The "Shooting Birds" piloted by Yang Qinkai were first dragged onto the catapult of the "Longganhu" aircraft carrier, and after confirming the status of the plane with the aviation service personnel in charge of the aircraft's ejection, Yang Qinkai waved his hand at An Shile, who was standing outside the island. This time, the squadron of fighters led by Ellsler will not participate in escort operations, so he will remain on the aircraft carrier.

The engine of the "Shooting Waterbird" quickly reached its maximum speed, and at the same time the catapult was ready. After the aviation service personnel who guided the take-off waved the green light tube in their hands, Yang Qinkai immediately released the brakes, and then a huge force ejected the bomber, which weighed nearly six tons. The bomber descended a few meters the moment it left the flight deck, then pulled up with difficulty, and began to slowly climb higher and faster. After reaching a safe altitude of 200 meters, Yang Qinkai glanced back and saw that the two "waterbirds" of the second batch had ejected and were climbing, and the two "waterbirds" of the third batch were being towed to the catapult, and the "waterbirds" that took off with Yang Qinkai were climbing with difficulty less than 100 meters away on the right. At this time, the weight of the "waterbird" was at the upper limit, and the flight speed was very slow, and even with the engines working at full power, the bomber still looked extremely bulky.

The 12 "water birds," 24 "sea eagles," and 24 "peregrine falcons" on the "Longganhu" all left the aircraft carrier within 25 minutes. The fighters on the other two carriers also took off almost at the same time, and began to move closer together as they flew eastward, forming a tight formation and flying in the direction of Kauai.

"Lower to 250 meters, stay in formation, don't get dazed!" Yang Qinkai was the commander of the bomber group, and behind him were the Mutao brothers. The first batch of bombers were escorted by two squadrons of ground fighters led by Yao Boyan and Zhu Xiaohuo.

Five minutes after the departure of the bomber group of Task Force 1, the first bomber groups of Task Force 2 and Task Force 4 also departed. The three task forces flew a total of 324 bombers from nine squadrons. and 6 squadrons of 216 fighters, which will be the first group of bombers, all of which will arrive over Kauai by an hour before dawn, according to Tan Renhao's request. If the US shore-based air force decides to bomb the Imperial fleet at dawn after receiving the report of the reconnaissance plane, then the bombers on the US airfield should be preparing for takeoff when the carrier-based bombers arrive, and this will be the best opportunity for bombing. Because when the US bombers took off, the anti-aircraft guns near the airport did not dare to fire blindly at night, unless the US troops were willing to bear the price of accidental injury!

After receiving the notice of the departure place in advance, Yang Qinkai knew that they were going to carry out a night bombing mission, and the commander asked him to lead the first group of bombers, and the Mu Tao brothers cooperated, because Qiu Gengbo was too reckless, and the first round of bombing was very important, and it was necessary to destroy the US airfield, so that the US bombers could not fly. In this way, the fleet can confidently and boldly carry out the next round of bombing operations.

"Colonel. Maybe the Yankees will turn on the take-off lights and show us the way. "The navigator in the back seat was a little lonely, in the middle of the voyage. Especially during night flights, the biggest challenge for pilots is loneliness and exhaustion.

"Maybe, but none of us know for sure." Yang Qinkai turned on the lights in the cockpit, swept the dashboard in front of him, and then quickly turned off the lights. "Contact those bombers carrying 'flares', they will fly to the front in 20 minutes, if the navigation lights on the US military airfield are turned on, then there is no need to waste 'flares'."

"No problem, but I'm afraid we won't be able to find an anti-aircraft gun position."

"Afraid of what? Wait for us to arrive. The anti-aircraft artillery of the US army will take the initiative to show us the way, so you just need to pay attention to the route. ”

The navigator stuck out his tongue and stopped talking nonsense.

