Chapter 1218

No one is waiting patiently in the war to let go of the opportunity of weapon development. Even backward and poor China developed its own military industry during the war of resistance against Japan and completed a lot of imitation and production of weapons.

This is true of China, which has no industrial base, not to mention the United States, which has the most powerful industrial power? Therefore, the Americans did not give up the pace of catching up with Germany's advanced weapons. On the other hand, they did not give up the hope of developing better weapons on their own.

Iceland, an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean, has no way to radiate its influence to the British Isles and Norway. One of the main reasons is that its distance embarrasses all kinds of US Air Force aircraft. The range of bombers is enough, but fighter planes can't escort.

So before the first plan to bomb Norway's iron ore production area with Icelandic bombers, the Americans were developing ultra long range escort fighters to escort their strategic bomber B17. However, due to the progress of the development, when the first bombing of Norway, the Americans had not yet produced this kind of aircraft, so they had to carry out night bombing whose accuracy could not be guaranteed.

This time, the Americans made this kind of long-range fighter, using two Rolls Royce high-powered engines and the fuselage of two P40 fighters to make a more powerful super long-range dual engine heavy fighter: the United States named it p41 fighter.

In fact, the p41 fighter is another p38 fighter in time and space. However, due to the early outbreak of war, the development of fighter by the United States went astray, so it was one year late to start service. Of course, the design of this kind of aircraft is not as mature as that of p38. It is completely made up of two P40 fighters.

In fact, this kind of aircraft can not be completely regarded as p38, because its shape is obviously different from p38. P38 has an independent fuselage in the middle, while p41 does not. From this point of view, the p41 is more like a relative of the German long-range fighter me109z1, because they are intuitive, using two single engine fighters to piece together a heavy fighter design pattern.

In any case, American designers have designed a long-range escort fighter that meets the requirements of the United States in the shortest time. This kind of aircraft can fly far to Norway with B17 fighters, which can alleviate the embarrassing situation that some bombers have no escort.

It is precisely because of this kind of fighter that the United States and the United Kingdom are so bold to fight against the German high seas fleet outside the traditional Greenland air defense circle. They have more fighters to escort them, but they are slower.

Because of this reliable backup, we can fight a "close" air battle with the German Navy at a specific time, so Dudley pound finally made up his mind to bet the fate of the Royal Navy on such a seemingly non dominant naval battle.

A p41 fighter passed over the allied fleet, followed by a second and a third. These twin engine fighters are quite fast, but not as flexible as single engine fighters. However, these planes appeared in the endless sea, but brought considerable shock to the enemy on the opposite side.

"Little Dragon 4, pay attention to the front! A special enemy fighter! We don't know the performance of this kind of enemy aircraft yet. Be careful! " The pilots of German fighter planes are not used to flinch. They are used to playing the leading role in the sky, just as the British are used to dominating the sea.

Fw190 fighters roared to their enemies, and then after staggered, chasing each other's tail, the battle became bloody again, the roar of machine guns in the white clouds.

"Long live the Fuehrer! Marshals and generals are not doing well! The British fleet has turned again and is approaching us. "An officer walked up to lutjans and Ryder and reported at attention:" there are unprecedented American planes on the battlefield, and the air supremacy is not fully in our hands. "

"The new plane?" Lutjans' eyelids leaped, and he was really running out of patience and courage. The emergence of new enemy aircraft means that the carrier based aircraft of the German Navy will suffer more losses, and it means that the naval battle will be out of control again and again. For him, the commander of the aircraft carrier fleet of the German Navy, it is too hard for him to accept all this.

"Take off the reconnaisance plane quickly and confirm if there is any other US aircraft carrier fleet we haven't found in the north?" What lutjans was most worried about was the emergence of new forces in the allied fleet, which would make all his previous calculations fail and make him suspicious of winning. After all, if there are more US aircraft carriers in the invisible north, then the strength comparison between the two aircraft carriers will not be 7-2. What about 7-5 or 7-7? Is there any point in fighting this naval battle?

