Chapter 561 Sunset 5

"Sir, our SBD has severely damaged a German aircraft carrier, which is now surrounded by fire!"

The good news that the Potsdam has become a "fire ship" was passed on to the flagship of the British Home Fleet, the King George V. People in the command tower almost cheered - since the bombing of Scapa Flow, the former maritime hegemon, the British Royal Navy, seemed to be in bad luck, with fewer and fewer ships and more and more territory lost. Even when sinking German and Italian battleships, they killed 3,000 enemies and lost 10,000 of their own.

"Loss?" Cunningham did not cheer with others, but immediately asked about the losses - don't let the air raid fleet lose two-thirds or something, which would be more than worth the loss.

"At present, it is certain that 11 F4F fighters and 28 SBD dive bombers have been lost."

The aviation staff immediately reported the latest statistics of losses. 11 of the 24 F4Fs were lost, and 28 of the 72 SBDs were lost. A total of 39 aircraft! Cunningham finally smiled. The loss was not small, but it was not more than half after all, and a 30,000-ton aircraft carrier suspected to be a Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier was severely damaged.

This shows that the British Royal Navy is getting out of the trough, and the "Fokker Storm" that once swept across Europe has lost its power. Under the entanglement of the Mustang fighter, the Fokker Zero can no longer calmly deal with waves of British bombers and torpedo attack aircraft.

As the squadron leader of the front-line carrier-based fighter squadron, Captain Novotny can be said to have a deep feeling about this.

His squadron participated in three air interception operations this morning, shooting down 6 P51s and 2 F4Fs, and 4 of its own aircraft were shot down, sacrificing 2 very good pilots.

"Their planes are too hard to hit. They are incredibly sturdy, with more powerful firepower than our Fokker Zero, and they are also very flexible. Once you grab their tails, they will dive..."

After coming down from the sky, Novotny, who was so tired that he could hardly walk, was eating a nutritious lunch specially provided for pilots in the officers' cafeteria while complaining to his regiment commander, Major Heinz Barr.

"But we still shot down at least 100 planes today!" Heinz Barr smiled and comforted his old subordinates, "This is only the record of the Fokker Zero on the five aircraft carriers. If the fighter planes from Bergen are counted, we shot down at least 180 enemy planes. And the airspace of this battle was over our fleet. They simply couldn't salvage the pilots who fell into the water."

"But the Potsdam was severely damaged!" Novotny said with some confusion, "I really don't understand why we are lingering around the Faroe Islands? Are we really going to capture the island? But it doesn't look like that to me. We didn't bring any landing troops, and the fleet has been sailing north since this morning. It's getting farther and farther away from the Faroe Islands!"

While Novotny was talking, someone suddenly shouted: "The Potsdam was hit again, it's capsizing, my God! It's going to sink!"

Novotny and Barr immediately ran to a porthole where many pilots gathered. When others saw their commander coming, they all dispersed. Novotny and Barr looked out and saw that the bow of the aircraft carrier, which was originally billowing with thick smoke, had been raised high and the stern had sunk into the water a few thousand meters away.

"Oh my God, it was hit by a torpedo!" Although Novotny was not from the navy, he still had some vision. "Is there a British submarine nearby?"

"No, it was sunk by ourselves!" Major Barr did not see any destroyers dropping depth charges, "It was abandoned... This means that we will soon speed up to the north and go to the Denmark Strait. Abandoning the Potsdam is to avoid being dragged down by it (the speed of the Potsdam was severely reduced due to the fire, and the thick smoke caused by the burning was also a huge target, which easily exposed the fleet). The Potsdam was really unlucky and sank in the first attack."

"Then what did we do in the Faroe Islands?" Novotny muttered in a low voice in confusion.

…

"Sir, what happened?"

In the wartime cabinet headquarters in London, British Prime Minister Churchill saw that the First Sea Lord Pound read the war report again and again with a frown, so he asked a question.

"It's dozens of Italian P.108s. They are not going to bomb northern Scotland, nor are they going to bomb the Shetland Islands or the Faroe Islands... They have now passed the Faroe Islands and are flying west."

"Passing the Faroe Islands?" Churchill was also stunned, "What is west of the Faroe Islands?"

"There are several aircraft carriers and battleships of the Home Fleet!"

"Haha, sir, are you kidding?" Fatty Churchill didn't take it seriously, "Using high-altitude heavy bombers to bomb a fleet in motion? If this works, it will be good news for our American friends. They have a lot of big guys like B-17 and B-24."

Dudley Pound shrugged, "Prime Minister, I actually think so too... It's not okay to use high-altitude horizontal bombers to deal with surface ships in motion."

