Bismarck

"Um, thank you, Major Zeppelin!" Rudel, who had escaped death, said in a daze. He subconsciously looked at the sky behind him, where only two clouds of black smoke were left that had not yet dissipated.

"I'm fine!"

"I'm glad you're okay. Take care of yourself. I'm going to the back first."

"Yes!"

The two planes of Zeppelin and Grislavsky flew towards the rear of the formation without stopping.

Flensburg could even hear from the radio the voice of Zeppelin directing the German fighters to evade and counterattack. The voice of this command never stopped, even when she shot down a British fighter that was following behind like a ghost in a head-on confrontation with a single shot.

"I really don't know how she can command multiple things at the same time... She and her sisters are really perverts." Flensburg said helplessly. Last time on Tirpitz, Bismarck's secretary's control of artillery left a deep impression on him...

They are said to be sisters?

"Forget it, it's more important to blow up the British first!"

Flensburg breathed a sigh of relief and drew his attention back.

Looking at Rudel who had barely flown over, he was as expected covered in wounds, with even half of his tail rudder knocked off.

Flensburg turned on the radio: "Lieutenant Rudel, you have completed your mission well, now I order you to retreat..."

But before he could finish, a stubborn voice with gritted teeth and a little choking came from the radio: "No! I won't leave!"

"You are so injured, why are you still staying here? Go back and recuperate!"

"Captain... our Captain Hake was killed in the battle... He opened the air brake and perished together with a British plane chasing him..." Rudel's voice was choked with sobs: "Captain... I want to avenge our Captain and his men!!"

"But your plane is already so damaged!" Flensburg began to urge and shout, "So you should go back quickly and we will complete the rest!"

"I···"

"Go back quickly!! Obey orders!!"

"……Yes!"

The scarred Stuka shook its wings twice, drew an arc above the clouds, turned around and flew southwest, quickly sinking into the clouds and disappearing from sight.

Flensburg smiled as he watched Rudel successfully escape, and then looked at the situation behind him. With Zeppelin and Grislavsky rejoining the battle, relying on her command and cover, the air battle battlefield has gradually turned the tide. The British fighters began to be held back by the BF109Ts, and his men - the Stukas that still persisted from the brutal pursuit - although some were injured and some were delayed, they still tried their best to maintain the formation, closely following behind him, and flew together in the direction reported by Rudel before he evacuated.

While calling on his dive bomber crews to reorganize their formations and get closer to each other, Flensburg was also holding his breath. Although the sky was covered by thick clouds, Flensburg's hateful eyes seemed to penetrate the azure shadows between the gaps in the clouds. In the vast expanse of azure, Flensburg seemed to vaguely see a few blurred white lines. They were the tracks of ships sailing on the sea!

"Huck, you watch from heaven, this is what they owe me, I will make them pay with blood!!!" With a sneer on his face, Flensburg flipped the switch on the radio: "Everyone, follow me, target the enemy aircraft carrier, full force attack!!"

---

As the distance got closer, all the dive bomber pilots gradually realized that in the shadows between the gaps in the clouds ahead, they could vaguely see thin white lines moving forward in the depths of the large blue shadows, covered by the sunlight blocked by the clouds.

Although it was just a destroyer on the periphery of the huge fleet, there were bigger fish further behind...

Similarly, on the blue surface of the North Sea, hundreds of anti-aircraft guns of the British fleet, large and small, were pointing at the top of the clouds.

From the gaps between the clouds, one can see a group of small black dots approaching rapidly against the background of the equally blue sky.

The distance between the two sides was closing rapidly. Whether it was the British fleet or the German aircraft group, everyone gritted their teeth and stared at the mortal enemy opposite.

Heavy cold sweat flowed onto the eyelashes at the corners of my eyes. The salt in the sweat stung my eyes and made them hurt slightly, but I only wiped or rubbed them lightly. I didn't dare to turn my head or even blink.

The atmosphere seemed to freeze.

