Fate teased Spruins once, causing his fleet to suffer a major blow by a transfer plane yesterday, but no one expected that Fate's compensation would come so quickly.

9:47, the German North Sea Fleet, which was heading northeastward, was located about 530 kilometers southwest of the Madeira Islands. A freighter with the Portuguese flag drove less than 20 nautical miles from the fleet, and then the rabbit was frightened and left like a wolf. This was a merchant ship returning to Portugal from Brazil. The destroyer on the periphery who was on guard duty did not care about it after seeing it, and used a flag to signal it to leave as soon as possible.

This was a very common way of dealing with it. Unexpectedly, the captain of the ship, Ruo Pinto, was a hot patriot. After learning that the Azores were suddenly occupied by Germany and forced to rent it out, they were always angry and wanted to find some trouble for the other party. Less than half an hour after leaving the scene, they actually sent a telegram with Morse code: "There are German fleets 300 nautical miles southwest of the Madeira Islands. Be careful to avoid being accidentally injured..."

On the surface, this telegram was not a problem at all. It seemed to be a "good intention" to remind other merchant ships to avoid in advance, but in fact it completely exposed the position of the fleet. Ruopento did not know that the German fleet was preparing to fight with the British and American fleets. In his opinion, this telegram was enough to remind other ships not to be carried out by the German fleet, which was carrying out a mission to commit the mission to find that he wanted to see the depressed spirit of the Germans gaining nothing. As for himself, he thought he was driving a Portuguese neutral ship. The Germans would not do anything to him. At most, they would fire guns and scare him.

"Bastard!" Crank, who received the warning, was furious and broke out on the spot. "The order of Lieutenant General Bei to sink the ship..."

A staff officer reminded: "This is a neutral ship."

"He has exposed the position of the fleet, and it is no exaggeration to say that he is an enemy spy. Sink immediately!" Ozawa immediately agreed and strengthened his tone.

The staff officer turned his head to look at Mashar, who waved his hand angrily: "What are you doing when you are still standing there? Let Lieutenant General Belarus send a warship to sink immediately."

In fact, before the flagship was ordered, Lieutenant General Bell, who was in charge of Tirpitz, was already in flames, and ordered the destroyer and the Big Ridge to rush to sink the other side. After 25 minutes of pursuit, Ruopinto became the first merchant ship captain to enjoy the care of G9a oxygen torpedoes since the war started. The extremely angry German officers and soldiers were too lazy to use naval guns. They directly announced the death penalty for the ship with four torpedoes in a fan-shaped attack surface. Not to mention a mere merchant ship, even Tirpitz himself dared not say that he could withstand this firepower. The freighter was torn apart on the spot and Ruopinto took the whole ship for his stupidity.

The US fleet received this message simultaneously. Spruenz, who was having a headache of not finding the German fleet, had a lit up eyes. He immediately checked the chart and found that the distance from the German fleet mentioned in the telegram was about 400 kilometers, and it was completely within the attack range of the carrier-based aircraft.

"Sir, should you send a reconnaissance plane to verify this kind of news that is unknown and has no content?"

"No, leave 12 cover fighters, and all the rest will attack." Spruins explained. "The telegram only provides vague directions. If reconnaissance aircraft are sent to find them, precise positioning will delay too much time. Maybe the enemy will find us or just slip away quietly. We must take a little risk."

"What if the information is wrong?"

"Then we can only come back." Spruins shrugged, "This means we really have no luck, so we should go back home quickly."

After yesterday's battle, there were only 26 US four fighters left. After overnight call and assembled the aircraft, the fighters carried by the two aircraft carriers were restored to 32 (most of the pilots shot down were rescued, but there were no shortage of pilots). The number of SBD dive bombers and TB torpedo attack aircraft remained unchanged, and there were still 24 each. At 11 o'clock, all US carrier-based aircraft took off and rushed towards the possible sea areas of the German fleet.

The German reconnaissance planes still failed to find the position of the US fleet. In order to avoid the adverse effects of the exposure of the previous position, the entire fleet accelerated to 26 knots and drove east as quickly as possible. However, in the tower of Commander Zeppelin, the atmosphere was so depressing that it was suffocating.

"If the enemy fleet receives this news, we will be attacked in the air soon." Ozawa sighed, "There is not much time left for us."

"What should we do now?" Mashar was also confused. "All reconnaissance planes, whether ours, Azores or Madeira Islands, have reported no enemy fleets found, and are still searching..."

"Will the enemy have received the telegram, but they are far away and cannot hit us at all?" Crank asked.

"It's possible, but you can't be lucky." Ozawa thought for a while, "Be prepared to sacrifice 2-3 destroyers first."

“How to say it?”

