"We've been tricked! The Italians gave us a hand to steal the beams and change the pillars! "The situation at the front was telegraphed to the Austro-Hungarian fleet, and the Allies were well aware that there were no other two warships in the entire military port except for the immobile cruiser Gorisia. Although the commanders of the Allied fleet were very depressed by the other party, they were just depressed. Until now, they don't think that the other party can do anything to themselves.

"In an hour and a half at most, our fleet can return to the mothership at the end of its mission. Add in about 40 minutes of time to recover the plane, and we only need to hold on for two hours to retreat north. At this time, we still have at least 100 or so fighters on the deck, which can fully cope with any degree of attack. Even if all the opposing twin-engine fast bombers were to take part in the battle, it would be difficult to break through several layers of our defenses. Raeder said confidently. The variables of the entire battle can only appear in the less than 150 minutes left! And at this time, the Italian Navy and the Allied Air Force must also start to exert their strength!

"This wave of the RAF will put in 3 squadrons of at least 40 fast bombers...... Half of them are carrying 500kg armor-piercing shells, and there are about 40 fighters from the Haidongqing Brigade of the Huaxia Air Force and other flying fox fighters, plus about 140 planes on our 4 aircraft carriers, it should be enough to tear apart the opponent's air net, right? Tycho asked, looking at the squadron formations listed in the battle sequence. To this day, he still didn't want those slow torpedo planes to enter from low altitudes and act as decoys. In the forecast. The losses of this low-altitude lightning strike formation would reach more than 50%, so Tycho wanted to avoid the ......... of this unit in battle.

"Marshal Tycho, if you elaborate. We're brothers. Personally, I also don't want torpedo bombers with little self-protection to attack without adequate cover. All this is a last resort. Summer waved his hand for Tycho to finish his words before commenting.

"I don't know what the proportion of fighters in the Allied fleet is though. But considering that they are only passively defending and not actively searching for us, then it should not be difficult to see that what the other side wants is only a limited victory, as long as the number of their attack aircraft is enough to deal with the port of Benghazi. So what's left in the space? Fighter plane! Full of fighter jets! ”

"It took about 150 planes to attack the port of Benghazi. At present, there are about 60 planes on alert duty in the opponent's air, so there are more than 160 planes left! There are 2 armored aircraft carriers among the opposing battleships. Both ships are quite capable of rearmament fighters in the hangar. From the time they launched the attack to now, it was enough to fill the decks of 5 aircraft carriers with fighters, and without your torpedo formation, our actual attack force in this wave would be no more than 50 aircraft. The opposing side could completely stop the attack of the RAF with a maximum of no more than 90 aircraft. ”。 …。

"And then? When our carrier-based aircraft formation arrived. It takes about an hour. The planes that have been recovered by the other side and the fighters that have been rebuilt can completely intercept us again. And that's not counting the cover provided by land-based aviation from Crete. I can even say that theoretically, even with the addition of the Italian torpedo formations, it will be difficult for us to saturate the air defense of the opposing side. ”

"The initial tentative attacks are more for temptation, and this wave of attacks is the key to consuming the opponent's defense. Only after we have emptied the opponent's deck fighters once will the carrier-based aircraft force have a chance to launch a lore! A simple small amount of consumption does not work at all, after the opponent recovers, add fuel and then reload and you can set off again. We've already paid so much. You can't stop halfway! Su Mo patiently explained to Tycho. In fact, when planning this air campaign, the initial result of the exercise was that even the Italian lightning strike troops participated. It would also be difficult to break through the air defenses of the Allies with conventional tactics, and the odds would have been slim if the British had not provided high-performance aircraft and improved Foxbat fighters. So this is already a minimum attack force, and it can't be less! …………。

"Let's get started." Sumer's words completely made Tycho die. As Su Mo said, he has already put all his net worth on this gamble. Then if you still care about this little money, you shouldn't do it! In the end, the attack plan of the Italian torpedo aircraft was not aborted. A large formation of more than 130 planes of all kinds of aircraft began to rush towards the Allied fleet!

