"If it weren't for the Führer's insistence, I would have cancelled this reciprocal attrition. Looking at the loss of the second wave of attack planes, Lütjans complained to Marshal Raeder on the side with some pain: "Look! Look! I lost almost 50 planes in two attacks! This is almost like my life!"

Raeder was also a little afraid of loss, after all, the German family can now be said to be pouring out, in case of a slight mistake, even if he Raeder is hanged, he will be nailed to the pillar of shame of the German state forever.

However, thinking about the orders given to him by Accardo and the analysis of the speed of construction of U.S. Navy warships, Raeder finally made up his mind to fight to the death. He gritted his teeth and viciously ordered Lütjans: "Send the 5th wave of attack troops immediately, we must follow the Führer's orders!"

"Oh God, may the Führer be right this time!" Lutjance grabbed a phone in front of him and gave the order to the other end: "Continue to take off the attack group...... Sink the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, as well as those two American aircraft carriers, at any cost! This is an order! Execute it immediately...... Long live the Führer!"

At the far end of the sea, the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal dodged the deadly threat of a torpedo with a beautiful turn. Dudley Pound's prayers seemed to have worked, and this time the flagship of the British Navy once again brushed shoulders with death.

On the other hand, however, on the side of the US aircraft carrier fleet, things were not so simple - the temporarily modified escort aircraft carrier, because of the lack of sufficient anti-aircraft weapons, was finally dropped by German carrier-based aircraft, hitting the deck, which was not so spacious. The huge explosion immediately destroyed the escort carrier's ability to take off and land aircraft, and even the boilers were affected because of the proximity of the explosion to the chimney.

The flames burned and were more than ten meters high. The smoke obscured the sky and the sun, so that the nearby Allied escort ships could not see what was really happening on the deck. A nearby destroyer sent a telegram to the Ark Royal with the news that the escort carrier had been hit: "The smoke is so thick that I see the fire, but I can't see anything else. ”

On the Ark Royal, Dudley Pound found that his palms were already covered with sweat, and he was so nervous that he clenched his fists and almost punctured his palms with his own nails. In the round of attacks just now, the Ark Royal narrowly dodged, but because of the need to avoid these German planes, the formation of the entire fleet became even more messy.

"Quick, quick, take off all the fighters that can take off! Intercept the damn Germans! Hurry! Immediately!" Mr. Commander-in-Chief, who felt that the situation was beyond his control, all he could do at this moment was to frantically issue one battle order after another.

What he didn't know was that because his various orders were issued too frequently, it had already caused chaos in the U.S. Navy fleet, which was negligent in training.

"What are you kidding? Let's turn around, and then we have to take off again?, which order do we have to carry out first?" one officer complained to his superior, looking at the laughable telegram, "What could be more outrageous...... At the beginning, he ordered us to try to get close to the Germans, but now we are about to run away with our tails between our legs......"

"Shut up! Keep the course unchanged, take off the remaining carrier-based aircraft, immediately!" The American captain had no choice but to carry out Dudley Pound's orders as much as possible, so as to alleviate the current dangerous situation as much as possible. He knew that the remaining carrier-based aircraft in his hand were almost the entire fleet, and the last air defense depended on.

In the sky, the pilots of the American carrier-based aircraft, who had managed to regroup in formation, found themselves with only seven fighters left. And in the sky not far from them, hundreds of German planes flew densely - these planes were the fourth batch of attack aircraft of the German Navy, and there were as many as 20 FW-190 fighters alone.

The absolute difference between the two sides finally became apparent at about two o'clock in the afternoon, when the German High Seas Fleet, with seven aircraft carriers, finally overwhelmed the Allied fleet with the number of carrier-based aircraft. The roar of the engine in the sky was melodious and solemn, but the mood of the two sides at this moment was really very different.

Seven American fighters, which had managed to survive the third batch of attacks, could only grit their teeth and rush to the group of German planes, and in this batch of clusters, the ace pilot of the first batch of attack planes, Günter Ral, once again put on the battle. It is a pity that none of the American fighter pilots who fought with him in the morning are gone.

