Another round of sunset fell on the sea, fighting fiercely, a daytime air battlefield gradually cooled down. After the artillery bombardment on the night before and the bombing on the day, the German Air Force Base in the east of Texel Island was already full of holes, and no hard runway could still maintain its complete shape. Fortunately, the flat grass around the airport played an emergency role. Some on-duty fighter jets were loosely parked near the temporary runway, and those that needed maintenance and repair were dragged back to the underground hangar, so looking around, the huge airport looked particularly desolate and desolate.

The command tower at the airport was damaged by enemy planes. Fortunately, the personnel were not seriously damaged, so the command organization moved to an air defense bunker not far away. Although the conditions here are simple, under such a special situation, how many people would care about these things?

At the entrance of the bunker, General Ernst-Lonebug, who was holding a cup of black coffee in his hand, welcomed the arrival of his officers with a tired look. He was the commander of the 30th Air Force Regiment of the Luftwaffe, stationed in the Azores, and also served as the air defense commander of the area. Now the fighter troops defending Texel Island include the 12th, 33rd and 37th Fighter Wings, as well as the two brigades of the 46th Fighter Wing, which had just been transferred from Piku and San Miguel Island, as well as a fighter brigade of the 12th Mixed Wing of the German Navy.

The temporary station of the 33rd Fighter Wing moved to the other end of the airport, so Colonel Manfred von Richthofen drove over. After getting off the car, he walked to General Ronnebug in two steps. The two shook hands neither excited nor coldly.

"Your United performed well today, so do you," said General Ronnebug.

Richterhofen replied calmly: "But there are fewer and fewer planes. If tomorrow's battle is still as fierce as today, we may not have a few planes left at this time tomorrow."

The general nodded: "The situation is indeed very difficult, and many people are gradually losing confidence, but let's think about it the other way around. Isn't the enemy also facing the same difficulties? We lost nearly 200 fighter jets during the day today, and their losses are no less than us. And an aircraft carrier was sunk. They should be more pessimistic about tomorrow's battle."

"What you said is completely in line with normal logic, but I don't know if you have noticed a few unusual details. For example, the carrier capacity of US and British aircraft carriers is relatively fixed. Even if the factor of forcibly increasing the load capacity is considered, the maximum number of carrier-based aircraft they can invest in combat is 750, and the aircraft they lost in the past two days should be about 500, reducing two-thirds of their troops. However, in the last three rounds of air battles held at 17:10, 17:50, and 18:40 in the last three rounds of air battles held at 17:10, 17:50, and 18:40.

The enemy has nearly 200 aircraft put into the battlefield. Can they maintain a very low technical failure rate in continuous combat, and there is no need to deploy air alert and defense forces around the fleet? Where did so many troops emerge? Is there an aircraft carrier that we have never discovered, or is there some secret means we don’t know?" Richthofen explained his views in coherent words, and it can be seen that these were all obtained by his careful observation and careful consideration.

After hearing this analysis, General Ronnebug was silent. But before he could think carefully, all the officers he summoned to come were arrived. So he and Richthofen walked into the underground bunker one by one and another, and sat in the compartment next to a pile of radio equipment.

Before the meeting officially began, Ronnebug read a telegram sent to everyone in the name of German Emperor William II. This telegram praised the tenacious performance of the Azores garrison troops in the past two days. The air force and naval aviation troops were particularly eye-catching. In the case of a raid by a strong enemy, it was not easy to survive the initial disaster-like blow. The shelling of the US and British fleets on the eve of the US and British fleets made the German officers and soldiers on Texel with the test of the doomsday level. Even so, their morale was not defeated, and their will was still as tenacious as steel. With such an army, what reason do those in power do not feel proud?

"I have carefully looked at the losses you have counted. The current situation is worse than all our previous deductions, and once this terrible storm begins, it must be decided to end. Objectively speaking, our current situation is not very good. Before the high seas fleet arrives, we must rely on our own strength to deal with powerful enemies." Ronnebug finished this sentence, and a huge roar came from a distance, one after another, one after another.

It seemed like a thunderstorm was sweeping over. If it was a heavy rainstorm in nature, it would obviously put the US and British fleets fighting across the sea in a very unfavorable situation, and it would also be a fatal disaster for the US and British soldiers who had landed on Texel Island. However, officers who had served in the army for a long time and experienced various live-fire exercises and even fighting on the battlefield were very clear that this was not a storm, but the US and British fleets launched another round of fierce shelling of the German defense facilities on Texel Island.

Listening to the roar from outside, the officers in the bunker showed strange colors. They were not worried about their own safety, but were alert to the enemy's attack. However, seeing General Ronnebug sat quietly, they calmed down and continued to stay. Soon, a low-ranking officer hurried from the adjacent radio room and reported to Ronnebug: "After receiving a call from the headquarters, the enemy fleet was shelling our Lubeck Fortress, the headquarters ordered us to immediately dispatch bombers to attack the enemy fleet."

Ronnebug frowned: "I understand!"

After saying that, the general's eyes turned to the officers present, first of which was Colonel Lotal Goren, the commander of the 15th Bomber Wing, and then Colonel Bend Petes of the 46th Fighter Wing, and then ordered: "Lotal, your wing will dispatch two torpedo bomber squadrons and a light bomber squadron; Bend, dispatch two fighter squadrons from your wing to cover. Let the pilots set out as quickly as possible, attack nearby, and attack far away if there is no chance."

The two corps commanders immediately responded and asked their adjutant to convey the order immediately.

The meeting continued amid the rumbling cannons.

"This morning, I also hoped to use a war of attrition to drag down our opponents, because our enemies only have eight aircraft carriers. Each carrying 70 to 90 aircraft, the aircraft that can be put into combat should be about 700. Even if we suffered a huge loss on the first day of the battle, our air force and naval fighters in the Azores are still more than this number. Judging from the daytime battle situation today, we have slightly gained the upper hand, so I always think that my reasoning and judgment are correct, but Colonel von Richthofen just gave me a very important reminder that the enemy successively invested about 200 fighters two hours before nightfall, and the continuous attack was very strong. What does this mean? It means that they lost about 500 in the early stage.

After the carrier-based aircraft was launched, the number of existing carrier-based aircraft was far more than we had calculated, and the reason for this deviation was exactly what we need to be vigilant. Although I am not a naval expert, when I participated in joint exercises, I learned a lot of technical situations related to aircraft carrier combat from my colleagues. They told me with certainty that aircraft carriers are unlikely to obtain carrier-based aircraft from supply ships when fighting at sea like refueling fuel. There are only two ways to replenish carrier-based aircraft, shipped by port or flew to replenish supplies. These two methods cannot be met with the current battlefield conditions. So where is the problem?" Longnebug hurriedly glanced at everyone worriedly, "I can't figure out, where is the problem? Could it be that our pilots mistakenly exaggerated our results?"

Except Colonel von Richthofen, almost all officers were pondering the digital logic of this series of expressions, and after several minutes they calmed down from their restlessness, but no one could give an answer, and there was no more constructive speculation than Richthofen.

At this time, on the sea more than 200 kilometers northeast of Texel Island, the aircraft carrier formation of the US and British fleet was sailing down the wind under the tight escort of many light ships. The flight deck of each aircraft carrier was lit with yellow lights. Although it was not as colorful as the festival lights, looking down from a high place, this is still a very special picture: the lamps form a pair of parallel lines, and each pair of parallel lines has a simple Arabic numeral in the middle. The five aircraft carriers in good condition and the "Hornet" that completed emergency repairs rely on these light marks to guide the aircraft to complete the landing at night. In fact, in the early 1930s, the night take-off and landing of aircraft carrier-based aircraft was no longer a new topic. Basically, every country equipped with aircraft carriers mastered the trick, but night take-off and landing more tests flight technology than daytime, and it is more likely to occur accidents.

Over time, white-painted carrier-based aircraft landed one after another on designated aircraft carriers. For each successful landing, a burst of whistle cheers were always heard on the aircraft carrier deck and air defense gun positions, because they were not fighter jets that carried out missions, but reinforcements that supplemented the aircraft carrier's combat power.

Apart from the Azores, the nearest land is Newfoundland, Canada, with a flight range of 2,000 kilometers. This is a long distance that no carrier-based aircraft can cross. The aircraft landing on US and British aircraft carriers is not an existing technology. In fact, they are from very close places that they arrive in the Azores waters with the main fleet of the US and British fleets. Among them are not only warships, supply ships, medical ships, and many large cargo ships. Because they do not want to arouse the opponent's vigilance in advance, the United States and Britain did not take great pains to lay flight decks for them and transform them into auxiliary aircraft carriers, but installed short-slip aircraft catapults on their decks before they set off.
Chapter completed!