time, which does not require enough bomb height to provide kinetic energy to penetrate horizontal armor like armor-piercing aerial bombs. Although the lack of accuracy of horizontal bombing compared with dive bombing has always been regrettable, but in the case of low-altitude bombing, this is not a problem, and low-altitude level flight is relatively more afraid of the enemy's small-caliber anti-aircraft guns because the speed is not as fast as the dive, but from the previous situation, the commander of the aviation regiment felt that the threat of British small-caliber anti-aircraft guns was not as great as he originally thought, so this method could be tried.

The commander of the aviation regiment naturally realized that the low-altitude penetration could also avoid the detection of enemy radars to a large extent, making his own ground-to-sea bombing more sudden, but this was of little value to the current aviation regiment, of course, he also told his subordinates this idea through the radio, and if he died in this battle, then the surviving comrades would report it to Air Force Commander Goering and Führer Mustache

While the regiment commander weighed the pros and cons, the bombing of the British warship by the aircraft group did not stop, in fact, it was not until the third British light cruiser was sunk according to the original attack method that the air regiment really began to change its tactics, and at this time, there were only 75 German planes left in the sky, of which only 72 were left with the ability to attack ships.

The main reason why the enemy ships lost two of the most powerful air defense ships, and the loss rate of the aviation regiment did not drop significantly, was that the British forward fleet, having realized the great threat of German aircraft, had consciously moved closer and greatly increased the density of firepower. (To be continued......)