On Socotra, there really aren't many military targets worth bombing.

For three consecutive days, the carrier-based aircraft wing of the 12th Task Force made almost 500 sorties, but not a single one was shot down in the battle, but three crashed due to malfunctions, one "Suzaku" was lost on the way back, and two crew members were found dead.

By October 6, the landing battle had begun.

It is said that it is a battle, but it is not accurate.

In only half a day, the Marine Corps not only completed the task of seizing the beach, but also advanced several thousand meters inland, and the reconnaissance team that went forward even reached the periphery of the airport.

After making sure that the garrison inside the airfield had been evacuated, the Marines accelerated their advance in the afternoon.

In addition, in the evening of the same day, the Army arranged for transport planes to bring an airborne unit to the airfield, which was occupied ahead of the Marines.

This unplanned operation almost led to a misfire.

In the early morning of the 7th, when the Marines were preparing to march to the airfield, they did not know that the Army Airborne Forces had been stationed, and they regarded the Airborne Forces as the enemy and called for artillery fire.

Fortunately, the commander of the supporting fleet did not make a mistake and asked the liaison officer of the army before giving the order to open fire.

Otherwise, the consequences will be unimaginable.

All in all, the landing operation went very smoothly.

The problem was that Socotra did not have a deep-water port, so the Marines had to build several trestle piers at the landing site near the airport to allow ships carrying equipment and supplies to dock. In order to avoid a sneak attack by submarines, it is also necessary to lay anti-submarine nets on the perimeter of the landing site.

Thankfully, these are all trivial.

As a result of the successful completion of the advance on Socotra, on the night of 6 October, the two task forces moved according to the standby plan.

Go to the Gulf of Aden and send carrier-based aircraft to bomb the Kibu fortress.

To put it simply, it is to launch an attack on the Kibu fortress in advance.

After one night, the two task forces launched simultaneously the next morning, attacking each around the early hours of the morning.

In addition to increasing the intensity of the attack and trying to disable the garrison of the Kib Fortress after the first strike, it can also play a role in confusing the enemy, that is, making it impossible for the enemy to guess the whereabouts of the task force by the size and arrival time of the attack group.

There is enough intelligence to prove that the garrison of the Kib fortress is not very large, and the combat aircraft deployed here by the Royal Air Force of Bran are far less than expected.

After landing on Socotra, the Navy used the forward deployed patrol aircraft to monitor the Kib fortress.

It was only in the past few days that the Royal Air Force of Bran had transferred a large number of combat aircraft from the Kib Fortress.

The key is at the other end of the narrow sea.

In order to alleviate the pressure on Malta and to prepare for the Imperial Navy's attack on the Kib Fortress, the Khunman Army launched a combat operation on the Syphan Canal on 2 October, and also invested enough air power to force the Royal Bran Air Force to withdraw troops from the Kib Forts to deal with the attack of the Kib Army.

Because the shipping route has not yet been opened, and the Northern Xuan region is under the control of the Zoman army, the Royal Air Force of Bran wants to send more combat aircraft from Telok Fortress to the Xifan Canal, and it has to go south to bypass the Xuan Continent, and it has to fly thousands of kilometers in turn, and there are not a few airports with complete facilities along the way.

This difficulty is not ordinary.

According to preliminary reconnaissance, there are less than 200 combat aircraft deployed in the Kib fortress, and they are mainly fighters.

Crucially, the garrison of the Kib fortress was seriously lacking in long-range reconnaissance means.

Previously, the Bran Royal Navy had also deployed a number of long-range patrol aircraft on Socotra Island, and they posed a large enough threat to imperial ships operating in the Mua Sea. After deciding to retreat from Socotra, the Royal Navy sent all of these patrol aircraft to the port of Arisza to be used in the direction of Luxinhai.

It can be seen that Bran's army did not have the intention of defending the Kibu fortress.

The combat operation went well, and it took only one day to incapacitate the aviation of the Kib fortress.

Although it did not take part in the attack on Socotra and had sufficient ammunition, according to the plan, the 12th Task Force was to withdraw on October 8 to replenish ammunition and prepare for subsequent combat operations, and thus once again took on the main task.

This arrangement will allow the 11th Task Force to maintain a sufficiently high combat effectiveness at all times.

As a result, the 11th Task Force launched only two waves of attacks on the same day, and it was mainly an air defense escort, and did not undertake many attack missions.

In Li Mingbo's words, after a day of tossing, he was basically playing soy sauce.

In fact, this also made many staff officers dissatisfied.

As far as Zhou Yongtao said, the defensive deployment of the Kibu Fortress is so vulnerable, and the 11th Task Force commanded by Liu Xiangzhen has been active here for several months, is it all watching the excitement?

Obviously, this is obviously a bit biased.

Prior to this, there were more than 500 combat planes deployed at the Kibu fortress for a long time, and many of them were cutting-edge fighters with advanced performance, such as the "Spitfire" fighter with a new engine and the "Mosquito" bomber capable of carrying out sea attack missions.

Crucially, the Kibu Fortress is located in the westernmost part of the Gulf of Aden.

To the east, as far as Socotra, the Gulf of Aden is narrow from north to south, like a trumpet.

Even if the Imperial Navy's carrier-based aircraft had sufficient range, the task force would have to go deep into the Gulf of Aden to attack the Kib fortress.

Because the chance of achieving the suddenness of the battle is very small, the only way to attack is to attack.

The previous 11th Task Force had only 3 fleet aircraft carriers in total, with less than 300 aircraft, and did not capture Socotra Island, so there was no possibility of storming the Kib fortress at all. Venturing into the Gulf of Aden to attack the Kibu Fortress is certainly a lot of bad luck.

It was precisely because of this that in the months before that, Liu Xiangzhen's 11th Task Force did not venture into the Gulf of Aden, but only moved to the south of Muahai a few times.

It cannot be said that Liu Xiangzhen is cowardly, but there is really no need to attack the Kibu Fortress.

During these months, the 11th Task Force visited the eastern side of the Mu'a Sea, the major cities and ports on the western coast of the Van Lo region, declaring the return of the national navy and creating great psychological pressure on the local Bran garrison.

This is also the key reason why the Kingdom of Bran decided to abandon the Van Roe region.

It can be seen that just by bloodlessly destroying the colonial dominance of the Bran Kingdom in the Van Luo region, the 11th Task Force has made a great achievement.

On the other side of Posha Bay, Task Force 11 also played a key role.

According to the information provided by the Sixth Bureau, the Kingdom of Bran has been instigating the Boi to send troops to attack Gwadar, and the Boi authorities have similar ideas, and have even assembled a ground force of more than 200,000 troops, of which 50,000 are camel cavalry who are very good at fighting in the desert.

However, the team never came out.

The reason is simple: no one can ignore the task force operating in Muahai.

As long as the task force is killed, hundreds of combat planes will be dispatched in turn, let alone 200,000, even if it is 2 million troops, it will definitely not reach Gwadar.

In the face of the modern war machine, the cavalry that dominates the era of cold weapons is absolutely vulnerable.

It can be seen that during the attack on the transit island in the Baizhi War, the situation in Fan Yanyang was able to remain stable, relying on the 11th task force commanded by Liu Xiangzhen.