During the day on 1 August, Task Force 1 in the Bismarck Sea dispatched two waves of bombers in the morning, one group of bombers continued to sweep the US airfield and sent a new batch of time bombs to the American engineers, while the other group of bombers went to bomb Lae, blowing into ruins some targets that Task Force 3 had missed or could not destroy.

The intensity of the bombing operation was not large, and in order to preserve the physical strength of the pilots as much as possible and prepare for the high-intensity air support when the 6th Sentai boarded the 6th team tomorrow, there was not much arrangement for the bombing operation on this day. U.S. airfields are still paralyzed, and after the Strategic Strike Force commanded by Luo Yunchong entered the battle, the U.S. military had no chance to repair those bombed-out airfields. But that doesn't mean Task Force 1 can be lazy.

At noon, when the second batch of bombers had not yet returned, a new order came directly from the theater headquarters (temporary stationing site) of General Yan Guozhong in Manila, and the telegram also contained the personal payment of General Yan Guozhong, that is, this was an order from the theater commander directly.

"It's literally sending us to death!"

After Hao Dongjue read the telegram, he showed an angry look, he could only lose his temper in the fleet, if he really wanted him to lose his temper in front of Admiral Yan Guozhong, he didn't have the courage to do so.

Tan Renhao did not speak, but carefully read the content of the message first. The order was simple: Task Force 1 was to move south from the Warrior Strait in the afternoon into the Sea of Solomon to intercept a convoy of ships arriving from the south to reinforce Lae. There are at least twenty transport ships in this fleet, carrying at least 100,000 tons of combat materiel. There were nearly ten escort battleships in the fleet, but most of them were destroyers, light cruisers, no heavy battleships, and no capital ships such as aircraft carriers and battleships.

Seeing this telegram, Tan Renhao could only smile bitterly. Yan Guozhong used the First Task Force as the Third Task Force. It is not difficult to intercept the fleet, and those light warships do not pose much of a threat, even if they are intercepted at night, with the capabilities of those escort warships in the First Task Force, it is enough to deal with this fleet. But the problem is that Task Force 1 is not for charging into battle. To make matters worse, the United States has field airfields on several islands in the Solomon Islands and has deployed hundreds of tactical aircraft. As long as the 1st Task Force entered the Solomon Sea, it would have been under the attack of these American fighters, otherwise, the 3rd Task Force would not have entered Huon Bay at night. If the 1st Task Force wanted to complete the interception mission, it could not stay in Huon Bay, and Huon Bay was too narrow to meet the requirements of aircraft carrier activities. In other words, if Task Force 1 were to go south, it would have to operate in the Solomon Sea, and if it did not complete its interception mission before dawn. There was no withdrawal from the Solomon Sea. If you return to the Bismarck Sea, then you will be hit by American bombers.

"American tactical bombers in the Solomon Islands, and long-range bombers in the northeast corner of Australia. These are all very threatening to us. ”

Hao Dongjue took out a cigarette a little irritably, "If the fleet goes south now, I'm afraid it will be bombed by the US army for the first time before dark, and whether it can withstand this wave of bombing is a question." If we drag ourselves into the Solomon Sea until dark, we will miss the opportunity to intercept the American fleet. ”

"How many escort warships are there in the American fleet?"

Tan Renhao glanced at his partner and walked to the chart table.

"Not more than ten, at least that's what the message says."

Hao Dongjue also followed.

"They must have entered the Coral Sea in the morning, and now they have probably passed through the Louisiade Islands, trying to reach Lae before dark."

Tan Renhao compared the position of the current US fleet mentioned in the cable, and at the same time marked several routes on the chart. "The Yankees are not stupid. They knew that we would not dare to enter the Sea of Solomon during the day. Those heavy bombers of the US military pose little threat to us, mainly their tactical bombers deployed on the Solomon Islands. We can only avoid the blows of these tactical bombers if we stay in the Bismarck Sea, or enter Huon Bay. Huon Bay was too narrow for the fleet to move in it. The U.S. fleet will get to Lae before dark so it can get air cover, and I'm willing to bet you that once this fleet enters the Solomon Sea, there will be fighter cover along the way. ”

"I bet you, too. The US bombers at the airfields in the Solomon Islands were all hung with bombs, and the pilots were all sitting in the planes, ready to take off at any time! ”

Tan Renhao glanced at his partner, and then laughed. "In other words, we'd better not provoke those American fighters, and don't venture into the Solomon Sea."

