Chapter 320: Result of the Battle

Then Angus gave an order that he regretted: "Group B, go!"

Group B is medium and heavy bombers. Angus let them into the battlefield because he thought that light bombers attracted the attention of enemy naval guns, so that medium and heavy bombers could take advantage of the opportunity to enter.

On the other hand, the second batch of aircraft was also about to arrive. Angus thought that bombing at this time would provide cover for the second batch.

Then, Angus ordered: "Group C, cover!"

Group C is a fighter formation. Although the British army did not encounter the enemy's air force at this time, fighters can still suppress the enemy's small-caliber anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, which can provide more opportunities for medium and heavy bombers.

But what Angus did not expect was that... German naval guns were more than enough for the British light bombers, and many warships did not even fire.

The German army had three battleships, which had 12 quadruple-mounted guns and 4 twin-mounted secondary guns. Together with cruisers and destroyers, the total number of guns was probably hundreds of guns.

If the U.S. military uses the hit rate of "proximity fuze shells", an average of 500 shells can shoot down a plane, which means that it can almost be said that a plane can be destroyed in the time of firing five shells... The more than 50 planes led by Angus will be shot down in a few minutes.

Angus certainly didn't know this, he pressed his nose and rushed towards the "Richelieu" below.

Angus had participated in the "Catapult Project" before, and it happened that it was the troops he led that damaged the "Richelieu" last time, so he could recognize it at a glance and knew the location of its anti-aircraft machine guns.

It didn't take long for Angus to find his target. Several German soldiers were operating a 13.2MM anti-aircraft machine gun and shooting wildly into the air. Because this anti-aircraft machine gun is a quadruple-mounted one with a fast firing rate, Angus knew that it was more threatening than the 37MM anti-aircraft gun... This is why Angus chose the anti-aircraft machine gun as his first choice.

"Da Da Da" two strings of bullets were fired from the fighter plane driven by Angus.

Angus was indeed a pilot who shot down more than 30 enemy planes. His bullets accurately covered the anti-aircraft machine gun and shot several nearby German machine gunners into sieves.

But just as Angus pulled up the nose of the plane to escape, his eyes suddenly went dark, and then he lost control of the flight and crashed into the "Richelieu" fiercely... The moment the plane hit the deck, Angus realized that this battle was completely different from the "Catapult Plan" he had participated in before, but he knew it too late.

Because Angus did not have time to send out a warning, and because the fierce battle raised a stream of water vapor and smoke over the fleet, blocking the second wave of aircraft, the second wave of aircraft rushed to the battlefield without much consideration and joined the battle.

They originally thought that this battle would be easy, but when they were blown down to the sea one after another by shells from nowhere, they found that things were not as they imagined.

The battle lasted for more than 20 minutes, and the result was unbelievable to the British pilots... Most of the British bombers were destroyed by the enemy before they could drop their bombs.

There are two reasons for this result:

First, the pilots received such information before taking off... There are large blind spots in the airspace above the French warships, so in order to effectively strike the enemy warships, low-altitude bombing is necessary.

Another reason is that the British pilots did not expect that the Germans' large-caliber anti-aircraft guns would be so accurate and so fast... Of course, they did not know that this was because the Germans were equipped with "proximity fuze shells".

In the end, of the 112 aircraft in two batches of the British Army, only 31 bombers and 7 fighters were able to return. Unfortunately, five of the fighters were injured and could not return to Malta, which means that only 33 aircraft survived.

"God!" Colonel John, the commander of the second fleet, looked at the few planes around him and said, "We are simply committing suicide. What did they (referring to the senior British officers) do?"

"They should have thought of it!" A major said, "French warships will have completely different combat effectiveness in the hands of the Germans. They made a mistake!"

"Yes!" Colonel John said, "The price is that we are almost annihilated. Damn it... They should be thrown into prison. This is simply murder!"

Montgomery and Eisenhower looked at each other in shock after hearing the news.

"How did they do it?" Montgomery said, "Are you sure it was the German fleet?"

"General!" The staff reminded Montgomery, "In addition to the German fleet... there is only the Italian fleet!"

It goes without saying what this means. It is even more impossible for the Italian fleet to have such combat effectiveness.

After a pause, Montgomery asked again: "How much damage did we inflict on them?"

"The situation is not very clear!" The staff officer replied: "Because of the low visibility and few survivors, according to Colonel John's report, we damaged the enemy's battleships 'Richelieu' and 'Strasbourg', and also damaged several destroyers!" (Note: The "Strasbourg" battleship is the second ship of the "Dunkirk" class battleship)

"No sinking?" Montgomery was very disappointed with this report.

"No sinking report!" The staff officer shook his head.

"We should withdraw the fleet!" Eisenhower said: "Our attack has failed this time!"

"No!" Montgomery replied: "We have damaged two of their battleships. We should take advantage of this opportunity to break through their blockade of the Tunisian Strait. Otherwise, when they repair the two battleships and restore their combat effectiveness... our sacrifice will be in vain!"

Montgomery's consideration is still somewhat reasonable, but it can also be seen that he is a little panicked... At this time, he is actually thinking, if the German fleet can now have such amazing combat effectiveness, then in the future, when Germany is more familiar with French warships, will the British army still have a chance to break through the Tunisian Strait?

Therefore, the British Navy seems to have only this opportunity in front of it, taking advantage of the two German battleships being damaged to beat the drowning dog. After all, the British Mediterranean Fleet also has three battleships, and there is also an aircraft carrier, although this aircraft carrier can only carry 21 aircraft.

Eisenhower did not have much command power at this time, so he could only nod in agreement.

"It's up to you, General!" Eisenhower said, "But I think we should re-evaluate the combat effectiveness of the German Navy before that!"