Bismarck

"Where are our escort fighters? What are those Spitfires doing? Doolittle, tell me the call signs of our Spitfire squadrons. I want to ask them what they have been doing until now! Are they sleepwalking?" Friendly forces suffered heavy casualties on the battlefield, and Cunningham immediately thought that there might be something wrong with the performance of his own escort fighters.

"No, no, no, Cunningham, don't get angry. Your boy has done his best, but..." Doolittle paused for a moment, and there seemed to be a hint of helplessness as he smacked his lips: "The problem is that the Germans are at an altitude of 35,000 feet. Our propeller fighters can't reach them, so we can only take the beating..."

"What?! Thirty-five thousand feet?! Fuck..." Cunningham was stunned when he heard this, and then he exploded on the spot. He threw his hat hard on the table and cursed directly on the radio.

But what could he do?

35000 feet is an altitude of 10675 meters. Even a high-altitude Spitfire does not have much combat effectiveness at this altitude.

However, the problem now is that the technological gap is too big to be true. Propellers and jets are competing in the sky, which is just asking for trouble! Although the Raven of Disaster has been out for more than half a year, Britain and the United States have their own jet plans. However, whether it is the old design, which is basically the "Meteor" with a traditional fuselage and two engines hanging under the wings, or the "Sea Hawk" with a propeller carrier called Sea Venom Fang that directly breaks through the fuselage and replaces the jet engine, or the P-80A and F9F in the United States that are also in the test flight stage, the fastest ones have just barely reached the small-scale pre-production stage. If they want to equip the troops on a large scale, the most optimistic estimate is that it will take at least until the beginning of 44.

What's worse is that even if these aircraft can be mass-produced and put into service on time, so far, most of these designs are still old wine in new bottles - it is well known that when approaching the speed of sound, the air will be extremely compressed to produce the so-called sound barrier, but the country with the strongest aerodynamic research and development strength and technical equipment in this era is Germany! Especially after the academic clique in the German scientific community was cracked by the "evil spirit group" last year, even NASA, which claims to be the best in innovation (plagiarism) in the world, now has no accurate theory that can convincingly explain the aerodynamic problems of transonic speeds!

The energy source of a fighter jet is basically the engine thrust minus the air resistance. Now that even the most basic theory has not been worked out, the flight performance of the jet designed can be imagined - it is no problem to bully the propeller. But none of them can compare with the Calamity Crow!

(Historically, Germany had already developed a large transonic wind tunnel in 38, and had made breakthroughs in the research of the principle of thin-wing swept wings in 40. As for the laminar wing on the P-51, it is actually not difficult. Even the Soviet Union and Japan had developed it during World War II. Germany just refused to use it because of its industrial "superstition"...)

The air battle on the front line was in full swing, and anti-aircraft missiles were flying around the British and American aircraft one after another. However, Cunningham and Doolittle, who were both air force warriors, tried their best but found that there was no Uzuki in the end.

After all, the enemy was a combination of anti-aircraft missiles and fighter jets. Moreover, the tactic of "when anti-aircraft missiles attacked fighter jets, they would retreat immediately, and when fighter jets attacked anti-aircraft missiles, they would immediately shift firepower" could actually be precisely controlled within a dozen or twenty seconds!

This is simply cheating!

Both of them wanted to curse: You damn Germans, to put it bluntly, this kind of command efficiency is just relying on the fact that your battleships are not human.

Even though it only takes three to five minutes for Feilong and B-26 to fly from the km anti-aircraft missile range to km, in an air battle at this pace, three to five minutes is the difference between being whipped eight or ten times!

"Forget it... I think there's no hope for us here. Why don't we withdraw first? At least it's better than sacrificing in vain..."

Mountbatten, who was beside Cunningham, pulled Cunningham's sleeve and made a "gentlemanly" suggestion with a helpless look on his face.

It's no wonder that this suggestion really stunned Arthur Cunningham and he even fell into deep thought for a while.

As long as all the Indian blood is not shed, Britain will never surrender, but pilots and others are not Indian soldiers!

Arthur Tedder, who soon saw the battlefield report, could only smile bitterly and shake his head.

