Tan Renhao really knows Huang Xiaotian very well. After sending two telegrams in a row, and not seeing the return of the first task force, Huang Xiaotian also knew in his heart, Tan Renhao would definitely not waste his strength on the 32nd task force, and the fourth task force has been exposed, and the 31st task force is nearby, then Halsey will definitely launch a strike, the fourth task force is in danger, under the condition of ensuring the air defense of the fleet, the most important thing for the fourth task force to do is to send all the bombers, even if it is impossible to kill the 31st task force, You also have to make sure that you take out the 32nd Task Force and be your own supporting role!

Just after eight o'clock, Huang Xiaotian ordered the remaining bombers to take off one after another. He arranged 72 "water birds", 36 "sea eagles", and 36 "falcons" in the first group of bombers.

After leaving behind a full five squads and 60 air defense fighters, Huang Xiaotian organized the remaining 60 "water birds", 36 "sea eagles", and 24 "falcons" into the second batch of bombers.

The bombers left the skies over the fleet at about half past eight. At this point, apart from the dozens of reconnaissance planes that were returning one after another, Huang Xiaotian no longer had a striking force in his hands. He's done everything he can. Of course, Huang Xiaotian did not forget one thing, that is, he immediately turned the fleet and began to flee to the east. In addition, he telegraphed all the pilots that if the fleet was attacked and the aircraft carrier could not receive the returning fighters, all the fighters would land on Tagura Island, or simply make a forced landing on Tagura Island without returning to the fleet. … Ａp． n

Time passed minute by minute, and at this time. The first group of bombers had been flying in the direction of Task Force 32 for more than 50 minutes, reaching a distance of about 30 nautical miles from Task Force 32.

Task Force 32's ground radar also immediately spotted the arriving bomber group. Mitchell had just prepared the bombers who had bombed Tagura, and he was not able to get them to go right away. There was only one reason, Halsey did not send specific information about Task Force 4 to Task Force 32. The other is. These bombers also need time to prepare for takeoff.

The lack of iodine in the small aircraft carrier was exposed at this time. There are perfect aviation support facilities on large fleet aircraft carriers, which allow bombers to depart at the fastest speed. However, on small aircraft carriers, because of the need to load more fighters at the same time, and to maximize the speed and other performance requirements, the number of aviation support facilities that can be carried on the aircraft carrier is extremely limited. Don't say anything else.

There are only two refueling stations on the flight deck on a small aircraft carrier of the "Independence" class, that is, only two bombers can be refueled at the same time, while on a large fleet aircraft carrier there are at least four, or even eight, refueling stations, which can refuel more bombers at the same time. As a result, bombers on small aircraft carriers require more time to prepare for departure, which actually reduces the effectiveness of aircraft carriers' aviation strikes, in fast-paced naval battles. This is almost a fatal drawback. If Task Force 32 had not six small carriers, but three fleet carriers, Mitchell would have taken his bombers off the flight deck at this time. Instead of waiting to be bombed!

To make matters worse, there were fewer than 30 anti-aircraft fighters over Task Force 32, and those that had previously been on a mission to bomb Tagura had not yet been able to take off. When the air defense sirens of the fleet sounded. Mitchell's first reaction was to let the fighter take off immediately, but the problem was that the catapult on the small aircraft carrier was not powerful enough, and in order for the fighter to take off, the aircraft carrier had to leave the formation and sail against the wind, but in this way, the aircraft carrier would be completely exposed to the enemy's bomber strike!

What to do? Before Mitchell made his decision, several fighters had already taken off, and the first two fighters were not able to fly and fell directly into the sea, and the next few were pulled up almost when they were about to hit the surface. The aviation crew also immediately helped release some of the fuel in the fighter, reducing the take-off weight of the fighter, so that the fighter could take off urgently when the aircraft carrier did not need to sail against the wind.

