After 12 o'clock, when the destroyer "Mullet" on guard in the north sounded the alarm, Bai Zhizhan suddenly realized.

It's just, it's too late.

If you want to say, the biggest mistake of the White Stop War is to ignore the distance.

Actually, I can't say the same.

The point is that the emergency fighter jets did not send a message until after 12:15, announcing that the Nuland Task Force 17 was about 200 kilometers east of Detachment 41.2 and that two York-class fleet carriers had been visually spotted.

In other words, before the "Mullet" sounded the alarm, Bai Zhizhan only believed that Nuland's 17th Task Force was to the east, and did not know how far it was.

This distance is too close!

If Detachment 41.2 had not slowed down during the night, the distance to Task Force 17 Nuland would have been only 100 kilometers.

More than ten minutes later, after receiving a telegram from the fighter planes that had been dispatched urgently, Bai Zhizhan immediately thought that Spu did not know that the 41.2nd Detachment was acting alone, so he would take it for granted that the two "Imperial Capital" class aircraft carriers were together with the heavy cruisers.

Of course, he would have thought that the aircraft carrier was behind the heavy cruiser.

The reason is also simple, Task Force 41 has acquired four ocean-going cruisers that have just been commissioned, so there is no need for heavy cruisers to provide close protection for the carrier.

When it comes to arranging attacks, Sp may be clever.

To avoid exposure, he would have the attack aircraft group fly south or north before heading towards the waters where Task Force 41 was located.

As long as Spu is sure that the distance from Detachment 41.1 does not exceed 300 kilometers, the threat may not be from the east!

To say lucky, it is that the 8 "Roaring Sky" that took off urgently have not flown away.

After the destroyer spotted the group of planes flying from the northeast, Bai Zhizhan immediately made adjustments and sent all the fighters who took off urgently.

It's just that there are too many enemy planes.

There were 16 escort fighters alone.

These "wild cats" are like being choked eggs, all of them are crazy, and even their flight performance has been improved.

That's right, the first attack aircraft group under the command of Major Clark.

Because they had already flown for more than two hours and had passed the return turning point, the escort fighters had less than a quarter of fuel left in the encounter with the "Roaring Sky."

As a result, the weight is reduced by several hundred kilograms.

On the contrary, the "roaring sky" that takes off in an emergency is almost always fully loaded, even if the auxiliary fuel tank is not hung, the fuel tank inside the fuselage is also full.

Under the influence of one another, the pilots of the "Roaring Sky" naturally felt that the "Wildcat" had become more ferocious.

When the "Wildcat" entangled the "Roaring Sky", "Dreadnought" and "Saboteur" launched an attack, and the first to bear the brunt was the "Imperial Capital".

The "Companion Jing" is about 30 kilometers away from the rear.

Because the "Imperial Capital" was in front and was first discovered by enemy planes, the group of planes that had been killed from the north went directly to the "Imperial Capital".

Two squadrons of SBD versus two squadrons of TBD.

With only a few minutes, the ocean-going cruiser "Zhucheng", which provided direct cover for the "Imperial Capital," had time to maneuver to the left front of the "Imperial Capital," and there was no way to reach the left side of the "Imperial Capital." However, the anti-aircraft cover provided by it is extremely important.

The key point is that the "Zhucheng" not only has 32 130-mm large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, but also 16 80-mm medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns.

When dealing with enemy aircraft at medium and long distances, 80-mm anti-aircraft guns are more effective.

The rate of fire is faster, and it can form a dense barrage.

As for the power, in fact, it is not much worse, after all, there is no carrier-based aircraft that can continue to fly after being hit by 80-mm shells.

In addition, the anti-aircraft fire of the "Imperial Capital" was also very ferocious.

Although it was not yet equipped with 80 mm anti-aircraft guns, the number of 40 mm anti-aircraft guns on both sides of the flight deck and on the floating deck was increased to 40 during the last return to port for maintenance.

If it weren't for the fact that the center of gravity was close to the critical point of overturning, the installation of anti-aircraft guns would have led to a deterioration in stability performance, otherwise dozens of more guns would have been installed.

To say that the low redundancy of the modification is one of the most serious defects of the "Imperial Capital" class.

During the same period, the number of 40-mm anti-aircraft guns of the "Longjiang" class had increased to 64, and a full 10 were arranged on the port side outboard deck.

One way or another, the "Imperial Capital" attracted most of the enemy aircraft.

During the more than 10-minute battle, the "Imperial Capital" and the "Zhucheng" shot down more than a dozen enemy planes and forced more than a dozen enemy planes to drop bombs or torpedoes in advance.

It's a pity that it's still inevitable.

Two SBDs dropped bombs before they were shot down, and all of them hit.

One of them landed at the front of the flight deck, almost grazing the front lift into the hangar, and exploded inside the hangar.

Just this bomb has already made the "Imperial Capital" lose its combat effectiveness.

Two catapults were blown up, the elevators were destroyed, and a large hole more than 20 meters in diameter was blown out of the forward end of the flight deck.

To say that the hangar armored deck played a key role.

Although the armor plate was blown apart, most of the shock wave and hot gases were blocked, and only a few compartments directly below the explosion point were damaged, preventing the fire from spreading inside the hull.

In fact, this is due to the damage management system of the "imperial capital".

Once in combat mode, the damage system shuts down all fuel delivery pipes to the flight deck, blowing high-pressure nitrogen into the pipes. Although the high temperature of the explosion still ignited flammable materials in the hangar, such as rubber pipes and oil that had not been cleaned in time, there was no fuel leak, and the fire was quickly brought under control, and there were no more serious secondary disasters.

Not to mention anything else, this damage management system first used on the "Imperial Capital" level is definitely a treasure of the Imperial Navy.

According to a fair statement, during the war, this fleet aircraft carrier was saved by this damage management system that was ahead of its time and at least 20 years ahead!

In addition, the "Imperial Capital" was very lucky.

Another bomb landed in the middle of the flight deck, right next to the ship island, but after penetrating the flight deck and hitting the hangar deck, it did not explode!

If this 500-pound aerial bomb exploded, all the officers and men on the island would be injured.

At that time, Bai Zhizhan was inside the bridge of the commander's ship.

Because the position of the commander's bridge was already low, the impact was more violent, so it was extremely likely that the officers and men of the headquarters such as Bai Zhizhan would be seriously injured.

The "Imperial Capital" was also hit by a torpedo, but the part of the middle mine was less than 3 meters below the waterline, which was almost 3 meters shallower than the normal fixed depth.

As a result, the downward-extending side armor provided good protection.

Although the broadside armor of the "Imperial Capital" class is only against 8-inch armor-piercing shells, which is not thick, the armor plates themselves have sufficient strength.

This also proves that the main armor, which extends down to the bottom of the ship, carries a certain anti-torpedo effect.

It is a pity that good luck did not last until the end of the battle.

The second torpedo hit the buttocks of the "Imperial Capital" and directly blew off the two propellers on the left side, which also caused damage to the shafting.

Although this blow was not enough to sink the "Imperial Capital", it could allow the "Imperial Capital" to stay in the shipyard for more than half a year.

For any ship, damage to the propulsion system is difficult to repair, because the shafting runs through half of the hull, and the repair is very difficult.