At that time, there was no low-light lighting equipment in the aircraft, and the instrument was not fluorescent, so it was difficult for the pilot to see the index on the dashboard clearly at night. to confirm the status of the aircraft. That's not the biggest problem, the biggest trouble for night flights, especially ultra-low-altitude flights, is keeping the aircraft flying level. At an altitude of 250 meters above the sea surface, if the plane's course has a slight dive angle, the plane will crash headlong into the sea, and the result will be a crash and death. Therefore, night ultra-low altitude flight is a major challenge for pilots of various countries, and except for the top pilots, almost no pilots dare to conduct night ultra-low altitude flights over the sea.

As time passed, Yang Qinkai also paid attention to the other bombers in the surrounding formation from time to time to confirm that the other bombers had not been left behind. He flies at the front, the lead of the group, and the other bombers will fly after him, so as to ensure that those pilots who are not experienced in night flying will not crash into the sea, and in any case, at night, the aircraft in front will be easier to identify than the sea.

"Colonel, we're almost there."

Yang Qinkai glanced ahead and didn't see the gray land, but he knew that the bomber was very close to Kauai, and it was also very close to the detection range of the US radar.

"Drop the altitude to 150 meters, damn it, let the Yankees see what aerobatics is!"

The bomber group lowered the altitude again, and this time, Yang Qinkai did not turn off the lights in the cockpit. The flight altitude of the bomber has been reduced to 150 meters above the sea surface, the flight speed of the bomber is 180 knots, if the route has a five-degree depression angle, then the bomber will hit the sea within 1 meter, and it is almost impossible to judge the flight altitude by visual inspection at night, the only way is to determine the flight altitude of the bomber with the help of the altimeter, with the help of the instrument, as well as the pitch angle of the route.

When Yang Qinkai saw the gray land shadow in front of him, he immediately connected to the group channel. "Attention all teams, the 'owner' is about to arrive, don't fall behind, don't climb high, follow me!"

Within ten minutes, the bombers would reach the skies over Kauai, and the U.S. radar probably spotted the approaching bomber group. Or they were about to discover these bombers flying only 150 meters above the sea surface, but ten minutes was not enough time for the US military to prepare for battle, and perhaps, the officers and men of the US army did not expect that the carrier-based bombers of the Tang Imperial Navy would arrive so quickly.

The flash of the explosion of anti-aircraft shells broke the darkness of the night sky, and the sound of explosions also broke the dull roar of engines. Yang Qinkai saw a swarm of tracer shells flying over, in fact, it was only one-fifth of an anti-aircraft artillery shell. Because for every five rounds of small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery shells there was only one tracer shell.

"Prepare to disperse, brothers, remember your goal, don't waste bombs, don't let the Yankees have good fruit to eat, we'll see you on the aircraft carrier!"

"See you on the carrier!"

The huge group of planes quickly dispersed, and the escort fighters that had been following behind quickly caught up, and the speed performance of the "Peregrine Falcon" was brought into full play, and before the bombers dropped their bombs, these fighters had already reached the airfield of the US military. And it was not long before the US fighters who took off urgently were found. For fighter pilots on both sides. Now is not the right time for air combat, the night is full of fighters on both sides, and at the same time, it is also covering the bombers piloted by Yang Qinkai and his pilots.

"Colonel. Look,, the Yankees really turned on the navigation lights! The navigator screamed from behind, "Damn, they're turning off the navigation lights!" ”

"See, this is the prey of the 'sea eagle', and we are dealing with an anti-aircraft artillery position!"

A small group of "Sea Eagle" bombers following behind the "Shooting Birds" group had already flown towards the runway of the airport, and Yang Qinkai had also begun to speed up. Their task with these dive bombers is to take out the anti-aircraft artillery positions of the US military before the horizontal bombers drop bombs, so that the horizontal bombers can smoothly drop bombs on the runway of the US airfield.

"Left,. At least a dozen anti-aircraft guns, Colonel, look at you! ”

"Sit tight!"

