Just when Luo Jinming tried his best to deal with the swarms of "zero battles", the bomber group led by Qiu Gengbo and Zhang Zhitao also reached the sky over the Japanese fleet. As soon as the two of them saw the dense Japanese battleships, they were shocked, and at the same time, they also discovered that the escort fighters led by Colonel Luo Jinming had disappeared, and the Japanese fleet had been organized into an air defense formation. However, the two did not hesitate, and when more than 20 "Zero Battles" were coming head-on, Captain Qiu Gengbo first led a group of dive bombers to attack.

The Kingfisher is slightly faster than the Osprey, so it also starts attacking first. There was no time for Captain Chogenpo to wait until the torpedo bomber group had arrived before attacking. While the fighters over the Japanese fleet had not yet come up, an early attack was the only way out.

Twenty-four Kingfishers went into battle one after the other. They had no choice, at least, they could not retreat until the bombs were dropped, the "Kingfishers" were much slower than the "Zero", and they could not escape. However, at this time, there were already more than twenty "zero battles" in the sky over the Japanese fleet, and with fifteen minutes, these "zero battles" had long been waiting for the bombers of the Tang Imperial Navy. In the face of more Japanese fighters than themselves, none of the pilots on the 24 "Kingfishers" hesitated, they all knew that they were dying this time, but all the pilots had only one thought, that is, death, and they had to drag a Japanese aircraft carrier on their backs, and they couldn't die in vain!

The battle was brutal, and the assault of 24 "Kingfishers" yielded little to gain. Before they entered the anti-aircraft fire network of the Japanese fleet, 14 were shot down by the "Zero Battle". Captain Chogenbo's plane was among them, and when he was shot down, he only gave one order, which was to let the other pilots continue to attack and leave him alone.

After breaking through the interception of Japanese fighters, 10 "Kingfishers" entered the strike range of the anti-aircraft fire of the Japanese fleet. Soon, four "Kingfishers" were torn to shreds by fierce anti-aircraft artillery. Most of the escort warships in the Japanese First Air Fleet were from the former Southwest Combined Fleet, and after the Battle of Jeju Island, the warships of the Southwest Combined Fleet returned to the port for repairs, during which most of the 120-mm single-barreled anti-aircraft guns on the warships were replaced by twin 127-mm anti-aircraft guns, and in addition, a large number of 25-mm guns were added, and their anti-aircraft firepower was greatly enhanced. Obviously, the Japanese also realized the shortcomings in the anti-aircraft fire of the battleships, and made the same improvements as the Tang Imperial Navy, replacing the old ones with new ones and comprehensively strengthening the air defense of the fleet.

The remaining 8 "Kingfishers" chose the aircraft carrier "Canglong", which was closest to them. This is one of two new aircraft carriers that Japan launched only half a year ago and commissioned only two months ago. This is also a large aircraft carrier of the first stage of the Japanese Navy, which was built in full accordance with the requirements of a fast fleet aircraft carrier from the design stage. Although its displacement is still much smaller than that of the two modified aircraft carriers, the "Akagi" and "Kaga", it is much stronger in terms of aviation combat capabilities.

Before entering the dive channel, two more "Kingfishers" were torn to pieces by anti-aircraft fire on the sea, and the remaining six "Kingfishers" dropped bombs, but none of them hit. To make matters worse, two Kingfishers were hit by artillery fire during the change of the dive, and in the end, only four Kingfishers managed to kill the anti-aircraft fire network of the Japanese fleet. Fortunately, the Japanese air defense fighters operating on the periphery of the fleet were not in the mood to deal with these dive bombers, which had already dropped bombs and were no longer a threat to the fleet, at this time, the "Ospreys", who arrived five minutes late, began to "assault".

The 20 "Ospreys" were divided into three formations, and they simultaneously launched an attack on the aircraft carriers "Akagi", "Soryu", and "Flying Dragon", which were located in the northwest direction of the fleet. This is almost a completely death-defying offense. Because the two groups of bombers did not arrive at the same time, the "Osprey" group was five minutes late, and the result was that the "Zero Battle" swooped down from a high altitude and attacked the "Osprey" flying close to the sea when it could no longer pursue the "Kingfisher." This was nothing short of a disaster for torpedo bombers.

In order to ensure that the torpedo hits the battleship, when entering the bombing channel, the torpedo bombers should try to maintain a stable flight until the torpedo is dropped, and then they can maneuver to avoid the blows of fighters and anti-aircraft artillery. And during the more than 10 seconds of entering the bombing channel, the pilots of the "Osprey" could not fly casually. This is also the time when torpedo bombers are at their most vulnerable and dangerous, and they are almost placed there to fight fighters. And at this time, the dive attack of the "Zero Battle" was simply a fatal attack for the "Osprey".

Within fifteen seconds, 8 "Ospreys" were hit by artillery fire from the "Zero Battle". The remaining 12 "Ospreys" all dropped torpedoes at a distance of 800 to 1,000 meters from the aircraft carrier they were attacking, and then turned and broke away from the attack channel. At this time, the four "Kingfishers" had already "fled," and the "Zero Battle," which had withdrawn from the fleet's anti-aircraft fire network, was waiting in the sky for the "Ospreys" to withdraw from the attack. As a result, of the 12 "Ospreys" that ended the attack, one was shot down by the gunfire of the battleship, while the other 7 were caught by the "Zero Battle" and did not even have a chance to escape. In the end, only four "Ospreys" were able to escape, including Captain Zhang Zhitao's landline.

Only one of the 12 torpedoes hit the "Akagi", which was quickly evaded, and as a result, this torpedo did not explode! The Akagi escaped, but only temporarily. Of the 11 torpedoes that were missed, one concentrated the cruiser Myoko in the port direction of the "Akagi". The fuse of this torpedo worked normally, and the "Myoko" was blown almost in two and disappeared from the sea within fifteen minutes. It was also the first battleship to sink in a naval battle.

When the bomber group reached the sky over the Japanese fleet, the "Zero Battle" pursuing Luo Jinming immediately gave up the attack on the "Sparrowhawk" and quickly returned to the sky above the fleet. Luo Jinming didn't dare to fight, he couldn't fight so many "zero battles", it was already good to be able to escape from death, and at this time, there was only one-third of the fuel left on his landline, and he had to return.

At this time, in the first task force, Tan Renhao was making an extremely critical decision. A decision that will determine the victory or defeat of this sea.

Click on the image link: