Iron Cross

After learning that all four escort aircraft carriers in the British fleet to the south had been sunk, and three cruisers had also been killed, Richthofen's face finally relaxed. After these days of fighting, he already knew that these so-called light aircraft carriers were actually The Americans converted a cargo ship into an escort aircraft carrier. Although it was very cheap and looked weak in combat effectiveness, it could still carry about 20 aircraft. He really did not dare to take it lightly when using four ships together. If the British aircraft had not performed poorly, These merchant aircraft carriers can exert considerable striking power.

When he heard that the British had taken off a group of aircraft to prepare for the attack before the air attack, he couldn't help frowning - this meant that the fleet would inevitably be attacked by an air attack. He was praying not to fight with the land-based aviation forces in Iceland. Just get together.

At 8:48, the high-speed fleet had traveled 630 kilometers away from Iceland. The wheel-shaped air defense formation was completed. Even the first He-218 to complete the attack began to land on the Zeppelin. As expected, There was still no sign of Iceland's land-based attack aircraft.

"Isn't it possible that the British can't find us?"

"We can't take any chances. The fleet will continue to move towards Greenland. The speed of the Zeppelin will be reduced a little to facilitate the landing of the dive bomber."

While he was talking, the third He-218 landed again. The pilot reduced his speed, accurately lowered the landing hook, and after rushing over thirty meters on the deck, he grabbed the arresting cable. With this reaction force, The plane's forward speed became slower and slower, until it finally stopped slowly.

"Quick! Give me fuel and bombs. The British guy also has an aircraft carrier..." The young pilot opened the canopy and shouted impatiently below.

"Don't worry, take a rest first, you'll be fine soon..." The ground crew reassured him, "There is another aircraft carrier that has been sunk by lightning strikes."

"real?"

"Of course! The captain just announced the news!"

"Then hurry up. The British still have two battleships. I have to taste what it feels like to sink a battleship..."

218 landed steadily on the deck, and the ground crew carried out supply operations like crazy. The Icelandic land-based attack team still did not show up. The atmosphere in the Zeppelin commander's tower began to become optimistic. Everyone was thankful to have escaped the British attack, but After observing and thinking at the chart table for a long time, Ozawa, who had been silent all this time, suddenly turned pale: "Everyone, I'm afraid the fleet will be in a big crisis soon!"

"Why?" Mashar asked in confusion.

"I'm afraid the reason why the British planes haven't appeared is not that they can't find us, but that the enemy wants to gather all their strength to give the fleet a fatal blow." Ozawa explained the reason for his worry, "Now we are about 640 kilometers away from Iceland, and the enemy A full 90 minutes have passed since the aircraft reconfirmed the attack. If the mosquito bombers were attacking, they should have arrived. The reason why the enemy has not arrived is that they are waiting for other slow attack aircraft to come together. "

The staff at the scene made emergency calculations: based on the current distance, if the Skua comes to attack, it will take about 2 hours on the road; if the TBF comes to attack, it will take about 100 minutes; if the Mosquito comes to attack, it will take 80 Minutes or so; as for swordfish or mackerel, no one is too lazy to count this incredibly slow plane.

"If I were the commander of the British Air Force, I would release the Skua attack group first, the TBF attack group 20 minutes later, and the Mosquito attack group 40 minutes later... Although there is a big gap in departure time, we can arrive at the same time. battlefield."

Judging from this time, everyone can easily calculate that the attack wave after the enemy planes gather will arrive at about 9:30.

Richthofen was startled: "If this inference is true, what should we do?"

"Immediately let the first batch of fighter jets take off in the morning land on the Europa to replenish fuel. If possible, use different pilots to fly." Ozawa considered it, "It has been nearly 3 hours since these planes took off at around 6 o'clock. , both fuel and pilot energy need to be replenished. Of course, there are risks in doing so - if an enemy plane appears on the battlefield within 20 minutes, the fleet's defense force will be greatly weakened..."

"Immediately implement General Ozawa's method." Richthofen thought for less than 10 seconds before making a decision.

"Sir..." Machar looked at him helplessly, with worry on his face, but could not say a word - although he was the commander-in-chief, Richthofen had a higher military rank than him.

"Don't worry, the fighter jets covering the Thunderbolt formation will return soon. If there is really a problem, you can let them stand for a while." Richthofen reassured him, "There is no foolproof strategy on the battlefield. I think this 20-minute risk is worth it. "

"Notify Europa to immediately accept fighters and complete the supply operation; Zeppelin quickly completes the supply of dive bombers and takes off again..."

