The fleet led by Deng Zi consisted of 4o "Kingfishers", 42 "Ospreys" and 24 "Sparrowhawks" with bombs on them. Because they were attacking the Japanese First Battlefleet, which had no air defense fighters, they did not want to escort fighters. At the time of takeoff, three bombers returned to the fleet due to motor failure. In fact, this fleet consists of only 1o3 fighters. But for Deng Zi, this was enough.

In order to attack the Japanese fleet before dark, the fleet has been flying as fast as possible. 24o nautical miles will take an hour and a half for the slowest "Osprey", that is, by the time it reaches the skies over the Japanese fleet, it will be almost dark. Therefore, Deng Zi did not let the other bombers go with him, but let the fastest "Sparrowhawk" run to the front, followed by the "Kingfisher", and the "Osprey" led by him was at the rear. However, Dengzi's luck was not so bad, because the Japanese fleet was also sailing in the direction of Ryukyu Island. So, by the time the bomber group reached the skies over the Japanese fleet, it was 2o minutes before it got dark!

The Sparrowhawks, who arrived first, did not attack the six battleships at the core of the fleet, but aimed at the destroyer cruisers on the periphery of the fleet. Originally, the "Sparrowhawk" hung up the bomb to "make a cameo" appearance on the bomber, and the bombing skills of those fighter pilots were not very good. If they were to bomb battleships with strong anti-aircraft firepower, they would simply be sending them to death and wasting ammunition with them outside. Therefore, at the time of departure, these pilots were clearly told to bomb the destroyers and cruisers on the periphery of the Japanese fleet, and then use their guns and machine guns to strafe the anti-aircraft gun positions on the enemy battleships to clear the way for the bombers behind. Of course, fighter pilots are also happy to perform such tasks, at least they are much more skilled in strafing battleships with aerial guns than in the field of bombing.

The Sparrowhawk finished dropping the bomb. When they began to attack battleships with their guns, the Kingfisher fleet also reached the skies over the Japanese fleet. The mission of these "Kingfishers" was to directly bomb the six most threatening battleships. Without interception by air defense fighters, the high-flying "Kingfisher" easily reached the ground of the battleship. Then the "kingfishers" swooped down on the battleships on the surface of the sea in the afterglow of the setting sun. To the surprise of the "Kingfisher" pilots, the ground anti-aircraft artillery fire on these six behemoths was not as dense as they imagined, and it was even less ferocious than the anti-aircraft fire on the Japanese heavy cruisers during the naval battle of Ryukyu Island!

At that time, Japan installed all the new anti-aircraft guns produced on the warships of the First Air Fleet. And the warships of other fleets have not yet had time to improve. More importantly, four of the six battleships of the First Battlefleet (two each in the Fuso, Ise, and Nagato classes) were built during World War I. Although they all survived the war, their performance has fallen behind badly. The construction of the "Nagato" class also began shortly after the end of the war, and it is also nearly 20 years old, and its performance is backward. And many of the warships of the Tang Empire in the same period have already been decommissioned. Or simply be sent to be used as a training ship. In fact, this also reflects the problem that Japan's national strength is not directly proportional to its ambitions. Look all the way to the Chinese network The anti-aircraft fire on these six battleships has not been strengthened!

Although the anti-aircraft artillery fire of the Japanese fleet appeared to be intensive. But the pilots of the "Kingfisher" were all now, and when they reached the sky over the Japanese battleships, there were not many shells coming at them. Forty "Kingfishers" divided into six groups and headed at the six battleships on the surface of the sea. With experience in the naval battle of Ryukyu Island, these pilots almost always dropped bombs at the lowest dropping altitude. This ensures that the bomb has a sufficient hit rate.

