The combat operations of the First Task Force and the Second Task Force were quite smooth, and the two fleets were not threatened, and the Fifth Task Force also sent a message in the evening that except for the sudden bombardment by the US forces in the morning, and the "Dianchi" aircraft carrier was bombed by three bombs because it did not have time to return to the cover range of the escort warships, and lost its combat effectiveness, the other warships were intact and were never bombed by the US forces again.

That night, Hao Dongjue sent over the results of the Second Task Force during the daytime bombing. This telegram was actually sent to Lei Shaoqing, after all, Lei Shaoqing was responsible for arranging the combat operations of the various fleets, not Tan Renhao was in charge of the two task forces, but Hao Dongjue still reported the situation to Tan Renhao according to his habit. When Tan Renhao received the telegram from the Second Task Force, the results of the First Task Force during the day's bombing operations were also counted.

"If these results are not in question, then we have destroyed about forty percent of our targets during the day today." Zheng Guanhua cross-compared the two battle results reports, "The Third Task Force will start shelling coastal targets from 11 o'clock, and the new general has already sent a telegram that they will arrange their own seaplanes to guide the shelling targets for the battleships, and there is no need for us to provide reconnaissance planes." If Task Force 3 is able to complete its mission, then there will be no need for us to arrange bombing operations at night. ”

Tan Renhao carefully read the two reports on the results of the battle, and then said: "Cancel tonight's bombing operation, let the pilots rest early, and the aviation service personnel should also get enough rest, and the fleet will sail westward at night, and set the combat sea area within 120 to 150 nautical miles from the coastline, so that we can shorten the flight time of the bombers back and forth." ”

"If you get so close, if you are bombed by the U.S. military. We will not have enough time to prepare. ”

"I'll get in touch with Chang Zhixin later, and let Task Force 3 help me provide air defense alert in front, so that our air defense circle can extend at least 120 nautical miles to the west." Tan Renhao marked two points on the chart, "In addition, an air defense alert ship will be deployed about 250 nautical miles north and south of the Third Task Force, so that." We have sufficient air defense ranges in the three most vulnerable directions, and the bombers of the US military will be detected by radar before they leave the skies over the continent. We can get at least half an hour, or even an hour, for air defense preparation, which is quite sufficient. ”

"Okay, then I'll arrange a guard ship later, otherwise I won't be able to maneuver in place before dawn."

"I'll arrange this, you rest in the first half of the night, and I'll go to sleep in the second half of the night." Tan Renhao pressed his hand. did not let Zheng Guanhua object to his arrangement, "In addition, you have to determine tomorrow's bombing operation in the second half of the night, and delay the time of the first round of bombing until eight o'clock, otherwise the aviation service personnel will not have enough time to rest." ”

"No problem, I'll arrange this."

"Same as today. Tomorrow it is still necessary to keep at least two squadrons of ground fighters on anti-aircraft patrol duty. Tan Renhao touched his forehead, "We have been bombing for a day, plus the artillery bombardment of the Third Task Force tonight, even if MacArthur is a fool, he will be aware of it, and when the time comes, the US military will organize forces to focus on us." So, the air defense of the fleet is very important! ”

"Then I'll let Ellsler and Yao Boyan stay."

"No problem, let the two of them take turns in the air. We will strike mainly near sea targets tomorrow, and the combat range of bombers is limited. Expand the air defense range of the fleet to 50 nautical miles, and even if the bomber group is intercepted by American fighters, our fighters will be able to rush through quickly. ”

Zheng Guanhua wrote down these orders, and then the two discussed some details of the fleet operation, and after Zheng Guanhua went to arrange the relevant deployment, Tan Renhao let him go to sleep. Subsequently. Tan Ren Haocai and the navigation staff reset the route of the fleet and determined a new combat sea area. Of course, he did not forget to send the relevant arrangements to Task Force 2, so that Task Force 2 would know what Task Force 1 was doing. Zheng Guanhua returned to the command cabin at about three o'clock in the morning, and while he was arranging tasks for the aviation service personnel, Tan Renhao returned to his cabin, and he had not slept for almost two days.

