When the sharp air defense sirens sounded, all the officers and men in the fleet entered their positions, no one gave orders, and no mobilization was made, these officers and men who had been tested by life and death several times knew what they should do at this time, and those new officers and men in the fleet followed the veterans, and they all needed experience.

"The enemy aircraft group is about 7o nautical miles from the fleet."

The staff officer quickly ran over: "The radar on the 'Heavy Snow' has seen a group of enemy planes. ”

"Go and call the chief of staff for another ......" bsp; Lei Shaoqing stopped the staff officer who had just turned around: "Let all the fighters take off, try to intercept the enemy planes!" ”

The staff officer immediately went to give the order, and Lei Shaoqing looked up at the navigation clock at this time. The fighters of the two squadrons sent out before 11:45 should be almost in the skies over Task Force 3. The Japanese planes that were now attacking were flying from the northwest, just in time to miss the 3rd Task Force. It is clear that this wave of bombers was specially designed to deal with the second task force, and the Japanese side has already mastered the activities of the two fleets. Maybe there are still a few Japanese submarines in ambush nearby, otherwise, how would the Japanese know the specific location of the second task force?

7o nautical miles would take at least 2o minutes for a Japanese aircraft capable of flying over Task Force 2, perhaps 25 minutes. These 25 minutes are crucial. Under normal circumstances, the three aircraft carriers can take off in fifteen minutes, and the fighters will maneuver back to the core of the fleet in the remaining ten minutes. And in these fifteen minutes, at least 8o fighters were able to rise into the air. This is the benefit of the long-range vigilance ship as well as the radar. If there is no radar, then the fleet has only fifteen minutes at most to prepare, and it is already a miracle that 3o fighters can take off in five minutes. And the extra 5o fighters will directly determine the life and death of the fleet!

Chang Jianxin rushed in without even putting on his clothes, he nodded at Lei Shaoqing, and immediately went to arrange the air defense of the fleet.

One by one, the "vultures" broke off the flight deck, and the aviation crews were busy with their lives. And at the expense of the life of the catapult, the fighter is frantically ejected out. According to the rules of operation, a catapult can eject one fighter in a minute and a half at most, and the aviation service personnel simply don't care so much, almost two fighters (two catapults) can be ejected every minute, and the direct consequence of such a high frequency of use of catapults is that the service life of the catapult will be reduced by at least half!

At 11:54 a.m., all three aircraft carriers returned to the ground protection circle of the air defense warship. Each aircraft carrier was covered by two large air defense cruisers, as well as three heavy cruisers. In addition, in the gap of the fleet, there were three heavy cruisers, twelve destroyers, which acted as air defense nodes. This is the combat experience summed up by Chang Jianxin in the previous actual combat, the aircraft carrier is scattered in the fleet, and each aircraft carrier is protected by enough air defense warships, so as to ensure the safety of the aircraft carrier to the greatest extent. Of course, the prerequisite is that there must be enough anti-aircraft warships.

At 10:56 a.m., Lei Shaoqing saw a group of Japanese bombers approaching. This is still a group mainly composed of "one type 6 attack" bomber group, there are dozens of "Zero Battle" near the bomber group, and the "vultures" that were previously on patrol duty over the fleet, as well as the first batch of "vultures" that took off, have already been killed. All pilots understand a little. That is, attacking the enemy's ground bombers and sparing the enemy's fighters. Only those bombers posed a threat to the battleship.

"Sir, it seems a little strange."

"Strange?"

Lei Shaoqing glanced at the staff officer next to him.

"Look. Those bombers were torpedoed under them? ”

The major officer pointed at the Japanese group: "If it is a torpedo, they should enter it at a low altitude, and it is impossible to drop a mine at an altitude of several thousand meters." ”

Lei Shaoqing immediately picked up the telescope and looked in the direction of the Japanese aircraft group. Sure enough, under the wing of the "6 Attack", something very similar to a torpedo was hung, but he immediately saw that it was definitely not a torpedo, because no torpedo was so huge, even if it was a heavy torpedo on a battleship, it was not that big. And even more so an aviation torpedo!

