The Rise of the Third Reich

"Report damage..."

Before his body could regain his balance, the captain of the "Eagle" aircraft carrier had already grabbed the ship's phone and started shouting.

"Water in the engine room..."

"The boiler tubes are ruptured and the pressure is falling..."

"There is serious water on the starboard side."

No matter how noisy the battlefield was, the spell-like sound released from the phone receiver reached everyone's ears clearly. The deck began to tilt rapidly to the right, and everyone's mood suddenly became extremely heavy and disappointed. It seems that what is about to sink is not an Italian aircraft carrier, but the entire Roman Empire...

Admiral Anzu Aquino's face turned pale, and he was no longer as high-spirited as before. His lips trembled, "Inject water to maintain balance, and tell damage control to save the aircraft carrier no matter what!"

"Yes!" the captain of the aircraft carrier responded loudly, and then issued an order to the damage control captain on the other end of the phone line in an urgent and fast tone. But he also knew that the "Eagle" aircraft carrier was probably not saved. Because the "Eagle" aircraft carrier has the same foundation as the "Sparrowhawk", it is just a cruise ship launched in the early 1920s.

However, the Italian sailors' diligent repairs were not meaningless. They at least delayed the sinking of the "Eagle" aircraft carrier. This delayed the British torpedo bombers' stay on the battlefield, and also gave the Fokker 99 aircraft that had just bombed the British Mediterranean A Fleet a platform to land.

After injecting a large amount of seawater into the port side, the tilted hull of the "Eagle" aircraft carrier gradually regained its balance. Although the aircraft carrier's hull was still sinking slowly, Major Williamson, who was directing the battle in the air, did not notice this detail. So he gave the remaining torpedo plane squadrons orders to attack the aircraft carrier.

However, the second wave of torpedo aircraft attacks on the "Eagle" aircraft carrier was unsuccessful. Because several Fokker Zeros flying from unknown places suddenly launched an attack on them, shooting down 2 of the 6 "Big Mackerels" that were flying over the sea and preparing to release torpedoes, and the remaining 4 were not allowed to fly. Escape without losing your torpedo.

"Damn it, it's the enemy's reinforcements that have arrived!"

Lieutenant Colonel Williamson, who was flying the aircraft at an altitude of 3,000 meters and directed the torpedo attack, saw very clearly that these aircraft were not the Fokker Zeros currently fighting the P-39s and Fulmars, but were flying from the east of the battlefield. The Fokker Zero. The Fokker Zero, which was supposed to be escorting the Fokker 99 that was bombing Fleet A in the Mediterranean, is back.

The first batch to return were 10 Fokker Zeros. These aircraft had been flying in the sky for almost 2 hours and had a battle with the P-39 "Flying Snake" that took off from Crete. Therefore, not only The pilots were exhausted and they didn't even have much ammunition left. However, the addition of these aircraft still frightened Lieutenant Colonel Williamson, and he had to mobilize some "fulmars" that were besieging other Fokker Zeros to entangle them in order to create a continuation for the remaining "big mackerel" Attack conditions.

But at this time, an Italian heavy cruiser of the "Zara" class suddenly approached the starboard side of the "Eagle" aircraft carrier. This heavy cruiser was going to transfer the Italian aircraft carrier fleet headquarters on the "Eagle", but its 182.8-meter-long hull blocked the attack route of the British torpedo planes, and inadvertently became the aircraft carrier's human shield.

The six "Mackers" had already entered the attack position. Due to the obstruction of the heavy cruiser, they had no choice but to give up the attack and then turn to the left side of the aircraft carrier. They had to carefully avoid the anti-aircraft firepower of surface ships on the way. The process took more than 10 minutes.

Before these aircraft could enter the attack position on the left side of the "Eagle" aircraft carrier, eight more German fighter jets that looked a bit like P36 flew onto the battlefield from an altitude of 3,000 meters. The British fleet that was fighting the Fokker Zero immediately sent out eight P39s to intercept these "P36s", but what happened next surprised the British. These German "P36" fighter jets were extremely fast and launched a dive attack directly from an altitude of 3,000 meters on the P39s at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters. Before the P39s could react, four of them were beaten into "turkeys".

"Oh God! What kind of plane is this?" After witnessing the P39 being shot down so cleanly, Lieutenant Colonel Williamson realized that these planes were not P36s at all, but a new type of fighter that had not appeared on the battlefield before. Judging from the speed of their dive attacks, you can tell that this is a fighter jet with "one-hit separation" as its main combat method. It is probably used to replace the "short-legged" BF-109 and Fokker Zero for high-low coordination. .

"Are you saved?" Admiral Anzu Aquino, who had been transferred to the heavy cruiser "Zara", also saw the battle that had just occurred in the air, and he was relieved.

What came was 8 Fw-190s. The combat efficiency of this kind of aircraft is obviously higher than that of the Fokker Zero, which dominates the world by fighting. Even when facing opponents with numerical superiority, they can still achieve good results by using the method of "quick attack and quick escape". Although only 8 aircraft came, they became a key force in reversing the situation in the air combat.

