Bismarck

"Oh no! Sir, the Japanese reinforcements are coming!"

"What are you still standing there for? Fire the anti-aircraft guns! The second squadron will take off immediately!"

"Damn you, American, British, devil, white pig, die! It's dark card board... (Boom!)"

"Damn it... the runway was destroyed... Engineers! Where are the engineers? Repair the runway for me immediately!"

Over India, Ceylon and the Maldives, the British and Japanese air forces were engaged in a fierce battle to attack the airports. On the other side of the sun, Somerville's "Support" escort team was also attacked by more than 30 German aircraft...

Although there were a number of patrol planes above the escort fleet, the escort fleet was too large and did not pose much of a threat.

The "Support" escort fleet now has 45 merchant ships and seven escort aircraft carriers left, which is still a very large scale! The defense radius of the destroyers and cruisers escorting the outer perimeter alone is measured in units of ten kilometers! Not to mention the battleship barrier area that needs to be defended - such a large-scale formation is extremely cumbersome to operate, and the scale of the escort fighters is also very scattered...

The concentrated attack aircraft group easily broke through the interception of the outer escort fighters whose forces were extremely dispersed! Moreover, the speed of the attack aircraft was easily 70 to kilometers - even the climbing Stuka could penetrate meters per second! Although the escort fighters in other positions around also pushed the throttle to rush to reinforce, they were too far away to make it in time! !

In the face of the concentrated breakthrough of attack aircraft, the escort team with thin skin and large fillings was just like a fresh, delicious, steaming and fragrant soup dumpling!

The only concern was the fan-shaped battleship HMS Warspite in front of the convoy, which served as a barrier for the convoy! Somerville obviously hoped to weaken the combat effectiveness of the German attack aircraft group as much as possible with the terrifying main gun range and hit rate of the HMS Warspite!

However, Zeppelin and GR-186 Squadron are old rivals of Warspite!

What's more, after suffering such a great loss on Crete, how could Zeppelin not study tactics against the enemy ship girls?

"I am Walter Engels, the dive bomber squadron leader of the GR-186 Wing!...Everyone, pay attention to the instructor's instructions! Go around the British battleship formation within kilometers, and then attack from the head and tail of the British fleet!...Everyone! Spread out! Assault!!"

According to the parameters reported by the British radar soldiers, the course and parameters of the German aircraft group were quickly marked on the tactical board of the fleet chart. However... as soon as he saw this parameter, Somerville's face changed instantly:

"...Wait...The route of the German fleet...is not good! They want to bypass the firing range of the Warspite's main guns, and at this angle...they are crossing the firing range of the battleship's main guns at high speed horizontally. Are they taking advantage of the Warspite's slow turning speed? No! We must take action immediately...to escort the aircraft carrier? I'm Somerville! Order the fighters to take off immediately! Move forward immediately! Stop them for me!!"

After receiving the order personally issued by the fleet commander, the escort aircraft carriers did not dare to neglect it and hurriedly

"British fighters are coming! ... I am Captain Buckhorn of the Second Fighter Squadron! Fighters of the Second Squadron, follow me! Stop them! Cover the bombers!"

"Fighter Squadron Three, Novotny! Everyone, follow me!"

The German aircraft group, divided into two teams of sixteen fighters and eighteen dive bombers, bypassed the escort fleet's outer battleship cover formation from the head and tail of the fleet, and rushed through the battleship cover formation's air defense core at a distance of more than ten kilometers - the effective air defense firing range in the front and rear directions of the Warspite battleship!

Although the Warspite was refitted with a high-performance 114mm anti-aircraft gun during this overhaul, the turning speed of the Warspite's four hydraulically driven main turrets is still not satisfactory...

Warspite tried his best to drive his main gun, but due to the limitations of range and the turning angle of the main turret, he could not keep up with the German aircraft group more than ten kilometers away!

