After noon, on the Atlantic Ocean east of the Azores, the main American and British fleets, which were proudly attacking, had to retreat westward in a dusty manner after suffering repeated blows from enemy aircraft groups. The aircraft carrier formation commanded by U.S. Admiral Claude Brock originally had 7 aircraft carriers, but now there were only two Glory-class aircraft carriers left. The rest were either sunk or abandoned due to excessive injuries. Even the surviving "Victory" and "Kaowei" were scarred and full of gunpowder. However, no matter what, the design idea of ​​sacrificing aircraft capacity for protection still showed extraordinary value on the battlefield.

Walking down the bridge of the "Victory" along the gangway, the slightly fat captain, Colonel Hawksley, whose vicissitudes of life, was filled with depressedness and confusion at this time. Just a few hours ago, he was still confidently looking forward to a victory, but two consecutive air strikes, the US and British fleet dispatched hundreds of fighter jets, and was helpless against an enemy surface fleet of a squadron-scale. This made him both surprised and worried, and the hidden worries in his heart quickly became reality. At the moment when the US and British aircraft carriers were busy receiving the return plane, the fleet of allies suddenly attacked, brave and skillful.

The pilots of the Allied Powers firmly grasped this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The first wave of air strikes sunk the US auxiliary aircraft carrier "Richard", severely damaging the US Princeton, and injuring the three ships "Victory", "Victory", "Awesome", and "Park", which reduced the combat power of the US and British aircraft carrier formation by half in just twenty minutes. Admiral Brock did not recall the third wave of attack aircraft fleet that had already set out and asked them to search for enemy aircraft carriers, but allowed them to perform their original missions. In Hawksley's view, the battle had completely lost its suspense since then.

As expected, the second round of air strikes of the enemy carrier-based aircraft group continued to show their power, "Parker", "Lynch" and "Randolf" successively fought one after another, and the shocking battle scenes were deeply imprinted in the hearts of every participant.

In this round of air strike, the Victory almost ate two torpedoes. Although it escaped a fatal disaster, the two directly hit the bullets and several near-missile bombs still caused it to be severely damaged. There are still two huge bullet holes left on the flight deck. One of them is a 250-kilogram high-explosive armor-piercing bomb that penetrates the two hangars in succession and explodes in the upper part of the steam room. The steam room was once filled with high heat and high pressure steam. The speed of the ship dropped to less than 12 knots. After emergency repairs, it was barely restored to the current 18 knots. The other exploded in the lower hangar, cutting off the fuel line and triggering a fire. The terrifying flames swallowed everything in the hangar. 43 crew members died during the fire extinguishing process, and more than a hundred people were burned...

Unconsciously, Hawksley came to the starboard secondary artillery battle position. Although the fire once threatened the ammunition depot, the crew tried every means to save the artillery and ammunition, and they have now become the greatest confidence for the Victory to continue fighting.

"Enemy planes! Enemy planes are found on the starboard direction!"

The lookout suddenly let out a heart-wrenching shout, and amid the commands of the officers, the crew members ran back to their respective combat positions, manipulating the remaining air defense weapons on the ship to prepare for the attack of enemy aircraft.

The Glorious Class aircraft carrier, known for its protection, is equipped with nearly 100 artillery large and small, but its air defense firepower is far less powerful than it seems on the surface. The reason is not that the designers are lazy or the arms dealers cut corners, but that it has a lot to do with the distorted development of Britain after the war and the awkward mentality of the British senior executives. Furthermore, many naval generals believe that mastering air supremacy is the best air defense method, and psychologically underestimate the importance of air defense weapons and air defense training. As a result, many sea and air wars during the Battle of Azores made them suffer, and those temporary measures almost did not play any role.

Out of understanding of this defect, the colonel could not help but turn his attention to the surrounding escort ships. In order to cover the smooth retreat of the remaining aircraft carriers, the main fleet of the US and British dispatched three cruisers and five destroyers, plus the two cruisers and two destroyers accompanying them, a total of twelve light ships were protected specifically for the "Victory" and "Quick". Even so, Hawksley did not feel at all at all. Just say, the two British destroyers on the starboard side, one of them belonged to the C-class launched in 1920, and the other was the E-class launched in 1927. These two destroyers of the two classes were neither designed for defense.

