When the "Imperial Capital" was bombed, a fire also broke out on the "Accompanying Beijing".

Initially, it was indeed a "fire".

In order to attract the attention of the enemy planes and relieve the pressure on the "Imperial Capital," the captain of the "Companion Beijing" adopted the suggestion of Wang Jun, a staff officer of the fleet, and after the escort warships were in place, they ignited the waste tires on the flight deck, released thick black smoke, and pretended to have suffered heavy damage.

Because the burning of waste tires produces black smoke, pretending to have been heavily damaged, and the method of deceiving enemy planes has been tried and tested repeatedly, so there are some scrapped old tires on the warships of the Imperial Navy, most of which come from carrier-based aircraft, and the damage management department will also prepare some equipment for ignition.

Actually, there is no need for this at all.

At that time, the SBD of 1 squadron and the TBD of 1 squadron did not participate in the battle for the attack on the "Imperial Capital" and were searching for the "Pekyo".

As a result, the sudden rise of black smoke attracted these enemy planes.

It's just that the enemy plane was not fooled!

The "Companion Jing" was not attacked before, so how could it be damaged?

Judging from the situation at that time, the "Accompanying Beijing" deliberately released black smoke and really helped the "Imperial Capital", otherwise most of the enemy planes of those two squadrons would have vented their anger on the "Imperial Capital" that had been severely damaged after 12:15, that is, when the fuel was about to run out.

After a few more hits, whether it is a bomb or a torpedo, the "Imperial Capital" will probably be finished.

Relatively speaking, the situation of the "Accompanying Beijing" is much better than that of the "Imperial Capital".

In the 10 or so minutes that the "Imperial Capital" was used as a shield, the ocean-going cruiser "Minatocheng," which accompanied and covered the "Companion Beijing," had already maneuvered into place, a destroyer had rushed over, and the antiaircraft gun crew on the "Companion Beijing" was also ready for battle.

When the Nuland group arrived, the three battleships were on standby.

Between 12:10 and 15 p.m., the three warships, in particular the "Minato City", performed a textbook-level anti-aircraft combat demonstration.

This battle fully proved the value of medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns.

The enemy planes were still 10 kilometers away, and the 130-mm anti-aircraft guns on the three battleships were the first to open fire, forcing the dense formation of enemy planes to disperse.

As enemy aircraft approached, 130-mm anti-aircraft guns focused on intercepting high-altitude dive bombers.

Received intensive care, 8 SBDs had to disperse again, and on the way to the approach, 3 were shot down by anti-aircraft guns, and the remaining 5 were not able to be organized.

At the same time, the 4 twin 80-mm anti-aircraft guns on the port side of the "Port City" were divided into two groups and began to intercept the low-altitude TBD group.

With a rate of fire of 120 rounds per minute, coupled with a high level of power, the 80-mm anti-aircraft gun blocked almost all the flight paths of the TBD.

It only took 2 minutes for 5 TBDs to be shot down.

When the engagement distance was reduced to 4 km, the 40mm guns on the three battleships were put into battle.

The distance was further reduced to 2 kilometers before the 20-mm cannon fired.

As a result, none of the eight TBDs approached the "Companion Jing", and all of them were shot down before the mine was dropped.

According to later reports, at least two TBDs fell into the sea after being intercepted by 80-mm anti-aircraft guns because of improper pilot operation.

Of the remaining five SBDs, three were shot down before they were dropped, and only two dropped their bombs, although all of them missed their targets.

All 3 SBDs shot down went into the dive channel, but failed to drop bombs.

It was this that led Major Clark, who commanded the operation, to misreport the results.

At that time, Major Clark had already completed the attack, and the SBD piloted by him was more than 10 kilometers away, and he witnessed the decisive attack launched by two squadrons, and saw that five SBDs had entered the bombing channel, but only two water columns appeared near the aircraft carrier "Companion Beijing."

If 5 bombs miss, it should be 5 water jets!

It cannot be ruled out that the fuse of the aerial bomb failed, and there was no possibility of explosion when it fell into the sea, but the probability of the fuse failure of three bombs at the same time is almost zero.

The "Accompanying Beijing" has been "burning" all the time, and the smoke rising from it obscures the sky and the sun.

It was in this way that Clark was convinced that there must have been a bomb dropped by SBD that hit the "Pekyo", and that it must have dealt heavy damage to the aircraft carrier.

Because there was no guarantee that the carrier would be sunk, Clark did not mention "sinking" in the telegram.

In fact, the fire on the "Imperial Capital" and the "Accompanying Beijing" at that time did look like it was about to end.

It wasn't until 12:35 that the battle ended.

Of the nearly 70 Nuland carrier-based planes in total, less than 20 returned home, and all 16 "Wildcats" on escort missions were shot down by the "Roaring Sky."

In addition, more than a dozen SBDs and TBDs were shot down by the "Roaring Sky" that had returned after completing the attack.

To say that the losses of personnel are more severe than the losses of fighters.

The downed Nuland pilots, who were not killed, were all taken prisoner.

At 12:40, the "fire" on the "Companion Jing" was extinguished.

It's just that the White Stop War did not immediately transfer to the past.

He just asked Zhou Yongtao to rush over with a group of staff officers to organize the recovery of the Shenpu aircraft group that was about to return to prepare for the next attack.

Bai Zhizhan did not leave, but just wanted to stay and set an example.

The damage management and repair work of the "Imperial Capital" is being carried out intensively, and hundreds of damage management personnel are working hard, and the fact that the fleet commander has stayed behind is the greatest encouragement to them.

In fact, Bai Zhizhan is also clear that whether there will be a next attack is a question.

It's not that there are no carrier-based aircraft, and it's not because the casualties are too great.

The point is that there is only one point, the distance is too far!

At the beginning of the engagement, the distance to Nuland's Task Force 17 was about 400 kilometers. Nuland's Task Force 17 had been heading east, while Task Force 41.1 had switched north before it was attacked. After this fierce battle, the distance to Newland's 17th Task Force had expanded to more than 500 kilometers.

Because the "Imperial Capital" was hit hard and its speed was reduced to about 10 knots, the speed of the 41.1 detachment could not be fast at all.

Even if you turn now and sail east, the distance will increase to more than 550 kilometers in 2 hours.

In addition, Spu may not stay and continue to fight.

According to the report sent back by Zhu Huasheng, the "Hornet" will most likely sink.

Even if it hadn't sunk yet, Sp wouldn't have hitched a ride on another ship that was destined to sink.

Hal's Newland Task Force 16 has been wiped out, so in the next year or two, the Endeavour will be the only aircraft carrier in the Nuland Navy.

What about spelling out Task Force 41?

In a few months, the Imperial Navy will receive 4 large aircraft carriers, and the Nuland Navy's large aircraft carriers are still on the slipway.

Even if there is only one aircraft carrier, it can be used to make a fuss.

If there is no aircraft carrier, let alone Spu, even God can't play it.

It can be seen that most of the Spu will choose to preserve their strength.

Even if he wanted to fight hard, Niz wouldn't agree.

After abandoning the "Hornet", the "Endeavour" will be able to sail eastward at full speed, and will be able to organize forces in time for the White Stop War to expand the distance to about 600 kilometers before launching a new attack.

Considering that the Nuland fleet may turn halfway, it is not very certain that it will catch up with the "Endeavour" even if the fleet is allowed to launch a one-way attack.

Is it still necessary for pilots to go on adventures?

In addition, several thousand officers and men of the fleet of the six cruisers, as well as hundreds of pilots of the carrier-based aviation in Zhu Huasheng's attack aircraft group, are still waiting to be rescued!