August 20, morning.

100 nautical miles east of Chile and about 200 nautical miles from the Bay of Valparaiso.

“At 10 o’clock, 200 meters away!”

The deck of the z35 destroyer was extremely busy. The soldiers quickly installed the hedgehog bombs into the launcher at the bow of the ship, then adjusted the direction, and finally pressed the switch of the launch device to launch 24 hedgehog bombs one by one at very short intervals, forming an oval barrage with a radius of about 40 meters more than 200 meters away in the front of the destroyer.

At the same time, several other 1938 Type B destroyers that cooperated near the Z35 destroyer also launched hedgehog bombs at the same time.

The sound of puffing ammunition entering the water was particularly clear in the sonar soldiers' ears, and then there was an anxious waiting.

Unlike deep-water bombs that use fixed-depth fuzes, hedgehog bombs use trigger fuses, which can only be detonated when they touch the shell of the submarine. However, once they detonate, the remaining 23 hedgehog bombs will explode together under the vibration caused by the explosion, thus surrounding the submarine in the fire net.

In actual combat, generally speaking, the explosion of a hedgehog bomb is equivalent to the destruction of a boat!

Because there is no submarine that can escape from a series of explosions of 24 30 kg hedgehog bombs (16 kg charge).

However, this sound that could cost a boat life is hard to hear. In most cases, the hedgehogs bounced into the water and fell silently after they were shot into the sea. This time was no exception. 24 hedgehogs bounced into the water for several minutes, and the sea surface was still calm.

"One more round!"

Amid the officer's orders, the sailors on the deck began to fill the launcher with hedgehog bombs. A few minutes later, another 24 hedgehog bombs were ejected, and then there was silence again.

Using hedgehog anti-submarine is so dull. It often doesn't even hear a sound for a few hours. It's a big test of the patience and morale of the soldiers on the destroyer.

However, today the Z35 destroyer was lucky. After launching the 8th round of hedgehog bomb, the rumbling explosion suddenly flashed on the sea with water columns. Then a ball of water mixed with oil exploded, dyeing a large blue sea black, and everyone on the destroyer cheered.

A dozen nautical miles away, a staff officer breathed a sigh of relief on the bridge of the USS Redell: "Sir, it's sunk!"

General Helmut Hayes, commander of the 10th Task Force of the European Union Fleet (also commander of the 1st Fleet), nodded slightly.

It's just an American submarine, nothing scary, and it's not a submarine that can sail underwater at high speed like the Type 21.

"Has the reconnaissance plane discovered it?" Helmut Haye asked.

"Not yet." Haye's chief of staff, Lieutenant General Werner Lovesh (Chief of the 1st Fleet and Chief of Staff of Task Force 10th Task Force) took over the question. "F190te searched all sea areas within a radius of 400 nautical miles and found no U.S. fleet."

The f190te is a two-seat carrier-based reconnaissance bomber that combines the f190t (ship-based combat type) and the f190e (reconnaissance bomb type). It also has certain air combat capabilities and night combat capabilities. It is an air patrolman of the German aircraft carrier formation.

In 1944, each B41 aircraft carrier generally carried 16 commonly used f190tes. Because this aircraft can have a maximum range of 2,400 kilometers without bombs when it is hung with a secondary fuel tank, which is enough to patrol the waters of 400 nautical miles (740 kilometers) around the aircraft carrier formation. Although it cannot be compared with the Japanese "Caiyun" carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft, it is completely sufficient for the European Combined Fleet that mainly fights on the narrower Atlantic Ocean. Moreover, there are a large number of reconnaissance aircraft in the Atlantic Ocean, which provide intelligence support to the fleet, and there is no need for "Caiyun" to have an ultra-long-range reconnaissance aircraft with a range of 5,000 kilometers.

However, now the 10th Task Force has arrived in the vast Pacific Ocean, and it has no support from shore bases or water long-range reconnaissance aircraft, so it is really not accustomed to it.

"Where are Task Force 11 and Task Force 12? Have they found it?" Haye asked again with a frown.

"Neither," replied Lieutenant General Lovesh, "we have found nothing in the submarines deployed in Panama Bay, and the American carriers seem to have disappeared into the air."

Haye raised his eyebrows. Now it is the Pacific Ocean! The sea area is so wide that it is boundless, and there is no support from a large number of shore bases and seaplanes. It is almost impossible to search out the US aircraft carriers that are deliberately hiding with 96 F190tes from three task force.

However, the 32 F190te carrier-based reconnaissance bombers in each task force are enough to ensure that the US aircraft carriers are not allowed to get close.

