When watching Jiang Wenhan's fleet leave the sky above the fleet, An Shile was a little red-eyed, to put it bluntly, he was a little jealous of Jiang Wenhan, and what made him even more unhappy was that Jiang Wenhan would definitely have more opportunities this time, and if he wanted to catch up with Jiang Wenhan, it would take more time and more effort.

"Colonel, what are you thinking?" Yuan Peng asked inappropriately.

"It's nothing, keep an eye on the sky near you, don't bother me if it's okay!" Ansler is not a little annoying, but very annoying.

When arranging the mission, he wanted to stay and carry out the escort mission, and all the fighter pilots knew that the escort operation had more opportunities to take out the enemy's fighters, but there were not so many opportunities to carry out the air defense mission, and the ghost knew that the enemy's bomber opportunities would not come. As a result, however, he was still assigned to air defense missions, and to the second task force. This made An Shile feel very unhappy, could he only watch Jiang Wenhan open the gap?

"Colonel ......"

"Damn, I said it, don't bother me!"

"News from the fleet, Jiang Wenhan, they have encountered a group of bombers from the US military!"

"What?" Jiang Wenhan was stunned for a moment, and immediately glanced at his watch, almost, Jiang Wenhan and the others were about to go to the sky above the US fleet.

"Just sent it, our escort fighters encountered a group of US bombers, and General Hao Dongjue did not let Jiang Wenhan and them intercept the US bombers, it seems that they are going to let them over to deal with us."

"That's good, contact the other teams, damn, we didn't wait in vain!"

Waiting is still necessary, the US bomber group has just set off, Ellsler gathered the fighters of the four squads, but he still has to wait patiently for nearly an hour, before the US bomber group arrives, they have nothing to do, but during this time, the second task force has a lot to do.

Four destroyers, which were on air defense alert, quickly arrived at the stated positions. These destroyers all had speeds of more than 35 knots. And its own air defense is not very strong, so after they leave, the air defense of the fleet will not be affected much. And most importantly, there is space on large destroyers to set up an air defense command center. In this way, the air defense officer on the destroyer could directly guide the nearby fighters to intercept the approaching enemy bombers. This is a significant improvement, which is equivalent to an extra pair of bright eyes for the fighter group, and the radar on the destroyer is able to detect a bomber group dozens of nautical miles away, and then report the location of the enemy aircraft group to the fighter group. This allows the fighter group to reach the interception position in time, so that there is more chance to intercept the enemy bombers.

As the minutes passed, Yuan Peng was in charge of the work of contacting the fleet, and the fighter had only one pilot, so the wingman pilot had to share the task of the long plane. Ansley is mainly responsible for guiding the actions of other fighters, especially before entering the interception airspace, and he has to ensure that every fighter under his command is able to participate in the interception operation.

"Colonel, I received the news that the enemy aircraft group is approaching!"

Ellsler was overjoyed and immediately said, "Directions." Distance. Scale! ”

"In a 300-degree direction, at a distance of 45 nautical miles, there are at least more than 100 of them. Maybe more! ”

"Beckoning brothers to come along!"

"Do you want to greet Colonel Wang Zhihua?"

"No, our four squads are enough, let Wang Zhihua and them wait next to them first, maybe there are other groups!" Ansloth actually wants to eat alone. If the US military fleet has only more than 100 planes, then the number of escort fighters will be quite limited. The fleet was still a few dozen nautical miles to the southeast, and Ellsroth had plenty of time and opportunity to intercept the bombers.

Yuan Peng immediately began to greet the fighters around him, and his thoughts were the same as those of An Shile. Now, he has shot down 28 enemy planes in battle, and he is the tenth ace of the first task force in air combat, and Yuan Peng is naturally dissatisfied with this "tenth" identity. In his opinion, as long as there are enough opportunities, he can even surpass Ellsle, and the premise is that he must become a long-term machine, as long as he is still Andersle's partner, he cannot surpass Ellsle.

Ellsler was a little naïve in his thinking, and the air defense operation was not arranged by him, but by the officers of the fleet. When the air defense guide on the destroyer beckoned Andersler to intercept the US bomber group, the air defense staff officer of the fleet headquarters called Wang Zhihua's group of planes patrolling the north side of the fleet, and just as Andersler and the others were quickly rushing to the interception point, the fighters of the five squadrons led by Wang Zhihua had already flown over to this side, and it was impossible for Andersler to "eat alone."

"Pay attention to the formation, pay attention to covering each other, first break up the Yankees' escort fighter group, don't fight with the enemy's ground fighters, and directly attack the bombers in the rear." An Shilok was giving orders to his men, "Every two formations cooperate with each other, use speed to attack, don't slow down easily, understand?" ”

"Colonel, you've said it no less than ten times!"

"There should have been a hundred times!"

"yes, we all have calluses in our ears!"

"Puppy day, don't talk to me, be smart after the fight, don't be bitten by the enemy, remember one thing, our speed is faster than the Yankees, make full use of the speed advantage!" Ellsler laughed, this time he brought a few novices, and these novices performed well on the battlefield, they are all seedlings worth cultivating, the only thing that makes Andersler a little dissatisfied is that young people now don't know how to respect their elders, but then again, Andersler is only a few years older than these novices, and he is not an elder.

"Colonel, the enemy group is approaching, about 15 nautical miles from us, just ahead!"

"See!" Ansle had already seen the blackened fighter plane flying from the northwest. "Spread out, don't fly too far, remember, hit the enemy's bombers!"

"Understood!"

The "peregrine falcons" of four squads quickly dispersed, with each two in a formation and every two in a group acting together. This is a relatively fixed set of tactics, and this is also a new tactic formulated according to the fast speed of the "peregrine falcon". Under normal circumstances, one formation is responsible for attacking enemy bombers, and the other formation follows behind to cover at a distance of 300 to 500 meters to prevent enemy fighters from attacking the formation in front. When attacking, the speed of the "peregrine falcon" is the biggest advantage, and it basically adopts the tactics of hitting and running, and never fights with the enemy's ground fighters, which is more dangerous, and secondly, it will waste precious time in volleying. In fleet air defense operations, the most precious thing is time.

"Xiaopeng, follow me, first find the captain raised by the son of a bitch!"

"Lao An, I'm not young anymore!" Yuan Peng protested, and he had protested countless times that Ellsler called him that.

"Don't ramble with me, follow me!" An Shile didn't want to argue with Yuan Peng at this time, "Kill their leader first." And then hit 'Bunny'! ”

It is very difficult, but not impossible, to find the leader in a large fleet. In general, the leader of the team will fly at the front, or in the middle of a small team. In addition, the lead aircraft is mostly a dive bomber, not a torpedo bomber. This is a feature of the carrier-based aviation of the US Navy. Of course, the most important thing is that there must be a more obvious mark on the captain's plane, just as the colonel's landline of the Imperial Navy will have a unique mark on the vertical tail, which is easy to identify from a relatively long distance.

Rushed back and forth for two rendezvous. After Ellsler and Yuan Peng each shot down a U.S. bomber. Only then did Ellsler discover a white star on the vertical tail with a blank space in the center, which was the captain of the US military fleet. "Xiaopeng, 3 o'clock direction. See? ”

"Damn, I've finally found it!"

"Go around, call the two in the back, and we'll enter from the left!"

"Understood!"

The four Peregrine Falcons quickly rushed out of the combat airspace, and the air had become extremely chaotic by this time. The US military's "super island" frantically intercepted the onrushing "Peregrine Falcon," while the "Peregrine Falcon" group was trying its best to avoid the US fighters and directly slaughtered the bomber formation under the protection of the fighters. The formation of US fighters at the core of the battlefield has been dispersed, and some bombers have even dropped their bombs and torpedoes in advance in order to avoid interception by fighters. This was the first time that the newly trained pilots of the US Fifth Fleet had encountered the fierce Tang Empire's carrier-based fighter unit on the battlefield. Spruance's previous fears became a reality, no matter how rigorous the training was, it could not replace the experience in actual combat, and the American pilots who lacked actual combat experience lost their direction when they encountered the courageous interception of the Tang Empire fighters. I was even scared out of my guts!

