Chapter 859 Return

That night, the German fleet that finally gathered moved northward first. After making sure that the distance was wide enough, Krank turned its sailing direction to the southwest late at night. The entire fleet did not have much fuel in stock, and he had to move as soon as possible. Return to Argentina, otherwise all warships will be paralyzed on the sea due to exhaustion of fuel.

Thanks to the unremitting efforts of the sailors and the hard work of the drainage pump, more than 500 tons of sea water was drained out of the Ise while the two sides were basically balanced. The boiler was restored after emergency repairs. Now the whole The speed of the warship barely increased to 18 knots. The Gneisenau, which was also hit by a torpedo, was, after all, older and had better anti-sinking properties. Relatively speaking, the damage was not too severe.

Krank knew very well that he must get rid of the American fleet on the opposite side as soon as possible, because the opponent still has the ability to kill himself, and only good luck can severely damage the opponent. However, he was impatient, so he kept the fleet moving forward in a zigzag manner to avoid being attacked by American submarines. At the same time, the radar room is required to concentrate on avoiding any ship. Each ship may report its position to the Americans and expose the fleet's target. Fortunately, everything was normal and there was no trace - he didn't know that because of the presence of the German fleet, the Allies had already notified all transport ships to stop sailing.

After a night of worry, the entire fleet was operating well. Krank was determined to encourage all officers and soldiers, so he happily walked to the loudspeaker and lectured all the crew.

"Attention all ships, I am Fleet Commander Krank." He cleared his throat and said enthusiastically: "I would like to congratulate the engine and damage control departments. Your performance fully reflects the tradition of the Navy. In addition, I would also like to congratulate our aviation forces. They are amazing. They used only 40% of the enemy's aircraft to achieve the impressive record of destroying three enemy aircraft carriers, and our losses were much less than the enemy's!"

Even though they say this, the senior management is still very heartbroken. The losses suffered in yesterday's battle were not small. The Savoy sank, the Z29\30 destroyers sank, and one of the Hedgehog-class ships was also destroyed. The dying Seydlitz, which was paralyzed on the water, was eventually torpedoed by our own destroyers. The ships also suffered heavy losses of officers and soldiers. Potential and Gneisenau also lost part of their officers and men due to bombs and torpedoes - the surviving officers and men of Savoy and Seydlitz were recruited to fill them.

The losses to the aviation force were also very serious. Nearly half of the number of aircraft was lost, and 32 pilots (groups) were lost. The loss rate was more than a quarter. Six recipients of the Knight's Cross or above were lost, especially among them there were The two recipients of the Knight's Cross with Silver Oak Leaves made Krank sigh with regret - there are less than 1,000 soldiers in Germany who have received this level of medals (the number of recipients of the Knight's Cross is currently about 6,000)

In the early morning, when the sky brightened, the visibility greatly improved, and the situation of the Ise further improved. The emergency drainage pump running continuously in the cabin removed tons of seawater, and emergency repairs were carried out immediately after the flooded boilers and pipes emerged. The remaining 1 degree of inclination has been corrected unknowingly. Krank estimates that there are still more than 2,000 tons of seawater on both sides of the ship. The only way to completely clean it is to go to the Argentine shipyard. However, it is an indisputable fact that the situation has improved.

"What's the maximum speed it can give?" Crank asked.

"I think we can go 21 knots." Captain Aoki pondered for a moment and then said, "If I'm optimistic, I can return to 22 knots after 9 o'clock."

"Okay, hold on! The situation will get better!" Krank immediately ordered the release of the Ar-372 water reconnaissance and the remaining four Ar-352 ship reconnaissance units.

After 9 o'clock, the Ise's maximum speed returned to 22.4 knots, and the wind on the sea seemed to be stronger than yesterday evening. The captain made a request to test the torpedo takeoff again - failure would mean losing it again. A Ju-198, Krank agreed.

It was Bach who performed the second round of test flights. The failure of yesterday's test flight made him sad all night. He spent the whole night analyzing with his comrades whether it could fly and what should be done to make the aircraft have better lift-off performance. He heard that he would do another test flight. , he snatched the job away without saying a word.

It was almost the same scene as yesterday, but the difference was that today, when we reached the end of the deck, this 6-ton aircraft, fully loaded with fuel and torpedoes, flew steadily under Bach's gentle control, and the entire ship's officers and soldiers applauded warmly. , several sergeants at the scene observed that there was at least 4-6 meters of remaining space...

"Yeah, it worked! It worked!" The 40-year-old *** jumped up and down excitedly like a child, waving his fists and said, "We still have more than 20 attack aircraft, this time we can Send all the damn Americans to the bottom of the sea!”

