When the US reconnaissance plane appeared over the landing fleet, Han Shaofeng did not regret it, and after many years of fighting on the battlefield, the first thing he thought of was how to deal with the enemy's blows, rather than regretting his previous mistakes. He first ordered the fastest fast transport ships to go south, and then let all the landing ships close together, and the eight destroyers escorting the escort all surrounded the perimeter of the landing ships, and formed an air defense formation according to the method proposed by the staff officer. Because there were no radars installed on the destroyers escorting the ship, the fleet could only rely on lookouts to monitor the sky to the north.

The waiting time of more than an hour is very unbearable, especially when you know that a catastrophe is imminent, and the wait is like the feeling of a condemned prisoner who has been guillotined waiting for the executioner to swing the guillotine. During this period, Han Shaofeng received a telegram from the theater command. There was only one telegram, that is, the US fleet was only about 180 to 220 nautical miles away from the landing fleet, and the US bombers were expected to arrive between 8:30 and 8:50. The telegram was sent after eight o'clock, which really didn't make much sense anymore.

In the next 40 minutes or so, Han Shaofeng's mood can be imagined, when the air defense alarm in the fleet sounded, he suddenly relaxed a lot, as if the criminal waiting for the court to pronounce the verdict felt when he heard the verdict, the US bomber group finally arrived!

The U.S. bomber group arrived over the landing fleet at 8:50 a.m., with only about 20 SBDs and about 20 F4Us in the formation. Other bombers and fighters did not.

The first wave of Spruance bombers was supposed to catch up with the landing fleet at about 8:45, but at 8 o'clock, the bombers encountered the ships that fell behind the landing fleet at a speed of only 16 knots. A transport ship covered by four destroyers. As a result, all the fighters in the US bomber group rushed over, and these warships did not even have the opportunity to organize an air defense operation. All six transports were heavily bombed, and two of them sank within ten minutes. Four more also caught fire and will definitely sink. The four escort destroyers put up a stubborn resistance, shooting down only two SBDs that were not pulled up in time, damaging two F4Us that were not immediately reproduced after dropping bombs, and all four destroyers were hit. In the end, only one ship made it to Wake Island with difficulty.

The US bomber group was delayed for nearly 10 minutes, and a number of bombers and fighters had already dropped their bombs. After the US pilots who led the group organized the rest of the planes, they had to speed up their flights in order to widen the distance between them and the second group of bombers and reach the airspace over the landing fleet of the Tang Army as soon as possible. The SBDs that dropped the bombs had already returned to the fleet ahead of schedule, and the F4Us, at the request of Spruance, had also returned to the fleet without following the bomber group.

Seeing dozens of U.S. bombers flying in (Han Shaofeng did not immediately identify some of them as fighters with bombs on them), Han Shaofeng's hopes were dashed. There is still no news from the air defense fighters who arrived (Wang Xiaotian did not answer the call of the fleet. The radio of his landline has always been used for formation communications), and the fleet was too far from Wake Island, outside the cover radius of the fighters. Maybe there were no fighters coming over to cover them at all.

Seeing that there were no air defense fighters above the Tang Imperial fleet, and that the anti-aircraft fire of those battleships on the sea was also extremely weak, the American pilots immediately became excited. In the past, when attacking the task force of the Tang Empire, the loss rate of American bombers was frighteningly high. It's good to go out and get one back, and this time there is finally a chance to slaughter the fleet that has no power to fight back, BD and F4U immediately disperse in a four-plane formation, SBD is responsible for attacking escort destroyers with strong air defense capabilities, and F4U uses high speed to rush into the fleet's air defense network and bomb those transport ships and landing ships with almost no air defense capabilities.

The battle immediately began, the 80-mm, 40-mm and 20-mm anti-aircraft guns on the destroyers were struggling to fire at the enemy planes, the few 40-mm and 20-mm anti-aircraft guns on the landing ships were also spitting tongues of fire, and most of those transport ships were not equipped with anti-aircraft guns, and even if there were, there were at most one or two, and the quality of the gunners was very low, and it was impossible to form an effective anti-aircraft fire network at all!

