June 8, 1941, at 3 a.m.

Several regiment-level airports near Brest Port were already crowded with people, and the apron and runway of each airport were illuminated by high-rise searchlights. The ground crew members used trolleys or towed bomb transport vehicles to drag 1,000 kilograms of aviation bombs or 500 kilograms of aviation torpedoes under the belly of the aircraft, then raised them and fixed them on the mount of the aircraft bomb bay. Finally, the safety pins on the bomb or torpedo were removed and the fuse was installed.

In this era, night flight is still a bit dangerous. Fortunately, most of the pilots of the 2nd HNA Division in Brest are experienced old birds, and as long as you fly north for an hour, the sky will gradually brighten. When the sky is almost bright, they will form an attack formation over the Atlantic Ocean. Because it takes off at night, it is difficult to form a formation. You can only specify a gathering coordinate and then form it after dawn.

Today, the commander-in-chief of the First Assault Wave is Major Johannes Steinhof, the captain of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Bombing Aviation Regiment of the HNA. He is one of the few naval officers from the Navy. He joined the Navy Aviation as early as 1934 and has been flying for seven or eight years. At the beginning, he flew seaplanes and later fighters, shooting down more than 25 enemy planes in the Battle of Poland and the Western Front, and received the Blue Max Medal. After the Battle of the Western Front, he was replaced by a flight due to the expansion of the bomber troops.

However, after changing to the ju88 and becoming the captain of the brigade, Major Johannes Steinhof's luck seemed to have come to an end. From the beginning of 1941 to the present, the ju88 bomber he drove has launched dozens of attacks, but has not achieved any results.

"Brothers," Steinhof said loudly to his crew members as the plane was about to take off, "Today we will throw the first bomb! We will sank an aircraft carrier one by one!"

"Yes! Sinking the aircraft carrier!"

"Yes, let the British eat our 1,000 kilogram bomb!"

Just as the crew members cheered, the order for the plane to take off sounded in Steinhof's headphones.

On the runways of five regiment-level airports around the Port of Brest (one of which is stationed in divisions and reconnaissance aircraft), an aircraft roared and rushed into the sky.

Then, one after another, one after another, and soon there were warships in the air in Brest!

However, what the German flight elites did not expect was that as soon as they took off the plane, the flagship of the British local fleet, the USS Nelson, received a related report.

Because at this moment, a British "tribal" class destroyer that had just been installed on the 279 radar was cruising in the English Channel less than 120 kilometers away from the Port of Brest. The 279 radar was illuminating the sky above the Port of Brest!

The main reason for this happening is that the German aircraft deployed in the Port of Brest is too terrible. They may go to the Port of Liverpool (now the largest trading port in the UK) and the anchorage of the local fleet, Clyde Bay, to bombard it indiscriminately. So the British made some destroyers equipped with radars, and approached the Port of Brest from the sea whenever possible, and then used radar for detection. Hopefully, they could issue early warnings when German aircraft took off on a large scale.

"Brest's German aircraft were dispatched on a large scale?" Lieutenant General John Coloning Tovey (Admiral of War) immediately became nervous when he heard the news and asked immediately: "How many aircraft are there? In which direction are they flying?"

"At least 100 aircraft, the direction of flight is unknown, they are in formation."

John Coloning Tovey thought about it for a while and said in a serious tone: "The Germans must have discovered the e-fleet or fleet. These damn planes were used for air strikes."

He took a deep breath: "Immediately order the e fleet and disband the formation immediately! Order the fleet again and speed up the northward, be sure to quickly, otherwise our plans will be in vain.

In addition, please ask the Air Force to send fighters to cover the e-Fleet and fleet immediately!"

The London wartime cabinet command also received a report of the large-scale dispatch of Brest's German aircraft fleet. The Imperial General Staff Chief of Staff General Deer, who stayed here (although Churchill had a room in the underground command of the wartime cabinet, he never stayed), did not dare to take it lightly, and immediately gave General Dowding the Fighter Command order to send all the p-51 and p-40 that could obtain the battlefield and hurricane aircraft to reinforce.

Soon, Northern Ireland and Wales all over the airports in southwestern England, and the pilots were awakened from their sleep, put on their flight suits in a hurry, and then hurried to the apron.