"I'm thinking that after returning to China, I will prepare heavier armor-piercing or semi-armor-piercing bombs for dive bombing." Simon added, "It seems that 400 kilograms of aerial bombs cannot sink the Essex class. In the past, 500 kilograms of aerial bombs were used to sink the Essex class. The kilogram bomb also seems to be a little difficult and the dose must be increased a little bit."

"Let me think about it..." ****** fell into deep thought. His perspective on the problem was different from Simon's. "I think we can bring that kind of smart anti-ship bomb."

"You mean, Hs-393? In terms of weight, there's no problem at all, but doesn't the use of this thing require absolute air superiority?"

"There are always differences between theory and practice. When we fought yesterday, I found that the US F6F was as stupid as a piece of wood at high altitude." ****** described the situation of yesterday's battle in detail. "F6F, especially the new F6F-5, is a good aircraft at low and medium altitudes, and may be slightly better than Bf-21412, but it is completely useless at high and medium altitudes, especially at high altitudes. It is so stupid that it can't even compare with bombers above 9,000 meters. If we approach at high altitude and high speed, and then drop Hs-393, it will be very ideal. Besides, this tactic has been tried out on land in China, and we are preparing to force attacks on ships?"

The so-called land-based use does not refer to the Air Force's Ju-188, but the BMW901 engine version of the Ju-298 used by the Navy. After removing the ship-borne equipment and increasing the wing area and pressurized cockpit, the practical ceiling exceeds 12,500 meters. It is code-named Ju-298S. It is a perfect match for high altitude after matching with the Ta-152, which is also dedicated to high altitude. After improvement, Ju-188\288 can also be used in this airspace, but the bomb load has dropped to less than 1 ton (the normal bomb load of this series was 3 tons), which is at the same level as Ju-298, and the range is not as good as the opponent, so it can only give up the idea of ​​competing in this field.

In fact, by the beginning of 1944, the medium bombers and attack aircraft of the navy and air force were almost monopolized by Junkers, and a total of 4 main models were launched: Ju-188\288; Ju-198\298-the first one marked 1 uses BMW801 aircraft, and the mark 2 uses 901 engine. Although the maximum power of the 801 and 901 series engines is 2400 horsepower, the performance of the same power installed on the aircraft is obviously better than that of the 801-the latter has only 14 cylinders, and its weight and volume are superior to the 901 series that imitates the American R-2800 engine.

On the other hand, the 14-cylinder air-cooled engine has a limit of 2,400 horsepower. The performance of the 2,400 horsepower 801F (actual maximum power 2,350 horsepower) is very unstable. On average, 2 out of every 3 engines are broken. The Armament Department dare not use it normally on the aircraft. It is only used for testing. The performance of the 901 series is slightly better than that of the 801F, and the yield rate is about two-thirds. It is still full of hidden dangers for combat. The Armament Department still refuses to release it, but the tone is not so tough. However, the 901 series is much more reliable than the 18-cylinder engine 802 series that was also originally approved by BMW. The latter is heavier and has a lower degree of completion. In order to launch new products as soon as possible, BMW itself gave up and simply combined the 802 and 901 designs and worked together to tackle the 901 series.

The current situation is very clear. The 2400 horsepower 901 series and 801F are not dared to be used. The most used star aircraft is still the 2000 horsepower BMW801S - the actual maximum power is 2045 horsepower, which is basically at the same level as the British and American main fighters P47\F4U and F6F using R-2800. However, because the 801 engine has a small frontal area and light weight, the German army has a certain advantage.

Of course, the Germans knew that the Americans had 2,400-horsepower or even 2,800-horsepower R-2800 engines that were fully ready for service, because they had found 2,400-horsepower R-2800 engines (used in the latest P-47 fighters) in the materials seized in Newfoundland, so Hoffman couldn't wait to launch the new jet bomber. After the German test flight, he believed that the P-47 was very powerful in intercepting ordinary medium bombers, and the threat level exceeded that of the Spitfire or P-51. The Germans themselves did not have a heavy 4-engine bomber formation. If they used the Ju-188 purely to launch an air raid, they might repeat the mistakes of the first Battle of Britain.

Hoffman's strategy was successful. Fearing that jet warfare could not be defended, the Americans postponed the production and training of aircraft such as the P-47\F4U and pilots, and devoted all their energy to the Meteor jet, which successfully spoiled the enemy's rhythm (although only for a short period of time).

Until 12 noon, all reconnaissance planes reported that there was no discovery within 1,000 kilometers.

"It seems that the enemy has returned to South Africa?"

"That's good..." Crank thought for a while, "We will return to Argentina, and return to the Mediterranean after emergency repairs and replenishment. This time we will change the route and take the Atlantic Ocean."

"Atlantic Ocean?" Simon was stunned and asked back with some concern, "Will it be?"

"It's okay, the Führer is fighting Britain, and the Americans are in a mess, so they can't take care of us for the time being..."