A clear but cold female voice accompanied by a 20MM aircraft cannon echoed in the radio: "All fighter pilots, pay attention, don't fight with the fulmars! (Boom boom boom...) Dive if you are bitten, and come back when you are far away! (Boom boom boom...) I am in a group with Grislavsky, and the rest of the people are in charge of Bal... (Boom boom boom...)..."

In the tens of kilometers between the German fleet and the British fleet, from the JU87C formation, to the BF109T squadron, to the Flying Swallows, the British and German warhawks were divided into several groups, chasing each other, shooting, shouting, and crashing in groups at an altitude of meters! Like a long snake, flying on the top of the clouds and mountains at the cost of life and death.

The fighter planes in the sky are like medieval knights, riding their mounts and galloping above the clouds, leaving beautiful and strange tracks of death, using machine guns and cannons to shoot madly at their targets. The traces of tracer bullets, accompanied by smoke and clouds of death and destruction, intertwine between the magnificent clouds. The rolling tracks and clouds are like the magnificent ink marks waved by the masters of impressionism...

"We are about 20 kilometers away from the enemy's outer destroyers. We estimate that the enemy's aircraft carrier is 25 to 30 kilometers away from us. Now we will deploy our formation in small teams and prepare for the assault!..."

Just as Flensburg began to order the dive bombers to deploy from the flying column into an assault formation, the radio broadcast a warning from Zeppelin...

"Captain! Watch your back, three British fighters!"

Flensburg hurriedly looked back and saw three fulmars that appeared out of nowhere and were chasing after them close to the clouds. The powerful thrust of the propellers rolled up the clouds below, and clouds of smoke roared along with the planes. That was the trail formed by the smoke clouds caused by the speeding planes.

Several JU87Cs at the rear of the formation were using their rear machine guns to tenaciously resist the powerful enemy's pursuit, but were still being evaded and counterattacked by the agile fighters with skilled tactical moves while being sprayed with dense rain of bullets.

Under the fierce firepower of the Fulmars, the efforts to spread out the formation were greatly threatened...

A JU87C that was left behind was hit repeatedly in the hail of bullets. Although it tried hard to keep up with the large group of aircraft, its damaged fuselage and engine with thick smoke still made it unable to bear the heavy burden and gradually fall out of the formation. The anxious calls of its comrades could not help it escape the pursuit of the fulmars. But until it was turned into a ball of fire, this JU87 still used its rear machine gun to desperately shoot at the pursuing British carrier-based fighters...

Another JU87C was hit by a burst of 7.7MM bullets, which silenced its rear machine gun. Then, it was hit by a series of fire snakes that hit its cockpit and engine. No matter how the comrades called, the radio never heard back from the pilot. In the end, everyone could only watch the plane that had lost its pilot gradually deviate from its route and fly into the clouds, dragging a cloud of black smoke...

Although some other planes did not crash directly, they were basically all damaged, and the rear machine guns of seven or eight planes were even silent. It was obvious that the rear machine gunners of these planes had already shed blood in the brutal air battle...

"Damn you... rear machine gunners, keep firing!" Flensburg's roar rang out over the radio. The remaining rear machine gunners of each crew, as long as they were still able to move, lay on their machine guns and stubbornly continued to fight back with their pitiful only self-defense firepower.

But at this moment, from behind and above the British fighter plane, several blue tracers suddenly flashed like thunder from heaven!

A fierce and deadly tracer instantly cut off the wing of a Fulmar, and the British pilot fell desperately into the North Sea 3,000 meters below his feet; the other two tracers formed a pincer attack, and a Fulmar that tried to turn to evade was hit on the spot, and was directly turned into a torch struggling and falling in mid-air; and although the last tracer was avoided by the third Fulmar, it could not continue to attack these Stukas...

Four BF109Ts swooped down like black lightning, accompanied by tracers and flames that turned the previously arrogant British carrier-based fighters into stray dogs.

