As Leavis expected, under the condition that the Germans were bent on arguing, the US fleet really had no chance to launch an attack on that day, and the distance between the two sides was always about 350 kilometers, although this distance was within the theoretical attack distance, in fact, it could also be attacked, but think about it, the cruising speed of the US carrier-based aircraft force was about 250 kilometers. (It's not that the F6F doesn't fly fast, it's that the TBF flies too slowly with a torpedo!) This simple flight takes about an hour and a half. Coupled with the time for the aircraft carrier to sail against the wind to release the aircraft and the air group, it is not too much to say that 2 hours, this two hours is enough for the Germans to run out of another 60 nautical miles about 100 kilometers or so, and the attack distance directly becomes 450 kilometers, plus the broken line taken, the whole battle situation will be difficult to grasp. So Leavis can only endure! endured until the Germans took the lead in slowing down, but the tragedy was that when the day was thin, the Germans were still running wildly, and the distance between the two sides was not far or close. Leavis now doubts how the Germans are so endurance!

However, God seems to be bless the United States, and when the sun was rising, the reconnaissance planes of Levi's fleet suddenly found that the distance between the two sides was actually close to 280 kilometers! It turned out that at night the German fleet changed its course, and the distance between the two sides actually approached after a night of sailing, and this time the speed of the Germans finally decreased, according to the report of the reconnaissance plane, the cruising speed of the German fleet at this time was only about 18 knots, close to the best cruising speed of the fleet! "This is an opportunity!" Levis exclaimed!

Without saying a word, four light aircraft carriers immediately entered the direction of the headwind to release carrier-based aircraft units, and the four Independence-class aircraft carriers released a total of 75 aircraft of various types in less than half an hour. Among them, 30 fighters and 45 attack aircraft! And at the same time. It's true that Cranke can't run anymore, and he doesn't have enough gas! If you run like this for another day. Without the Americans, Cranke would have to sew a king-size sail from a sheet if he wanted to return to the Mediterranean! Instead of this, it is better to fight with the other party once.

"In the Battle of the Falkland Islands, the German navy performed brilliantly, and there were many classic battles that can go down in history, but there were also many things that did not go as well as they wanted. For example, in this series of engagements, Colonel Crank's performance was too conservative, and with the two sides having similar aviation strength, Cranke chose to defend rather than attack. During the four hours between dawn and the launch of the attack by the Americans, what Cranke did was not to actively search for the enemy fleet to attack, but to always send planes to watch over his own fleet. Krank's conservative tactics cast a shadow over the victory of the German military in this naval battle. After the war, an official U.S. war history commented on Crank's performance in the Battle of the Falkland Islands.

But in fact, all the parties who participated in this naval battle expressed their understanding of Krak's decision, not that Frank did not want to fight, but that he really couldn't fight. This time, the Germans were not faced with escort aircraft carriers that would die in a single bombing, but regular light aircraft carriers, which were also protected and built according to the standards of warships. It is difficult for an ordinary 250KG bomb to destroy the core compartment of the opponent, after all, they were born from light cruisers. THE HORIZONTAL ARMOR OF A LIGHT CRUISER IS STILL POSSIBLE TO BLOCK 250KG OF ARMOR-PIERCING SHELLS. Bombs of this yield have limited damage even to the flight deck! It's not that the Germans don't have 500KG bombs, but that there are too few of them and too few aircraft they can carry. And there is no torpedo machine, purely in terms of attack power against the sea. The German fleet, which had been fighting for several months, was really several notches behind the other side. The number of attack aircraft of the Americans was no less numerous, but there were at least 500KG of bombs and torpedoes. Hit the same bomb, the Americans may not have much of a problem. I'm afraid the German battleship has already knelt down and does what it wants. It's better to defend with all your might, and then wait until the opponent's attack power is exhausted before turning in. And in fact. Crank's all-out defense still works!

65 BF109TS fighters! This is already all the air defense that the Germans can come up with after clearing almost all their home resources! Success or failure is in this move, you can't stop the opponent, and Crake can't do anything! A small number of BF109 fighters also hang 20MM machine gun pods under the wings, so that BF109 fighters can barely achieve the firepower of 3 20MM machine guns and 2 15MM machine guns, and they are also more powerful against bombers, of course, the air combat performance is completely ruined. These two pods put more pressure on the skinny BF109 fighter than a 250KG bomb!

