The news that the US fleet had been bombed and that hundreds of bombs had hit US ships also caused a sensation in Task Force No. 1. The joy of the staff officer is conceivable, hundreds of bombs, what is this concept?

"That's a surprisingly low hit rate!"

Hao Dongjue shook his head with a smile, "Three batches, thousands of tons of bombs were dropped, and only less than two hundred bombs hit, and the hit rate was less than one percent, which is really bad enough!" ”

Tan Renhao didn't laugh or shake his head, he sighed lightly, and then walked towards the outside of the command cabin.

"Do you have something on your mind? Do you miss your wife? ”

Hao Dongjue immediately chased him out.

"Who misses a wife?"

Tan Renhao glanced at his partner, "I just think there is nothing to be proud of in this achievement, our bomber hit rate is at least 20%, and when it is high, it reaches 50%. This time, it's not even one percent, what's there to be happy about? ”

"But in the end, I still inflicted heavy damage on the enemy!"

Hao Dongjue was a little quibble.

"Heavy blows? I don't think so! ”

Tan Renhao handed the cigarette to his partner, "Why is the hit rate so low, have you considered it?" ”

Hao Dongjue frowned and said: "The bomb height is too high, and the degree is too slow, it was intercepted by the enemy, the enemy surface air defense artillery fire is fierce, and there are ......"

"The problem is that the height of the bomb is too high, Luo Yunchong made a mistake!"

Tan Renhao paused slightly, and at the same time lit a cigarette, "Do you remember the low-altitude ricochet attack tactics used by the U.S. military when we were dealing with the 17th Task Force?" If the bombers sent out by Luo Yunchong had used this tactic, I bet that the hit rate would be more than 10 percent, which would mean that hundreds of other bombs would hit the enemy ship. And this bombing was dropped at an altitude of several thousand meters, and it took a few minutes for the bomb to fall, and the battleship was enough to run out of several nautical miles in these minutes, so it was so easy to hit the target? ”

"Luo Yunchong should have his thoughts, heavy bombers were not originally used to bomb the sea, and we can't blame him for this."

"It's not. You misunderstood what I meant, I'm not accusing Luo Yunchong, but summing up experience. ”

Tan Renhao laughed, "Actually, Luo Yunchong is understandable to do this in order to protect his subordinates, if he uses low-altitude bombs to bomb the ground, I am afraid that he will lose hundreds of bombers." Exchange this for a couple of battleships. It's certainly not a good deal. Of course, now that their mission has been completed, the bombed American fleet has stopped heading north and is fleeing back to Saipan, Luo Yunchong has bought us this precious day with great sacrifices, what else do we have to blame? ”

"So what did you start talking about?"

Hao Dongjue was a little confused, and the good and bad were all said by Tan Renhao alone.

"Well, let's wait for the reconnaissance report."

Tan Renhao patted his partner on the shoulder, "There will be results soon, let's go in first and wait." ”

The news did come very quickly. At the time of the return of the bomber group. A long-range reconnaissance plane that took off from Asunción Island came to the skies over the US fleet, and after quickly taking a few pictures, it flew back. Comparison of the pilot of the reconnaissance aircraft with the results of the photo. Everyone was dumbfounded. The American fleet was not annihilated, and did not even lose most of its combat effectiveness, of the eight battleships, only five were moderately damaged, and three were slightly damaged, and the degree of the fleet's return to the south was not reduced, and the most important turrets and bridges on the battleships were not completely damaged, and it can only be vaguely identified from the photos that these eight battleships did eat a lot of bombs. The damage was serious from secondary guns, which lacked armor protection, as well as small-caliber anti-aircraft guns without armor defense.

