The sound of a rapid battle rallying shattered the quiet night sky, and the huge steel battleship suddenly regained its vitality like a monster that had suddenly awakened, and then it was lively. The first to rush to the flight deck are the aviation crews, who have to check the aircraft carrier's elevators, catapults, and trailers ready to tow the fighters, and clean the flight deck in preparation for the fighters to take off.

Soon, the surrounding escort warships were also lively, and light signals were constantly being sent to inquire about the situation on the aircraft carrier and whether there was any need to help. Most of these inquiries are courtesy, could it be that those escort warships can still help aircraft carriers catapult bombers? After the light signal was issued on the aircraft carrier to disperse the escort warships, these escort warships began to turn to make room for the aircraft carrier to speed up the wind, and when the fighters took off, in order to prevent the fighters from crashing on nearby battleships due to a malfunction (which must have been a huge disaster), the escort warships had to maintain a distance of at least a few nautical miles from the aircraft carrier.

"Almost, let the bombers take off!" Tan Renhao said as he looked at the navigation clock, five o'clock, the time when the first batch of bombers was planned to take off.

After the fleet commander gave the order to leave, the bombers began to take off one after another. This time, the bombers did not set off in a large group, but in a formation of several, at most a dozen bombers, and in a small group, at most a dozen fighters, and then set off separately. Since there are twelve targets to be bombed, the number of bombers in each batch will not exceed 20.

The most critical and difficult part of this bombing operation was the time it took for the groups to reach the target. It can be said that the success or failure of the bombing lies in this time, and a maximum error of only five minutes is allowed, and more than five minutes will definitely lead to failure, at least a partial failure!

The bomber group had four missions, and according to Hao Dongjue's judgment, it was the first to bomb the US aircraft group in Rabaul every day. At least part of it took off from the regular airfield of the US military on the island of Kuah. There are three regular airfields of the US military on Kuah Island, so it is necessary to bomb all three airfields at the same time. The focus of the bombing was to bomb Rabaul's airfield first, and that could only be judged by the pilots in front. Therefore, the three groups were led by Qiu Gengbo, who commanded one of them to attack the American airfield where bombers were most likely to be dispatched, and the commander of the other two groups was his squadron leader, and the three would maintain close contact. Once the primary target has been identified, only one group will start bombing, and the other two groups will have to be on standby on the periphery.

Another group of bombers will go to the five most important field airfields of the US military. Bombers were also deployed on these field airfields. Under normal circumstances, the U.S. military would not first use bombers from field airfields to bomb Rabaul. However, the planes on the field airfields were parked in the open air, and there were no hangars to cover them. Therefore, the bombers of these five groups will immediately attack the US fighters on the airfield after they succeed on Qiu Gengbo's side, and they must ensure that most of the fighters are destroyed on the runway, so most of the bombers in these five groups are hanging incendiary bombs. In addition, there are more fighters attached to it (the ability of fighters to strafe the ground is much stronger than that of bombers).

The last group of bombers went to deal with four U.S. field airfields where no fighters were stationed. The main task is to destroy the runway. And paralyze the runway with a time bomb. Since there is no way to be completely sure that there are no bombers stationed at these airfields, some of the bombers in these four fleets are bombed with incendiary bombs (if there are no open-air planes to bomb, it is also a good choice to bomb the houses where American officers and soldiers are staying). In addition, they were paired with several fighter jets.

The last to leave the aircraft carrier were two fighter squads led by Ellsle, all 24 fighters were hung with bombs and rockets, and the bomb bays of the cannons were also full of shells. They will first reach the skies over Task Force 3 and then be guided by Task Force 3. If the artillery bombardment of Task Force 3 had not been able to destroy the five field airfields, then it would have been up to Ellsle to intercept the American fighters taking off and destroy the planes on the runway.

The scale of the entire combat mission is very large and very complicated, and this is simply a test of the command and control capability of the First Task Force in aviation operations. Perhaps, the only thing to be thankful for is. Hao Dongjue is the number one aviation combat talent in the empire, and apart from him, I am afraid that no one can really command so many bomber groups. In the same way, without him, no one else would have thought of such a bold and risky plan.

