The last bomb exploded on the sea behind the "Imperial Capital", and after another while, it was confirmed that the bombing had ended, and Bai Zhizhan breathed a long sigh of relief.

High-altitude horizontal bombing, isn't that a joke?

The Imperial Navy has long conducted tests in which dozens of carrier-based aircraft are concentrated to drop bombs from altitudes of 3,000 meters, 5,000 meters, and 7,000 meters, targeting an area about the size and shape of an aircraft carrier's flight deck, with an average hit rate of less than one percent.

Even if the bomb height was reduced to 2000 meters, the hit rate did not increase significantly.

Considering that the aircraft carrier will sail quickly and will also turn to evade when the bomber drops the bomb, the hit rate in actual combat will definitely be lower.

It is basically impossible to hit.

It is precisely because of this that the Navy has always been not interested in bombers with multiple engines, and has never even thought of buying several trials. In the Imperial Navy, apart from transport aircraft, the only one equipped with multiple engines was the patrol aircraft, which were mainly used for long-range search.

It's one thing to be happy, and Bai Zhizhan did not let up because of this.

After the battle, Bai Zhizhan immediately ordered the four light cruisers to return as soon as possible, so that the guards could take the four heavy cruisers to finish off the narrow warships that were still fleeing.

In the battle that began, one heavy cruiser was torpedoed and sunk, one was paralyzed after being heavily damaged, and the other two turned to escape after being damaged.

The purpose of making this arrangement was not only to cut down the grass and eradicate the roots, but also to reduce the operational burden of the air force.

Subsequently, Bai Zhizhan personally gave Li Yunxiang an order.

After the aircraft carrier completed its turn, the bombers and torpedo planes took off immediately, and first arranged for two bombers with auxiliary fuel tanks to replace the bombers that were about to run out of fuel, and they must turn to the returning reconnaissance planes before nine o'clock to ensure that the carrier-based planes that departed later could find the transport fleet smoothly.

There is no way to arrange it this way.

Previously, because of the need to guide the attack aircraft group to attack after dawn, all the torpedo planes on reconnaissance missions had auxiliary fuel tanks attached to them and took off overloaded. But even so, these torpedo planes must return before nine o'clock, otherwise they will not be able to fly back.

Among them, there is also a very important element of surprise.

In order to avoid the four heavy cruisers that came from the north, the two aircraft carriers rushed south for more than two hours, covering a distance of more than 100 kilometers.

This means that the return flight range of the reconnaissance aircraft will increase by more than 100 kilometers!

This also had an impact on carrier-based aircraft that carried out attack missions.

Fatally, the transport fleet of the Sagashi Navy was sailing in the northwest direction of Naqiu Harbor.

In the early morning, the distance between the two sides was less than three hundred kilometers.

Now, it's more than 400 kilometers!

Even if there is no need for the "Typhoon" to carry out bombing missions, the distance between the "Exocet" and the "Wasp" still seems a bit far.

That would only allow the fleet to turn north.

Of course, this is after letting the carrier-based aircraft go.

Because the speed had dropped to twenty-four knots, and the chief engineer strongly advised him not to increase the speed again, he had to sail against the wind to overload the carrier-based aircraft and take off.

Fortunately, the wind is still blowing from the north.

In the depths of winter every year, there is a northerly wind almost all the time in the Guia.

In fact, this is also the reason why Bai Zhizhan sent the guards to lead four heavy cruisers to clean up the narrow battleship.

The two carriers had to turn north, so they had to take out the heavy cruisers of the Narrow Navy.

Fortunately, there are no other threats for the time being.

Now, those that can catch up with the Third Air Task Force and win against four "Wuzhou" class ships are only four "Gao Xiong" class ships of the Fourth Cruiser Fleet, but they are only a few hundred kilometers away. Besides, the "Gao Xiong" level may not be the opponent of the "Wuzhou" level, at most it can be regarded as equal. What is really threatening, or what can really do it over the "Wuzhou" class, is actually four fast battleships of the "Golden Steel" class. It's just that it is still unknown when the four "Golden Steel" class ships will be able to leave Yanhai, and whether they can leave Yanhai.

As for the air threat, the same is absent.

About 100 Type 96 land attacks came, and less than 10 flew back, and even the narrow navy had a lot of money, and it was impossible to dispatch more medium bombers in the short term. It would take hours just to re-plan and organize the attack, and it would take hours for the bombers to fly over.

According to Bai Zhizhan's judgment, there will be no danger before dark.

The point is, in fact, after dark.

As expected, all the enemy ships in the Guia Ocean received the news that the Third Air Task Force was here and was about to turn back.

The current Third Air Task Force is like a yellow flower girl who comes to the wilderness in the middle of the night.

Even if he is wrapped in an overcoat and holding two large knives, he can't guard against cold guns in the dark.

How many submarines of the Narrow Navy are hidden nearby?

During the day, those destroyers that have become active again because of their great victory can pose a great threat to the submarine, so that the submarine does not dare to act rashly.

At night, it's different.

It was precisely with this problem in mind that Bai Zhizhan felt that he should hurry up and try to end the battle in the morning and carry out a refueling in the afternoon, mainly to let several destroyers get fuel from the heavy cruisers, and the aircraft carriers could take this opportunity to overhaul the power equipment.

If all goes well, you'll be able to increase your speed before dark.

A few hours in the afternoon are very important.

Don't forget, the ships of the Third Air Task Force are known for their ability to sail at sustained high speeds, and all of them are veritable long-distance running champions.

In fact, this is also a major feature of the warships of the Imperial Navy.

Comparing the Newland Navy's ships of the same type, the Imperial Navy's large warships tend to have faster cruise speeds, but their endurance is poor, at least not outstanding.

Just make the most of the afternoon hours and get out of the dangerous sea before dark.

As for how to return to the mainland of the empire and which route to take to return, Bai Zhizhan has not yet considered, and this question is mainly used to test Li Mingbo.

Don't forget, Li Mingbo was the seafaring staff officer of the task force.

It was busy until about nine o'clock, when the carrier-based aircraft on attack missions began to take off.

Unlike previous attack operations, these carrier-based aircraft, after taking off, flew directly to the battlefield in small formations, commanded by the two "Wasps" in front.

The target is a troop carrier, and there is no need to form a large group of aircraft to coordinate the attack.

Although troop carriers also have anti-aircraft guns, they are certainly not too many, and they are dominated by small-caliber machine guns, and the quality of the gunners will not be much better.

Through the battles of the past few days, the pilots have long discovered that there are not many anti-aircraft guns on the battleships of the Narrow Navy, and the quality of the gunners is very poor.

In addition, a small number of battleships were on which even anti-aircraft machine guns were fired.

Even the 25mm cannon had very poor performance, such as a rate of fire of only 200 rounds per minute and a five-round magazine. You know, the Imperial Navy's 25-mm guns had a rate of fire of 600 rounds per minute, and they were fed by 100 rounds of drums.

This is true for battleships, how much better will it be for troop carriers?

It was busy until about ten o'clock, and the last few flew away.

The hardest part is the aviation crew.

Unfortunately, they could not stop yet, because the reconnaissance planes were about to return home, and by 11 o'clock, dozens of fighters of the 1st Carrier-based Aviation Wing would arrive.

Perhaps, it will be much better by the afternoon.