No one waits patiently in the middle of the war, sparing the opportunity for the development of weapons. Even backward and impoverished China developed its own military industry during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and completed a lot of imitation and production of weapons.

This is still the case in China, which has no industrial foundation, let alone the United States, which has the most powerful industrial power? Therefore, the Americans have not given up catching up with Germany's advanced weapons, and on the other hand, they have not given up hope of developing better weapons on their own.

One of the main reasons why Iceland, an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean, is unable to radiate its influence to the British Isles and Norway is that its distance makes the US Air Force's various planes slightly embarrassed -- the range of bombers is indeed sufficient, but fighter planes cannot escort them.

Therefore, before the first plan to use Iceland as a base bomber to bomb the iron-producing area of Norway was drawn up, the Americans were developing ultra-long-range escort fighters to escort their strategic bombers B-17. However, due to the progress of development, the Americans had not yet produced such an aircraft when they bombed Norway for the first time, so they could only carry out night bombing with unguaranteed accuracy.

This time, the Americans created this long-range fighter, using two Rolls-Royce high-horsepower engines and the fuselage of two P-40 fighters -- to piece together an even more powerful, ultra-long-range twin-engine heavy fighter: the United States named it the P-41.

The P-41 fighter is actually the P-38 fighter in another time and space, but because of the early outbreak of the war, the United States went astray in the development of the fighter, so it was a year late before it began to enter service. Of course, this aircraft is not as mature in design as the P-38, it is completely a patchwork of two P-40 fighters.

In fact, this aircraft cannot be considered exactly the P-38, because its appearance is significantly different from the P-38 - the P-38 has a separate fuselage in the middle, while the P-41 does not. From this point of view, the P-41 is more like a relative of the German long-range fighter ME-109Z-1, since they are intuitively designed with two single-engine fighters, cobbled together into a heavy fighter.

In any case, the American designers used the shortest possible time to design a long-range escort fighter that met the requirements of the United States. This kind of aircraft can accompany B-17 fighters to fly far away from Norway, which can somewhat alleviate the embarrassing situation of some bombers without escort.

It was precisely because of this fighter that the United States and Britain were so bold in going to war with the German High Seas Fleet outside the traditional Greenland air defense circle - they had more fighter escorts, but they came more slowly.

Because with this reliable backup, he could fight a "close match" air battle with the German Navy at a certain time, so Dudley Pound finally made up his mind to bet the fate of the Royal Navy on such a seemingly undominant naval battle.

A P-41 flew over the Allied fleet, followed by a second and third, twin-engine fighters that were quite fast, but not as agile as single-engine fighters. But the appearance of these planes on the endless sea brought considerable shock to the enemy on the opposite side.

"Hatchling 4, keep an eye ahead! A special enemy fighter! We don't know the performance of this enemy aircraft yet, be careful!" Piloting their planes, the German fighter pilots had no habit of flinching, they were used to being the protagonists in this sky, just as the British were accustomed to being kings and hegemons on the sea.

The FW-190 fighters roared towards their enemies, then staggered and chased each other's tails, and the battle became bloody once more, the roar of the cannons echoing through the white clouds.

......

"Long live the Führer! Marshal and General...... The British fleet has turned again and is moving in our direction......" An officer walked up to Lütjans and Raeder, and immediately reported: "There are American planes on the battlefield that have never been seen before, and air supremacy is not yet in our hands. ”

"New plane?" Rutteyans' eyelids jumped, he was really about to run out of patience and courage. The appearance of new enemy aircraft means that the German Navy's carrier-based aircraft will suffer more losses, which means that this naval battle will be out of control again and again, and for him, the commander of the German Navy's aircraft carrier fleet, all this is too much for him to accept.

"Hurry up and take off the reconnaissance plane to make sure, is there another American aircraft carrier fleet in the north that we haven't found?" Lütjans was most worried about the emergence of a new force in the Allied fleet, which would make all his previous calculations frustrated, and also make him doubt about victory. After all, if there are more American aircraft carriers in the invisible north, then the comparison of aircraft carrier forces between the two sides will not be 7 to 2...... What if it's 7-5, or 7-7? Is there any point in fighting this naval battle?