The U.S. military had already made the best efforts, but before the arrival of the bomber group of the Tang Empire, there were less than 50 fighters over the fleet, and some of them did not leave the fleet's anti-aircraft fire network and were not able to climb to the ideal interception altitude.

Leading the first group of bombers was Lieutenant Colonel Changsun Hong, who was the captain of the dive bomber group of the Fourth Air Wing, an excellent pilot who was transferred from the position of squad leader of the First Air Wing to the Fourth Air Wing, and climbed to the position of captain in more than a year.

Changsun Hong's family is a very ancient family in the empire, and the Changsun family is very prominent in the empire, and in Changsun Hong's generation, except for the surname, there is not much taste of nobility. Changsun Hong was from a commoner background, and he was not very interested in his family history, especially after the empire abolished the title, and what his surname was not directly related to his social status. Like the thousands of pilots in the Imperial Navy, Changsun Hong was an ordinary member, a member who had been trained in the flames of war.

"Captain, U.S. aircraft carrier!"

"See, prepare to disperse the attack, let the fighters provide direct cover." Changsun Hong was very calm, "Team 1 will attack the front ship first, and the other teams will follow up, so that the son of a dog can taste the bomb!" ”

The US fighters rushed over like crazy, and the "Falcon" escorting the bombers also quickly met them. The interception distance of the US fighters was too close, and most of the bombers were "smooth"

entered the fleet's anti-aircraft artillery fire network, and then began to fly towards their own targets.

The six squads of "waterbirds" each dealt with a small aircraft carrier, while the "sea eagles" of the three squads saw an opportunity to get through the loopholes in the US air defense network.

Mitchell did not expect that the first batch of bombers of the Tang Empire would have more than 100 bombers, and there were dozens of fighters to cover, which was almost all the bombers on the two aircraft carriers!

Changsun Hong led the team under his direct command to fly at the front, and the place he was going to attack was the ship with the ship number "27", that is, the CVL-27 "Langley". Twelve "waterbirds" entered the final dive channel one after another at an altitude of 2,500 meters. The last two were hit by anti-aircraft shells from the battleship before they could catch up. Changsun Hong didn't look at the two downed bombers, his attention was all focused on the aircraft carrier on the sea that was more than 100 meters long. Perhaps, the only thing that a small aircraft carrier is a little better than a fleet aircraft carrier is. Small aircraft carriers are much smaller in size and have a much smaller bomb area. It's even less likely to be hit by bombs!

The sound of the dive bomber entering the dive channel is all too familiar to the US military, which is the sound representing death, and in the entire Pacific theater, the dive bomber of the Tang Empire is the nightmare of the US warships and the nightmare of the US Navy officers and men. More than seventy percent of the battleships sunk by the US Navy were killed by the dive bombers of the Tang Empire, especially those small warships with a displacement of less than 10,000 tons, which could not withstand a 500-kilogram aviation armor-piercing bomb at all!

Changsun Hong pressed the altitude to 550 meters, and then dropped the bomb, and then quickly changed the dive channel, and rolled over the US warship and withdrew. Eight "waterbirds" in a row successfully dropped their bombs, and only one was hit by anti-aircraft guns as they withdrew.

When Changsun Hong pulled the bomber to an altitude of 3,000 meters, the "Langley" was already "wrapped" in smoke and fire.

"Hit at least three of them, it's finished!" The navigator in the back seat immediately reported the situation.

"I hope so. What about the other squads? Changsun Hong wiped the sweat from his forehead, and when the US military used these bombers as "the sickle of death", they were actually dancing ballet on the death line. Every dive bomb drop is a gamble with the pilot's life. It is not known how many pilots did not manage to pull up and crashed into the sea with the fighters.

"They're all attacking, bitch, they're finished this time!"

Over Task Force 32. Dozens of bombers shuttled back and forth, constantly diving and dropping bombs on the aircraft carriers on the sea. At the height close to the sea, dozens of torpedo bombers divided into three groups and pounced on the three small aircraft carriers on the periphery of the fleet, and quickly dropped torpedoes.

