Iron Cross

Ozawa firmly supports turning around and conducting fleet operations. His reason is very simple: on the premise of still getting the cooperation of land-based attack aircraft, this fleet must be destroyed as much as possible. As long as the opponent is destroyed, Britain and the United States can fight against each other in the Atlantic Ocean. The German fleet's mobile power that poses a threat is temporarily gone, and it can go forward with confidence and boldness to break diplomatic relations. And if you don't defeat the opponent, the subsequent battle to break the relationship will be endless, because you don't know when the enemy hiding in the dark will pounce on you and bite you.

"Single aircraft carrier fleet vs. aircraft carrier fleet is not good for us, because Europa is a special aircraft carrier converted from a cruise ship. It has a large tonnage but poor defense capabilities. It cannot bring out the true value of a fleet aircraft carrier, and it is even worse than the aviation combat capability of a light aircraft carrier. Weak, so..."

"Let's discuss, should we go back to deal with this fleet or continue to the South Atlantic to break diplomatic relations?" Although breaking diplomatic ties is the primary task assigned by the Navy, containing the British and American fleets is also an important part of it. Ozawa will use both pros and cons. The factors are very clear: No matter what, if we insist on breaking diplomatic relations with South America, we may not encounter the enemy fleet, but if we encounter it, we will be at a disadvantage; the risk of returning to fight is not small, but if we destroy this fleet again, we will be at a disadvantage. This eliminates the enemy's maneuverability. Not only can the Azores direction buy more time, but the situation will become very favorable after Gibraltar is captured and the naval forces of the Mediterranean axis rush out... Moreover, there must be risks in fighting. How is it possible? Not taking risks?

"This fleet is coming for us, and we have no reason to retreat. Sooner or later, the navy will have to confront the enemy's aircraft carrier formation. It would be more advantageous to fight them when they only have two aircraft carriers and their strength is greatly weakened." Krank thought. Later, he said, "Intelligence shows that the enemy will get more than 10 new aircraft carriers this year, and we will only have 2-3 at most. If we don't fight now, we may not even have the chance to fight in the future."

Lieutenant General Bei was also eager to try: "When we crossed the North Sea, we were afraid of interception by the Royal Navy. Later, the results were actually quite good. Although the warships coming this time were much stronger than those old ones in the North Sea, I didn't I believe the Americans are far superior to the British, and the level of their carrier-based aircraft pilots is even lower than the British.”

Kumetz is the only one among the major generals who advocates caution. The final key depends on Machar's stance. He himself prefers fighting. However, before the action, Redel sent a telegram warning him to be careful and not to do anything when he is not sure. Attacking indiscriminately, Chief of Naval Staff Frick also sent several telegrams telling him to proceed with caution. He hesitated again, but he definitely couldn't ask Redel or the Führer for instructions on this matter - the opportunity to fight was fleeting, how could he convince the public in the future if he asked for instructions on everything? How can one be promoted to marshal? At this moment, the mentality of making achievements once again occupied his brain.

At 7 o'clock that night, the fleet changed its course, turning from southwest to northeast. Ozawa believed that this was the most likely route for the enemy fleet to pursue him. Judging from the situation reported by the Azores defenders this evening, the enemy and us The center positions of the fleets are more than 800 nautical miles away from each other. He believes that the most likely time to engage the enemy is tomorrow afternoon to evening. Of course, it is not ruled out that the enemy fleet may turn around and head northward, escaping back to Britain, so the gap between them may not be narrowed.

At nightfall, Spruance received a reply from Admiral King. On the one hand, he expressed comfort about today's battle situation, and on the other hand, he praised his courage to continue to pursue the enemy fleet. There was no word of blame, but he expressed continued support. He, this moved him very much, and he knew that this was what Admiral Jin said under great pressure. At the end of the message, Admiral King expressed the hope that he could sink the two German aircraft carriers in a consultative tone, "even if he pays a heavy price for it." Spruance immediately understood the hint: now The ones he held in his hands were all British warships. Admiral Jin did not feel particularly distressed about losing them. He was more concerned about using these warships in exchange for victory.

Of course, Brown and Chris had different ideas, but they were also really fired up by today's air raid. Coupled with Admiral Jin's unequivocal instructions, they could not raise any objections for a while. For the fleet, it is now in a very dangerous situation. According to the standard of dividing the 500-nautical-mile air defense circle, it is currently at the convergence point of multiple air defense circles such as the Azores, the west coast of Portugal, and the Madeira Islands, and must get rid of it as soon as possible.

One thing they didn't expect was that the daily patrol range of the German reconnaissance aircraft was not so large. In fact, it was difficult to fully grasp all the movements on the sea. If the transfer fleet had not happened to spot the fleet, there would have been no such thing as an air raid today. Under the cover of night, the American fleet was heading southwest at a maximum speed of 25 knots, hoping to get rid of the unfavorable situation as soon as possible. They did not know that the German fleet was moving at a speed of 18 knots, and the directions were almost tit for tat - if both sides maintained If the speed and course remain unchanged, they will enter each other's aviation attack circle after dawn.

On São Miguel Island, the ground crews were busy until late at night, setting up all aircraft's fuel and special mines, preparing to attack as soon as the target was discovered tomorrow. Schiller obtained Vaughns's permission to transfer today's latest scene. All 36 joint attack aircraft were allocated to his own use. In this way, he could control up to 63 joint attack aircraft, but only 40 Bf-219s were used to cover the attack - 4 of the 44 aircraft that came back were damaged. Seriously, it will be difficult to carry out missions without comprehensive maintenance, and it will take several days for the new Bf-219 to be reinforced. However, fighter pilots did not take this matter to heart. They believed that with the performance of today's American carrier-based aircraft and the level of pilots, 40 aircraft were enough to deal with them.

At 5:45, the sky over the sea began to lighten up. Spruance and Ozawa launched the reconnaissance aircraft at the same time. 15 minutes later, the Azores launched a land-based reconnaissance aircraft. Originally, Vaughns wanted Schiller to use 12 joint attack aircraft to serve as reconnaissance aircraft, because they not only flew fast but also had a long range, but Schiller was very attached to his treasure and refused to say anything. He only agreed. Use the Ar-272 for reconnaissance. This is certainly not hypocritical on his part. In his opinion, the Joint Attack Aircraft can fully exert its power only when it is equipped with mines. It is completely inferior to serve as a reconnaissance aircraft - if there were 63 Joint Attack Aircraft yesterday instead of 36, that aircraft would be The US fleet has been decommissioned a long time ago, so why bother to attack again today?

After releasing the reconnaissance aircraft, the two aircraft carrier formations took off to cover the aircraft group one after another. Ozawa fine-tuned the sortie sequence. Since the release efficiency of the Zeppelin had decreased, he increased the frequency of the release of the Europa. Of the total 24 escort fighter jets, , 14 took off from Europa, and 10 took off from Zeppelin. Unfortunately, the results were not good even when they were anxious. By 9 a.m., the reconnaissance planes of both armies, which had been working for more than three hours, found nothing.