In the early morning of 23 May, as soon as the sky was brightened, the roar of aircraft engines resounded in Nagumo's fleet.

On the vast sea in the central, eastern, and southern parts of the Gulf of Aden, small Zero water reconnaissance planes circled one after another, making elegant circles.

With the fleet as the center, the reconnaissance range of twelve reconnaissance planes covered the eastern exit of the Gulf of Aden, and any ship passing by the sea could not hide.

In the combat command room of the Akagi bridge, Nagumo stared at the Gulf of Aden on the chart, without a trace of emotion in his eyes.

According to the geographical data of the Gulf of Aden placed on the nautical chart and the performance parameters of the warships of the Indian Ocean Fleet, Nagumo kept silently calculating groups of data in his mind.

The Gulf of Aden is 1,480 kilometers long from east to west and has an average width of 482 kilometers.

The Port of Aden is located in the northwest corner of the Gulf of Aden, in the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula, about 405 nautical miles from the eastern exit of the Gulf of Aden.

Among the remnants of the Indian Ocean Fleet, the Tejas class aircraft carriers have a maximum speed of 30 knots, and the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships have a slower maximum speed of only 25 knots, which is only a theoretical speed.

At the speed of these two warships, they will definitely not be able to escape from the Gulf of Aden overnight, and now they must be hidden somewhere in the Gulf of Aden, and all they have to do now is to find them and kill them.

Looking at the Red Sea in the northwest of the Gulf of Aden, Nagumo said to the staff officers beside him: "The sky has just brightened now, and we still have a day to look for the two main warships of the British.

Tonight, our allies will rush out of the Red Sea and into the Gulf of Aden. We must destroy those two ships before the arrival of our allies' fleets and demonstrate to our allies the efficiency of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Lords who ordered the reconnaissance troops. Be sure to round their eyes. No suspicious ships are to be spared. Be the eyes of the fleet. ”

Nagumo's order was quickly conveyed to the reconnaissance aircraft on patrol.

In the northwest of the Nagumo fleet, in the middle of the Gulf of Aden, on a reconnaissance plane sprayed with two large Chinese characters of "pursuit" behind the left fuselage, the pilot Nagaoka Ryosuke said: "Yokoji-kun, have you gained anything?" ”

"No, the sea here looks like a plate licked by a hungry dog, clean and empty." on the back seat. Radio and observer Shinji Yokoji said. "We have been flying for an hour and have not seen anything, perhaps the British battleship is hiding in the harbor and has not sailed at all. It's just a waste of time and gas for us to fly any further, shouldn't we go to the port of Aden? Nagaoka suggested.

Shinji Yokoji raised his extremely abstract face and said dissatisfiedly: "Last night, the port of Aden was just attacked by our air, and the British must be on guard now. We broke in at this time, surely not even a shadow of the port of Aden, surrounded by a group of British fighters. Then go to the Yasukuni Shrine to report. It's okay if you want to kill yourself, please don't take me with you. Please. ”

After Yokoji finished speaking, he lowered his head and looked around, continuing to search for targets on the sea.

The two of them were chatting and on duty at the same time, and the time flew by for another half hour.

"The fuel is almost gone, it's time for us to go back." Nagaoka said.

"It seems that the fleet of the British is not in our direction, and there is no point in looking for it any further, let's go back and refuel and replace it with someone else." Yokoji fiddled with the radio on the second-hand and connected to the fleet command to explain the current situation of the two.

After the telegram was sent, Nagaoka had already steered the plane to turn in the direction of return.

"How I wish I had been flying a Zero at this time, so that we could return at speeds of more than five hundred kilometers per hour, instead of even three hundred kilometers per hour." Nagaoka sighed as he looked at the blue sky.

"You have to know that at least you have achieved your dream of becoming a pilot. And I can only be a radio hand, tinkering with this gadget every day, and I don't feel any excitement at all. Yokoji said.

"The life of the fighter unit, the torpedo unit, and the bomber unit is very exciting, but you may enter the Yasukuni Shrine at any time, do you want to go too?" Nagaoka said.

"Of course I wanted to go, but I didn't pass the pilot exam and was assigned to the radio major." Shinji Yokoji said.

Nagaoka sneered a few times, and then said: "I suggest that you better stay in the seaplane unit, it is safer here, I don't want you to fly the plane and withstand the blow of the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery to participate in the battle, it is too dangerous, I don't want to lose your good friend." ”

There was no sound from the back seat for a long time, and Nagaoka couldn't help but shout: "Jiner, Jiner, why don't you speak?" ”

Yokoji Shinji's voice sounded again, his tone high-pitched and urgent.

