During the Second Global War, there were not many fleet-to-ground battles successfully bombed by medium bombers. Throughout the Pacific War, neither the Tang Empire, nor the Japanese, nor the United States successfully used medium-sized bombers to carry out difficult tactical tasks such as bombing fleets. Especially in the middle and late stages of the war, that is, after the defeat of Japan. With the Tang Empire and the U.S. Navy putting into service a large number of new carrier-based tactical bombers, their range and bomb load were not worse than those of the previous medium bombers, and the medium bombers gradually withdrew from the Pacific theater. By the 26th century, the naval aviation of the Tang Empire had all used tactical bombers. The U.S. Naval Air Force, as well as the ground air force under the Marine Corps, have basically eliminated the B-25 class of medium bombers, and all tactical bombers should be used.

Only this time, the RAF dispatched the Mosquito bomber group to attack the 6th Task Force was a classic tactic of medium bombers against the fleet. In fact, the "Mosquito" bomber often performs tactical bombing missions, and its huge range, bomb load, fast speed, and good agility make this medium bomber completely capable of carrying out tactical bombing missions. Long before the Tang Imperial Navy entered the Atlantic, the British Royal Air Force had been using the "Mosquito" bomber against the German ground armored forces, and its ability to fight tanks was no better than many tactical bombers. For example, in the Eastern European battlefield, the famous Russian ground attack aircraft are much worse. Exactly." The "mosquito" bomber's ground-to-ground strike capability was not bad, and it was even better than the tactical bombers used by most countries at that time.

Tan Renhao received an urgent report from Task Force 6 at around half past eight. It was also learned that the 6th Task Force had been attacked by RAF bombers. From this time on, Tan Renhaodi's nerves became tense. Obviously, Chang Recommended Xindi has always had good luck, and his ability to judge the battle situation is far above Gu Zhenyun. If the new does not turn ahead of time, move towards the northwest minestorm area. Then the RAF found a place that was not the 6th Task Force. It's the third task force. What made Tan Renhao a little puzzled was. Why did Task Force 6 appear on the ground route before Task Force 3? It's obvious. Gu Zhenyun had already given the order to turn in advance, but there must be something wrong with the new course of the Sixth Task Force, otherwise, the Sixth Task Force would not have taken the initiative to send it to the muzzle! Anyway, Task Force 6 is now under attack. And it "succeeded" in attracting the attention of the RAF, and for the time being, Task Force 3 would not be threatened. At least Chang Zhixin has not sent back the telegram that was attacked. In Tan Renhao's view. Task Force 6 was attacked at this point. Most of the reasons are Gu Zhenyun's misjudgment and wrong decision-making. On the other hand, if there was no Sixth Task Force to attract the attention of the RAF, then the Third Task Force might have been found sooner or later and attacked!

At this time. The battle has been raging on the ground ahead. When the "Songjiang" was attacked, the "Fuzhou" avoided the British bombers. But then the flagship of the fleet "Hefei" was attacked by British bombers.

When the "Hefei" was attacked, Jiang Wenhan led the ground fighter group to hover in the air near the "Hefei." These fighter pilots are annoyed by the inability to effectively intercept enemy bombers. Outcome. When the British bombers drilled out of the clouds and prepared to drop their bombs, the fighter pilots finally seized the opportunity. No matter how good the British bomber pilots were, it was impossible for them to hide in the clouds all the time, let alone drop bombs in the clouds and hit the battleships on the sea, so the bombers had to attack the battleships. If you have to get out of the clouds, you will inevitably be exposed to the guns of the fighters. Jiang Wenhan did not hesitate at all. After discovering this, he immediately ordered the fighter squadrons to intercept the enemy planes separately, and took advantage of the time when the enemy planes left the clouds to prepare for the bomb drop to launch an attack.

This was almost a desperate attack, and the British bombers had already entered the range of the battleship's anti-aircraft guns when they left the clouds, and at this time, Jiang Wenhan and their troops rushed into the battle circle again, and they were easily hit by the battleship's anti-aircraft guns. Although the appearance of the "Peregrine Falcon" and the "Mosquito" bombers is very different, in the fierce battle, it is impossible for anti-aircraft gunners to distinguish the fighter planes thousands of kilometers or even nautical miles away.

It was precisely Jiang Wenhan and dozens of other fighter pilots who intercepted the "Hefei" without their lives, relieving the pressure on the "Hefei." At that time, the British ground bomber group entered the ground from both left and right directions, and of the seven bombers that entered the ground from the starboard side of the battleship, five were shot down by fighters within a minute, and the other two were also shot down by the anti-aircraft guns of a nearby heavy cruiser. Because Jiang Wenhan was on the starboard side of the battleship at that time, it was difficult for them to intercept the bombers entering the ground from the port side of the battleship in time, and by the time the first batch of fighters rushed to the ground, these bombers had already split up and entered the bombing channel and were preparing to drop bombs. At the last moment, the first four "Peregrine Falcons" rushed to the ground and killed two "Mosquito" bombers, but two "Peregrine Falcons" were also hit by the "Hefei" anti-aircraft guns. In the life-and-death air defense operation, the antiaircraft guns on the port side of the "Hefei" were all in extraordinary play, and in less than two minutes, they shot down at least 11 fighters in a row, and in addition to the two unfortunate "Peregrine Falcons," they also killed nine "Mosquito" bombers. As a result, only 7 interceptors were dropped, dropping bombs and torpedoes. As soon as these seven "mosquito" bombers withdrew from the battle, they were intercepted by a large number of fighters who rushed to the ground, and five of them were killed by fighters before they could climb and burrow into the clouds. At the same time, on the sea, the "Hefei" is also making its final efforts for survival.

Three aviation torpedoes approached the battleship at a speed of more than 50 knots. Comparatively speaking, torpedoes pose a greater threat to battleships, because it is difficult for the battleship's underwater armor belt to withstand a direct attack from a torpedo." The captain of the "Hefei" was the first to avoid the torpedo attack, and the battleship turned to the left at the fastest angular speed, striving to aim the bow in the direction of the torpedo attack and reduce the area of the battleship's ground shells. This effort quickly paid off, and by the time the three aviation torpedoes had reached a distance of 1,000 meters, the "Hefei" had turned nearly 60 degrees, and the area of the battleship's ground shells was reduced by half, as a result, all three torpedoes passed through the front of the battleship and failed to hit the battleship.

At the same time as the battleship evaded the torpedo attack, four aviation armor-piercing shells had already fallen on the head. Because the battleship was trying to avoid torpedoes, it was difficult to "take care" of the overhead bombs at the same time. In order to avoid the bombs, the anti-aircraft guns on the battleship were still firing at the falling bombs, but under the technical conditions of the time, it was almost impossible to hit the bombs with anti-aircraft guns.

Because the battleship turned left at full speed, the first bomb fell on the sea 200 meters outside the starboard side of the battleship, and did not pose any threat to the battleship. The second bomb also landed on the starboard side, a little closer, about 100 meters away from the battleship. The third bomb landed on the sea outside the port side of the battleship, and still did not hit directly, but the distance was only about 50, and the shock wave of the explosion under the sea surface could be felt by the officers and men on the bridge of the commander's ship. The fourth bomb did not "miss" the target and hit the ground deck in front of the battleship's armored turret. The explosion was so powerful that it shattered all the glass on the bridge of the commander's ship, and almost all the officers and men inside were injured. Fortunately, no one was killed, and Gu Zhenyun was only scratched by a few pieces of glass, bleeding a little, and had a slight concussion.

This 1000-pound aviation armor-piercing projectile was not able to penetrate the horizontal armor of the "Hefei", which is mainly due to the fact that the horizontal armor of the "Hefei" has been strengthened. The third batch of "New Provincial Capital" class battleships were built relatively late, and before that, because the battleships mainly performed artillery combat missions, and the artillery combat distances were relatively close, the main parts of the battleships were on the side, and the main armor on the side of the battleship was also the most solid. However, in the Pacific Theater, several battles were officially fought. The main threat to battleships is no longer the enemy's giant armor-piercing shells, but the aerial bombs dropped by enemy bombers. In addition, the distance between battleships will not be very close. In both cases, the most vulnerable place on the battleship is the horizontal part, whether it is an aerial bomb or a cannonball from a distance, almost all fall vertically, so it is imperative to strengthen the horizontal armor ground thickness. At the time of the construction of the third batch of "New Provincial Capital" class battleships. Based on the experience summed up in this actual battle, the Naval Equipment Technology Office requested that the horizontal armor of battleships be strengthened. However, at that time, after the first improvement of the "New Provincial Capital" class, its displacement had seriously exceeded the standard, and unless a boiler with a higher power density was used, the thickness of the armor could only be increased to an unacceptable degree of speed of the battleship. But there was no better boiler at the time. In desperation, the third batch of "New Provincial Capital" class battleships reduced the thickness of some secondary parts of the armor, and increased the thickness of the horizontal armor to 180-210 meters. The armor on the top of the main gun turret has been increased to 230 meters, which is a full 50% increase from the previous ground thickness! This also controlled the displacement of the battleship, and did not reduce the speed of the battleship in the end.

The horizontal armor near the turret of the battleship must be the thickest, because below is the main gun ammunition bay, and the main gun ammunition bay is definitely the most critical part of the battleship. This 1,000-pound ground-piercing bomb can only penetrate 120-meter-thick armor at most, and cannot penetrate 210-meter-thick armor at all, and the result is only to explode on the surface of the battleship. and did not threaten the internal security of the battleship.

After being hit by a bullet, the "Hefei" did not slow down at all. Instead, it continues to escape at a speed of 31 knots. The blow to the "Hefei" was not serious, only the hydraulic rotation mechanism of the turret had some minor problems. And Gu Zhenyun and other injured commanders also returned to their command posts after the simple explosion, and the Sixth Task Force did not lose its unified command because of this.

But just when the "Hefei" was attacked. The third group of Mosquito bombers reached the skies over the fleet. This group consisted of five squadrons, 90 Mosquito bombers, and three squadrons of Spitfires. After Jiang Wenhan and other air defense fighters discovered the approaching British plane, they immediately shifted their targets and abandoned the enemy planes that had already dropped bombs and were fleeing. Instead, go to deal with the newly arrived ground enemy bombers. However, this interception was unsuccessful, and the escort "Spitfire" fighters flew in front of the bomber group. When Jiang Wenhan and they rushed over. First encountered three squadrons of Spitfire.

This was also the first time that the Tang Imperial Navy encountered the RAF ground "Spitfire" fighter in a large-scale naval battle. Prior to this, the Imperial Naval Air Force had only occasionally encountered the Royal Air Force Spitfire in the Mediterranean theater and on the African side, or the British Royal Navy Sea Fire fighter jets. Judging from the results of previous engagements, whether it is "Spitfire" or "Sea Fire", the ground performance of its initial model is not much different from that of "Golden Eagle", and it is far worse than that of "Peregrine Falcon". As soon as they handed it over, Jiang Wenhan and the others found that the agility of the British fighter was not bad, but its speed was much slower than that of the "Peregrine Falcon". Therefore, Jiang Wenhan and the others did not pay attention to the escort fighters who came to "intercept" them, but took advantage of the speed advantage to quickly get rid of the entanglement of the enemy planes and directly deal with the bombers behind!

On the "Hefei", Gu Zhenyun was also shocked, as an experienced general, Gu Zhenyun had rarely encountered such a desperate attack by a British bomber group. Although the bomb that smashed on the horizontal armor plate at the bow of the ship did not cause much damage to the "Hefei", and no officers and men were killed at the fleet headquarters, everyone on the commander's bridge and on the navigation bridge above was injured. When the bomb exploded, the glass fragments of the shock enclave cut through the left side of Gu Zhenyun's ground, and the medical officer quickly bandaged him. When Gu Zhenyun returned to his command post from the new one, the "Fuzhou" was being attacked by British bombers for the second time. Because before the "Hefei" turned left to avoid bombing. At this time, the distance between the two warships has been widened, and the relative position has also changed." The "Fuzhou" was not behind the "Hefei", but on the right rear of the "Hefei", which was the closest to the British bomber group where the third batch arrived, so it was the first to be hit!

Presumably, the British pilots regarded the "Fuzhou" as the flagship of the fleet, and as a result, during this attack, almost all British bombers rushed towards the "Fuzhou", and before that, the "Fuzhou" was lucky to avoid the attack, but will the luck be so good this time?