After giving the order to take off the reconnaissance plane and continue to investigate northward, lutjans looked at admiral Ryder, who didn't look very good. Then he said, "my admiral, we have to widen the distance between the fleets. We don't have to risk luring the British to come up. It's better for us to widen the distance."

After that, he looked behind him and found that there was still a distance between the two of them, so he lowered his voice and continued: "now none of us dare to say whether there is a third or fourth aircraft carrier in the allied fleet. If it is consumed in this situation, we will not benefit at all, will we?" RedAll also felt that it was too reckless to maintain his current position under the current situation. After some deliberation, he nodded to lutjans and agreed: "maybe you are right. As generals, we have limited temporary decision-making power on the front line. It may be a good way to avoid risks to let the fleet adjust its course."“ Fleet slow down! Heading from due north to 25 degrees north by East! " After Lydia's approval, he quickly gave the order to adjust the course. The German high seas fleet adjusted its course for the first time after the war, and the whole fleet aimed at the bow of the ship in the direction of Iceland. Since becoming an aircraft carrier fleet commander, lutjans has been more and more adapted to his role. In fact, he did not know that the German Navy's new heavy cruiser was equipped with a new main gun, which was superior to the Allied ships in terms of firing speed and accuracy. With the three battleships in his hands, even if there was a real artillery battle, the allied fleet did not seem to have any advantage. However, commanders using aircraft carriers, especially those of the German Navy, are used to taking advantage of the enemy. In their view, even fighting is already a loss. At least giving up the advantage of aircraft carriers is an irrational performance, isn't it? Of course, what no one knows is that although the Dudley pound fleet, which lacks the ability of detection, did not find out in time this time, in fact, the retreat of the high seas fleet of the German Navy made them change their route closer to the Royal Naval sub fleet that had been encircled“ These airplanes have very average dogging capability, and although they have strong firepower, they are not flexible enough. " While piloting the plane to get rid of an American p41 fighter with smoother rolling motion, the German pilot in the cockpit summed up the shortcomings of the enemy aircraft to his friends: "I think they should be land-based fighters. It's absolutely idiotic to use two fuselage aircraft on the aircraft carrier." He shook the control lever of his plane cleanly, and soon got rid of the slightly clumsy US p41 fighter. His wingmen fired at the clumsy enemy fighters, directly turning them into burning parts. Although the p41 fighter has a lot of armor to protect the pilot and fuel because of its abundant volume. However, in the face of the German aircraft equipped with 20 and 30 mm caliber aircraft guns, it still seems a little weak. Even the bigger and stronger B17 strategic bombers can't get a bargain in front of the German large caliber aircraft guns, let alone the p41 fighter. The p41 fighter developed temporarily is not the rival of fw190 fighter after all. In the short process of fighting, 11 p41 fighters were shot down, and only two fw190 fighters died because they did not adapt to the changes of their opponents. On the other hand, the German attack fleet has already made the British fleet in chaos pay a heavy price before the two hostile sides fight each other in the sky. A cruiser of the Royal Navy was hit. It had caught fire and was forced to slow down and leave the fleet. Queen Elizabeth was hit again by German aircraft because several doors were destroyed by anti-aircraft guns, which led to loopholes in the anti-aircraft fire network. The side of the British battleship exploded and caught fire, affecting many anti-aircraft guns on the side. What makes Dudley pound even more irritated is that the fire on the Queen Elizabeth is getting bigger and bigger because of the inexperience of damage control personnel, and some of them are out of control. As a last resort, the Queen Elizabeth slowed down again and retreated to a slightly backward position, seeking the protection of several destroyers and cruisers around. Looking anxiously at his pocket watch, Dudley pound found that the time was only 14:30 p.m., about 4:30 p.m., which he hoped, and there were still two long hours to suffer. Land based p41 fighters have limited range and can not stay for a long time. It seems that the situation is becoming more and more unfavorable for the fleet of the Royal Navy