A bloody air battle is about to break out over the Atlantic Ocean in southwest Ireland!

...

June 8, 5:20 am.

Amid the battleship "Bismar" in the port of Bergen, surrounded by hundreds of islands of all sizes, is a debate about more than one million European marks.

The cause of this debate was the British Royal Navy B Fleet, which was discovered by German submarines near the North Strait the evening before.

According to the submarine report, the British fleet consisting of the battlecruiser, including the "Hood" (the Germans already know that the "Hood" is in the fleet B, because the ship is too famous and easy to identify) and another battleship, heading directly north after leaving the North Strait, heading towards the Little Mingqi Strait, and its destination is likely to be the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands.

In other words, this fleet is likely to be here to fight the First High Seas Fleet!

After the news reached the Bismarck and Seedlitz, Lieutenant General Helmut Haye, commander of the High Seas Fleet aircraft carrier force, immediately submitted a request to the fleet commander General Gunther Lütjens to transfer four squadrons of Folk 99 to two aircraft carriers.

There is nothing wrong with adjusting the aircraft carrier on the plane. What really caused Hayes and Lütjens to argue was that Hayes did not intend to reduce the Fokker Zero on the aircraft carrier to make room for the Fokker 99. He wanted to use the deck tie-up method to allow 48 Fokker 99s to be parked on the deck of the two aircraft carriers.

"Helmut, this is the North Sea!" Lütjens said with a frown, "Do you know what the climate and sea conditions of the North Sea look like? Can you put aircraft on the deck in the North Sea?"

The North Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean are not the Pacific Ocean, but the Mediterranean Sea. It is a very likely event to encounter a storm here. If you wander around the sea for ten days and half a month, it must be God and the old man who is blessing.

Therefore, aircraft carriers operating in the North Atlantic and North Sea must carry fighter jets in a full hangar-mounted manner according to regulations. Deck ties are not allowed, otherwise dozens of aircraft will be scrapped every time they go to sea. Isn’t this a waste of money?

"In fact, it is feasible in theory," Helmut Haye replied. "It's June after all, it's better weather."

"Theory?" Lütjens shook his head repeatedly, "As long as there is a storm, these 48 Folk 99s will be done. These are more than one million European marks!"

"Admiral, it's time for war!" said Helmut Haye. "As long as you can win and hit the British 'Hood', more than one million marks, is nothing."

"Hod" severely?" Lütjens asked, "Do you want to attack with a carrier-based aircraft?"

"I want to sink the Hood!" Helmut Haye showed some helplessness. "But the 250-kilogram bomb hanging on the Folk 99 is not powerful enough, so I can only consider severely damaging the Hood. To achieve the goal of severe damaging, I don't need to complete multiple attacks. Just complete one strike. With the hit rate of the Folk 99's dive bomb, it will theoretically severely damaging the Hood and another battleship. In this way, your Bismarck and Tirpitz can catch up with the Hood and then sink it with a naval gun."

In fact, after several major changes, the weight of the Hood increased a lot, and the maximum speed had dropped. It was not as fast as the Bismarck and Tirpitz, but the Germans did not know about this situation.

"And this is also the only way to eliminate the "Houd"!" Helmut Haye said, "Because the British could not use two battleships and battle cruisers to deal with our three battleships. There must be still undiscovered British battleships heading north together with the "Houd", so it is very dangerous to attack with battleships from the beginning.

In addition, the British fleets would definitely not dare to easily enter the shore-based radius of ju88, s.m.79 and Folk Zero. They would only wander outside the radius of our shore-based aircraft, waiting for the weather to come to us to fight to the decisive battle."

This analysis touched Lütjens a bit. The German admiral thought for a while and said, "Maybe we will encounter high sea conditions as soon as we go to sea. Then your 48 Folk 99s will be scrapped if they are not killed..."

This possibility exists. Although the weather forecast shows that the weather conditions in the Beihai in the next few days are acceptable, the weather forecast is not 100% accurate, especially in places like Beihai.

Helmut Haye gritted his teeth, "Then let's change to 48 more aircraft! If you want to dominate the world, you can't bear to spend a little money!"
Chapter completed!