Chapter 465: Sunk the Aircraft Carrier?

The weather is good over the Atlantic Ocean to the west of the English Channel. There are a few thin white clouds floating at low altitude. At an altitude of 4,000 meters above the clouds, the warm sunshine in early summer shines through the bright airplane cabin glass, giving people who have become cold due to the low temperature at high altitude. There was a bit of warmth inside the cabin.

Major Johannes Steinhoff held the control stick with both hands and carefully drove the aircraft while observing the surrounding situation through the huge semicircular glass cabin on the nose of the aircraft.

What came into his eyes was an unforgettable spectacular scene. A huge formation composed of 162 Ju88s, S.M.79s, Fw-190s, Fw-200Cs, He-115s and Fokker Zeros had already covered the sky and the sun. Feel. Wherever Major Johannes Steinhoff looked, there were densely packed airplanes, layer upon layer, vast and majestic.

This is only the first assault wave, there will be second and third assault waves later! If all the planes of the three assault waves were gathered together, the scene would be several times more spectacular than the current scene!

Major Johannes Steinhoff thought: "There is no fleet in this world that can compete with our Luftwaffe and naval aviation! Air superiority is now the most critical factor in determining maritime hegemony. , and Germany was lucky enough to seize the opportunity of the naval military revolution this time..."

"Major, reconnaissance aircraft No. 087 sent a telegram and found that the enemy ship formation has been disbanded!"

At this time, Major Johannes Steinhoff's navigator/telegraph operator Carl Miller loudly announced the intelligence he had just received.

"The formation was disbanded? When did it happen?" Major Johannes Steinhoff asked.

"Just discovered," Carl Miller said, "The telegram said it was just discovered, but the enemy fleet must have been disbanding for some time. Currently, there are only 4 enemy ships tracked by the No. 087 reconnaissance plane, which are a large transport ship and 3 destroyers.”

Reconnaissance aircraft No. 087 is an Fw-200C equipped with a FuG200 radar system. It took over from another Fw-200C to track the British Fleet (E Fleet) three hours ago. However, the detection range of the FuG200 radar system is limited and the accuracy is not very high. The No. 087 aircraft was afraid of being discovered by the British fleet (many British warships also had radars), so it did not dare to follow it too close. As a result, it was discovered at dawn that the following British fleet had "shrunk" from at least 30 ships to 4 ships. It must have been that the following German reconnaissance aircraft were detected by radar at night, so they disbanded the formation and ran away.

However, this is not a big problem for the first assault wave commanded by Major Steinhoff, because there are 9 Fw-200C and 9 He-115 in the formation of the first assault wave. Come to search for the enemy fleet.

"Attention all reconnaissance planes, I am Major Steinhoff, commander-in-chief of the first assault wave." Major Steinhoff turned on the communicator and began to issue orders, "I order the reconnaissance planes to start searching for the enemy fleet..."

…

The hum of aircraft engines came from the sky. The sky was clear and cloudless, and the field of vision was very good. The air defense lookout of the battlecruiser "Reputation", the flagship of the E fleet that had been disbanded, soon discovered through the eyepiece of the telescope that it was approaching. of the UK fleet.

"Bearing 050, more than 30 aircraft in number, all single-engine aircraft! They should be our aircraft!" the lookout post loudly reported. Although the specific model of the aircraft is still unclear, it can be confirmed that all the aircraft flying over are single-engine aircraft. The bombers and torpedo bombers deployed by Germany in Brest were twin-engine and three-engine aircraft. This shows that there are no bombers or torpedo bombers among the aircraft flying over now, so they are basically British aircraft.

After hearing the report from the lookout post, Vice Admiral Phillips, the commander of Fleet E, breathed a sigh of relief. In fact, the 279 radar on the "Reputation" had already discovered these aircraft, but the radio on the "Reputation" was delayed. Contact the other person.

At this time, the communications officer on the "Reputation" suddenly reported loudly: "Sir, they have been contacted. The fighters from the 71st Squadron, the 121st Squadron and the 123rd Squadron are flying in!"

It turned out to be three "Eagle" squadrons. No wonder we couldn't contact them at first! Vice Admiral Phillips thought to himself. The so-called "Eagle" Squadron is actually a fighter squadron composed of American volunteer pilots.

With Britain's own fighter pilots having suffered heavy losses over the past year or so, there is a serious shortage of experienced veterans. So they had no choice but to turn to the United States for help. Under Roosevelt's arrangement, some experienced pilots were recruited from the U.S. Army Air Force to form three "Eagle" squadrons.

However, these pilots from the United States had just arrived and were not very familiar with the situation in the UK. They always had problems when cooperating with the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.