"Sir, they dropped a mine, damn what are they doing, no, it's not a torpedo......"

When what looked like a pair of short wings in the middle of a torpedo with a tail on the butt detached from the bomber, sparks erupted. Start swooping plus.

Lei Shaoqing was shocked and immediately reacted. "Shoot those little planes, that's the enemy's suicide plane!"

In fact, Lei Shaoqing no longer needed to give orders, and the gunners on the air defense warships had already noticed those small planes with flames in their butts, and turned their guns one after another. A number of anti-aircraft fighters also joined the attack. Soon several of these small planes were hit and exploded in the air. And several small planes crashed into the sea when they reached the sky over the fleet, and then exploded violently. Apparently, these planes were filled with explosives, and enough explosives to destroy any battleship!

"Go all out to intercept the Japanese bombers that have not yet dropped bombs, not small planes!"

Chang Jianxin also gave the order: "Intercept those bombers at all costs!" ”

More and more "flying bombs" appeared in the sky, the fleet began to turn to evade, and anti-aircraft fire became more and more intensive. At this time, the power of the 8o-mm anti-aircraft guns newly equipped on the battleship and the improved 4o-mm anti-aircraft guns showed that most enemy aircraft simply had no way to break through such a dense anti-aircraft fire network. However, this does not mean that all enemy aircraft have been intercepted.

The first to suffer was the heavy cruiser "Dahan" in the "Pearl River" formation. This cruiser was responsible for the outer air defense of the aircraft carrier. A "flying bomb" that had broken through the air defense network was hit by artillery fire as it continued its assault, and before it lost control, it crashed into the bow armor of the "Great Han", the turret was almost completely blown away, and a huge gap appeared in the bow as if it had been bitten by a monster.

Then the large air defense cruiser "Chai Shao", which was located behind the side of the "Great Han", was also hit by a "flying bomb". It's just that this "bomb" did not explode immediately, but after being loaded into the rear chimney of the cruiser, it passed through and exploded above the seaplane catapult on the right side, killing all dozens of gunners on more than a dozen nearby gun emplacements, and also destroying a third of the anti-aircraft guns on the starboard side. Wan Yu is. The approaching "Chai Shao" from the port side of the enemy aircraft was still able to hold out the operation.

It was also when the "Chai Shao" was in distress that another suicide plane hit the amidship of the "Great Han." This "bomb" exploded only after it got into the interior of the battleship. The violent explosion tossed all the gun emplacements of the ship's amidships. The "Great Chill" could no longer hold on, and after the destruction of the engine room on the left side, the degree also decreased, and then it left the battlefield to the south.

The Japanese "flying bombs" concentrated on attacking the "Pearl River" aircraft carrier formation, and the other two aircraft carrier formations did not pose much threat. At 12:04 p.m., the "Pearl River" aircraft carrier, located at the core of the fleet, finally found it difficult to escape after evading the attacks of dozens of "flying bombs." A "flying bomb" approaching from a high altitude crashed almost straight into the rear elevator of the aircraft carrier after avoiding all anti-aircraft guns.

"Damn, ask about the 'Pearl River'!"

Lei Shaoqing looked at the little black dot and hit it, and he thought that the "Pearl River" would definitely be finished.

The staff officer quickly picked up the microphone. "The 'Pearl River' is the flagship of the flagship to report the damage......"

The battle was still raging, and at 12:15 p.m., the second group of Japanese bombers reached the periphery of the fleet, and among these Japanese bombers was a group of suicide planes. That is, the "kamikaze" special attack aircraft encountered in the last campaign. The battle is heating up. The "Huaihe" aircraft carrier squadron became a key target. Dozens of suicide planes. In addition, dozens of "Type 6 Attackers" that carried out horizontal bombing and bombing directly hit the "Huaihe" aircraft carrier formation in the northeast corner of the fleet.

The anti-aircraft artillery on the "Huaihe" formation was about to evacuate, and the battleship was also roaring. In charge of the defense of the left side of the "Huaihe" was the large air defense cruiser "Duan Zhixuan". The battleship had already achieved great success in the previous battle, and within two minutes of the Japanese bombers approaching. Hundreds of anti-aircraft guns on the "Duan Zhixuan" Dashenwei shot down twelve Japanese bombers, including at least eight suicide planes.

