When Deng Zichao and Zhang Naiding's aircraft group passed by, the second task force also faced a test of life and death.

The "Lake Bell" aircraft carrier battle group was the first to break away from the battle, and to put it mildly, it was to cover up the enemy's attack, and to put it mildly, it was to flee for its life. As happened in Task Force 51 at the time, it was always more important to preserve strength than to brute force.

By the time the second group of American bombers arrived, the officers and men of the fleet command on the "Hulun Lake" had already moved to the nearby cruiser "Xuanwu", and a group of escort warships had already followed the "Bell Lake".16

The fire on the "Hulun Lake" aircraft carrier on the sea has gone out of control, and the aircraft carrier has suffered two torpedoes and eight bombs, and the officers and men on the aircraft carrier are still making their last efforts in the hope of saving the aircraft carrier. In fact, the significance of such efforts is not great, and the power of the 1000-pound aviation armor-piercing projectile of the US army is not less than that of the 500-kilogram aviation armor-piercing projectile of the Tang Empire. Moreover, the aircraft carrier is not a battleship, and the damage from bombs is much greater. After the war, the Tang Empire once experimented with captured aircraft carriers, and it was difficult for any aircraft carrier to withstand the attack of ten bombs (torpedoes). In other words, the bomber pilots of the Tang Empire sometimes used dozens of bombs to sink an aircraft carrier, which was indeed a waste of bombs.

The small aircraft carrier "Songshan" has capsized, and at least half of the more than 1,000 officers and men on board the aircraft carrier have not escaped, and most of them are officers and men in the engine room. The anti-sinking ability of small aircraft carriers is already very poor, even much worse than that of the previous two-tier fleet carriers, mainly due to the limitation of their small displacement, and they also have to carry as many fighters as possible. As a result, the aircraft carrier cannot adopt a small compartment design (and the small aircraft carrier will not make too many modifications to the hull structure). Otherwise, it will be necessary to extend the renovation period and increase the cost of transformation). There was also no armored flight deck design. As a result, the aircraft carrier received only three bombs. A torpedo. The ability to save is lost.

The situation with the small aircraft carrier "Hengshan" is not much better. The aircraft carrier was hit by a bomb, and the bomb was at the site of the explosion in the engine room of the first wheel. As a result, the speed of the aircraft carrier was reduced to 22 knots. Also, at the time of retrofitting. In order to reduce costs, as well as shorten the construction period, many secondary parts of the aircraft carrier are not armor steel plates, but wood planks (this is also to control the displacement)! Outcome. Once the fire is burning, it is difficult to control.

In fact, these problems of small aircraft carriers are unsolvable, cost, duration, and even limited displacement. All of this has led to a very low survival rate of the modified small aircraft carrier after being hit on the battlefield. This is also the reason why the Tang Empire and the United States never changed cruisers to small aircraft carriers after completing the transformation of aircraft carriers in the Li class. Relatively speaking, the additional casualties caused by the sinking or injury of the aircraft carrier are too severe. This makes the aviation combat capabilities it provides seem to be more than worth the loss, and it is not as cost-effective as building fleet aircraft carriers in large quantities, or building new small aircraft carriers (escort carriers). It would be cost-effective to leave these aircraft carriers on the second-line battlefield.

The size of the second group of bombers of the US army was not small. Jiang Wenhan and the others quickly entered the battle. Soon, however, the pilots of these air defense fighters discovered that the US bombers had only concentrated on attacking the "Hengshan," which was still fleeing for its life. The number of bombers that went to bomb the "Hulun Lake" aircraft carrier was very small, and most of the bombers flew in the direction of the "Bear Lake" escape place.

"Colonel, intercept those bombers!"

"Know, let everybody follow." Jiang Wenhan also received an order from the air defense commander of the "Lake Bell" aircraft carrier battle group. He has not been able to get in touch with the commander of the air defense of the fleet. Perhaps the command of the "Xuanwu" Upper Ground Fleet, which has only been transferred to the "Xuanwu" now, has not yet recovered its command capability. "Try to disperse them and scatter the US escort fighters, and besides, delay the time, the US bombers will not have much fuel!"

Jiang Wenhandi's judgment was very accurate; when the second batch of US bombers set off, the Second Task Force was about 230 nautical miles away from the US Fleet, but in fact, these bombers had to fly at least 270 nautical miles before they reached the skies over the Second Task Force, and now they have to fly at least 20 nautical miles to catch up with the "Lake Bell" aircraft carrier battle group. That is, the entire attack sortie range reached 290 nautical miles. If you think about returning home, then these US bombers must drop bombs and torpedoes as soon as possible, and they must not stay on the battlefield for too long, or even sprint all the time, and they must save fuel!

Under the leadership of Jiang Wenhandi, this group of fighters, which were about to run out of ammunition, frantically rushed into the US bomber group. As Jiang Wenhan expected, most of the American bombers did not accelerate, but quickly dispersed, and the BD continued to fly at an altitude of 3500 meters, while the TBD was at a descending altitude.

"Two squads to intercept those torpedo bombers, the other to deal with the dive bombers, never let them get close to the carrier!"

Jiang Wenhan had already shot down the eighth enemy plane in this battle, and he did not expect that in just one battle, he would shoot down so many enemy planes, which was already a new record for the number of enemy planes shot down in a single battle.

At this time, at least three large air defense cruisers, six heavy cruisers, and more than a dozen destroyers were guarding the vicinity of the aircraft carrier, and dozens of fighters were desperately attacking the approaching US bombers.

I am afraid that this is also the most powerful air defense fleet that US bomber pilots have encountered in more than a year.

Jiang Wenhan no longer gave orders, and he focused all his energy on attacking those American bombers. With each climb, he tried his best to find an SBD and shoot it down.

