It was more than two hours before nightfall. The flight decks of the US Navy's "York City" and the British Navy's "Glory" were filled with carrier-based aircraft spreading their wings to fly. The targets had already appeared and were within the maximum attack range of carrier-based aircraft. However, these US and British carrier-based aircraft that were ready to go did not rush to attack, but patiently waited for the combat commander of the fleet.

The combat command room of the "York City" is equipped with a long-prepared miniature sand table. The east and west edges are the coasts of Europe and America, and the nine islands of the Azores are dotted in the middle and east. Between these islands and the west coast of Europe, several ships are distributed on the open sea. Whenever new information is delivered, the staff officers will move the positions of these ships accordingly after calculation. Senior officers such as King, Somerville, and Josen sometimes stare at the sand table and sometimes talk to each other. Since lunch, they have never left this place except smoking and going to the toilet.

When the staff officer moved the ship model position representing the Allied escort fleet again, Colonel Josen raised his eyebrows and said, "Suppose the enemy now disbands the fleet and orders all transport ships to return at full speed, and covers the battleships behind the temple, how much can we gain this time?"

Regarding Colonel Josen's hypothesis, the British Somerville did not make any noise. After experiencing a series of previous losses, the always optimistic American officials also lost their previous aura. Just when Colonel Josen felt embarrassed by the silence of the crowd, King said: "If your assumption is true, then we can sink at least 70% of the enemy's transport ships. As for the enemy's escort fleet, it depends on the specific situation of the battle. Judging from their past performance, it is difficult for us to gain a big advantage. In general, we should win this important victory at a smaller price."

After King finished speaking, Somerville said in a lukewarm tone: "If the intelligence is true and the commander of the enemy's escort fleet is German Admiral Von Dalvig, then the disbanding of the fleet and evacuation of each may only occur in the most extreme situation, that is, we defeated their escort fleet head-on, which not only requires good luck, but also requires everyone to regain their fearless spirit."

There are many troops that can fight with the wind, and it is rare to be a member of the army that can maintain strong combat power when fighting against the trend. Since its rise, the British Navy has won many battles of victory and won many difficult battles. Every generation of naval officers and soldiers are proud of the fearless character of heroes. However, from Jutland to Flanders, from the mouth of the Thames to the Faroe Islands, this traditional honor, which has been going through more than 300 years, gradually collapsed due to the destruction of failure. During the Battle of Azore, the US and British Navy failed to take advantage of the situation to win, but instead achieved a shocking reversal by their opponents. Not only did there be problems with tactical strategies, but lack of fighting spirit and tenacity also caused a decline in combat power.

Somerville's reminder came to the forefront. All officers present, including King, showed more or less helplessness and loss, but so far, the prospects of this combat operation are not pessimistic. This time, the Jin Fleet and Cunningham Fleet, which echoed each other, were equipped with radars. Some were emergency type strike frequency radars, and their detection effects were much worse than those of the Lorentz or MB series pulse radars in the Allied camps. At least, the ships equipped with them had the ability to detect aircraft and ships at night or foggy days. After Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire participated in the war, the radar equipment rate of combat ships deployed by the Allied countries in the Atlantic was only 65%. One has increased and the other has declined, and the technical factors that restricted the performance of the US and British naval battlefields in the early stage have been roughly smoothed out.

During the reinforcement fleet's departure to the Azores, King arranged for carrier-based aircraft troops to conduct several night flight and bombing training, and the intention of carrying out night attacks was very clear. In fact, as early as 1922-19, night combat had become a daily training subject for the US and British naval aviation, and has been going on for ten years. Although the night hit rate of aviation bombs and aviation torpedoes was much lower than daytime combat, the target of this attack was those transport ships without protection capabilities, even if the hit rate of only one-tenth and one-twentieth was enough to achieve greater results.

After a long silence, Jin raised his hand and looked at his watch, turned to the adjutant and ordered: "It's almost time to send a signal to Colonel Spruins and let them attack as planned."

Raymond Spruins is the new captain of the USS Georgia. He also served as the commander of the assault team in this battle. He led Georgia, Anson and six light ships to launch a frontal attack on the enemy's escort fleet. Two aircraft carriers and the remaining light ships followed up and used carrier-based aircraft to conduct long-range attacks.

After receiving the attack order, the Spruins team quickly grew to 26 knots. If the target fleet continues to maintain a speed of 10 knots, combat contact will occur within 5 hours. If the situation mentioned by Colonel Josen before occurs, the Spruins team can also enter the attack position in the second half of the night. This is the exquisiteness of this combat operation in tactical arrangement.