"…The German crew are so cunning!" On a certain iron turtle that has been in service for decades, the war-weary silver teeth were clenched, but they were completely helpless against these damn German flies!

Right under her nose, the German dive bombers that broke through the defense circle from the front and rear of the convoy had already rushed over the merchant fleet!

One after another, the cold bombs hit the trembling transport ship amid the Stuka's grim smile...

Above the vast Indian Ocean, there is blood and rain everywhere!

Countless war reports were sent to Cunningham's headquarters on the Indefatigable like snowflakes...

"The 'Support' convoy encountered a German air attack, a destroyer was sunk, and two merchant ships were seriously damaged! ... We shot down seven of their planes and lost five of our fighters!"

"The Kerala airport in India was bombed by the Japanese army and we cannot attack the Japanese fleet within three hours!"

"…The 'Support' escort team sent us intelligence. According to the routes of several German aircraft entering and returning, the Zeppelin aircraft carrier should now be 315 degrees northwest of the 'Support', 200 kilometers away from them..."

“…Wait! Who wrote this intelligence assessment? Do you understand that intelligence must be accurate?! What do you mean by ‘should’…?!” After hearing the previous telegram, a staff officer here scolded.

"This...is signed by Belle Dura Despicio..."

"Who is this! This kind of rubbish report...eh? Marshal Cunningham?!"

Looking at Cunningham's face, which was as black as the bottom of a pot, suddenly appearing in front of him, staring at him with a dark face, someone suddenly felt inexplicably that a disaster was about to happen...

"What are you still standing here for? The Germans are bombing the transport ships now. This is a good opportunity - why don't you quickly give the order for the Indefatigable to send out a strike group? Do it now!"

Cunningham was so angry that he opened his bloody mouth and spit out a mouthful of spit and roared at this person.

After all, the old man in the old lady's house was actually a wife-loving man.

Chapter 616: Lure the Tiger Away from the Mountain

Under Cunningham's order, the aircraft carrier Indefatigable quickly dispatched a fleet of nearly 40 aircraft, based on the intelligence signed by the code name Belle Dura DeSpisio, and rushed towards the direction of the "probably, maybe" German aircraft carrier.

and…

"General, we found a group of friendly aircraft behind us, which should be the attack wave of the Indefatigable! They are heading in the direction where the Germans retreated just now!"

After hearing the report from his subordinates, Summerville, with bloodshot eyes, immediately glared at him:

"Go ask the escort carriers how many planes they can gather if I want to take off the Spitfire right now - and tell them that all fighters that can take off now should take off and follow to protect the Indefatigable's fleet, as many as possible! The Indefatigable's aircraft carrier is not strong enough, and it is likely that it will not be able to break through the interception of the German ships and crews! We must support them!"

"Understood, General!"

Now that they knew their boss's idea, the rest was easy to handle. The well-trained Royal Navy quickly mobilized. Under the coordination of the close-range high-frequency tactical radio, the Spitfire fighters that could still be deployed on the escort aircraft carriers took off in twos and threes. After reporting to the leader of the Indefatigable carrier-based aircraft attack formation in the sky, little by little, like a snowball, they put together an air combat formation composed entirely of fighters - although there were few planes that could still take off on the escort aircraft carriers, the spare aircraft of the seven escort aircraft carriers added up to a scale of 17 Spitfire fighters!

With so many fighter jets being reinforced, we should be able to storm in soon, right?

Somerville watched the fleet fly northwest to the expected direction of the German fleet, and prayed in his heart that the British Empire Royal Navy would have a long-lasting military fortune...

I hope God doesn't mishear it as Kudanzakami or something like that...

Twenty-nine Sea Spitfires and fourteen SBD dive bombers, as well as fourteen of the British Army's latest Barracuda torpedo planes, followed the German aircraft group's return course from a distance under the guidance of the battleship HMS Warspite below - on the premise of being able to infer the maximum speed of the German fleet, based on the angular difference between the attacking direction and the returning course of the enemy attack aircraft group, even the calculation amount to reversely infer the enemy's position is just a simple trigonometric function problem for any sailor who understands the calculation of navigation positions!

