The actions of the third task force turned the situation around to a great extent. The American bombers that bombed Task Force 1 returned to two barely operational airfields at about 9:40 a.m. At this time, the U.S. military was organizing a larger bombing campaign, and dozens of bombers were concentrated on the two airfields.

After the surprise attack, the US military reacted immediately. The current U.S. military is no longer the U.S. military at the beginning of the war. After fighting fiercely in the Pacific Ocean with the Tang Empire for more than half a year, the quality of the US officers and men has improved a lot, and their vigilance has also improved a lot. As soon as the bombers of the Tang Empire left, the American officers and soldiers on the two airfields went into action. The engineers quickly repaired a runway about 500 meters long, while some of the bombers took off directly on the lawn and did not use the runway at all. The only mistake made by the US officers and soldiers at this time was that they did not change the ammunition for the bombers, which still carried high-explosive shells, not armor-piercing shells!

The U.S. bombers at these two airfields were originally scheduled to carry out a second round of bombing of Rabaul today, and the departure time was around half past seven. By half-past six, the airfield attendants filled the bombers parked in the hangar with fuel and loaded them with ammunition, so that the pilots could board the plane as soon as they received the order to depart, without the need to make unnecessary preparations. After determining the direction of return of the Tang Empire's bombers, the US radar on Kuah Island immediately ordered these bombers to take off and fly in the direction of the return of the Tang Empire's bombers, and they would definitely be able to find the Tang Empire's aircraft carrier. In fact, this was true, but also because of the emergency take-off, the service personnel simply did not have time to change the ammunition of the bomber. It will take at least half an hour to transport the armor-piercing shells stored in the underground ammunition depot, unload the high-explosive shells on the bombers, and then hang the armor-piercing shells, and after half an hour, I am afraid that the fleet of the Tang Empire will not be found.

It was precisely this mistake that caused the US military to lose the opportunity to severely damage the "Daihai." The bomb that hit the aircraft carrier "Daihai" was a 1000-pound aviation armor-piercing bomb (about 454 kg. The power of the 500-kilogram armor-piercing projectile in the Tang Empire is comparable), even if the "1 Daihai" will not sink, it will definitely lose its combat effectiveness and be forced to withdraw from the battle, as a result, the first task force will only have one aircraft carrier left, instead of the current "half" aircraft carrier.

At this time, the command system of the US military was also relatively chaotic. In fact, the U.S. military first discovered the Third Task Force, but not the aircraft carriers in this fleet. Therefore, the bombing of the 3rd Task Force was abandoned, and more forces were used against the 1st Task Force in the open sea. By 9 o'clock, the US commanders were also worried about whether they should attack the 3rd Task Force or the 1st Task Force.

The aircraft carriers of Task Force 1 are more threatening, but Task Force 3 is close at hand, and the threat of those huge artillery is not small. The only thing that is the same is that this time it is necessary to use armor-piercing shells, and 1000-pound armor-piercing shells, not high-explosive ones. It was for this reason that the service personnel at the airfield spent an hour organizing other bombers that could take off and replacing them with armor-piercing shells.

Just as the American pilots boarded the bombers. The orderly started the bomber's engine.

Just as the fleet was ready to take off, disaster struck. The commander of the American army never dreamed that the Tang Imperial fleet, which was originally fleeing, would be killed. And at the beginning, it was a batch of huge bombs that fell, all of which were high-explosive shells used against ground targets!

Yan Shiqi can be regarded as using his blood capital. In ground artillery strikes, the battleship's main guns cannot be easily used, first, the life of the main gun barrel is limited, and it cannot be replaced at sea, so it must be returned to the port and replaced with special facilities (the weight of a main gun barrel exceeds 100 tons, and it cannot be replaced at sea at all), and second, the cost is high. The price of a gun barrel is more than the price of a destroyer, and the price of a huge shell can be used to buy hundreds of 200 mm shells. This time, Yan Shiqi couldn't control so much, the two airfields were in the hinterland of the island, nearly ten nautical miles away from the coastline, "55 mm shells could not hit the airfield, and the cruiser's main guns were not enough to completely suppress the US airfield, so Yan Shiqi let the battleship's main guns all use high-explosive shells to participate in the artillery battle to suppress the US airfield."

There are two main types of ammunition for the main guns of battleships. One is a high-explosive shell, the second is an armor-piercing shell (there is also a trainer shell, but it will not be used in real combat). In naval warfare, all armor-piercing shells are used, and the power of 400 mm armor-piercing shells is enough to take out any warship. High-explosive bombs are mainly used for ground bombardment, in the body of 1000 kilograms, loaded with hundreds of kilograms of high-energy explosives (the weight of armor-piercing shells is slightly lighter, but the explosives loaded are more than 100 kilograms), a shell is enough to destroy all ground targets within a range of 500 meters, and its power is incomparable with any other ammunition. It is also precisely because the main guns of battleships rarely participate in ground shelling, so battleships generally carry seventy percent of armor-piercing shells and thirty percent of high-explosive shells. The total ammunition of the main gun on a battleship is about 3,000 (directly related to the number of main guns and the ammunition storage capacity of the battleship, generally the maximum reserve of a main gun is 250 to 400 rounds), and the four battleships of the third task force at that time were loaded with a total of 9,000 shells for the main gun, including 2,500 high-explosive shells. That's enough to destroy several U.S. airfields.

The density of the shelling was not high, and with each huge shell that fell, it was like an earthquake on the airfield. The cannonball fell from the air at a speed close to the speed of sound, exploding violently the moment it touched the ground. Hundreds of kilograms of high-energy explosives left huge craters on the ground with a diameter of tens of meters and a depth of more than ten meters, while scattered shrapnel and huge fireballs immediately enveloped the surrounding space of hundreds of meters, destroying all man-made objects in this range.

Under the guidance of a seaplane, the accuracy of shelling was high. Originally, the accuracy of naval artillery was much higher than that of army artillery (naval artillery mainly dealt with warships sailing at high speed on the sea, and the requirements for accuracy were very high, which also caused the price of naval artillery of the same caliber to be several times higher than that of army artillery), even at a distance of 14 nautical miles, the dispersal range of 400 mm shells was within 500 meters, and at this distance, the shells fired by army heavy artillery probably did not know where to fly.

It was the Third Task Force that killed the gun, and as a result, the US warplanes at the two airfields were destroyed on the ground before they could take off, and the vast majority of the exposed US officers and men (mainly pilots and aviation service personnel) did not escape the shelling.

During the shelling, Task Force 3 was stubbornly returned fire from American shore guns.

Several cruisers were wounded, but the battleships that pressed in front did not suffer much damage.

The maximum caliber of the U.S. shore defense artillery is only 203 mm, and most of them are 155 or 127 mm medium-caliber guns. These guns could not be used against battleships, and shells hitting the main armor belt of battleships were like tickling battleships.

The shelling continued from 9:50 to 10:40 a.m., and it was not until several seaplanes judged that there were no targets to shell the US airfield, and the fleet left the range of the US shore defense guns. Except for a few cruisers that began to shift their targets and bombard the artillery positions of the Americans, the battleships and destroyers retreated. Yan Shiqi has always had a feeling of fear, Kuah Island is the core area of the US military in the Solomon Islands, there are more than 100,000 US troops around, and there are more than a dozen other airports, who can guarantee that US bombers will not take off from other airports? His mission was only to destroy the two US airfields, and the US shore defense artillery positions were not within the scope of the attack, so he was too lazy to pay attention.

Before the bombers of Task Force 1 arrived, the American troops had only about fifty minutes of respite. Although at this time there were a number of bombers concentrated on several other airfields in the vicinity, the number was too small, and the number was less than twenty. It was simply impossible to threaten the fleet of the Don Empire. Moreover, the command center of the US military has been destroyed, and the US military officers and men on other airfields have no idea what is happening on Kuah Island. No order was received to make a sortie. It was not until the 3rd Task Force left the waters of Kuah Island at 11:30 a.m. and returned to the Georgia Strait, preparing to escape, that the US bombers began to take off one after another, and at this time, the bombers from the 1st Task Force had already arrived.

