When the 10th Italian bombing aviation regiment commanded by Major Mussolini completed the first round of attacks (that is, each aircraft dropped 1 hs293 bomb), there were 58 left in the p.108s in the sky. One aircraft was directly hit by a 4.5-inch anti-aircraft artillery shell and exploded into pieces. Another one was injured by shrapnel of anti-aircraft artillery shells, and the fuel tank was also leaked, so it was forced to return early.

The "artificial guidance" type HS293 gliding bombs dropped by these p.108s bombers were not a hit every time. After all, the current "artificial guidance" is incomparable to later GPS guidance. After all, 59 bombs were dropped, about 40%, or 24, hit the target, but it still blew the British fleet on the water with scars.

The King George V battleship successively won 5 HS293 bombs, except for one that was not exploded, all the other four exploded. One of them hit the y-turret at the stern, causing the secondary gun commander at the stern of the turret to malfunction; one penetrated the upper deck of the bow and exploded between the upper deck and the middle deck, causing a small fire; one bomb hit the Commander Tower with strong armor protection, causing no damage; one bomb drilled into the water before hitting the battleship, but it exploded before hitting the stern of the battleship, and exploded, breaking a big hole in the thin lightning-proof armor of King George V. However, such damage was not fatal to King George V.

But the four aircraft carriers, including the Victory, the Kerwei and the Independence, were not so lucky. The hs293 gliding bomb is actually a 500-kilogram semi-armor-piercing bomb. The penetration performance of this bomb is not as good as that of the armor-piercing bomb. It is a bit difficult to deal with battleships like King George V. However, the flight deck used to bomb the aircraft carrier is more than enough.

Even an armored aircraft carrier like the Glory level cannot withstand the attack of 500 kilograms of half-armor-piercing bombs. Because the so-called armored flight deck does not mean that the entire flight deck is armored, but only a section of the flight deck (which can guarantee basic take-off and landing requirements) has relatively strong armor, otherwise the armored deck of this level of aircraft carrier will be extremely heavy. In the rest, either only a thin layer of steel plate means, or there is only a wooden deck, which can't withstand the impact of hs293 at all.

In just the first round of attack, the Glory hit 4 bombs. The first bomb penetrated from the flight deck without any armor. It penetrated several layers of decks in the internal non-commissioned compartment. The vibration of the explosion and the fire caused the fire destroyed many pipelines and lines, and temporarily failed the radar; the first bomb hit the Glory chimney, breaking the thick chimney on the spot and causing the steam pipeline to rupture, and the speed dropped to 15 knots. At the same time, the shrapnel produced by the explosion swept across the deck like raindrops. Fortunately, all the planes had taken off at that time, and there were not many aircraft personnel on the deck, so no major casualties were caused; the third bomb penetrated the lifting platform near the bow (although it was also

The armored area) then exploded outside the hangar. Although it did not penetrate the bulkhead of the hangar, it completely destroyed the bow lifting platform and caused a fire. The fourth bomb fell on the flight deck of the ship with solid armor. Although the 500kg-class semi-armor-piercing bomb fell from an altitude of more than 5,000 meters and was enough to penetrate 185mm of armor, which was far exceeding the thickness of the glitter-class flight deck armor. However, since HS293 was a gliding bomb and the falling speed was not as fast as an ordinary bomb, it could not form a penetration, but stuck in the middle of the steel plate and wooden board of the flight deck. A huge hole was made on the flight deck.

Victory was slightly better than Glory. Two of the five HS293 gliding bombs that hit it were duds. The other three HS293 gliding bombs hit the aircraft carrier's bridge, a double-mounted 4.5-inch secondary gun turret on the stern flight deck and a port side. Although it also caused a fire and caused a 4.5-inch shell to explode, the aircraft carrier's aircraft deck function was not lost and the power system was kept intact.

The Kewei was the most unlucky of the four Glory Classes. Six HS293 gliding bombs hit it. One of them also hit the waterline of the stern, which was not the key protection area of ​​the Glory Class aircraft carrier at all. The huge power generated by the explosion of 250 kilograms of explosives suddenly opened a large hole at the stern of the terrifying ship, and even the bulkhead of the nearby engine compartment was blown out of the crack. A large amount of sea water poured into a turbine compartment, which quickly submerged it, and also lost the aircraft carrier.

