"Aha, we're going to sink. That American Battle Tour did a great job, the great Majesty Joachim."

Seeing the violent explosion of the "Lexington" and then quickly sinking, Major General Feng Haining, the commander of the "Frederick Caesar" escort fleet, cheered without hesitation in front of the officers. The anxiety of being attacked by enemy submarines and cruisers earlier, and the clever counterattack made the enemy ship sink and hurt, all of which were vented out at this time.

Compared with Major General Heinke, who is so arrogant, Colonel Farrell's calmness makes people feel that he is more suitable for serving as the commander of the fleet. At this moment of joy, the colonel still did not forget his duties and always paid attention to the changes in the battle situation. After a while, he reminded Heinke: "General, our Langford has dispatched four Osprey bombers."

The German Rear Admiral looked at the sound from the air and saw four biplane mounted bombs, with a striking clover logo painted under their wings. In this era when monoplane was rising, a large number of biplane models were still flooded with the active ranks of aviation forces from various countries. The ik30t "Osprey" born in the 1920s was one of them. Their missiles were flying at a speed like a stupid goose walking on land, but their structure was strong, low-cost, easy to operate, and capable of low-altitude bombing and dive bombing. Moreover, the bombing hit a significant increase in the early stages of the bombing. More importantly, because of the biplane structure, their take-off distance is less than two-thirds of that of the German-made Ju17t, which is very suitable for use on auxiliary aircraft carriers such as the "Langford".

When the war broke out, Germany and Ireland had a total of 16 aircraft carriers, three more than the United States and Britain. Among these 16 aircraft carriers, the real main aircraft carriers were three Zeppelin-class and seven Allied-class, and the remaining six were training aircraft carriers and auxiliary aircraft carriers. When Germany declared war on Britain, the "Langford" was still lying on the platform of the Royal Limerick Shipyard. If it did not receive the modification order, it would eventually become a standard cargo ship with a self-weight of 6,000 tons and a cargo of 5,000 tons.

From standard cargo ships to auxiliary aircraft carriers, this idea did not come into being. In the early 1930s, the outbreak of the war seemed inevitable. In order to cope with the possible losses of its merchant ships, Germany and Ireland jointly designed several standard cargo ships with low construction costs, less labor hours, and suitable for large-scale construction during wartime. By the summer of 1932, the first standard cargo ship was completed and all performances reached the expected level. Since then, Germany began to build standard cargo ships at a rate of 36 ships per year and Ireland has 12 ships per year. In March 1933, German industrial production began to turn into wartime tracks. The number of German shipyards involved in the construction of standard cargo ships increased from 6 to 16. The assembly line began to operate at full capacity. Under the conditions of ensuring the supply of raw materials, the Germans could build at least 180 standard cargo ships per year, and the estimated output of Ireland reached 50 ships per year.

In order to meet the wartime escort needs, the naval technical departments of Germany and Ireland formulated a plan to modify auxiliary aircraft carriers with standard cargo ships before the war. According to the plan, 2025 standard cargo ships will be converted into auxiliary aircraft carriers in the first year of the war, and then more auxiliary aircraft carriers will be modified according to the development of the war.

After the outbreak of the war, according to the existing technical plan, the Royal Limerick Shipyard in Ireland quickly modified the "Langford" and two other standard cargo ships in the construction stage. Although affected by British bombing, the "Langford" completed all the modification projects within seven weeks. Before the completion and commissioning, some officers and crew had already started boarding the ship for training, and then fighter jets, service personnel and pilots boarding the ship. The comprehensive plan made it form combat effectiveness in the shortest time.

The auxiliary aircraft carrier modified into service in Ireland was named Royal Guard Class, and the Germans seemed to be not very fond of this name. The auxiliary aircraft carrier that entered the German Navy was officially named "Leopold Class" to commemorate the German Field Marshal Leopold who made great achievements in the previous war and died. Due to the different models of carrier-based aircraft, the Royal Guard Class in Ireland was 182, that is, 18 normal aircraft and 2 spare aircraft. The usual configuration is 10 IT, 4 IK30T and 4 IK20T, while the Leopold Class in Germany is usually 162, and the typical configuration is 8 He25, 4 Ju17T and 4 A.

After the last war, naval officers and military researchers from various countries realized the development potential of carrier-based aviation. Various well-known or unknown predictions were perfectly reflected in the Battle of the Azores. Therefore, even if the S fleet did not issue clear instructions, Feng Hainingk would automatically dispatch the carrier-based aircraft troops of the "Langford" to join the battle. However, when he looked up and saw four "Ospreys" flying slowly, he did not show any expectation. Instead, he said with some concern: "Ospreys are definitely good at attacking enemy submarines during the day, but I don't think it is optimistic to let them pass through the dense artillery fire of the enemy ships accurately drop bombs. I hope that the officers and sailors on the enemy ships will be patronized against threats from the water and ignore air defense."

