Jiang Wenhan and others desperately tried to intercept the British bombers. When the results were unsatisfactory, Zhen Yun was also anxious on the "Hefei" Shangdi Valley. Seeing the enemy planes approaching step by step, the air defense fighters could not play a role, and what made him even more worried was that the radars on the battleship had a rather limited ability to detect enemy planes, that is to say, it was difficult for large-caliber anti-aircraft guns to intercept enemy planes at an ideal distance!

When Jiang Wenhan discovered the British bomber group, the squadron's "mosquito" bombers were only about 20 nautical miles away from the Sixth Task Force and 15 nautical miles away from the place where the radar alert mission was carried out. It stands to reason that at this distance, the destroyer's ground radar can detect any kind of aircraft, but as a result, the destroyer's ground radar only detected the "peregrine falcons" under Jiang Wenhan's command, but it was not able to detect the British ground bombers!

This is the main reason why the British pilots dared to approach the 6th Task Force at an altitude of nearly 2,000 meters. In the past battles with Germany, the pilots of the "Mosquito" bombers had already discovered that their bombers were difficult to detect by German ground radars. There are many similarities between the ground radar used by the Luftwaffe and the ground radar used by the Tang Imperial Navy, after all, the cooperation between the two countries in the development of radar is very deep. Even though the Tang Imperial Navy used more advanced ground radar, it was still difficult to detect such all-wooden bombers at long distances. In addition, the weather above the sea surface was relatively bad at that time, which also affected the radar detection distance. Judging from the post-war Tang Empire's use of a batch of captured "mosquito" bombers for ground testing. Under ideal conditions, the destroyers of the Tang Imperial Navy at that time were equipped with ground radar that could detect a single "Mosquito" bomber at a distance of 20 nautical miles, and a group of "Mosquito" bombers at a distance of 20 nautical miles. But in bad cases, this discovery distance will definitely be halved, or even halved! At that time, the cruiser that undertook the main air defense task of the fleet was equipped with ground radar, and the ground detection distance of the "mosquito" bomber was not much far.

Herein lies the problem, the ground radar detection distance used by the warship to search for air targets is definitely much longer than the radar detection distance used to guide the firing of anti-aircraft guns. At that time, the Imperial Navy's 120-meter large-caliber anti-aircraft guns could reach a maximum combat distance of 8 miles. Can be used in harsh conditions. The 120-meter anti-aircraft artillery combat ground aiming radar will not detect the "Mosquito" bomber at a distance of more than 5 miles. The fire range of the fleet's anti-aircraft guns has been reduced by more than 3 nautical miles, which means that the interception distance is less than 3 miles, and there are many fewer opportunities to intercept the ground.

The second global war is a systematic confrontational war, in which the belligerents compete for the combat effectiveness of the entire war machine. Or it is some kind of advanced weapons that affect the situation in the war field. For example, in the early days of the war, the Japanese Navy had an advantage in the quality of air forces, but the Japanese Navy was seriously backward in terms of aviation tactical thinking, and as a result, there were so many advanced combat aircraft in the air, and in the end they were still defeated by the Imperial Navy. And when the United States was in the war zone. The US Navy has a much more advanced than the Don Imperial Navy. More powerful aircraft carriers and battleships, but the result was still because its system combat capabilities were inferior to the Tang Imperial Navy, and they were finally defeated. And that's exactly what happened. The Tang Imperial Navy lasted the entire war, especially in the early and middle stages of the war. There is little pursuit of one-sided technological superiority. Until the advent of "Peregrine Falcon", "Falcon" . The performance of the Tang Empire's naval tactical fighters was not the best in the world. The "Lake" class aircraft carrier is only on a par with the "Essex" class of the United States, and the "New Provincial Capital" class is not as good as the "Iowa" class battleships of the US Navy in several aspects before it is improved. The Tang Imperial Navy attached great importance to the overall combat capability of the fleet and advanced tactical thinking. And that's exactly what happened. The Imperial Navy was able to defeat two powerful opponents on the battlefield.

