Fate teased Spruance once, causing his fleet to suffer a major blow when it was discovered by the planes in transit yesterday, but no one expected that the compensation given to him by fate would come so quickly. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

At 9:47, the German North Sea Fleet, which had been heading northeast, was about 530 kilometers southwest of Madeira, when a Portuguese-flagged freighter sailed less than 20 nautical miles from the fleet and left in terror like a rabbit seeing a wolf. This is a merchant ship returning to Portugal from Brazil, and the destroyer on the periphery who is on guard duty does not care when it sees it, and signals to deal with it and leave as soon as possible.

This was a very common way to deal with it, but I didn't expect that the captain of the ship, Jo Pinto, was actually a fiery patriot, and after learning that the Azores were suddenly occupied by Germany and forced to lease them, he had been indignant, and wanted to find fault with the Germans, and less than half an hour after leaving the scene, he actually sent a telegram in Morse code: "There is a German fleet 300 nautical miles southwest of Madeira, and the ships are careful to avoid being injured by mistake......

On the surface, this telegram was not problematic at all, and seemed to be a "kind" reminder to other merchant ships to avoid it in advance, but it completely exposed the position of the fleet. If Pinto did not know that the two fleets were preparing for battle, it seemed to him that this telegram was enough to warn the other ships not to be discovered by the German fleet on a mission to break the diplomatic relationship—he wanted to see the frustration of the Germans getting nothing, and as for himself, he thought that he was piloting a Portuguese neutral ship, and that the Germans would not do anything with him, but at best scare him with their cannons.

"Bastard!" Crank, who received the warning, burst into a thunderous storm and broke out on the spot, "Lieutenant General Pei ordered Vice Admiral Pei to sink the ship......"

A staff officer reminded: "This is a neutral ship. ”

"He has revealed the location of the fleet, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is an enemy spy, sink it immediately!" Ozawa immediately chimed in and strengthened his tone.

The staff officer turned his head to look at Machar, who waved his hand angrily: "What are you still doing in a daze, let Lieutenant General Bei immediately send a warship to sink it." ”

In fact, without waiting for the flagship's order, Vice Admiral Bey, who was sitting on the Tirpitts, was on fire and ordered the destroyer and the Oi to pounce and sink each other, and after 25 minutes of chase, Ruo-Pinto became the first merchant ship captain to enjoy the care of the G9A oxygen torpedo since the start of the war, and the angry German officers and men did not even bother to use the ship's guns, and bluntly announced the ship's death sentence with 4 610mm torpedoes with a fan-shaped attack surface - not to mention a mere merchant ship, even the Tirpitz itself did not dare to say that it could withstand this kind of firepower. The freighter was torn into several pieces on the spot, and Jo-Pinto hitched a ride on board for his stupidity.

The American fleet received this news at the same time, and Spruance, who was having a headache about not being able to find the German fleet, immediately looked at the charts and found that the distance from the German fleet mentioned in the telegram was about 400 kilometers, and it was completely within the attack range of carrier-based aircraft.

"Sir, is this kind of news of unknown origin and no content, do you send a reconnaissance plane to verify it first?"

"No, leave 12 cover fighters behind, and all the rest will strike." Spruance explained, "The telegram only provided a vague direction, and if we sent a reconnaissance plane to find and pinpoint the attack, it would delay too much, and maybe the enemy would find us or simply sneak away, and we would have to take a little risk." ”

"What if the information is wrong?"

"Then I have to come back again." Spruance shrugged, "That means we're really unlucky, so let's get back home." ”

After yesterday's engagement, there were only 26 US F4F fighters left, and after overnight calls and assembly of spare aircraft, the number of fighters carried by the two aircraft carriers was restored to 32 (most of the pilots who were shot down were saved, and there was no shortage of pilots), and the number of SBD dive bombers and TBF torpedo attack planes remained unchanged, still 24 each. At 11 o'clock, all the US carrier-based planes took off and rushed towards the sea area where the German fleet might exist.

The German reconnaissance planes still could not find the position of the American fleet, and in order to avoid the adverse effects of the incident just now, the entire fleet accelerated to 26 knots and headed east at the fastest speed, but in the Zeppelin command tower, the atmosphere was almost suffocating.

"If the enemy fleet receives this message, we will soon be attacked by air." Ozawa sighed, "We don't have much time left. ”

"What now?" Mashal was also confused, "All reconnaissance planes, whether ours or Azores or Madeira, reported that they had not found the enemy fleet and were still searching for ......"

"Could it be that the enemy has received the telegram, but they are too far away to hit us?" Cranke asked.

"It's possible, but you can't leave it to chance." Ozawa thought for a moment, "Let's be prepared to sacrifice 2-3 destroyers first." ”

"How?"

"Destroyer No. 1 remained in place, Destroyer No. 2 advanced 20 nautical miles to the northeast, and Destroyer No. 3 advanced 30 nautical miles to the northwest, using them to provide early warning ......"

