Iron Cross

Hamilton felt uneasy when he saw the Ar-272 flying over his own fleet and even escaping from the guns of the European Swallow. The appearance of enemy reconnaissance planes meant that the enemy fleet was not far from his side, but the problem was that his reconnaissance planes had not yet discovered the enemy. He could only order all ships to take off the European Swallow quickly, but the fact that the fighter planes were teased by the seaplane reconnaissance planes still annoyed him.

At 7:31, the first batch of fighters on the four escort aircraft carriers took off and formed a group of 24 cover aircraft. With these aircraft as a base, Hamilton felt a little more relaxed. On the one hand, he was anxiously waiting for accurate enemy information, and on the other hand, he ordered the escort aircraft carriers to take off attack aircraft as soon as possible to prepare to quickly form an attack team. Two minutes later, accurate intelligence came. After reading the enemy situation report forwarded by Iceland, he was shocked and his hands could not help shaking: he was not surprised that the enemy was discovered so quickly, but that the distance between the enemy and us was so close - "The enemy fleet is 250 kilometers northwest!"

Although he was surprised, he was not slow in his actions. He immediately ordered all attack aircraft to take off and attack. He participated in many aircraft carrier battles when he served in the Mediterranean Fleet. He deeply agreed with the principle of "discovering the enemy first, attacking the enemy first, and attacking with full decks". Ten minutes later, the Walrus reconnaissance plane also confirmed the enemy situation and even witnessed the German fleet retreating westward. However, this telegram stopped halfway through, and Hamilton guessed that it had been shot down - this was the most direct evidence.

Just as he was anxiously waiting for the TBF or Swordfish to take off, a terrifying warning sounded. The lookout reported that more than 30 enemy planes were attacking, and the speed was very fast, with an estimated speed of more than 300 knots.

"Let the European Swallow entangle them, and we must give the aircraft carrier enough time to release the attack aircraft."

In order to successfully take off the attack aircraft, the four aircraft carriers now left the main camp and headed northwest against the wind. There were few escort warships around, and it was difficult to maneuver in a hurry. After receiving the order from the mother ship, the European Swallow, which was responsible for the fleet cover, quickly greeted it and prepared to intercept the German aircraft at a safe distance.

Ozawa's experience and understanding of aircraft carrier operations enabled him to better control tactical details: after the German fleet launched two groups of attack aircraft, he suggested that the 8 Bf-219s in the second attack wave be reinforced to the first attack wave, so that they could quickly join the first attack wave with their speed advantage. After the first attack wave completed the attack, this group of cover fighters would continue to provide cover for the second attack wave. The speed difference between the two attack waves made the time difference objective, and the advantage of the long air time of the Bf-219 made people not have to worry about insufficient fuel. This suggestion was quickly implemented.

Through tactical fine-tuning, the total number of German first attack wave aircraft reached 38, including 20 Bf-21218s. Faced with the interception of 24 European swallows, the escort fighters immediately swooped over and entangled with the opponent. Hamilton's tactical idea of ​​letting the He-219 entangle the enemy was correct, but the objective performance gap between the two aircraft made this arrangement immediately a luxury: not to mention that the Bf-21218 flew faster than the He-219 at a speed of 620 km/h, 14 of the 20 Bf-219s took the initiative to entangle the He-219, and the other 218s rushed in to attack. Although some He-218s were intercepted, most of the dive bombers arrived over the fleet.

Faced with the fierce anti-aircraft firepower, Major Lindemann, who led the attack, did not hesitate to form a formation of three aircraft, find the escort aircraft carrier and dive to attack. 14 of the 18 He-218s successfully broke into the air above the fleet, 2 were shot down by the He-219 or anti-aircraft firepower after breaking through, and the remaining 12 successfully completed the bombing. Since all the aircraft carriers were launching aircraft groups into the wind and their own speed was slow, they had no way to defend themselves. Hamilton could only watch the bombs fall from the sky:

At 7:49, the escort aircraft carrier USS Copahi was hit by a 500 kg aerial bomb and began to sink. Half a minute later, the escort aircraft carrier USS Strider followed the example of the USS Copahi. An aerial bomb landed in the center of the deck, not only blowing up the aircraft that had not yet taken off, but also detonating all the fuel and ammunition below. This aircraft carrier converted from a cargo ship sank rapidly; almost at the same time, the escort aircraft carrier USS Collider was hit by a bomb on the front deck, paralyzing the boiler, losing power, the entire ship was out of power, and a raging fire broke out on the deck. Although it had not sunk yet, it could only float on the sea like a dead fish; only the escort aircraft carrier USS Nassau had the best luck, miraculously avoiding all three bombs and only being hit by a near miss, which smashed two TBF attack aircraft that had not taken off.