At this time, everyone is a little dumbfounded, hundreds of bombs just blew up the ground secondary guns of these battleships? The root cause of the problem was quickly found, and the bombers that Luo Yun rushed out were all high-explosive bombs that were originally used to deal with ground targets, not armor-piercing shells that were used against large warships such as battleships! In addition to the difference between the high-explosive shell and the armor-piercing projectile, which determines the bomb's ability to withstand impact, that is, armor-piercing, the fuze is also different. The fuses of high-explosive bombs are all contact fuses, and as soon as they come into contact with a hard object, the explosives in the bomb are immediately detonated. Rely on shrapnel and the shock wave generated by the explosion to kill nearby targets. After hitting a hard object, the fuse should be delayed for a certain period of time (very short, generally more than a dozen to tens of milliseconds) before detonating the explosive, relying on the powerful shock wave generated by the explosion inside the object to produce damage. Against battleship-type targets, especially battleships with hundreds of millimeters of armor laid on capital ships, high-explosive shells are like scratching the itch in the boots, and only armor-piercing shells can play a sufficient lethal effect!

At that time, Luo Yunchong did not have armor-piercing shells in his hands at all, because they had not carried out sea bombing missions, and there were no armor-piercing shells in the ammunition depots of Iwo Jima and Ogasawara Islands. This can't be blamed on Luo Yunchong, the task was too urgent at that time, and the production of aviation armor-piercing shells has not been too high (the empire has produced a large number of incendiary bombs in a short period of time to deal with Japan, which has relatively reduced the production of other aerial bombs) and most of them are supplied to the fleet's carrier-based bombers (5oo kilograms) At that time, only Ryukyu Island still had a batch of reserves, which could not be transported in time, which led to the heavy bombers hanging high-explosive bombs to attack the battleships.

Even with only high-explosive shells, the losses suffered by the American fleet were not small. With the exception of those areas protected by heavy armor (main guns, bridges), other areas with weak armor defense, or no armor defense, have significant damage. Take the battleship "Tennessee", which was hit by 24 bombs, for example, although the key parts of the battleship were not blown up, and not a single bomb penetrated into the hull and exploded, but at that time, almost all the secondary guns, anti-aircraft guns, and the rear seaplane deck on the battleship, the turret suffered two bombs in a row, and the huge shock wave shattered the horizontal rotation mechanism of the turret (fortunately, the main gun of the battleship at that time was fixed at a limited angle, otherwise its pitch rotation mechanism would definitely be blown up) and three shooting commanders were also blown into powder. Such an injury is definitely not a minor injury!

Kimmmel's flagship "Pennsylvania" also suffered nearly twenty bombs, one bomb hit the lower part of the commander's bridge, although the thick armor blocked all the shrapnel, but the blown glass shards almost killed Kimmel, and several pieces of glass crossed his face, leaving several wounds. The explosion had a huge impact that shook the entire officers and men in the commander's bridge away!

The days of other battleships were not much better, and two destroyers were "smashed" and sunk by bombs. A bomb fell from the chimney of a heavy cruiser, as a result of which the cruiser almost sank to the bottom of the sea. After being bombed, the "Z fleet" was already out of combat capability. It was impossible to go north, especially when most of the shooting commanders on the battleship were blown up, and the main guns simply could not fire accurately, so how could they fight? And most importantly, the two radars in the fleet have been damaged, and it is not impossible to repair them, but it is also impossible to fully restore them to their original performance, which will definitely leave many hidden dangers.

Back in Saipan. Without waiting for the medic to help him bandage his wounds, Kimmel sent for all the captains, fleet staffs, and the generals of the Mariana Islands Front Command. This admiral was completely enraged, who would have thought that the Tang Empire would use such a crazy way to deal with the "Z Fleet" In front of these generals and colonels, the anger that Kimmel had suppressed for a long time burst out in his heart, from Nimitz taking away his fleet commander, to being idle, to the fact that the archipelago front command was not ready for war, and then to the fleet being suddenly attacked. When the fire was over, Kimmel gave a death order. 1 All ships must be repaired within five days. At the very least, the key parts of the battleship (especially the firing commander) must be repaired, and every effort must be made to complete this task at all costs!

It's almost an impossible task. At that time, the eight battleships in the Pacific Fleet were all old ships, not to mention the lack of spare parts, and the only spare parts were in Pearl Harbor, in the Pacific Fleet Command, not in the Mariana Islands, and there was no need to reserve capital ship spare parts in the forward base, who would have thought that the Tang Empire would use such an extreme way to deal with the "Z Fleet"?