Air-based design, no real air defense enhancement was carried out at the beginning of the war. The entire C-class ship was equipped with two dual-mounted 40mm caliber table tennis guns and two quad-mounted 12.7mm machine guns. The 120mm single-barrel naval guns they equipped were relatively low in firing rate and limited air-to-air capability. The powerful quad-mounted torpedo tubes could not play any role in the face of enemy aircraft attacks. The tonnage of the E-class increased by one third compared to the C-class, and the eight-connected 40mm ping-pong cannon, known as an air-defense weapon, was installed. However, from the actual combat effect, they were far from the level expected by designers and users.

In the telescope, the British crew saw groups of black spots, roughly estimated to be as many as fifty or sixty, which made them very frightened because their aircraft carrier formations now had not even one fighter aircraft surviving the flight decks of the two aircraft carriers. In order to protect themselves, they all took emergency measures to inject water into the ammunition depot when they were damaged. Even if they could receive the aircraft, they could not provide them with fuel.

Perhaps due to an anxious mentality, several cruisers started shooting early, and the bang bang sounded very lively. The smoke balls of shells exploded appeared on the flight route of the enemy planes, but failed to stop them from moving forward.

As usual, the ju-17 was the first to roar and launch an attack from high altitude. These German naval pilots were no less skilled than the air force, and were more experienced in dive bombing targets on water surfaces. At the same time, they were the bravest group of people in the German navy. Even in the face of the dense firepower of the enemy, they still carried out large-angle dive attacks without hesitation.

In a blink of an eye, several aviation bombs hit the retreating "Victory" and "Keiwei". Several deafening explosions sounded, and almost all the "Keiwei" from the bow to the stern of the ship were shrapnel, flames and the mist of death formed by the splashes of water near the bomb.

Taking advantage of the great pressure from our dive bombers, the torpedoes of the Allied Powers launched attacks in multiple groups, including first, later, main and second, first used to force enemy ships to evade, thus opening the originally relatively complete air defense firepower network to cover the subsequent aircraft group to break in at a low altitude, and then launching saturated torpedo attacks on the real target. Their aerial torpedoes are slightly smaller in power than those used by surface ships and most submarines, but they can pose a powerful threat to any warship.

When the torpedo was discovered, the British crew hurriedly used the large and small guns on the ship to shoot into the water. The two destroyers on the starboard side also showed their fearless spirit at this moment. They blocked their bodies horizontally on the side of the "Victory", trying to sacrifice themselves in exchange for the safety of the main battleship, and at the same time, they used the firepower on the ship to shoot at the incoming torpedoes desperately.

With a loud bang, a tall water column rose from the sea hundreds of meters away. The threat faced by the Victory was partially eliminated, but this was the limit of the capabilities of the British gunners. Just twenty seconds later, the destroyer located in front of the right side of the Victory was shot. In an instant, a white water column rose from the outside of the ship's side, and it suddenly lifted upwards. The bottom of the ship almost left the water surface, and the break marks on the hull were clearly visible. After a while, a large mass of smoke gushed out from the crack, and the fire on the ship was like a small rule.

The blowout of the mold was uncontrollable, and the unit quickly fell down and sank down the sea. The bow and tail of the ship immediately rose high. At this time, the sailors on the ship began to jump into the cold sea water desperately, flapping like a pot of dumplings falling into the water. The destroyer behind them continued to sink and exploded one after another. Before the main body of the destroyer sank into the water, there were less than 40 people who successfully fled, accounting for only one fifth of the editors. The rest were not killed in the explosion and sank into the cold seabed with the ship.

The sinking of the brigade caused the officers and soldiers of the Victory to fall into despair, but no one was willing to give up. Colonel Hawksley, who returned to the bridge, tried his best to guide his warships to avoid a catastrophe.

In an era when electronic computers have not yet developed, when enemy planes drop torpedoes nearby, officers do not have enough time to accurately calculate how to avoid the other party. At this time, the commander's personal experience and intuitive judgment are particularly important. Looking at the torpedo tracks on the sea, the colonel loudly ordered: "Left full rudder!"

"The left rudder!" The first mate immediately repeated it, and the alarm ringing sounded in the ship quickly turned. Soon, the huge hull tilted to one side during the high-speed navigation, and a deep hole was cut on the overlapping sea surface of the sharp ship to show its outstanding maneuverability.

"Torpedo found on the port side! 800 yards away!"

The lookout's shouts attracted people's attention from the starboard side of the warship to the port side. It turned out that while the warship was busy avoiding the attack of the first group of torpedoes, another group of torpedoes quietly launched their torpedoes from the opposite direction. The white wave marks generated by the torpedoes were clearly visible on the sea surface when they were traveling at high speed. They attacked the British aircraft carrier that was turning at extremely fast speed.
Chapter completed!