Task Force 3 has left Port-au-Prince and is now sailing towards the Swan Islands, which will arrive early tomorrow morning."

Tan Renhao received the telegram from Zhu Rongzhe, which was sent by Chang Zhixin, and the Third Task Force had successfully destroyed the French fleet in the interior of Port-au-Prince. Prior to this, the bomber group at the return site had sent back the same news, and Port-au-Prince had become a battleship graveyard under the heavy blows of Task Force 3.

"When will the supply fleet arrive?" Tan Renhao put down the message, "Besides, is there any news from Han Shaofeng?" ”

"The supply fleet will be able to reach the Swan Islands anchorage this evening and replenish our ammunition and fuel first. General Han Shaofeng has not sent a message for the time being, they should not have encountered any trouble, according to the plan. The landing fleet will arrive the day after tomorrow."

"Let's get ready for the third round of bombing in the afternoon." Tan Renhao didn't ask any more, everything was going according to plan.

In the afternoon of the same day, the 1st and 2nd task forces continued to send two groups of bombers to carry out supplementary bombing of some airfields that were not completely destroyed. It was only in the evening that Tan Renhao finally relaxed, and this day-to-day battle only proved one thing, that is, the US military's ground defense and vigilance in the Caribbean were much lower than he expected.

Before dawn. Both the 1st and 2nd task forces were discovered by US reconnaissance planes, but the US military did not immediately arrange an attack, probably because these reconnaissance planes belonged to the US Navy and the US Army Air Force deployed in the Caribbean region. There was no timely exchange of information between the two armies. However, no matter what the reason, when the ground bombers of the First Fleet arrived in the airspace above the most important US airfields, the US bombers on the airfields did not take off immediately, and the US fighters on the ground to intercept the bomber groups were quite limited.

At about nine o'clock, a group of US bombers took off from the field airfield to "patronize" the 1st Task Force. As a result, these bombers were intercepted by the anti-aircraft fighters who had been waiting in the air for a long time, and none of them even managed to enter the fleet's anti-aircraft artillery fire network. A threat to the fleet .

In the second round of bombardment, which began at ten o'clock, the First Fleet's ground bomber group encountered a real challenge. A group of P-51 fighters deployed in southern Florida rushed over. The ground fighters of the National Army Air Force have a very long range. Can easily fly to the skies over the northern waters of the Caribbean Sea to carry out combat missions. This is also the first time that the "Peregrine Falcon" has encountered a later improved model of the P-51 in actual combat. According to some U.S. government archives acquired after the war, the P-51H fighter jet was deployed in South Florida at that time, which was the only modified version of the P-51 series other than the P-51D.

"Judging from the pilot's reaction, the US fighter is very fast and is not under the 'peregrine falcon' at all. However, its cruising speed is certainly not as fast as that of the 'Peregrine Falcon', and it should be equipped with a water jet system, and the engine can output huge power in a short period of time." Zhu Rongzhe reported the pilot to Tan Renhao, "In addition, the plane has been in the air for a very long time, judging from the combat situation. It is often the 'peregrine falcons' who first withdraw from the fight because of lack of fuel."

"Arrange for an aviation staff officer to be in charge of this matter, after the report is written. Send someone back, maybe the Ha Enclave engineers will take our report very seriously." Tan Renhao is in the mood to deal with these technical matters now, "Contact the second task force as soon as possible, we will arrive at the supply sea area at night. Also, has Han Shaofeng contacted us? ”

"Have been contacted and they are sailing towards the Swan Islands. In addition, the ground support fleet sent by Liao Hanxiang has already arrived in Panama, and it will probably enter the Caribbean Sea tomorrow."

Tan Renhao frowned slightly, the support fleet did arrive at the end of the month." All right. Arranging for the support fleet to set off with the second convoy and let them get to the battlefield as soon as possible, always leaving our fleet to fight on the front line will make our officers and men very tired, and the support fleet will arrive

After that, there shouldn't be much to do with us."

Zhu Rongzhe yawned, he basically didn't listen very carefully.

"The third task force is ......" Tan Renhao noticed Zhu Rongzhe's tired look, "You go and rest first, and I'll take care of the rest of the things."

