Italian aircraft carrier fleet.

Flagship, the USS Eagle aircraft carrier.

The telephone ringing sounds in the commander's tower, and the staff in charge of communications kept informing the latest orders and intelligence to the fleet commander General Anzu Aquino.

All the good news came, and the good ones were unbelievable, as if the goddess of happiness had arrived in Italy overnight.

The arrogant British Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet must have been defeated! One aircraft carrier, two battleships were sure to sink! Another "Nelson" class battleship was severely damaged, and one "Revenge" class battleship was severely damaged (it was the Determination, which was crippled by the 4th assault wave, and it was hit by 3 bombs and 2 torpedoes)

Although the -200 reconnaissance aircraft has not yet found the remaining two British aircraft carriers, Admiral Anzu Aquino could no longer help sending his carrier-based aircraft out to catch a pair. He has 96 carrier-based aircraft, of which 48 are the Folk 99 dive bombers. Although this aircraft can only carry 250 kilograms of bombs and poses no threat to battleships, cruisers and destroyers cannot withstand their attacks.

Now the battleships are almost blown away by the air force, and the Italian Navy has not yet achieved any achievements. Isn’t it reasonable?

Who knows if the night battle will start to fight tonight? It’s better to send 48 Folk 99s out first and sank a few light cruisers!

It was precisely with this idea that Admiral Anzu Aquino kept asking for attacks since 12 noon. At 4:10 pm, it was getting dark, and the order that Admiral Compioni allowed to attack had not yet been sent.

"Have you found the British aircraft carrier?" General Anzu Aquino asked loudly.

"No..." The staff officer shook his head, "-200 has searched the large area of ​​sea south of Crete, and found nothing. It seems that the British aircraft carrier is not there."

"Not here? Then where are they?" General Anzu Aquino frowned. He was not worried about not being able to find the British aircraft carrier, but was worried about not being able to launch an attack in time.

It's almost dark now. If you can't launch an attack after 60 minutes, you don't have to fight and you can wash and sleep. Tonight, even if the combat fleet catches up with the British fleet, it doesn't have the ability to attack the carrier-based aircraft at night. Now it's still the British's unique skill!

However, this unique skill can only deal with fleets that are parked in the port. For fleets that can run dozens of kilometers per hour, it is impossible to use a torpedo machine to attack at night.

In other words, when it gets dark, the Italian aircraft carrier fleet will no longer be able to be air strikes from the enemy.

The staff officer suddenly reported loudly: "Admiral, the plane responsible for direct cover reported that a British seaplane was found."

"Just kill!" Admiral Anzu Yaquino said impatiently, "Go and ask General Compioni again and ask the carrier-based aircraft to attack!"

...

"Lieutenant, it's not right!"

"Prince, why is it wrong? That's a British seaplane!"

“But it’s not Short ‘Sunderland’.”

“That’s ‘walrus’ style, I know it.”

"The 'walrus' is usually carried by battleships and cruisers."

"Don't worry about him, fight first. Prince, you come first, I'll cover it."

Between the blue sky and white clouds of the Mediterranean, two German carrier-based pilots, Hessman's baby son Rudolph and Egmon Lipp Wesenfield, leisurely chasing a British "Walrus" seaplane that was running away desperately for a while, and finally decided that Prince Lipp Wesenfield would shoot it down.

Just before Prince Lip Wiesenfield shot down the Walrus seaplane, a critical intelligence had been sent out by the telegrapher on the Walrus plane.

"Major General, the seaplane of York, found two Italian aircraft carriers, only a few cruisers and destroyers protected, with coordinates of 35.3 degrees north latitude and 19.2 degrees east longitude."

On the USS Glory aircraft carrier, Colonel Boyd, Chief of Staff of the Fleet B, reported the information he had just obtained to commander Major General Lister.

Both of them looked ugly. Although fleet B was still silent on radio, the telegram sent by fleet A could still be received.

Therefore, they already knew that the heavy losses of Fleet A were! This surprised them. Although they had long known that the German shore-based aircraft were difficult to deal with, British intelligence personnel had long figured out the situation of the shore-based aircraft deployed by Germany on Sicily.

Among them, the 9 Ju88 squadrons and 9 He-115 squadrons can be used to attack the fleet. The ju88 is indeed a very powerful aircraft and poses a great threat to surface ships. However, the shore-based model of the He-115 improved from the seaplane is not a very good torpedo bomber. It has slow speed, weak firepower, and no armor, so it is easy to be shot down.

