Tan Renhao was secretly shocked in his heart. If Japan's First Air Fleet had been heading westward at a cruising speed of 18 knots, it would still be about 230 nautical miles away from Ryukyu Island, and if it had been advancing at a maximum speed of 30 knots, it would still be 150 nautical miles away from Ryukyu Island. Tan Renhao looked at the navigation clock, the battle would begin in two hours, and it would take about three hours for the fleet to complete the attack, and by then, the Japanese First Air Fleet would have reached Ryukyu Island, at least within 140 nautical miles of Ryukyu Island. And if the bombers on the Japanese aircraft carrier had landed on the airfield on Ryukyu Island on the way back, instead of returning to the fleet, it would have been enough to attack Tan Renhao and them.

"Is there any mention of capital ships in the telegram, or the speed of the Japanese fleet?"

The communications staff officer shook his head, apparently these two points were not explicitly mentioned in the telegram sent by the naval command.

Tan Renhao frowned slightly, and suddenly laughed. "Did the telegram say that the submarine was four hours late in sending the telegram?"

"Yes, the Navy Command used ...... to process intelligence"

"That's right!" Tan Renhao immediately walked to the chart, then looked at it for a while, and said, "The Japanese First Air Force is not sailing west at full speed, otherwise, the submarine will be able to break away from the anti-submarine patrol network of the Japanese fleet in two and a half hours at most." In other words, now that the First Fleet does not know that we have appeared near the Ryukyu Islands, our opportunity has come. ”

Lei Shaoqing was stunned for a moment, and then immediately understood what Tan Renhao meant.

"Immediately order the aviation units to get ready, and according to the plan, an hour and a half after the bombers of the Army Aviation began to bomb, the bomber group will set off!"

The pilots of the Fifth Air Wing on the three aircraft carriers were concentrated, and the aviation staff officers on each aircraft carrier began to assign tasks to the bomber squadrons, and the squadron leaders of each squadron would refine the tasks to each squad. The whole operational briefing took almost half an hour, and by the end of the day, almost every pilot had received a list of strikes with a list of targets, and these pilots were to bomb these targets in order, and if the previous targets had already been destroyed, they would switch to the latter one until the bombs were dropped.

An hour later, the first batch of army bombers had reached the sky over the waters near Ryukyu Island. The patrolling Japanese fighters immediately launched an interception, and the Japanese airfield on Ryukyu Island also sounded the air defense alarm, and the Japanese pilots who had been on standby in the pilot's lounge quickly rushed to the fighters parked on the tarmac, and then one after another the Japanese air defense fighters rose into the air. In less than 20 minutes, nearly 300 Japanese fighters deployed on Ryukyu Island and more than 10 airfields on nearby islands all took off. After the events of the previous night, the Japanese commander on Ryukyu Island was already annoyed, and now that the bombers of the Tang Empire's army aviation had come to the door again, even for the sake of face, he would not hesitate to send every fighter to deal with the bombers of the Tang Empire.

This was the largest bombing of Ryukyu Island by the Tang Imperial Army Air Corps in three days, and 800 bombers attacked Ryukyu Island under the cover of more than 200 fighters. Because the bombers were divided into more than twenty formations, the entire bombing process would last almost two hours. In other words, those "Zero Battles", who are known for their range, had to stay in the air for so long, and during the bombing, they could not land on the airfields of the Ryukyu Island, and they had to fly to airfields farther away to replenish their ammunition. However, after these two hours of bombing, I am afraid that most of the fuel tanks of the "Zero War" are almost empty. This is the opportunity that Tan Renhao needs.

It was also when the first batch of Army Air bombers broke through the interception of Japanese fighters and dropped bombs on Kadena Airport. All three aircraft carriers in Task Force 1 were already sailing against the wind and were reaching speeds of 30 knots. The Sparrowhawk, which was escorting the carrier-based bombers, first left the flight deck, and then the Kingfisher, as well as the Osprey, which was temporarily acting as a horizontal bomber with four 250-kilogram bombs, were also ejected.

The first wave of bombers, consisting of 84 bombers and 12 fighters, completed the formation over the fleet and immediately headed for the southern island of Ryukyu. Then, the crew on the carrier got busy again, they transported the planes parked in the hangar, already filled with fuel, and loaded with bombs, to the flight deck, and then began to make preparations for takeoff. The pilots of the second group of sorties also walked out of the aviation room and began to board their fighters one after another. This is the second wave of bomber groups prepared by Tan Renhao, which includes 12 fighters, 44 "Kingfishers", 44 "Ospreys". According to Tan Renhao's plan, he would not give the Japanese a little respite, and the second wave of bombing was only an hour later than the first.

The main mission of these two waves of bombers was to destroy the two battleships in Naha Port that had been salvaged by the Japanese (one of which was the "Dignity"), as well as the restored dockyard and the Japanese salvage facilities in the port. The purpose of the mission was to prevent the Japanese from salvaging the warships of the Tang Empire, and then repair these warships and put them into the war.

At this time, the fleet was only more than 200 kilometers away from the island to the east, and it could be discovered by Japanese ships or planes at any time. After the second wave of bombers took off, Tan Renhao immediately ordered the last batch of 24 air defense fighters to be released, and at the same time let the 12 fighters who had previously carried out air defense patrols over the fleet be retracted, so that these fighters were on standby on the flight deck after refueling, while the pilots were left directly on the fighters. Now, Tan Renhao still has 24 "Kingfishers", 20 "Ospreys", and 12 "Sparrowhawks" that can take off at any time. If the Japanese First Air Fleet had been discovered during the bombing of Ryukyu Island, he would have had the capital to launch a first attack on the Japanese First Air Force, and then use the returning bombers to organize a second attack.

The characteristics of the "Taizu" class aircraft carrier in its design of attaching importance to carrying fighters are reflected. All three aircraft carriers were overloaded with combat aircraft, and at the time of departure, even the flight deck was piled with combat aircraft. The three aircraft carriers carried a total of 324 combat aircraft, including 216 bombers. Comparatively speaking, the number of aircraft carried by Japan's four large aircraft carriers ("Akagi", "Kaga", "Flying Dragon", "Soryu") is about 72, and the total number of combat aircraft carried by the four aircraft carriers is not as many as the three "Taizu" class!

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