"This ...... Useful? ”

"If the enemy sends carrier-based aircraft, it will inevitably search the sea area where the fleet is located just now, and these warships can play a role in confusing the line of sight, and I don't know if it will work, but every hour of delay, the warning distance can increase by 25 nautical miles."

"Okay." Mashal immediately set it up with great vigour.

"Take off 12 fighters, mount auxiliary fuel tanks, stay over the original sea area, prepare to intercept enemy aircraft formations, and delay time for the mothership as much as possible." At the critical moment, Ozawa used his experience to stabilize the morale of the army, and the staff officers immediately conveyed this order.

"All the fighters on the deck of the Europa were retained, and the cover fighters that took off early in the morning went to the ship for replenishment and replacement operations; The rest of the Zeppelin's fighters took off after completing the loading of auxiliary fuel tanks to provide air cover for the fleet; Bombers and lightning strikers finished refueling and hanging bombs, gathered on the deck as much as possible, and tried to take off in the shortest possible time. ”

"This ......"

"Our aircraft carriers may be sunk, or they may be hit and they will not be able to take off and land, but this strike force must be preserved – this is our last hope for a counterattack."

"Fight back?" Machar and Cranke looked at each other: the enemy's position is not known, how to counterattack?

"Let the attack aircraft group hide, wait for the enemy aircraft to complete the attack, and then follow and follow the attack." Ozawa said viciously, "They are definitely going back to the mothership, our planes are faster than them, and they have an advantage in range, so they are not afraid of losing them." ”

At 12 o'clock and 5 minutes, the lookout post of the destroyer Z4, which had brought good luck many times, issued an urgent warning: "The total number of enemy planes is more than 70, and it is coming from the direction of due north, about 60 nautical miles ...... from our ship" Half a minute later, the other two destroyers also reported the same situation.

"Sir, the enemy fleet has been found, but there are only 3 destroyers, and they are very separate." Chris excitedly told Spruance.

"Leave them alone, don't waste bombs on them, and intensify the search for the surrounding waters." Spruance groaned and said, "This is a trick by the Germans to send 3 destroyers to break the relationship?" Trick the devil to go......"

"Quick! Fast! "The Europa and Zeppelin, which received an emergency warning, quickly released all kinds of aircraft, and if it weren't for Ozawa's decision to complete the replenishment of fuel and ammunition as much as possible and stay on the deck as soon as the position was exposed, it would have been too late now. A group of high-level executives, including Marchar and Crank, watched nervously at the movements on the deck, and every time a plane successfully took off, their nervousness was relieved.

"Good...... One more. ”

At 12:08, the American aircraft group that approached the sea and scattered the search finally spotted the German aircraft carrier formation in the distance, but they were first intercepted by 12 BF-219s, these fighters dropped the auxiliary fuel tanks and rushed at maximum speed - they did not choose to fight with the escorted F4F today, and the targets were all aimed at the SBD and TBF, especially the TBF carrying torpedoes was more focused. The scattered American formations were desperately gathered, ready to break through the blocking line by relying on the superiority of the group.

At 12:09, the remaining fighters of the German aircraft carrier formation all completed takeoff, they had seen the battle scene in front, but still adhered to tactical discipline, covering the other planes of the fleet to take off, did not blindly pounce to intercept, the He-218s on the Zeppelin flew one after another, and only the last Ju-98 formation remained.

The first wave of BF-219s, which undertook the interception mission, played the greatest value, not only bought a few minutes of the most precious time for the follow-up formation to take off, but also completely broke up the US military aircraft group, and in the face of more than five times the number of enemy aircraft, they used their experience to the extreme, shooting down 4 F4F, 7 SBDs and 6 TBFs.

At 12:11, 18 HE-218s took off, and the JU-98 fleet was released one after another.

At 12:14, all the BF-219s intercepted in the first wave were shot down, and the remaining 51 enemy planes continued to pounce on the aircraft carrier formation after getting rid of the entanglement, at this time there were still 36 BF-219s in the sky over the fleet, Ozawa looked at the situation on the deck, and continued to order: "Separate 24 fighters to intercept the enemy group, and the remaining fighters continue to cover the take-off of the lightning planes." ”

Seeing that more than 20 fighters were rushing towards him, Lieutenant Colonel Green, who was the leader of the US carrier-based aircraft formation, also secretly complained: The 12 fighters just now were so difficult, and now there are twice as many enemy planes, and he is afraid that the formation will be in greater trouble, but retreating is not a way, so he stubbornly continued to command the aircraft group to kill in a dense formation, hoping to tear a gap for the attack team behind him.

At 12:17, the German and American carrier-based aircraft collided again, and everyone watched the fierce battle in the air with concern, and then did not forget to pay attention to the situation on the deck of the Zeppelin, 16 Ju-98s and 7 did not take off - the impact of one less elevator was completely exposed at this time. (To be continued.) )