"Sinking 2 aircraft carriers and damaging another."

"Heavy damage to 2 battleships and destruction of at least 2 cruisers?"

In the face of such a report on the results of the battle, Mitchell and Hewitt's brows were furrowed, just now the first attack wave of the army reported the results of the battle "brilliant", and now the side reports that it has "sunk" so many aircraft carriers, but why can the enemy still have at least 3 aircraft carriers? Where did all this come about? Could it be that the Germans still have hidden strength.

"Maybe the statistics of the battle situation are inaccurate, let the 2nd and 3rd attack waves take a good look."

"Sir, the German fleet is coming."

"How many?"

"Between 170,190."

"Fight the enemy with all your might!"

At 10:18, the first attack wave sent by Ozawa arrived over the U.S. fleet, and the distance between the two fleets was just over 350 kilometers.

It's not that Mitchell didn't think about turning to open up the distance, but in the fierce battle, defense and dodging are the first instincts of the fleet, plus he has to rescue a large number of officers and soldiers who have just fallen into the water, so he has no time to carry out the order to quickly disengage, so he can only continue to approach hard, and if he wants to detach, there are not many places he can choose, it is difficult to go east and south, he can only go west and north, in front of the plane, the fleet's movement speed is nothing at all.

In the face of the US fighter planes that were entangled on the periphery, Koch, who led the team, did not panic, but issued an order in an orderly manner: "The fighter jets rush forward, stretch to the two wings, and lead away the US defense surface." ”

Watching the planes crash from the sky one after another, Mitchell and the others' faces looked ugly, they could easily find through the telescope that only one German plane would crash if 23 of their own planes crashed, according to this exchange ratio, not to mention that their own planes were only half more than the opponent's, even twice as many were not enough.

"Boom!" The last two remaining escort aircraft carriers were sunk in less than 3 minutes by the intruding carrier-based aircraft.

"Torpedo attack!"

More than 40 JU298s swooped down as if they were desperate, and just now the US fighters were pinned down by their own fighters in the middle of the altitude, and the defense at low altitude was not strong, which was just convenient for them to release torpedoes. Although the JU298 is not as good as the BTD can carry 2 torpedoes, the effectiveness of the German torpedoes is far better than the American torpedoes, and the JU298 is also much more flexible than the BTDs.

Looking at the numbing white trails on the sea, the ships could only turn to evade, and the tight and integrated formation finally showed a flaw.

However, Koch did not rush to command the attack group to the center, and he led the dive bombers to carefully launch an air attack on the outermost aircraft carrier Shangri-La, not only the Shangri-La itself, but also the Fletcher-class destroyers and Oakland-class air defense cruisers around the perimeter also received special attention. Under the continuous care of 400 kg of aerial bombs, the whole sea began to boil

At 10:44, Koch led the planes that completed the first wave of air raids to return, in the round of attacks just now, although their results were very average on the surface, only sinking 1 Essex-class aircraft carrier, damaging 1 other, plus the last 2 escort aircraft carriers, but the light warships around the perimeter of the US fleet were cleaned up a lot, and even if they were lucky enough not to sink, most of them were injured and slowed down.

Mitchell, who was pale, received good news 3 minutes later: he was sure of sinking the Indefatigable and 1 other escort carrier! Again heavy damage to 1 German battleship!

The results of the first two rounds of attack reports were amazing, but the reports sent by the 2nd and 3rd attack waves to the scene made the two of them shake their heads again and again, the water of the previous results was too great.

"What about this time?"

"You can't be wrong." Mitchell sighed, "Nearly 600 sorties have been sorted, and if you can't hit hard, how should this battle be fought?" ”

"The 4th attack wave has taken off."

"Go attack another German fleet." Mitchell looked at the charts and thoughtfully, "The fleet course has been changed to northwest. ”

This Mitchell bet is right, after being hit 5 torpedoes and 4 1000-pound aerial bombs in a row, even the toughest armored aircraft carrier can't stand it, at 10:45, this cutting-edge armored aircraft carrier slowly sank in the Caribbean Sea, in addition, the Germans also lost an additional escort aircraft carrier, while Tirpitz and Richelieu each ate 1 torpedo, and now the overall speed of the formation has dropped to only 23 knots.

Hintz's face was full of sadness, his fleet combat strength was almost exhausted, and the remaining aircraft carrier of the Grudge also suffered many near-misses, although it was lucky to maintain its combat capability, but only 1 aircraft carrier and more than 50 aircraft overhead, plus 2 battleships with not light injuries, as long as the US military had another large attack wave, he estimated that he would have to explain here.

"The commander already knows the situation of the battle, and orders the fleet to reunite! Hope we hold on! ”

Hintz nodded emphatically and strode over to the megaphone: "We have defeated 4 enemy attacks and successfully completed the mission!" I'm so proud of you! ”

"Hooray!"

"Now, let's hold on until the last moment!"

"We're going to hold on!"

The German 2nd attack wave and the US 4th attack wave both had the same thoughts, and they encountered in the air, and the escort fighters of both sides immediately fought hard, because Mitchell drew more F6F fighters to escort them, and their strength was inferior to Super Purple Electric and Super Gale, so they were suppressed very much, but in 3 minutes of fighting, 19 F6F fell into the sea, and their opponents only lost 4.

Mitchell and Ozawa both know this truth, so the scale of this round of attack waves sent by both sides is not small: the US military has a total of 243 aircraft, in addition to the 19 that crashed into the sea halfway, and 224 pounced on the German fleet, and the German army also poured out, attacking Puerto Rico in the early morning, attacking the planes returning from Puerto Rico, the attack planes transferred from the Resentment and the Indefatigable, the attack planes dispatched from the rear cross-platform, and the reserve aircraft in the inventory were all taken out to fight, a total of 193 planes were dispatched. The remaining 189 planes rushed towards the main fleet of the US army.

So far, although the US military has a larger numerical and preemptive advantage, it has been offset by the qualitative superiority of the German army, and the losses on both sides are basically the same, or even greater than the American side.

The United States lost 1 fleet aircraft carrier plus 10 escort carriers, in addition to 3 cruisers and 5 destroyers, and Germany lost 1 armored aircraft carrier, 3 escort aircraft carriers and 2 battleships, and also lost 2 cruisers and 3 destroyers.

However, since the overall number of the Atlantic Fleet exceeds that of the Axis Fleet, the US military still has a certain advantage.

"Have you been in contact with Joesona? How many more planes can be sent by land-based? ”

"I got in touch and transferred more than 140 planes from Haiti, but because the Puerto Rico airport and supporting facilities are still being repaired urgently, they won't be able to attack until at least 1 p.m."

Mitchell slammed the handrail, he was too gullible to believe the results reported by the air force just now, and as a result, he sent 3 waves of attack waves in a row and failed to complete the task of the final strangulation, he knew that this was the case, he might as well use these 3 waves of attack waves to deal with the main German fleet.

But there is no regret medicine in this world, he said coldly: "Let the Air Force speed up the pace, if it is later, we can only collect the corpse." ”

At noon, the sailors on both sides hurriedly swallowed their biscuits or sandwiches, their vigilant eyes fixed on the air, all anti-aircraft artillery fire was intensifying their ammunition, and the moment of decisive battle finally came

:,,!!