However, the "mosquito" bomber has almost become a weapon that determines the victory of the battle. According to the basic design, the "Mosquito" bomber is not an advanced bomber, it is a cheap bomber made by the British in the absence of aluminum land, because of the needs of the war field. But it turned out." The performance of the "mosquito" bomber on the battlefield was a big surprise. From 23 years. The Germans were the first to taste the power of this bomber. More precisely, it was the Mosquito bombers that caused trouble for the Germans. Now, the Imperial Navy has finally tasted the hardships of the "Mosquito" bomber. At least for Gu Zhenyun, these situations in front of him were something he didn't expect. According to the experience of fighting on the ground in the Pacific Ocean in the past, the Sixth Task Force has been covered by two squadrons of "peregrine falcons", which is enough to withstand the attacks of hundreds of bombers, but at present, even less than 20 enemy planes have not been able to successfully intercept them.

Gu Zhenyun is not complaining about Jiang Wenhan and the others' ineffective fighting. When he was working with Chang Jie Xin, he often heard Chang Jie mention the Second Task Force Ground Air Force. He also knew the ability of Jiang Wenhan's group of pilots. At this time, Gu Zhenyun didn't have time to complain about others, because just when Jiang Wenhan and the others were struggling to intercept the first batch of British bombers to arrive there, the destroyer located in the northeast direction of the fleet discovered the second group of British bombers approaching the ground.

The bombers took off from an airfield near Pontsmouth, with a total of three squadrons of Mosquito bombers and two squadrons of Mustang fighters. The ground radar on the destroyer detected that the ground was not a bomber, but a fighter flying behind the bomber group, and at this time the "Mustang" group was about 35 nautical miles away from the fleet, while the "Mosquito" group in front of the ground was less than 15 nautical miles away from the fleet!

When Jiang Wenhan and the others received the order to retreat, the anti-aircraft guns in the fleet were already roaring. The ground radar of the cruiser located at the rear of the fleet detected a group of bombers approaching 12 nautical miles away, but the gun-sighting radar could not guide the anti-aircraft guns to fire, so it could only use the detection radar to provide the anti-aircraft guns with approximate ground shelling parameters, and it was impossible for the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns to accurately fire the shells at the enemy planes.

The battle was fought quite fiercely, with a total of 160 anti-aircraft guns of 120 meters caliber on four battleships and eight cruisers. On average, each anti-aircraft gun could fire 24 shells in a minute, that is, in a minute, these anti-aircraft guns could fire 3840 shells. Even if the actual rate of fire could not have reached such a fast. At the same time, it is not possible for all anti-aircraft guns to participate in air defense operations, so in one minute, all the warships of the 6th Task Force can also fire thousands of 120 mm caliber VT shells.

In addition, battleships, cruisers, destroyers were armed with a significant number of 80-mm medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns. These anti-aircraft guns can also reach a range of 5 miles, and the ground is also VT shells. It can be said that the density of anti-aircraft artillery fire of Task Force 6 is not a problem, and it can easily deal with enemy bombers in any direction. But the question is. These anti-aircraft guns had to be guided accurately enough to be effective in battle. That's the problem in the fleet at that time.

It was not until 8:28 a.m., when the second group of British bombers approached only about 5 miles from the fleet, that the cruiser's ground gunnery radar captured the target, which was able to provide more accurate shelling parameters for the anti-aircraft guns. But by this time, even if the British bombers needed to maneuver to grab positions before attacking. It will take a lot of time to reach the favorable direction first, and then enter the attack course, but at this time the time left for the air defense of the fleet to intercept it will not exceed 5 minutes. Task Force 6 had to deal with three squadrons, a total of 54 Mosquito bombers, in five minutes. It's a bit of a stretch.

The British pilots were very hasty in the time left for the 6th Task Force to intercept the ground. The bombers dispersed 5 miles away and then entered the attack route. In other words, the bomber does not need to adjust its course within the lethal kill range of the anti-aircraft guns, and it does not need to seize the position and waste time. Three squadrons of Mosquito bombers quickly approached the four battleships at the core of the fleet.

Bad weather conditions were no longer favorable to the British by this time. It's in the favor of Task Force 6. After entering the range of five nautical miles, not only can the artillery sighting radar guide the anti-aircraft guns to fight, but the gunners can also see the enemy aircraft. The closer the distance, the 4mm and 20mm anti-aircraft guns would pose a greater threat to British bombers. For the British bombers, because the cloud height was too low. It is difficult for bombers to dive and drop bombs, and they can only drop bombs at a small angle, or they can drop bombs horizontally quickly. This will inevitably reduce the accuracy of the bomb and increase the danger of the bomber when attacking.