Moreover, the timing was just right! When the fleet was scheduled to fly over the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, she was preparing to recover the first wave of carrier-based aircraft in the attack group...

"Enemy aircraft detected by radar! 45 degrees to the right front! Judging from the echo signal of the fleet, there are about 6000 to 150 aircraft, divided into two groups! Altitude 300 meters! Distance kilometers, speed kilometers - they are in an anti-naval warfare posture with our fleet, and it is expected that our fleet will engage the enemy in minutes!"

The radar soldier's report reached the ears of Bangtai and Zeppelin. Both of them looked at the returning formation overhead, which was queuing up to perform the five-sided flight and slowly descending in altitude to prepare for landing, and frowned at the same time.

The aircraft carrier that recovered the carrier-based aircraft could not maneuver, which made it a perfect target! Moreover, the number of supplementary aircraft that the Eastern Expeditionary Fleet could obtain was extremely limited, and they were all friendships of comrades-in-arms. No matter which aspect, these carrier-based aircraft could not be abandoned!

"Tsk, you come at this time..." Bangtai gritted his teeth.

"Captain, I will take off with the backup fleet immediately!" Zeppelin grabbed the pilot's helmet and ran out quickly. Bangtai was stunned for a moment, then rushed to the door and shouted to Zeppelin who had already run far into the corridor, "Just fight well! I will be responsible for the operation of the aircraft carrier and the command of the anti-aircraft firepower!"

Zeppelin didn't look back, but just stretched out his hand and waved back. The next second, a man in white turned around and disappeared at the entrance of the stairs. Not long after, twelve BF-109s soared into the sky from the flight deck to join another squadron that was patrolling in the sky and was now gathering in formation. Just as the tail wheel of the last BF-109 that took off from the flight deck just left the flight deck, a scarred JU-87 that landed behind it also happened to be shaky and hung on the arresting cable!

"Phew, perfect coordination." On the bridge of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, Bangtai, who was acting as an airport air traffic controller and directly supervising the take-off and landing operations on the flight deck, put down the microphone in his hand and breathed a sigh of relief. Under his feet, the scarred plane was pushed aside by the ground crew as soon as it stopped. At this time, the second plane that needed to land, under the illumination of the landing signal light, staggered towards the arresting cable and trembled and ejected its tail hook...

On the other side, on the Bismarck battleship, Lütjens was also commanding his two large battleships and a heavy cruiser to form a wheeled formation specifically for air defense:

"Bismarck, let's go to the front with Tirpitz! Let Eugen stay behind to provide cover - Oh, and tell Eugen and Top to help Zeppelin identify the planes on the landing route when the battle starts, and shoot down the enemy planes that are chasing our landing planes or trying to fish in troubled waters on the landing route!"

"Well, OK!" The Bismarck battleship nodded obediently, and then immediately contacted her two sisters on WIFI...

At the same time, among the planes waiting to land in the sky, Buckhorn and Novotny were organizing their fighter planes...

The FW-190 fighter had a solid structure and a terrifying bomb load. Although they had suffered some damage when they were covering the bombers' air raid on the British convoy, and their fuel consumption was also very high, they could still hold out for a few rounds if they were to intercept enemy planes that had broken through their instructors' interception at close range!

"Captain, we still have seven FW-190s that are capable of fighting! You guys go fight in the air, and we'll take care of the planes that escape!"

Novotny was obviously a very serious person, reporting the situation in a serious manner. But the other one...

"Hey instructor, remember to send more of them over for me to fight! You've already got almost 240 of them, give us some soup too."

"Buckhorn, are you itching for trouble?" As expected, a cold and unpleasant female voice came from the radio.

"Hey Hey……"

From what Zeppelin could sense, someone was always shameless. Especially after the last time Bismarck put a bikini on them, the gang of rascals who used to be afraid of him being ruthless and teaching him a lesson were no longer afraid of him. In fact, the naughty ones were even more shameless in front of him...

