"In half an hour, it's daylight, and the plane can be released." An aviation staff officer in charge of making plans whispered in Jordi's ear. "Then let's get started, move fast." Holdie nodded. A few minutes later, the signal for the launch of the attack was issued from the flagship, and the 4 aircraft carriers and the aviation cruiser immediately entered the upwind take-off position, and then began to accelerate, and when the combined wind speed on the deck of the aircraft carrier reached more than 25 knots, the first aircraft began to taxi and take off from the position in the middle of the deck. If nothing else, it will only take ten minutes at most, and all the aircraft will be lifted into the air.

Releasing the aircraft into the air is only the first step, and then all the planes need to climb to a suitable altitude. Then the planes that take off from the 5 motherships need to be grouped to complete a large fleet. After a complicated grouping, it was dawn. Then under the guidance of the navigation aircraft, it began to fly towards the port of Benghazi in the distance, because there were storage of slow attack aircraft in the formation. So this flight time can take almost more than an hour.

It has to be said that the Allied Navy is very accurate in its grasp of time, and when the golden sun shines on the Mediterranean Sea again, the Allied fleet has already released the first wave of attacks. And at this time they did not let their guard down, and the elevators of 5 battleships began to raise the fighters who served as direct guards from the hangar, and this time Jordi violated the operating protocol and allowed the non-armored deck carriers to refuel and reload in the hangar. A variety of fighters were lifted to the deck and then released at a rapid pace, with the first wave alone reaching about 50 planes for vigilance. Almost simultaneously, twin-engine fighters that took off from Crete also set out on their journey. The Allied Navy was struggling to open the air defense umbrella for the fleet in the shortest possible time.

"Holy, isn't it?! Found us so soon?! As the planes took off, Jordi's heart just relaxed. A few British fast reconnaissance planes flying out of the clouds in the distance put Joldi back in a tense state! It's only been more than 40 minutes since dawn for the other party to know their location, which is terrible, right? Could it be that they were tracked by the other party's submarines? An ominous thought popped up in Holdie's mind.

Later, it turned out that Jordi's consideration was wrong, although the Entente deployed submarines off the coast of Libya, but the location of the Austro-Hungarian fleet was not discovered at first, and the real reason for the exposure of the Allied fleet was in two aspects, one was the combat radius of the aircraft in this era that was too close. Jordi can think of the combat radius of about 240KM of carrier-based attack aircraft at this time. Then the Italians can think of the same. Consider again the size of the Allied fleet. Reconnaissance planes patrolling in the mid-air space found such a large fleet at a distance of more than a few dozen fronts. If you exclude places where the other side cannot go and concentrate reconnaissance forces to reconnoiter areas with a high probability, it will not be difficult to discover the other side.

Another reason was that the Allies took advantage of the long range of twin-engine aircraft and the initial ground radio navigation to send reconnaissance planes an hour before dawn. Anyway, it's not that you need to be precise to attack the opposing fleet, as long as you can fly to the target sea area. So the twin-engined long-range fighters carried two 90-gallon drop fuel tanks in addition to their internal fuel, and vowed not to return home until the battle was over. For these two reasons, at dawn. British reconnaissance planes had already entered the sea. Moreover, the area where the Austro-Hungarian fleet may have stored zài is not large, so it is normal to take more than 40 minutes to discover the Austro-Hungarian fleet.

"Get rid of these annoying guys!" An Austro-Hungarian pilot flew with his own formation to the British reconnaissance plane that was hovering around the fleet, and in the face of 3 menacing fighters, the opposing pilot even remembered to shake his wings and provoke, and then turn away, perhaps unnecessary, or contempt for the Austrians, this British reconnaissance plane did not even bother to maneuver and dive accelerate. Directly choose to run in a straight line, and use plenty of fuel and extremely high flight speed to throw off the guys behind you. So that three biplanes can't even eat exhaust gases! It stands to reason that even if the performance is good, the twin-engine aircraft. You can't throw off a fighter so comfortably with two 90-gallon drop tanks, right? Even if he is a biplane. This sentence is true, but it needs to be added to the premise, that is, when the fighter does not have a drop fuel tank, unfortunately, in this engagement, in order to ensure the time in the air, all fighters have also added a 60-gallon drop fuel tank, so the flight performance of the fighter has also decreased significantly!