The six battleships that were attacked immediately turned south at full speed, but their maximum degree was about 25 knots (which was also an important reason why they were not incorporated into the aircraft carrier fleet, and their degree could not keep up with the degree of the aircraft carriers). It will not be able to provide cover for the aircraft carrier) and all are extremely bulky. Although all six battleships dodged left and right to avoid a batch of bombs, they still managed to escape their fate. The first to be reloaded was the battleship "Fuso", which was located at the rear of the fleet, and a 5oo kg aviation armor-piercing shell fell directly on the rear deck, when the bomb exploded. The stern of the battleship suddenly sank and was bounced up again. It's as if a spring is installed underneath. Then three other battleships were bombed, and the "Nagato" was hit by two bombs in a row in ten seconds.

When Deng Zi led the "Osprey" fleet to arrive, only half of the sunset in the west was still above sea level. The "Kingfisher" group has also finished dropping bombs and is returning home. Deng Zi saw the "Fusang" dragging behind him at a glance, and he did not hesitate to immediately call five nearby "Ospreys" and kill them towards the "Fusang". The fleet entered from the west, just in the afterglow of the setting sun. The anti-aircraft gunners on the battleship immediately appeared on these six "restless and kind" torpedo bombers, and the anti-aircraft gunners on the two heavy cruisers around them also saw these six "Ospreys", and then a batch of shells came over.

This time, Deng Zi didn't try hard, he didn't want to end up here. The Fuso was less than 8 knots left, and black smoke was still rising from the stern, apparently the propulsion system had been damaged. Such a battleship simply did not have the ability to dodge torpedo attacks. Deng Zi first dropped a torpedo at a distance of 1ooo meters, and then five other "Ospreys" also dropped torpedoes. When they withdrew from the battle, not a single one was hit, and all the flying anti-aircraft shells hit the sea. This can only show that the quality of the Japanese anti-aircraft gunners of the 1st Battlefleet was really not very good.

Four torpedoes buried the "Fuso", and one of the two torpedoes that was missed hit a destroyer on the starboard side of the "Fuso". However, this result was not recorded in the name of Deng Zi, because no one knew at the time that the destroyer had also been torpedoed.

The other Ospreys also quickly entered the attack position and attacked the other five battleships. In this round of attacks, in addition to the sinking of the "Fuso", the "Yamashiro" was hit by two bombs, three torpedoes, and the losses of the "Ise" were not small, and both battleships withdrew from formation one after another and returned to the Japanese mainland.

Zhang Naiding's fleet arrived near the Japanese fleet an hour and a half late. At this time. It was already completely dark. In order to be able to find the Japanese fleet on the sea, Zhang Naiding lowered the group to a height of 5oo meters, and then searched for the shadow of the battleship on the sea with all his might.

The night sky was very dark, as if the moon was specifically against Zhang Naiding, and if there was a little moonlight, the Japanese fleet could be seen quickly, but the moon hid in the clouds. There weren't even a few stars in the night sky. But in the end, it was the Japanese battleship that helped a lot.

On the "Nagato", which began to be bombed, Japanese naval officers and sailors were busy extinguishing the fire on the starboard side, and a bomb fell here. Fortunately, the horizontal armor did not penetrate, otherwise the battleship would have been finished, because below is the ammunition depot for the empty cannon! Another bomb destroyed the ship's turret No. 1, but the damage was contained. Now the "Nagato" can still sail at the fastest speed. Moreover, there were no problems with the other main guns on the battleship, and there was a certain combat effectiveness, so Takasu Goro did not let the "Nagato" withdraw from the fleet. But. He must have made a mistake in this decision, and the faint light on the starboard side of the battleship eventually attracted more bombers.

This time, Zhang Naiding did not let the fighters with bombs come out, anyway, they could only bomb at night, so half an hour early and half an hour late was not much different. When he saw the light of the fire on the "Nagato", Zhang Naiding flew to the front, and there were no bombs on his fighter plane. Hung were four aviation flares. Therefore, he is not responsible for the attack, but for directing it. There were four other Kingfishers in the fleet with aviation flares hanging from them.

Zhang Naiding first raised the fighter to a height of 1ooo meters, and then dropped the first flare. Four other Kingfishers also dropped flares. These flares were all covered with parachutes and fell from a height of 1,000 meters. It can provide a five-minute lighting time. With five flares lit up on the surface of the sea, the Japanese fleet immediately appeared in its original form, but at the same time, it also illuminated the fighters in the sky. Then the searchlights on the ships and the anti-aircraft guns fired.

