Less than 100 meters. .

If it is daytime now, from this height, the sea level is almost stuck to the belly of the plane, and everything on the water can be seen at a glance. At night, even if the moonlight and stars are twinkling in the sky, the water is still dark, like a bottomless abyss, which will swallow everything falling from the sky at any time!

In fact, without the excellent radio GEG and airborne radar, a huge twin-engine medium bomber like Ju188 could not fly over the sea at night at an altitude of less than 100 meters. This is no different from suicide. As long as there is a slight mistake, people will lead the plane to the sea.

The reason why Colonel Peltz, who personally flew the plane to lead the attack was not to show off his superb driving skills, but to avoid the detection of American ship radars as much as possible to ensure the suddenness of the attack.

Colonel Peltz gently held the steering wheel with both hands and carefully controlled the plane to fly smoothly. His navigator Sergeant Wolf Schmidt stared at the PPI screen of the onboard radar, trying to find out the position of the US fleet from it.

However, due to the low flight altitude, the airborne radar's horizon is not very good, and the targets cannot be seen too far, Wolf Schmidt has not discovered the position of the US fleet for a while.

Just when Sergeant Schmidt was anxious, a red flash suddenly appeared in the darkness, and then about ten seconds later, about ten kilometers west of the initial red light, another even more red light appeared, as if a volcanic eruption suddenly occurred on the ground.

"Bombardment!" Colonel Peltz shouted excitedly, "At 12 o'clock, the American fleet was shelling the coast of Georgetown...we have found them!"

"Colin," Navigator Wolf Schmidt also shouted at this time, "Radar discovers the target! 2 o'clock direction, distance 40, quantity 8."

The ship discovered by the radar was obviously not the ship that Peltz saw that was shooting the coast. The latter was closer and the direction was different. In fact, the radar was detected by the radar. The targets that Peltz's ju188 needed to attack were a warning circle composed of destroyers and light cruisers.

However, Peltz ignored Schmidt, but pressed the throat communicator and issued an order to the whole team: "Please note that I am Colonel Peltz. Now I have issued an order. The target is at 12 o'clock and is firing at a distance of about 50 kilometers. The squadrons are preparing to attack and adopt the gold comb tactic. After the attack is completed, they will immediately raise the height to more than 6,000 meters and hover over the enemy fleet!"

His choice is understandable. The airborne search radar of this era is not very reliable and cannot be compared with the naked eye at all. So when the naked eye can find the target, no one will rely on the radar.

At this time, less than 30 nautical miles away, more than a dozen Fletcher-class destroyers from the 31.8th Destroyer Battalion of the U.S. Navy were bombarding the downtown Georgetown with their 127mm high-level dual-purpose guns.

According to the information obtained by the Americans, this dilapidated city located on the Atlantic shore is almost unguarded. The bombers flying from Trinidad did not encounter any counterattacks from ground anti-aircraft artillery. They successfully dropped thousands of tons of bombs and incendiary bombs, turning the shanty towns inhabited by Indians and blacks into a sea of ​​fire.

So Halsey did not arrange for his nine super battleships to bombard Georgetown with 406mm main guns, but only ordered the 31.8th Destroyer Team, which completed the minesweeping mission, to use 127mm high-level dual-purpose guns to clear the obstacles on the beach.

However, 16 127mm guns from the Fletcher-class destroyers fired at the same time, and the scene was still very spectacular. Looking out from the bridge of the destroyer William D. Porter, Georgetown's beaches and nearby city areas, there were continuous fireballs rising up, and the shelling effect seemed to be very good.

The unlucky captain Walter on this destroyer is in a good mood now and waited until the shelling is completed. The main task of the destroyer "William D. Porter" in this landing operation has been successfully completed.

Considering that this destroyer has always been unlucky, it is really not easy to complete such a dangerous task successfully and without any mistakes.

Just as Captain Walter was about to thank God in his heart, his second mate almost screamed: "Enemy plane! Southwest direction! The distance is about 18,000, the height is less than 100, and the number is unknown!"

"What? The height is less than 100? Is the German man crazy or the radar broken? It's night now!" Captain Walter was startled by the sudden situation. Before he could order verification, the flagship "Anthony" destroyer had already called "all air defense" and "going to avoid routes in the S-shaped manner"... It seems that the radar of the destroyer "William.d. Porter" did not fail this time.