So in the eyes of Major General Lister and Colonel Boyd, the 9 squadrons' ju88 that really pose a threat to the British Mediterranean fleet. However, judging from the war situation reports of Fleet A that they received, the Italian hunchbacked plane seemed to have exerted a very powerful attack power.

Even the Italians will fight. Is this God going to destroy the British Empire?

However, now there is finally good news. Two Italian aircraft carriers appeared within the attack range of the carrier-based aircraft of the B fleet attacking from the point, and there is no battleship with relatively strong air defense firepower nearby.

"About 300 kilometers!" Colonel Boyd and the staff of the fleet B had calculated the distance and time, "It takes 1 and a half hours... It's 4:15 pm now, so it should be too late."

"Ship-based aircraft sets off!"

Major General Lister is waiting for this opportunity!

"Break the radio silence," he then ordered, "notify Commander Cunningham and the Mediterranean Air Force Command of the location of the Italian aircraft carrier."

The British Mediterranean Air Force Command has been waiting for this news for a long time.

In several simple airports on Crete, six squadrons of Blenheim light bombers and three squadrons of P-39 "Flying Snake" fighters were arranged neatly along the runway. As soon as the order arrived, an alarm sounded across the airport. Blenheim and P-39 began to take off. More than one hundred fighters were divided into three assault waves, rushing eastward, covering the sky and the sun.

At the same time, on the decks of the Italian aircraft carriers Eagle and Sparrow Eagle, there were 32 aircraft ready to go.

The two aircraft carriers, galloped in the wind at a speed of 25 knots, creating a huge deck wind. With the departure order from the flight control tower, two Folk 99 aircraft were the first to rush out of the deck.

One after another, two aircraft carriers released the aircraft at a speed of one per minute. The Folk Zero and Folk 99 filled the sky in an instant, roaring towards the east!

"Admiral, 48 Folk 99s and 16 Folk Zero all took off!"

Commander of the Battleship "Veneto", Major General Baroni, said to Admiral Compionni in a very excited tone: "It's 4:41 now, and at 5:30 they can attack the British cruisers and destroyers at the latest!"

The use of the Folk 99 to attack British cruisers and destroyers is not within the "Harves" plan, but was temporarily proposed by Admiral Aquino, the commander of the Italian aircraft carrier fleet. And there is a reason why General Compioni agreed. He wanted the Folk 99 to injure some British ships, and it would be better to light some of them. This would be very easy to find the British fleet tonight.

In addition, injuring or sinking some British cruisers and destroyers can also reduce the risk of the Italian fleet being torpedoed by the British during the "chaotic war" tonight.

At this time, General Compionni asked Baronnie: "Have you done the plan for the chaos tonight?"

"Okay," said Baroni, "The British are likely to have only four intact battleships, and perhaps several heavy cruisers. It is estimated that they will use these main battleships to form artillery formations to cover the injured battleships to escape. We should first form three double battleship formations, each of which consists of two battleships of the same class, and are accompanied by several light cruisers and destroyers. The three battleship formations will launch full-speed impacts on the enemy artillery column under the cover of night. In order to disperse the enemy's battle lines in the shortest time to enter the chaos mode. Then the two Earl Cafur class and two Doria class will be responsible for entangling three British battleships in good condition. The two Venetto class are responsible for searching for injured British battleships, and use their speed and firepower advantages to quickly sink them with the cooperation of light cruisers and destroyers."

Speaking of this, Major General Baroni suddenly said in a firm tone: "Tonight, even if we lose one or two old-fashioned battleships, we will sink that 'Nelson' class!"

Admiral Compioni focused his attention and said, "As long as we sink that 'Nelson' class, our Italian Navy will be the master of the Mediterranean!"

"Admiral, the fire on the 'Rodney' has been extinguished, the speed has been restored to 15 knots, and the nine main guns are intact, but the rudder has been completely destroyed. Now we can only rely on cruisers to traction to change the course."

On the "War-weary", Major General Crachley reported good news to Cunningham with a slightly joyful voice. After the efforts of the team members, the fire on the "Rodney" was finally put out. This means that it will not become a sea torch that attracts shells tonight.
Chapter completed!