In the evening of the next day, the fleet arrived at the intended patrol area. While passing through the waters near Iwo Jima, Tan Renhao saw that the Marines were still fighting fiercely with the Japanese army. The Marines had taken control of all the flat areas of the island, and the engineers were clearing the two Japanese airfields from time bombs, while also constructing a makeshift airfield in the southeastern part of the island. A convoy of transport ships has just arrived at Iwo Jima, bringing in a large amount of engineering equipment and construction materials. The Marines were fighting the Japanese for Mt. Oriba. The large number of underground fortifications built by the Japanese army, as well as the network of tunnels, made the Marines suffer a lot.

In the evening, the fleet sent its first night reconnaissance aircraft. These reconnaissance planes all took off from aircraft carriers, and the leader of the team was Lieutenant Colonel Yang Shihong, and those who participated in the night reconnaissance were all the best reconnaissance plane pilots. In fact, this is just for insurance, Tan Renhao is not worried about the fleet being attacked by Japanese bombers, and now the fleet is sailing more than 100 nautical miles outside the maximum strike radius of Japanese bombers, unless the Japanese pilots do not want to go back, otherwise they will not come to attack the first task force.

At night, the busiest are the destroyers escorting aircraft carriers. More than a dozen destroyers did not dare to relax in the slightest, the strait between the volcanic islands and the Ogasawara Islands is the place where Japanese submarines are most active, if you accidentally let a Japanese submarine slip in, then it is not the destroyer, but the aircraft carrier! And this night was not quiet, and several false alarms made the nerves of the officers and men of the fleet a little nervous.

For two days in a row, the fleet focused on reconnaissance, and although at the request of the Marine Corps, the fleet dispatched several bomber groups and dropped hundreds of tons of bombs on Oribo Mountain, which could only be regarded as warming up the bomber pilots and not wasting their homework. In addition, in order to ensure that the airfields on the other three islands were paralyzed, the fleet arranged for bombers to drop dozens of submunitions on the airfields of the islands every day. After the replenishment, the fleet has a new submunition, which naturally does not need to be too economical.

Day 3. Four heavy cruisers, twelve destroyers, and three temporary freighters-converted artillery carriers (collectively referred to as those converted warships that were specifically responsible for providing artillery support to the marines and did not participate in regular naval battles) arrived in the waters near Iwo Jima and took over the shelling formation of the 1st Task Force. The artillery formation also replenished its ammunition that afternoon, and then returned to the ground sequence of the first task force. The new mission of the artillery bombardment group was to move out to the sea area west of the Ogasawara Islands and carry out a guard mission about 150 nautical miles north of the aircraft carrier group. To this end, Tan Renhao also incorporated eight ships into the shelling formation. to protect those cruisers that did not have anti-submarine weapons installed.

By the afternoon of the fourth day, the seaplanes sent out by the shelling formation (at this time, the seaplanes could already fly to the sea 250 nautical miles north of the Ogasawara Islands to carry out reconnaissance missions, but in order to prevent interception by Japanese fighters, they were still limited to patrolling within 120 nautical miles north of the islands) still did not find anything, and Japan did not send reinforcements to the Ogasawara Islands. This made Tan Renhao feel a little confused. In the evening, a telegram from the Navy Command relieved Tan Renhao's doubts, and at the same time made him angry again.

"Damn, don't those officers and men of the submarine force know that cherishing time is cherishing life?" Tan Renhao slammed his fist on the table next to him. The cups on the table jumped. "The Japanese fleet was spotted at three o'clock in the afternoon, but the telegram was not sent until five fifty o'clock, and now it is impossible for us to intercept this fleet even if we send bombers out immediately!"

Lei Shaoqing smiled bitterly. said: "Maybe there were Japanese destroyers escorting at that time, and the submarine did not dare to float!" ”

"!" Tan Renhao scolded fiercely, "Forget it, complaining now won't help." The Japanese flotilla must be preparing to go south at night, and we can only intercept it with artillery formations! ”

"But the Japanese should know that our artillery formation is operating near the Ogasawara Islands, and it is specifically responsible for intercepting the site at night, if they still choose to go south at night......

Before Lei Shaoqing's words were finished, a staff officer ran over. "Sir, the artillery formation has been bombed, and we are requested to provide air defense support!"

Tan Renhao was taken aback. Immediately looked up at the navigation clock, it was already past six o'clock, and in twenty minutes it would be dark, and even if it took off immediately now, the fighters would not be able to rush to the sky above the shelling formation before dark. Moreover, the Japanese bombers would certainly have dropped their bombs in twenty minutes, and the fighters would not have much effect when they rushed over.

"How many fighters are now providing cover for the shelling formations?"

"There's only one squadron of fighters!" The staff officer immediately answered Lei Shaoqing's question.

"Immediately let the fighter reinforcements over the fleet shell the fleet." Tan Renhao immediately made a decision, "Little Japan is calculated, they know that our artillery fleet is active in the front, so they choose to bomb the artillery fleet at dusk. Then let the convoy reach the Ogasawara Islands at night so that we can't threaten their convoy. ”

"Do you need to get bombers to go out at night?" Lei Shaoqing gritted his teeth, if the shelling fleet suffered heavy losses, then it could only rely on bombers.

Tan Renhao hesitated for a moment, then shook his head: "There is no need to make a decision in a hurry now, the only one who can bomb the artillery formation is the twin-engine bomber, and we have a fighter squadron providing air defense cover for the artillery formation, I hope they can survive it!" ”

Lei Shaoqing hesitated.

"Go ahead, don't waste time!" Tan Renhao glanced at the staff officer, and then patted Lei Shaoqing on the shoulder, "No matter what the result is this time, I will take responsibility." However, I believe that we can defeat the enemy! ”

As a matter of fact, Tan Renhao's estimation was a little wrong, and the bombing and artillery formation this time not only had twin-engine bombers such as the "one-type land attack," but also had a very special kind of "bomber." At the same time when he ordered the fighters over the aircraft carrier formation to reinforce the artillery bombardment fleet, Chen Yuji, the commander of the large cruiser "Li Jing," who commanded the shelling fleet, was undergoing the most severe test, the life-and-death test of the Japanese fighters that came to be called "kamikaze special attack planes."

In the shelling formation, the radar on the large cruiser "Liu Hongji" located in the northernmost part detected the group of planes flying from the north at 5:53 a.m., and the radar operator immediately judged that this was not a reconnaisance plane returning home, because the size of the group was very large, and there were only about 10 reconnaissance planes patrolling in the north. They will not be gathered together to return home. Immediately, Chen Yuji, commander of the artillery formation, immediately contacted the fighters patrolling over him.

At six o'clock, the fighters encountered the Japanese plane group flying in, and the squadron leader of the major commanding the fighter group was also taken aback, because in addition to a group of bombers, there were also many "fighters" in the Japanese plane group. Chen Yuji was also taken aback when he received this news, because according to the range of Japanese fighters. It is simply impossible to carry out escort missions in this sea area. Then, he breathed a sigh of relief, those fighters did not pose much threat to the battleship, and the number of bombers coming was not very large, and the air defense fighters plus the blazing anti-aircraft fire on the battleship were enough to deal with it.

In reality, this is not the case. At that time, the two most important commanders got the question wrong: the "fighters" were not actually fighters, but suicide planes with hundreds of kilograms of high explosives, known as "kamikaze". Other words. These warplanes are flying bombs. Moreover, it is a human to control the ground bomb, and its mission is to hit the battleship on the sea surface in order to blow up the battleship!

The origin of the name "kamikaze" is actually quite interesting. In the Tang calendar more than 700 years ago. That is, after the second revival of the Tang Empire, after the Tang Empire conquered the Korean Peninsula, it organized two expeditions to Japan, but both expeditions failed because of the sudden typhoon. From then on, the Japanese believed that the winds that helped them destroy the ships of the expeditionary force of the Tang Empire were "kamikazes", the kamikazes that blessed Japan.

By the time the war had been fought, the Japanese Navy had lost almost all of its experienced pilots, and more than ninety percent of the pilots at the beginning of the war had been killed. At this time, even if the Japanese Navy has aircraft carriers. With fighters, there are not enough good pilots to fly these fighters, and it is even less likely to pose a threat to the superior air power of the Tang Empire. And the aviation of the Japanese army was also dragged on the Korean Peninsula and was fighting fiercely with the aviation of the Tang Imperial Army, and they could not be separated at all. As a result, the Japanese came up with a new trick, that is, to let the pilots who had only been able to fly for two months, or even a month, to fly planes loaded with a large amount of explosives to ram the warships of the Tang Empire. I want to redeem the defeat.

In order to embolden these pilots, or rather, to paralyze them. Japan gave this suicide plane, which had its landing gear removed and its cabin locked before takeoff, a nice name - "kamikaze". In other words, the Japanese militarists hoped that these suicide planes would defeat the Tang Imperial Fleet, which was about to besiege Japan, just like the two typhoons hundreds of years ago, and bring victory to Japan and protect the security of the Japanese mainland.

Most of these suicide planes were improvised by fighter jets. The main thing is to load hundreds of kilograms of explosives in the fuel tanks of the fuselage of the aircraft, and at the same time, the aircraft can only take off with half of the fuel, and can only move forward, not backward. And the pilots on those planes have no choice when they sit in the cabin. In order to encourage the pilots to launch such a suicidal attack, each member of the "kamikaze" team, after being selected, was able to spend half a month alone with a prostitute (military prostitute) arranged by the army, and was able to receive the best food, liquor, and other treatments that no one else could enjoy before departure. Then they take a plane with only a "one-way ticket" and embark on the last journey of their lives.

These are all things that Chen Yuji did not expect at that time. And the fighter pilots did not know about this either. As a result, at the beginning of the air defense operation, all the fighter pilots chose those twin-engine bombers, desperately intercepted the bombers, and threw off all those "fighters", and there was no one to deal with those "fighters" who would pose the greatest threat to the fleet.

The gunners in the shelling formation did the same, and when these "fighters" swooped down and crashed into the battleship, the gunners realized the problem and immediately opened fire.

At 6:08 a.m., the "Liu Hongji" was successfully hit by a suicide plane. The suicide plane that fell under the bridge exploded violently, blowing almost the entire bridge away, and the B turret was also affected, the maneuvering mechanism was damaged, and the turret stuck on the pedestal. In addition, all eight anti-aircraft guns in the vicinity were blown up. Together with all the officers and men in the bridge, the nearby gunners, more than eighty people were killed and dozens were wounded. It was only at this time that the officers and men of the fleet discovered that those "fighters" were the biggest threat.

Chen Yuji sent the telegram after learning that the "Liu Hongji" had been severely damaged. Then, the Japanese fleet began to deal with the "Li Jing", which was located in the second line of the fleet. Up to this time, the Japanese pilots still regarded the tall "Li Jing"-class large cruiser as the capital ship, so these suicide planes let go of the nearby heavy cruisers and rammed the large cruiser with all their might.

The cruiser's anti-aircraft artillery also went crazy, and these Japanese pilots were really not very skilled and hardly knew how to evade anti-aircraft shells. But the problem is that these planes do not fall immediately after being concentrated, and still rely on inertia to advance, which can still hit the battleship. Obviously, it is much more difficult to deal with suicide planes than bombers.

By 6:15 a.m., the "Li Jing" ship had been hit once. Three minutes later, the rear chimney of the "Chai Shao" was hit by a suicide plane. By 6:23 a.m., the armor turret of the "Li Xun" was also hit. From the time the "Liu Hongji" was heavily damaged, within 15 minutes, all four large cruisers were painted. At this time, the fighters above the aircraft carrier formation were still on the way, and the fighters of the squadron that chased back also reacted and frantically intercepted those suicide planes.

This was the first time that the Tang Imperial fleet was attacked by a large-scale attack by Japanese suicide planes, and before that, although there were pilots who flew fighter planes to ram battleships, it was only the pilot's personal actions after the fighter plane was damaged. And from this onwards, all sorts of suicide planes and special attack bombs in Japan will become the biggest threat to the Navy of the Tang Empire! Sea Soul Volume 4 The Empire Strikes Back Section 54 The "Kamikaze" strikes

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