"Boom" "Boom" "Boom" Under the bright moonlight, the British Mediterranean B Fleet, consisting of 2 aircraft carriers, 1 heavy cruiser, 2 light cruisers and 6 destroyers, discharged the column and quickly headed north.
Behind them, the muffled roar of depth charge explosions was heard from time to time.
The attack on the possible Italian submarine has been going on for several hours, and it is difficult to say whether the Italian submarine was sunk or not, but there was a lot of noise.
"If there were Italian submarines nearby, they would not dare to move at a deep seabed now."
Colonel Boyd, the captain of the USS Tejas and also the chief of staff of the B Fleet, walked behind the commander of the B Fleet, Rear Admiral Ram Lilist, who was "looking at the scenery" on the platform outside the bridge.
"That's the best, we'll be there at X o'clock tomorrow morning."
Major General Lister turned his head and whispered, "It's a good start, now it's up to us to see how we get off to the next level." ” Major General Lister frowned slightly as he spoke, clearly not sure enough about victory.
"General, as long as we can grasp the timing of the attack, the certainty of victory is still very large.
After all, both aircraft carriers of the Italians were rebuilt from cruise ships and could not help but strike.
"Once we sink these two carriers, that Field Marshal Hersman will be a defeated officer of our Royal Navy." ” Although the shore-based Fock Zero with a large voyage, it is still difficult for the Italian fleet to really make a sortie to the front line of Benghazi Crete, and it is still difficult to leave the protection of aircraft carriers.
This is because the distance between Benghazi, Crete, and the airport in Sicily is more than 700 kilometers.
The Fokker Zero had to fly for more than an hour to arrive, so it was too late to dispatch the Fokker Zero after the Italian fleet had discovered the enemy plane, so it had to send a direct cover plane to follow all the way in advance.
Doing so was a great test of the pilots' physical strength, who had to go back and forth for at least three hours on the road, and had to hover over the fleet for another two hours.
Moreover, according to the calculation of 12 hours in a day, there must be 6 batches of Fokker Zero aircraft in turn, 2 times a day, flying for 1112 hours, even the German Superman will be tired and down, that is to say, the Fokker Zero aircraft deployed by the Germans in the Mediterranean Sea can only exert one-sixth of their combat power.
If the battlefield moves further east, it will be even more difficult for those Fokker Zeros to work "It's hard to say," said Rear Admiral Lister after a pause, expressing his concern, "in the Mediterranean, the Germans have fewer aircraft carriers, and we have fewer pilots and planes, and the last time we lost carrier-based aircraft and pilots was not replenished until October, and the level of those new arrivals was significantly inferior to the previous ones.
If this time our losses are the same as the last time, then the Mediterranean Fleet will be short of carrier-based aircraft and pilots in a few months.
In this way, even if we sink the enemy's aircraft carriers, the value of the victory will be greatly reduced. ” Since there was no air battle at Britain, there was now no shortage of pilots in Britain and Germany.
But there is no shortage of ordinary shore-based aircraft pilots, not old birds who can fly carrier-based aircraft, because they had aircraft carriers very early, so before the outbreak of the war, the quality of British carrier-based aircraft pilots was extremely high.
This is also the reason why they were able to carry out the night attack on Toulon, not to mention Germany, which had just begun to play aircraft carriers, and even the carrier-based aircraft pilots of the United States and Japan, two aircraft carrier powers, could not do it.
However, due to the poor performance of carrier-based aircraft, the elite pilot generation before the outbreak of the war was basically exhausted by the beginning of 1941, and the level of pilots who were replenished was much lower than before.
If the casualties of carrier-based pilots in this Operation "Verdict" are still heavy, then Lister is worried that the aircraft carrier forces of the Mediterranean Fleet will not be able to strike again in the coming months.
Heinzbar, Heinzbar, Hesmann Jr.'
s boss at the beginning of the Western Front, is now the captain of the 9th Carrier-based Aircraft Group.
He was detained for several days during the Western Front campaign and was released at the end of May after parachuting into Dutch territory.
Then he went to the carrier-based aircraft flight school in Wilhelmshaven to learn to fly the Fokker Type 99 carrier-based bomber.
This is a necessary course for him to become a carrier-based aircraft captain, because carrier-based aircraft groups are mixed groups, with both fighters and bombers, and sometimes torpedo bombers, as a group leader, he must be a generalist, just like the director of the workshop in a German factory.
After completing six months of devil's training, Heinzbar was promoted to captain and sent to the Italian aircraft carrier "Eagle" as the captain of the carrier-based aircraft group and the squadron leader of the 3rd Bomber Squadron.
He became the boss of Hersman Jr. and Novotny again.
