"The Americans sank 2 fleet aircraft carriers and 1 light aircraft carrier on their side?" When Cunningham received a briefing from the U.S. military, he asked incredulously. In his opinion, it was clear that the British fleet had withstood the most fierce attack by the Germans, and the scale of the German planes that bombed the American fleet was not large, so why did the American army lose more than the British army? He didn't understand.

Later, after analyzing the battlefield, Cunningham finally figured out that there were indeed more Allied planes involved in attacking the British fleet, and these planes also achieved more hits, but unfortunately, because the targets selected were not very good, and the power of the bombs was limited, the results achieved by the Germans were not ideal. The Fury-class aircraft carrier built with the help of Huaxia is worthy of being the pinnacle of the first generation of aircraft carriers, although the huge hull changed from the battlecruiser wastes tonnage, but the body is really strong The Fury aircraft carrier withstood at least 5 500kg bombs with its thick deck, and then with the blessing of better underwater protection, the Fury with two torpedoes can still maneuver at a speed of more than 25 knots, and even retains a certain aircraft take-off and landing capability. If it is replaced by other 30,000-ton aircraft carriers, such damage will not die or at least a heavy injury, whether it can go back is a question, and the performance of the Fury can be said to have earned enough face for the British Royal Navy, and it is worthy of the product of blood for the British

Although the scale of the twin-engine bombers attacking the US fleet is small, although even if they rely on guided weapons, the number of hits is not much, but these attacks are deadly, and the two 500kg bombs and one 1000kg bomb are obviously more deadly than the latter, and thanks to the guidance technology, the 1-ton bombs dropped by the twin-engine aircraft have greater kinetic energy and penetrate more terrifyingly. The softness of the USS Essex itself is also an important reason. As a result, the already relatively soft American aircraft carrier formation collided with the Allied twin-engine attack aircraft formation with a certain degree of attack power, and the final result was naturally that the Americans suffered greater losses than the British

"It stands to reason that the Allies will not launch a second wave of attacks, at least not for the next five hours. Their first wave of attacks concentrated at least a thousand or so aircraft, which was beyond the capabilities of a normal attack, and the Germans were also overdrawing their engine capacity, and now the American fleet should have attacked. Although I don't know what kind of results they can achieve, but at least they can make the Germans scramble," Cunningham analyzed the offensive and defensive and strength comparisons between the two sides.

After this battle, the Allied Combined Fleet lost 5 aircraft carriers, including 3 fleet carriers and 2 light aircraft carriers. The loss of aircraft is not very large at the moment. Almost 600 aircraft of all kinds were lost, and in addition to more than 400 destroyed in air battles, more than a hundred were lost along with the sinking of aircraft carriers. In this way, the Entente's carrier-based aircraft force of about 2,300 aircraft lost a little more than a quarter. But this is only a defensive loss, it is really difficult to say how many of the 500 aircraft that attacked will come back, you know, the Germans attacked with all their might, and threw away 600 aircraft with the advantage of penetration speed

Just after the Allied air force was raging above the Allied fleet, the Allied forward fleet finally spotted the huge Allied fleet from visual distance. The 4 detachments were laid out in a huge diamond shape on the vast sea, the largest of which was the fleet under the personal command of Count Spee. "Go according to the plan, now only God can bless you," Principal Johnson, who was in charge of directing the attack, sighed, and then gave the order to attack. To be honest, he wasn't optimistic about Halsey's plan, but at the same time he had to admit that Halsey's plan was the only one that could lead to results, and nothing else would work

The Americans also have a good ability to learn, and there are quite a few jammers in this wave of aircraft, but considering the tragic load of single-engine aircraft, the electronic warfare aircraft in the group are simply not enough to cover the penetration of the entire group, after all, the Germans' radar already has filtering and lobe technology. And the power itself is strong enough. Small-scale interference has a limited effect. So Halsey's plan is like this. Before encountering the enemy's air defense forces, the bomber formation and a small number of fighters and the main aircraft group broke away, and then, under the cover of electronic warfare aircraft, flew in squadrons and made a detour to break into the opponent's defenses from a low altitude. The Germans had fewer destroyers. The so-called perimeter guard posts are also mainly aimed at the direction of the frontal attack, if these guard posts can be avoided, then relying on the attack of multiple batches of small teams, there is still a chance to successfully penetrate the defense, of course, how many aircraft can successfully penetrate the defense. It's a matter of how much damage it can do

