Ⅲ

Just when several torpedo planes were charging against the fierce German anti-aircraft artillery fire, and finally approached the ideal bombing position, a strange "buzzing" sound appeared above their heads at an inopportune time.

The soldiers on several "Swordfish" heard the sound, except for the pilot of the plane, they all "coincidentally" looked up, and then "coincidentally" were startled, and finally "coincidentally" slapped the person sitting in front. Pilot's shoulders.

"Ahh! The German plane is overhead!!! Hide! Hide!!!"

The second half of the torpedo plane's attack route belongs to ultra-low altitude flight, almost close to the sea surface, so this requires the pilot to concentrate all their energy. At this time, if they are a little distracted, it may cause a tragedy of plane crash.

Even a little bit of distraction might happen, not to mention the group of unlucky people who were "surprised" by their teammates. At that time, a pilot was startled, and unluckily pushed the joystick with a trembling hand, and drove directly. The plane fell into the sea.

But the other pilots reacted quickly, subconsciously pulled up the plane, worthy of the reputation of the Royal Navy.

After a wonderful operation, the pilot changed the attacking route and braved the German anti-aircraft fire to raise the height again. He turned his head and glared at his teammates, roaring angrily.

"What the hell are you?!"

"No, no!" The torpedo operator and communicator in the back row waved their hands again and again, pointing to the three planes that were chasing after him to level off, "A German fighter!"

"Shit!" The pilot who turned his head followed the eyes of his comrades and saw three seaplanes painted with the German standard Iron Cross painting. Afterburner was removed in an attempt to get rid of the leveling German aircraft.

He knew very well what would happen if the thin-skinned, slow-moving swordfish was bitten by a German fighter jet.

In order to survive, the correspondent sitting at the back also used the 7.7mm "Vickers" aviation machine gun he was in charge of... Oh no, the aviation "small water gun" (compared to the 20mm machine gun on the AR196 carrier-based water reconnaissance aircraft) ), and "raised the water" to the German reconnaissance plane that was chasing after it.

Although the two huge buoys attached to the fuselage of the AR196, which are used to land on the water, seriously slowed down its speed and reduced its maneuverability, it is not old, with a maximum speed of only 225 kilometers per hour. Hours of "Swordfish" can be compared.

What's more, these "Swordfish" also carried a 533mm aviation torpedo weighing 1,600 pounds.

So after a "long" pursuit of more than ten seconds, the two "Swordfish" were blown up in the air and turned into a ball of fire amidst the "bang bang" of the AR196 cannon firing, and the fragments scattered into the sea.

The two "pipe-nose swallows" of the British army soaring in the sky to watch the show discovered that three German planes had mixed in behind their attacking fleet. Judging from their appearance, they looked like three water reconnaissance planes.

"FUCK! Where did the three German planes come from?" The pilot of the No. 1 "Guanbiyan" hurriedly steered the plane to speed up and chase the "Swordfish School" that was being unilaterally hanged.

"It must be hiding in the clouds!" No. 2 "Pipe Nose Swallow" said with certainty, as if he had known for a long time that there were three German planes ambush in the clouds.

Although the AR196 is equipped with a powerful 20mm cannon, which makes it full of threats in combat, it is still a reconnaissance aircraft after all, and it is far behind professional fighter jets in every respect.

The two "Tube-nose Swallows" of the British army quickly caught up with an AR196 that slowed down its speed to 220 kilometers in order to attack the "Swordfish", and then mercilessly used the 8 .303-inch ( 7.7mm) aviation "little water gun" sent AR196 "Zi" into the sea.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the other two AR196s hurriedly turned on the afterburner to increase their altitude, trying to re-enter the clouds to avoid the British fighter jets, but the top speed of the "Pipe Nose Swallow" completely shattered their illusions and took the first place. A "pipe-nose swallow" fell into the sea in the footsteps.

The two "Tube-nose Swallows" that had achieved triple kills shook their wings to the remaining "Swordfish" to signal that all the enemy planes had been wiped out, and then left this "land of right and wrong" full of German anti-aircraft shells. ", returned to a safe place and continued to "watch the show".

"The Germans have been killed, re-formation! Re-formation!" The commander of the "Swordfish" fleet was fortunately not shot down. After confirming that the threat was eliminated, he immediately issued an order to other "Swordfish" via radio.

After hearing the commander's order, the fleeing "Swordfish" quickly regrouped in the safe area, but the number has been reduced from 12 at the beginning of the attack to 6.

A formation of 6 aircraft was obviously unable to pose any threat to the German heavy cruisers with powerful anti-aircraft firepower when attacking in separate formations.

"Damn it!" Commander "Swordfish" sighed in frustration. He felt that it would be very difficult for him to sink a German heavy cruiser today to avenge the British cruiser formation buried in Jutland.

"Sir, why don't we learn from the Germans and try a joint attack by attack planes and bombers?" Just as the commander was about to lead the rest of the "Swordfish" to bite the bullet, a sailor had an idea and thought of the German attack. Naval aviation classic bomber - torpedo aircraft joint attack tactics.

"But we haven't undergone systematic training..." The commander opened his mouth, but still nodded, "This is the only way we can do it now."

The British Royal Navy did not have sufficient training in the joint attack tactics often adopted by the German naval aviation, or in other words, compared to Germany, the entire world lacked sufficient knowledge of the tactical tactics of the naval aviation.

Historically, although humans successfully used carrier-based aircraft to sink ships as early as August 1915 (a "Short" 184 seaplane of the British army sank a Turkish supply ship with torpedoes), it was not until the British army After the surprise attack on Taranto on November 9, 1940, sinking one Italian battleship and injuring two, the world began to gradually realize how much influence naval aviation has on naval warfare.

In the true sense, the decisive battle of the pure aircraft carrier fleet did not even appear until 1942 (from May 3 to 8, 1942, Japan formed a maritime formation with 3 aircraft carriers, 125 aircraft, and 27 large and medium-sized warships, and the United States formed a maritime formation with 2 aircraft carriers, 141 aircraft and 20 large and medium-sized warships formed a sea formation, and the first sea decisive battle of a purely aircraft carrier in the history of naval warfare was held in the Coral Sea. The main guns of the battleships were not even fired, and the carrier-based aircraft were allowed to conduct sea-air battles. As a result, a light aircraft carrier, a destroyer, 80 aircraft, and 900 people were lost every day; the United States lost an aircraft carrier, a destroyer, and a tankers, 66 aircraft and 543 people.)

So the tactics that Lyon brought to Germany's HNA were beyond the times, and it is also reasonable that the current British Royal Navy lacks sufficient understanding and training for such tactics.

It is ironic to say that, the United Kingdom, a pioneer of aircraft carriers in history, has been reduced to the point where it has to learn from Germany.