Although the Irish Navy is not large in size, it is equipped with a relatively complete ship type. It is frequently held before the war. One of the purposes is to allow every warship commander to have a clear and intuitive understanding of the sea and air combat mode under existing technical and tactical conditions. Although Colonel Farrell did not have experience working on an aircraft carrier, he was able to analyze the current situation objectively: "From the current situation, the enemy is no longer interested in fighting. Destroyers are either covering the retreat of battleships or seizing time to rescue survivors. Perhaps those cruisers are still cautious about attacks from the air, but the smoke on the sea affects the observation of the watchman and gunners. As long as the pilots are smart enough, it is not difficult to find a good attack opportunity. At this time, injured an enemy ship and slowing down its speed, it will basically be sentenced to death."

Since Farrell commanded the Luge to fight a beautiful battle with one against two, Heinke has been much more respectful to him. He heard his response and explained: "I have no intention of belittling the Irish Navy pilots. I just think that the only master of this naval battle is His Majesty Joachim, so the power to end the battle should be the battleship he personally commanded."

If an Irish officer showed such an almost obsessive worship of his monarch, it would not be too surprising, but it appeared on a arrogant German Rear Admiral, Farrell always felt a little uncomfortable, and he said seriously: "You are indeed the admirer of His Majesty the King of Ireland, General Heinke."

Shortly after the four Ospreys flew over the Luger, four more biplane flew from the east. Their shapes were significantly different from those of the Osprey, and there were cigar-shaped aviation torpedoes under the belly, so the use of the aircraft was clear at a glance. American crew members may not be able to recognize the origin of these carrier-based bombers at a glance, but as long as the "Swordfish" is mentioned, most Americans will grit their teeth and clench their fists. The newly-in-commissioned American battleship "Iowa" failed in the Gulf of Mexico because of this torpedo bomber. Although Lian Po is old now, as long as he uses it properly, he can still make his opponent suffer.

After the damage of the USS Lexington, several accompanying American and British destroyers began to release smoke screens in an organized manner, to avoid the USS Elizabeth-class warships being hit again, and to cover the two Queen Elizabeth-class warships to maneuver. The explosion of the USS Lexington ammunition depot and the subsequent capsization also produced a large amount of smoke, making the sea fog rise in the sea area where the US and British fleets were located, and the sight was greatly affected. The allies that achieved great victory temporarily slowed down the rhythm of the artillery, adapted to the adjustment of the opponent and changed their course, and gradually reduced the distance between the two fleets to about 24,000 meters. When the two Queen Elizabeth-class battleships and several accompanying light ships left the relatively dense area of ​​smoke, three German battleships opened fire again, and the two British battleships quickly launched a counterattack, and the second stage of the long-range artillery battle began.

The four "Ospreys" that flew to the battlefield were not in a hurry to attack. They were lingering on the periphery of the US and British fleets, observing the battlefield situation while waiting for the "Swordfish" to arrive. The artillery battle distance was reduced by two or three thousand meters, and the accuracy of the artillery shooting on both sides was significantly improved compared to before. The first two rounds of artillery bombardment of the Allied fleets burst into water columns near the US and British ships. At this time, most of the crew's attention was on the sea. Seeing that textbook-like opportunities had already emerged, the four "Ospreys" entered a dive from a height of more than 2,000 meters, but unlike the sharp large-angle dive of Ju17, the mechanical auxiliary devices and bombing sights of the "Osprey" were set at a 45-degree angle. Only when they had no choice, the pilots would risk trying dives above 50 degrees or even close to 60 degrees.

As a pilot force for small-scale bombing, the Ospreys taken off from the Longford each carried a 200-kilogram bomb and two 50-kilogram bombs, two bombs the "War-weary" and two bombs the "Balham". As Colonel Farrell speculated, the US and British ships failed to organize effective air defense firepower in time. When anti-aircraft guns were intensively sounded, the four "Ospreys" had already lost the bombs. Previously, the ravaged by Ju17, the nervous US and British crew set the advance amount according to the flight trajectory of the German dive bomber. As a result, most of the shells exploded far away from the "Osprey". Four Irish carrier-based aircraft were pulled up calmly and gave the opportunity to the torpedo bomber that followed.

The four "swordfish" flying against the sea seemed to be walking leisurely, slowly passing through the gradually floating smoke ball, quietly approaching from the stern of the US and British ships. When they were closer to the target, they suddenly swung their wings and drew an S-shaped trajectory in the air. When they gradually aimed the nose of the two British battleships at the starboard side of the two British battleships, shells rising from the enemy ships suddenly exploded around them. The air waves caused by the explosion made them tremble like blades in the wind, which did not prevent the well-trained Irish pilots from dropping torpedoes at the right position.

Steam torpedoes are flying, and white straversing stimulate people's nerves. The two battleships began to turn desperately, but how could their huge hulls avoid the torpedo dropped at very close range accompanied by a heart-wrenching loud bang. The "war-weary" ship was thunder in the tail, and the propeller on the right was damaged on the spot. A large amount of sea water poured into the rupture. The battleship suddenly lost its ability to move.
Chapter completed!