"Damn, one of them escaped..." A pilot's frustrated voice came from the radio.

"Tsk, it looks like the one that was biting Rudel just now... Looks like it's an ace." Flensburg couldn't help but spit when he saw this scene.

But the tail was at least driven away temporarily, and taking advantage of this opportunity, the JU87Cs quickly deployed an attack formation.

Time was running out, and the enemy's aircraft carrier was only 20 kilometers away at most, and the outer destroyers were even only 10 kilometers away. If we didn't deploy now, it would be too late to deploy when we entered the range of the enemy fleet's anti-aircraft guns.

In GR186's combat impression, if densely packed groups of aircraft encounter the fierce fleet's anti-aircraft firepower, the consequences will be disastrous!

"Captain, you continue the attack, we will stop them here!" A call came from the radio, but it came from the fighter jet. Bal, who had always been cynical, put away his usual careless behavior and started to take it seriously.

but…

Flensburg looked back and saw that in the distant sky, behind Barr, three two-plane formations of six Fulmars had appeared at some point, following Barr's formation closely! Although there were two BF109Ts behind the six Fulmars that were firing non-stop, there were also two two-plane formations of British carrier-based fighters behind the two BF109Ts...

"Baal, be careful, there are a bunch of fighter planes behind you!"

"Hehe, I know. Captain, Instructor Zeppelin is directing us to do vertical maneuvers with them!" Although he was serious, the tone of this person made him sound like a lazy cancer patient with bone marrow metastasis.

Flensburg couldn't help but feel the urge to hold his forehead: "You better be careful, don't let carelessness cost you money..."

"It's okay. How can their crappy planes catch up with us?" Bal laughed, and without slowing down, he grabbed the joystick and pushed it. The BF109T obediently rolled half a circle to the left, and then dived directly into the clouds. The other three BF109s were also following his moves. It seemed that they were planning to climb back from the left side of the JU87C formation?

"Fifth squad, seventh squad, fire the rear machine guns!" Flensburg also called several squads on the radio, asking them to use the rear machine guns to cover Bal and others in their dive. A Fulmar, who was chasing with a bullying mentality, did not expect that the Falcon in his mind would dare to fight back. He was caught off guard and sparks flew under the fire of five or six MG17 light machine guns. Finally, with a look of astonishment, he looked at the completely stopped propeller and fell headfirst into the abyss under the clouds unwillingly.

However, the British on the other side seemed to have no shortage of experts. They reacted in a short moment. Five or six planes and thirty or forty machine guns opened fire continuously. Under the dense fire net, another BF109T that was a beat slower to disengage was hit by flames, and the engine was ignited with blazing flames. It fell headfirst in almost the same posture as the previous Fulmar, dragging thick smoke. A JU87C that was covering the fire was also counterattacked by the fierce and dense frontal firepower of the British carrier-based fighters. It turned into a ball of fire in the sky and blood was spilled in the sky while covering its comrades...

ps: Please give me a monthly ticket... I have already fallen out of the monthly ticket list, sob.

Chapter 233: Attack (II)

The two-plane formation of Zeppelin-Grislavsky further behind had also swooped down closely following a group of Fulmars, and two consecutive precise tongues of fire enveloped the previously complacent Fulmars.

Without any suspense, under the accurate shooting of two elite pilots, two balls of sparks burst out from the cockpit of a Fulmar that had been firing wildly before and had no time to evade. The out-of-control plane rolled several times in the sky, and finally rushed into the clouds below and disappeared.

Before Flensburg could even breathe a sigh of relief, four ferocious shadows appeared before his eyes. He could not help but shout anxiously: "Zeppelin, behind you! Four!!"

But in contrast to the anxious Flensburg, Zeppelin's voice was cold but with a hint of pride. She obviously did not take these small fry seriously. Compared to Flensburg who could only observe the enemy with the naked eye, Zeppelin's all-round mental power was obviously much more useful.

When those fighter planes approached quietly, Zeppelin had already taken countermeasures in advance.

