Several problems arose during the crossing, and by the time the fleet reached the sea about 25o nautical miles from Tarawa Island, it was already past five o'clock, which was more than thirty minutes longer than Tan Renhao expected. Maybe more than 30 minutes is nothing in normal times, but at this time, the impact of more than 30 minutes is too great.

"The bomber began to take off in five minutes." Hao Dongjue deployed the combat mission at noon, and the aviation service personnel were ready for the bombers before four o'clock. "The second group of bombers followed, but by the time they arrived at Tarawa Island, it should have been dark."

"Let's go according to plan." Tan Renhao let out a sigh, "How long has it been since the shelling formation came out?" ”

"Turned half an hour ago." Hao Dongjue marked the route of the shelling formation on the chart, "They can arrive at about 1 a.m. at the earliest, and they can organize two shelling before dawn." ”

"That's enough." Tan Renhao nodded, "When the first round of bombing begins, immediately contact the second task force and ask where they are and when they can come over to participate in the bombing operation. ”

Hao Dongjue hesitated slightly, and immediately asked the communications staff officer to write down this order. Tan Renhao still did not forget to distribute the benefits to the Second Task Force, and in fact, there was no need for the Second Task Force to intervene in this operation. By now, the 1st Task Force raid on Tarawa Island had been very successful. The fleet successfully reached the attack area, and did not encounter any US patrol planes along the way, and I am afraid that when the bombers sent by the fleet reached the sky over Tarawa Island, the US military would not know that the First Task Force had been killed. Even if the bombing campaign fails, Task Force 2 will be too late to move south, and may not even reach the attack area before dawn. At this time, Tan Renhao "invited" the Second Task Force to participate in the attack, obviously to divide part of the credit to the Second Task Force. Although Hao Dongjue's feeling is not so good, he will not object, after all, Lei Shaoqing and Chang Jianxin are also his brothers.

The bomber group began to take off in 6 consecutive waves, and this time it was Lieutenant Colonel Yang Qinkai who led the first batch of bombers. Qiu Gengbo was responsible for leading the second group of bombers. Because considering that the US fighters should be returning to the airfield at this time, and will not let the fighters take off before dusk, Hao Dongjue only arranged a squad of ground fighters for the first attack wave, and also arranged a squad of fighters for the second attack wave, leaving only a squad of fighters in the fleet.

Among the first batch of bombers were 24 "Shooting Birds", 2 "Sea Eagles" and 12 "Falcons" with rockets. Yang Qinkai's main task was to blow up the air defense positions around the airfield, and this was mainly done by "shooting water birds". And then the dish is to destroy the airport runway. The second batch of bombers, on the contrary, was 12 "water-shooting birds". 24 "Sea Eagles" and 12 "Falcons" with rockets and bombs. Qiu Gengbo's mission was to destroy the runway, prevent the US fighters from taking off at night, and then shell the formation to shell the US seaplane bases in the airport and lagoon to complete the final destruction mission.

Yang Qinkai is not as arrogant as Qiu Gengbo, but he has the characteristics that all bomber pilots have, such as swearing, yelling, and incoherent speech when excited. Compared with Qiu Gengbo, he is a little more steady. But it's also spicy enough. Especially when fighting, Yang Qinkai will not yell at his subordinates, but only take the lead in attacking. Use actions to tell the pilots who follow his ass what he is doing and what he is asking others to do.

After leaving the fleet, the fleet flew at an optimal cruising altitude of 45oo meters at 22o knots. When they reached the sea about 8o nautical miles from Tarawa Island, the group lowered its altitude and sprinted as fast as possible 3oo meters above the surface of the sea. The escort fighters were nearby, and no fighters came out because there were not enough escort fighters. Yang Qinkai didn't feel nervous, he trusted Hao Dongjue, the chief of staff, very much. More than two years ago. Before the Second Task Force, Hao Dongjue was the chief of staff of the fleet's aviation operations, and was specifically responsible for planning aviation combat operations.

Yang Qinkai was only a squad leader at that time, and from that time on, he believed that Hao Dongjue was the best aviation combat officer in the Imperial Navy, and now he is a general.