The loud roar of the plane's engine woke Tan Renhao from his sleep, and he glanced out of the porthole in a daze. When he found that it was not yet dawn, he fell down and went back to sleep. When he woke up for the second time. The first thing he heard was still the loud roar of the plane's engines, and this time the sun was already shining through the porthole, he was startled at first, and then looked at his watch, it was already half past nine! At this time, Tan Renhao didn't dare to hesitate at all, immediately got out of bed, and after a simple wash, he rushed to the command cabin.

"The bombers are all back?"

"yes, landing." Zheng Guanhua looked back at Tan Renhao who walked in, and after he gave a few words of instructions to the staff officer next to him, he walked to Tan Renhao's side, "Now it is the Qiu Gengbo group that is returning to the plane, there are five that have not returned, and the other four are definitely unrepairable, and they are now making an emergency landing." ”

Tan Renhao immediately walked to the porthole on the left, and then looked towards the flight deck below.

The barricade in the middle of the flight deck had been raised, and two fire trucks were parked under the island, where dozens of officers and men in yellow firefighting suits were guarding. Behind the aircraft carrier, a "water bird" with black smoke on its butt is staggering towards the aircraft carrier, and the landing guide standing on the left side of the tail end of the flight deck is waving the yellow flag in his hand vigorously, which means that the altitude of the plane is too low, and it will crash into the aircraft carrier, and the pilot is asked to pull it up. But there was an obvious problem with the elevators of this plane, and the engine was also faulty, maybe the pilot was injured, and it was not easy to pull the plane up. Tan Renhao immediately became nervous, if the plane could not pull up, then it would crash into the aircraft carrier, and at that time, the aircraft carrier would definitely be damaged, and maybe it would lose its combat effectiveness. The "waterfowl" flew with difficulty, and the small yellow flag in the hands of the landing guide shook even more. When the plane was less than a few hundred meters away from the aircraft carrier, the landing guide picked up the small red flag and shook it desperately. This means that the aircraft cannot land and the pilot is asked to re-enter the landing lane. But by this time it was too late. At the moment when Tan Renhao thought that he had collided with the aircraft carrier, the "water bird" suddenly turned sharply to the left, almost grazing the port side of the aircraft carrier and flew over, and then a white splash of water splashed on the sea surface on the left side of the aircraft carrier.

"Arrange a rescue immediately!" Tan Renhao quickly turned around, "The pilot must be injured, let the medical room get ready, damn it!" ”

A seaplane that was hovering near the aircraft carrier immediately flew over. By the time the seaplane landed in the sea near the bomber's forced landing point, the aircraft carrier had already sailed forward for two nautical miles, and at this time, another damaged bomber had landed on the aircraft carrier, caught in the blocking net. The pilot was carried out, and the navigator was not injured.

"The pilot has been found, is seriously injured and will be sent directly to the cruiser for surgery there."

Tan Renhao nodded. "Yang Qinkai's fleet hasn't come back yet?"

"It's here. Ten minutes later, the landing began. ”

Tan Renhao looked at the sky to the west of the fleet, and hundreds of bombers were rapidly approaching, and it was the returning Yang Qinkai group.

"They lost three bombers, and two more bombers will definitely not be able to land." Zheng Guanhua's expression was also very solemn, "Now I can only let these two bombers make a forced landing on the sea, and I have already arranged for a rescue plane." ”

"The pilot has to be brought back. Other than that. Once the wounded had stabilized, arrangements were made for them to be transported by seaplane to Lord Howe Island, where better medical facilities were available. ”

"I'll contact HNA later, so that they can get ready to receive the wounded." Zheng Guanhua was already sweating profusely, and it was still winter in the southern hemisphere.

"General, a message from HNA." As soon as Zheng Guanhua walked away, the communications staff officer walked over, "The plane to replenish the fleet has already departed, and it is expected to arrive at about eleven o'clock." ”

"Wait for the Chief of Staff to arrange the landing of these planes." Tan Renhao didn't spend much time on this. According to the plan, the combat aircraft lost by the fleet will be temporarily replenished by the HNA . "In addition, the report of the battle damage and the results of the battle should be brought out as soon as possible, and the second round of bombing operations should start as soon as possible."