"Drift 1 stayed in place, destroyer No. 2 advanced 20 nautical miles northeast, and destroyer No. 3 advanced 30 nautical miles northwest, using them to provide early warning..."

“This…is useful?”

"If the enemy sends carrier-based aircraft, they will inevitably search in the sea area where the fleet is located just now. These warships can play a role in confusing their sight. I don't know if it works, but every hour delayed, the warning distance can be increased by 25 nautical miles."

"Okay." Mashar immediately arranged it vigorously.

"Twelve fighter jets took off, mounted a secondary fuel tank, stayed over the original sea area, prepared to intercept enemy aircraft formations, and delay time for the mothership as much as possible." At the critical moment, Ozawa used his experience to stabilize the morale of the army, and the staff immediately conveyed the order.

"All fighters on the deck of the Europa are retained. The cover fighters that take off in the morning go to the ship for supply and substitution operations; the remaining fighters of Zeppelin complete the secondary fuel tank and take off, providing air cover for the fleet; bombers and lightning strikers complete refueling and mount bombs, assemble on the deck as much as possible, and strive to take off in the shortest time."

"this……"

"Our aircraft carrier may be sunk, or may be hit and cannot take off and land, but this group of strike forces must be retained. This is our last hope for counterattack."

"Counterattack?" Mashar and Crank looked at each other: I don't know the enemy's position, how to counterattack?

"Let the attack aircraft group hide, and then follow the enemy aircraft to follow and track the attack after completing the attack." Ozawa said viciously, "They must return to the mothership. Our aircraft is faster than theirs and have an advantage in range, so we are not afraid of losing it."

At 12 o'clock, the lookout post of the Z4 destroyer, which brought good luck many times, issued an emergency warning: "The total number of enemy aircraft groups is more than 70, and they rushed from the north, about 60 nautical miles away from our ship..." Half a minute later, the other two destroyers also reported the same situation.

"Sir, I found the enemy fleet, but there are only three destroyers, and they are very divided." Chris told Spruins excitedly.

"Don't worry about them, don't waste bombs on them, increase the search for the surrounding waters." Spruins pondered, "This is the German trick. Send three destroyers to break the deal? Let's go and cheat..."

"Quick! Quick!" Europa, which received the emergency warning, quickly released all kinds of aircraft. If Ozawa had not been exposed, he would have made the plane's quick decision to replenish fuel and ammunition as much as possible and stay on the deck. It was too late now. High-level officials including Mashar, Crank and others were nervously staring at the movement on the deck. Whenever a plane took off successfully, their nervousness would soothe a little.

"Okay...one more."

At 12:08, the American aircraft fleet approaching the sea and searching scatteredly finally discovered the German aircraft carrier formation in the distance, but they were first intercepted by 12 B-219s. The fighters dropped the secondary fuel tank and rushed over at the maximum speed. They did not choose to fight the escort four fierce battles today, and all targeted the SBD and TB, especially the TB carrying torpedoes received more attention. The scattered American formation gathered desperately, preparing to rely on the group's advantages to break through the blocking line.

12:09, all the remaining fighter jets of the German aircraft carrier formation completed takeoff. They had seen the battle scenes ahead, but they still abide by tactical discipline and covered other aircraft of the fleet to take off, without blindly rushing over to intercept. The He-218s on the Zeppelin were released one after another, leaving only the last ju-98 formation.

The first wave of B-219s, which undertake the interception mission, played their greatest value. They not only bought the most precious minutes for the subsequent formation to take off, but also completely disbanded the US military aircraft. Faced with more than 5 times the number of enemy aircraft, they took their own experience to the extreme and shot down 4, 7 SBDs and 6 TBs.

12:11, the 18 He-218s were taken off, and the ju-98 fleet was released one after another.

12:14, all the b-219s intercepted in the first wave were shot down. The remaining 51 enemy planes escaped the entanglement and continued to rush towards the aircraft carrier formation. At this time, there were 36 b-219s above the fleet. Ozawa looked at the situation on the deck and continued to order: "24 fighters were separated to intercept the enemy plane group, and the remaining fighters continued to cover the lightning strike planes to take off."

Seeing more than 20 fighter jets pounced towards him, Lieutenant Colonel Green, who was leading the US carrier-based aircraft formation, also secretly complained: the 12 fighter jets just now are so difficult, and now they have doubled their enemy aircraft. I am afraid that the formation will be more troublesome, but retreating is not a solution. He gritted his teeth and continued to command the aircraft group to come over with a dense formation, hoping to tear a gap for the attack team behind him.

12:17, German and American carrier-based aircraft collided again. Everyone watched the fierce battle in the air with heartache, and then did not forget to pay attention to the situation on the deck of Zeppelin. The impact of 16 ju-98s not taking off and one less lift was fully seen at this time. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!