"Hold back the Americans' fighters. The Dive Bombers and Torpedo Bombers, spread out!" The American Navy's carrier-based aircraft desperately tried to shoot down the German military's Dive Bombers and Torpedo Bombers, ensuring the safety of their own warships.
This forced the German military's escort fighters to intercept and hunt down those US carrier-based aircraft with all their might.
One F4U fighter plane after another was shot down. Although this aircraft's performance was fairly good, it was still no match for the German Navy Aviation pilots flying FW-190 fighter planes.
A fierce battle unfolded over this stretch of sea, with fighter planes constantly being shot down. Some pilots were fortunate enough to parachute out after being hit. But many more did not even have the chance to bail out.
While the aircraft from both sides were locked in fierce combat, the planes taking off from the central islands of the Azores also came charging in. Moreover, this batch of aircraft was even larger than the one that had taken off from the western islands of the Azores.
Eight fighter squadrons, ninety-six FW-190 fighter planes; six Dive Bomber squadrons, seventy-two Dive Bombers; six Torpedo Bomber squadrons, seventy-two Torpedo Bombers—a total of two hundred and forty aircraft formed an immense aircraft group. When this aircraft group crossed the sky, it blanketed the heavens and covered the earth, as though it would block out even the sun.
When this immense aircraft group was detected by the American fleet's aerial search Radar, the radar operators' faces changed dramatically.
"My God! The German aircraft group has appeared again! The aircraft are packed together like a dense forest—their total definitely exceeds two hundred!" a radar officer declared.
"Quick, report to the admiral!"
Two minutes later, the news had reached Admiral Husband Kimmel.
"More than two hundred aircraft?