In just five minutes, two destroyers had already been bombed, and their speed quickly decreased and left the formation. Three transport ships were also hit by 50 bombs dropped on US fighter jets. The F4U, which dropped the bomb, quickly withdrew from the sky over the fleet, using rockets to deal with the destroyers that had broken away from the formation.

The battle was essentially one-sided, and in five minutes the fleet's weak anti-aircraft fire shot down only five enemy aircraft, and all of them were enemy aircraft that had already dropped bombs, four of which were shot down by anti-aircraft guns on destroyers, and only one by machine guns on one landing ship.

"General, hide quickly!"

Han Shaofeng pushed away the adjutant who was rushing towards him, and at the same time looked up at the SBD that was about to enter the diving channel. Just like on the battlefield on land, Han Shaofeng will never look for cover, and it is the same at sea. If he is destined to fall on the battlefield, although the landing ship is not a ground battlefield, he believes that this is the best destination for soldiers.

SBD let out a sharp whistling sound when it entered the dive channel, and the dive angle of the plane reached 80 degrees, almost vertically rushing towards the landing ship that Han Shaofeng was riding, and the 1000-pound aviation armor-piercing bullet on the belly of the plane was particularly eye-catching, and Han Shaofeng even saw the American pilot wearing goggles in the front seat of the plane. At the last moment, Han Shaofeng closed his eyes, he could imagine that the bomb had fallen, and the landing ship at the core of the formation could not turn to maneuver, the bomb would fall within ten seconds, and then explode on the landing ship, detonating the ammunition stored in the landing ship, and the dozens of crew members on the battleship, plus more than 1,000 officers and men of the Marine Corps, would be wiped out. However, there was no such thing as the characteristic sound of the bomb falling, and then a loud explosion was heard.

"General, look, our fighters. That's our fighter. ”

Han Shaofeng was startled and immediately opened his eyes. The SBD, and the one behind it, had blown to pieces. The fireball was dissipating, and four "Falcon" fighters painted with the symbol of the Tang Imperial Naval Aviation quickly flew over the landing ship. Then he pulled up and flew towards two other US military fighters nearby. It was indeed a fighter of the Empire, and the best fighter of the Empire.

The officers and men on the battleship shouted frantically, and some of the officers and men of the Marine Corps who had already rushed to the deck raised their rifles and opened fire on the US fighters in the sky. More Marines were waving their caps and steel helmets at the fighters who had reached the fleet, as if the battle was over and the enemy had been repulsed.

The battle is not over, and it is far from over. The fighters who had just arrived at the fleet successfully launched the first round of attacks, knocking down at least six US fighters, but the US fighters quickly reacted, and at this time, the second group of US bombers had already appeared in the sky not far north of the fleet.

See the ones burning on the sea. When the ship had already begun to sink, Wang Xiaotian was a little incredulous at first, and then extremely angry. He was angry not at the enemy, but at himself, and just a few minutes late, several ships were shot. I don't know how many comrades fell in a pool of blood, if it could have been a few minutes faster, it wouldn't have been such a scene.

"Squadron Leader, good fight!" The wingman pilot was not as sad as Wang Xiaotian, "In front of the doctrine, there are two 'pirates', they haven't dropped bombs yet!" ”

"See, all follow, this time the second formation attack, we cover!" Wang Xiaotian said as he pulled up the fighter.

When attacking the two SBDs before, their altitude had been reduced to less than 500 meters, and now it was very difficult to attack the F4U above the front, and the formation responsible for covering was about 1200 meters high, which was just in a favorable attack position. And taking the opportunity of this attack, Wang Xiaotian's formation just raised its altitude to prepare for the next attack.

The U.S. pilots on the two F4U had already reacted at this time, they didn't have time to find the target and drop the bomb, and when they saw two "Falcons" rushing towards them above, they immediately dropped their bombs, and then began to dive, preparing to avoid this round of attacks first, and then pull up and bite the other party's tail. But the two US fighter pilots forgot that there were two "falcons" that were climbing in front of them.