After giving the order to take off the reconnaissance plane to the north to continue the reconnaissance, Lütjans looked at Admiral Raeder, whose face was not very good-looking, and then he opened his mouth to persuade: "My marshal, we must distance the fleets from each other...... There is no need for us to risk luring the British to come up, it is more advantageous for us to distance ourselves from consumption. ”

After finishing speaking, he looked behind him again, and found that everyone was still some distance away from the two of them, so he lowered his voice and continued: "Now none of us dare to say whether there are still third and fourth aircraft carriers in the Allied fleet...... We don't have any benefit in consuming it in this case, do we?"

Raeder also felt that it was a bit reckless to maintain his current position in this situation, and after some consideration, he nodded to Lütjans and agreed: "Maybe you are right, we as generals have limited temporary decision-making power at the front...... Allowing the fleet to adjust course may be a good way to avoid risks. ”

"The fleet slows down! The course has changed from due north to 25 degrees east-north!" After receiving Raeder's approval, Lütjans hastened to give the order to adjust the course. For the first time since the start of the war, the German High Seas Fleet adjusted its course, and the entire fleet was aligned in the direction of Iceland.

Since becoming the commander of an aircraft carrier fleet, Lütjans has become more and more comfortable with his role. In fact, he did not know that the new heavy cruisers of the German Navy were equipped with new main guns, and in terms of rate of fire and accuracy, they were already superior to the Allied ships of the same type. Coupled with the three battleships in his hand, even if there was a real artillery battle, the Allied fleet would not seem to be able to take advantage of it.

But the commanders who used aircraft carriers, especially those of the German Navy, were accustomed to fighting with the advantage of the enemy, and in their opinion, a close fight was already a loss - at least giving up the superiority of the aircraft carrier was irrational, wasn't it?

Of course, what no one knows is that although this turn, the Dudley Pound fleet, which lacked reconnaissance capabilities, was not detected in time, but in fact, the retreat of the German Navy's High Seas Fleet allowed them to change their course closer to the outflanking Royal Navy detachment.

"The grappling capabilities of these aircraft are very mediocre...... Although the firepower is strong, it is not flexible. While flying the plane to get rid of an American P-41 fighter jet with a smoother horizontal roll, the German pilot in the cockpit summed up the shortcomings of the enemy aircraft to his friends: "I think they should be land-based fighters, and using a two-fuselage aircraft on an aircraft carrier is an absolute idiot." ”

He shook the control stick of his plane cleanly, and quickly shook off the slightly clumsy American P-41 fighter. His wingman fired at the clumsy enemy fighter in a series of fires, directly knocking them into a piece of burning parts.

Although the P-41 fighter was rich in size, it was equipped with a lot of armor to protect the pilot and fuel. However, in the face of the 20 and 30 mm caliber guns equipped with German aircraft, it still looked a little weak. Even the larger and more robust B-17 strategic bomber could not bargain in the face of German large-caliber aerial guns, let alone a fighter like the P-41.

The improvised P-41 was no match for the battle-tested FW-190, and in the course of a short firefight, 11 P-41s were shot down, and only two FW-190s died at sea because they did not adapt to the changes in their opponents.

On the other side, when the hostile sides in the sky were fighting each other and the winner had not yet been decided, the German attack aircraft group had already made the British fleet in chaos pay a heavy price. One cruiser of the British Royal Navy was hit, it was already on fire and burning, and it was forced to slow down and break away from the fleet, and the Queen Elizabeth was hit by German aircraft again because of the destruction of several anti-aircraft guns, which caused a hole in the anti-aircraft fire network.

The side of the British battleship exploded and caught fire, and many anti-aircraft guns on the side were affected. What made Dudley Pound even more annoyed was that due to the inexperience of the damage management personnel, the fire on the Queen Elizabeth was getting bigger and bigger, and there was a tendency to get out of control. As a last resort, the battleship Queen Elizabeth slowed down again and retreated slightly to a position further back, seeking the protection of several destroyers and cruisers around it.

Looking anxiously at his pocket watch, Dudley Pound found that the time was only 14:30 in the afternoon, and there were still two long hours to go before he hoped for about 4:30 in the afternoon. The land-based P-41 fighters had limited range and could not stay for long, and now it seems that the situation is becoming more and more unfavorable for the fleet of the British Royal Navy......