"Then is it necessary to take some precautions?" Churchill asked, "For example, sending Mustang fighters and Mosquito aircraft to cover Cunningham's fleet?"

The current P51 fighter does not have the Merlin 60 engine, so its high-altitude performance is very poor, but it can still fight at an altitude of 8,000-9,000 meters.

In this time and space, Mosquito aircraft in service in the British Royal Air Force were equipped with machine guns and cannons, and could serve as heavy fighter aircraft - this was actually forced by German high-altitude fighters. Now Germany's BF-109, Fw-190 and Each of the Fokker Zero series has a high-altitude fighter. There are also two high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft/bombers that the British hate very much, the Ju86P/R and the Fw-200E (the high-altitude version of the Fw-200). This makes the Royal Air Force in urgent need of high-altitude aircraft with combat capabilities, so all Mosquitoes have certain air combat capabilities.

"It's too late," Dudley Pound shook his head. "The Coast Air Force's fourth attack wave has already taken off. In northern Scotland, all the Mustangs and Mosquitoes that can be deployed have been deployed. Even the aircraft mobilized from the south can't catch up. And the Germans are now bombing ports and airfields along the English Channel."

Churchill thought for a while and smiled: "It's just a few dozen high-altitude bombers. They will definitely not threaten the fleet. Sir Cunningham can definitely handle them."

…

"Dozens of P.108s? Coming towards us? What are the Italians thinking?"

Cunningham was only amused when he learned that his fleet was about to be bombed by Italian high-altitude bombers. If it were a German plane, Cunningham might be a little worried, but he had already seen the virtues of Italians in the Mediterranean.

Cunningham thought for a while and ordered: "Let the F4F take off when they get close. Don't go above 10,000 meters. Just hold on to 6,000 meters." Then he turned his mind to the German fleet. "The German fleet is heading towards north?"

"Yes," Lister, chief of staff of the Home Fleet, replied, "They are heading north at a speed of about 10 knots."

"So slow?"

"It was probably dragged down by the heavily damaged 30,000-ton aircraft carrier."

"That means it hasn't been sunk yet," Cunningham said thoughtfully. "When the carrier-based aircraft come back, we will arrange another wave of attacks. No matter what, we will sink a German aircraft carrier!"

The two discussed for a while, and the radar officer of the King George V suddenly reported loudly: "A cluster of enemy aircraft was found, with a number of more than 30, a direction of 36, a distance of 100 nautical miles, and an altitude of about 10,000 meters!"

10,000 meters! What a lovely Italian…

Cunningham and Lister looked at each other, both showing a contemptuous smile.

…

"I saw the British fleet. They are so small."

"Where are they?"

"Direction 222, distance approximately 20,000 meters."

"Okay, let me take a look... Oh, I saw it. There are 4 motherships and 1 battleship. They are not even in an air defense formation, but there are direct cover aircraft above them."

"It's an F4F. Its performance at high altitudes is not very good. It flies very slowly at high altitudes and is easy to fight."

"I know, Lieutenant Colonel Castellana, give command to me now."

"Understood, Major Mussolini, you are now in command."

Although the Italian army is generally unreliable, the bombing aviation regiment commanded by Bruno Mussolini is an anomaly. This son of Mussolini was actually a very outstanding soldier. Under his leadership, the 10th Bombardment Aviation Regiment of the Royal Italian Air Force also became the best bombing aviation group in Italy. In many aspects, it even surpassed the He177 and Ju. .89 and Do-19 German bombing aviation regiments. Moreover, the He177, Ju.89 and Do-19 were only produced in small quantities to maintain the factory's manufacturing capacity. The performance of the German heavy bombers was not as good as that of the P.108.

However, the Luftwaffe did not originally intend for the Italian P.108S to become the first aircraft equipped with the Hs293 glide bomb. The original plan was to use the German Ju.288 medium bomber (the speed and range of this aircraft on paper are very impressive, making it a more ideal carrier than the P.108) as the Hs239 and Fritz X. The main vehicle for controlling glide bombs.

However, the development of Jumo's 2,500-horsepower 24-cylinder liquid-cooled engine Jumo222 was somewhat delayed, which slowed down the progress of the Ju.288. Therefore, it was not until December 1941 that the Ju.288 was finally finalized, and the large number of equipped troops may have to be delayed until June 1942.

Therefore, the P.108, which has long been developed and improved, has been equipped with troops and has participated in actual combat, has become the only aircraft among the European Axis countries that can be used to carry Hs239 glide bombs.

Note: In this time and space, because there is no raw material bottleneck, German aero-engine companies can obtain alloy materials with better performance, so the development work of Jumo222 is finally completed.