Under the suppression of the bombers of the First Task Force, the US airfield once again lost its combat capability, and the bombers of the First Task Force arrived one after another in several batches, of which the bombers that took off from the "Xingkaihu" were divided into four batches, and the "Daihai" also released two batches of bombers after 11 o'clock. The suppressive bombing of American airfields by these bombers continued until about half past one in the afternoon. During this period. The US air force has always been paralyzed, not only unable to organize a counterattack, but also not even able to resist.

Tan Renhao had originally planned to carry out another round of bombardment before dusk, but he received an order from Yan Guozhong at about two o'clock in the afternoon, and in order to avoid greater losses on both fleets, the fleet immediately withdrew and left the waters of the Solomon Islands. By this time, Task Force 3 had passed through the Shortland Islands, a small archipelago north of the northern Solomon Islands, and was heading north at full speed. Out of the strike range of the US bombers, it is expected to reach the open sea around the evening. Tan Renhao didn't want to take any more risks, this battle had reached this point, he had already completed the task, the first task force had already had an aircraft carrier injured, and if there were any more losses, then the first task force would be paralyzed. After receiving Yan Guozhong's order, Tan Renhao immediately ordered the fleet to turn around, leave the war zone, and return to the north.

It can be said that in this battle, the military command system of the Tang Empire and the United States has exposed a lot of problems, and there was chaos when both sides were fighting, but the luck of the Tang Empire's fleet was better, and the cooperation between the first task force and the third task force was definitely not tacit, but it accidentally seized several key time points and finally won the victory. This is not only the embodiment of luck in naval battles, but also the embodiment of the quality of officers and soldiers of the Tang Empire in naval battles.

Judging by the actions of the two task forces, there was a real lack of effective cooperation from the beginning of the engagement to the final retreat. For example, after the First Task Force bombed the US airfields for the first time, if the news could be quickly sent to the Third Task Force and the Third Task Force could immediately move the battlefield and suppress the two US airfields, the US bombers would not be able to take off at all, and they would not be able to threaten the fleet. But at that time, this important news was not sent out at all, and Task Force 3 thought that it had completed its mission, so it retreated according to the plan. If it weren't for Hao Dongjue's hand and forcing the Third Task Force to kill the horse pistol, I am afraid that the losses of the two fleets would have been even greater, and they would not have been able to complete their tasks and miss the opportunity to destroy the two most important US military airfields.

The same problem exists in the U.S. military. For example, when the airport was bombed, it took 15 minutes for the US military to transmit the news, and within these 15 minutes, the fighters on several airfields could have taken off immediately to avoid being destroyed on the ground, but this opportunity was missed. In addition, when the Third Task Force returned and continued its shelling, the US command system was chaotic, and the air defense forces, coastal defense forces, and air forces were unable to effectively cooperate. At that time, the US military had dozens of PT torpedo boats in the waters near Kuah Island, and if these torpedo boats could be killed at that time, even if they could not threaten the third task force, they would have forced the third task force to withdraw from the battlefield before completing the shelling, or reduce the intensity of the shelling to avoid greater losses to the airfield.

Confusion in the chain of command exists in virtually every country, and the difference is only severe. Under the technical conditions at that time, it was impossible to fundamentally make up for the deficiencies in the command link. This is also the reason why both the Tang Empire and the United States limited the size of the task force during the war, and the larger the size of the fleet, the more hidden dangers in command. Subsequently, both Tang and the United States were developing better communications equipment and more rational allocation of command personnel in order to improve command efficiency and enhance the ability of various units to coordinate operations.

In such chaotic battles, the real difference between victory and defeat is the quality of officers and men, especially those commanders who are on the battlefield. The Tang Empire had a huge advantage in this regard, and the contributions of these officers were indelible!