Iron Cross

Japan and Germany, as latecomers to the navy, both have deep-rooted flaws in their naval culture and beliefs: the former's problem is that they are too radical and risky, and they are prone to fighting to the death, and they are all broken. The latter's problem is that they are timid and do not dare to go beyond. Even though they have great naval strength, they still can't change their deep-rooted mentality of breaking up friendships. In battles, they often just want to make a profit and leave. As a time traveler, Hoffman is well aware of the problems between the two, but he can still only adopt the current construction and command policy, because it is even more unreliable to replace the Italian commander.

Fortunately, Ozawa's aggressiveness and the conservatism of Machar and others have been somewhat moderated. Coupled with the luck of having a chance to catch up and Germany's advantage in the field of carrier-based aircraft, a navy that is currently pretty good has been formed. In fact, even Hoffman himself did not have enough confidence in the Third Reich's development of a navy to overwhelm Britain and the United States. Otherwise, why would he continue to strengthen the Azores defense system? Isn't it because one day it can no longer win at sea and can rely on this nail to deal with Britain and the United States and buy time for Germany to win in other directions? In Hoffman's vision, the navy would best be able to hold back Britain and the United States. After Germany resolves the Soviet Union issue and initially unifies Europe, Britain and the United States' maritime superiority will no longer be a concern.

Following Ozawa's troubles several times, especially after playing against Newfoundland, Machar and others began to slowly build up their confidence. At least they dared to face the United Kingdom and the United States head-on. Otherwise, if he was still the same as before, he would not receive the current response from the United Kingdom and the United States. The news of the merger of the two fleets must have taken the fleet away, instead of licking blood like Ozawa and boldly choosing to kick Ingersoll's ass.

The Night Owls' performance of only flying but not attacking greatly confused the U.S. military. They only increased their vigilance and anti-aircraft firepower, and did not think of taking off night fighters to attack - anyway, the effect of taking off was not good, and the German planes were allowed to fly around to collect information. Intelligence and battlefield dynamics. At 3:37 in the morning, still an hour before dawn, the fleet radar once again spotted a large number of aircraft coming in. This time, unlike the Night Owls, there were only 1-2 aircraft dangling around. It was obviously a large formation. Turner finally realized something was wrong. While ordering all ships to prepare for air defense, he also ordered several warships to take off F6F-3N night combat aircraft as much as possible.

The F6F-3N is a night combat aircraft derived from the daytime version of the F6F fighter. The main difference is that the wingtip fairings are equipped with AN/APS-6 radar, and two 12.7mm machine guns are removed to reduce the weight of the wing. However, the performance of this airborne radar is average, and it also affects the aerodynamic shape, causing the performance to deteriorate a lot. During the previous Night Owl attacks, the US military took off night combat aircraft to intercept, but not only failed to achieve results - those few launchers The 12.7mm machine gun with tracer bullets is simply scratching the itch of the thick-skinned bomber, and many times it can't even hit it. Instead, it loses several aircraft when landing, which makes the pilots have no vision for flying this aircraft in night combat. For fear of the road. Turner resolutely issued this order considering that the sky was about to light up, there would be no obstacles to take-off and landing, and the enemy situation was suspicious.

This decision was too late. The US military only took off 4 night fighters. The first attack wave led by Colonel Seydlitz, the aviation commander of the Dunkirk, had completed the final formation before the attack. The night battle before dawn finally began. .

The two Me-264 bombers, which have been circling the periphery and are actually always monitoring the direction of the fleet, quickly increased their speed to the maximum, then lowered their altitude to 4,500 meters and began to advance. Following the route of the heavy bombers, the attack aircraft group swarmed up, possessing infrared night vision capabilities. The German Night Owl team, which had been monitoring for nearly three hours, guided the attack group to the airspace where the escort carriers were assembled, and dropped a string of illumination bombs to point out the direction for the subsequent attack. After completing this, the Night Owl team quietly left the battlefield, and they did not have to worry about subsequent developments.

White flares fell from the sky one after another, illuminating the silhouettes of large and small warships on the sea. Seeing this scene, all the American officers and soldiers subconsciously thought: "It's broken..."

The US ship scrambled to take off fighter jets and turned on anti-aircraft fire in an attempt to intercept, but this could no longer hinder Colonel Seydlitz's thunderous strike. A group of three He-218 attack formations quickly pounced down. Their targets were clear. They were not the battleships that were more or less injured. They were all pointing directly at the escort carriers. In less than 5 minutes, the four aircraft carriers ate German bombs and began to sink slowly. The light cruisers Oakland and Reno (both Oakland-class anti-aircraft cruisers) escorting the fleet desperately used their 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns to intercept the Germans. The end was very tragic. The former was hit by four 500kg bombs and capsized directly, while the latter was hit by two torpedoes and broke into two pieces before being officially declared sunk.