The Japanese soon turned their attention to the brave "capital ship", and the suicide planes arrived almost at the same time as the bombers. The "Duan Zhixuan" stuck to the port side of the aircraft carrier, and while keeping up with the fleet, it was constantly avoiding the suicide planes that fell from the bombs. The anti-aircraft artillery on the battleship was like a sharp thorn on the hedgehog's body, making it impossible for Japanese fighters to approach at all. By 12:28 a.m., the anti-aircraft artillery on the "Duan Zhixuan" had shot down twenty-one enemy planes, and had also avoided at least 3o bombs. More than a dozen suicide planes.

The "Huaihe" was able to escape the catastrophe, and the cover of the "Duan Zhixuan" was indispensable. Later, the "Duan Zhixuan" was awarded the collective first-class merit, and dozens of gunners were also received and commended by the marshal of the imperial navy. Similarly, it was the stubborn resistance of the "Duan Zhixuan" and other warships in the surrounding areas that completely shattered the Japanese attempt to attack the "Huaihe" aircraft carrier.

At 12:32 p.m., Lei Shaoqing received a report on the damage to the "Pearl River" aircraft carrier. The Japanese suicide plane exploded on the surface of the ship and did not enter the hangar and exploded, while the "Yangtze River" class aircraft carrier was designed with an armored flight deck. This saved the hangar from harm. Damage to the flight deck can be easily repaired on the docks of Iwo Jima or Chichijima, and the aircraft carrier can still continue to fight.

At 12:37 a.m., the last Japanese bombers were routed, and after confirming that there were no Japanese fighters in the vicinity, the fleet disarmed itself and began to rescue the damaged battleships. In addition to the heavy cruiser "Heavy Snow", which had withdrawn from the battle, and the aircraft carriers "Chai Shao" and "Pearl River", which had been moderately damaged, two other heavy cruisers were damaged, and one destroyer was hit by a suicide plane, which sank within five minutes. And in the air defense battle, more than a dozen fighters were shot down, and six pilots were killed. The losses of the fleet can be said to be very large, but in exchange for hundreds of Japanese fighters and at least a thousand well-trained Japanese pilots!

At 12:55 p.m., news of the 3rd Task Force arrived. While the Second Task Force was attacked, the Third Task Force was also attacked by Japanese suicide planes and the kind of "flying bombs". The battleship "Chengdu" suffered a "flying bomb" and the damage was not very serious, and the heavy cruiser "Baoding River" was hit by a bomb and needed to return to port for repairs. The five squadrons responsible for providing anti-aircraft cover for Task Force 3 lost seven fighters and four pilots were killed.

When Tan Renhao received the battle report from Lei Shaoqing's return, it was already around half past one in the afternoon. He had already known that the 2nd and 3rd task forces had been attacked by the Japanese army. When he saw the battle report, he immediately became nervous. During the bombing, the Japanese army not only dispatched ordinary bombers, suicide planes, but also a very strange bomb. Without the slightest hesitation, Tan Renhao immediately forwarded the battle report to the Navy Command, and at the same time hoped that the intelligence agencies could quickly investigate and find out what the new "bomb" used by the Japanese army was.

That afternoon, Tan Renhao received another message. A "flying bomb" that crashed into the battleship "Nanning" did not explode, and although it was seriously damaged, the general structure was still preserved. The officers and men on the battleship found the body of the Japanese pilot in the bomb. Tan Renhao immediately ordered the Third Task Force to send a fast destroyer to load the "bomb" that did not explode and immediately return to the Zhoushan Command, which was the most important clue. And this did provide reliable physical proof for the technical department of the Imperial Navy, as well as the intelligence department.

Later, Tan Renhao learned that the "flying bomb" was actually a kind of human bomb controlled by a person, powered by a rocket motive, loaded with hundreds of kilograms of explosives, and carried and dropped by a bomber. And the Japanese called this bomb "Sakura", and it was from here that the Imperial Navy fleet had to face another crazy weapon against the Japanese!

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