The air defense alarm was immediately sounded, and the 127mm gun on the destroyer "William D. Porter" immediately stopped shooting on the other side and pointed the muzzle into the air. All 40mm guns and 20mm guns also completed the preparation for air shooting in the shortest time.

Just when everything looked perfect, a high-power searchlight on the ship was suddenly turned on, and the eye-catching light column was unbiased and shot towards the flagship "Anthony" located directly in front of the destroyer "William D. Porter".

"Damn it, who is on the searchlight? The German plane has not yet entered the range!" As soon as Captain Walter's scolding came out, the "rumbling" cannon sounded again, and at the same time, another searchlight shot out a dazzling light.

The position of the US destroyer formation has been completely exposed!

The German ju188 bombers in the air immediately captured the opportunity. The 36 aircraft were divided into two large formations of 18 aircraft. One of the formations lined up in an echelon, and with the random air defense firepower, 36 torpedoes were fired 2,000 meters away from the right side of the US destroyer formation (each ju188 can carry 2 torpedoes).

Another formation fired the same number of torpedoes at an angle of 90 degrees. This tactic was called "gold comb" by the Germans, which made it difficult for the targets to be attacked to avoid the torpedo after turning.

...

"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

When several huge fireballs rose from the sea in the distance, General Halsey was standing inside the particularly tall bridge of the battleship Iowa, looking at the scene of shelling downtown Georgetown. While he was stunned, the voice of the staff's report rang out.

"Admiral, the 31.8th Destroyer Brigade reported that it was found an enemy plane flying at a very low altitude!"

"What?" Halsey was shocked when he heard this, "Flying at an ultra-low altitude at night? Was the explosion just now a torpedo plane attacking? Is it the Golden Comb tactic?"

Although Halsey himself had never seen the "gold comb tactics" of Germany, he had heard of this tactic's famous "gold comb" ravaging the Atlantic Ocean. When he commanded aircraft carriers in the Pacific Fleet to deal with the Japanese. Although the Japanese naval aviation was also powerful, playing this "black technology" was not their style.

The staff officer reported again: "Admiral, the flagships of the 31.8 Destroyer Brigade, the USS Anthony and William D. Porter, each of them, were hit by two torpedoes, and the two destroyers were about to sink! Benny and Bill also hit one torpedo each..."

"Damn German!" Halsey cursed hard for a moment, then immediately reacted and quickly ordered: "All ships have strengthened air searches to prevent enemy aircraft from raiding at ultra-low altitudes!"

As soon as his order was issued, dozens or hundreds of searchlight lights were emitted from the sea at the same time, and then the 127mm Gaoping dual-purpose gun was rumbling and firing.

It turned out that the 34 ju188s that had just shot the torpedo (one was shot down and one was injured) did not fly away immediately. Instead, they raised the height according to the plan and scattered into three-air formations (10 3-air formations and two-air formations), spinning around the US fleet, pretending to continue launching air strikes.

As a result, many American destroyers and cruisers' radars on the water discovered that enemy planes were approaching, blindly turned on the searchlights and fired randomly, completely exposing themselves, and most of the American sailors focused on the air.

"Twin-boat formation, 11 o'clock, go forward at full speed!" Colonel Johnson had already chosen the target at this time. The torpedo speedboat he commanded did not drill in from the gap between the American destroyer/light cruiser's warning circle and the coastline like an aircraft, but rushed directly to eight escort destroyers worth more than 1,000 tons.

The main function of escort destroyers is anti-submarine, and the firepower of air defense and anti-ships is relatively poor, generally two 127mm high-level dual-purpose guns, one 40mm gun and five 20mm machine guns.

However, for the S100 boat that can launch T1 533mm torpedoes from 6,000 meters, it is threatening to have only two 127mm guns on an escort destroyer, which is difficult to sink the torpedo speedboat that is galloping at a high speed of 42 knots. Moreover, the attention of these eight escort destroyers and the other two nearby escort destroyers was attracted by several ju188s hovering in the sky, and all 127mm guns were firing in the air.
Chapter completed!