The Germans reacted quickly, the slowness of the American fleet gave the German fleet too much time to prepare, when the Germans found the opponent on the radar, there were already 350 FW190 fighters hovering over the fleet, and over time, this number quickly increased to 500 and the Entente group responsible for breaking through from the front was only about 280 "The number of Entente aircraft groups is a little small" When the two sides met for the first time, the German pilots found that something was wrong with the situation, and they judged from common sense, If the Allies had only used these planes, it would have been a fool's dream to break through the defenses of the Allied fleet, but the group of planes responsible for intercepting them rushed forward anyway, and before the engagement, they did not forget to send a telegram to the fleet explaining the situation

"There's definitely something wrong with this, they must be hiding some of their power." Vice Admiral Hall, who was in charge of the transfer of naval aviation, reported to Count Spee at the first opportunity. The Germans and the British had a different problem, they faced an enemy who was not too strong, but too weak that Vice Admiral Hall was a little unconvinced: "We need to send some planes to patrol around the fleet, and we can't deal with 300 or so American planes, and we won't need that much strength." Lieutenant General Hall suggested. And for his advice. Count Spee expressed his support. When the Germans began to mobilize some planes to return to the defense, the radar on a destroyer burned through the electronic jamming of the Americans, and found this group of enemy planes less than 70 kilometers away from the Earl Spee's squadron

"These cunning guys" when the Germans focused a lot of energy on the Allied aircraft group that entered from an altitude of 5,000 meters, the aircraft group that broke through from a low altitude achieved unexpected success. They penetrated the outer defenses of the opposing side with the Germans being poorly prepared. This excited many American pilots, but unfortunately, the low cruise speed greatly reduced this advantage, and it took at least 20 minutes for their fleet to fly over the opposing fleet to attack. After all, dive bombers need to climb to drop bombs, and they don't fly straight to the target. And this gave the Germans a chance to remedy

"If we have 450, not even 400 kilometers per hour cruising speed. Then the winner of this battle must be us," recalled a torpedo pilot who participated in the original battle. And this pilot was the only survivor of his torpedo squadron, and in this battle, many squadrons were completely wiped out, which shows the tragic situation of the battle, if you talk about the number of losses. The Americans' attack aircraft group suffered higher battle losses than the Allies

The Germans still had spare strength when they found that there were not many incoming targets, and at this time, the fighters that took off urgently from the aircraft carrier became an important force for the Germans to delay time, and dozens of FW190 fighters rushed to the target before they even had time to form a formation after emergency takeoff, and they fought each other at a low altitude of several hundred meters. Because the altitude is too low, pilots must always pay attention to their altitude and maneuverability, otherwise they may fall into the sea due to excessive maneuvering. The same was true of the Americans, whose heavy loads led to a deterioration in maneuverability, and the fact that some of the dive bombers needed to climb properly, which made them slow down faster, and so these planes became the first results of the Germans. The new FW190T6 fighter jet has enhanced its anti-aircraft firepower, and the armor-piercing and high-explosive incendiary shells fired by the four MG15120 cannons are lethal to any single-shot aircraft, only the first head-on attack. More than 20 FW190 fighters responsible for intercepting destroyed a dozen American attack planes

The accompanying Hellcat fighter bravely caught up, in the low-altitude horizontal combat, the Hellcat finally found a little advantage, in order to intercept the opponent as much as possible, the FW190 fighter could not use the energy tactics he was good at, and was forced to circle with the opponent, and the result of the circle was either the fat cats around the back to break into pieces or accidentally stalled themselves into the sea, but this advantage was only temporary, as more and more German aircraft were in place, the scarce number of Hellcat fighters fell into a group fight, Not only are they unable to protect the attack aircraft swarm. It's hard to even protect yourself. When the Hellcat fighters were shattered to pieces by shells fired from all directions, the sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of the attack aircraft group was finally about to fall

However, at this time, the American fleet finally crossed the last mile, and the pilot could already clearly see the huge figure in the distance. Countless artillery pieces could even be seen aiming at them, and the attack aircraft in the front row had already entered the theoretical range of the 128mm anti-aircraft guns, and even some of the destroyers on the periphery had already begun to fire. Along with the assault, the Allied firepower became more and more intensive.