Tactics are improving day by day. After the failure of the air raid the day before, General Fraser was criticized from all sides. After learning from the pain, he conducted deep reflection and came to an important conclusion: German escort fighters are powerful and numerous. Coupled with the notoriously long time in the air, launching attack groups one after another has actually become a refueling tactic. Each attack cannot gain an advantage, but is defeated one by one by the enemy, resulting in nothing accomplished. In order to fight today's battle well, he did a lot of homework. The most important thing is to absorb the suggestions of his staff. After discovering the enemy's situation, he will not rush to invest offensive power. He will be prepared to make proper use of the time difference and attack wave speed difference to seize the offensive opportunity to maximize After reaching the limit to achieve the mass advantage, launch a wave of attacks.

Of course, no one was stupid enough to blame the admiral for not using this tactic on the first day, because the Germans left the battlefield at high speed that time, and the Swordfish and Bluefin were too slow. By the time they pounced on them, the Germans had already slipped away. This time, the aircraft models were urgently transferred from the mainland, so they could plan calmly.

The strategy adopted by Fraser was similar to what Ozawa had imagined. The only difference was that the cover group sent in the end was different. Because the location of the German fleet when it was discovered was far away from Iceland, it was estimated that the one-way distance was more than 650 kilometers. The range of both Spitfire and Hurricane did not meet the requirements, even if they were equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks. Therefore, the dozens of Spitfires transferred from the mainland could only watch the attack group set off without being able to use them. In the end, the handsome warriors and European swallows with sufficient range were used.

The fastest handsome warriors were used to cover the Mosquito, and the slightly slower European swallows were used to cover the Jaegers and TBFs, but this distance was also a big challenge for the European swallows. They could only try it after mounting the auxiliary fuel tanks, and it was estimated that the time they stayed in the war zone would not exceed 10 minutes.

Ozawa's strategy of "changing people but not aircraft" was proposed based on the current situation of the German Navy. He had the confidence to do so: due to the limitation of the number of aircraft carried by the Zeppelin and Europa, the fleet could only carry 82 regular aircraft and 18 spare aircraft in total, but the pilots (crews) carried nearly 120 people (groups), especially the fighter pilots, all of whom were air force flying aces recruited by Richthofen using his many years of connections and prestige. In the air force system, Richthofen alone had a lot of admirers.

He was also very tolerant of these chosen ones. Since it was relatively easy to get promoted in the navy, any air force pilot (group) willing to join the navy would be promoted to the next level first, and after successfully completing the shipboard training, he would be given an additional 3 months' salary as a bonus. Therefore, a lot of people rushed over with a cry. The reserve pilot team of the Japanese Navy was very weak, let alone the extravagant expectation of being able to draw from the Army Aviation Corps. The German Navy had the Air Force as its base camp to replenish blood and cultivate itself, so it could harvest a steady stream of new forces.

The Air Force had complaints about the Navy's actions, but since the Führer himself was the Air Force Commander and supported the vigorous development of the Navy, and the Air Force had always been a strong bastion of National Socialism, this matter could only end with the victory of the Navy. In any case, Richthofen was a senior officer from the Air Force. Since the officers and soldiers of the Navy had not received systematic naval culture, they were more like the Air Force's branch in the Navy. Everyone was privately saying that if this battle was fought well, General Richthofen would be promoted to Marshal, and the Air Force would also feel proud of it.

Under everyone's nervous gaze, one Bf-219 after another landed for supplies, and the well-prepared reserve pilots successively replaced their comrades to board the plane. At 9:15, 15 He-218s completed the supply and took off quickly. At 9:18, the efficient Europa completed the supply of the last fighter and took off again. The British fleet had not arrived yet - Richthofen's decision won the gamble.

One minute later, the lookout found a group of aircraft in the south, causing a commotion on the bridge, but after careful observation, it was found that it was the Ju-98 group returning from the mission. Everyone felt heavy in their hearts. There were only two possibilities for this situation. First, the British group lost the fleet; second, the British came in a large group, and there would be a stormy attack at that time. Everyone hoped it was the former, but the latter was a deterrent.

Richthofen was still very patient: "Notify the group, fighters go to Europa for refueling and supplies, and torpedo planes go to Zeppelin for refueling and supplies. You must seize the time and take off again as soon as possible."

At 9:30, the pointer slid to the critical point of the air raid time. Seeing that the Ju-98 formation had been landing and supplying one after another, the fleet still did not see the arrival of enemy aircraft, and everyone couldn't help but become suspicious. But the senior executives prayed that the British would appear later and later, so that the torpedo formation would have enough time to complete the supply and take off again.

Since intelligence showed that the British fleet in the south had no available aircraft and the He-218s had completed their assembly, Richtofen gritted his teeth and made the decision to let the dive bomber formation go alone without escort fighters. He also thought about the second wave of attack by the torpedo formation - he was going to have 6 seafighters accompany the attack. He wanted to retain as many escort fighters as possible.