"Planes that have not dropped torpedoes will attack immediately. Attack freely. After firing the torpedoes, we will leave here immediately!"

Lieutenant Colonel Williamson did not dare to fight, and immediately issued a general attack order to all torpedo bombers. It doesn't matter whether the target is an aircraft carrier, a heavy cruiser or a light cruiser, just hit one and count it as one!

At the same time, the "Blenheim" bomber that was pushed up to high altitude by the Fokker Zero also received the same instruction and began to rush down to low altitude to drop bombs on the Italian ships (low altitude horizontal delivery).

The aircraft carrier "Eagle" and the heavy cruiser "Zara" that are close to it are obviously the most conspicuous targets. The "Macker", which had not dropped its torpedoes, and the "Blenheim", which had not dropped its bombs, both regarded them as targets. Bombs and torpedoes fell like raindrops.

The heavy cruiser "Zara", which was trying to get away from the "Eagle", was unable to dodge, and the stern of the ship was hit by two torpedoes at the same time. Looking from the "Eagle" next to it, I saw that the stern of the "Zara" warped up slightly at first, and then suddenly began to sink.

It turned out that two torpedoes opened two large holes in the butt of the "Zara", and one of them exploded the engine room, causing a large amount of seawater to pour in and causing the cruiser to lose all power within a few minutes.

Alarms for abandoning the ship sounded from everywhere, and the sailors put on their life jackets and ran towards the lifeboats, regardless of air defense and damage control. Admiral Anzu Aquino and his headquarters had to move the flagship for the second time. Like ordinary sailors, he put on a life jacket and sat in a small boat and headed for another heavy cruiser in the fleet.

However, he never had the chance to command the fleet in combat, because by the time he boarded the heavy cruiser "Pola", the battle was already over. And when he returned to his home port of Taranto, the order of dismissal and demotion signed by Mussolini himself had also been delivered!

The hapless Italian admiral became a "scapegoat" and had to retire from the Royal Italian Navy with the rank of captain.

While the heavy cruiser "Zara" sank, the aircraft carrier "Eagle" suffered another two torpedoes and two 500-pound bombs dropped by "Blenheim" bombers. One of them exploded in the hangar of the "Eagle". Fortunately, most of the aircraft had flown away and did not cause much chain damage. Moreover, the hangar of the "Eagle" is still open, and the shock wave of the explosion can also be released.

But those two torpedoes caused enough fatal damage to the aircraft carrier. Seawater poured in at an accelerated rate, and the aircraft carrier sank at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Fortunately, the Eagle's deck can still recover the aircraft. The 43 Fokker 99s that had just completed the bombing mission (5 were lost) and the 38 Fokker Zeros that fought hard with British aircraft in the air (10 were damaged) were finally damaged on the "Eagle" landing on the deck. In order to recover the aircraft that landed later, the Eagle's deck crew had to push the previously landed aircraft into the sea. In the end, all the aircraft were abandoned like the "Eagle" aircraft carrier, but most of the pilots survived.

Of the 48 Fokker Zero pilots and 96 Fokker 99 crew members, only 15 were killed or missing in action. If you include the pilots and crew members lost in the air attack on the main force of the British Mediterranean Fleet and the island of Malta, the number does not exceed 150.

Their opponents, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, lost nearly 300 aircraft and more than 1,000 crew members in this day's battle! Among them, most of the British carrier-based aircraft pilots who participated in the air attack on the Italian aircraft carrier fleet did not survive!

Because just when Lieutenant Colonel Williamson ordered the retreat, an air raid group consisting of 45 Ju88s, 33 S.M.79s, and 22 Fokker Zeros had already arrived on the battlefield. Trailing behind 11 "Flanges" and 36 "Mackers"!

"Major General, the telegram is from Lieutenant Colonel Williamson, the commander-in-chief of the air attack group. There are about 100 German and Italian aircraft following them now..."

On the aircraft carrier "Glorious", Colonel Boyd told Rear Admiral Lister the bad news in a trembling voice.

It was impossible to get away from the pursuers at the speed of the "Flans" and "Mackers", and their fuel was not enough to deal with the opponents until it was completely dark before returning to the aircraft carrier... In fact, among the German and Italian aircraft following them As long as there are twenty or thirty Fokker Zeros, all 47 British carrier-based aircraft can be destroyed.

The reason why the Germans are not taking action now is because they want these aircraft to guide them to the British aircraft carrier.

Although it will definitely be dark when these aircraft land on the British aircraft carrier, the recovery of carrier-based aircraft and aircraft carriers at night must be guided by lights. These lights also attract bombs and torpedoes...

"Let's retreat!" Major General List said through gritted teeth, "Let the plane go to Crete..."

"Crete?" Colonel Boyd shook his head and said, "The plane doesn't have that much fuel."

Major General Lister was silent for a moment and said: "Then let them make an emergency landing on the water near Crete, and then swim to Crete."