"It's okay, I'm not sleepy."

"Don't hold on. You're not sleepy now? Tan Renhao patted Zhu Rongzhe on the shoulder, "You go to sleep. Otherwise, who will replace me tomorrow? That's it, go quickly, and when the time comes, I'll have the staff officer come and call you."

Zhu Rongzhe didn't have much to say. He was indeed too tired. I'm so tired that I can't even stand up.

Before the fleet arrived at the supply point, Tan Renhao arranged the supply work, and the battle would continue tomorrow, so the supply must be completed at night. Subsequently, he made contact with the 3rd Task Force, and Chang Jiexin was speeding up. Task Force 3 did not need to be refueled, only ammunition, and its next mission was to shell the U.S. defensive positions along the landing site, so the resupply of Task Force 3 was scheduled to be carried out last.

At four o'clock in the morning, Task Force 1 and Task Force 2 left the supply point. After yesterday's bombing. The U.S. military has basically lost air supremacy in the northern Caribbean Sea, and the main force of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet is still at Norfolk Naval Base in the Chesapeake Bay, and the British fleet is still on the other side of the Atlantic, so there is no fleet that can threaten the First Fleet for the time being. The time is ripe for landing on the battlefield, and before the Marines go ashore, the First Fleet has to clear the beachhead for the Marines, that is, complete the firepower strike mission before the landing.

The bombing plan was still planned by Hao Dongjue, which was part of the overall campaign plan. In order to ensure that the US air forces in Cuba, Jamaica, and the British forces in the Cayman Islands are not able to dispatch, the fleet will also arrange for reconnaissance planes to monitor the airfields on these islands if the enemy is rushing to repair the airfields. Then you have to use bombers to carry out supplementary bombing.

Even if the A-1 ground range can meet the operational requirements, it is very difficult for the bombers to find the active ground fleet after flying hundreds of nautical miles without a front-line command and guidance ground. It is also difficult to break through the ground air defense network of the fleet. Tan Renhao is not worried about the safety of the fleet, but his main concern is that the combat operations are too complicated and complicated, and the two aircraft carrier task forces can operate to the maximum extent. The Third Task Force was also to go in the afternoon to shell the US defensive positions in the interior of the bay. The command is quite complicated, and the coordination of various units is also very troublesome, and if something goes wrong, it will affect the entire campaign operation.

During the day on the 30th, Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue were both very busy. The local chiefs of staff of the two task forces were also in a hurry. The staff officers were all on duty, and the rotation system was abolished. The size of each bomber group in the fleet is not large, there are dozens of bombers, there are more than a dozen, and there are only a few bombers. However, the results of each bombing must be dealt with in a timely manner and the target must be determined whether the target has been destroyed. Whether supplementary bombing is still needed and how many bombers need to be sent for supplementary bombing . In addition, it is necessary to rationally arrange the departure time and return time of each batch of bombers, and try to give full play to the aircraft carrier's ground aviation strike capability.

This day and day battle is also the most critical, and the US military is based in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and more than a dozen air bases in Belize. Dozens of field airfields, as well as a large number of transportation hubs, such as bridges, stations, tunnels, etc., are key bombing targets.

Judging from the combat operations on the 29th and 30th, "the ground played. Its combat efficiency is much higher than that of "water birds" and "sea eagles", which has increased the fleet's ground aviation strike capability by at least 30 percent. However, some shortcomings of the "Falcon" have also been exposed in actual combat, such as the lack of the ability to carry a large number of small ammunition, which makes it difficult for the "Falcon" to effectively deal with small moving targets. Moreover, the number of ground targets that can be dealt with in a single sortie is also quite limited. In many cases. In order to deal with the US military ground convoy. and some covert targets, which had to be dispatched to carry rocket-carrying "peregrine falcons" to carry out bombing missions." The defects of the "Falcon" were summarized and sent back to the Navy Command in the form of a report, and finally sent to Hafei, where the engineers of Hafei put forward suggestions for improvement based on the problems found by the front-line troops in actual combat. Improvements were made to the "Falcon". Later, almost all the "Falcons" added two small attachment points under the wings on both sides to carry rockets, and a number of ground attack models of the 50-kilogram "Falcon" were specially developed to meet the needs of front-line combat troops.