The Germans were well prepared, and by the time the Americans came over, all BF109 fighters had already reached the designated combat altitude. The whole fleet was divided into two parts, of which about 30 BF109 fighters dived down and fought with F6F and F4F fighters, while the other 35 planes rushed to the attack aircraft behind, with the help of carrier-based radar, the German fighters chose the time and distance very well, they left a large enough depth to be able to intercept many times, and at the same time the attack also had a strong order, a matter of life and death, the first time the two sides fought bloody!

Although the aerodynamic layout of the Hellcat can be called a coffee table, but with the help of the powerful R2800 engine, the fat cat said that he can't do the FW190A but it is still okay to fight with the BF109F, the former's strong firepower can ignore the defense of the fat cat, and the strong firepower of 4 guns and 2 guns is enough to make any single-engine fighter scum. Although the latter has the advantage of speed, the horizontal maneuverability and anti-strike ability are really poor. It was a direct battle between a cougar and a cheetah, with the former being strong but sluggish, and the latter being agile but less powerful. After the German fleet used its altitude and speed to make its first dive attack, the two groups were entangled. And in this plane, the last thing Hellcat is afraid of is going around in circles!

Willy pressed a button, and the 6 50 machine guns on the Hellcat's wing spewed out a dense barrage, if you look at it purely from the perspective of ballistics and rate of fire, the M2 large-caliber machine gun is indeed a good weapon, it is good to walk, and the ballistic intersection point can still get a good hit even if it is set at 800 meters. High-explosive and incendiary shells were fired alternately. Smashed a BF109 fighter that was trying to escape to pieces. The other party didn't even have a chance to skydive. But those attack planes were not so lucky, when the fighter unit was entangled. BF109 fighters with additional weapons pods repaired the slow bombers of the Americans. The MG151 cannon roared incessantly, tilting a large number of thin-shelled shells onto the fragile single-shot aircraft. TBF, WHOSE MAXIMUM SPEED DOES NOT EXCEED 350KM, IS LIKE A STUPID DUCK THAT STRUGGLES TO DODGE THE OPPONENT'S ATTACK. However, this dodge proved to be futile, as the jumping cannonball easily tore through TBF's fragile body. Before the fighter support arrived, the BF109 slaughtered the opponent with ease, and in less than ten minutes, half of the attack aircraft turned into wreckage flying in the sky!

"Protect the attack aircraft swarm! With our lives! Seeing that the attack planes below were beaten into dogs, the dominant American escort aircraft group was forced to divide part of its forces to rescue the friendly forces below, and as a result, when the 4 twin-plane formations broke away from the battle group, the Americans immediately found that the pressure increased sharply, and the advantages and disadvantages on the battlefield were directly reversed! In fact. F6F also only has a slight advantage when grappling, and once the number is worse, it will immediately wilt. What's more, there are a small number of F4F aircraft in it. The end result is to lose sight of one or the other. The rate of loss of attack planes has gone down, the rate of loss of fighters has gone up, and the two sides can still pinch each other at first, and after twenty minutes, the remaining American planes will run away with thick skin and thick flesh!

"The results are not good!" The end result was somewhat unexpected, and the fleet was almost unscathed, except for the loss of dozens of planes on both sides, under the protection of the Germans. After hastily dropping the last bomb. The American planes evacuated in disgrace. And the Germans are also recovering their fighters, preparing for the next wave of attacks. Based on the number of sorties and the number of all aircraft on both sides, both Levi and Cranke believe that the remaining planes will fight at most one more wave. There is no more power left to launch a third wave of attacks! Both sides attacked with a full deck in their first attack, using the Extreme Engine!