Seeing the US fighter rushing over, Wang Xiaotian and the wingman pilot did not relent, the two of them understood, almost at the same time corrected the course, aimed at the two F4U that rushed with their heads covered, and then, the machine guns on the two "Falcons" spewed out tongues of fire, and the two F4U were immediately shot, one of them was hit by a volley explosion, and the other dragged black smoke into the sea.

"Well done!" Wang Xiaotian shouted, "Call the other 'falcons', everyone hurry up, don't let the son of a son of a dog run away." ”

The battle became bigger and fiercer, and the remaining F4U all dropped their bombs, and BD withdrew from the battle first, and when F4U began to fight with the "Falcon", it flew back to the battlefield, looking for an opportunity to bomb the battleships on the sea, and this time it was the escort destroyers located on the periphery of the fleet that were intensively attacked. Wang Xiaotian and the others no longer had a chance to sneak attack the US fighters, and the battle became a duel between the fighters.

Just before the first batch of bombers finished bombing, the second group of American bombers arrived. This time, all 15 F4U dropped their bombs ahead of time and began to accelerate when they were about 30 nautical miles from the fleet. The rear of about 40 SBDs slowed down and switched to dense formations, and the U.S. lead pilots who commanded the bomber group quickly reorganized the group in the same way as the bombing task force.

Wang Xiaotian had already shot down the third enemy plane before the second batch of American bombers arrived, and this time the unfortunate one was an SBD that chose to change the wrong route after dropping the bomb, which happened to hit Wang Xiaotian's muzzle, and then was killed. But at this time, there were already eleven "falcons"

Shot down, four of them were hit by the anti-aircraft guns on the battleship! The losses of American fighters were also very enormous, and in these few minutes of fighting, at least a dozen SBDs were shot down, and more than ten F4U were taken out. But the situation was very unfavorable to Wang Xiaotian, and many "falcons" were running out of ammunition.

The armament of the "Falcon" fighter is four 20-mm aviation cannons, each with 250 rounds of ammunition, and 200 shells are used for a long burst, at least 50 rounds for a short burst, and 80 shells are generally used.

In other words, even if you shoot with a short spot, you can hit 20 shots at most and 13 shots at the minimum.

In battle, the shooting hit rate of excellent pilots is between 30 and 50 percent, while the average fighter pilot can hit one of five point shots is very good. In fact, the small number of spare bombs was one of the most prominent shortcomings of the Tang Empire's fighters at that time. Comparatively, the number of ammunition reserves for American fighters with 50-caliber heavy machine guns is much higher.

"Squadron leader, we're running out of ammunition, damn, there are so many enemy planes, fighting with the son of a bitch!"

"We're out of ammo too,!"

The pilots all shouted, but Wang Xiaotian did not answer, because he had already fired six bursts and shot down three enemy planes, and one of them was a long burst, that is, his remaining shells hit a maximum of six bursts. He may be in the best situation, but others are different.

On the battleship on the sea, Han Shaofeng didn't realize that those fighters were running out of ammunition.

He simply believes that after the arrival of air defense fighters, the security of the fleet has been solved for the most part.

"Look, general, it's our fighter!"

Han Shaofeng was taken aback, and when he looked in the direction pointed by the adjutant, a "Falcon" fighter did not fall immediately after being hit by an enemy plane, but stubbornly rammed into it, and died with the F4U. Han Shaofeng rushed to the outside of the cabin and looked at the sky over there. Both planes lost their wings and were falling towards the surface of the sea, when a small black dot left the plane, and a white parachute appeared in the sky. Han Shaofeng still looked intently at the fighter plane that was still falling, and it was not the Imperial pilot who parachuted, because the parachute used by the Imperial pilot was not white, but dark yellow!

In the sky, more and more "falcons" became cannonballs, and the pilots of the Imperial Navy began to burn their last bit of life, for a common idea!