"Admiral, the radar found an unknown group of aircraft, flying from the northeast, it should be 39" In the command tower of the "War Weathiness", the sound of the radar officer's report relieved everyone.
The "Sea Spitfire" on the "Eagle" was either shot down or fell into the sea because it ran out of fuel.
Therefore, the "War Weathiness" did not have air cover against the second assault wave of enemy aircraft, so it suffered heavy losses.
Now with the cover of 36, it seems that the fleet can be saved.
"Admiral, 36 of 3 squadrons came" and soon the communications staff of the fleet reported, "They are from Crete and can provide us with 90 minutes of direct cover." ” "Very well," Admiral Cunningham forced a smile, "now move closer to Crete, and tell Vice Admiral Somerville to rush to repair it as soon as possible, and try to increase the speed to more than 15 knots before dark, and we can't afford to lose the Rodney now." ” Now Cunningham has some regrets, and the loss of the "Eagle", "Lorraine" and "Monarchy" in today's battle is in his calculations.
Since it is necessary to break into the combat circle of the German shore-based aviation, it is necessary to be prepared to bear some losses.
However, a super battleship as powerful as the "Rodney" was actually bombed by aircraft and severely damaged, which was greatly beyond his expectations.
Although the "Rodney", with its solid armor and good anti-sinking design, was still able to hold on to the surface of the sea.
But by the time the battle was over, the battleship would have to spend months overhauling.
This also means that the "Rodney" will not be able to participate in the battle for several months, and for the current Mediterranean theater, this is almost the same as the effect of sinking.
However, Cunningham could not give up the Rodney now.
Because "Rodney" is also a decoy of strategic value.
As long as it slows its way to Crete, the Italians will not pass up the opportunity to sink it.
Because after the loss of the "Sovereign" and "Lorraine", the number of battleships of the Mediterranean Fleet was already the same as that of the Italian fleet.
If the most powerful "Rodney" is lost again, then the balance of power in the Mediterranean Sea will change dramatically.
With the great power of the two "Veneto" classes, the Italian Navy will overwhelm the British Mediterranean Fleet with only five battleships left and become the hegemon of the Mediterranean "Admiral, the Monarch is sinking" Major General Cratchley's voice suddenly rang out, interrupting Cunningham's thoughts, "it's under siege by HE115" It turned out that the 39 planes flying from Crete were desperately trying to cover the "Rodney" at this time, and the "Sovereign", which burned out and lost power, was thrown to HE115 to clean up.
In just a few minutes, 24 HE115s dropped torpedoes on the "monarchy", 8 of which hit, and the battleship of more than 30,000 tons was lost and capsized in the Mediterranean, and less than 40 of the 940 crew members on board were rescued.
"We have lost our power," Rear Admiral Krachley's voice almost cried. 2 battleships and the aircraft carrier "Eagle" have sunk, and the battleship "Rodney" is also half-dead, and this battle is going to be lost "It doesn't matter," Cunningham smiled reluctantly, "we haven't lost yet, for the Italian fleet has dispatched the B Fleet and will soon be able to avenge the Eagle, the Sovereign, and the Lorraine." ” At this time, a fierce air battle unfolded in the vicinity of the British Mediterranean Fleet.
This was the first battle between the 39 "Flying Snake" and the Fokker Zero.
The 39 was more numerous, with 3 squadrons with a total of 48 aircraft, while the Fokker Zero had only 16 aircraft.
The outnumbered 39 did not realize that they were inferior in performance, and all British pilots who flew this type of aircraft praised its excellent low-altitude performance, believing that it was an aircraft that could compete with the Fokker Zero.
Therefore, after the engagement, the 39 group did not immediately take advantage of its overwhelming numerical superiority, but used 24 39s to deal with 16 Fokker Zeros, and then used the remaining 24 39s to drive away the torpedo-carrying HE115s, forcing most of the HE115s to throw away their torpedoes and flee for their lives, and also shot down 12 of them.
However, while these 39s drove and shot down the HE115, the 24 39s that fought with the Fokker Zero found themselves as if they had met a nemesis.
Although the 39's agility at low and medium altitudes is good, they have encountered the Fokker Zero, which can reign at low and medium altitudes.
The mid-altitude performance of the 39 is not good enough, and the climb speed is also slow, so it is impossible to deal with the Fokker Zero by pulling up and diving like the "Sea Spitfire".
As a result, in less than 10 minutes, 24 out of 39 were shot down in 10, while the Fokker Zero did not lose anything.
Cunningham, who witnessed the air battle in the command tower of the battleship "War-weary", turned slightly blue.
