This huge formation was sent from Iceland, consisting of 24 swordfish, big blue and white fish attack aircraft and 12 hurricane fighters. Seeing the darkness in the sky, Major General Bei looked gloomy and his face became ugly: although the swordfish, big blue and white fish and hurricane were old, the number was too large. More than 30 aircraft attacked at the same time basically equals one cover fighter to deal with two enemy aircraft. Those "flying grid lines" carry no longer the 500-pound bomb that underestimated the main battleship, but the aviation torpedo that can cause fatal damage.

He turned his head to the aviation liaison officer: "When will General Richterhoven's reinforcement fleet come?"

"The telegram said it was sent out 10 minutes ago..."

The aircraft carrier formation is about 120 kilometers away from the shelling formation. If we calculate based on this distance, the reinforcements should be about to arrive. However, since we didn't see the plane, Major General Bei couldn't relax his tight strings. He spoke very seriously: "Major, you have to ask them to find a way to hurry up, otherwise we will be beaten up. It is not a good job to jump into the sea in this weather."

"Sir, I understand, I don't want to jump into the sea either!" The aviation liaison officer yelled at the radio station, "Please fly at maximum speed for reinforcement aircraft. We encountered a large group of swordfish."

"Received! Arrived soon, guaranteed to be faster than the swordfish!"

The reinforcements have not arrived yet, in fact, we cannot blame the aircraft carrier formation for inappropriate response. Although the latter has not been discovered by enemy aircraft, some escort fighters must be retained on the safe side. Therefore, the rotation of cover aircraft groups over the artillery fleet will be carried out by gradual replacement. Richterhofen's tactical arrangement is very delicate, reflecting the strict logic unique to the Germans. Since the b-219 can last for 5 hours, he gradually considered rotation from the past 4 hours. Before the cross rotation, the cover aircraft group on the aircraft carrier formation itself was divided into two ladders to refuel.

During the replacement process, the aircraft carrier formation first let the support fighter jets fly to the artillery fleet, and then the artillery fleet fighters that started to undertake cover missions in the early morning flew back to the mothership to refuel. After they took off again, the remaining aircraft over the aircraft carrier formation and the remaining unsupplied cover aircraft of the artillery fleet were cross-sold again, and then the supply process was repeated. The entire process will be controlled within 75 minutes. The core point is to ensure that there is aircraft cover at every moment over the two formations.

After hearing the reply that arrived immediately, everyone's mood returned to calm. Although the British aircraft group was close, they were too slow, almost one-third of the B-219s. Sure enough, after only 2 minutes, the lookout on the bridge shouted excitedly: "Sir, the support aircraft group is here!"

"Very good, give the British some color."

When they saw the arrival of our support plane, all the pilots immediately became very motivated. From the morning to the present, they felt that they were fighting every moment. They fought with four consecutive waves of British aircraft at first by technology, then by will, and finally by instinct. Everyone has this kind of worry: if there is another wave of enemy planes, they may really be submerged in the sea of ​​aircraft today. Since the reinforcement group is about to arrive, their fighting spirit will be rekindled immediately.

"The five aircraft with the least ammunition stayed behind, and the rest followed me to charge first, entangled the enemy planes, and prevented them from getting close to the formation..." Wagner shouted with his throat telephone, "After teaching this group of swordfish, fly back and refuel."

As soon as the words were finished, six dual-aircraft formations rushed towards the enemy planes, and the five aircraft left behind above the fleet would be final intercepted after the British aircraft broke through.

Twelve German fighters were soon intertwined with 36 British aircraft. Wagner's idea was clear: first solve the British hurricanes, and those slowly stolen torpedo planes were left to reinforcements to solve. This decision was exactly what the hurricanes wanted, and they tried to hold the German escort fighters to create opportunities for the swordfish's breakthrough. However, they obviously overestimated their flight. Whether they hovered, climbed or dived, the hurricanes were not opponents of the B-219 and were completely suppressed. They had just 2 minutes of the fight, and the two hurricanes had been beaten into the sea.

Five minutes later, the German reinforcement fleet arrived at the scene and hit 24 swordfish aircraft. These slow biplanes tried to break through the interception of the B-219, but they were at a disadvantage in both firepower, speed and maneuverability. The heavy torpedo made this weak point heavier. Major General Bei saw it clearly: the enemy aircraft dived down to more than 300 meters above the water surface, trying to avoid the interception, but before they could spread out in the common fan array, the b-219 had already scattered the cannon in the air to smash the wooden biplanes, and fell into the cold and bone-blazing North Atlantic Ocean with the torpedoes.