Although this wave of attacks is not a fatal blow, it is undoubtedly the most critical battle in the entire campaign, and how many fighters can consume the opponent is directly related to the probability of the last wave of attacks. During this attack, Su Mo made full arrangements for the timing of the aircraft group entering the battlefield. Under the cover of flying fox fighters, 4 squadrons of fast bombers will enter from an altitude of 5,000 meters, according to the interception method of the Allies, then it must be to let the aircraft with better performance intercept a wave at high altitude, and then try to suppress the formation of fast bombers to medium and low altitudes, and then hand over the less powerful biplanes to intercept again, if it still fails...... Then the twin-engine fighters flying from Crete will make the last interception.

This time, the squadron had to drag the opponent to fight at an altitude that they were not accustomed to, consuming as much fuel and reserve as possible. If nothing else, the fuel consumption of the opposing interceptor force will be very large, and the time spent in the air will be greatly shortened, and under the condition that the number of aircraft will remain unchanged, this kind of high-intensity battle will inevitably lead to a large drop in the number of aircraft on air alert, and if you are lucky, the opponent's ability to launch will be exhausted in this wave of battles ..........

If the Allied crews and logistics are good enough and do not exhaust all their potential in this wave of high-altitude assaults, then it doesn't matter, there are also Italian twin-engine torpedo machines. These planes are very slow, and they can't keep up with the fast swarms entering the battlefield at high altitudes, but it's okay, it's okay if they can't form a joint force! They will enter from a low altitude. And painted a camouflage color close to the color of the sea, just to get as close to each other as possible. If you can deceive the other party's detection, then everyone will naturally be happy. If not, the other side will definitely send a certain number of aircraft to intercept the fighters of at least 4 squadrons.

Because without sufficient escort forces, this batch of torpedo planes will definitely suffer heavy losses and will certainly not be able to achieve any results, but it is more certain that a large number of German planes will be forced to reduce altitude! Then now the opportunity for Italy and the Entente has come! The number of aircraft in the air has decreased due to high-altitude engagements, and a large proportion of these aircraft have been pinned down at low altitudes. If at this time the attack aircraft group released by the Italian sea-based aviation entered from a high altitude, then the defense of the Allied fleet would have collapsed. Because it is almost impossible to intercept a group of about 130 attack aircraft with only a small number of fighter units remaining at medium and high altitudes, and it is unrealistic to have a large number of aircraft fighting at an altitude of about 500 to 800 meters climb to 4,000 meters to fight. On the one hand, time may not be in time, and even if it does, the Allied fighters who have no kinetic energy after going up can only wait to be beaten turkeys! . …。

"The real battle has begun, everyone get ready to fight!" The squadron of flying fox fighters led by Boington began to cover the entry of large forces into the battlefield, "I repeat, our combat altitude should theoretically not be lower than 4500 meters!" This altitude is our advantageous altitude, and theoretically we did not have the task of escorting the torpedo machines that arrived later. Boeington's indifferent voice rang out in the squad.

"Then they'll die. Relatively speaking, they need escorts more, and our British attack aircraft are faster, more maneuverable, and have an advantage in altitude. A British pilot said in the channel.

"If it doesn't go down, they may lose a lot, and if the altitude drops, then it will be us with them, and it won't be long before the airspace will be full of German aircraft." After a slight hesitation, Boeington continued: "I don't support you descent to cover the torpedo plane, and if anyone has to do this, I'll pretend not to see it." ”…。

This time, the Flying Bat fighter unit led by Boington did not want to use bombers as bait and then sneak up on them from behind like the last attack, because about half of the bombers were carrying bombs this time, and their maneuverability in the face of the German fighters was really poor. So this time Boington and his teammates had to rush to the front and open a way for the bombers behind ..........

As a veteran pilot, Boington has a very good grasp of the battle situation, and they choose to fight the opponent when they have just completed the climb and have not yet recovered their momentum. And he divided his fighter force into two groups, one for the attack, and the other for cover. "Looks like the Germans are also learning!" Boeing ton and his wingman had just bitten a group of planes that had climbed up, and when the plane spotted the flying fox rushing up, they immediately defended it with a roller, and decisively lowered their altitude to recover their speed. While Boington was about to continue attacking the plane, the other German planes took the opportunity to climb up and take position. The Germans used a small number of planes to pin down the attacking side and buy time for the follow-up large forces. And because of the small number of their own aircraft, Boington and his teammates could not prevent more and more German aircraft from entering the attack position.

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 and hukaikaka for the tip~~~~. (To be continued).