Instead of diving, the "waterfowl" began to climb rapidly, by which time a third of the fuel carried by the bomber had already been consumed, and the speed of the climb increased considerably. Yang Qinkai felt the joystick on the ground vibrating violently, which was a reaction caused by the complex air currents over the island. When the altimeter pointed to 1500, Yang Qinkai quickly pushed down the control stick and released the flaps on the bomber at the same time. The bomber is like a deft swallow. Flipped in the air, nose down, and dived towards the anti-aircraft guns that were still spitting tongues of fire.

A terrible dive sounded, more than a dozen anti-aircraft guns immediately changed direction, and the beam of light of the searchlight began to shift to this side, but it was too late, from turning into a dive to dropping the bomb, Yang Qinkai only needed less than 20 seconds, and during this period, none of the anti-aircraft guns could successfully catch him. The 500-kilogram high-explosive bomb has a kill range of 150 meters, which means that in a circular area with a radius of 150 meters, all living targets will be killed. And more than a dozen anti-aircraft guns of the US army are within this range!

When Yang Qinkai leveled the bomber, a puff of orange-red gunpowder smoke that was rapidly fading had risen from the antiaircraft gun position behind him, and more than a dozen antiaircraft guns had become mute, and he even saw several US officers and soldiers on fire running wildly on the ground, and the high-explosive bombs with some incendiary agent also had a certain arson effect, which was quite effective in dealing with soft targets on the open ground.

The "Sea Eagle" fleet that bombed the runway of the airfield also succeeded. The 12 "Sea Eagles" were divided into six formations, two in each formation, separated by 200 meters. And each "Sea Eagle" carried four 250-kilogram aviation armor-piercing shells. Each formation could drop eight bombs. These bombers entered at an angle of 30 to 45 degrees to the runway. Of the eight bombs dropped by each formation, as long as one bomb hits the runway, then the 1,500-meter-long runway can be cut into seven sections, each of which is within 200 meters, and the take-off distance of any bomber of the US military is above 200 meters, so this can make the runway incapacitated without completely blowing up the runway.

This bombing tactic differs from previous tactics using small time bombs, which not only increases the hit rate, but also increases the destruction rate, and can also reduce the use of bombers. The only downside was that the craters were easy to fill, so it was necessary to carry out supplementary bombing within a few hours to completely destroy the airfield. It is precisely because there are many targets to be bombed this time, and the difficulty is not small, that this tactic is adopted, and as long as the US airfield cannot be used normally before the second group of bombers arrives, the purpose of the bombing will be achieved.

"Colonel, we succeeded."

Yang Qinkai breathed a sigh of relief, the five anti-aircraft gun positions near the airport were blown up, and the airport was also on fire, and some US fighters parked near the runway were also bombed, and these fighters must have been loaded with fuel, and now they are burning, and the big craters on the runway are obvious.

"Contact the rest of the group, and send back our combat report as soon as possible." Yang Qinkai maneuvered the plane and began to climb high, "How many bombers have we lost?" ”

"It's still counting, but it shouldn't be more than five."

"That's good, contact the other bomber groups as soon as possible, and prepare to return!"

The commander of the US military did not expect that the carrier-based aviation of the Tang Empire would carry out a surprise attack at night, and when Yang Qinkai and other planes arrived, the US airfield on Kauai Island was almost unprepared. Only the US fighter planes on the last few airfields that were bombed took off urgently, which had a certain interception effect, causing the bomber group of the Second Task Force to suffer considerable losses, and the losses in other aspects were not very large. However, most of the small field airfields were not bombed, and U.S. fighter planes that had taken off urgently could go to these airfields to replenish fuel and ammunition and take off before the second group of bombers arrived.

When Yang Qinkai's group began to return home, other bomber groups also sent back battle reports one after another, and these battle reports were sent to the three task forces at the same time. According to Tan Renhao's plan, the bomber groups of the 7th Task Force and the 8th Task Force also set off at this time. But the problem is that if they want to ensure the destruction of all the airports, then Tan Renhao and they can't stop, they have to continue to act!.