"Buckhorn, if you want to defend the aircraft carrier, then do it well. If the aircraft carrier is bombed, you will swim back to Socotra Island!"

Although he was talking about Buckhorn, he was secretly criticizing Bismarck and the swimsuit she had stuffed into his pocket. However, intercepting the enemy was more important, and Zeppelin, who was in a desperate need of saving his dignity, could only roll his eyes at these increasingly shameless little bastards under his command...

-

"…Everyone, listen up! If we find the Edelweiss Witch in the sky, the fighter squadron of the Indefatigable will entangle her with me! The rest of you will cover the bomber team and charge in at once - remember the key points of the assault: dive bombers and torpedo planes attack together! Use a small angle dive to attack at low altitude close to the sea! Torpedo planes fire torpedoes head-on at the maximum range, and dive bombers will bomb the enemy ships that are evading..."

In the British aircraft group that was facing a formidable enemy, the leader of the aircraft was repeating the key points of the attack tactics with a solemn expression, and his voice was full of passion.

After all, the British Navy knew how difficult the target of their attack was. Almost all the aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy had been defeated by her - she had sunk no less than five aircraft carriers! The GR-186 carrier-based aircraft wing she led was proficient in both naval and land warfare in two years, and had shot down as many as 2100 aircraft!

Although these pilots have now begun to accept the tactics that are said to be developed by the top brass of the Navy specifically to deal with evil spirits, and have also received evaluations from Marshal Cunningham during their pre-war training - the Marshal's female secretary, who seems to be named Belle Dura De Something, after following the Marshal to inspect her formation's pre-war attack exercises, was very happy to represent the Marshal and praised their tactical training for "posing a certain threat even when facing real evil spirits."

but……

The four evil warships of the German fleet were notorious, and the psychological pressure even made the veteran soldiers feel cramps in their calves. Can we take the words of the female secretary beside the marshal seriously...

Besides, even if we can take it seriously, there are four evil spirits on the other side...

Wait! What is that?!

Before the British pilots took off and assembled, they were surprised to find a bunch of "small spots" with white lines in the sky beyond the sun - they were the fighter planes of the German shipmen! It is said that after the witch's blessing, the quality of the pilots of the fighter planes of the GR-186 wing is ace level!

Surprise quickly turned into horror, and then into constant nervousness.

Although they had the advantage of facing away from the sun and the advantage of faster breakthrough speed when flying with the wind, the enemy planes facing the wind had at least higher initial energy than them! Moreover, they were troops trained by the witch... With a cold sweat on his face, the British leader could only command his fighters to meet them!

"Enemy fighters spotted! All fighters follow me and attack as planned - God bless Great Britain!"

"Come on!"

Following a loud roar from the commander, he rushed forward first.

Seeing the leader taking the lead, the other British pilots who were also brave enough to fight back also gathered their courage, shouted slogans to encourage themselves, and followed behind to fight back against the enemy planes...

Shouting louder will always give you courage and relieve a lot of stress.

In the clouds of the bright morning glow, the two groups of aircraft soon tussled with each other! Zeppelin, who was the first to be hit, soon discovered that something was wrong...

"Tsk, a whole dozen enemy planes came just to attack me?"

Looking at the flames coming towards him from all directions one after another, and even having the leisure to count the number of them, he couldn't help but be a little stunned.

This is a whole squadron of fighter jets...

Although Zeppelin himself had no weight and did not need to equip his plane with heavy oxygen cylinders and high-altitude life-support equipment, the Edelweiss fighter he was flying was lighter than other fighters operated by pilots, and therefore had better performance.

The lighter weight can be exchanged for a slightly better climb rate and acceleration than the enemy, which can ensure that the energy and altitude of the aircraft are invincible in front of the enemy. In addition, Zeppelin can control his fighter 100%, and his flying skills and overload resistance are not comparable to ordinary pilots - but even so, facing the siege of an entire squadron of enemy aircraft, Zeppelin is also in a stalemate!