"Now, all our planes are gone!" After seeing the last batch of fighters leave the aircraft carrier, Hao Dongjue sighed, "Even those reconnaissance planes on reconnaissance missions have set off with bombs, except for the seaplanes on the cruiser. We don't even have a single plane left, and whether we succeed or not depends on the performance of those hundreds of pilots. ”

"At least, none of them are rookies who have just left the aviation school!" Tan Renhao laughed, "We should be happy and lucky for ourselves, we have the best pilots in the world, if even they can't complete the mission, I'm afraid no one can do better than them." ”

"I hope so, Qiu Gengbo, Yang Qinkai, An Shile, Yao Baiyan are the best pilots, and they all know the difficulty, danger, and importance of this mission, they will do their best, and they will not let us down."

Tan Renhao looked in the direction where the plane was leaving, and after being silent for a while, he said, "When did the shelling of the Third Task Force start?" ”

"Six thirty-five, five minutes ahead of our scheduled time for the fastest bombing."

"Contact Task Force 3 at 6:30 and ask about them." Tan Renhao grabbed his partner's shoulder, "Now it's the same whether the fleet is hidden or not, if it fails, we can't escape." At the same time, get in touch with the group in front as soon as possible, let the communication department fully cooperate, and you will personally command and coordinate, and there can be no mistakes! ”

"I'll stay in the command cabin!" Hao Dongjue laughed, the command module of the new aircraft carrier is much larger, so the communication center is directly located in the command cabin, so that the fleet commander can understand the situation in the outside world more quickly.

"Also, arrange the air defense of the fleet, even if the final result is bad, we can't sit idly by."

Hao Dongjue looked back at Tan Renhao, and then nodded, that was the worst outcome. It is impossible to intercept all the incoming enemy planes with the anti-aircraft guns on those escort warships and aircraft carriers alone, and without the cover of air defense fighters, no fleet will be vulnerable!

To the south of the fleet, Qiu Gengbo's plane flew at the forefront as always. In order to grab this position, he also fought with Yang Qinkai, and as a result, he won the jackpot and received the most dangerous task.

"Old Autumn. Keep up the pace, don't fly too fast, we can't rush for time! ”

"Yes, you should keep an eye out for other planes!" Qiu Gengbo felt that his hands were full of sweat, and he had an inexplicable impulse, in the past, he had to rush for time in bombing missions, but this time he had to coordinate the time and couldn't arrive early, which made him feel a little uncomfortable.

Fifteen minutes later, Qiu Gengbo saw the gray land in front of him. He immediately shook his wings. Beckoning the surrounding bombers to come over. Then, the navigator in the back seat connected to the group channel and gave the battle order. Qiu Gengbo chose the regular airfield of the US military that was most likely to dispatch bombers after dawn. And now it's 6:30. The sky has already begun to lighten, and if the judgment of the chief of staff of the fleet is correct, then now the American bombers have been towed out of the hangar, and the pilots are walking out of the aviation operations center, ready to board the plane, and make the final preparations before takeoff.

"Lao Qiu, get ready to do it, I hope our luck will be better!"

"Then it depends on whether Taishang Laojun will manifest his spirit, I didn't believe in Taoism before!" Qiu Gengbo laughed as he lowered his flight altitude again. Reducing the flight altitude to less than 100 meters above the sea, it was the first time he had flown at such a low altitude.

The group of planes quickly left the sea and reached the sky over the land, and Qiu Gengbo did not increase the altitude of the flight, and the bombers that followed him did not climb. When the plane crossed a hill, the sight that appeared in front of it surprised more than a dozen pilots including Qiu Gengbo, as well as more than a dozen navigators. In the golden dawn, hundreds of bombers lined up at one end of the runway, and the pilots were walking to their planes. The flight attendants were busy starting their engines, and someone was already looking up at them.