"Look, the U.S. fighter jets are coming, damn, aren't they afraid of death?"

The US fighters, who had escaped the entanglement of the escort fighters, quickly penetrated into the fleet's anti-aircraft artillery fire network and flew towards a group of dive bombers that had not yet dropped bombs. While the American soldiers admired the heroic spirit of the Tang Empire soldiers, the Tang Empire soldiers also admired the courage of the American soldiers. On the battlefield, the courage of the soldiers is the most important, and the courage shown by the soldiers of both sides in this war is worthy of anyone's admiration. The pilots of the Tang Empire could fly fighter planes to ram enemy bombers, and similarly, the pilots of the US army also showed their courage as soldiers at critical moments, and the light of honor after burning on soldiers!

On the sea, dozens of US warships were frantically dodging bombs and torpedoes, and anti-aircraft guns were constantly spraying shells, intertwining into a dense network of fire in the sky. When he was immersed in the scene, Changsun Hong did not feel the fierce anti-aircraft fire, and when he was outside the battlefield, watching the raindrops of shells in the sky above the US fleet, and the explosion smoke and dust that filled the sky over the entire fleet, he also had to sigh, how did he survive?

Mitchell was also stunned by the brutality of the battle, and this was the first time he commanded a fleet battle.

When he was dragged out of the aircraft carrier "Copes" (CVL-25) by the officers and men of the Marine Corps and took a speedboat to a cruiser next to him, he saw with his own eyes that a hit Tang Empire bomber did not make a forced landing on the sea, but crashed into the destroyer near the aircraft carrier! In addition, several anti-aircraft fighters were hit by their own artillery fire when they rushed into the fleet's anti-aircraft artillery fire network, and crashed diagonally into the sea.

Someone once said that war is a tower of honor accumulated with the lives of soldiers, and on this battlefield, soldiers are burning their lives, whether they are soldiers of the Tang Empire or soldiers of the United States of America, they are burning their lives for the honor of soldiers.

The sky is burning, the sea is burning, the warships on the sea are burning, and the warplanes in the sky are burning. It was like a bad symphony, with the shrill whistling of dive bombers, the "thump" of machine guns, the dull shelling of large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, the violent explosion of bombs, and the explosion of fighters when they were hit, and all the sounds of falling into the sea, made up this symphony, the symphony of war.

The bomber group of the Don Empire arrived at about half past eight, and by nine o'clock all the bombers had dropped their bombs. At this time, Mitchell also came to the cruiser, his flagship was already burning in the fire, and the officers and men of the "Copes" were struggling to extinguish the fire in order to save the battleship that was on the verge of collapse.

At least 30 bombers of the Tang Empire and more than a dozen fighters were shot down, while the US fighters responsible for the air defense of the fleet were almost all destroyed, and nearly ten of them were shot down by the anti-aircraft guns of the battleships. In the 32nd task force, five of the six small aircraft carriers were hit, and only the "Bataan" (CVL-29) in the center escaped the disaster, and the captains of two small aircraft carriers have already given the order to abandon the ship, and the officers and men of the other three small aircraft carriers are still trying to save their warships. The cruisers escorting the aircraft carriers lost three, and the destroyers lost four (two of which were sunk by torpedoes).

Task Force 32 has largely lost its combat effectiveness. Mitchell also knew that his "mission" was accomplished, and just as he was about to give the order to retreat, the air defense sirens in the fleet sounded again, and a large group of bombers was rapidly approaching, which would certainly not be his own bombers, but enemy bombers, and their entry direction was exactly the same as the bombers that arrived before!

Mitchell's last hope was dashed, it must have been the second wave of bombers from Task Force 4, and there must have been nearly a hundred bombers, and there were not many warships left in Task Force 32 for these bombers to bomb. Mitchell had to sigh that the opponent was indeed too ruthless, not only did he not give the 32nd Task Force a chance to counterattack, but he didn't even give the 32nd Task Force a chance to survive!