The most shocking news about Bai Zhizhan came from those Tyman Air Force generals.

Just this afternoon, the Tyman Air Force confirmed the results achieved two days ago. In the northwest of Malta, the Royal Navy's "Prince of Wales" battleship and the "Reputation" battlecruiser were sunk, and the "Ark of Royal" was reinstalled, almost destroying the Land-Heart Fleet of the Royal Navy.

The key is that long-range bombers have achieved these results.

On the morning of the same day, the Tyman Air Force obtained reliable information in time. The Bran Land-Sinhai Fleet will go to northwest of Malta to cover the transport fleet to Malta, and bomb several field airports in Sicily, preventing the Tyman Air Force and the Raleigh Air Force from deploying air forces to Sicily.

The Lu Xinhai Fleet’s choice to get close to Malta at this time has a lot to do with the weather.

For several consecutive days, the sea area south of the Kingdom of Raleigh was covered with clouds, with a height of less than 1,000 meters, and there were thunderstorms from time to time. Although it would not prevent the carrier-based aircraft from taking off, it was very difficult to attack warships on the sea under such harsh weather conditions.

Before this, the Lu Xinhai Fleet used the cover of bad weather many times to transport troops and supplies to Malta.

In addition, carrier-based aviation forces were used to bomb field airports in Sicily and Tunisia to ensure that the battlefield air supremacy can still be controlled after the fleet is withdrawn.

Using this tactic is actually a lasting necessity.

Because there is only one fleet aircraft carrier, even if other directions are not considered, the maintenance of the aircraft carrier must be considered, so it is impossible to keep the aircraft carrier near Malta.

In the battle against Malta, the main value of the Bran fleet is to suppress the opponent's aviation force through raids.

It can be seen that this is a typical routine operation.

The key is that meteorological experts made a bold judgment that there would be about 2 hours of clear sky that afternoon, which would be enough to launch an air strike against the Bran fleet.

In addition, the Thuman Air Force seized this critical opportunity.

In the afternoon of the same day, the Tiaoman Air Force dispatched more than 40 long-range bombers and raided the Luxinhai Fleet operating in northwest Malta without sending fighter cover.

If you want to say it, the Lu Xinhai Fleet should be done.

Because the previous half day was calm, not to mention being attacked, there was no harassment. In addition, the weather has not improved and it is still cloudy. At noon, the captain of the "Prince of Wales" ordered the air search radar that should have been turned on. What's more, the "Reputation" which should be held in the afternoon was not activated because there was a problem with a generator and did not start the radar at the specified time. As a result, at around 3 pm, no radar was in operation in the Luxinhai Fleet.

In addition, the flight altitude of fighter jets performing air defense patrols is below 1,000 meters.

The reason is also very simple. The minimum height of the cloud is only 1,000 meters, and the thickness exceeds 4,000 meters, so patrolling above the clouds is meaningless.

Because the warships cannot be seen through the clouds, even if bombers drop bombs over the clouds, it does not pose much threat to the fleet.

When the long-range bomber of the Tiaoman Air Force arrived, there was no air defense fighter at high altitude!

Of course, luck is the real key.

To put it bluntly, if the clouds did not disperse, the long-range bombers of the Tiaoman Air Force would just fly over and circle over the head of the Luxinhai Fleet.

Because the Bran ship was not discovered, there was no question of launching an attack.

Before launching the attack, the Tiaman Air Force determined the approximate range of activities of the Luxinhai Fleet based on the bombings in the morning, and did not know its specific location. Because the weather was too bad, the Tiaman Air Force did not send reconnaissance planes to search the Luxinhai Fleet in the morning.

It was in this uncertain situation that the Tiaman Air Force directly sent a group of bombers.

The key is that the bomber group flew in the right direction!

At around 2:50 pm, the two long-range bombers that came out discovered the Lu Xinhai Fleet, to be precise, a light cruiser of the Lu Xinhai Fleet.

About 15 minutes later, the two bombers discovered the "Prince of Wales" almost at the same time.

At that time, the Prince of Wales was returning from the front guard positions, and the replaced "Reputation" was also rushing to the guard sea ahead.

At around 3:15, the "Reputation" was also discovered.

Until this time, the officers and soldiers on the Bran warship did not discover the long-range bomber of the Tsuman Air Force. After all, compared with the warship, the bomber size was much smaller.

In addition, the weather still has not improved significantly, and the clouds are just not that dense.

In fact, the pilots of the two long-range bombers discovered warships on the sea through the gaps in the clouds and made accurate judgments.

In another 15 minutes, a decisive meteorological change will arrive.

Under the influence of the sudden north wind, the clouds that originally gathered over Luxin Sea began to dissipate, and the sunlight shone on the sea.

At 3:35, 12 long-range bombers from the first squadron arrived.

Because they are long-range bombers, the flight altitude is above 5,000 meters, and the eight aircraft responsible for attacks each have three 1,000 kilogram-level radio remote-controlled bombs.

In fact, this is also the maximum bomb load of the He-177 dual-engine long-range bomber.

Among the bombers of the Tsuman Air Force, only He-177 can take off from the airport in the southern part of the Rock State and attack ships operating near Malta after hanging three 1,000-kilogram bombs. Other bombers either have too little bomb load or have insufficient range.

In addition, the engine used on the "Shen Diao" comes from the DB610 of He-177, which is just a simplified design to improve reliability.

These eight bombers concentrated on bombing the two closest main battleships.

It is the first to be exposed and very tempting "Prince of Wales" and "Reputation".

For the officers and soldiers on the two main battleships, this moment was almost desperate.

Although the high-caliber anti-aircraft guns of the two main battleships both have more than 10,000 meters in firing heights, the enemy planes are almost at the limit range of anti-aircraft guns 10 kilometers away.

Even if you can hit the shells, there is no clear idea.

More importantly, the hit rate of radio-guided bombs is surprisingly high.

24 shots, 17 shots!

In fact, in just a few minutes, the "Prince of Wales" and the "Reputation" were directly hit by multiple bombs in succession.

Even the main battleship with tens of thousands of tons cannot withstand the destruction of 1,000 kilogram-level aviation armor-piercing bombs.

At about 3:42, the "Reputation" exploded and then quickly overturned.

However, after the warship overturned, it did not sink immediately, but floated on the sea and did not completely sink after dark.

Another minute later, the "Prince of Wales" exploded several times in a row.

Before 3:50, this fast battleship that made the Royal Bran Navy proud disappeared from the sea with more than 1,000 officers and soldiers.

At that time, the smoke from the explosion had not yet dissipated, and the officers and soldiers on the nearby warships did not see clearly.

Decades later, an expedition team found the wreckage of the "Prince of Wales", proving that the warship had been broken into three parts before it sank.

In less than 10 minutes, two main battleships, a total of more than 2,000 officers and soldiers, and only 7 survived.

Six of them were lookouts, and the other was an officer who was smoking and abandoning on the deck.
Chapter completed!