"Prepare to send air raid formations," Admiral Helmut Haye looked at the watch. "It can blow up 3-4 rounds! Full deck assault, and the two motherships each sent two fighter-bomber squadrons (each fighter-bomber squadron is equipped with 16 Fokker 636 or 16 F190ts), one of which is Fokker squadrons and the other is F190 squadrons! Then order the 11th and 12th task force to send the same number of fighter-bombers."

The three task force each sent two squadrons of the Folk 636 and two squadrons of the F190t, totaling 96 Folk 636 and 96 F190t. Since the three task force are about 200 nautical miles from the Bay of Valparaiso, it is not far away, so it can be fully popped up and can drop 192 250 kilogram bombs and 192 500 kilogram bombs on the heads of the Americans in the Bay of Valparaiso at one time (Fokker 636 can carry 2 500 kilogram bombs with full popped up). Although it is not enough to blow up 10,000 or 20,000 Americans there and suffer heavy losses, it can still let the Americans know that the German aircraft carrier has arrived in the southeast Pacific waters on a large scale!

...

"Sir, Valparaiso Gulf was air strike by at least 200 German carrier-based aircraft!"

At noon on August 20, Admiral Spruenz, who was leading a fleet in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, 700 nautical miles away from the coast of Chile, received information about the bombing of the Gulf of Valparaiso.

"More than 200?" Spruins immediately turned to ask Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Browning, "How many aircraft carriers did the Little Mermaid report before it lost contact?"

"Two large aircraft carriers, Admiral," Lieutenant General Browning said immediately, "The Germans should have adopted the tactic of dispersed formations like us, and may have formed 3-4 dual aircraft carrier teams... It seems that the Germans do not want to take risks."

In World War II, aircraft carrier formations have two ways of concentration and dispersion. Concentrated formations are conducive to organizing large-scale attack aircraft groups. The larger the attack aircraft group, the more conducive it is to break through the opponent's defense. However, correspondingly, aircraft carriers are too concentrated and can easily be beaten by the opponent in one go, especially when the aviation combat power of both sides is relatively close. Therefore, in order to avoid excessive losses, dividing the aircraft carrier into multiple teams and dispersed arrangements also has great advantages.

In the Battle of Valparaiso Bay that began on August 20, 1944, both sides of the warrior adopted the tactic of dispersing aircraft carriers. Admiral Helmut Hayes of Germany formed three dual-carrier task force, while Spruins of the United States divided the eight aircraft carriers into four aircraft carrier strike groups.

"They may also disperse the formation to search for larger areas." Spruins said with his arms held his arms and frowned. "Now Germany's carrier-based aircraft performance is better than us, and their pilots are stronger than our young men, so they have a greater chance of winning the aviation battle..."

Spruenz's prudence is not unreasonable. Since the British subcontinent, which had very advanced aviation technology, surrendered to Germany in 1943, the German aviation industry was able to absorb the strengths of the British aviation industry and thus made great progress. However, the American aviation industry could not receive much technical support from the UK after surrendering to the UK (some British aviation industry experts still came to the United States), so the technological gap in the aviation industry that originally existed between the United States and Germany was further widened.

Among them, the Fokker 636 is equipped with a bmw803 18-cylinder air-cooled engine developed by Bristol, the British company, which has absorbed the Sagittarius engine technology. Without using any combustion technology, the power can reach 2480 horsepower. The bmw801f 14-cylinder air-cooled engine used in the f190t has a power of 2400 horsepower.

After using a powerful engine, the maximum speed of the Fokker 636 and f190t both reached 750 km/h.

Among them, the Folk 636, which has excellent medium and low altitude performance, can reach the highest speed at an altitude of 5,500 meters, and the aircraft can climb to a height of 9,000 meters in 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The climbing performance exceeds that of any known fighter. Its combat capability in the medium and low altitude can completely crush the previous Folk Zero, the King of Medium and Low Altitude King, and it is no longer a problem to defeat the American f6f.

In addition, the firepower of the Folk 636 is also extremely fierce. It is crazy-equipped with 4 20mm cannons and has 580 rounds of missiles, which can easily shoot down the US SBD carrier-based dive bombers and TBF carrier-based torpedo bombers.

Although f190t has a mediocre performance at medium and low altitudes, it is above 6,000 meters, and even p47d can only compete with it.

"Sir, should we launch an air strike? The first attack wave is ready."

Faced with Lieutenant General Browning's question, Spruins hesitated and thought for a while: "You can use shuttle bombing to get the plane to land at the airport in Valparaiso Bay. The aircraft carrier will retreat immediately after releasing the first attack wave, so that the aircraft carrier can be safe no matter what.
Chapter completed!