What made the fleet even more crazy was that the sky had just brightened and the previous attack wave had just retreated. While the ships were salvaging survivors, the second German attack wave arrived on the battlefield again and launched an attack. This time the sky had begun to brighten. , more than ten F6F fighter jets also gathered, but the German escorted Bf-219 relied on the majority to quickly shoot down the US aircraft, and then continued the attack. The three ships of Tripoli, Wake Island, and Solomon were completed in October. -class escort aircraft carriers also followed in the footsteps of their companions and were quickly sunk. The most tragic one was the Solomon. Perhaps the name Solomon Islands is really unlucky. In the South Pacific naval battle, the U.S. military was overwhelmed by the Japanese. The Solomon Islands was hit by three torpedoes. The ship sank almost in the blink of an eye. More than 1,000 officers and men on board the ship rescued only 14 people.

At 5:35 in the morning, the third German attack wave rushed to the scene and attacked again. Although the number of aircraft in this round of attack was only 46, which was the smallest batch, the U.S. military's defense power was also weakened to the point where it was almost impossible to see. The escort aircraft carrier only There were only 4 ships left, and the officers and soldiers were demoralized, dull-eyed, and almost blinded. The unyielding German army sank two escort aircraft carriers, the Kasan Bay and the Fangxiao Bay, and incidentally also destroyed the Yargu. The anti-aircraft cruiser (Dido-class) was sent to the bottom of the sea.

The endless killing seemed to have no end. At 6:07, Colonel Kahn, the commander of the KG-48 wing that took off from Dakar, personally led the team and aggressively led all the aircraft to launch an assault. He saw the battered and mutilated bodies on the sea. The U.S. fleet was so angry that they shouted: "Okay, the navy is so over the top and won't leave us with anything!"

"Sir, two escort carriers were discovered..."

"All-Army Assault!" 48 Ju-188s and 24 Fw-190s swarmed up and sank and severely damaged the two escort carriers with horizontal bombing and sea strafing, especially the Fw-1 rockets and sea strafing. The 20mm cannon frightened the U.S. military, and it exploded into pieces. Although the 250-kilogram bomb carried by the Ju-188 was not particularly lethal, and the bombing accuracy could not be compared with that of dive bombing, it could not stand up to the fact that each Ju-188 could carry 3 tons (12 tons). ), the area covered under the overwhelming air raid was quite staggering, and there was almost no reason to survive.

Before leaving, Kahn looked at the battleships on the sea "reluctantly" and said to himself: "There are so many big guys. I should have brought those wire-controlled bombs with me..."

After only 3 hours of tossing, Ozawa's unconventional bastard punch beat the US fleet black and blue. Except for a few battleships, Admiral Ingersoll's light warship group, especially the escort aircraft carrier group, was safe. Except for one ship, the White Plains, which was paralyzed and dying on the water, all the others were destroyed!

At about 7 o'clock in the morning, Cunningham, who was still waiting for the latest intelligence from the reconnaissance plane, received two bad news in succession: one was from Turner, telling him that he was attacked by the main force of the German army in the early morning, and all the escort aircraft carriers were destroyed. The pincer attack strategy was directly discounted; another piece of bad news came from the Army on Sal Island. They sent a message in a panicked tone, "The German battleship force is shelling Sal Island. The life and death of our headquarters depends on the front line..."

"Asshole!" Spruance, who has always been good-tempered, was furious. He lost 11 escort aircraft carriers in one morning. This completely exceeded his ability to understand. Didn't the Germans only have 3 aircraft carriers?

"Sir..." he raised his head and asked Cunningham, "we are in big trouble."

Cunningham took a deep breath: "One move was missing, and the whole game was lost. The two-pronged attack strategy failed. Let the admiral lead the remaining warships to retreat as soon as possible, and dispatch 100 carrier-based aircraft to carry out air strikes and currently bombard Saar." The German fleet on the island.”

Spruance asked doubtfully: "We haven't found where the enemy aircraft carrier formation is yet. Shouldn't we rush to allocate troops to attack the German artillery force? Otherwise, the attack force may not be enough later."

"The main thing is to remind the Germans that we are coming." Cunningham showed a helpless look, "If I don't do this, Ingersoll's battleship fleet may be sunk by the pursuing German fleet, and the battlefield will be The balance is completely lost. Only by leaving them can we have a future! Our army has 5 aircraft carriers, and after deploying 100 aircraft, the remaining ones are still stronger than the opponents. "

Machar, Krank and others did not fully understand Ozawa's intention of attacking only escort aircraft carriers and not US battleships at first. It was not until the combat forces reported the destruction of all 11 US escort aircraft carriers that they suddenly realized: destroy this one. After the fleet, the remaining American battleships have completely lost their combat effectiveness for our side - they can neither rush to Sal Island to continue the bombardment, nor can they come up with effective means to threaten us. If the fleet is willing to catch up, as long as the full deck is If the Canadian Air Force planes fight one round, they might be able to send all these battleships to the bottom of the sea.

But this idea was quickly abandoned. Just as the ships were busy recovering aircraft to prepare for oil bomb supply and launching the second round of air strikes, the latest news came: the radar of the German artillery squadron discovered the approaching US attack aircraft group...