The ground fighting was the fiercest in the morning, and the first two rounds of air assaults basically destroyed the US military's ground air combat capability. At the same time, the US military also organized two counterattacks, and its bomber groups even reached the vicinity of the fleet. The anti-aircraft fighters took great difficulty to intercept the US bomber group, and both task forces survived the morning for several hours without any danger.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the 3rd Task Force, which was restocked with ammunition, arrived at the battlefield and began to bombard the US ground and shore defense positions with heavy artillery. This time, the battleships of the 3rd Task Force did not come on the field, mainly because the battleship ground shells were expensive, and the life of the main gun ground barrel was only about 1000 meters, and it was difficult to replace the gun barrel on the front line. Almost all of the heavy tasks of shelling the ground are borne by the cruisers, and the power of the 200-meter caliber artillery shells is not small, and one shot is enough to cover a radius of 100 meters. With the arrival of the Third Task Force, the purpose of the Imperial Naval Ground Campaign was also very obvious, and the American Army finally realized that the Imperial Navy would land in the Bay of Honduras, and the landing site was likely to be near Puerto Barrios.

On the first day of the 28th year, the fleet ground operations were to block the U.S. military toward Honduras, and almost all carrier-based bombers and fighter planes were hung with bombs and rockets to attack the U.S. military ground convoys, transportation hubs, and U.S. military assembly areas." The defects of the "Falcon" were exposed at this time, and when performing the task of suppressing the battlefield, the combat efficiency of the "Falcon" was not even as good as that of the "Peregrine Falcon", which made many bomber pilots feel very depressed. Of course, the Peregrine Falcon is not perfect, and its bomb load is still low. It's not that the Peregrine Falcon can't carry more ammunition, it's that it's not designed with more in mind for ground attack, and its bomb pylons can't carry more bombs. This information was quickly fed back to the engineers of the Ha Enclave, and later Ha Fei changed the "Peregrine Falcon" into an attack aircraft, so that it could carry more than three tons of bombs to carry out bombing missions, which was also in response to the requirements of the troops.

Han Shaofeng's landing fleet, as well as the first transport fleet that departed with the landing fleet, also arrived at the anchorage of the Swan Islands on this day. The landing time is tentatively scheduled for January 4, so that the fleet has enough time to complete the preliminary fire preparations. Defeat the U.S. Army's defensive positions before the Marines go ashore to minimize the pressure on the Marines during the landing operation.

With the defeat of the U.S. ground air force, by January 2nd, the ground battle of the fleet was much lighter. The high intensity of the bombing also exhausted the pilots and aviation crews. On that day, the number of bombing sorties of the fleet was less than half of the number of the previous day.3 The fleet still did not make high-intensity sorties, mainly because the pilots and aviation service personnel needed time to recuperate. In addition, when the landing operation starts, the fleet must also provide direct fire support to the marines, and when the time comes, it will also need to carry out high-intensity sorties, so it is even more necessary to keep the pilots energetic.

On the night of the 3rd, the landing fleet reached the sea near the landing site, and the landing operation was intensively prepared. The support fleet had passed through the Panama Canal two days ago and entered the Caribbean Sea, and was expected to arrive on the battlefield around January 4th, along with the arrival convoy of transports to serve as reserve ground divisions, as well as the marines needed heavy equipment, large quantities of ammunition and supplies, etc.

That night, Task Force 3 replenished its ammunition during the day and returned to the coastal area. Both Task Force 1 and Task Force 2 were evacuated to the vicinity of the Swan Islands to receive ammunition and fuel supplies. It's also rare to take a break from Renhao. After several days of fierce fighting, not only were the officers and soldiers in other places exhausted, but even he was about to be exhausted. Hao Dongjue alone is impossible to command all aviation combat sites. Tan Renhao also had to share some of the command work.

"General, I have received a telegram from the ground, do you want to send it?"

Tan Renhao had just taken off his coat and was about to lie down on the bed for a good night's sleep, when the voice of the communications staff officer came from outside. He felt very angry, but if it wasn't for something important, the communications staff wouldn't come to disturb him, thinking about it, Tan Renhao opened the hatch.