Let the attack aircraft group turn in the middle of the flight, this is a common tactic, and there is nothing surprising about it.

If anything, the real thrill is actually before that.

At about 4:50 a.m., that is, knowing that there were enemy ships in the southeast direction, and the seaplanes had not yet found the enemy's aircraft carrier, Bai Zhizhan hesitated to let the carrier-based aircraft prepare for the attack in advance, and a reconnaissance plane flying from the southeast dispelled his hesitation.

That's an enemy carrier-based reconnaissance plane!

Although the enemy aircraft was not seen, after all, the reconnaissance plane was not flying at a low altitude, and it was night, but it could be heard, and the lookout also concluded that it was an SBD.

After receiving the lookout's report, Bai Zhizhan gasped.

Fortunately, the reconnaissance plane did not detect the battleship on the surface.

It must be admitted that it was indeed luck.

Prior to this, Bai Zhizhan told Zhou Yongtao that he hoped to complete the preparations for the attack as soon as possible and ensure that the carrier-based aircraft could be lifted into the air after dawn.

Zhou Yongtao asked the personnel of the aviation department about the situation, and said that it was too late to start preparing at 5 o'clock.

For the same reason, the flight decks of the "Companion Beijing" and "Longjiang" had already been emptied, and all the carrier-based aircraft were in the hangar. Because the wind was too strong, it was impossible to prepare on the flight deck, so the maintenance work could only be completed in the hangar as much as possible, and the time occupied on the deck was greatly reduced.

In addition, there are no carrier-based aircraft on the flight deck, so take-off operations are more efficient and take less time.

It used to take 1 hour, but now half an hour is enough, and there is no need to send the carrier-based aircraft to the flight deck in advance.

As such, when the SBD flew over, Task Force 11 was still under the lights.

Of course, the appearance of that SBD also proves that in the southeastern direction, in the sea area reported by seaplanes, there is at least one enemy aircraft carrier.

It's just that it is impossible to tell which fleet it is.

That's okay, though.

When the reconnaissance plane flew away, Bai Zhizhan immediately issued an order for Zhou Yongtao to deal with it himself, and let the carrier-based aircraft carrying out the first wave of attack missions prepare.

That is, after 5 o'clock, a reconnaissance report was received from a seaplane in the other direction.

It was a seaplane that was sent to the northwest.

Because the fleet had been sailing southwest, the seaplane was almost north of the fleet by now.

Seaplanes sent reports announcing the sighting of an enemy aircraft coming from the west, and concluded that it was an SBD flying alone on a reconnaissance mission.

Only a few minutes later, the same report was sent from another seaplane in this direction.

Obviously, it is impossible for 2 seaplanes to make the same mistake.

The SBDs were all flying from west to east, about 200 kilometers from Task Force 11, and certainly not from the enemy fleet to the south.

In the north-western direction, there is also an enemy fleet!

The point is, the enemy fleet is not too far away.

Reconnaissance planes should not be able to carry out reconnaissance missions until after dawn, and even if they depart before dawn, they must keep their flight distance at night as short as possible.

Bai Zhizhan did not hesitate for a moment, and immediately asked Zhou Yongtao to adjust his deployment.

Immediately after the take-off of the first wave of attack aircraft, the second wave of carrier-based aircraft was sent to the flight deck, and after completing the preparations, they were sequentially lifted into the air.

Waiting for a reconnaissance report?

Bai Zhizhan is not stupid to that extent.

The pilots of the seaplanes carried by the "Asahihi" have rich experience in actual combat, and they may not have already taken off in the seaplanes and are flying westward.

Perhaps, the enemy fleet will soon be discovered.

Even if you don't, it doesn't matter.

It's so close that there's no need to scout in advance.

According to Zhou Yongtao's arrangement, the second wave of aircraft was divided into squadrons, and the course was slightly different, that is, it launched an attack in the form of reconnaissance and search.

Because each squadron leader's landline has a long-range voice radio with a working distance of about 200 kilometers, as long as one squadron discovers the enemy fleet, it can use the voice radio to other squadrons nearby, and there is no possibility of missing the enemy fleet because the aircraft group is too concentrated.

If anything, this is a new tactic summed up by pilots after the widespread equipping of long-range voice radios.

Of course, the premise is to have carrier-based aircraft with a sufficiently long range.

Although it has not yet been tested in actual combat, the feasibility and value of this tactic have been proven in confrontation training.

It was under the influence of this tactic that the Imperial Navy paid more attention to the range of carrier-based aircraft, which led to the increasing size of carrier-based aircraft.

The first wave of attack aircraft began to rise before 5:30.

By 5:45 a.m., the second wave of attack aircraft was sent to the flight deck, and after a few minutes, they were flying away from the aircraft carrier.

To speak, two waves of attacks were launched almost simultaneously.

At that time, a report had been received from the seaplanes sent by the "Yanhai" confirming that it was the Bran fleet that had been spotted in the southeast direction.

The point is that there are 2 fleet aircraft carriers.

In the circumstances, even if the seaplane did not report it, there was enough reason to believe that Bran's fleet was most likely already preparing for an attack.

Extrapolating from the time, the attack launched by the 11th Task Force may not arrive in time.

In other words, Bran's fleet might be able to attack in time!

In addition, the seaplane lost contact after sending the telegram, which made Bai Zhizhan even more worried.

As long as they hurry, Bran's fleet can send dozens of carrier-based aircraft in an hour, which is enough to form an attack aircraft group.

For this reason, the White Stop War made temporary adjustments, leaving a squadron of fighters to strengthen the air defense of the fleet.

Do not forget that both enemy fleets sent reconnaissance aircraft before dawn, or carrier-based aircraft!

It can be seen that Cunningham and Spu have already guessed that Bai Zhizhan is nearby, otherwise it is impossible to let the carrier-based aircraft, which are not enough in the first place, carry out reconnaissance missions.

White didn't know much about Cunningham, but he did know Spark well.

In his opinion, if Spu had concluded that the 11th Task Force was nearby, he would have prepared for an attack in advance, and would have launched an attack as soon as he received the report from the reconnaissance plane.

It is precisely because of this that the second attack aircraft group, in total, has only 5 squadrons, of which only 1 fighter squadron.

Counting the first attack aircraft group against the Bran fleet, Task Force 11 dispatched 88 carrier-based aircraft in a row, in addition to arranging 16 fighters for air defense missions.

As for the recovery of the returned carrier-based aircraft, there is no need to consider it for the time being.

In Bai Zhizhan's view, attacking the Nuland fleet with 40 carrier-based aircraft, not to mention sinking, at least severely damaging the "Endeavour" is a sure thing.

In any case, the Nuland fleet has only 1 aircraft carrier.

The 16 "Suzaku" and 16 "Thunderbolt" were able to launch two all-round attacks on the "Endeavour" in two batches.

However, what White stopped counting was that Spark would have all the fighters in the air, and all of them were in the vicinity of Task Force 61 at the time.

As a result, 8 escorted "Howling Heaven" had to face 28 anti-aircraft "Wildcats".

What Bai Zhizhan didn't expect was that the distance between him and Spu was less than 200 kilometers!

For carrier-based aviation, this distance is almost fighting bayonets!

After the carrier-based aircraft was lifted into the air, there was no time to marshall, and on the way to the north, they encountered the enemy's fighters, and the tactics arranged were not used at all!