One-third of the power was made. The other five bombs hit the bow deck, the ship deck, the stern lifting platform, the upper part of the bridge and the bottom of the chimney, causing huge damage! In particular, the bomb hitting the bottom of the chimney did not penetrate into the engine compartment and exploded, and another engine compartment was destroyed, which also damaged the pipeline that transported steam, completely lost the power of the aircraft carrier and could not perform drainage operations. If the power was not restored as soon as possible, the aircraft carrier would be dead!

The Fortune had good luck. Four HS293 gliding bombs hit its flight deck, three of which formed a throughput, blowing up the non-commissioned officer cabin, the bow lift platform and several minor cabins at the stern, causing a fire. Another hit the flight deck at a smaller angle, without forming a throughput, and did not blow up the deck.

"God, are you going to abandon the British Empire?" Cunningham stared blankly at the aircraft carrier that was tilted on the sea and was still burning. He listened to the Chief of Staff Lister reporting the damage with a trembling voice, and even wanted to die.

It was obvious that dozens of four-round heavy bombers dropped bombs at a height of 9,000 meters... This should be without any accuracy. With great luck, one or two hits. Why did you "shot every shot" now? In the blink of an eye, all four aircraft carriers were severely damaged!

Is this British Empire really going to be over?

"The enemy plane is coming, get close to us!"

Just when Sir Cunningham was almost unable to think about it, 24 f4fs, which were in direct cover missions, finally received the order to climb up to a height of 9,000 meters. For carrier-based fighters that mainly focus on medium and low altitudes, it is difficult to fly so high, which requires a specially designed supercharger and aerodynamic shape. The superchargers used for high altitudes are purely burdensome in medium and low altitudes, which are conducive to climbing aerodynamic shapes and are not conducive to maneuverability. Therefore, there were no models that were high and low altitudes in World War II (but the large series of high and low altitudes exist, such as the p51 series, with high and low altitude models under it).

After hearing the report from his subordinates, Major Bruno Mussolini didn't want to take risks, so he quickly ordered the flight altitude to be increased by 2,000 meters and rushed to a height of 11,000. Of course, those f4fs could also climb up, but their engines did not have turbochargers, and the output power dropped very significantly at an altitude of 11,000. The aircraft seemed to be in slow motion and became very easy to hit. In front of 58 p.108s heavy bombers who maintained a flight formation that kept covering each other, 24 f4fs that were panting and struggling to maintain altitude and lacked firepower (6 12.7mm machine guns are a huge threat to the Folk Zero, and the solid p.108s are not enough) that really poses no big threat.

"Continue to maintain formation and pay attention to covering each other." When all the planes climbed into place, Bruno Mussolini had already ordered loudly in an uncontrollable tone of excitement, "Continue to attack the British aircraft carriers and battleships on the water. For the sake of Italy and the Roman Empire, we must sink them!"

...

"Commander, that's a bomb with wings and tails, and dragging wires!"

The staff officer who was sent by Lister to see the bomb was already panting and ran back to the Commander Tower and began to report his discovery to Cunningham and Lister.

"Trag the wire?" Cunningham turned his head and looked at Major Jackson, the communications officer of the fleet. If anyone in the local fleet command is most familiar with things like wires and signal transmission, then it would undoubtedly be Major Jackson.

"Commander, I think the Germans invented a bomb that can fly with remote control!" Major Jackson immediately guessed what was going on, "No wonder they were so accurate..."

"A bomb that can be remotely controlled?" Cunningham asked immediately, "Is this kind of bomb difficult to manufacture?"

Cunningham had already thought of imitating this kind of "eyed" bomb. If such bombs can be dropped with mosquito planes, then there may be some defense battles in the UK.

"It's not difficult in theory, because it's wired and it's completely feasible in technology," Major Jackson replied. "I think we can build the same weapon soon. But this kind of bomb must be difficult to operate, and it's impossible to hit the target without months of training."

His prediction is correct. The hs293 gliding bomb is very difficult to control, and its operators need at least 6 months of rigorous training before they can get on duty.

"How many months?" Cunningham smiled bitterly, "I hope that before this, the Germans will not rush across the straits millions and tear our empire to pieces."

"Bomb, it's coming again!" someone suddenly screamed, interrupting the conversation between Cunningham and Major Jackson.

The 58 p.108s heavy bombers in the sky have set up a new attack formation at an altitude of 11,000 meters, and a new round of remote-controlled gliding bomb attack has begun!

Seeing the small black dots gliding down the sky, Sir Cunningham sighed bitterly. He knew that his fleet was over, and the British Empire was over, and the sunset of the Sun-Don't Setting Empire was coming soon. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!