"Now let's set up tomorrow's mission," Heinzbar called his three squadron leaders, Captain Hersmann Jr., Novotny, and Lieutenant Hans Ulrich Rudel, who was the squadron leader of the 4th squadron, and also the Fly Fokker 99, to give them the next day's mission.
"Rudolph, your men are in charge of the fleet cover, and you must ensure that there are 4 planes in the sky at all times."
Captain Barr said that "it is necessary to focus on the protection of aircraft carriers, and special care must be taken with the torpedo attack aircraft of the British." ” Now there are no working torpedo planes on German and Italian aircraft carriers, and there are no good dive bombers on British carriers.
At the same time, the mine protection capabilities of Italy's 2 aircraft carriers and 4 old battleships were extremely weak, and even an aviation torpedo could sink.
Therefore, the commander of the Italian aircraft carrier force, Admiral Anzuacchino, and the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Admiral Igoni Compioni, focused the air defense of the fleet on British torpedo bombers.
"Don't worry," said Rudolph Hersman, "those slow-moving biplanes will not be able to get close to the aircraft carrier." ” Captain Barr then said to Novotny: "Walter, your task is to cover the 3rd and 4th squadrons to bomb Malta. ” "Bomb Malta" Novotny didn't speak, and Lieutenant Rudel, who was sitting next to him, had already shouted, "Why isn't it the British guy's aircraft carrier, who will bomb the British aircraft carrier" "The aircraft carrier is bombed by shore-based aircraft," Captain Barr said with a frown, "and they have 30 squadrons, and there is no shortage of 4 squadrons on the carrier. ” "But none of those 30 squadrons have a real dive bomber," Lieutenant Rudel shook his head.
The JU88 is a bomber that can dive, and can only dive shallowly, which is still a gap in bomb delivery accuracy compared to the JU87 and Fokker 99.
It is no problem to deal with ships moored in the harbor, but it is not easy to deal with aircraft carriers that are evading at a high speed of 30 knots.
"And there are still 6 battleships in the Italian fleet" Hesman Jr. also interjected, "6 battleships can't deal with the British fortress on the island of Malta" "Alright, alright."
Heinz Barr waved his hand vigorously, "Don't talk about these useless things, Rudolph, let your people rest after dinner, and tomorrow will be busy all day."
Walter, Ulrich, after dinner call all of you to the pilots' lounge for a meeting, I'm going to set up tomorrow's bombing mission.
I'm going on a mission early tomorrow morning."
It was 4:10 a.m. on January 15, 1941.
By the time it was dark, Admiral Cunningham had finished his short sleep and returned to the war-weary's tower.
Rear Admiral Krachley, who had remained here all night, reported to him: "Admiral, no telegram has been received from the B Fleet, they are apparently still in radio silence. ” Fleet B was used as an ambush and was planned to be silent by radio until an attack was launched.
Once the silence is broken in advance, it means that the B Fleet has been discovered by the enemy.
The fact that there is no B Fleet now is actually good news.
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"Good."
Cunningham took his breakfast from the adjutant's hand, took a bite of an egg sandwich, and asked, "Is there any news of the Italian fleet?"
"According to the report of the seaplanes sent by Malta, the Italian fleet sailed southwest after leaving the Gulf of Taranto, the target should be Malta, and it is estimated that bombing and shelling will begin this morning."
"Speed up to 20 knots, and the whole fleet will advance towards Benghazi," Cunningham thought for a moment and then ordered, "we must not let the enemy's FW200 get close today, and we must make the enemy mistakenly think that the Ark Royal and the Radiance are still with us." ” Rear Admiral Krachley smiled: "Admiral, the Sea Spitfire on the Eagle is enough to complete the task of expelling the FW200, and maybe a few can be shot down." ” "When can we get to the vicinity of Benghazi," Cunningham asked again.
"Three more hours."
Rear Admiral Krachley said.
"Very well, prepare for the shelling, destroy the batteries in the harbor first.
Then use the checkered method to cover the entire Benghazi port area and the urban area.
All 8 battleships' main guns took part in the firing, firing 50 high-explosive shells.
Cunningham sneered and said, "As long as the Italians in Benghazi are hurt, the main force of the Italian fleet will definitely come to fight us."
As long as they come, we can destroy them" Although Benghazi was a large Italian stronghold in North Africa, it was not an impregnable fortress, and the coastal batteries were only repaired so-so, and they could not withstand the shelling of 8 battleships.
Moreover, there are still a lot of ammunition and supplies transported from the Italian mainland in Benghazi, and many troops who have just been withdrawn from the North African front are also resting in Benghazi, and if they are bombarded by battleships, they will definitely suffer heavy losses t1706231537: