The Second Global War was a turning point for aircraft carriers to enter the war arena and become the supremacy of the seas, and it was also an era when battleships faded out of the naval sequence and were eventually replaced by aircraft carriers. However, in the whole war, the direct confrontation between battleships and aircraft carriers was very rare.

Organizing aviation to bomb battleships, the main thing that is needed is opportunity. Before the United States entered the war, the carrier-based aviation of the Tang Imperial Navy had organized several operations to attack Japanese battleships, especially in the combat operations against the Japanese First Battleship Fleet, and the Imperial Navy fleet commanded by Tan Renhao proved for the first time in actual combat that battleships were very vulnerable and even vulnerable in the face of bombers, but in many cases, this battle example was difficult to convince the public. At that time, several battleships of Japan's First Battleship Fleet were built before and after World War I, and these battleships were not reinforced by air defense, so they naturally looked particularly vulnerable to bomber strikes.

In battles with the American fleet, there were also very few confrontations between aircraft carriers and battleships between the two sides. First, both sides have rich tactics, and they both know that battleships are not opponents of aircraft carriers, so they are quite cautious when using battleships. Secondly, when the United States entered the war, the main force of the navies of both sides was not battleships, but aircraft carriers. Finally, and most importantly, in real combat, battleships will try to avoid fighting alone with aircraft carriers. The Pacific Ocean is not the Atlantic, and the bad weather in the North Atlantic will help the battleships, on the contrary, the weather in the Pacific Ocean is more suitable for aircraft carrier operations, so in the Pacific theater, it will be more difficult for battleships to compete with aircraft carriers.

It can also be seen from the fleet formation method adopted by the Tang Imperial Navy and the US Navy at that time that the navies of the two countries recognized the limitations of battleships in the Pacific theater, so they both listed the battleships separately to form an independent fleet, especially the Tang Imperial Navy, after the "Li Jing" class was put into service in large quantities and the "Temperary" class comprehensively improved its air defense capability, the imperial navy never considered using battleships to escort aircraft carriers. The same tactical arrangement was used by the same US Navy. This also led to the fact that in the subsequent battles, both sides were battleships fighting battleships, and aircraft carriers fighting aircraft carriers. There are very few examples of aircraft carriers being used against battleships.

Yang Shihong has encountered a hard bone this time. The "Iowa" class was one of the best battleships in the world at that time, and not a single "Iowa" class was blown up, and all of them were killed by the "new provincial capital" in an artillery battle. It was also the first time that Imperial naval aviation faced an intact Iowa-class battleship with full air defense. Yang Shihong hit the jackpot, but this is not good luck, especially when the anti-aircraft shells on the battleship came like dense raindrops, Yang Shihong regretted it a little, why did he pick such a hard bone?

"Colonel. There are still 400 meters, watch the speed! ”

"I know, don't leave me idle, beckon the other bombers to follow!"

There were only 6 "Sea Eagles" following Yang Shihong, and when they entered, it was a squad, and in less than 3 minutes after the battle began, 5 "Sea Eagles" were shot down, and this was just Yang Shihong's team.

The hull in front of it is getting bigger and bigger, and the speed of "Iowa" is indeed not slow, and the speed of the fastest speed of 33 knots is 2 knots more than that of the "new provincial capital". But. No matter how fast a battleship is, it is not as fast as an airplane. Yang Shihong held his breath. The bombing sights have already been adjusted, the advance is set automatically, and it is only necessary to turn the speed of the enemy battleship. If the course is roughly calculated, the sight can automatically calculate the position and direction of the mine. Yang Shihong has been paying attention to the pointer in the middle of the sight, and when this pointer points to the center, he can drop the torpedo, and the distance of this mine should be 800 meters.

"Colonel, we're here!"

Yang Shihong let go of the thunderbolt, and a faint vibration came, Yang Shihong felt that he heard a slight explosion, but he knew that it was an illusion. The torpedo bolt was connected to the explosive bolt on the torpedo pylon. After pressing, the circuit was turned on, and the explosives were detonated, which actually blew up the hook connected to the torpedo, and the torpedo was pushed out, and under the action of the reaction force, the bomber would rise a little higher.

Yang Shihong quickly controlled the bomber, he could not rise at this time, that would make him a target for anti-aircraft guns on US warships, and only the "Sea Eagle" at low altitude was the safest. All torpedo bomber pilots understood this. After dropping the torpedo, quickly turn around, get out of the range of the enemy's anti-aircraft guns from a low altitude, and then pull it up again, this is the best way to get out of danger.

"Colonel, our torpedoes will definitely hit!"

Yang Shihong was not in the mood to care whether the torpedo would hit the battleship or not, now he had to fly out as soon as possible, he didn't want to be shot down after dropping the torpedo, that would be the most unlucky. I don't know how long it took, but there was a violent explosion from behind, followed by a second, then a third. Yang Shihong was shocked, and then laughed, it was the explosion sound of the torpedo after hitting the battleship, obviously, three torpedoes hit the battleship. At this time, only a few dozen seconds have passed, but Yang Shihong feels as if a few minutes or even hours have passed. Before the bomber was out of range of the US anti-aircraft guns, Yang Shihong also heard two other explosions. The sound of these two explosions was exceptionally crisp, rather than the dull loud noise that had been before. That's the sound of a bomb exploding, or more precisely, the sound of a bomb exploding on the surface of a ship. The bomb hit the battleship, but it was not able to penetrate the horizontal armor of the battleship, but only exploded on the surface of the ship, and the damage caused should not be very large, and it would not threaten the safety of the battleship, and the real threat was still those three torpedoes!

When Yang Shihong turned around, smoke was already rising from the side of the "Illinois." The power of the aviation torpedoes was strong enough, the underwater armor belt on the battleship was not able to block the torpedo attack, several large holes were torn in the hull, and the smoke came from there.

"The effect must be good, enough for the Yankees."

"But it's still not enough, damn, if only we could hang the 650 torpedoes used on submarines, it would be great!" Yang Shihong did not show a happy mood, to put it bluntly, the power of aviation torpedoes is still not enough to destroy battleships, at least these three torpedoes can't do it.

The battleship "Illinois" was heavily damaged, but it was not able to be sunk, and the battleship was still sailing at a speed of more than ten knots. By this time, there was already a thicker smoke rising from the battleship, which was not from the explosion. Instead, the U.S. military was casting smoke to block other bombers. This made Yang Shihong even more unhappy, as long as the smoke screen cleared, the dive bombers would not be able to attack the wounded battleship. But one thing is certain, the "Illinois" has lost its combat capability, and it is impossible to continue to block the bombers attacking the aircraft carrier.

"Colonel, there are three more battleships, let's go take them out!"

"Nope. Attack the carrier first, call the other bombers, attack the Hancock first, maybe Spruance is on it! "Yang Shihong has not forgotten what his basic mission is, they must first paralyze the US military's aviation combat capability, and then consider other tasks." Let the two squads go up first, and we'll go to the neighborhood to command, damn it, let those fighters come, they're going to die! ”

Several fighters rushing towards the "Illinois" quickly rushed out of the smoke screen. Thankfully, it slipped away. Otherwise, they were beaten down by the anti-aircraft guns of the nearby cruisers, and it was clear that these fighters wanted to fish in troubled waters. It turned out to be a nose and dust. At this time, a small group of nine "waterbirds" quickly flew over the "Illinois" shrouded in smoke and killed the "Hancock" aircraft carrier in the rear. The anti-aircraft gunners on the US escort battleship reacted quickly, and immediately concentrated their firepower to intercept those bombers, but they forgot one point, the bombers of the Tang Imperial Navy would not attack alone, and when the dive bombers entered, the torpedo bombers must have been waiting for an opportunity not far away.

"Hurry up and don't delay." Yang Shihong commanded the bomber group in the rear. "Don't go directly to the dive plane, split into two groups to attack at the same time, and disperse the anti-aircraft fire on the ground of the aircraft carrier!"

Under the command of Yang Shihong, two groups of bombers quickly tore through the interception net of US antiaircraft fire. When the "waterfowl" group dispersed, the anti-aircraft fire on the US warships was dispersed again, and it became even more difficult to threaten the high-speed bombers. Then, the "Sea Eagle" group approached rapidly from a low altitude, and just as it was about to bypass the cruiser, which had been blocking the right side of the "Hancock", the anti-aircraft guns on the battleship began to fire at the torpedo bombers. But this did not have much effect, and the shells kept falling on the sea, causing splashes one after another, but they could not stop the bombers.

Close cooperation and effective coordination are the most effective ways to improve the efficiency of bombing, and this is also the only experience summed up by the pilots of the Tang Imperial Navy on the battlefield. Whether it is a dive bomber or a torpedo bomber, it is easy to be shot down by the enemy's anti-aircraft guns when penetrating alone. On the contrary, as long as the two bombers attack together, the enemy's anti-aircraft gunners can spend more time aiming at the target, looking for the target, thus reducing the time to fire and the efficiency of interception.

The first of the nine "waterbirds" flew directly towards the "Hancock", and the bomber's mission was to attract American artillery fire. The other 8 aircraft were divided into two groups of 4 and circled in the direction of the head and tail of the aircraft carrier. After breaking through the interception of the cruiser, the "Sea Eagle" group was quickly divided into two groups, with six planes flying towards the right head of the aircraft carrier and five flying toward the right tail of the aircraft carrier. All 18 bombers were armed with deadly bombs and torpedoes, and it was impossible for the aircraft carrier to evade all attacks at once!

"Start diving, buy time for the torpedo machine!"

The two groups of "waterbirds" entered the dive channel almost simultaneously, and from then on, the bombers were able to drop bombs in 30 seconds, which was the most critical 30 seconds. The anti-aircraft gunners of the U.S. Army did not fail to understand this, and they all aimed their guns at the dive bombers that made a strange noise and smashed down from the sky like meteors, thus ignoring the torpedo bombers above the sea, and the torpedo bomber group needed these 30 seconds to correct the course and enter the final mine-throwing channel.

The siege of the aircraft carrier "Hancock" was a typical tactical coordination, and the two groups of bombers entered at the right time and coordinated with each other very well. Most of the anti-aircraft guns on the US warships were exhausted, dealing with targets overhead and approaching targets at low altitudes. The biggest advantage of this kind of cooperation is that it has caused confusion in the command of the US air defense, so that the antiaircraft gunners cannot concentrate their forces on dealing with enemy planes attacking from any direction. In air defense operations, it is necessary to ensure that at least 2 or 4 anti-aircraft guns can be used against one enemy aircraft at the same time to have an interception effect, and in extreme cases, all the anti-aircraft guns on one side of the battleship will even be concentrated against one target. And the scattered use of anti-aircraft guns practically did not have much power!

"Hit, hit, Colonel, look, two, at least two bombs hit the aircraft carrier!"

Yang Shihong smiled, but he was more concerned about the bombs dropped by torpedo bombers. When the torpedo sails under the surface of the sea, it will leave a white track, and from a distance, it looks like a white ribbon, but this is a deadly ribbon, at the top of the ribbon is an aviation torpedo containing 250 kg of high-energy explosives, and the underwater armor and anti-torpedo isolation belt on any aircraft carrier cannot completely block such a fierce blow.

When the "Hancock" shook violently, Yang Shihong knew that the torpedo attack was successful, and at least three "white ribbons" hit the aircraft carrier. The water column rose from the sea next to the aircraft carrier, and after nearly half a minute, the dull explosion sounded, but because of the noise from the aircraft engine, the explosion was very faint and difficult to identify. It doesn't matter, Yang Shihong saw with his own eyes that at least three aviation torpedoes hit the starboard side of the aircraft carrier, and this was enough.

"Preparing to attack the next carrier battle group, how many more bombers do we have?"

"At most, the first attack failed!"

Yang Shihong gritted his teeth. "Call two squads of bombers to follow us!"

Soon, a squad of "water birds" and a squad of "Sea Eagle" bombers gathered, these two squads were not satisfied, Yang Shihong did not care about these, but he soon found that every aircraft carrier in the US fleet was covered by at least one battleship and three cruisers, and it was very difficult to succeed in the assault under this situation!