The report of the reconnaissance aircraft was correct, a large wave of Type 96 land attacks flew from the north.

Just after 8 o'clock, that is, after the second batch of air defense fighters had all taken off, the eight "Typhoons" that took off first encountered a group of land attack planes about 150 kilometers north of the fleet. According to the report of the captain of the captain's plane, there must have been more than 50 enemy planes, and I am afraid that there were as many as 100 planes.

So many bombers were sent!

The Navy really looks up to the Third Air Task Force.

In terms of numbers, not only did they use the land attack groups deployed in the western part of the country, but they also deployed in the central and eastern parts of the country.

Don't look at the bomb load of the Type 96 land attack, but the range is terrifying.

The huge range is a major feature of the Narrow Navy's combat aircraft, and the 97 ship attack, the 99 ship explosion, the zero battle, and the Type 96 land attack are all exceptions.

After more than ten minutes of fierce fighting, the fighters shot down about twenty enemy aircraft, lost three of their own, and another five fighters withdrew from the battle after running out of ammunition.

The pilot, who led the group, made visual observations that there were about eighty enemy aircraft.

The bombers were divided into two formations, the front and the rear.

The forward group flew at a lower altitude and at a slower speed, and when evading, it appeared more clumsy and suspected of carrying aviation torpedoes.

Those bombers that flew higher in the rear were most likely carrying aerial bombs.

Because the Type 96 land attack could not dive and drop bombs, and the aviation torpedoes were a greater threat to the battleship, the first batch of fighters focused on intercepting the forward air group.

When reporting on the engagement, the pilot of the lead plane also specifically mentioned that in addition to focusing on intercepting the aircraft group in the front, it is also necessary to divide a part of the fighters to intercept the aircraft group in the rear, forcing the high-flying bombers to drop their bombs before they reach the fleet, or turn to evade.

At this time, the "Wuzhou" and "Changzhou" sent an alarm, and the air defense radar had detected the enemy aircraft group.

A few minutes later, the second group of air defense fighters encountered a group of enemy planes about 80 kilometers north of the fleet.

According to Li Yunxiang's arrangement, two-thirds of the fighters were responsible for intercepting the low-flying group in front, and the other one-third of the fighters were attacking the high-flying group in the rear.

Although in the previous battles, it was mainly dive bombers that made great contributions, and the torpedo attack planes, which were highly valued before the war, did not perform very well, but the Type 96 land attack was not a dive bomber, and there was no ability to dive and drop bombs.

Horizontally dropped bombardment?

Because there is no guarantee of a hit rate, the bombing tactics of horizontal bombing are generally not used when dealing with targets that can move at high speeds, such as warships.

If you can only drop bombs horizontally, you have to reduce the height of the bombs as much as possible.

Dropping bombs at low altitudes is no problem against those old battleships whose anti-aircraft firepower has not been strengthened, but when used against new warships, it is to find death.

It's just that the Type 96 land attack is capable of throwing torpedoes.

To carry out anti-ship missions, the Type 96 land attack mainly uses aviation torpedoes, playing the role of torpedo attack aircraft.

At the beginning, Takano proposed the development of this medium bomber, which could only be deployed at land airfields, in order to make up for the shortcomings of carrier-based aviation. Therefore, in the development stage, special emphasis was placed on the ability to carry torpedoes to carry out anti-ship operations, and less attention was paid to bombing at medium and high altitudes.

The battle was fiercely fought.

Because there were too many enemy planes, and there was relatively strong self-defense firepower, which was also stronger than that of carrier-based aircraft, more than 20 fighters tried their best to shoot down only about 30 enemy planes, and forced some enemy planes to drop bombs and torpedoes at a great distance from the fleet.

This battle also reflected that the four machine guns of the "Typhoon" were indeed a little less, and they were equipped with not enough ammunition, and they could be used up in a few long bursts.

At about half-past eight, about fifty Type 96 land attacks approached the Third Air Task Force.

However, almost half of them dropped bombs or torpedoes.

The fight against the air is in its final stages.

Fortunately, the four "Wuzhou" class ships have converged with the aircraft carrier and appeared where they should be.

That's right, it's the side of the aircraft carrier.

Prior to this, four light cruisers and six destroyers launched a second round of torpedo attacks on four enemy ships in the rear, so that the enemy ships could not shell the four "Wuzhou" class ships for the time being.

To put it simply, it is to let the four "Wuzhou" class ships concentrate on air defense operations.

At the same time, the last fighters who rushed into the air made the final interception of the enemy aircraft group.

All these fighters that are not even fully loaded with bullets can do is to disperse the enemy planes through high-speed impact, and they cannot hit the bombs or mines.

At this time, the main threat is at high altitude.

After two successive high-intensity interceptions, there was not much left of the low-altitude assault Type 96 land attack, and it was scattered, and there was no way to launch a coordinated attack.

Launching a solo assault is not much of a threat.

At 8:45 a.m., the anti-aircraft guns of the "Wuzhou" and "Changzhou" opened fire first.

Thus, the air defense operation in the inner layer of the fleet began.

In order to avoid accidental injury, the "Wuzhou" and "Changzhou," which were in charge of air defense operations, both the "Wuzhou" and "Changzhou," which were in charge of air defense operations, sent a signal to all the air defense fighters operating in the vicinity to immediately turn around and evacuate, otherwise they might be attacked indiscriminately by the antiaircraft guns.

There's no way around it.

The enemy plane was still more than 10 kilometers away, and even if the gunner could see it, it would be difficult to distinguish it, and in the heat of battle, the gunner simply did not have time to distinguish between friend and foe.

More importantly, large-caliber anti-aircraft guns were all guided by radar.

In long-range air defense operations, in fact, the radar detects the target, then measures the distance and height of the target, and then sends the firing data to the air defense combat commander, and the air defense combat commander will arrange several antiaircraft guns within the control range to fire at the target according to the specific situation.

At the "Wuzhou" level, there were generally four specialized anti-aircraft combat commanders to assign targets to large-caliber anti-aircraft guns.

In addition, the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns of the "Wuzhou" class were divided into four artillery groups, which were theoretically capable of simultaneously dealing with two groups of targets in one direction.

Large-caliber anti-aircraft guns first fired at enemy aircraft at high altitudes.

There is no way to do this, the first thing that the radar detects is enemy aircraft at high altitudes.

The hit rate was not high, but the intensive artillery fire forced more enemy planes to turn to evade, and some enemy planes dropped their bombs in a panic.

The point is that the enemy aircraft are once again dispersed.

After being intercepted by large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, there were no bombers that could still operate in groups, and at most two or three of them formed a small formation.

At about 8:50 a.m., the air defense operation entered its final stage.

Although there were still more than 20 enemy planes that managed to break through the two-layer air defense network, less than 10 were able to launch attacks with bombs and torpedoes.

The other enemy planes, all of them are covering for their companions!

At this stage, there is nothing to say, just a word.

Under the command of the "Wuzhou" and "Changzhou", the four heavy cruisers made a sharp turn at the same time, aiming their sideboards in the direction of the enemy aircraft.

Then, hundreds of machine guns on the four heavy cruisers roared in anger.

It didn't take long for the machine guns on the "Imperial Capital" and "Companion Beijing" to also go into battle.

Witnessing all this on the "Imperial Capital", Bai Zhizhan was very emotional.

In the face of a fleet with powerful anti-aircraft firepower, it is simply impossible for a heavy bomber like the Type 96 land attack to take advantage.

Forcibly doing so is tantamount to striking a stone with an egg.