These 39s are one of his trump cards, but I didn't expect it to be so useless "Admiral," Major-General Krachley's voice was somewhat hoarse, "39 and Blenheim in Crete" "According to the original plan, let them attack first to consume the carrier-based aircraft of the Italian aircraft carriers" Cunningham frowned, "two Italian aircraft carriers must be sunk today, at all costs or we will lose the Mediterranean Sea in 1 month" Without aircraft carriers, the Italian fleet, even if it had superiority in battleships, would never dare to leave the protective circle of shore-based aircraft.
Britain, on the other hand, could use the shore-based air force on Crete and two aircraft carriers to block the Italian Navy's eastward advance.
Of course, the premise is that there must be a long-range fighter that can counter the Fokker Zero "Marshal, the third assault wave did not achieve the expected results."
Villa Medici, Hersman also received a report on the results of the operations of the third assault wave.
Hans Yeshunek frowned and said to Hersmann: "They came across a fighter that had never been seen before, and 115 HE12 were shot down.
However, this fighter is no match for the Fokker Zero, 10 were shot down, and none of the Fokker Zeros were lost. ” "Where did the new fighter come from?"
"Perhaps Crete," said Hans Yeshunek, "could have taken off from an aircraft carrier." ” He thought for a moment and said: "If you come from Crete, the maximum range of such an aircraft should be more than 1,500 kilometers."
Otherwise it will take off from an aircraft carrier" 1500 km range Hersman thought for a moment and said, "It could be a Fairey Pipe-nosed Swallow carrier-based fighter."
Intelligence indicates that such an aircraft may have a range of more than 1200 km. ” Hersman did not think that it was the American 39, but remembered the British "pipe-nosed swallow", after all, it was now at war with the British.
"It seems that this is the kind of aircraft," said Jeshunek, "and in this case the two aircraft carriers could be lurking 400 kilometers northeast of the British main fleet, so our FW200C did not detect them." ” Hersmann also agreed with Jeshunek's analysis, so he asked: "Is there an FW200C that can be searched?"
"There are 2."
"We can have the Eagle send eight Fokker Zeros to escort them, so they can search the waters south of Crete," Jeshunnek said. ” "Okay, that's it."
"In addition, the 5th and 6th assault waves should be canceled."
"If we find an aircraft carrier, we need these planes to bomb it."
Moreover, the 5th attack wave was not escorted by fighters, and it would be troublesome if it met the British Pipenose Swallow fighters. ” Now the 4th assault wave, in fact, is the planes that the 1st assault wave returned, and they have already set off again, so they will not be recalled.
However, Jeshunek felt that it was not safe to make the sortie of the 5th Assault Wave without aircraft escort, which was originally planned to be escorted by FW190.
So it was proposed to cancel, along with the 6th assault wave, in order to prepare for an attack on the British aircraft carriers.
"You can cancel."
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Hersmann, who had been fighting a good battle for a long time, began to be confused like Jeshunek.
The cancellation of two waves of attacks, in particular, the 5th assault consisting of 5 squadrons of JU88 and 8 squadrons of S79 was almost equivalent to sparing a British battleship Otherwise, the fifth wave of attacks will sink at least one more battleship, and it is possible that the half-life "Rodney" will be directly sunk.
However, Hersman and Jeshunek also had their own problems, after all, the priority of sinking British aircraft carriers came first.
Now that the British battleship forces have suffered heavy losses, if they can sink the British aircraft carriers again, then the overall situation in the Mediterranean will be settled.
While the two laymen were actually commanding according to the "Iron Hammer" plan, Admiral Cavgnari of the Italian Navy was in contact with Admiral Kompioni, who commanded the fleet, by telegram to finalize the tactics of tonight's night battle.
Because Admiral Kavnyari could already be sure that the British fleet was staggered by planes, there should be quite a few half-dead capital ships.
If they had escaped back to Egypt, they might have been repaired in a few months, and they would have come alive again.
So Admiral Kavnyari proposed in the telegram the method of fighting a "chaotic war".
The so-called "chaotic battle" can also be roughly understood as a melee battle, which is not a battle line to fight a dignified formation, but a scramble formation to conduct a melee.
If it was fought like this during the day and under normal conditions, it would certainly not be beneficial to the Italian fleet.
However, the current situation is that the British fleet is full of wounded soldiers, and if a line battle is conducted, it is very likely that the battleships that have already suffered injuries will escape under the cover of battleships in good condition, so it is more advantageous to choose a chaotic battle. t1706231537: