"Dive bomber!"

Inside the bridge of the commander's ship, a staff officer shouted loudly. As he shouted, everyone heard the familiar shriek. When the dive bombers of the Tang Empire entered the dive channel, the sound was extremely high-pitched and very easy to recognize.

This is almost synonymous with death, for all the veterans in the US fleet, they all know that those Tang Empire dive bombers with an accuracy rate of more than forty percent have almost no ability to intercept them after entering the dive channel, and at least one of the bombs dropped by a group of four bombers will hit the target!

Dive bombers were first seen on the battlefield in 6. The German and Russian Sixth Army Aviation Forces have quite a few dive bombers, especially the German Ju-87 dive bomber nicknamed "Stukka," which is very famous in the European theater. This kind of bomber capable of carrying 1ooo kg of ammunition is elusive on the battlefield, and every time it always appears above the enemy's head with that sharp dive whistling sound, and then drops deadly bombs, in 22 years a year, "Stuka" destroyed tens of thousands of enemy tanks, armored vehicles, trucks and other vehicles on the battlefield, blew up tens of thousands of fire points, and became the pioneer of German armored vehicles.

After the Tang Empire launched a ground attack on Russia, several dive bombers equipped with the 6th Air Force of the Empire were also extremely active on the battlefield, including a number of "Kingfishers" transferred from the HNA to the 6th Air Force. These bombardments were extremely effective in the Northwest Theater, bombarding firing points, artillery positions, tank staging areas, and moving convoys.

The dive bomber was almost a typical representative of the tactical bombers of the Tang Empire and Germany, and was one of the dominant forces on the battlefield. Dive bombers are active on the battlefield in 6 years because their bombing rate is much higher than that of other bombers, especially in tactical bombing, and dive bombers are used against point targets, as well as moving vehicles, because of their high bombing accuracy.

By the second half of '24, with the warring sides of the fighter performance significantly improved. And a large number of fighters can also perform bombing missions, and the role of dive bombers on the battlefield in 6 has been weakened a lot. The main reasons for restricting the use of dive bombers are their short range, low flight altitude, slow degree, and poor self-defense firepower. In fact, what really made the dive bombers leave the battlefield of World War 6 indifferently was that the warring countries shifted the focus of their bombing to strategic strikes, mainly destroying the rear of the enemy's defensive line. and even strategic goals on the ground. The inherent characteristics of dive bombers determine that they can only be used in tactical battlefields, and with the emergence of low-altitude attack aircraft with better armored defenses and a large number of fighters that can carry bombs to carry bombing missions, dive bombers have little place in the 6 war arena.

On the ocean theater, dive bombers are still irreplaceable. This is precisely determined by the peculiarities of the maritime battlefield. In the maritime battlefield, bombers mainly strike targets that can move freely at high altitudes, and it is obvious that strategic bombers that carry out high-altitude horizontal bombing are not effective weapons for striking moving point-like targets. On the other hand, low-flying torpedo bombers could hardly break through the fleet's dense anti-aircraft fire network on their own, and they were also extremely vulnerable to interception by fighters. Torpedo bombers were practically incapable of posing a threat to the fleet alone.

The target of the strike activity is precisely what the dive bomber is good at. Therefore, in the ocean theater, the greatest threat to warships is still dive bombers. This is also the main reason why the naval aviation of the Tang Empire, the United States is developing more advanced dive bombers. HNA has no choice. The battlefield environment also forced HNA to pay attention to the exhibition of dive bombers. It was clear to both warring parties that dive bombers were their best bet until more effective weapons appeared!

Four "waterbirds" came out of the clouds, and just when the US troops were panicking, these four bombers quickly pulled up again, and they did not drop bombs, but took them with them, and immediately changed their dives after rushing out of the clouds. The battlefield environment at that time made it impossible for these dive bombers to see the battleship on the sea before they broke out of the clouds, so they naturally couldn't press the aim. And when they broke out of the clouds, they were only about 5oo meters from the sea. The minimum bomb drop altitude of the "water bird" is 4oo meters, and within a dive distance of 1oo meters, no pilot can adjust the course of the bomber at the same time, aim at the battleship, and at the same time untie the bomb insurance, drop the bomb, and change the series of actions of diving. As a result, the first "waterbirds" that swooped down did not have time to drop their bombs, and then they changed their dive paths. Got into the clouds.

Halsey was also surprised, and he also noticed the effect of the clouds. If the dive bomber is unable to dive and drop the bomb, then the accuracy of the bomb will be much lower. By this time, the "Brave" had already turned 45 degrees, and if they could avoid the torpedoes on the surface of the sea, they would probably have escaped the enemy's blow. But the problem is that the pilots who fly those dive bombers will not give up so easily, in addition to dive bombing, dive bombers also have two ways to drop bombs, one is horizontal bombing, and the other is between horizontal bombing and dive bombing.

As soon as Halsey was relieved and the torpedoes were still approaching, eight "waterbirds" again emerged from the clouds. This time, eight dive bombers did not appear over the Valian, but came out in a northwesterly direction about two nautical miles away from the Valian, and the bow of the Valiant was facing this direction. The eight dive bombers did not dive, but flew directly towards the "Valian", and the bombers were slowly decreasing in altitude.

Halsey hesitated for a moment, then suddenly remembered a bombing tactic he knew in flight school. "Be careful, slide and drop bombs!"

The captain of the battleship had already reacted, but at this time he had to avoid both torpedoes and bombs, and no captain could take care of both at this time.