Some people may say that throwing away the fuel tank and chasing ah, this statement seems to make sense, but if the rear guide of the fuel tank is not enough to stay in the air, and if there is no follow-up fighter to replenish it, then who is it if something happens? It is important to know that each aircraft has a minimum stay time in the air. Without the fuel tank, this time is difficult to achieve. And in the opinion of the Austro-Hungarian pilot, the other party has already discovered him, so maybe he will attack soon, and he will have to save fuel and prepare for fighting.

"The hunter detachment has arrived in the target airspace, and we are behind the Hawkeye squad." Shortly after the reconnaissance planes departing from Libya discovered the target, some flying fox fighters under the Haidongqing Brigade that had taken off from Sicily also covered the first batch of British twin-engine fast bombers flying toward the target. Therefore, it was impossible to interfere with the guidance of the Entente to the aircraft group, and at this time, Wang Yue flew to the target with his squad and several British planes, but their goal was not to attack the battleship, but to constantly consume and fatigue the opponent.

"Friends in the back, the bait is about to be baited, and the rest is up to you." The British's Hawkeye team, who was on the decoy mission in front, said on the radio. "Just take care of yourselves, and we'll take care of the rest." Wang Yue said nonchalantly, after lightweighting, and the engine after the change of engine Flying Bat fighter is like a rebirth, Wang Yue believes that in his hands this aircraft can definitely fight with the most advanced fighters of the Allies, not to mention that according to the pre-war deduction, he is in an advantageous position in the war. At this time, the Hunter detachment was in the back, at an altitude of about 5,500 meters, while the Hawkeye squad in front was in the front, at an altitude of about 5,000 meters, but in any case, such an altitude was 800 to 1,000 meters higher than the altitude of the opponent's direct guard aircraft. (The Foxbat fighter originally used a British engine produced by the British authorized Huaxia, with the same lines and specifications as the British, and there was room for improvement in the design of the engine compartment, so it could be replaced with the British's new supercharger engine.) ）

In the face of reconnaissance planes, it is really impossible to drive them away, but if they are sprayed with those attack planes that are rushing straight into the air defense network, everyone must defend with all their might. "Captain Parker, take your squadron to intercept the opposing attack aircraft coming in from the direction of 11 o'clock, pay attention, they are relatively fast and have a certain ability to attack ships, which is more difficult to deal with." Captain Parker's radio came with orders from his superiors.

"Okay sir, but we don't have an advantage in speed, our fuel and engines can only support one frontal interception, and if it fails, then we can only hand it over to friendly forces." Captain Parker replied. Although he was the most advanced single-engine fighter in the Luftwaffe, with a maximum level flight speed of nearly 500, it was difficult to intercept the British twin-engine aircraft.

First of all, the speed of the other party is not slow, and the speed of his fighter is almost the same as that of his fighter without loading, the other party came from afar, the auxiliary fuel tank has been used up, and even part of the fuel in the plane has been consumed, so the weight will be lighter, and the flight situation will be stronger than the normal envelope. And the Parker squadron, which was the interceptor, was almost fully loaded even after throwing away the drop fuel tanks. In terms of flight status, the other party is better.

Secondly, the other side has an altitude advantage of 1000 meters, although Parker's aircraft is the most advanced, but at an altitude of more than 4000 meters, it is definitely not an easy thing for an aircraft without a supercharger, and more importantly, you must not only climb, but also leave enough speed and energy to prepare for interception. In this day and age, there are no computers, so you have to estimate the speed and altitude of the opponent based on experience, and then control the angle of climb so that you can reach enough altitude and have a certain speed before encountering the opponent.

The third point is the problem of internal oil, the opponent's fuel is far more than its own fighter jets, don't look at the other party is coming from afar, but people can leave after the fight, and they must continue to patrol after the battle. Therefore, when fighting, it is important to always consider the amount of fuel left. If the first wave fails, it will be impossible to chase the opponent in terms of fuel and performance.

"Yellow formation, pay attention to your climbing angle, the angle is too big, you won't have enough speed to fight after you go up." "Blue formation, you'll be in charge of the first wave of attacks in a moment." Captain Parker kept ordering his men to adjust their flight attitude and fly towards the Hawkeye group in the distance.

"Parker reported to HQ that the other side might be carrying bombs, and my lead team found the loadout under the belly of the enemy when they flew underneath them." Parker needs to judge the threat level of the opponent before launching a general attack, if it is a reconnaissance plane, you can drive it away, and if you have a weapon, you must try to destroy the opponent, and you must also notify your boss and be ready to intercept it for a second time at any time, so he first sent a few planes to test it, not to be able to attack the opponent, at least to find out whether the opponent has weapons or not.

Thank you for the tip of the book friend hukaikaka~~~. (To be continued......)