On October 1, after two days of voyage, the fleet has arrived in the sea off Matlu, Egypt. It is 140 kilometers away from Matru and 200 kilometers away from the target Alexandria. It just happens to be not on the waterway, so it has naturally become the first choice for the Romanian fleet.
In fact, the fleet had already arrived here at 1 o'clock in the morning. Just waiting for the best time to attack, has been wandering here.
Although the fleet is hovering, the five aircraft carriers at the core are brightly lit but extremely busy. The ground crew is busy carrying various ammunition and torpedoes onto the deck, preparing for the upcoming aircraft.
"Four aerial torpedoes are still missing here, hurry up, the plane is about to take off in one hour. Where's the tanker truck? I see a tanker truck missing."
Already, ground crew statisticians are calling for inadequate preparations, which naturally caused several ground crews to immediately bring professional vehicles to pull.
In the restaurant, the pilots were sitting together, enjoying the delicious food before the expedition. Major General Fernandez, who is mainly responsible for planning the air raid plan, was in the dining room to condolences to the upcoming pilots.
From time to time, he talked to the pilot and patted the other person on the shoulder as a sign of encouragement. The pilot who spoke with him saw the general flower on the epaulettes, naturally with a flattered expression.
When the needle was pointing at four o'clock, all the pilots stopped their movements, and they immediately gathered on the deck, preparing to fly their beloved aircraft and launch an attack on the enemy. At this time, the five aircraft carriers also drove their speed to the maximum to help the aircraft take off smoothly.
The three Bormiku-class large fleet aircraft carriers, the absolute core of the air strike, were the slowest torpedo planes in the first wave of flying. This is the second torpedo machine developed by Romania, numbered H47 (the first H45 has poor performance and was directly abandoned).
The main data are: wingspan 15.1 meters (folding 11.09 meters), captain: 10.51 meters, height: 4.52 meters, empty weight: 2900kg, and maximum load: 5100kg. The power is an air-cooled engine with 1,400 horsepower and a maximum speed of 415 kilometers per hour. The combat radius is 476 kilometers. (Maximum range is 1900 kilometers) Equipped with two 12.7mm self-defense machine guns, 900kg aerial torpedo or 900kg aerial bomb. Crew: Three (pilot, bombardier, self-defense machine gunner).
Therefore, with the help of the ground crew, the first batch of torpedo planes are already ready for take-off on the deck. The take-off of torpedo aircraft is the most tense moment of ground handling, because the aviation torpedo carried by torpedo aircraft is less than half a meter high from the deck, especially if there is an accident during take-off, it will be very dangerous. Therefore, when choosing a torpedo pilot, he will always choose a stable and heavy type.
Under the attention of the ground crew, the torpedo plane jumped up with full horsepower and lifted off. This caused a burst of cheers from the deck, and other torpedo planes followed, one by one flying off the deck.
While the three Bormiko-class aircraft carriers were flying torpedoes, the two **** aircraft carriers were also flying fighters. It's just that the fighter it is flying is not like the Romanian RH20T carrier-based aircraft that was modified from the Peregrine RF20 fighter. The main reason is that this fighter is a high-altitude fighter, even if it is replaced with an air-cooled engine, its low-altitude performance drops too much, and it cannot be compared with this new fighter.
If anyone who knows this fighter comes to see it, they will blurt out how it is Zero.
Yes, this is the Zero fighter. After the Romania-Japanese reconciliation, Romania, in order to ease the relationship between the two parties, while increasing the design capabilities of its own carrier aircraft, specially developed its own newly developed 1200 horsepower air-cooled engine, and wanted to jointly develop a Carrier-based aircraft.
Facing the Romanian engine, Japan's saliva will flow out. Besides, the new fighter jets currently required by the Navy are also being developed. I don't have to say, it is natural to agree to it in one go. With the addition of Romanian technicians, the R&D work of Horekoshi Jiro's team has been accelerated, and it has also brought European design concepts for reference.
The first prototype was developed in September 1938. Using the latest Romanian air-cooled engine prototype, the performance of the test flight far exceeded previous expectations, with a top speed of 513 kilometers per hour. And because of the sufficient power, not only does it need to be punched, but it can also provide some armor protection for it.
In the end, this new zero-style was changed a lot, length: 9.37 meters, wingspan: 12.2 meters, height: 3.6 meters. Empty weight: 1890 kg, maximum take-off weight: 2940 kg, maximum flight speed of 565 kilometers. Maximum range: 3100 kilometers (mounted auxiliary fuel tank), 2100 kilometers (internal fuel). Equipped with two 20mm machine guns, 12.7mm machine guns (Romanian version), and two 30kg or 60kg bombs.
This new fighter is much stronger than the current RH20T carrier-based aircraft developed by Romania itself, so after the successful finalization in May, more than 200 aircraft were produced urgently. It's just that the current model is the HF201 fighter, and only about 100 can fly on the ship, so priority is given to escorting aircraft carriers. When the pilots are familiar with the fighters on the carrier-based aircraft carrier, they will all be dominated by this HF201 fighter.
Now this HF201 fighter jet will provide protection for the torpedo aircraft on the attack. Using the taillights as a guide in the night sky, they formed a formation and flew towards Alexandria in the southeast.
After releasing the attacking torpedo, the ground crew immediately pushed the dive bomber up. The Navy’s carrier-based dive bomber is an improvement from the Air Force’s RU18 dive bomber. The wings are shortened in size and designed to be foldable, with enhanced landing gear and tail hooks.
This navy version of the RU18 dive bomber has a maximum speed of 420 kilometers per hour and a combat radius of 645 kilometers. It can carry two 500KG aerial bombs or one 1000KG bomb.
After placing bombs on the dive bombers, the RU18T dive bombers took off one by one from the carrier, and then it was the turn of the RH20T fighters.
And Midraphael and Fernandez watched the take-off process of the carrier-based aircraft and watched groups of fighters flew out of the aircraft carrier in turn. After all the planes were released, the two looked at each other. Now that all the means are used, the only way to see the strength of the pilot is to show.
But when it comes to Romanian carrier-based pilots, they are definitely top-notch. Regardless of the fact that the Navy's carrier-based aircraft formation has only been established for a few years, the shortest flight time has reached eight years, and there are many people with more than ten years of driving experience. Because Edel spoke, carrier-based pilots can be selected from the entire army, so these are Romanian elites.
Of course, the Navy also knows that it is impossible to take away all the good seedlings of the Air Force and Army Air Force. The main choices are personnel below the top elite. However, the quality of selected pilots still ranks first in China. There is no way, the whole is best to naturally exceed the single tip.
The fighters released this time included 94 HF201 fighters (Romanian version 0), 114 H47 torpedoes, 78 RU18T dive bombers, and 36 RH20T fighters.
This can be described as an unsuccessful letting go. We must know that the total number of aircraft in the Romanian aircraft carrier formation is only about 370, and this time 322 were released, showing the meaning of breaking the boat.
Of course, this also has a lot to do with the aircraft carrier commander Major General Fernandez. He believes that since it is a sneak attack, the maximum combat power should be used, because the enemy lacks defense in a wave of surprise attacks, the slowest response, which can give the greatest results.
Therefore, the assault fighters that formed a huge formation are flying towards Alexandria under the leadership of the pilot aircraft. For this smooth air strike, Romania has prepared more than this.
High-speed text hand-playing Romanian eagle chapter list