At 8:32 a.m., the "Mosquito" bombers of the squadron that had entered the ground first concentrated on attacking the "Matsue" at the rear of the battleship formation. Eighteen bombers were shot down 5 before entering the bombing channel, another 13 bombers had six carrying torpedoes and seven hanging bombs. Because there were two cruisers in front of the "Matsue," the six "Mosquito" bombers that descended to the low-altitude flight were shot down when they broke through the cruiser's interception.4 The last two were not able to avoid the dense rain of small-caliber anti-aircraft shells on the "Matsue," and all of them were killed before the torpedoes were dropped. The real threat came from the seven bomb-carrying bombers. When the bombers flew over the open space over the cruiser, they were only shot down by the anti-aircraft guns on the port side of the cruiser.2 The other 5 all successfully broke through, of which only 1 was hit by the large-caliber of the "Matsue", and the other 4 dropped bombs.

At this time, the "Matsue" was sailing at full speed, and after the lookout spotted that the enemy plane had dropped the bomb, the battleship quickly turned left to avoid the bomb. However, the enemy bomber dropped the bomb at a height of less than 700, and the bomb fell on a parabolic trajectory, and the bomb only took about 12 minutes to fall. In 12 places, the "Matsue" sailed a maximum of two-thirds of the ship's long distance. Turn 15 degrees. About a quarter of the battleship was left in the bomb field. Other words. As long as the British bomber pilots dropped bombs at a sufficient level, then one of these four bombs would definitely be able to hit the "Matsue". Of course, this is only a purely theoretical calculation of probability, and it is impossible for the actual situation to be exactly the same in battle.

The British bomber pilots were far above average in their ability to drop bombs, and the "Matsue" barely managed to avoid two bombs by avoiding it violently. In the end, two bombs still hit the tail of the battleship. One of the bombs landed on the open deck behind the ship's turret. This is not a key protection area, the thickness of its horizontal armor does not exceed 80 mm, and aviation armor-piercing shells directly penetrate the armor. An explosion occurred in the second compartment in front of the 4-wheel engine room on the ground of the battleship, which eventually caused the 4-wheel engine room to fail to function properly. Caused the battleship to lose a quarter of its power. The second bomb fell on the top of the turret C, and the armor thickness of the top armor of the turret exceeded 250 meters, and this bomb did not fall vertically, and its impact speed was not fast, so it was not able to penetrate the armor of the turret top, and exploded above the turret after being bounced off by the armor, and its huge shock wave shattered the rotation mechanism of the turret C. And this damage can only be repaired in large ports with heavy cranes!

Gu Zhenyun saw the "Songjiang" hit on the "Hefei". Soon, the captain of the "Matsue" reported the losses, and the battleship was able to maintain only 26 knots: there was a danger of sinking, but it could no longer keep up with the speed of the fleet. Gu Zhenyun had to order two cruisers and three destroyers to cover the "Songjiang", and turn to the southwest and leave the strait directly, withdrawing from the area of engagement.

The battle was still raging, and Gu Zhenyun had to focus on the flagship. Shortly after the attack on the "Matsue" . Another squadron of "mosquito" bombers concentrated on attacking the battleship "Fuzhou" behind the "Hefei". Fortunately, the "Fuzhou" and "Hefei" were very close to each other at that time, and the two battleships could support each other, and the cruisers escorting the two battleships could also cover each other. The squadron's "Mosquito" bombers suffered heavy losses, and in the last three minutes, 12 of them were shot down, and the "Fuzhou" avoided two bombs and was unscathed.

It was also when the "Hefei" and the cruisers of the "Hefei" escort were concentrating their forces to deal with the attack on the "Fuzhou" bombers, and the last squadron of "Mosquito" bombers circled the port side of the "Hefei". Taking advantage of the fact that the "Hefei" formation did not pay attention to this side of the situation, it launched an attack. What's even worse is that the "mosquito" squadron that arrived first broke through the fighter interception site, and seven bombers also approached the "Hefei" from the starboard direction at this time. Presumably, the British pilots knew that the battleship was the flagship of the fleet, so they concentrated their forces on launching an attack on it!