"General Fletcher, you're doing it!" Leavis scolded angrily. The first wave of 75 aircraft eventually returned with only 34 aircraft. More than half of the aircraft were lost. The rest of these planes are also injured, and if you are lucky, you can recover them and repair them and use them again. Of course, don't think about attacking again in the short term. And the unlucky plane can only be thrown away. Then let the destroyer next to it fish up the personnel and finish the job. There are only more than 140 usable aircraft in total from 4 light aircraft carriers, and excluding the air defense forces that the fleet must retain, the next wave will not be able to use more than 50 aircraft! Among them, the attack aircraft were compressed to less than 20 aircraft! That's all there is to it! Anger burned in Levi's heart.

Leavis's telegram again asking Fletcher to join the battle disappeared like a mud cow into the sea, and there was not even a single call back. Fletcher seemed to be oblivious to the situation on the battlefield as if he were an old monk. This made Leavis angry and puzzled. "Let's bring bombs to the F4F in the next wave, we need fighter jets to make up for the lack of professional bombers." In the end, Leavis decided to continue the attack, firing his bow and not looking back, and no matter what Fletcher decided, he had to fight.

But fortunately, the consumption of the Germans was also very large, in the first wave of defensive operations, although the Germans successfully blocked the opponent's attack, but overdrew their own combat effectiveness, Cranker sent almost all the fighters, although after the Americans retreated, the remaining 40 fighters were recovered by the warships, and directly on the deck to refuel, the pilots even had only the opportunity to go to the toilet, and then hastily replenished some water and food had to be re-entered into battle. Before the second wave of strikes by the Americans, 30 fighters and 15 JU90 aircraft took off, and their mission was still defense!

The Americans are exhausted, and the Germans are running out of gas. The two sides fought with their last strength like tired boxers. This time the Americans finally gradually occupied the upper peak, relying on a new group of fighter pilots, the Americans finally tore through the opponent's defenses, and finally 10 planes carrying bombs broke into the opponent's anti-aircraft artillery cordon, 4 aviation cruisers carried out high-speed maneuvers at sea, and anti-aircraft guns of various calibers fired a large number of shells under the guidance of the fire control radar to form a barrage. And this did not stop the advance of the Americans in any way, after paying the price of three planes being smashed to pieces. The remaining seven planes threw bombs, two of which hit the German air cruiser Emden, which was evading at high speed, and the flagship flag flying high on the Emden made him the target of public criticism!

A 500KG bomb entered the water 10 meters on the starboard side of the Emden, and up to 270KG of explosives detonated 6 meters underwater! This blow is no less powerful than a shipborne torpedo! A large number of high-temperature and high-pressure air bubbles from the explosion pushed seawater and shrapnel towards the bottom of Emden's hull. With a dull loud bang and a series of metal tearing sounds, a huge crack was torn open in the starboard side of the Emden! Several watertight compartments were beaten into a sieve, and then the breaches were joined by the water pressure, and hundreds of tons of seawater poured into them, and in a matter of minutes, the Emden was tilted 7 degrees! Another bomb slammed into the stern of Emden's hull, penetrating the flight deck and exploding on the upper horizontal deck, failing to penetrate the armor, but still causing some damage to the rudder.

But fortunately, the other battleships did not suffer much damage, and the remaining three aviation cruisers were able to recover only the remaining 30 aircraft of various types, and in just two air battles, the Germans threw away nearly 50 aircraft of various types, while the Americans threw away more than 70! At this point in the battle, even if there are planes on both sides, they will not be able to fight any longer. The pilots were tired of driving, the planes were almost all injured, and the ground crew was tired to death. Let's pick it up and talk about it tomorrow!

Looking at the completely crippled air fleet, Levis angrily sent a telegram that would become famous in later generations: "Fletcher! The whole world wants to know where you are fooling around right now! The telegram, full of anger, flew into Fletcher's hand with electromagnetic waves. And after the latter calmly threw him aside, he continued to deal with the sudden change in front of him! Because just 1 hour ago, the Americans' radio sideways and listening detected a strange communication wave, this band had never been seen in previous battles! Neither the US nor the German-Austrian fleet has ever used it! Then, the radar officer spotted a looming spot of light hovering around the fleet. This change made Fletcher, who was already very cautious, feel that a crisis was coming!

"Send reconnaissance planes and electronic warfare planes, I need to know the location of the other side! The Germans really had a fleet around! I should have thought of this a long time ago, the fleet is ready for war! Fletcher ordered decisively. (To be continued......)