Seven aircraft carriers and more than 250 carrier-based aircraft. Even with the aviation technology of 1933, this is a very terrifying naval combat force. Fortunately, the Allied fleet led by Natsuki did not know that the opponents they encountered were under such strong pressure. In addition, they won a complete victory against the enemy's advance fleet, and officers at all levels and even ordinary sailors were in full swing, so each ship performed well in the enemy's first wave of air raids. At the end of the air raid, only two cruisers and two destroyers were slightly injured, and the entire fleet still maintained good vitality.

However, before the officers and soldiers of the Allied Powers took a good breath, the carrier-based radar detected the second wave of enemy aircraft, and the ships then sounded the preparatory air defense alarm, leaving the crew with about 30 minutes of preparation time. During this period, the sailors carried ammunition and repaired military equipment. The officers either patrolled the warships or waited for flagship instructions on the bridge.

When the air defense alarm was sounding, the signal flag of "all people use the No. 1 plan to defend the enemy" was still hung on the signal cable of the "Hesse". The fleet commander did not seem to have any plans to change his battle strategy, which made many officers with ideas but unknown reasons mutter: Is it necessary to use a set of lineups to conquer the world?

Before we knew it, 20 minutes passed quietly, and groups of black spots began to appear in the distant sky. At this time, the lookout and radar operators were doing the same thing, which was to count the number of enemy fighters. Obviously, this wave of enemy aircraft has increased compared with the previous wave, which means that there will be a hard battle with unpredictable prospects. In the face of strong enemies, the atmosphere of each ship is gradually becoming solemn, and all personnel have returned to their positions. Most of the seaplanes that were ejected out to reconnaissance the enemy situation have been retracted. As the enemy aircraft continues to approach, the battle is about to break out.

"Faced attack on the front, encircle the two wings?"

In the radar room of the Hessen, two German officers and an Irish officer stood behind the radar operator to look at the circular screen, trying to find out the enemy's attack routines through the distribution and movement of various light spots. However, today's aircraft are different from warships. Some of them have all-metal structures, some are iron bark or fabric skins, so the radar can only detect the number of enemy aircraft. Even if the distance is very close, it is difficult to judge its aircraft model. The model that forms the formation often determines the combat mission and attack methods of this flight formation. Without these important basis for speculation, their judgment can only be personal speculation.

After careful calculation, the radar operator reported the number: "69 aircraft!"

One of the German officials immediately grabbed the phone and reported to the bridge. During his call, the radar operator reported two new readings of 18 left wing and 22 right wing. The German officials reported without hesitation.

Another German official muttered to himself: "The enemy seems to want to attack head-on!"

The Irish Navy captain next to him replied in a low voice: "From the front, the tenth is a dive bomber!"

The officers in the radar room were still doing technical analysis. In the observation deck on the upper part of the bridge, the lookouts had already accurately judged through the telescope the size of the enemy's two squadrons, the Woth SB2U "Guardian" dive bombers flew right in front of them. Their flight altitude exceeded 2,500 meters, which was the basic altitude required for dive bombing.

The two destroyers, who were avant-garde, opened fire first, and suddenly appeared dense flashes and smoke balls at high altitudes. The cruiser then joined the battle, and the rumbling cannons on the sea surface passed by a while. In a few minutes, four fighter jets fell down with black smoke, and the remaining American and British fighter jets were still in an orderly manner to attack.

"Note the starboard direction, enemy planes are approaching at high speed... Wait, those seem to be fighter planes, are they going to sink our warships with machine guns?"

On the armored watchtower located on the upper part of the Hessen combat bridge, Major Alfred Lauber, the air defense commander, was like a person with self-morbidity, and muttered from time to time. Only after making a decision would he convey his combat instructions to each air defense gun position through a sound tube or a telephone line. The battleship has a total of 68 air defense combat positions, including dual-equipped secondary guns, dual-equipped high-level dual-purpose guns, dual-equipped and quad-equipped machine guns, and dual-equipped large-caliber machine guns, plus various optical rangefinders and electronic detectors to form the most powerful sea air defense system at present. To make this huge system run, it is difficult to efficiently equip air defense firepower to block incoming enemy aircraft to the greatest extent.

Major Lauber is a good player in this regard.