"Spare the American fleet?"

"Of course we can't let them go, those 100,000 tons of supplies, maybe there are tens of thousands of American soldiers on board, if these materials and soldiers arrive in Lae, I'm afraid Admiral Yan Guozhong will be so angry that he will jump to his feet!"

Tan Renhao sighed, "Since the fleet can't enter the Solomon Sea, then let's keep our bombers busy a little more!" ”

"We still have bombing missions in the afternoon, and we don't even know where the Yankee fleet is!"

"First arrange reconnaissance planes, in addition, arrange a few reconnaissance planes near each airport, send some fighter planes over, and if the US military wants to repair the airport, focus on dealing with their engineers."

Tan Renhao stood up, "Now the air defense positions of the US military airport have basically been blown up, and the US air defense forces are mainly focused on protecting Lae, and it is not very difficult to suppress these airports. Arrange for a group of bombers to search the Solomon Sea, mainly the western sea, and monitor the shipping lanes to Lae. In addition, prepare two squadrons of ground bombers, as long as the American fleet is present, we will do this vote, if we have not killed this fleet by then, we will organize an artillery formation, kill Huon Bay at night, stop outside Lae, and wait for the Yankees themselves to die! ”

Hao Dongjue sighed, then shook his head, this tactical arrangement is a bit far-fetched.

"What, do you have an opinion?"

"No, no comment."

Hao Dongjue shrugged his shoulders, "Do we have any other choice?" ”

"Then hurry up and make arrangements, let the southbound reconnaissance plane take off first, let the pilots move, anyway, hold on to three days at most, and wait until the 6th team goes ashore, our pressure will be much less."

The reconnaissance aircraft 6 continued to leave the flight deck, and the seaplanes on the cruiser were mobilized, a distance of about 18o nautical miles from the Vitu Islands in the central part of the British Bismarck Sea to the Louisiad Islands in the southern Solomon Sea. It is completely within the patrol radius of the water reconnaissance planes, so the reconnaissance planes heading south are mainly those seaplanes, and the reconnaissance planes taking off from aircraft carriers are responsible for monitoring US airfields on nearby islands. After the reconnaissance aircraft took off, a group of fighters with bombs and rockets also left the aircraft carrier. In the absence of an air adversary, these fighters became fighter-bombers, mainly performing ground suppression missions. When dealing with small targets on the ground, small bombs carried by fighters. Rockets, and machine guns are more effective (and will prove this in the future) While Hao Dongjue went to arrange the aviation combat mission, Tan Renhao organized the artillery formation, which was the last move. If the American fleet had been covered by fighter jets, the bombing effect would not have been much better. At this time, Tan Renhao also regretted a little, why didn't he want more aircraft carriers in the first place? Although the two carriers carried enough bombers to crush any enemy fleet in a naval battle, in this high-intensity control operation, the two carriers were a little less. Perhaps, even if you don't want a fleet aircraft carrier, it would be a good thing to have a few more flat-topped ships capable of carrying aircraft.

The shelling formation consisted of two large anti-aircraft cruisers. Four heavy cruisers consisted of six destroyers. That's all the ships that can be drawn after leaving behind the basic fleet escort ships. Not the same as Task Force 2. This time, Task Force 1 was not additionally strengthened because it was a joint operation with Task Force 3. But who would have thought that now Task Force 3 has run out of shells. It's still going to be replenished later.

At about half past two in the afternoon, a southbound seaplane came to the news that the American fleet had appeared! The flotilla was heading north from the Straits to the west of the Calvados Islands and was heading towards Lae along the shipping lane between the Dontelkasto Islands and the Stanley Peninsula. There are more than 20 ships in the fleet, of which the number of escort warships is about eight, and all of them are light warships, which is consistent with the information provided by the theater command.

