Rockets are definitely a good thing.

Before the use of rockets, whether it was "Roaring Sky", "Suzaku" or "Thunderbolt", there was always a little regret when carrying out a ground strike mission.

In the words of the pilots, there are not enough bombs hung!

Often, when an important target is encountered, it is discovered that the bomb is gone.

In addition, large-caliber machine guns can deal with relatively limited targets and cannot completely replace bombs.

Before the rockets were equipped, some pilots proposed that the aviation machine guns on the inside of the wings of the "Roaring Sky" be replaced with 20-millimeter machine guns to enhance their ground strike firepower.

Although there was no technical difficulty, it was not done for logistical reasons.

In addition, 20mm guns are basically worthless in air combat.

As early as last year, the Imperial Navy tested the captured Zero, and found that the two 20-mm guns on this fighter were purely ornamental, not only slow to fire, but also because of the short barrel used, resulting in low muzzle velocity, which was almost unusable in air combat.

Interestingly, because the 20-mm cannon was too heavy, the Narrow-caliber Navy did not equip the Zero with large-caliber machine guns, and used medium-caliber aviation machine guns.

In addition, the machine gun has a pitifully small amount of ammunition, and it can fire a few short bursts at most.

This is the root cause of the serious lack of firepower in the Zero War.

Although the "Roaring Sky" is much heavier and stronger than the Zero Battle, and can use a long gun barrel to increase the muzzle velocity and increase the ammunition reserve of the machine gun, it will inevitably lead to an increase in the weight of the fighter, which will also have an impact on the supporting weapons, and the comprehensive value is not obvious, or the gains outweigh the losses.

In fact, just adding an airborne weapon of a different caliber will cause big trouble when aiming.

The reason is also simple, the ballistics of the 20-mm machine gun and the 13-mm aviation machine gun are very different and cannot be used at the same time.

This means that during the battle, you have to choose your weapon according to the actual situation and switch it with a switch.

For seasoned veterans, it's not much of a problem. But in the hands of rookies, this is a big problem.

If you can't aim or miss, no matter how powerful the weapon is, it's just an ornament.

In order to enhance the ground strike capability of carrier-based aircraft, especially the sustained combat capability, the service personnel of the naval aviation have thought of many methods.

The easiest way to do this is to set up some hardpoints under the wings that are specially designed to carry small bombs.

As for small bombs, there are too many, from 15 kg to 150 kg almost everything, and it can be said that they are inexpensive.

The most commonly used are 50 kg and 100 kg.

All "roaring" fighters have six attachment points under the wings on each side, and theoretically can hang up to 12 small bomblets of 150 kg. If you use a tandem pylon, you can hang up to 24 bomblets of the 50 kg class. However, under normal circumstances, in order to reduce the take-off weight and improve maneuverability, especially when using the belly hardpoint to mount the auxiliary fuel tank or large bomb, the weight control of the underwing mount must be within 500 kg.

In addition, the number of underwing anchors of the new batch of "Roaring Sky" has increased to 16, but the total number of external attachments has not changed.

It was at this time that the Imperial Navy received a batch of rockets from the Army, and also found that it was very effective for use on tactical aircraft.

In the final stage of the attack on the island, the naval aviation conducted actual combat tests of the rockets, and both the actual test results and the feedback from the pilots were very satisfactory.

Before the Battle of the Fortress was over, the Navy placed an order for the munitions factory, and after that, a production line was purchased.

As for the use of rockets, they are not only for ground strikes.

By the end of the war, large-caliber rockets were still a sharp weapon against small warships, and they also had good results against large warships.

To be said, the most prominent advantage of rockets is that they have greatly reduced the difficulty of striking at the ground and sea.

To put it simply, pilots don't need to be trained to dive and drop bombs, they can use strafing attack tactics to use rockets!

Because the difficulty of operation and use is greatly reduced, the application range is very wide.

At present, rockets are still mainly used on fighter jets, so that fighters have obtained a sharper means of ground strike in addition to aviation machine guns.

At least when it comes to a solid target such as a pillbox, the pilot of the fighter will not be helpless.

In addition, the hit rate of rockets is significantly higher than the use of aerial bombs.

Crucially, rockets can also be used in air combat, and are especially suitable for large targets such as bombers, so they can still perform anti-aircraft missions when hung behind rockets.

Good multi-purpose performance is the key to the popularity of rockets.

The second wave of attacks is still going well.

At around 9:30, after receiving the report from the commander of the second wave of aircraft, Zhou Yongtao asked again for instructions, that is, whether to prepare for the third wave of attacks.

At this time, the first wave of aircraft had returned to the skies over the fleet, and dozens of carrier-based aircraft were landing one after another.

According to the report, only 7 carrier-based aircraft were lost, 3 of which crashed on the way back, and several more were damaged and are likely to be scrapped.

Counting those who stayed behind and did not make sorties, they were able to organize about 80 carrier-based aircraft to launch a third wave of attacks around 11 o'clock.

Of course, you have to start preparing immediately.

The reason is also very simple, the second wave will definitely return before 11:30, so the third wave must be allowed to depart before this, otherwise the sortie will be postponed until after 12:30, which is equivalent to an hour's delay, which will give the enemy more time to prepare.

Regarding Zhou Yongtao's proposal, Bai Zhizhan did not object.

Although he was worried about being attacked, especially a sneak attack, so far, no anomalies have been found, and Bai Zhizhan can only believe that the Nuland fleet did not rush over.

Is the deception effective?

Or because there are only 2 small aircraft carriers, so they don't dare to come to the decisive battle?

Perhaps, it was really the deception that played a role.

According to the reports of the reconnaissance aircraft, the Nuland troops on the transit island were not prepared before the attack and did not even arrange for fighters to rise into the air before dawn.

The key is that the heavy bombers deployed on the transit island are all neatly placed on the airfield!

Even if it was just to raise the alert, these bombers should be ready to take to the skies before dawn to search for the possible appearance of the Liangxia fleet.

All indications are that the Nuland Navy did not expect to be attacked today.

Of course, this should not come as a surprise.

The reason for this was that the two task forces sailed at an average speed of more than 24 knots for six days, which was one-third higher than the normal cruising speed.

If you are sailing at a normal cruising speed of 18 knots, you will not reach the northwest of the transit island until 2 days later, that is, on June 30.

Of course, there can be no accidents along the way.

If something goes wrong along the way, the arrival time will be delayed.

Normally, there are three fleets of hundreds of ships, and they are running thousands of kilometers, and the probability of accidents during the voyage is very high.

In other words, the Nuland Navy may not have thought that it would be attacked until the 30th.

According to this speculation, today, that is, in the early morning of the 28th, the Liangxia fleet was still 2,500 kilometers away and did not enter the reconnaissance and search range.

From this point of view, it is quite possible that the Nuland Navy envisaged the engagement as early July and was not ready to go into battle on June 28.