Kimmel's anger is understandable, and he has been unhappy since Nimitz arrived at Pearl Harbor. First, he lost the throne of commander of the fleet. Then they were sidelined, and then Nimitz used aircraft carrier generals like Halsey and Fletcher, and threw Kimmel's old men aside (the concept of portals in the US Navy is not very strong), and then it was a few months of cold benching. Now, at last, there is a chance to fight a "decisive naval battle" in the way he does best. The term first appeared in the age of sails, but over the course of hundreds of years. Fleet battles are rare) to win the respect of others, and at the same time to take back everything that was taken away. But he never imagined that the enemy's fleet would be bombed before he could see it, and it would be bombed by thousands of bulky large bombers!

Hopes were dashed almost instantly, and for a veteran, it was more than any blow. He would rather fall under the enemy's guns, would rather fight the enemy to the death in a brutal fleet decisive battle, and finally fall to the commander's position (the commander's bridge of the flagship), just like the famous British Admiral Nelson in those years, and fell at the moment of seeing the dawn of victory. This is the traditional ideology of a traditional admiral, and it is the greatest destination of a soldier in the eyes of Kimmel, where glory and death come at the same time, leaving only that glorious moment, not accusatory scolding!

The war was not a matter of personal will, and shortly after Kimmel gave the order, the engineer in charge of repairing the ship submitted the inspection report. It is better to return the five battleships to Pearl Harbor for repairs, because the necessary spare parts are only available at Pearl Harbor, and it will take at least half a month for the other three battleships to be repaired, which must also ensure that there is a sufficient supply of spare parts. Kimmel certainly wouldn't lead the fleet back to Pearl Harbor, and if he went back empty-handed, he would be the biggest loser!

After asking the engineers to get in to repair the battleship, Kimmel sent a telegram to Nimitz and Admiral King, asking for spare parts from Pearl Harbor to be delivered as quickly as possible, and asking for a batch of escort warships to strengthen the fleet. Both of them quickly called back, and Nimitz had arranged for several fast combat support ships (that is, the fast transport ships of the Tang Empire) to send the important spare parts for the repaired warships to Guam. Kim ordered Kimmel to go ahead and asked Nimitz to do everything possible to support Kimmmel.

The United States is doing its best to restore the combat effectiveness of the "Z Fleet," but the problem is that the "Z Fleet" has now missed the best opportunity to go north. Even according to Kimmmel's plan, the "Z Fleet" would not be able to regain its combat effectiveness until the 27th, and on the 27th, the battlefield would be a different situation.

The bombing of the Strategic Strike Force can be said to be a complete failure tactically, but from the perspective of the campaign and even the strategy, it was the heroic actions of the Strategic Strike Force that finally reversed the unfavorable situation faced by the Tang Imperial Navy and gained valuable time to prepare for war. These few precious days had a crucial impact on the outcome of the entire Mariana Islands campaign.

In the next few days, the Strategic Strike Force concentrated on bombing the US airfield on Pagan Island, and the naval aviation units in the US ports on Saipan and Guam (especially the ship repair facilities in the ports) were also fully dispatched to suppress the US air forces on Pagan Island and seize air supremacy in the central part of the Mariana Islands.

The 6th squadron acted more actively, and after completing the construction of the first field airfield on the afternoon of the 22nd, on the 24th, the flotilla carrying enough supplies for the construction of another field airfield (mainly honeycomb steel plates for laying the runway) arrived at Agrihan Island and unloaded the supplies. Yan Guozhong organized thousands of engineers and other officers and soldiers to begin the construction of a second, larger-scale field airfield on the island. On the 25th, the remnants of the American troops on Agrihan Island, after five days of food shortage, walked out of their hiding fortifications and surrendered to the 6th Sentai of the Tang Empire.

The victory in the Battle of Agrihan was an important turning point in the battle for the entire Mariana Islands. The Don army took control of the island of Agrihan, in fact, it controlled air supremacy in the central part of the archipelago, turned the window of Asunción into a gate, opened the door to victory!