Only 8 swordfish broke through the blockade and rushed forward. They divided into three attack groups and flew into a column, descending continuously and approaching the warships. The last five fighters left above the fleet took on the role of scavenger without hesitation when they saw this, preparing to block the deadly attack of these 8 aircraft.

The officers and soldiers on the German ship were shocked by the dense formation of the British aircraft group and the spirit of sacrifice. The enemy's actions seemed to them tantamount to suicide, while the British pilots were shocked by the performance of the B-219. Although the Royal Navy learned about the performance and tactical characteristics of some new German aircraft from the Russians and North African Air Force, they did not fight with the B-219 on a large scale. This time they finally collided face to face. All the British pilots felt that they had kicked a nail board.

Seeing the British planes flapping around the sea, they couldn't find a suitable launch opportunity, which made people sigh that Taranto's heroic swordfish attack aircraft is too old. Many swordfish and big blue and white fish attack aircraft were blown down by the b-219 that flew down the air or followed before they entered the bombardment trajectory. In the end, only 4 attack aircraft successfully dropped torpedoes, but the place where they launched the torpedoes was far away from the fleet, and the torpedo speed was not fast, so they were easily avoided by the shelling formation.

Seeing that things were not done, the Hurricanes, who had been struggling for a long time, finally decided to retreat. During this short one-on-one battle period, the Hurricanes themselves lost 7 but only shot down one b-219. The 24 swordfish big blue and white fish attack aircraft lost 17, and only 7 escaped the battlefield by chance. Wagner saw clearly that several British attack aircraft could not break through, so they threw the torpedo at will and turned their heads away.

Seeing that some pilots were still unsatisfied and were about to pursue, Major Wagner stopped them in time: "Don't chase them... All fighters with fuel less than 40 minutes or running out of ammunition immediately followed me to the mothership to refuel and recharge the rest of the planes for the time being."

Only then did everyone reexamine their oil meter and find that the remaining fuel was less than 20 minutes... Wagner took 13 planes at once, plus one plane lost when intercepting the swordfish just now, there were only 14 planes that could still fight over the fleet.

At 10:27, Major General Bei looked at his watch again. The shelling formation was 430 kilometers away from Iceland and more than 650 kilometers away from the Faroe Islands. He followed Mashar's order and asked the troops to turn northwest. But at this moment, the terrifying alarm sounded again, and the watchtower called another enemy plane, with no less than 20 aircraft!

Everyone complained secretly: There are only 14 aircraft left in the cover, and two of them are on the verge of supply, and they may withdraw from the battle due to fuel and ammunition exhaustion at any time. The second wave of aircraft that rotated to support the support will not be able to get there in a short period of time. It is the time when the fleet is weakest. If there are a large group of enemy aircraft coming, the formation will probably be unable to withstand it.

However, after the enemy aircraft group gradually flew closer and saw clearly the model of the enemy aircraft from the telescope, Major General Bei breathed a sigh of relief and found that all the two-winged swordfish or big blue and white fish attack aircraft were not even a fighter.

"Are the British crazy? No escort planes sent?"

"Who knows? Or is it the British's new trick, let's help them clean up the garbage..."

In fact, the commanders of the previous air raid formations had explained very clearly on the radio: the Germans not only had a good number of fighter jets, but also had good performance. What's more, because the German fleet was driving north, they were getting farther and farther from Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Even if the Hurricane fighter jets that took off from the Faroe Islands were hung with a secondary fuel tank, they could not provide full escort due to the range, and were forced to turn back when they were still 50 kilometers away from the shelling formation. Admiral Fraser delegated command to Major Johnson, the commander of this round of attack wave, to judge whether to continue to launch an attack. If he thought it was too difficult, he would allow the mission to be given up.

Although the German cover aircraft fleet was unprecedentedly powerful and the first few waves of air strikes were not effective, this did not dispel Major Johnson's fighting spirit at all. Instead, it made him think in his heart that this was a severe test he should accept. He believed that this was a competition and persistence of will. He did not believe that German fighters could continue to fight for another hour, and whoever could persist until the end could win! Even without the escort of the fighter, he planned to lead the formation to move forward, because he knew that this formation was the last attack wave today, and if he failed, he could only watch the Germans slip away.

Unfortunately, he only guessed half of the original German fighter jets, but the German aircraft carrier formation has not been 24, but a total of 48. Now 12 fighter jets have been supported from the aircraft carrier formation. They are energetic and full of fighting spirit!
Chapter completed!