"Retreat, retreat... The fighting has come to this, let's leave some seeds for the troops..."

However, Ted immediately began to feel even more worried...

The light bombers and fighters in the east were basically the remnants of the remaining troops. No one would say anything if they could fight to this extent. But now Zeppelin's heavy troops were helpless, and the Germans took off another 14 planes!

Now it was too late to back down. If they gave up the bombing, not only would all the sacrifices they had made would be in vain, but given the Germans' jet combat power, if they really went crazy, their losses would probably be more than heavy! ——The battle-hardened Royal Air Force Marshal knew very well that the only hope now was to rely on the numerical advantage to fight the Germans head-on!

Even if we can consume some of their anti-aircraft missiles, it would be good!

Ted wanted to curse in his heart: The German jets were killing everyone overhead, but why weren't our jet fighters in service yet? !

The British Empire, which once relied on its powerful ships and artillery and was well-equipped, has finally tasted what it feels like to be beaten for falling behind! Inexplicably, Ted suddenly remembered some "noble happiness drugs" that were popular in the British Isles thirty years ago, which were not banned by law in this era, and some people may continue to "legally take" them in the future. Then, in his mind, he always thought of a seaside town called Humen in the far east that he had never been to. In that country that believed in reincarnation and karma, it seemed that something was being mocked silently.

"…Forget it, Signalman, get General Spaatz to me right now!"

"Yes, sir!"

Following Marshal Ted's order, the signalman skillfully tuned the radio to the command channel of Spaatz's early warning aircraft next door.

only……

As soon as I tuned the channel and before I had time to ask questions, waves of hysterical noises instantly filled the command cabin of the early warning command aircraft...

"Report! Report! The German jet fighters are coming up..."

"33rd Squadron, what are you doing? Go ahead and stop them! Answer me! Answer me!"

"Reporting to the commander, I can't go up. The Edelweiss Witch is biting me from behind... Damn it, I shouldn't have believed that those 'niggers' in the 99th Squadron could fight!"

"Come on, Momyer (captain of the 33rd Squadron, a racist), stop talking so much. After all, he is your comrade-in-arms and is still protecting you from bullets!" Spaatz was very unhappy to hear that his subordinate was still spreading his racist remarks on the battlefield - even if you have a problem with the "red tails" of the 99th Squadron, don't disappoint your subordinates at this time.

However, the battlefield situation was so bad that even a veteran like Spaatz was annoyed. Soon, in Ted's earpiece, Spaatz yelled at the other fighter units: "91 Squadron, 92 Squadron, 81 Group? And the 337 Group over there? What are you doing? Watching the German circus show with monkeys?"

"But, sir, we can't fly as high as them, nor as fast as them. There's nothing we can do. SORRY..."

"%＆￥……%＃%@%……" Spaatz's American cowboy-like curse came from the radio headset.

It is obvious that even an absolute advantage in numbers cannot offset an absolute disadvantage in performance.

However, before the curses died down, another wave of panicked cries for help rang out from the radio speaker next to Spaatz...

"Sir! I'm from the 33rd Battalion. We can't shake off the Germans! Lieutenant Colonel Momyer is dead, the defense line has been breached, and we have no way to catch up with them... Oh! My God! They're firing rockets!"

"What?! Rockets?!" Spaatz couldn't sit still after hearing this. Ted only heard a fist hitting the table, and then he opened his mouth to utter "Fuc..." But before the last "k" came out, the radio station rang with a series of noisy cries for help. Not to mention Spaatz's radio station, the radio station of his own commander was now filled with calls for help...

Marshal Ted, upon hearing this, hung up the radio microphone in his hand dejectedly.

There was no need to listen any further, and there was no need to ask Spaatz about the situation - the 130 heavy bombers that were originally left had basically been "swept away like a whirlwind" by the enemy, right...?

It's a pity that we had a large army and marched carefully step by step, but ended up like this... It's a pity for so many good guys...

Air Marshal Arthur Tedder closed his eyes and shook his head in pain. He seemed to be hunched over. He waved weakly to the signalman and said, "Send a message to Spaatz. The air raid has failed. Ask him to withdraw as many people as possible. We'll talk about it next time..."

