The Skyraider attack aircraft taking off from two Egyptian aircraft carriers totaled six squadrons and 144 aircraft, forming three attack formations and launching an attack on the Italian Navy from three different directions.
Each of their aircraft carries twelve 500-pound aerial bombs and two air-launched torpedoes. After the attack is launched, they will launch the torpedoes close to the sea. After the attack is completed, they will quickly adjust their position and conduct dive bombing.
If it were the battlefield at the end of World War II, when all countries had ramped up their air defense firepower, even the excellent performance of the Skyraider attack aircraft would be torn to pieces by the airtight air defense network, just like the Mariana Turkey Shooting Contest
.
But it is still the early days of World War II, and various countries still have insufficient understanding of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft. Therefore, even the Italian Navy's new battleship Littorio does not have many anti-aircraft weapons, let alone two old battleships and other ships.
Already.
Just like the Taranto air raid launched by the British in history, the Italian naval fleet was unable to organize any effective air defense at all. Even the Swordfish attack aircraft were able to come and go freely in front of them, let alone the Skyraider attack.
A monster like the machine that was still very successful even during the Vietnam War.
Just the first batch of torpedo attacks damaged two cruisers, three destroyers and a battleship, and one of the destroyers caught fire and sank.
The subsequent dive bombing further consolidated the results of the battle. The two cruisers quickly ignited fire, and one of them exploded and sank. The two destroyers were not spared, and two more battle results were added.
The other two battleships were also damaged, and one of them had a main gun turret ripped off. It was smoking billowingly and trying to withdraw from the battlefield for damage control repairs.
But at this time, the belated British finally arrived on the battlefield.
The Swordfish attack aircraft quickly entered the attack position and then launched a fierce attack.
Under the helpless struggle of the Italian Navy's weak anti-aircraft firepower, a huge fleet of more than two hundred aircraft swept through the entire fleet like a storm.
On the sea surface of the entire battle area, fires and thick smoke were ignited everywhere, as well as huge splashes of water caused by explosions.
On the other side of the sea, Cunningham stood on the bridge of the Warspite, holding a telescope and looking at the scene in front of him in shock, feeling like his whole body was shaking.
Although Cunningham himself is a naval officer who does not like battleships and prefers aircraft carriers more, this does not prevent him from knowing that battleships are the absolute main force in today's naval fleet.
They are like knights in the Middle Ages. Their solid and reliable defense and incomparable firepower have made battleships the absolute protagonist in naval battles since the concept of the age of sail was proposed.
However, now, before his eyes, a change that subverts the tradition of naval warfare and is about to rewrite the form of war is taking place before his eyes.
Aircraft carriers, a new type of ship that only emerged after the last war, are rewriting history at an unprecedented speed, making battleships, the star of naval warfare that has shone for hundreds of years, about to be eliminated by the times.
Although Cunningham was keenly aware when Chen Mo proposed that the aircraft carrier launch air strikes that this was a battle that would rewrite the form of war, he never thought that the change would come so quickly.
glutinous rice
Originally, he thought it would be a gradual and progressive process like muskets eliminating heavily armored knights, but he did not expect that it would be as if one side was still charging the knights, while the other side had already pulled out a Maxim heavy machine gun and started mowing the grass.
The Skyraider attack aircraft, with its performance and attack methods that completely surpassed an entire generation of this era, not only taught the Italian Navy a solid lesson, but also greatly subverted Cunningham's three views.
At this moment, he became more and more determined in his heart that the Navy should develop aircraft carriers. At the same time, he also made it clear that in order to develop aircraft carriers, it must vigorously develop carrier-based aircraft.
After all, he could also see that the gap between the British Swordfish attack aircraft and the Egyptian Skyraider attack aircraft was as big as the abyss.
"It seems that we need to tell the Navy Department and let them give the domestic aircraft manufacturers a good beating. The Navy's carrier-based aircraft are simply behind an era." Cunningham looked at the sky raiders who were conducting dive bombing.
He was attacking the aircraft, his eyes filled with envy.
However, Cunningham does not plan to let the British Navy directly purchase Skyraider attack aircraft. Instead, he plans to let British aircraft manufacturers design a new carrier-based aircraft that is comparable to the Skyraider attack aircraft.
This is not the arrogance of old-style imperialism, but if a country relies on purchasing foreign products for its armaments, even if it is purchased from allies, it will put its own country at the mercy of others.
And even if you want to buy it, you won’t just buy the finished product directly, but you will introduce technology and design and then produce it yourself.
If you just buy it and use it, that would be really stupid.
What's more, the British aviation industry is not weak. The Swordfish attack aircraft does adopt a rather conservative and old-fashioned design, but this is not the true level of the British aviation industry.
Although the airplane was invented by the Americans, the Industrial Revolution emerged from the United Kingdom. In the field of industry, even though the United Kingdom has completely declined in later generations and was ridiculed out of the five permanent members, and even the British Isles are about to be divided, the United Kingdom is still
Has a profound accumulation.
Not to mention, although Britain has begun to decline now, it is still at its peak.
The Battle of Britain in World War II was enough to prove Britain's excellence in the aviation field. The Hurricane, Spitfire, and Mustang are all very good fighter jets, and they are now in service in the British Air Force. Although their performance is still not as good as the Skyraider, they are still not as good as the Skyraider.
Far more than swordfish.
In fact, in the UK, the Navy is already purchasing new carrier-based aircraft for the aircraft carrier, but they have basically only passed the test and have not yet officially entered service.
Originally, Cunningham might have regretted this, feeling that if those new carrier-based aircraft had entered service, the Egyptians would not have been so prominent.
But now it seems that this is a good thing, because at least the country does not need to waste resources and precious production capacity to produce models that are no longer keeping up with the times. Instead, it can design a machine that is comparable to the Skyraider.
model, giving the British Navy greater strength.
Thinking of this, he decided to go to the British Ambassador to Egypt after returning to Hong Kong and ask him to talk to the Egyptians about introducing the production technology of the Skyraider attack aircraft, at least to get the design parameters of this aircraft, so that the domestic
Aircraft manufacturers have a reference standard.
But now, the aircraft carriers have finished their work, and it's time for the battleships to put the finishing touches.