"Captain, it's okay. I've asked Bal and the others to pull them back."

The tone was neither hurried nor slow, and everything was under control.

Listening to such sounds, Flensburg couldn't help but have the illusion that he had entered a cold storage in the hottest days of summer. He also always felt that the beautiful woman on the other side of the radio station was emitting a sneer like "Hehehe..." in her heart.

He touched his nose speechlessly. Fortunately, the target of the sneer was not him...

However, along with this cold voice, three black shadows flashed past Flensburg's head. Major Zeppelin was right. Barr had returned with the other two fighter planes.

Three Iron Warhawks painted with Iron Crosses dived down in front and above the four Fulmars that were closely following Zeppelin and his group. After occupying a favorable position, they immediately opened fire. Then, after a short and fierce rain of tracer bullets, two more Fulmars unfortunately became frost-bitten eggplants and fell into the sea with black smoke all over their bodies.

"Hey, that's three! If I get seven more I'll be an ace!! (PS: Germany's ace standard in World War II was ten, but later the United States changed the ace standard to five)"

An excited young voice came from the radio. If he heard it correctly, Flensburg remembered that the pilot's name was Buckhorn?

The four remaining Fulmars that had been following Bar were just about to pull back, but were cut into the inner circle of the minimum turning radius by the Zeppelin twin-plane formation that was diving straight down... Facing the two MG151 flames, the Fulmars had to retreat temporarily, but the BF109Ts that had been closely chased by them before had already taken the opportunity to perform upward combined maneuvers and Immelmann turns, thus getting rid of the unfavorable situation of being chased by British aircraft.

There was even a BF109T fighter that was bitten at the six o'clock position. While the British fighter following behind was retreating, it rolled over and bit the unfortunate British fighter right behind it... Accompanied by a beautiful but deadly tracer and smoke, another British fighter fell into the abyss.

The pilots' happy voices came from the radio:

"It's shot down! I shot down the fourth one!" an excited voice.

"The timing of that roll just now was pretty good, Buckhorn." A clear and pleasant female voice responded.

"Instructor, your tactics are really effective. If we don't fight them, they won't be able to do anything to us! Now it's five on five, and everyone is fair (several muffled sounds)... Damn, these guys' support attacks are really annoying!"

"Marceiu, let me help you! - Huh? You actually dodged it?" This is a model of Lei Feng who likes to help others - Grislavsky with a confused face: Who is Lei Feng?

"Huh, huh, thank you, I thought I was going to be killed..."

"Marceu, don't be careless! These guys have dodged our shooting several times!" This is the serious voice of a cynical guy: "This achievement is nothing. In the cruel war, only the pilots who survived in the end are qualified to be aces, so don't let the guys get shot down!"

"Barr is right, these guys are all aces! Everyone, it's time to get serious!"

Zeppelin's voice, which had been cold for a long time, also had a hint of excitement.

“…It’s fun to fight with an ace. So, let the duel begin!!”

The seemingly weak white little hand pushed the accelerator violently, the DB601 engine roared, and the BF109T with white edelweiss painted on its fuselage rushed forward first. Zeppelin squinted his eyes slightly, feeling the strong push on his back.

As an aircraft carrier, we always have a sense of obsession with the sky.

The sky is your battlefield!

The sky is under my control!

A fighting spirit suddenly burst out in Zeppelin's eyes.

Following behind were fighter No. 5 painted in bright red, No. 109 painted in yellow, No. with Christll (someone's girlfriend) written in white near the cockpit, and No. , which was low-key but restrained. The five BFT fighters began to move closer to each other to form a formation, and soon they fought with the five ace pilots painted with live target patterns and the letters RN.

On the other side, Flensburg, who was gradually leaving the airspace with the remaining 87 JUC formation, looked back at the battlefield behind him that belonged to the ace pilots. He could only vaguely see the smoke and contrails flying between the layers of clouds and mountains under the blue sky...

