In the sky, fighter planes launched from the eight aircraft carriers of the German Atlantic Fleet flew directly under the guidance of the warships' radar operators to intercept the American Navy's carrier-based aircraft. Since launching carrier-based aircraft from carriers also took time, and time was pressing now, these aircraft could not possibly wait above the fleet until every plane had taken off before going to meet the enemy.
Therefore, each batch of aircraft headed out to intercept as soon as it took off. The aircraft launched afterward raced toward the battlefield. Only this way could they make the fullest use of time.
In the sky, the first batch of carrier-based aircraft launched by the 1st Carrier Fleet and 4th Carrier Fleet of the American fleet was heading south. The formation, composed of 96 fighter planes, 102 Dive Bombers, and 68 Torpedo Bombers, blotted out the sky and cast a vast shadow over the sea.
However, among those 96 fighter planes, only 36 were the advanced F4U fighter planes. The other 60 were merely outdated F4F fighter planes. Before the German Navy's carrier-based BF-109 fighter planes and carrier-based FW-190 fighter planes, those F4F fighter planes were completely unable to withstand a single blow.
At this time, the German Atlantic Fleet's Aircraft Carrier Formation had only 124 air-defense fighter planes left in total, including reserve aircraft. Though that was more than thirty aircraft more than the escort fighters in this wave of the American fleet's formation, compared to the entire enormous formation, it amounted to only about half.
However, before these advanced German military fighter planes, the American fleet's Dive Bombers and Torpedo Bombers were nothing more than prey. Clumsy as they were, it was nearly impossible for them to evade the German military fighters' hunt.
Thirty-two German military air-defense fighter planes