Less than 100 meters.
If it's daytime, looking down from this height, the sea level is almost attached to the belly of the plane, and everything on the water can be seen at a glance.
And at night, even if the moonlight and stars twinkle in the sky, the water is still dark, like a bottomless abyss, ready to swallow everything that falls from the sky In fact, without a sophisticated radio altimeter and airborne radar, the ju188, a huge twin-engine medium bomber, would not have been able to skim the sea at an altitude of less than 100 meters at night.
This is no different from suicide, as long as the slightest mistake will throw people and planes into the sea.
The reason why Colonel Peltz, who personally piloted the plane to lead the attack, pressed the flight altitude so low was not to show off his superb piloting skills, but to avoid the detection of the US ship's radar as much as possible to ensure the suddenness of the attack.
Colonel Peltz gently held the steering wheel with both hands, carefully maneuvering the plane to a smooth flight, while his navigator, Sergeant Wolfschmidt, stared intently at the i screen of the airborne radar, trying to spot the location of the American fleet.
However, because the flight altitude was too low, and the vision of the airborne radar was not very good, and the target could not be seen too far, Wolfschmidt did not discover the position of the American fleet for a while.
And just when Sergeant Schmidt was feeling anxious, a flash of red suddenly appeared in the darkness, and then about ten seconds later, about ten kilometers to the west of the original red light, an even more fiery red light appeared again, as if a volcanic eruption had suddenly occurred on the ground.
"Shelling," Colonel Peltz shouted excitedly, "at 12 o'clock, it was the Yankees' fleet shelling the coast of Georgetown, and we found them."
"Colonel," the navigator Wolfschmidt also shouted at this time, "the radar found the target in the direction of 2 o'clock, at a distance of 40, and in the number of 8." ” The ship found by the radar was clearly not the ship that Peltz saw was shelling the coast.
The latter is closer and has a different orientation.
In fact, it was the radar that detected the plan, and Peltz's JU188 needed to attack a ring of destroyers and light cruisers.
However, Peltz ignored Schmidt, but pressed the lower throat communicator and gave an order to the whole team: "Attention everyone, I am Colonel Peltz, and now I give the order, the target is in the direction of 12 o'clock, and it is firing, about 50 kilometers away.
The squadrons prepared for the attack, adopted the tactics of golden combs, and immediately after the attack was completed, they raised their altitude to more than 6,000 meters and circled over the enemy fleet."
His choice is also understandable, the airborne search radar of this era is not very reliable and simply cannot be compared with the naked eye.
So in the case that the target can be found with the naked eye, no one will rely on radar.
At this time, less than 30 nautical miles away, more than a dozen Fletcher-class destroyers of the 318th Destroyer Group of the US Navy were shelling the city of Georgetown with their 127 high-level dual-purpose guns.
According to the intelligence available to the Americans, this dilapidated city on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean is practically undefended.
The bombers that had flown in from Trinidad had not encountered any ground artillery counterattack, and smoothly dropped thousands of tons of bombs and incendiary bombs, turning the shanty towns inhabited by Indians and blacks into a sea of fire.
Therefore, Halsey did not arrange for his 9 super battleships to bombard Georgetown with 406 main guns, but only ordered the 318th Destroyer Group, which had completed the minesweeping mission, to clear the obstacles on the beach with 127 high-level dual-purpose guns.
However, the 80 guns of 16 "Fletcher"-class destroyers opened fire at the same time, and the scene was still very spectacular.
Looking out from the bridge of the destroyer USS William D.
Porter, the beaches of Georgetown and the nearby urban area are constantly rising with fireballs, and the effect of the shelling seems to be very good.
Walter, the unlucky captain of the destroyer, was now in a good mood, and when the shelling was completed, the main task of the destroyer "William D Porter" in this landing operation was successfully completed.
Considering that this destroyer has always been unlucky, it is not easy to successfully complete such a dangerous mission without any mistakes.
Just as Captain Walter was about to thank God in his heart, his second mate almost exclaimed: "The distance to the southwest of the enemy aircraft is about 18,000, and the altitude is less than 100, and the number is unknown."
"What height is less than 100, the Germans are crazy, or is the radar broken, it's night," Captain Walter was taken aback by the sudden situation, and before he could give the order to verify, the flagship destroyer "Anthony" had already called the lights of "all air defense" and "taking an S-shaped evasion route", and it seemed that the radar of the destroyer "William D Porter" was not out of order this time.
