After the military parade was over, the commanders of the German High Seas Fleet finally got down to business. In the exercise area demarcated in advance in the eastern Atlantic, the huge German High Seas Fleet aircraft carrier battle group was divided into two identical detachments to carry out a simulated battle at sea. In order to keep it as secret as possible, the speed of the aircraft was limited to about half of the normal cruising speed. That is, more than 200 kilometers, and the calculation of the distance of direct engagement between the two sides is also moderately revised according to this ratio. (In other words, in battle, the actual speed of 200 kilometers is considered to be about 400 kilometers.) The biggest feature of the German High Seas Fleet aircraft carrier battle group in the early stage of World War 2 was its lightning speed. When the German fleet found the target, it took less than one and a half hours to attack the opposing fleet at a distance of 300 kilometers. And at the same time, if the British and American aircraft carriers wanted to attack their opponents at such a distance, it would take more than an hour to fly alone! In this exercise, it was the Germans themselves who first learned the powerful penetrating power of the fast fleet.

"General, I have good news and bad news here, do you want to hear that?" Raeder sent two pieces of information to Count Lucknal. The so-called once a son of heaven and a courtier. Even though Raeder had participated in the First World War and was also a valued subordinate of Scheer and Hipper, after Count Spee came to power, he had to deign to be Count Lukner's assistant, who was a disciple of Count Spee. "Well, say the good news first, then the bad ones." Count Lucknar said with a slight frown.

"The good news is that the target is 280 kilometres to the northeast. Our reconnaissance aircraft can be tracked steadily. You can now unleash a swarm attack. Reddell paused and continued, "The bad news is that we've been spotted too, a BF110 is hanging around us, and a BF109 fighter is trying to dispel this annoying guy." But because of the fuel problem, we never succeeded. If nothing else. The blow of the other side will come soon. Raeder replied.

"It seems that those in the Air Force are right, single-engine fighters have an advantage over twin-engine fighters in engagements. But if the opponent doesn't want to fight you, just carefully avoid the opponent, then the single-engine aircraft will not be able to do anything with the double-engine aircraft. Especially for aircraft with a smaller range like ours. Count Luknall shook his head helplessly. Immediately release the group, and then the fleet began to evade in the opposite direction, and at the same time immediately raised the second batch of fighters to the deck. Ready to perform air defense tasks. ”

In the early air battles of World War II, twin-engine aircraft not only had a range advantage, but also a certain speed advantage in altitude. In general, short-legged aircraft like the BF109 and Spitfire need to carry drop fuel tanks to ensure combat effectiveness, while the BF110s on both sides can rely entirely on internal fuel. The advantage of the so-called single-engine fighter must be to fight the opponent without plug-ins. If a BF109E is attached to a 300L drop tank. You really don't necessarily beat BF110. And throwing away the fuel tank means that the range is reduced, the other party doesn't want to fight you, and it is really a bit difficult for BF109 to get to a distance of several hundred meters. Because the so-called maximum speed is often only a few minutes, unless you are lucky enough to sneak up on the opponent, it is indeed difficult to shoot down a high-speed reconnaissance plane watching from a distance.

Both sides are the same planes and ships, and the attack techniques and tactics are almost identical. What Lucknar did was exactly what Count Spee did, and the aircraft carrier formations of both sides spotted their opponents almost simultaneously and began to release their swarms against the wind almost simultaneously. Then form a formation and attack! It will take about half an hour for the four aircraft carriers to complete the marshalling from the release of the aircraft group. Each aircraft carrier releases one aircraft almost in half a minute, and after half an hour, a fleet of more than 150 aircraft has been formed, and then flies to distant targets! In accordance with the principle of proportional reduction. The speed of the fleet is the same as the actual distance reduction. So the time it takes them to reach the target area is the same.

It has to be said that this time the aircraft carrier battle groups of the two sides are getting closer. 280 km is nothing at all for a group of attack aircraft with an average speed of more than 420KM. In a maximum of 40 minutes, a whistling flock of eagles can descend on top of each other's brains. Or to put it another way. If both sides are fast fleets, then there is too little time left for the other to prepare. What is 40 minutes enough? At most, the plane is filled with fuel and ammunition and then lifted to the deck to line up, if slower. I'm afraid that before even the first plane is released, I will face the bomb of the other side! Coupled with the fact that German aircraft carriers are single-storey hangars, when you release the fighter jets on alert duty and the first wave of attack aircraft, then the remaining aircraft are probably incomplete disassembled planes hanging from the top of the ceiling (aircraft carriers are listed with complete aircraft, and some are aircraft with wings removed). ）

In actual operation, it is simply too late to put these aircraft down from the roof and assemble them in operation, so in actual combat, the biggest problem of single-story hangar aircraft carriers is that the actual number of aircraft carried and the number of available aircraft are not directly equated. As a result, both Count Spee and his apprentice, Count Luknall, have encountered a problem, both in terms of the number of planes and in terms of preparation time, they do not seem to have time to assemble a second wave of aircraft for air defense!