The battle quickly got out of control, and because it was impossible to accurately identify the battleships on the surface of the sea (it was easy to identify a heavy cruiser as a battleship), Zhang Naiding had to let the various squads attack freely and did not need to carry out coordinated attacks. In fact, there is not much point in a coordinated attack, because it is impossible for the pilots to take care of other formations at this time.

The effect of night bombing was not very ideal, and the hit rate of bombs and torpedoes was not very high. This is also a major reason why the aircraft carrier fleet should avoid night battles. However, such attacks are not without effect. The "Nagato" became a key target. The battleship had already been heavily damaged, and now at least a dozen bombers were eyeing the Nagato.

Zhang Naiding couldn't see the situation on the battlefield clearly at all, especially when he just dropped the flare, the strong orange-red light made him unable to even open his eyes. As for how many bombs the "Nagato" received and how many torpedoes were hit, Zhang Naiding himself could not say. Later, he only remembered that after the battleship had been attacked several times, it had become like a detonated firecracker warehouse, and the battleship exploded violently, and the flames lit up the surrounding land, sea and air. Then there was one of the most violent explosions on the ship, probably because the main gun ammunition depot was detonated. Less than five minutes after the explosion, the battleship disappeared from the sea, and less than 1,000 Japanese naval officers and sailors on it escaped in the end.

After the bad luck of the "Nagato", it was the turn of the "6 Ao" in the direction of its starboard side. This is the sister ship of the "Nagato" and the flagship of Goro Takasu. This battleship should also be unlucky. At that time, nearly 10 bombers preparing to attack the "Nagato" immediately turned their attention to the "6 O" after seeing that their target had been completed. Of the four "Kingfishers" in the first round of dives, two bombs hit the "6 Ao". However, the pilot of one of the "Kingfishers" changed the altitude of the dive, which was too low (it is difficult to visually determine the altitude at night), and as a result, it was impossible to change the dive at all, and the "Kingfisher" crashed directly into the sea.

The last unlucky was the battleship "Hyuga". During the bombing of the Deng Zi group, the ship behaved extremely bravely, not only dodging more than a dozen bombs and several torpedoes, but also shooting down six bombers, as a result, the other pilots simply did not "provoke" the battleship, and instead attacked other Japanese warships. However, this time the "Hyuga" did not have a good time. When the "6 Ao" turned into a sea of fire, there were still more than a dozen bombers with bombs and torpedoes that were not dropped. And these pilots knew that their task was not to sink the Japanese battleships, but to make more Japanese battleships incapacitated, unable to threaten the troops on the 6th Ryukyu Island. Therefore, all of these more than a dozen bombers rushed towards the "Hyuga".

The anti-aircraft fire on the "Hyuga" once again caused the two bombers to crash into the sea, but this was also its last madness. The first bomb hit the "Hyuga" plunged the port side of the battleship into a sea of fire, and the several anti-aircraft guns located here were all muted. The other bombers immediately saw this, and attacked from the port side of the battleship. In three minutes in a row, the battleship received four torpedoes and three bombs. However, the tenacious "Hyuga" did not sink, and later struggled to return to Japan, where it lay on the slipway for more than a year before it was completely repaired, although at this time Japan did not need such battleships.

After completing the attack, Zhang Naiding left the sky over the Japanese fleet with the group of planes returning to the sea. Of the six Japanese battleships, three were sunk in the end (the "6 Ao" was struck by a Tang Empire submarine on its way back to Japan), and three were heavily damaged, and the bombing mission went smoothly. However, what makes Zhang Naiding a little headache now is landing on the aircraft carrier at night, which is the most challenging time for pilots. However, more than an hour ago, Deng Zi and the others had already finished a "stunt" in the air, and as a result, three fighters did not have a blocking cable, and directly rushed to the group on the front deck, and more than a dozen fighters were scrapped because of this, I don't know if the situation of Zhang Naiding's group will be worse.