Although that is what he said, Ted himself knew that if the heavy bombers were seriously injured this time, the next wave of attack would probably be more difficult!

You know, if the heavy bombers are lost like this, the morale of the light bombers will definitely plummet.

Not to mention, as the main force of the light bomber force, the range of the US Army Air Force is not enough! Now they are still gathering at the border between Algeria and Morocco!

However, at most two hours later, it would be nightfall - even if we had an early warning command aircraft, it would be impossible to "target poverty alleviation to the people". And if we could not "target people to the people", we would end up being slaughtered by the enemy's Edelweiss Witch in a night battle!

You know, due to the limited space on board, the number of radar soldiers, combat staff, and communications personnel that the early warning aircraft can accommodate is very limited! Coupled with the delay and limitation of voice communication, only general commands can be carried out.

But such processing power is basically fatal in large-scale night air combat!

Even the "Continental European Air Defense System" reorganized by the Germans after upgrading from the "Ballad Bed", with the help of electronic computers, each air defense area can only accommodate no more than one squadron of night fighter interceptors! Not to mention the AWACS with much worse processing capabilities - and the AWACS direct command is still good!

You know, the current communication mode can only rely on radio and verbal communication!

If the radar operator of your AWACS aircraft communicates with the ground command post and then the ground command post conveys the message to the fighter pilots in the front, the efficiency of command by verbal arguments in an interference environment is not as good as directly sending a general or colonel to command directly on the AWACS aircraft!

Not to mention, whether it is the Mosquito or the P-63, under the premise of being equipped with the same radar, which one can be the opponent of the Raven of Doom?

It seems that we have to wait until tomorrow morning to regroup and launch a second round of attack.

"Hey, it would be nice if our jet came out..."

After giving the order to Spaatz to command the evacuation of the fleet, Marshal Ted walked to the window hunched over, silently stroked the window, and looked at the sunset over the North Atlantic in silence.

It seemed that what he saw was not only the setting sun, but also the final dusk of the empire on which the sun never sets.

However, at this moment, in front of the early warning command post, in the bomb bay converted into a radar station, an even more terrified shout interrupted Marshal Ted's thoughts:

"Enemy planes! Five Calamity Crows! Speed ​​900! Distance 110 kilometers! Heading directly towards us!!"

"What?!" Everyone in the command cabin of the early warning command plane, including Marshal Ted, was dumbfounded when they heard this - not only Marshal Ted was dumbfounded, but also Spaatz's command plane not far away was dumbfounded!

There was a big air battle, the two AWACS were undermanned and didn’t have enough processing power—and now they were missing someone!

The B-17 command aircraft equipped with radar has a higher flight resistance than conventional bomber models! Not to mention that in order to accommodate as many radar equipment and command personnel as possible, this aircraft has no self-defense firepower except for a tail machine gun!

As for the two Mustang squadrons that were on a cover mission...? Even if they flew to an altitude of 47 meters, could they do anything to the Ravens of Disaster? Even the three-stage supercharged P-N, which had better high-altitude performance, wouldn't dare to say that!

Not to mention that the P-47 has a short range and is basically still in Italy and hasn’t come over yet!

Through the glass of the AWACS window, Ted and Spaatz looked at each other from afar at another AWACS aircraft. At this moment, the two air force generals from different countries, but speaking the same language, seemed to have telepathy. They smiled bitterly and turned on the radio. After a brief exchange, they began to issue the last combat order of their lives in the most concise sentences possible to other troops, regarding combat arrangements, transfer of command, and the problem of the AWACS system, as well as their last words...

At 1943:8 on the afternoon of August 30, , one of the best commanders of the Royal Air Force, who advocated the centralized deployment and use of strategic air forces to seize air superiority in the theater in the late s, and fought in the north and south during the war, successively serving as the commander of the Middle East-North Africa Theater Air Force and the commander-in-chief of the Allied Mediterranean Theater Air Force, Marshal Arthur Tedder. And the most important commander of the strategic air force of the US Army Air Force, who single-handedly established the Eighth Air Force and even the entire US Army Air Force European Theater Command, bombed the skies over Europe and North Africa, and even succeeded Arnold in the US Air Force that was finally established after the war. He served as the second US Air Force Chief of Staff, General Carl Spaatz, was unfortunately killed in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent...

ps: In the new year... I just want to wish world peace, and the red scarf of Emperor Chuan is becoming more and more colorful!