Elsewhere, the battle between the Bf-219s and the Euroyans gradually came to a close. The Bf-219s lost 2 aircraft, and the Euroyans lost a total of 9 aircraft. The freed-up Bf-219s immediately helped other dive bombers. Attack, the four He-218s that were intercepted just now were shot down by the Euroyan during the exchange of fire. The other three successfully broke through and prepared for bombing. The target was the Nassau that had just escaped. This time, luck was still with him. This escort aircraft carrier has been heavily protected by destroyers and anti-aircraft cruisers. It is surrounded by intensive firepower. Looking at the numbing firepower net below, the three aircraft did not stupidly pounce on it to die. Instead, under the leadership of the lead aircraft, They made a detour and dropped all the bombs on the outer Bermuda (Fiji-class) light cruiser. The isolated Bermuda became the most unlucky warship today - three bombs were hit in one go, and the landing positions were not even close together. 20 meters, the continuous explosions caused extremely horrifying damage. This 10,000-ton light cruiser could not withstand such a dense offensive and began to sink slowly.

At 8:03, the Bf-219s covered the He-218s who had completed bombing and retreated. Although this round of attacks killed three escort carriers, the losses in the first wave of attacks were not small. Three He-218s were shot down. 3 of the 20 Bf-219s were lost, with a battle damage rate as high as 16%, but the results were impressive: 3 escort carriers and 1 10,000-ton cruiser were sunk, and 12 Eurobirds and 7 evasive aircraft were also killed. Swordfish or TBF, as for the remaining aircraft on the three escort carriers, they have lost their chance to take off forever.

Faced with this result, Hamilton screamed with anger. The air power of the entire E fleet was mixed to pieces: only 12 of the 24 Eurobirds were left. The attack team that had taken off and was about to attack was destroyed, and 24 There are only 17 Swordfish or TBF left. Fortunately, he still kept the Nassau, otherwise the plane would not even have a place to land later. After the German fleet withdrew, the Nassau again released the remaining aircraft, and successively took off 5 Eurobirds and 3 TBFs, bringing Hamilton's air power to 37 aircraft.

He immediately sent all 20 attack aircraft into the attack without hesitation, but hesitated when sending the cover aircraft. In the end, he ruthlessly took out 8 Eurobirds to undertake the cover mission. There were only 9 cover aircraft left over the fleet. The sea attack group composed of the remaining 28 aircraft flew northwestward at the fastest speed.

But 10 minutes later, he knew that his risky strategy was ruined. The lookout post reported that more than 30 enemy aircraft had arrived. He pounded the wall of the command tower angrily: "This is unscientific! The Germans only have two aircraft carriers in total. Nearly 40 aircraft came just now, and now there are more than 30. How many damn aircraft do they have?"

He never expected that the Bf-219s responsible for covering the Ju-98 attack formation were the same batch of fighters he had just seen. After escorting the He-218s back, they turned around again over the sea and rushed towards the E fleet again. .

"Oh my god...how many planes do the Germans have? They won't use water reconnaissance planes to make up the count, right?" Seeing more than 30 black planes rushing toward us, the captain of the Nassau couldn't help but sigh. , when he used the telescope to see the group of aircraft clearly, he was shocked and shouted, "Lightning strike aircraft! It's lightning strike aircraft!"

Hamilton was almost desperate. The difficulties faced by the attacking fleet this time were much greater. He could only use 9 Euro Swallows to intercept, but only 17 Bf-219s swarmed up and shot down all the enemies after losing one - There are already five aircraft in the sky above the entire E fleet, and the time for the Ju-98 to show its power has finally arrived.

The formation commander, Major Koenig, saw the two most conspicuous battleships, and also saw the escort aircraft carrier Nassau on the other side, which was heavily protected by several warships. He did not start with these two targets in a hurry, but Aim at the two outermost anti-aircraft cruisers. The six Ju-98s dropped sharply, approached the sea surface, and then projected the torpedoes on their bellies from two directions. The British warships tried their best to avoid it, but it was obviously not enough to compete with the close-range torpedo attack. Two minutes later, the Luna The anti-aircraft cruiser (Dido-class) and the destroyer USS Ashanti (Tribal-class) were struck by mines and sunk.

After the two warships sank, a gap was opened in the Nassau's defense formation. Major Koenig seized the favorable opportunity and led the remaining 10 Ju-98s to pounce down together, launching an intensive torpedo offensive. The Eskimo The destroyer desperately blocked the Nassau's gunfire and sank immediately. With the sinking of the Eskimo, coupled with the losses of the Tartar and the Nubian in the previous two days and other battle losses, the Royal Navy's own Horde-class destroyers have been completely destroyed so far. Although the anti-aircraft cruiser Cleopatra (Dido-class), named after the Queen of Greece, shot down a Ju-98 flying at close range, it was hit by a torpedo and sank.

With two layers of escorts killed one after another, the Nassau, which had escaped fatal threats many times, was finally doomed this time. Three torpedoes hit the bow, stern, and middle of the ship. The engineer crew maneuvered the modified aircraft carrier to turn right. 15 degrees, avoiding the torpedoes at the bow and stern of the ship, but the one in the middle of the ship could not escape no matter what. He could only watch the torpedoes sink the warship under his feet.