"Lao Yang, there are still ten minutes to see 6 places." The navigator in the back seat has been busy calculating the course, degrees. and the time to reach the sky over the island.

Yang Qinkai glanced at the setting sun in the west and said, "Almost, it should be dark when the bombing is over, it seems that Qiu Gengbo and they can only bomb at night." ”

"Then let's light a few fires for them and show them the way!"

The laughter of the other pilots could be heard through the headphones. In order to maximize the destructive power, there were also two bombers in the group with incendiary bombs hanging from them. The mission of these two bombers was to blow up the dormitories of the US troops, and as long as the US officers and men were killed, their fighters would not be able to take off.

The bomber was affected by the strong air currents at low altitudes and began to jolt violently. At dusk, the airflow near the oceanic islands is at its most turbulent. During the day, the temperature of the 6 places is higher than that of the ocean, so it is the 6 winds that urge, and at night, the temperature of the ocean is higher than that of the 6 places, and the sea breeze blows. At dusk, the temperature of the sea begins to cool down, and the temperature of the sea drops more slowly, so it will form a very chaotic air current.

Yang Qinkai worked hard to control the bomber. "Waterfowl" is not designed for low-altitude flight, and when dive bombers perform bombing missions, they generally enter at an altitude of several thousand meters, and then dive to drop bombs, and fly at low altitudes for very little time. Relatively speaking, "Shooting water birds"

The low-altitude performance is much worse than that of the "Sea Eagle" and even the "Falcon". Yang Qinkai and the others also began to become familiar with low-altitude flying in the past two months, and before, they rarely conducted low-altitude flight training, let alone combat operations.

"Old Yang, five minutes!"

"Understood, the group is ready to climb high, damn, I'm having enough!"

The five-minute flight was short enough, and even if the plane group was pulled up at this time and the radar set up by the US military on the island appeared, it would be difficult for the US military to make a quick response. According to the intelligence gathered by the intelligence department of the Tang Empire, the time for dinner of the US combat units was about 6:40 to 7 o'clock, and under normal circumstances. The officers and men of the unit will begin to change their guards at about 6:10 a.m., and some officers and men on night duty will have dinner before 6 o'clock. And now the time is 6:10, and when the aircraft group arrives over the island, the US military should be changing the guard, and it will not be able to react quickly at all.

When Yang Qinkai saw the golden island in front of him, he pulled up the bomber, and the more than 20 "water birds" and more than 10 "falcons" that followed him also immediately pulled up. Only the "sea eagles" who went to destroy the runway of the airport continue to fly at low altitudes.

When the bomber climbed, Yang Qinkai looked at the island in front of him, the airport was in the southeast of the island, the runway was more than 1,000 meters long, and the nearby dense hangars, dormitories and other buildings were very obvious, of course, those several anti-aircraft artillery positions were also extremely obvious.

When the U.S. military appeared with these bombers from the southwest, they immediately panicked and looked for shelters everywhere, which must be the bombers of the Tang Empire. Because at this time all the US warplanes stationed on the island were on the airfield. And to the southwest of Tarawa Island, except for the Solomon Islands, there are no islands where US warplanes are deployed. And the Solomon Islands are nearly 2ooo kilometers from Tarawa Island, and no fighter plane can fly so far in one go.

When Yang Qinkai dropped the bomb on the ground of the US anti-aircraft artillery position, those anti-aircraft guns had not yet spewed out flames. In less than five minutes, all 24 "waterbirds" successfully dropped their bombs, and four anti-aircraft gun positions were engulfed in flames. Then, the "Falcon" fighter swooped down from the sky and began to use machine guns and rockets to eliminate the anti-aircraft guns that had not been destroyed, as well as the American officers and soldiers who were fleeing in all directions.

Ten "sea eagles" dropped submunitions on the airport runway. The runway of the airport on Tarawa Island is 12oo meters long, and it is impossible to completely destroy this runway with bombs dropped by ten bombers. It can only play the role of blocking the take-off of US fighters. The other two "Sea Eagles" with incendiary bombs rushed directly to the dormitory area of the US military and dropped four 5oo kg incendiary bombs in the middle of the barracks, and the fire immediately lit up half of the sky.