The biggest difference between a sliding bomb and a dive bomb is that the sliding bomb does not enter the dive phase in the final stage, and its glide angle is between 65 and 45 degrees, and before that, the altitude is slowly reduced. And the final dive angle of the dive-throwing bomb is above 75 degrees. Instead of hitting the target in a near-straight line, the dropped bomb hit the target in a trajectory closer to the parabola. Therefore, when sliding to drop the bomb, the bomb stays in the air for a longer time, and the moving target has more time to evade, so when dealing with a moving target. Dive bombers rarely use the sliding method to drop bombs.

On the battlefield of 6, the sliding bomb is mainly used to deal with cluster targets, or straight targets such as railroad tracks and highways, and it is carried out by several bombers entering at the same time and then dropping bombs at the same time. Ideally, enter parallel to the length of the target, so that all bombs can be landed on the target as much as possible. But actually. Because of the influence of wind and the like, there is actually a high probability that all the bombs will deviate from the target. Therefore, the best angle of entry for the sliding bomb is an angle of 1o to 2o degrees to the target, so that it can be guaranteed that at least a few of the bombs dropped will hit the target.

It is also because of this that when dealing with a "line" target like an aircraft carrier with a length of nearly 3oo meters, eight bombers entered the ground at one time, but four. The interval between the eight bombers is about 5o meters, if the longitudinal angle with the carrier is 2o degrees. Then it is possible that 3 out of eight bombs will hit the aircraft carrier. This hit rate is already quite high. Of course. The prerequisite is that all eight bombers can drop bombs smoothly, and the interval between the bombers cannot change too much.

When dealing with such a group of bombers that entered in columns. The best thing to do is to attack the ones in between, so that the carriers are most likely to avoid bombing. In fact, however, the anti-aircraft gunners on the US warships did not know this tactic, and continued to concentrate their artillery fire on the bombers in front of them, as in the past. As a result, when the eight "waterbirds" approached, although the anti-aircraft guns on the "Valiant" shot down the first two, all six behind dropped bombs. If the center of these six bombs were all "Brave", there is still a good chance that three bombs will hit the aircraft carrier!

All six bombers dropped bombs at an altitude of about 25o meters, and then the bombers quickly pulled up. Rushing towards the clouds above, except for the one at the back that was shot down by the shells that caught up, the other five bombers quickly burrowed into the clouds and escaped the anti-aircraft fire of the American warships.

Six bombs were dropped on the Valiant, and it only took about 1 minute for the bombs to fall. In this 1 minute, the "Valian" was still turning to the right, preparing to point the bow in the direction of the torpedo, which actually caused the aircraft carrier to have an angle of about 2o degrees between the trajectory of the bomb and the bomb, which was the most ideal angle for bombing.

When Halsey reacted. It was too late for him to stop the battleship from turning. Actually, at this time, the "Brave" had no choice. If it does not continue to turn, the aircraft carrier will inevitably be hit by more than two torpedoes, and if it continues to turn, it may be hit by more than two bombs. Relatively speaking, torpedoes are much more of a threat to aircraft carriers than bombs. Even the "Essex" class aircraft carrier could not withstand the attack of a few torpedoes, and as long as the bombs did not directly hit the fuel and ammunition depots of the aircraft carrier, it was unlikely to cause the aircraft carrier to sink.

The battle reached this point, and the "Brave" actually had to be passively beaten. Even if Halsey had the heart to kill the enemy, he would not be able to return to the sky. When the sound of the bombs falling became more and more shrill, he was pushed to the floor by the staff officer next to him, and the aircraft carrier shook violently, followed by two violent explosions, and at least two bombs hit the aircraft carrier. Just as Halsey was about to get up, the aircraft carrier shook again, and a torpedo hit the "Intrepid".

The bombs were far from the island, and one of them hit the elevator on the port side of the aircraft carrier, and the bomb exploded in the hangar of the aircraft carrier after passing through the elevator. Another bomb landed on the rear end of the right side of the aircraft carrier's flight deck, exploding on the flight deck, leaving a huge hole and the flight deck almost completely destroyed.

As Halsey got up from the floor, a second group of dive bombers flew over.

The eight bombers still used the sliding bomb delivery method, and the bomb height was reduced to 2oo meters, and the distance between the bombers was reduced to 3o meters. The anti-aircraft artillery on the aircraft carrier was affected by the start and was not immediately organized, and all eight bombers dropped their bombs without incident, and four bombs landed on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier in less than two seconds before they burst into the clouds.

The explosion shook Halsey off the floor, and then he slammed it down, not so easily this time he got up. By the time he was picked up by the firefighters who rushed in, the bombers of the Don Empire had already left the sky over the fleet. Hurtling to wipe the blood from his forehead, Halsey limped to the porthole on the left. The glass on the window had been blown away, and what appeared in front of him was a picture that he couldn't even believe.

All four bombs landed on the flight deck, two of which exploded on the flight deck, leaving two large holes more than five meters in diameter, the other two penetrated the flight deck, one exploded in the hangar, blowing up an aviation fuel delivery pipe, causing a fire, and the other passed through the main deck of the hangar and exploded near the heavy fuel tanks below, causing an even more violent fire, while also producing thick black smoke.

"General, you're wounded!"

At this time, Halsey reacted, he wiped the blood from his face, and instead of asking the medical staff to help him treat the wound, he walked quickly to the porthole on the right side and looked in the direction of the "Bumblebee".

The "Hornet" is about 5 nautical miles southeast of the "Brave", and thick smoke is also rising from this aircraft carrier, although it is not yet possible to determine how serious the "Hornet's" injuries are, but judging from the billowing black smoke coming out of the aircraft carrier, this aircraft carrier has been hit by at least several bombs, and it is still burning near the starboard waterline of the aircraft carrier.

"Commander, let me help you bandage it!"

Halsey was in complete despair, and both fleet carriers were badly damaged. When the medic took out gauze and was about to help him bandage his wounds, the air raid sirens sounded again, and the "Valiant" struggled again.