The air defense alarm was immediately sounded, and the 127 guns on the destroyer "William D Porter" immediately stopped firing at the shore and pointed their guns into the air, and all 40 guns and 20 guns were also prepared for air firing in the shortest possible time.
And just when everything seemed perfect, a high-power searchlight on the ship was suddenly turned on, and the eye-catching beam of light was impartial, shooting right at the flagship "Anthony", which was located directly in front of the destroyer "William D Porter".
"Damn, who's hitting the searchlight, the German's plane hasn't been in range yet," Captain Walter had just said when the "boom" cannon rang out again, and at the same time another searchlight shot a blinding light.
Now the position of the American destroyer formation is completely exposed The German JU188 bombers in the air immediately seized the opportunity, and the 36 planes were divided into two large formations of 18 aircraft.
One of the formations lined up in echelons, and with indiscriminate anti-aircraft fire, fired 36 torpedoes from a distance of 2000 meters to the right of the American destroyer formation, and each JU188 could carry 2 torpedoes.
And the other formation fired the same number of torpedoes at an angle of 90 degrees.
This tactic, which the Germans called the "golden comb", made it difficult for the attacked target to avoid the torpedo even after turning.
"Boom Boom" In the distance, Admiral Halsey was standing on the extraordinarily tall bridge of the battleship Iowa watching the shelling of downtown Georgetown.
Just as he was stunned, the voice of the staff officer's report rang out.
"Admiral, the 318th Destroyer Group reported the detection of enemy aircraft flying at ultra-low altitudes" "What" Halsey was shocked when he heard this, "Is the explosion just now the explosion at night a torpedo plane attacking a golden comb tactic?"
Although Halsey himself had never seen the German "golden comb tactics," he had heard of the prestige of this tactic, when the "golden combs" were raging in the Atlantic, he commanded aircraft carriers in the Pacific Fleet to deal with the Japanese.
The staff officer reported again: "Admiral, the flagships of the 318th Destroyer Group, the USS Anthony and USS William D.
Porter, were each hit by 2 torpedoes, and the two destroyers were about to sink and the USS Benyon and USS Beale were also hit by a torpedo" "Damn German" Halsey scolded fiercely, and immediately reacted, and hurriedly ordered loudly: "All ships should strengthen air search to prevent enemy planes from using ultra-low altitude to raid" As soon as his order was given, dozens or hundreds of searchlights were shot out of the sea almost simultaneously, and then the 127 Gaoping dual-purpose artillery bombardment rumbled.
It turned out that one of the 34 JU188s that had just finished firing torpedoes was shot down, and one was damaged and did not fly away immediately, but increased its altitude according to the plan, and at the same time dispersed into a three-plane formation, 10 three-plane formations, and two twin-plane formations, and circled around the sky over the US fleet, pretending to continue to launch air raids.
As a result, the radars of many US destroyers and cruisers on the surface of the water detected that enemy planes were approaching, blindly turned on their searchlights and opened fire indiscriminately, completely exposing themselves, and most of the American sailors' attention was focused on the air.
"Two-boat formation, 11 o'clock direction, full speed ahead" Colonel Johansen had already chosen the target to attack at this time, and the torpedo boats under his command did not penetrate through the gap between the warning circle of the American destroyer light cruiser and the coastline like an airplane, but rushed directly to eight escort destroyers of more than 1,000 tons.
The main role of escort destroyers is anti-submarine, and the anti-aircraft and anti-ship firepower are relatively weak, generally 2 127 Gaoping dual-purpose guns, 1 40 guns and 5 20 machine guns.
However, for the S100 boat, which can fire T1 type 533 torpedoes at a distance of 6,000 meters, only two 127 guns on an escort destroyer is a threat, and it is difficult to sink the torpedo boat speeding at a speed of 42 knots.
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
And the attention of these 8 escort destroyers and the other 2 escort destroyers in the vicinity was attracted by several JU188s hovering in the sky, and all 127 guns were firing at the air.
And once these eight escort destroyers performing anti-submarine alert missions around the Grand Fleet are sunk or heavily damaged, there will be a gap in the alert circle of the US Grand Fleet, and the opportunity for the six Type 21 submarines under water to break through will come. t1706231537: