On the night of the 29th, or the early morning of the 30th to be exact, the 21st Task Force was indeed attacked by Nuland torpedo boats.

However, the situation is still under control.

Because of the precautions, that is, the heavy cruisers equipped with radars were sent out with destroyers to search 100 kilometers in front of the fleet, so when the torpedo boats were killed, they were immediately intercepted by cruisers and destroyers, and none of them succeeded.

Against torpedo boats the size of mosquitoes, anti-aircraft guns were enough.

Of course, the destroyers in the first-line task force were all in service after the outbreak of the Great War, and the main guns were 130mm anti-aircraft guns.

It should be said that the 80-mm anti-aircraft guns attached to the heavy cruisers, as well as the quadruple 40-mm machine guns, were the most effective against torpedo boats.

The next morning, the Nuland authorities announced that they had sunk one aircraft carrier, three cruisers, and several destroyers in the previous night's fighting.

In fact, the only loss of the Imperial Navy in the battle that night was the explosion of one of the main guns on a destroyer, which caused three gunners to be seriously wounded, one of whom died a few days later due to ineffective medical treatment, and the destroyer, after repairing the broken guns, fought until the arrival of the landing fleet. He then swapped with one of the destroyers of the landing fleet and returned home with the convoy.

This battle showed that the Nuland Navy still did not know the exact location of Task Force 21, but only the general direction.

Of course, this also shows that the Nuland Navy still has strong combat effectiveness, at least there is no problem with morale and fighting spirit.

According to the report of the commander of the cruiser detachment, none of the dozen torpedo boats turned back after being intercepted.

In fact, most of the Nuland officers and men on the torpedo boat believed that they had discovered the aircraft carrier of the Liangxia Navy, and it was just behind the cruiser.

As a result, a dozen torpedo boats rushed into the web of fire woven by the cruisers and destroyers with shells one after another, like moths to the fire.

Until the end of the battle, not a single torpedo boat fired at the cruiser!

Perhaps, the officers and men on the torpedo boat felt that as long as they broke through the interception of the cruiser, they would be able to sink the Liangxia aircraft carrier with the heavy torpedoes they carried.

Otherwise, there will definitely be a cruiser or destroyer damaged.

By the next day, the fighting spirit of the Nuland Navy had been more perfect.

During the day on the 30th, in order to increase the effectiveness of the bombing and to put pressure on the Nuland Navy and strive to defeat the Nuland Navy before the landing fleet arrived, the 21st Task Force sailed more than 200 kilometers eastward to the north of the transit island to join the "Qinling," which had been operating in the sea area.

With the "Qinling", Bai Zhizhan can command the battle more conveniently.

The top priority was to force the Nuland fleet to come to the decisive battle.

Even if 2 small aircraft carriers are removed, the Nuland Navy has 2 fast battleships, dozens of cruisers and at least 200 destroyers.

These ships were dispatched in one group, and at night, and could pose a great threat to the landing fleet.

The battle lasted 2 days, and the Nuland Navy only dispatched torpedo boats.

The White Stop War had to believe that the Nuland Navy was deliberately conserving its strength and preparing to launch an attack on the landing fleet after it arrived.

If it can be defeated, even if it is a heavy damage to the landing fleet, it will have a greater certainty of holding the transit island.

At least, it was impossible for the Imperial Navy to capture the transit island by bombing.

No matter what the Transit Island is blown up, in the end, troops must be sent to occupy the Transit Island and turn it into a springboard for attacking the Khowaii Islands.

In order to achieve the goal, Bai Zhizhan also sent out 4 heavy cruisers and formed a temporary formation with 4 destroyers to shell the transit island in advance.

That's right, it's to pretend to be a fire support fleet.

After several encounters, the Nuland Navy had already figured out the tactics of the Imperial Navy, and would prepare for artillery fire by the fire support fleet before landing.

Of course, it must have been after the task force seized sea and air supremacy.

In addition, the preparation for artillery fire in the early stage is generally about 5 days, and basically it will not be less than 3 days.

Extrapolating from the time, fire preparations began on the night of the 30th, so that on July 4, that is, after the arrival of the landing fleet, a landing operation could be launched.

Obviously, this is deceptive enough.

As a result, a second naval battle broke out between the two sides that night.

Strictly speaking, this is a naval battle in the true sense of the word.

The Nuland Navy dispatched two heavy cruisers to cover 12 destroyers in two formations, and simultaneously attacked the 21st Task Force from the northeast and southeast.

The artillery battle lasted from 2 a.m. to after 3 a.m.

Although the Nuland battleship fought very tenaciously, and the two heavy cruisers were equipped with gunsight radars, which effectively exerted the power of the main guns, they were not only completely worthless compared with their opponents, that is, the two "South Zhuhai" class fast battleships, but also had little comparison.

To say, the "South Zhuhai" and the "Turbid Sea" played a role in fixing the sea.

At a distance of 25 kilometers, the two battleships used their 400-mm guns to assert their presence and successfully stopped the Nuland cruisers.

At such a distance, the 2 heavy cruisers of the Nuland Navy were constantly wasting shells.

As for the destroyers that launched the attack, they were blocked by an escort formation led by 4 ocean-going cruisers.

Although the main guns of ocean-going cruisers are the same as those of destroyers, they are more numerous and can be used to improve the efficiency of shelling with the help of search radar.

During the more than an hour of fighting, five Nuland destroyers were sunk and three were heavily damaged, all of which sank after dawn.

As for the 21st Task Force, only a few ocean-going cruiser battleships were shelled, and their combat effectiveness was not affected.

This battle showed that the Nuland Navy did not abandon the transit island.

In addition, the main force of Task Force 21 was finally discovered by the Nuland Navy.

As a direct result, shortly after dawn, a group of hundreds of B-17s and B-24s of bombers headed straight for Task Force 21.

Despite their best efforts, the heavy bombers still failed to approach the aircraft carrier.

On the contrary, more than 40 bombers were shot down, setting a record for the highest single-day losses of the Nuland Army in the Guia theater since the war began.

Thereafter, on the morning and afternoon of 1 July, Nuland's forces launched bombers against Task Force 21.

If anything, it's harassment at best.

In order to strengthen air defense, on the afternoon of 1 July, the 21st Task Force and the 22nd Task Force exchanged four squadrons of carrier-based aircraft, exchanging "Thunderbolts" for "Roaring Heaven."

Over the next few days, the Nuland Army continued to "harass" Task Force 21 in a variety of ways.

During this period, the 22nd Task Force was almost discovered.

However, this harassment tactic of arranging warships at night and dispatching bombers during the day did not pose a real threat to Task Force 21.

To say, at most, it consumes the sustained combat capability of the 21st Task Force.

As a direct consequence, the launch of the landing had to be postponed by three days, from 4 July to 7 July.

In addition, on 3 July, the day before the arrival of the landing fleet, Task Force 21 and Task Force 22 swapped positions.