"Nagaoka-kun, turn around immediately and fly to the left flank, there seems to be a warship there."

Nagaoka hurriedly steered the plane to the left flank and flew in the direction indicated by Shinji Yokoji.

Less than two minutes after flying out, Nagaoka saw warships of different sizes appear on the surface of the sea.

Roughly counted, the number of warships was nearly twenty.

The slender hull of the ship cleaves the waves on the blue sea, dragging out white wakes.

"It must be the British, immediately send a telegram to the fleet, reporting the enemy's direction and course." Nagaoka shouted.

"I'm confirming the coordinates, it'll be fine right away, you can help me check the number and ship model." Yokoji Shinji shouted.

Yokoji Shinji's voice hadn't dissipated yet, and Nagaoka's frightened voice almost burst his eardrums.

"They opened fire, they spotted us."

The rumbling sound of explosions instantly surrounded the reconnaissance plane, and the black smoke emitted by the explosion of the shells filled the air.

The shock wave and shrench hit the fuselage, and Yokoji Shinji's body trembled with the fuselage.

There was a crackling sound, and Shinji Yokoji glanced at the shrapnel crack on the hatch cover glass in a panic, and then used both hands together, quickly adjusted the radio knob, and skillfully sent out telegrams one after another, reporting the results and situation of the two to the fleet.

Nagaoka hurriedly pulled the joystick to steer the plane away from the range of British artillery fire, and then circled the sky even more.

"The British have ceased fire, we are safe." Nagaoka shouted.

He didn't raise his head when he crossed the road, but only fiddled with the radio to send a message.

A few minutes later. Nagaoka shouted, "Have you finished sending the telegram?" We're going to have to go back. ”

"I'll be done right away. Wait a little longer. ”

"Hurry up. We're running out of fuel. Nagaoka shouted.

"It's going to be over right away, it's going to be over right now. It's over, we can go. Yokoji shouted.

Nagaoka hurriedly turned the nose of the plane and flew east.

"We've done a great job this time, and we'll definitely be rewarded when we go back." Shinji Yokoji shouted excitedly.

Nagaoka stared at the dashboard and shouted, "Now is not the time to talk about this, let's pray for the emperor's blessing and allow us to return to the fleet safely." ”

"Don't be nervous, Nagaoka-kun. Even if we don't have enough fuel, we can land on the surface of the sea and contact surface ships to save us, you don't forget that we are seaplanes. Yokoji said.

As soon as Yokoji Shinji finished speaking, he suddenly saw two black shadows on the left side of the plane out of the corner of his eye, he turned his head curiously, and was instantly dumbfounded and speechless.

The two fighters grew from small to large, and flew from the left side, heading straight for his plane.

Damn, I forgot. There are British aircraft carriers here, and Yokoji Shinji is instantly annoyed.

"Nagaoka-kun. Fast acceleration, the fighters of the British are on our left flank. Keiji Yokoji shouted hoarsely.

Nagaoka raised the plane to its maximum speed with a hideous face, but his heart was still tight.

The Zero water reconnaissance plane can only fly at a speed of 246 kilometers per hour at the fastest, and unless the opponent is two old planes from World War I, it will definitely not be able to escape the pursuit of the two fighters.

In the face of two fighters, the only 7.7 mm machine gun is useless and has no use other than to scare and scare each other.

Bullets rained down from the left side, whizzing past the Zero.

Shinji Yokoji and Nagaoka soon heard a "bang bang" sound, and the fuselage trembled violently, followed by wisps of black smoke.

Numerous bullet holes were chiseled out of the cockpit cover, and cold air poured into the cabin from the bullet holes, hitting Yokoji Shinji in the face like a knife.

"Nagaoka, skydive." Yokoji shouted desperately, then pushed open the canopy and jumped out of the cabin.

At the moment of jumping, Yokoji saw that the cockpit in front of him was also covered with honeycomb bullet holes, as well as scarlet bloodstains.

Nagaoka's body slumped to the right in the cockpit, shaking with the bumpy fuselage.

There was no time to mourn his comrades, and Yokoji Shinji's body was thrown into the air.

A few seconds later, an extra white parachute appeared in the sky.

Seeing the plane dragging a long column of black smoke and crashing headlong into the blue sea, splashing a huge white splash, Yokoji Shinji angrily looked at the two murderers who turned around and went away.

Your position has been exposed, no one can escape, and the Zero will take revenge on us.