"We were like an erupting volcano, and the blazing shells rained down like raindrops, and the flash of the guns and the muzzle smoke even covered the entire battleship. In this feast of blood and fire, many comrades-in-arms fell in the firelight, and the smoke and shrapnel from the shells enveloped the entire attack formation. From time to time, the skin of the plane made a tooth-aching twisting sound, and almost everyone was under tremendous pressure, for fear that their plane would be hit in the next second, but fortunately, as we entered the range of the anti-aircraft fire of the opposing fleet, the German fighters began to retreat. This made us feel a little less stressed. An American torpedo squadron leader later recalled.

The attack aircraft groups of the Americans began to disperse, and they, like the Germans, rushed in search of aircraft carriers in the fleet, and these big guys were protected by battleships. "Remember, attacking those battleships that don't seem to be very strong, we won't break into a lot of attack planes, don't waste ammunition on those big guys, it's hard for us to sink it," Halsey even went so far as to find the commanders of the various attack aircraft groups before the battle, and emphasized this when giving the battle order

The armored aircraft carrier's unusual anti-bomb ability and large hull are indeed a difficult master for the American fleet with only 1000 pounds of bombs and torpedoes, and it is difficult for 500kg bombs to destroy the core cabin, and although the torpedo effect is obvious, but unfortunately the torpedo machine itself is synonymous with slow speed and clumsiness, and they are easier to be destroyed, especially when the other party is equipped with FW190 carrier-based aircraft, and even Halsey has to admit that in the absence of a powerful carrier-based aircraft, The way in which torpedo planes attacked the Allied fleet was too "cruel" and almost sent American pilots to the guns of the opposing side, but it was true, and nearly 90 percent of the pilots in the entire torpedo attack aircraft formation never returned

Attack detachments and even squadrons were destroyed by flying anti-aircraft shells before they could drop bombs or torpedoes, and the crossfire from several warships was intertwined into an impenetrable web of fire over the entire Allied fleet, coupled with the threat of air fighters, the Americans found that they seemed to have entered a dead end, although the scattered attacks increased the difficulty of interception by the other side, but at the same time, their penetration strength decreased, and the scattered fingers were never a fist to use, because the Germans were still timely to remedy, The Americans threw themselves into the net like a swarm of moths throwing fire, and they wanted to penetrate these defenses, but the hedgehog gathered more than 6 aircraft carriers, and there were more than 50 escort warships around it, and the large formation of more than 50 escort warships around it made it impossible for these fragmented aircraft to break through, until a TBF attack plane with a torpedo crashed into an aviation cruiser

These aviation cruisers were also deployed in relatively outward positions at this time, and there were too many targets in Count Spee's fleet to protect, so these "second-class citizens" needed to take on the responsibility of guarding. The TBF attack aircraft did not crash into it on its own, but because it lost control after half of its wing was destroyed. And this hit the position very well, just hit the waterline position, and avoided the main armor belt accompanied by a violent explosion, a huge fireball rose from the side of the battleship, the high-temperature and high-pressure steam and flames produced by the explosion tore apart the battleship's underwater protection system, and what was even more unfortunate was that this blow directly detonated the aviation gasoline depot located below the waterline The Germans lost the first capital ship, and more importantly, with the sinking of this battleship, there was a gap in the originally dense air defense network, A small group of attack aircraft finally broke through the inner circle, and a medium aircraft carrier appeared in front of the attackers

Thanks to the book friend zhouoyu1976 1st Tank Guards Brigade for the tip~~~. To be continued