However, before the Spruenz team left sight, King, who was in charge of the "York City", commanding the battle, received bad news: the left-wing sentry discovered enemy seaplanes in the northwest sea!

The emergence of a single Allied seaplane cannot indicate anything, but after analysis and calculation by the staff officers, Jin realized that the situation of this battle was likely to be a hundred times more difficult than he expected. He quickly adjusted the combat deployment and ordered the two aircraft carriers to send four fighters to conduct long-range reconnaissance at a 90-degree angle in the northwest direction.

Soon, the enemy water reconnaissance plane discovered by the sentry appeared on the radar screen of the "York City", which was only 90 nautical miles away from the Golden Fleet. As the technical officers were worried, the so-called new radar that rushed into battle was far from reaching the theoretical value.

Even if the direction of the target fleet was clear and after nearly 200 kilometers of flight, it happened to be discovered that the target fleet was relatively low. However, not long after, the "York City" detected the second enemy aircraft, followed by the third. Judging from their flight trajectory, they should be conducting fan-shaped reconnaissance flights. This situation basically proves that Jin was worried that his opponent would send combat ships from the Azores. Regardless of their original intention to support their own escort fleets or have other plans, they have now put the US and British fleets that intend to attack the Allied fleets in a situation where they are attacking the Allied fleets.

Cancellation or continue, Jin once again stood at the intersection.

The eight carrier-based fighters sent to reconnaissance quickly had contact with the enemy's seaplanes. In less than a quarter of an hour, all three enemy seaplanes were shot down, but Jin was not happy at all. Even if these allied aircraft did not have time to report the enemy situation, the opponent was so cunning that they should be able to quickly determine the approximate range of the US and British aircraft carriers from the abnormal situation of the loss of multiple reconnaissance aircraft on their side, and then carry out in-depth reconnaissance or directly send out attack aircraft groups.

After thinking about it, Jin decided to take a risk before dark, betting that his fighter could find the target trace. He ordered the bomber that was on standby to take off to remove the high-explosive bomb and replace it with a semi-armor-piercing bomb. The fixed speed of the aviation torpedo was adjusted from 30 knots to 36 knots, and the first wave of attack aircraft group took off in half an hour.

In order to save time, the service staff of the "York City" and "Glory" directly replaced bombs on the flight deck and adjusted the torpedo settings. Although these two main aircraft carriers were injured in the early combat operations, they lost many experienced pilots and skills. The service personnel were fortunately supplemented the surviving personnel on the war-sinking ship before this battle. The overall operation efficiency was close to the ideal state. The "Glory" only took 25 minutes, and the "Glory" took 29 minutes to complete the bomb replacement. Once the 30-minute time limit arrived, the two aircraft carriers took off one after another in a windward state. The 16 fighter jets and 22 bombers scheduled to be deployed in the first wave of air strikes soon completed the formation over the fleet.

At this time, the fighter jets that went to reconnaissance had not yet discovered the enemy fleet. Since Jin was determined to take the risk, he simply ordered the group to fly 60 degrees northwest and make adjustments on the way. At the same time, he ordered the two aircraft carriers to lift the loaded second wave of attack aircraft from the hangar to the flight deck.

At 5:43 pm, more than 70 minutes had passed since eight carrier-based fighter jets carrying out reconnaissance took off, and more than 20 minutes had been dispatched in the first wave of attack aircraft. Jin finally waited for the first reconnaissance report on the whereabouts of the enemy fleet: 43 degrees northwest, an enemy destroyer was found about 450 kilometers away from his aircraft carrier.

Destroyers usually do not act alone on the vast ocean. This must be a sentry ship that is on guard patrol missions outside the enemy fleet. In this case, the pilot will fly around it with a certain radius as the center. If you are lucky, you will soon find the enemy fleet. This time, Jin waited only 7 minutes to lock in the exact position of the enemy fleet, but with it, it was very bad news: the enemy has at least three aircraft carriers, and a large group of fighter jets have been dispatched!

Not long ago, the Spruenz detachment had the opportunity to trap three aircraft carriers of the Allied Navy on San Miguel Island. Unfortunately, the enemy's battle patrol was very brave. Spruenz was worried that he would break out of combat contact due to a small loss. If the surprise attack succeeded, the enemy fleet coming from Azore would have at most one aircraft carrier, and the aviation troops of the Golden Fleet could still have an advantage.

Youdao is that when a brave man wins when he meets on a narrow road, Jin has no other better way. He asked the communications officer to guide the first wave of attack aircraft group to adjust to the correct course and let the second wave of attack aircraft group set off immediately. After that, except for a few air defense fighters, all carrier-based aircraft were invested in the third wave of attack.
Chapter completed!