"Tsk, the attack is quite fierce..." Zeppelin thought secretly.

Marseille, who was following behind her, had shot down two, and she herself had shot down three. But the remaining seven Spitfires were still entangled around her, as if they were willing to risk their lives to hold her back!

Although she was not afraid of a siege of this scale, and she often trained her subordinates in this way, it would at most make her feel a little annoyed - but if the intensity was so strong that even she felt a little annoyed, then those little bastards under her, even the most powerful ones, would probably not be able to withstand it...

"Instructor! We're here to help you!"

Seeing Zeppelin and Marseille being besieged, Grislawski, the squadron leader who was obsessed with providing support, immediately gathered several fighter planes painted with the Iron Cross and rushed over - all to cover Zeppelin!

For a moment, those Spitfires that had previously relied on their numerical advantage to desperately entangle Zeppelin immediately fell into a disadvantage!

The MG109/151 cannon of the BF-20 fighter is mounted on the center axis, and there is basically no error between the sight and the actual trajectory - for a super ace, this is a sniper-level weapon! Not to mention that the current BF-109 also has a gyroscopic sight that can simulate and calculate the lead angle of the enemy aircraft based on the turning angle of the aircraft!

But... this is exactly the effect the British want!

Although Grislavsky and his men quickly shot down the enemy planes that were still entangled with Zeppelin, the British bombers took advantage of the opportunity when the German fighters came to reinforce Zeppelin and broke through the interception line of the German fighters in the chaos of the air battle in the sky! They also seemed to lower their noses and began to dive slowly at a small angle at a long distance to increase their speed!

Seeing this scene, Zeppelin was so angry that he kept shouting on the radio: "You...you leave me alone! Go chase their bombers!"

"Ah... yes! Let's go after him right away!"

The rescue maniac Grislavsky was stunned when he reacted, and immediately figured it out!

I immediately broke out in a cold sweat!

Air supremacy determines sea supremacy in the naval battlefield! The British have at least nine regular and light carriers! If the Zeppelin is successfully bombed by the British, not to mention our group, even the several large warships of the entire fleet may really have to swim back!

Now we can only hope that Buckhorn, Novotny and the others behind us can intercept as many British bombers as possible...

The German pilots felt guilty...

Chapter 617: Prince Eugen, the Fleet Shield

Around the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, the Bismarck, Tirpitz, and Prinz Eugen had formed a wheel-shaped formation. Although no matter how you look at it, this wheel-shaped formation is a triangle...

"All crew members, listen up! Follow the firepower plan we made earlier!... The main guns and 105mm anti-aircraft guns will conduct long-range attacks under the command of the fire control director! The medium-range 57mm anti-aircraft guns will concentrate their firepower to destroy the enemy as much as possible! The 5000mm anti-aircraft guns will fire at the escaped fish within 37 meters according to the previously divided air defense zones - don't disrupt the anti-aircraft firepower!!"

On the bridge of the battleship Tirpitz, Lindemann was staring at the radar screen while holding the microphone, arranging the firepower distribution of the fleet's air defense on the ship's radio network with saliva flying.

There is a high probability of an air force raid. What’s more, the British have been fighting with us for so many years, they must have developed air raid tactics to deal with the ship girls!

No fool would fall into the same pit twice, and no one thinks the British are fools.

In fact, the management and tactical innovation type of the British and American armies can always come up with tactics and techniques to deal with failures! Sometimes they can even predict the opponent's possible tactical thinking, although this prediction may not be accurate...

Faced with the British air raid, everyone was on high alert.

Even in the hamster nest next to Lindemann, the usually lazy pink girl now stared at the direction of the incoming enemy plane with a dark and unfriendly look - that look was full of dislike for trouble, but more of it was a look of looking at a punching bag...