In front of the fleet, more than 20 "Guardians" began an Osprey-style diving in the face of fierce artillery fire. Compared with the well-known German ju-17, their operability and stability are not inferior. They are even equipped with an autopilot to reduce the fatigue of pilots during long-distance flights. However, the protection performance of this fighter is not as good as that of the German dive bombers. There is no bulletproof glass and no armored cockpits, and the fuel pipelines are very prone to fire. In the first half of the Battle of the Azores, the loss rate of more than 200 "Guardians" participating in the battle reached 72%, second only to the "Saidfish" torpedo bombers equipped by the British army. Although the US Navy realized the seriousness of the problem, the new carrier-based bombers are still in the test stage. What can be done now is to repair the weakness of the "Guardian" as much as possible, but it seems that the effect is not very good.

The enemy fleet rushed down fiercely, and the "Hesse" and several cruisers around it entered a detonation state. The near-burning fuze used by these Allied warships was electrostatic induction. Although it was not as powerful as the later radio near-burning fuze, it had a qualitative improvement compared to the traditional ammunition using delayed fuzes. The two German heavy cruisers were also high-priced, launching shrapnel shells at the air at the extreme rate of fire. Under this terrifying fire net interception, several "guardians" were hit before they could drop bombs. Because they were in the dive process, the pilots had no chance to escape, and one of them even exploded into powder in the air...

Seeing that the air defense firepower net in front of him was like an impenetrable wall, some pilots chose to give up halfway. They hurriedly dropped the bomb and pulled the plane, while some pilots were able to overcome the fear in their hearts and persevere to the end. The bombs falling from the sky stirred up huge waves on the sea, and the surface ships of the attacked Allied countries danced the z-shaped dance, but unlike evading torpedo attacks, they were not targeted to avoid one or several explosions.

The missiles are used to reduce the chance of being shot by maneuvering at sea. Although German and Ireland warships attached great importance to horizontal protection during the design stage, German-class battleships even used the protection standard for resisting 500kg aerial armor-piercing bomb attacks as the key area. Judging from existing practical experience, they are still easily damaged by the enemy's fierce air strikes, and then affected subsequent operations due to the reduction of power, and were even sunk by enemy planes or enemy warships.

"Oh no! The 'Arcine Schell' was shot!"

Following this scream, thick smoke was rolling at the tail of the German heavy cruiser located in front of the starboard side of the Hessen, and the blazing flames kept rushing out of the smoke ball. There were no figures or corpses, but there was a strong breath of death.

This is the most common scene in naval battles and the most cruel scene in naval battles.

Xia Shu, who had never lost his naval battle, was not arrogant. He had witnessed the sinking of many of his own ships, and he also missed Death on the battlefield several times. These experiences allowed him to always maintain an objective and calm mind in the battle. At this time, he glanced in that direction and murmured softly: "If you can get a decisive victory, such a sacrifice is completely worth it."

The "Marshal Schell" is an improved model built by the German Navy on the basis of the Irish standard military-class heavy cruiser. The naval merits in the above battle were named Reinhart Schell, a famous general who served as the Secretary of the State Secretary of the Imperial Navy. This 10,000-ton warship seemed to have been hit by a 1,000-pound, or 454-kilogram aviation bomb. This is the killer weapon of the American dive bomber. It is difficult to get hit on the front. As people are worried, its speed is gradually slowing down

After they came down, they left the battle formation and landed alone behind. If the enemy's carrier-based aircraft group changed their combat strategies and concentrated their firepower to attack it, then the "Marshal Schell" would definitely not escape, but the American and British pilots stared at the three German battleships on the sea, especially the extremely large "Hesse", which was the culprit that caused the destruction of the Hart fleet and was the most likely factor here to change the situation. It is undoubtedly the most meaningful to severely damage or even sink it.

As a result, the Hesse became a sucking stone on the battlefield, bombs fell down at it, and torpedoes rushed towards it. Perhaps with a direct hit, the combat situation could be completely changed, so American and British fighter jets continued, trying to break through the maritime air defense circle of this Allied fleet from all directions. Some were shot down on the way, and some were only one step away from success.

"Torpedo! Oops! Pay attention to your feet and hold them tightly..." Before the sharp-eyed German official finished speaking, a violent vibration came from his feet. Fortunately, people were reminded by him that even if they didn't have time to grab the fixed objects around them, they would not fall too badly in the violent vibration.

As soon as the explosion hit passed, someone loudly reported: "Thunder in the port side!"

Xia Shu had just staggered a little and did not fall. He was sure that the battleship was in the thunder. He muttered in his heart: "Damn it, don't break the oar rudder!"
Chapter completed!