"I can only hope that everyone can return safely... Now it's our turn to fight for our lives!"

Looking at the fierce battle going on between the aces behind, and then looking at the tracks on the blue ocean under the clouds in front, Flensburg gritted his teeth. Because he was so angry, he bit his teeth too hard and made a teeth-acheing "click" sound.

"British, wait, I will not let my men die in vain, nor will I let you be arrogant and complacent, and I will not let you threaten the Zeppelin aircraft carrier!!"

"Revenge for Captain Harker!"

"Long Live Germany!"

Not far in front of the fleet, the outer destroyers of the British fleet had already begun to use their main guns to dot the gaps in the clouds, creating clouds of smoke that looked like ink dripping into a pool of water...

ps: Well, I’m going to send out lunch boxes…

Chapter 234: Attack (III)

Seeing the dive bombers escape their interception, the roars of the remaining five ace pilots of the British carrier-based aircraft force, including the commander, echoed in the fighter's radio. But now they were facing five (future) super ace pilots, and the aircraft was the BF109T, which was more than one level better than the Fulmar.

What's more important is that judging from the tactical coordination between the BF109Ts on the opposite side, it is obviously more systematic and organized than ours. When one group of BF109Ts charges and attacks, another group of planes pulls back to provide cover, and the time difference in coordination is basically flawless!

Under such circumstances, even though they were unwilling to accept it, the five British aces could only watch as the other side relied on faster speed and more systematic coordination to turn the huge disadvantage of eight to eighteen into five to five in just three or four rounds. What was more important was that fourteen dive bombers broke through their interception line and rushed towards their main fleet...

The five British ace pilots were furious, but they were also secretly frightened by their opponents' tactical qualities, aircraft performance, and most importantly, tacit cooperation. You know, the absolute force advantage of 20 planes against 8 planes before was not enough to stop the opponent's assault. Now it was five against five. Not to mention continuing to drive away the German bomber group, if things went wrong, whether they could protect themselves in the brutal air battle would depend on how well the five fulmars cooperated with each other.

Under the successive attacks of the five German (future) super aces and the suffocating attack tactics, the five British naval aviation ace pilots on the five Fulmars soon fell into a disadvantage.

The five men looked at each other at the same time, and moved their formation a little closer to the clouds, intending to use the clouds to conduct guerrilla warfare and conceal themselves if the situation got bad. The positions of the five Fulmars were also adjusted to be more suitable for mutual cover, and they tried to use this formation to defend against the five super ace BF109Ts' successive attacks on the vertical plane...

On the other side, in the command center on the bridge of the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious, Tovey was not in a good mood either.

I thought it was easy to stop, but it turned out that the situation was going in a direction I didn't expect...

Listening to the chaotic calls on the radio and looking at the black shadows scattered in several groups against the sky background between the clouds, Tovey couldn't help but frown.

"We sent out more than 20 fighter jets, but we still couldn't stop them, and we ended up in a tough battle?"

Although he had a lot of combat experience, he was only a destroyer and battleship veteran, so he was not really proficient in aviation. To be honest, Tovey really wanted to talk to the commander of the carrier-based aircraft about the lessons learned from the interception operation just now, but just as the words came to his lips, he remembered that when the Fury was bombed, his own commander of the carrier-based aircraft had been ordered by the furious himself to go out to participate in the battle...

He should still be fighting a desperate battle with the enemy in the sky, right?

Tovey began to regret his bad temper, as now he had no one to consult when he wanted to ask for advice.

"Forget it...it's just a dozen planes anyway. Our battleships can't be sunk by a dozen planes so easily. Even the Renown, after the modification, has three to five inches of horizontal armor, which is enough to defend against 1000-pound armor-piercing bombs...the Germans should only cause surface damage at most." After all, he was born in a traditional old-school battleship mentality, and with his straightforward temper, he simply stopped thinking about problems that he couldn't figure out.

He didn't believe that these few bombers could destroy the giant beast in the sea.