In fact, in the afternoon of the same day, Bai Zhizhan still had a chance to launch an attack.

After recovering all the carrier-based aircraft, the "Companion" could use the full deck attack state, and about 40 carrier-based aircraft could be dispatched at a time to bomb the two "Prestige" class battlecruisers of the Bran fleet before 4 p.m., and the group could return to the fleet before dark.

It's just that Bai Zhizhan gave up this opportunity after careful consideration.

According to the battle report submitted by the 11th Task Force, it was feared that it would be attacked by submarines.

Although there is enough reason to believe that the destroyer "Perch" did not find a submarine, and it is very likely that the wind and waves were too strong and made a wrong judgment, and the periscope that the lookout reported seeing may be a column of water spewed out by a fin whale, but in the southwest Fanyan Ocean, there are indeed enemy submarines, and the 11th task force does not have enough anti-submarine power, and if it encounters a submarine, it can only be slaughtered.

In addition, there was an accident during the recovery of the carrier-based aircraft.

Because the pilot was injured, a "roaring" fighter rebounded on the flight deck because the speed of descent was too fast when it landed on the ship, and it failed to hang up the blocking cable, and the blocking net in front was not fastened, and as a result, after breaking through the blocking net, it crashed into several fighters parked in front.

Similar accidents were not uncommon in the past.

Not to mention in battle, even during daily training, there are often carrier-based planes that crash into the blocking net when landing because they did not hang the blocking cable.

But in normal times, at most, it is a waste of time.

This accident paralyzed the flight deck of the "Companion Beijing" for almost two hours, and caused several "Roaring Heaven" planes behind to have to land on the "Longjiang."

Because the middle of the flight deck of the "Longjiang" is cut off, even the hangar is separated, so the fighters that land at the rear end cannot be sent to the front end, and there is no way to take off.

In addition, the officers and men on the "Accompanying Beijing" were tired and half dead.

If an attack were to be launched in the afternoon, the aviation crew would have to keep fighting and not be sure when they would make a more serious mistake.

However, what really made Bai Zhizhan decide to give up was his unwillingness to let the pilots take risks.

In the morning battle, 86 pilots were killed or missing, and there was only one emergency seaplane sortie before retreating.

Despite the best efforts of the six seaplanes, only about 20 pilots were recovered.

To be precise, it should be the crew.

If another attack were to be launched in the afternoon, it would not be possible to arrange seaplanes to rescue the overboard pilots because the fleet had to return.

Having already taken out 3 aircraft carriers of the enemy, is it necessary to risk for the sake of 2 battle cruisers?

To say, as early as more than 20 years ago, Bai Zhizhan encountered those two battle cruisers on the battlefield.

At least as far as the White Stop War is concerned, there is no temptation in 2 ships of the "Prestige" class. Even if there is no chance to sink these two battlecruisers in the future, there is no need to feel sorry at all, because on the Fanyan Ocean, these two battleships that have long been behind are of little value.

Even if there is a certain threat, it will be enough to leave 2 fast battleships at that time.

Don't forget, the "Beihe" and "Nanjiang" have entered the Fanyan Ocean, just in the Lion Spring City, and they can go deep into the Fanyan Ocean at any time.

At the strategic level, as the Imperial Navy conquered Lion Springs City, it was definitely necessary to leave a few capital ships behind and keep a fleet on the Fanyan Ocean.

In any case, in the afternoon, or almost evening, to be exact, the Eleventh Task Force disengaged from the Nuland and Bran fleets.

Before going into silence, Bai Zhizhan sent a final telegram, claiming to have sunk three fleet carriers in a naval battle.

It's just that the actual results are not so exaggerated, and they can even be said to be a big difference.

The "Endeavour" was indeed bombed, and was hit by four 500-kilogram aerial bombs in a row, but the aircraft carrier managed to avoid all the torpedoes, to be precise, only one torpedo, and because the fuse was installed incorrectly, there was no explosion after hitting the "Endeavour".

The point is that the officers and men of the "Endeavour" have created miracles.

After eight hours to extinguish the fire, the Nuland fleet officers and men repaired one generator and got the two pumping machines back up and running in time.

After that, several more leaks in the hull were managed.

By the third day, the "Endeavour" had also regained some of its momentum!

To say, the main thing is that the ammunition depot did not detonate, and there was no fuel leakage, so in the process of emergency repair, there was no secondary damage.

According to post-war statistics, 80% of all warships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons sunk during the war were directly or indirectly related to secondary damage.

Large warships that were directly sunk can be said to be very few.

Eventually, the aircraft carrier returned to the New City shipyard in late February.

In fact, the only one who was sunk in the naval battle was the "Fearful".

Strictly speaking, the "Fearful" was actually due to the use of a fully enclosed hangar, which caused the mixed oil and gas produced by the leaked aviation gasoline to be unable to spread, and the damage management personnel did not notice it when they were in the rescue, and they were detonated by sparks and sank themselves.

According to the Royal Navy's battle report, the "Fearful" sank at around 3 p.m. that day.

Because it was on the same day, and it was directly related to the bombing, the result was finally counted on the head of the 11th Task Force.

Of course, the first meritorious soldier is to stop the war in vain.

"Brilliant" was only hit hard and did not sink immediately.

The aircraft carrier lost all power after being heavily damaged, but it did not look like it was going to sink.

After that, power was supplied by other warships, and several pumping machines were also activated.

Because the boiler compartment was completely flooded, in the afternoon of the same day, the "Brilliant" was towed by the accompanying heavy cruiser and prepared to leave for Cape Town.

It's just that 2 days later, on the night of the 30th, the "Brilliant" exploded and sank in just a few minutes.

Because it happened so suddenly, the Royal Navy didn't even understand how the Radiance sank.

At the time, the Royal Navy believed it was a submarine attack.

Decades later, the expedition found the wreckage of the Brilliant and eventually confirmed that the aircraft carrier had been sunk by a bomb.

That's right, it was a 500-kilogram aerial bomb dropped by the "Suzaku" of the 11th Task Force.

The point of explosion was in the No. 2 boiler compartment of the "Brilliant", which had been flooded by seawater.

The bomb got into the boiler compartment but did not explode immediately. Because the boiler compartment was flooded, it was not discovered by the officers and men on the "Brilliant". As a result, during the voyage, external factors, such as vibrations generated by the voyage, triggered the fuse and exploded.

The dense sea water transmitted the blast wave to the hull with almost no attenuation.

The worst thing is that the explosion occurred inside the aircraft carrier.

As a result, the "Brilliant" was directly blown in two.

More than 1,000 officers and men of the Royal Navy, including the captain, sank to the bottom of the sea with the "Brilliant" without even having a chance to pray.

At that time, the Royal Navy of Bran did not even know how many officers and men were killed with the "Brilliant"!

It was only a few months later for the Imperial Navy to learn that the Brilliant had sunk for unknown reasons, so the result was not credited to Task Force 11.

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