When the "Falcon" fighter went to suppress the US fighter on the runway that was about to take off, Yang Qinkai had already driven his ground plane to an altitude of 2ooo meters. The sun had sunset below sea level, and after the last glimmers of light, the sky had darkened. And the fire lit by the four incendiary bombs lit up the entire airport as if it were four huge bonfires.

"Okay, prepare to retreat and leave some food for Qiu Gengbo and them. We return to the fleet! ”

When Yang Qinkai and the others left Tarawa Island, Qiu Gengbo was flying in with his fleet. Because there was no need to worry about being detected by the radar of the US military, the second batch of bombers flew at the optimal cruising altitude all the way. Ten nautical miles away, Qiu Gengbo saw a fire burning on the island. This was for their "lighthouse", and when they arrived at the airfield, the dozen or so fighters in the first batch of bombers left one after another, and the fighters in the second group of bombers immediately dropped bombs and took over the task of suppressing the take-off of US fighters.

The fire gave them a target, and this kind of fire burning on the ground could help the bomber pilots find ground targets in the night sky much better than throwing flares (flares burned in the air, which affected the pilot's line of sight, and the actual effect was not ideal).

The bomber group was also immediately divided into two groups, one group continued to destroy the runway, while the other group of 12 "water birds" bombed the US hangar, aviation command center, and tower with all their might.

The entire bombing operation went very smoothly, and Qiu Gengbo did not lose a single fighter, only Yang Qinkai's group lost two "water birds". In exchange for this loss, hundreds of fighters were destroyed on the runway (none of these fighters were dragged into the hangar, and the number of hangars on the island at that time was limited and could not accommodate all the fighters), and more than a dozen hangars were destroyed, the aviation control tower was also blown up, the aviation operations center burned in the fire, and almost all the American officers and soldiers who stayed in the dormitory at that time were burned to death, but most of the American officers and soldiers were outside or in the canteen at this time, so the loss of personnel was not very large.

When Yang Qinkai came back with the news of the successful sneak attack, Tan Renhao immediately asked the communications staff officer to send a telegram and asked the Second Task Force to join the battle as soon as possible, and then sent a telegram to the artillery bombardment formation, asking the artillery formation to suppress the US airfield at night as much as possible, so that the airfield could not be restored to use before dawn, and before dawn, a new bombing would be organized.

"Looks like we're in luck!"

"Now let's get ready to receive the returning bombers, it's not time for us to be happy."

Tan Renhao let out a sigh, he was also nervous for more than an hour. "Turn on the navigation lights on the aircraft carrier, let the bombers land quickly, you go to Yang Qinkai to ask in detail how big the fire is on the island, if possible, organize a bombing in the first half of the night, you must completely destroy the airfield!"

"No problem, when Yang Qinkai comes back, I'll go find him. By the way, when will you give General Liao Hanxiang a good report? ”

Tan Renhao hesitated for a moment and said, "Let Shaoqing and them go to this telegram, after all, we belong to the Southwest Pacific Theater." ”

Hao Dongjue shrugged his shoulders and didn't say anything more.

At about eight o'clock in the evening of the same day, that is, shortly after Deng Zi's group returned to the fleet, Yang Qinkai's group went out again and carried out a supplementary bombing of the airfield on Tarawa Island. In order to increase the bombing effect, four "Sea Eagles" were specially arranged to hang incendiary bombs and fly in front of the group of planes, using incendiary bombs to point out targets for the bombers behind. This can be regarded as a little experience summed up by pilots in actual combat, and the lighting effect of incendiary bombs is much better than that of flares!

At one o'clock, the shelling formation reached the vicinity of Tarawa Island, and after ten minutes of forming up the formation, the shelling operation immediately began. Throughout the second half of the night, the shelling formations shelled the airfield and the American seaplane base in the lagoon. The shelling lasted fifteen minutes each time, once every half hour, which made it possible to reduce the degree of ammunition consumption and adjust the target according to the results of the shelling.

At this time, Task Force 2 was on its way south, preparing to participate in the bombing operation at dawn.