In the 41st Task Force, the "Imperial Capital".

Tian Shi only guessed half right, Bai Zhizhan did not send fighters to escort the attack group, but left all the other 16 fighters.

To be precise, it is impossible to send these fighters on escort missions.

At 11:15 a.m., that is, after receiving a message from the guards from the "Wuzhou" that a group of enemy planes was flying from the east, Bai Zhizhan immediately issued an order for the fighters parked on the flight deck to urgently lift into the air and strengthen the air defense net, which was not a tight one.

The focus is on expanding the air defense circle to 100 kilometers.

Previously, in order to avoid revealing their whereabouts, the patrol radius of air defense fighters was reduced to 30 kilometers, almost hovering near the aircraft carrier.

It's just that there are only 4 fighters on standby on each aircraft carrier.

It was this that the number of air defense fighters increased by 8 to 24.

After that, Bai Zhizhan asked Zhou Yongtao to make arrangements, and asked the service personnel to immediately refuel and reload the bombers and torpedo planes, and take the squadron as a unit. Take off immediately after completing the preparations, without waiting for other carrier-based aircraft, and without forming a large group of aircraft near the fleet.

The sense of attack in the White Stop War is indeed very strong, and almost at any time, the first thing that is considered is the attack.

At the time of this order, he did not know the exact location of Task Force 17.

However, he made an arrangement.

All eight of the eight "Roaring Sky" planes that were urgently lifted into the air flew to the 41.2 Detachment to the east, and after finding the enemy plane, they followed the enemy plane and flew to the enemy fleet.

Follow the enemy aircraft to find the Newland Task Force 17.

Strictly speaking, it was to pursue the enemy planes that had attacked the 41.2nd detachment and were flying eastward.

After the fighter lifted off, Bai Zhizhan made a bold guess through the report sent by the 41.2 detachment, and then made a decision based on this guess.

Nuland's Task Force 17 was a short distance to the east.

Although the second Nuland fleet flew from the east, it did not mean that the Nuland Task Force 17 was to the east, after all, it was not a novel tactic to let the group go around. During the attack on Task Force 16 at Newland, the group led by Shenpu flew 200 kilometers to the east.

The point is that those carrier-based planes that returned east after completing the attack were actually killed from the north.

Apparently, it was the carrier-based aircraft of the 16th Nuland Task Force.

Prior to this, Shenpu sent news that they had successfully killed two aircraft carriers of the Newland Task Force 16 and severely damaged at least two Nuland aircraft carriers.

Those enemy planes could not return to Task Force 16 in Nuland, so they had to go to Task Force 17 in Newland.

Enemy planes are flying east, and Nuland's Task Force 17 is definitely to the east!

When Bai Zhizhan made this judgment, eight "Roaring Sky" fighters had already taken to the air.

Although it did not come with an auxiliary fuel tank, the range of the "Roaring Sky" was not short.

According to the judgment of the White Stop, the 17th Nuland Task Force was not far away.

The basis is that shortly after the Nuland Task Force 16 group reached the skies over Task Force 41.2, the Nuland Task Force 17 fleet was killed, but did not attack Task Force 41.2 and was still flying westward, clearly aiming at the two aircraft carriers of Task Force 41.

Critically, the 41.1 detachment has not yet been discovered.

If it is too far away, who can guarantee that the carrier-based aircraft will find two "imperial capital" class aircraft carriers before they run out of fuel?

Even Spu, who was commanding Task Force 17 Newland, was only close enough to dare to send out an attack group before Detachment 41.1 was discovered.

As for why the reconnaissance planes and seaplanes did not discover the Newland Task Force 17, Bai Zhizhan could only believe that the reconnaissance planes and seaplanes flying to the Newland Task Force 17 were shot down, and neither of them was able to send a telegram before they were shot down.

Before 12 o'clock, 8 "Roaring Sky" caught up with the Nuland group.

More than ten minutes later, the lead plane spotted the battleships of the 17th Nuland Task Force, and then chased after them to attack the Nuland fighters who were about to land.

To say, it is too hasty.

In order to catch up with enemy aircraft, they have been flying at high speeds.

In addition, air combat also consumes a lot of fuel.

As a result, after shooting down dozens of Newland Navy bombers and torpedo planes, it was almost time for the Roaring Sky fighters to return home.

Fortunately, two aircraft carriers of the Newland Task Force 17 were discovered.

At this point, it was already 12:30.

Fifty minutes before that, at 11:40 a.m., the "Wasp" and "Exocet" had already begun to take off.

Because the time was very tight, the aircraft group was not grouped over the fleet, and all carried out attack missions in squadrons.

The two ocean-going cruisers that had come out of the front had already been attacked, and some enemy aircraft were flying westward, and it was only a matter of time before Detachment 41.1 was discovered.

Before 12 o'clock, when Zhu Huasheng's "Flying Fish" was still parked on the flight deck of the "Imperial Capital," the Nuland carrier-based aircraft had already appeared in the field of vision.

The "Imperial Capital" is exposed!

At that time, Bai Zhizhan specifically asked Zhu Huasheng if there was any problem if he did not send fighters, and the answer given by Zhu Huasheng was that there was no problem.

It is precisely like this, after Zhu Huasheng's "Flying Fish" took off, Bai Zhizhan asked Zhou Yongtao to adjust the deployment.

In the end, all eight "Roaring Heavens" were left behind to intercept the enemy planes that were about to be killed.

Shortly after Bai Zhizhan gave this order, the "Guangcheng" in the east sent a final telegram.

Suffered heavy losses and had to abandon the battleship.

Prior to this, the accompanying "Deep City" had already been sunk by enemy aircraft.

By this time, both ocean-going cruisers had been sunk.

The last heavy cruiser of the 41.2nd detachment, the "Yuzhou", sent a telegram about 20 minutes earlier that it was "going to the trouble for the country".

According to the judgment of Bai Zhizhan, the carrier-based aircraft of the 17th Task Force of Newland are about to arrive.

Squadron 41.2 was attacked by carrier-based aircraft of Nuland's Task Force 16, and Nuland's Task Force 17 from the east attacked the "Guangcheng" and "Shencheng".

Two ocean-going cruisers are not worth the use of bombs and torpedoes by dozens of carrier-based aircraft.

It was in this way that the White Stop War concluded that the attack was coming from the east.

This is also the key reason why he decided to strengthen air defense.

The aircraft group led by Zhu Huasheng has already set off, and after the attack, the Nuland 17th Task Force will lose its ability to attack and will no longer be a threat.

As long as they can withstand this wave of attack by Newland's 17th task force, then when Shenpu's fleet returns, they can immediately organize the next round of attacks.

At that time, even if Zhu Huasheng didn't kill the 17th Nuland Task Force, Shenpu could still replenish the gun.

No matter how powerful Spark is, Nuland's 17th Task Force, which only has two aircraft carriers, cannot withstand two rounds of attacks, not to mention that many fighters are arranged to carry out escort missions.

With the situation at that time, even if the Newland 17th Task Force could not be completely annihilated, it was enough to be sure of sinking the two aircraft carriers.

Prior to this, only two attack aircraft groups had taken out the Nuland Task Force 16.

If the attack of Task Force 17 is not resisted, there will be no next attack.

He was confident in withstanding the attack launched by the Nuland fleet.

At that time, there were a total of 24 "Roaring Sky" in the vicinity of Task Force 41, and 16 of them were located to the east, occupying a high altitude advantage.

According to the previous performance, the 24 "Roaring Sky" can intercept about 50 enemy planes.

What Bai Zhizhan did not expect was that the attack did not come from the east. 8)