"Pull up, I'll cover, you attack!" Ansler's position was not very good, and he left the opportunity to attack to Yuan Peng.

"Colonel, don't lose it!"

"You, keep an eye on the target, don't let the beaked duck fly!" After working with Yuan Peng for several months, he discovered that Yuan Peng was not only a talented fighter pilot. And it's a living treasure.

The Peregrine Falcon attacked while climbing a steep slope, and by the time the American pilot on the bomber noticed the fighter coming from the lower left, it was too late to evade it. Dozens of machine-gun shells enveloped the poor bomber, and at least several shells went straight into the bomber's belly. This was a fatal blow, and when the American bomber was out of control with black smoke, Yuan Peng made a deft tumbling turn to shake off a "super pirate" that bit up, exposing it to the muzzle of Ellsle's guns. Just as Yuan Peng's landline flashed, Ansle's landline fired a row of shells, and the pilot of the "super pirate" shot it down in rows before he could understand what was happening.

"Colonel, the next time you fired a second late, you almost hit me!"

"Can't you flash yourself? Don't ramble with me, damn! Seeing the group of planes coming from the east, An Shile shouted, "Damn, Wang Zhihua, why are they here, damn it!" ”

With the arrival of Wang Zhihua's group, the battle quickly turned into a one-sided massacre. The US bomber group departing from the 53rd Task Force was simply unable to break through the interception network composed of the anti-aircraft fighters of the Bamboo Squad, and one bomber after another was shot down, and even the US fighters escorting the escort were chased and killed. This was no longer a battle, but an opportunity for the fighter pilots of the Imperial Navy to expand their gains. Especially for the two super aces, Ellsler and Wang Zhihua, this is one of the few opportunities they can grasp, the top three aces of the Imperial Navy in air combat are all involved in this battle, and the two aces who are ranked second and third are here. In addition to the two super aces, there are at least two dozen rising stars like Yuan Peng, and more than two-thirds of the fighter pilots are aces. It's nothing short of an ace vs. rookie fight. As you can imagine, the biggest role of the U.S. fighters and bombers that penetrated the defense was perhaps to attract so many fighters to their side, thus providing a rare opportunity for the bomber group of the 51st Task Force.

"Colonel, there's also a group of bombers!"

"What? What did you say? "Ellsloth didn't hear clearly.

"There is also a group of American bombers, in the direction of 9 o'clock, look!"

When Ellor saw the blackened fighter plane, his heart was half cold. When intercepting the first batch of US bombers, the battlefield had already hit the vicinity of the fleet from the airspace of 80 nautical miles away from the fleet, although the interception operation was very successful, more than three-quarters of the US bombers could not escape the pursuit, but this made Ellsle and they ignore the second group of US bombers. Worst of all, the air defense alert ship in this direction was damaged by one of the SB3Cs in the first group of bombers, and it had long since withdrawn from the battle, so it was not timely to detect the approaching second group of American bombers. It was not until the radar on the cruiser in the "Poyang Lake" aircraft carrier battle group detected the US aircraft group that a new alarm was raised.

"Don't fight the enemy, go deal with the second group of bombers, try to break up the enemy group, don't waste time!"

Wang Zhihua and An Shiler issued a new order almost at the same time, and there were not many remaining bombers in the first batch of US bombers to pose a threat to the fleet. But the second group of bombers that followed directly threatened the safety of the fleet. At this time, Ellsler and Wang Zhihua knew very well that they did not have enough time to intercept all the US bombers, and the only way to minimize losses was to disperse the US aircraft group, so that the US aircraft group could not concentrate on attacking, so that the anti-aircraft guns on the battleship would have the opportunity to beat down the US bombers that entered alone!