On the battlefield, the only thing that the entire fleet can use for air defense is more than 20 direct guard planes hovering in the air, and then in the face of the opponent's huge attack aircraft group of up to 150 planes, the results can be imagined! The swarming fighters instantly routed the intercepting group, and then the bombers and torpedo planes entered the attack positions almost without interference. Dive bombers dropped bombs from both directions, and fighters suppressed gun emplacements on battleships with machine guns and machine guns. When a battleship was judged to be seriously damaged, a torpedo attack finally put an end to the steel behemoths. In less than half an hour of attack. Count Luknar's aircraft carrier was sunk 2 and seriously damaged 1. The Count of Spee's fleet was heavily wounded. Of course, this is not because there is any difference in the technical and tactical level of the two sides, but because the students' luck is slightly worse.

The opposing aircraft carriers cruising on the sea were judged to be sunk, and the fierce falcons did not end well, not that they suffered heavy losses under the attack of the fleet's anti-aircraft guns, and in the absence of radar-guided anti-aircraft guns and VT shells, the combat effectiveness of the anti-aircraft guns was really limited. And the real reason is that the two sides fought a jade stone in this engagement, and when the group returned to the sky over their own fleet, the entire fleet was only left with less than half of its storage capacity! If it were in actual combat, their best outcome would be to throw away the plane and parachute and let the friendly troops rescue them.

Both the teachers and the students are not satisfied with this result, they want a sword with both offense and defense rather than a tactic that can only attack but cannot defend, the rapid fleet tactics are actually not difficult, with the progress of technology, the Entente can also figure it out, what they lack is just an idea and a tactical concept. Although the Germans were one step ahead, this was only a tactical advantage, and it is difficult to say whether it could be translated into a strategic advantage!

However, the Germans still thought too much about this, because even in this plane, the torpedo attack aircraft that the British were tinkering with at this time were still the famous Swordfish biplane torpedo planes in history, while the American TBD torpedo aircraft had a cruising speed of only about 127 knots in the state with torpedoes. Without the use of twin-engine torpedo machines, it is not realistic to achieve the rapid development of single-engine torpedo engines before the application of engines above 1500 HP. And in terms of equipment, there is always some lag in the US Navy in World War 2 in history, when the US Air Force is equipped with a powerful fighter like P51B, the US Navy is still using the F6F Hellcat. The former can be directly crushed by the FW190A4 and is not a big problem to play the FW190D, while the latter is suppressed by the early FW190. When the mighty Corsair F4U4 finally arrived on the ship, the ultimate version of the Mustang fighter, the P51H, had already left the factory, but it just didn't catch the war. So the Germans' worries are still somewhat unnecessary.

In the end, the Germans came to the conclusion that if the other side had a fast strike group of aircraft at the same speed as their own, then the battle within 300 km would undoubtedly be desperate with the other side, and the attack distance between the two sides was so close that there was no time to prepare for defense after the first wave of attacks. Therefore, in order to ensure safety, it is best to attack aircraft carriers at a distance, preferably about 400KM. In this case, the defense fleet will have a chance to release air defense fighters. However, this also has a disadvantage, that is, as the distance increases, the time for your own fleet to reach the sky above the opponent's fleet will be delayed, and the opponent's preparation time will increase. At the same time, for the BF109, which has less fuel, the increased distance makes this aircraft a little unbearable.

However, it turned out that the conclusions of the Germans were also useless in the early wars, for the simple reason that the Sea Spitfire that could beat the BF109 had a shorter combat distance than the BF109, and the F4F fighters that could not beat the BF109 plus the slow TBD bomber formation were nothing more than a dish for the Germans. So much so that in the subsequent engagement, the British desperately wanted to lean up to bring the German aircraft carrier battle group into their own attack range, while the American aircraft carrier battle group desperately dodged backwards, not seeking merit but seeking to avoid the other side's blows.

After many exercises and deductions, the German Navy's aircraft carrier combat system has become more and more mature, although the current strike system is not perfect, there are various problems, such as the BF109 fighter is too short range and the problem of insufficient firepower, such as the problem of slow response to air defense operations, (this problem is due to the fact that the Germans' radar is not perfect, well, compared with Britain and the United States, the Germans' radar has never been close to the word lead.) However, it has to be admitted that the Germans are the most advanced in the system of aircraft carrier tactics that have been implemented in this plane. Britain and the United States are backward in both theory and practice, while China is theoretically advanced, but they are not in a hurry to translate it into reality.

Thanks to the book friends zhouyu1976, hukaikaka, anhei016 for the tips~~~, as well as the book friend sczboy's monthly pass and recommendation ticket ~~~. (To be continued......)