"Great, let three Eagle squadrons cover our retreat to the west." Lieutenant General Phillips immediately issued an order to the communications officer of the "Reputation".

These three "Eagle" squadrons dispatched a total of 12 P-51s and 24 P-40s. A total of 36 aircraft circled the "Reputation", another large oil tanker used to pretend to be an aircraft carrier, and a light cruiser. , three destroyers, but the cover is quite tight.

But to the surprise of Vice Admiral Phillips, the 36 fighters of the Eagle Squadron were discovered and tracked by a Fw-200C equipped with radar while flying over the Renown.

"Major, the 082 reconnaissance aircraft reported that a British battleship and a British aircraft carrier were found, and there were about 30 British fighters in the air for cover."

Major Johannes Steinhoff, who was leading the fleet in the air, received the report and immediately led the attack fleet consisting of 144 aircraft (minus 18 reconnaissance aircraft) to swoop over. In fact, the distance between the two sides was not very far, less than 120 kilometers. Ten minutes later, the 279 radar on the Renown found the German fleet.

"The radar room reported that the enemy aircraft was found, the number was more than 100, the distance was 50 kilometers, and it was flying towards us!" The first mate of the Renown shouted loudly.

"Sound the alarm, prepare for air defense operations." Phillips had anticipated this situation long ago. In fact, this is also the significance of the formation of Fleet E - without the sacrifice of Fleet E, there would be no victory of Fleet C!

"Well, now let's see how powerful the German planes are!" Lieutenant General Phillips walked to the side of the command tower and looked into the sky with a telescope.

The fierce air battle had already begun at this time, with 32 Fokker Zeros and 32 Fw-190s against 12 P-51s and 24 P-40s!

However, the current P-51 has not yet been replaced with Rolls-Royce's "Merlin" engine, but relies on a 1,150-horsepower Allison liquid-cooled engine with only one-stage, one-speed supercharger, and its power is even worse than that of Fokker Zero. The reason why the Royal Air Force purchased it is because the "laminar wing" and better aerodynamic layout give the P-51 extremely excellent low-altitude performance, which seems to be able to fight against the Fokker Zero.

But there are only 12 P-51s in the air today, how can they be the opponent of 32 Fokker Zeros? Each P-51 was besieged by at least two Fokker Zeros! At mid- and high altitudes, 24 P-40s were no match for 32 Fw-190s. The performance of the P-40 was not as good as that of the Fw-190, and it was outnumbered, so it was quickly defeated.

The aerial combat quickly turned into a one-sided massacre. The American planes driven by the "old birds" from the United States either turned into turkeys and fell straight down, or fled the battlefield desperately. In less than 10 minutes, there was no P-51 or P-40 in the air.

Seeing the German fighters easily deal with these "American Eagles", Lieutenant General Phillips felt his stomach bloated and his whole body weak.

"Lieutenant General, what should we do?" The captain of the Renown asked in a somewhat dry voice while handing a helmet to Phillips.

"The primary target of these planes may not be the Renown, but the tanker!" Lieutenant General Phillips gritted his teeth, pushed away the helmet handed over, and began to give orders to the panicked captain. "They may mistake it for an aircraft carrier... This is our chance. All ships turn left 45 degrees! Start S-shaped evasive maneuvers!"

Phillips's guess was indeed correct. The appearance of a large tanker is similar to that of an aircraft carrier. Moreover, this tanker has been camouflaged, with a layer of wood planks protruding from the flight deck. Major Johannes Steinhoff, who was preparing to dive and drop bombs at an altitude of 3,000 meters, really mistook the tanker next to the "Reputation" for an aircraft carrier, and drove his Ju88 bomber to dive down first!

1,000 meters! 900 meters! 800 meters...

The altimeter on this Ju88 aircraft kept rolling, and the numbers were getting smaller and smaller, which meant that the altitude was getting lower and lower! Suddenly, a piercing bombing alarm sounded, and everyone on the plane felt that the plane, which was diving at a 60-degree angle, jumped up. This was a signal that the 1,000-kilogram bomb was successfully dropped.

"Pull up!" Major Steinhoff shouted, and at the same time pulled the joystick of the aircraft hard to pull up the nose of the Ju88. At this moment, a loud noise came from the sea below.

"Hit!" Major Steinhoff looked at the sea through the transparent cabin below, and immediately shouted excitedly. I saw a huge "aircraft carrier" on the sea below, with a huge column of smoke and fire coming out of the middle of the ship. It was obviously hit by a 1,000-kilogram bomb!

This "aircraft carrier" is finished! Major Steinhoff glanced at a "Reputation" class battlecruiser that was doing an S-shaped maneuver on the sea.

The next target is it!