Less than twenty minutes later, a group of warplanes crossed the crossroads that were battling the sea from east to west, and rushed to the remnants of the Indian Ocean Fleet.

On the bridge of the USS Tejera, Admiral Tovey received a report that fighter jets from the USS Teijas had shot down the Japanese plane and were on their way home.

A small victory, but Admiral Tovey had no joy in his heart.

The Indian Ocean Fleet has become a homeless outcast by this time.

As if on an agreement with the Japanese fleet, the Luftwaffe stationed in Eritrea swept the port of Aden with a dense barrage of bombs, mercilessly destroying the dilapidated airfields and docks, forcing the remnants of the Indian Ocean Fleet to flee the port en masse.

After drifting on the surface of the sea for more than an hour, Admiral Tovey thought about it and finally decided to rush to the eastern entrance of the Gulf of Aden to break through, even if he encountered the Japanese fleet.

It is also worth it to lose some of the warships as cover and ensure that the other warships can break through, it is much better than the combined German-Italian fleet rushing out of the Red Sea and then being attacked from both sides and annihilated.

It's just that I didn't expect it to be discovered by the Japanese so quickly, and the Japanese fleet must be on its way here, and the time for a decisive battle has come.

When dense black dots appeared in the distant sky, and the muffled sound of aircraft engines came to the face, the Indian Ocean Fleet was ready for battle.

All 16 Sea Hurricane fighters aboard the USS Tejour had risen into the air and hovered over the fleet headed by the USS Warweary, while the USS Tejas was hiding fifty nautical miles away under the cover of a cruiser and two destroyers.

The Hurricane fighters rushed head-on at the Japanese fleet, only to be instantly surrounded by at least twice as many Zeros.

The USS Karui can only carry a maximum of 48 fighters, while the Chisei and Kaga can each carry 72 standing fighters, and the Indian Ocean Fleet is at an absolute numerical disadvantage.

Sixty or seventy fighters rolled in the sky, chasing, firing at each other.

Black smoke, white wake, and the light of the fires when the plane exploded filled the sky.

One after another, the wings were broken, the tails were broken, or the cockpits were hit, rolling, and roaring to the sea.

In terms of quantity, quality, and even the quality of the pilots, the British Hurricane fighters could not compete with the pilots of the Japanese Navy, and they were shot down one by one in the siege of the Zero fighter group, and none of them were spared.

The Type Zero fighter group entangled the British fighters, creating an opportunity for the Type 97 torpedo group and the Type 99 dive bomber group.

In the face of the frantic artillery fire of the British fleet on the sea, the Type 99 dive bombers took the lead in attacking.

Thirty-six dive bombers gracefully rolled over and dived, rushing to the surface of the sea at a vertical angle of nearly 90 degrees, smashing 250 kg bombs one after another on the bow of the British warship.

The battleship Queen Elizabeth was the first target of the bombardment.

The huge and bulky hull drew S-shaped curves from the sea, and the 40mm and 20mm anti-aircraft guns spewed out countless shells, intercepting the Japanese planes and battleships, but still unable to stop the falling bombs.

The bomb first hit the chimney in the middle of the Queen Elizabeth, followed by the aft deck.

In the violent explosion, the lower part of the chimney and half of the chimney were torn apart, and the fire and smoke poured out of the boiler room, drifting in all directions with the sea breeze, enveloping the back half of the Queen Elizabeth hull.

A ball of fire erupted from the aft deck, and the deck instantly burst into flames, turning into countless steel plate fragments scattered and flying.

The explosion at the stern of the ship severely damaged the engine room of the Queen Elizabeth, and the ship's massive hull became even more cumbersome.

The plane made a spiral bend around the right flank of the British fleet, and then went straight to the battleship Queen Elizabeth.

He swayed the plane from side to side, first over two destroyers, then over the heads of a light cruiser, and swooped down on the starboard side of the target.

Visually only about six or seven hundred meters away from the Queen Elizabeth, the nose of the aircraft was almost perpendicular to the starboard side of the enemy ship, and the wooden shirt threw a torpedo without hesitation, and then piloted the plane with a beautiful right upper head and flew high into the air.

The tail of the plane took the opportunity to turn the muzzle of the gun and swept two rounds of bullets on the starboard side of the Queen Elizabeth until he saw the torpedo hit the target.

"Hit, starboard stern, it can't run." Guchuan shouted.

At the moment when Guchuan shouted, two more torpedoes hit the starboard side of the Queen Elizabeth.

In the waves and flames of the explosion, the hull of the Queen Elizabeth began to tilt to the right (to be continued...... to be continued)