The remaining American carrier-based fighters were completely unable to compete with the elite German carrier-based aircraft, and they did not even have a chance to escape, so they were drowned in the sea of German carrier-based fighters. The few P-40 fighters that had just taken off could no longer play the role of interfering with the German attack aircraft group, and could only hover cautiously on the edge of the battlefield to avoid being pursued by the German fighters.

"As I said earlier, our number one enemy is the German Navy, not those cowardly Japanese dwarfs!" Putting down the binoculars in his hand, the captain of the US aircraft carrier USS Franklin said to his adjutant beside him: "In terms of combat effectiveness, these Germans are much more difficult to deal with than the Japanese!"

In the Pacific theater, the Japanese Navy and the air force were very dangerous enemies, and the US military suffered all kinds of heavy losses in the face of these enemies. However, when facing the Germans, the pressure that came to the face still made the American captain make a judgment that the German carrier-based aircraft was even more difficult.

As soon as his words fell, he kept burning and smoking, and the escort carrier, which had been ravaged by the German 3rd wave of attack aircraft, did not withstand the bombs dropped by the new enemy. As the violent explosion continued, the modified aircraft carrier began to sink slowly, and even the fuel inside the hull leaked into the nearby sea.

"The British Navy's telegram, the cruiser Melly, sank ......" an American officer walked up behind his commander and handed over a telegram. At the same time, the German planes of the 4th batch had already begun to dive and attack, and in the messy Allied fleet, they were on a rampage.

"Shoot those planes! Shoot those planes! Hurry up!" On the side of the battleship Ramirez, the air defense commanders pointed to the target in the sky and let the anti-aircraft guns around them quickly open fire, because without the radio proximity fuse like the German Navy, the Allied anti-aircraft fire today is not as airtight as imagined. German planes shuttled through the Allied fleets, causing more or less trouble for all sorts of warships.

......

"What are you doing? Are the British and Americans crazy?" Raeder looked at the information brought back by the second batch of attack aircraft units, and looked at Luteyans beside him with some inexplicability: "They change their course so frequently, do they think their fleet is not fast enough?"

"In the morning...... The Allied fleets are still trying to figure out how to get to us...... Maybe they think they should let their battleships and cruisers give full play to their absolute superiority in artillery, right?" replied to Raeder with a frown, looking at some of the analysis reports on Allied ships.

They could now confirm that there were only two battleships in the Allied fleet opposite. This information has been repeatedly confirmed, and there is no possibility of error - then the question arises, the Allied fleet has always come up to fight the German fleet with three battleships, whose courage is it?

"There were two planes that claimed that they hit a British battleship...... After that, the British stopped moving close to us......" Raeder thought for a moment and guessed the general idea: "The British must not have spotted our other two battleships! They did not have reconnaissance planes approaching, so they did not know our true strength!"

Lütjans also felt that it should be like this: "When they had two battleships, they desperately approached them, and now that we have damaged one of them, they hesitate to move forward." This shows that they are not sure that they will kill our Admiral immediately, so they temporarily change the battle plan. It must be so!"

"They haven't turned around and fled yet, they're waiting for other battleships near Iceland! They want to surround us!" Originally, Germany had been monitoring the British Royal Navy detachment near Iceland, and now after a little scrutiny, Raeder immediately guessed Dudley Pound's plan: "What a good appetite!"

"Then we'll give them a chance to eat us!" "From the beginning of the naval battle to the present, a smile appeared on his face: "We will first inflict heavy damage on the fleet in front of us during the day, and then surprise the British battleship force at night!"

"The third wave of attack planes is returning, and they have hit an aircraft carrier, the smallest one!" an officer walked to the bridge of the USS Reich, holding a telegram he had just received, and reported to Raeder and Lütjans: "A cruiser has been sunk, but the Ark Royal has not been hit......"

"Hey, I'm Lu Teyans!" grabbed the phone in front of him and gave a new combat order to the hangar: "Continue to prepare ammunition and aircraft! The 6th batch of attack planes is on standby, and if you don't receive my order, you will take off on time in half an hour!"

Putting down the phone in his hand, Lütjans looked at Marshal Raeder: "Maybe at night, the opponent's battleships don't have the courage to attack us!"