The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Then, Lieutenant General Tovey ordered his subordinates to calculate the time of contact between the enemy and ourselves, and be sure to ensure that when the aircraft group rushed over the enemy fleet, the enemy's and our warships had already contacted and started a melee.

"The main target is the enemy battleship 'Dunkirk'!" Lieutenant General Tovey sent a telegram to the Air Force.

Because according to intelligence, several army officers boarded the battleship "Dunkirk" before the war began, and the spies recognized one of them as the lieutenant known as the "Legendary Sergeant."

Of course, Tovey's move was not to kill the "Legendary Sergeant". Lieutenant General Tovey guessed that the "Dunkirk" was the flagship of the German fleet.

At the same time, Lieutenant General Tovey also ordered the carrier-based aircraft of the "Eagle" aircraft carrier to be ready... Although the "Eagle" aircraft carrier only has 21 carrier-based aircraft, they are all "Swordfish" torpedo attack aircraft.

Although this kind of torpedo attack aircraft is relatively backward, it is still a propeller biplane attack aircraft, but it has proven its value time and time again with brilliant results in naval battles. For example, in the naval battle against Italy, it repeatedly sank Italian warships, causing heavy losses. Another example was when it was used to attack and damage the German battleship "Bismarck", which eventually led to the sinking of the "Bismarck" .

This time, Tovey hoped to have these torpedo attack aircraft mixed in with other fighters to attack the German warships.

However, what Lieutenant General Tovey did not expect was...

The German warship just made a feint, then quickly slowed down and then left the battlefield again... The French warship was fast, and it didn't seem to be difficult to do this.

This puts Lieutenant General Tovey in a dilemma. The Air Force fighter planes have already taken off, should they be allowed to return?

After thinking about it, Lieutenant General Tovey ordered: "The fleets of Group A and Group B will pursue at full speed!"

From the perspective of warships, this order is correct. French warships are indeed fast, but their flaws are also very obvious, that is, there is no main gun at the stern... This means that British warships can chase enemy warships.

As for the issue of sea-air coordination, the fleet can be slowed down.

Originally, the enemy and us might just go back and forth like this, anxious and unable to do anything to the other, but an unexpected situation broke the deadlock.

Colonel Alston is the frontline commander of the Air Force. He is somewhat dissatisfied with Lieutenant General Tovey's caution. The reasons come from two aspects:

First, Colonel Alston's flying wing had just arrived from Crete as reinforcements. The pilots had been flying in the air for more than an hour, and then took off again after emergency refueling on Malta Island.

Therefore, pilots need to get into combat as soon as possible, otherwise stress and fatigue will wear them down.

On the other hand, the longer a fighter plane flies in the air, the more fuel it consumes. Colonel Auston is worried that the Luftwaffe will take advantage of the shortage of fuel to launch a fatal blow to the fleet.

As we all know, this is very important, because if there is insufficient fuel, the pilot will not even dare to fight with the enemy fighter planes, and even if he is targeted by the enemy fighter planes, he will not be able to evade... because this will consume fuel, and if there is not enough fuel to fly back to the island of Malta, This means that the fighter planes can only make an emergency landing on the sea or Sicily.

Therefore, Colonel Allston complained to the Air Force Command: "Those navies may not understand air combat at all. They think that as long as we are willing, we can keep flying in the sky like warships staying in the sea!"

To a certain extent, Colonel Allston's worry was correct, because Tovey was indeed from the navy and did not know much about air combat. In sea and air combat, the most important thing is air combat rather than naval combat. This is why most American aircraft carrier commanders must have experience as pilots. Of course, the United Kingdom did not have this awareness at this time.

"Please, Colonel!" Air Force Commander Major General Achil replied: "He is Lieutenant General Tovey, the commander who successfully hunted the battleship Bismarck. He understands German tactics and of course also understands air combat!"

Major General Achille guessed wrong this time. If Lieutenant General Tovey knew the tactics of the German Navy before, Lieutenant General Tovey did not understand this time... because he had never seen the German Navy play like this. Pass.

"He'd better understand!" Admiral Auston looked at the clouds outside the window and said, "Because I already feel the danger!"

Before he finished speaking, several black figures suddenly swooped down from the clouds, followed by machine gun fire and air lines brought by bullets... In an instant, two British fighter planes were hit with black smoke and harsh roars. The sound dropped.

"Germans!" Auston shouted: "German planes!"

Colonel Auston did not hesitate, turned the nose of the plane and bit into one of the planes... But the speed of that plane was much faster than him, and Auston could almost only follow it and watch it go by. Then one by one, they shot down their own fighter planes.

Then the fighter plane climbed high in the direction of the sun, then made a sharp turn and came back at an alarming speed with the sun behind it... The cannon fired violently, and the fighter plane almost passed through the top of the Alston fighter plane.

When Colonel Allston turned his fighter plane around, he could only see two of his own fighters that were on fire and falling to the ground.

"My God!" Colonel Allston said, "It's 'Yellow No. 14'!"

"Marceiu?" Major General Aqil also knew who this "Yellow No. 14" was.

"Yes!" Colonel Alston replied: "He just shot down five of our fighter planes, but I lost them..."

"General!" Colonel Austen then said, "I'm requesting an attack because the Luftwaffe has pinpointed our position and we don't know where they are... They might set a trap for us!"

Major General Aqil was silent for a moment, then nodded and said: "Asking for permission, I will tell General Tovey the situation!"

As a result, the British fleet swooped toward the German fleet at the fastest speed, including 12 "Swordfish" attack aircraft taken off from the "Eagle" aircraft carrier.

Raeder got the Air Force report as soon as possible.

"Sorry, Marshal!" Major General Fischer, commander of the German Air Force, reported uneasily: "Several of my subordinates disobeyed orders and secretly rushed into the British fleet and shot down several aircraft during the reconnaissance mission. Obviously they have been annoyed, and now the British fleet is flying towards you at full speed... I wonder if this has disrupted your plan? "

"No, Major General!" Reidel said happily: "This did not disrupt my plan. On the contrary, they helped me a lot!"

"So……"

"Get ready for battle immediately!" Redel ordered: "After they attack us, your performance will be next!"

"Yes, Marshal!"