Chapter 890

"what?"

Cunningham jumped three feet high from his chair, staring at the two ship girls in front of him with wide eyes, an expression of disbelief on his face.

"It's true. The Mediterranean Air Force Command just sent a document... The command has now been transferred to Lieutenant General Arthur Cunningham, but his frontline fleet has suffered heavy losses, and the second-line light bombers are still in Algeria. In addition, the night battle is not going well, so they can't take off the second wave of air force until tomorrow morning at the earliest..."

Holding the telegram, War-weary was gritting her teeth as usual - to her, this was just another blood debt that the German crew owed to the British Empire and the free world!

However, now that they were being held up by German submarines, they were completely out of reach!

Although they received support from dozens of PBY maritime patrol aircraft at the North African airport, the Type XXI submarine was really difficult to deal with! In addition to the two submarines that were caught by the destroyer during the previous evacuation, which were attacked and have not been sunk yet, they did find a lot of "suspected targets" in the sea area after searching for half a day, but the result was that after a bunch of depth charges were dropped, what came up were piles of dead fish that were blown to pieces and looked terrible!

The search width of the magnetic anomaly detector is limited after all, and the sonar buoy is not very effective if the opponent does not actively expose himself. Unfortunately, this is a small fishing ground, and all kinds of echo signals that cannot be distinguished from true and false make people want to join Sparta. A large number of anti-submarine aircraft can only shrank around the aircraft carrier under the cover of destroyers and light cruisers under the wings of the destroyers and light cruisers.

Not to kill the enemy, but to protect myself...

After all, who knows when, one or two groups of whistling torpedoes will suddenly appear from nowhere. Even if there are sonar jammers that can deceive acoustic homing torpedoes, the destroyer can hardly maneuver at high speed when releasing the jammers - and then those whistling oxygen torpedoes, but they don't have eyes! If you sail at high speed to avoid oxygen torpedoes, the noise and violent maneuvers of the destroyer's own high-speed maneuvers often make it too late to slow down and put down the jammers.

Even though the vanguard and the flagship Warspite were suppressing the main fleet on the left and right, and there was cover from the destroyer fleet on the outside, but now that the sun was about to set, even the two ship girls were unsure!

After all, there are precedents here, such as @Hood who was ambushed and killed by a submarine, and @Hamman and Yorktown which sank in front of three American aircraft carriers...

Submarine, as an ambush weapon, can be said to be too shameless, even despised by the world!

Although, for some reason, Cape St. Vincent also tried to ambush the six submarines of the German warships, not only sank one, but also let the German ship crew escape from the ambush circle...

"The Germans really have a lot of black technology... Tsk!"

War-weary was also dragged to participate in the scientific research, but apart from helping the scientific research team to produce small batches of some things requiring precision processing, he almost did nothing. Whenever he thought of the other party's endless black technology, his heart kept secreting citric acid.

Even the guided shells, anti-ship missiles, and even the 120mm anti-aircraft rocket launchers on her and the Vanguard, which were removed a few years ago because they were too flashy and useless, and then "recycled" again with the ship girl's own guidance ability... It seems that they are all leftovers from the other side - speaking of which, these 120mm anti-aircraft rocket launchers seem to be Hood's relics...

But on her side, only she and Vanguard can use guided rockets, unlike the other side, where anti-aircraft missiles and guided rockets are popularized on conventional warships! If most of Sandezi's resources were not spent on fighting the Russians, it would be really bad!

Although serving as the secretary ship of the First Sea Lord and the flagship of the Royal Navy, Warspite was well aware that by the end of the year, four "medium wartime aircraft carriers" that were built by lengthening the hull and increasing the power based on the Colossus class, as well as four armored aircraft carriers that were further modified from the Grudge and Dreadnought class with stronger armor but also slow progress for this reason, would be put into service together.

Moreover, in the first half of next year, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy will be equipped with two jet fighters, the Meteor and the Seahawk.

but……

Thinking about the fact that the other side had sold their souls to Satan in exchange for this black technology, War-weary felt completely unsure.