"The situation in this area is extremely complex, with dozens of islands around it and dozens of sea lanes."

Hao Dongjue marked the main shipping lanes on the chart, "Now we have lost contact with that reconnaissance plane. So there must be American fighters operating over the fleet, but the number is unknown. If a group of bombers is dispatched, it will be a problem to find the fleet, and escort fighters will have to be arranged, and if the American ships use the cover of the islands after being bombed, the bombing effect will not be much better. ”

Tan Renhao also saw this.

"The only certainty is that the flotilla is about 16 knots, and it will definitely be able to enter Lae before dark."

"Then we can't afford to delay and arrange two squads of escort fighters. Let the bombers come out. ”

Tan Renhao sighed secretly, "Tell Zhang Naiding that the bombing results will be reported immediately after the bombing is over, and we can decide whether to arrange an artillery formation!" ”

Hao Dongjue nodded, and immediately went to deploy the aviation combat mission.

Five minutes later, the first bomber left the flight deck of the aircraft carrier, and by 2:55 a.m., 72 bombers of two squadrons, as well as 24 fighters of two squadrons, all left the aircraft carrier and, after forming over the fleet, left the fleet at three o'clock and flew south.

"Dongjue, do you know why Yan Shiqi keeps complaining?"

After the group left, Tan Renhao turned around and looked at his partner next to him, "From the Ogasawara Islands, to the attack on Hachijo Island, and then to the Battle of the Mariana Islands, Yan Shiqi has been complaining about the unfair treatment of the Third Task Force, do you know why?" ”

"Why?"

Hao Dongjue lit a cigarette.

"Except for the battle over aircraft carriers and battleships, in fact, what we feel now is the same as what he felt at the time."

Tan Renhao laughed, "In our opinion, the fleet is the key force that determines the victory or defeat of the sea, so we should do something earth-shattering, such as killing the enemy's main fleet, blowing up the home port of the US Pacific Fleet into ruins, or simply killing many interceptions, and dropping dozens of bombs on Washington, London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, or other important cities, indicating that we are the hegemon of the sea." But in reality, the vast majority of the tasks we perform are insignificant, small tasks. Judging from the Battle of the Mariana Islands, the First Task Force was doing miscellaneous work for the 6th Sentai in many cases, as if it was the nanny of the 6th Sentai Team! ”

Hao Dongjue shook his head and laughed, the word "nanny" is not image enough, maybe it can be said that it is "bodyguard" or "thug", which is more appropriate.

"This is actually what makes this war different from previous wars."

Tan Renhao leaned against the fence, "Think about the last war, after we won the 'Battle of Hachijojima', Japan quickly lost, and as soon as our 6th team landed on the beach in Tokyo Bay, Japan announced its surrender. And now within? Japan has been bombed into ruins, cities have become graves, grasslands have become deserts, forests are burning, and tens of millions of Japanese are struggling on the line of life and death, but Japan has not surrendered and is still resisting. In the past, if we had defeated the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the U.S. would have surrendered, but now, instead of surrendering, the U.S. has created more trouble for us. ”

"You're saying that the battle on the 6th is more important than the naval battle?"

Tan Renhao sighed, then nodded slightly. "Naval warfare is the key to gaining sea supremacy, but if you want to defeat the enemy, you still have to win in 6 places. Especially with the massive use of aviation, the seizure of islands, control of airfields, which is even more important than the seizure of sea supremacy. ”

"It looks like we're all going to have to work for Team 6 in the future."

Both of them smiled bitterly, this may be regarded as the sorrow of the officers and men of the naval fleet, for hundreds of years, the 6th Sentai has been a subsidiary of the fleet, and now, the relationship has been reversed, and the fleet has to serve the 6th Sentai team.

The bombing campaign was successful, but not entirely successful. Tan Renhao dispatched an artillery bombardment formation at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and this artillery formation with more than 10 warships intercepted several American ships scattered to Lae at night, completing the task assigned by Admiral Yan Guozhong. The Deng-6 battle is about to start, and the fiercest battle will begin.