"Damn, we won the jackpot, Lao Qiu, ready to drop the bomb!"

", we hit the jackpot this time!" Qiu Gengbo also shouted, "Brothers, follow me to drop bombs, and in addition, send the news back, our sneak attack was successful!" ”

More than a dozen bombers quickly passed through the airfield, and both "water birds" and "sea eagles" dropped two 500-kilogram incendiary bombs hanging under the belly of the planes when they flew over the US planes. This is a large model of incendiary bombs, which is twice as large as the 250-kilogram incendiary bombs used by the strategic strike force, and the incendiary agent contained in it is more than doubled, one incendiary bomb is enough to cover a radius of 250 meters, and more than 30 incendiary bombs can cover the entire airport!

After dropping the incendiary bombs, all the bombers quickly pulled up, and under the impact of the heat wave, the bombers vibrated violently. The dozen or so pilots who were more daring than the sky didn't care about this at all, and the bomber group spread out at an altitude of several hundred meters, then rolled and dived down again, and began to pour machine-gun bullets on the airfield. Several fighter jets swooped down on the tower and the aviation center, and 20 mm machine shells were enough to penetrate the tower's glass windows and the fragile concrete walls.

Within fifteen minutes, more than a dozen other bomber groups had also dropped bombs. In fact, it was not these bombers that fired the first shot, but the Third Task Force under the command of Yan Shiqi. Later, Yan Shiqi also claimed that it was the Third Task Force that kicked off the battle!

The Third Task Force sailed more than 400 nautical miles at night until about five o'clock when it reached the predetermined sea area, and then the fleet divided into five small groups and began to kill their respective targets.

In order not to be exposed as much as possible, it was only at about half past five that the battleships re-accelerated and moved towards their targets. At 6:33 a.m., the first round of shelling began, and at this time, Qiu Gengbo and the others had just seen the island in front of them.

The shelling of the fleet came fiercely, and most of the battleships were very close, and a number of 120-mm anti-aircraft guns joined the shelling. Yan Shiqi also arranged guidance aircraft (seaplanes on the cruiser) before the shelling to provide target data for the shelling. The officers and men of the five US airfields that had been hit did not react until five minutes later, and it was not the explosion of the ammunition depot, but the explosion of shells falling from the sky. It wasn't until 6:43 a.m. that an officer of the U.S. Army asked what unit was firing at the airfield, and by this time Qiu Gengbo and the others had already dropped bombs, and the other planes had also arrived near their target and were preparing to drop bombs.

The blow came violently and quickly. More than a dozen airfields were bombed almost simultaneously. After believing that they had destroyed the US planes that could be seen on the airfield, Qiu Gengbo and others scattered their search to find some airfields that they had not found. Other bombers are doing the same thing, and all the pilots know that the more US planes they kill, the more hope they have, the more fruits of victory.

The shelling first ended at about 6:50 a.m., and the whole shelling lasted only 17 minutes, after which the 3rd Task Force withdrew from the engaged sea area at full speed and began to flee for its life. The observer planes were also sure to have successfully destroyed the U.S. airfield, and several armor-piercing shells fired from the battleship helped the bombers to deal with the underground fuel depot at a nearby regular airfield.

The bomber group began to retreat at seven o'clock. Qiu Gengbo sent out the news at this time that the mission had been successfully completed, except for the hangars of the two regular airports that had not been completely destroyed, and there might be US bombers inside, the other mission objectives had been achieved, at least more than 600 US bombers had been destroyed on the ground, and more than 10 US fighters had been shot down, and only 14 fighters participating in combat operations had not returned.

"Immediately prepare to receive the returning fleet, let the fighters land first, and let the fighters of the two squads rise into the air as soon as possible, will the fuel of the bombers hold out?"

Hao Dongjue immediately nodded, the fuel on the bombers could allow them to patrol over the fleet for at least half an hour.

"That's it, and then organize supplementary bombing!" Tan Renhao glanced at the staff officer, "Now is not the time to retreat!" ”