Just as War-weary was silently eating a lemon in his heart, the vanguard who was calculating the position on the chart table spoke:

"The German ships are still sailing at a speed of 30 knots, and they will be able to bring Tangier Harbor into the range of their main guns in two and a half hours at the latest, and threaten the Gibraltar Fortress in three hours... Your Excellency, what should we do now?"

"How far are we from them?" Cunningham glanced at War-weary, whose face was turning blue and red, sighed slightly, then looked at the vanguard beside the chart table and asked back.

The vanguard didn't even hesitate. She knew what was going on and said directly, "It's over 500 kilometers, and we're heading southwest, which is the opposite of what they are heading. And if we turn back, we'll be sailing with the wind, which is not good for the deployment of carrier-based aircraft."

When Cunningham heard this, he instantly knew that his head was going to get bigger again.

Just yesterday, my words "Maybe the Germans are heading for the Gibraltar Fortress" actually came true!

Especially how did he get the nickname "Bandit Lu"? It was earned by robbing other people's fortresses!

But, I don't have any good solution now...

The distance was 500 kilometers, but the combat radius of the Seafire was only 400 kilometers at most. Not to mention the downwind course which was not conducive to carrier-based aircraft operations. Even if he turned the ship around right now and headed towards Lütjens to prepare for a decisive battle despite the risk of being hit by the missiles, it would take at least three or four hours before he could launch an air strike.

But the problem is, according to the air force's battle report, this time the North African Air Force's more than 550 heavy bombers were deployed in full force, but the loss of aircraft reached nearly 200! Even if there were remaining aircraft, they would not be able to deploy a second time in a short period of time.

Moreover, in this air battle, the opponent's main interception force was still jet fighters, relying on their absolute performance advantage.

Although some German anti-aircraft missiles were consumed, the evil spirit fleet continued to advance and was far from reaching the end of its rope.

According to the estimation of Cunningham, who was probably a relative of the Germans five hundred years ago, the number of Rhine Daughter missiles left by the German crew in Gibraltar should be at least one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty.

The North African air force has lost its combat effectiveness, and the earliest it can launch a second air strike is tomorrow morning. As for my side, the air force under my direct control only has two regular aircraft carriers and one light carrier, and the total number of aircraft on them is only about 160, which is not enough to withstand the enemy's air defense missiles!

Moreover, there are submarines under the water. When an aircraft carrier takes off, it takes at least half an hour to sail in a straight line. In the eyes of submarines, wouldn't it be a sitting duck?

but……

If anything happened to the Gibraltar Fortress, even if I was the First Sea Lord, I would be brought to court-martial!

After all, the location of the Gibraltar Fortress is too important! Once this place falls into the hands of the Germans... Wait! No!

The piece of war report in his hand stroked his palm, reminding him to pay attention to the things he had previously ignored.

Although the Germans still have combat effectiveness, they must have also consumed some of their resources! Even if they can't interfere with their activities for at least four or five hours, even if they can use some means to destroy the Gibraltar Fortress, they will consume most of their ammunition - and then, they will be blocked here by their own anti-ship missile salvos.

Although theoretically it is still possible to retreat into the Mediterranean, given the current situation, it is easy to get in but basically impossible to get out!

Was Lütjens so stupid? Or were Hitler and Raeder so stupid?

So, do they still want to defend the fortress of Gibraltar?

The question is: How can a fleet that has exhausted its ammunition defend its fortress? The first thing it needs is supplies!

The question is where will the supplies come from? Will Spain dare to transport supplies to them? They are all high-ranking military officials. They may not be very proficient in politics, but at least they have seen a lot!

Politics is nothing more than deception and profit. They don't really think that Franco, who always shouts about the nationalism of my great Spain, can really have much national integrity, right? If he really had national integrity, he would have launched the Phoenix-Isabel Plan with Hitler and besieged Gibraltar! Why did the mustache wait until today to ask Lütjens to come out and give up!

To put it bluntly, apart from submarines, didn't the German Navy only dare to rampage in the Atlantic Ocean relying on its four major ships and men?