The atmosphere in the fleet was a little tense. At half past ten, Qiu Gengbo's group set off again. At this time, Tan Renhao received a message from the search and rescue plane that six pilots who had made a forced landing in the open sea had been found and were being sent back to the fleet, and all six pilots were only slightly injured, which can be regarded as good news. After the departure of the Qiu Gengbo group, more than 30 fighters from the First Task Force arrived over the fleet, and immediately landed on the aircraft carrier, and the pilots also stayed. Temporarily assigned to the 1st Task Force Aviation Combat Unit, he immediately took part in the bombing operations that followed. Half past eleven. Yang Qinkai's group, which had been replenished, began to take off and go to carry out the second round of bombing missions.

The high-intensity aviation combat operations test the fleet very severely, and even the best task force No. 1 will inevitably make mistakes in the busyness. For example, at that time, when repairing damaged combat aircraft, the aviation service personnel scrapped two bombers that could have been repaired, and no one is to blame; in previous combat operations, the first task force scrapped bombers were absolutely quite a lot, and it can even be said that there were a lot of bombers, and often, many bombers that could be repaired, because the combat operations were too tense and would occupy a lot of manpower, and the result was directly scrapped. And when dealing with this kind of problem, Tan Renhao will not tell the truth, he will directly count these planes within the scope of battle damage, anyway, no one will come to investigate how many fighters the fleet has lost in combat operations, even if someone investigates, Tan Renhao has enough reasons to explain, after all, in the fierce battle, in order to save the fleet and win, scrapping a few more planes is nothing.

It was busy until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when the Qiu Gengbo group set off for the third round of bombing missions, and Yang Qinkai's group was about to return to the fleet and prepare to continue the bombing mission after replenishing fuel and ammunition, that the air defense alert ships deployed by Tan Renhao on the periphery of the fleet played their role for the first time. When the air defense siren sounded, Tan Renhao was not only not surprised, but felt relieved that it was finally time to come.

"In the southwest, a group of enemy aircraft was detected by radar over the mainland and was flying towards our side, at a very fast speed."

"Are you sure it's an enemy group?" Tan Renhao looked in the southwest direction, as if he could see a group of enemy planes more than 100 nautical miles away.

"I am absolutely sure that we have contacted the Second Task Force, and their bomber group is not moving in that direction, while the Qiu Gengbo group is flying northwest, and Yang Qinkai's group is returning from due west. In addition, the destroyer, which found the enemy group, gave a signal of inquiry, but did not receive an answer. ”

"It seems that the Yankees have finally come to their senses!" Tan Renhao sneered, "Then let's see how powerful the Yankees are, let all the fighters take off immediately, we have nearly an hour of preparation time, and let the Yankees see the real fleet air defense fighters!" ”

Before Tan Renhao gave the order, Zheng Guanhua had already made the fighter jets on standby on the aircraft carrier take off urgently. It can be said that the first task force was relatively lucky. At this time, the squadron of fighters over the fleet, which was on air defense patrol duty, still had more than half of the fuel. And each of the three aircraft carriers has a squad of fighters. In addition, the fighter squadron that had originally followed the Qiu Gengbo group to carry out the bombing mission was also urgently recruited, and all 36 fighters threw away the bombs they were carrying halfway and flew directly in the direction of the US planes. That is to say, at this time, the First Task Force has three squadrons of fighters performing air defense tasks, and these three squadrons are all in unison, with a total of 108 fighters, and according to the penetration efficiency of the US military, there are no more than 250 bombers, so don't even think about breaking through the crazy interception of the fighters of the First Task Force!

At this time, Tan Renhao also calmed down. As he began to say unintentionally, MacArthur finally came to his senses after a day and a half of bombardment, and a night of heavy shelling. But the question is, did this realization come a little too late? It was also at this time that the communications staff sent a telegram over, and when Tan Renhao saw the content of the telegram, he completely confirmed his guess, MacArthur finally figured out the real direction of the attack of the Imperial Marines, but it was too late!