And every time he dived, he would try to aim at a TBD that was flying on the surface of the sea.

The shells of the machine guns splashed on the sea, and if the torpedo bomber was hit at this time, the pilots on it had little chance to escape. Especially from overhead attacks, there is a high chance that the shells will hit the cockpit rather than the bomber's fuselage.

The battle was fought with extreme brutality. The pilots on the ground of the anti-aircraft fighters directly ignored the artillery fire from the battleship. All pilots had only one goal, and that was to shoot down as many bombers as possible.

In this way, the aircraft carrier will be safe.

By the time Jiang Wenhan made his third dive, the results had increased to ten. He's continuing to break his own record. This. He chose a TBD that was already about to drop a torpedo.

The "Falcon" quickly dived down from a high altitude, the fighter was vibrating violently, Jiang Wenhan pulled the shooting switch to the long point shot, and he had no way to aim accurately. You can only shoot a long shot to take out that bomber.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, the fighter suddenly shook violently, and then a fire erupted from the cockpit. Jiang Wenhan reacted in the first time, it must be that the fuel tank behind the cockpit was hit by a shell, and the fuel leaked out.

"Captain, skydive!"

The flight suit held off the first wave of fire, and the temperature in the cabin quickly rose and grew. Jiang Wenhan desperately pulled back the operating lever with his left hand to let the plane pull up, and pulled out the pistol on his thigh with his right hand. Two shots were then fired at the glass cockpit. A cool breeze rushed in, and he unbuckled his seat belt and climbed to the spot as the fighter jet climbed. The moment he was about to enter the spiral state, he jumped out of the cockpit.

Seeing Jiang Wenhan's successful parachute jump, the wingman pilot was also relieved, and he immediately contacted the fleet. I reported the sea area where the captain parachuted. At this time, the battle over the fleet was still raging.

Almost all of the U.S. bomber pilots' assault operations failed. There were more than a dozen escort warships around the "Lake Bell," which almost surrounded the aircraft carrier, and no one dared to doubt the power of the thousands of antiaircraft guns. One bomber after another was beaten down by anti-aircraft guns, and in the end there were less than fifteen bombers capable of dropping bombs and torpedoes, none of which could hit the carrier.

When Jiang Wenhan landed on the sea, the US bomber group had already begun to retreat, and his squad had not yet been shot down, and five fighter planes were hovering over him, and no US fighter dared to fly over. The surrounding sea water had been dyed yellow, and the self-inflating life jacket had also swelled, making Jiang Wenhan a little breathless. He quickly checked his hands and feet, and then he laughed. This is the third time Jiang Wenhan has been shot down, and his record has reached 84.

Half an hour later, those fighters flew away. Jiang Wenhan took out the whistle and put it to his mouth. It's not really necessary. Only when the pilot lands on the surface of the sea at night will he use a whistle to call the surrounding life-saving ships. During the day, he could be easily found by the lookouts on the ships that came to his rescue. After drifting on the surface of the sea for about half an hour, a destroyer came from the northwest square, lowered the lifeboat about 200 meters away from him, and two soldiers from the destroyer dragged him onto the lifeboat.

"Colonel, do you need something to eat?"

"Got chocolate?" Jiang Wenhan is indeed F4U broken. As he spoke, he took off his soaking wet flight jacket and ended up wearing only his pants, before taking the thick towel handed to him by one of the crew members.

Soon, the second lieutenant officer, who had begun to ask him, brought him a few bars of chocolate, as well as a steaming cup of coffee. Jiang Wenhan devoured it, he didn't ask too much, after all, the other party was just a junior officer on the destroyer.

Not long after, a group of bombers flew over the destroyer, and Jiang Wenhan could tell at a glance that it was Deng Zichao's group. At this time, the medical officer came running with a first-aid kit.

"Colonel, I'm sorry, we have too many wounded here, so we're a little late."

"It's okay, I'm not hurt." Jiang Wenhan smiled and nodded, the medical officer is the most popular and respected person in the fleet.

"Show me your hand, it looks like there's a slight burn, I'll take care of it for you."

Jiang Wenhan did not object, and immediately stretched out his hand. There was a thick burn mark on the palm of his left hand, which was burned by the lever when he pulled up the fighter. There was also a slight burn on the right hand. It wasn't until the medical officer helped him remove the necrotic epidermal tissue and apply the ointment for treating burns that Jiang Wenhan felt a heart-rending pain, and when he was skydiving, he concentrated on escaping and didn't feel pain at all!

The medical officer spent half an hour helping Jiang Wenhan treat his wounds and examine other parts of his body, and as the captain of the colonel group of the aviation corps, his treatment in the fleet was the same level as that of the chief of staff of the fleet. At this time, the second group of bombers flew over the destroyer, which was the group led by Zhang Naiding.

It was just after four o'clock in the afternoon that the destroyer caught up with the returning fleet. At this time, Jiang Wenhan had already obtained the situation of the fleet from the destroyer's lieutenant commander (before the rank was promoted, the captain of the destroyer was usually a captain). Both small aircraft carriers were blown up and sunk, and the "Hulun Lake" aircraft carrier was also on the verge of sinking, and the officers and men on the aircraft carrier had not yet given up their last efforts.

The "Lake Bell" aircraft carrier was not injured, most of the fighters and bombers landed on the aircraft carrier, and some of the more seriously damaged fighters were abandoned. And the commander of the destroyer did not hear from the commander and chief of staff of the fleet, and now the commander of the aircraft carrier "Lake Bell" (commander of the battle group) is now commanding the fleet.

After Jiang Wenhan arrived at the "Bear Lake" aircraft carrier by fireboat, he immediately went to the aircraft carrier's aviation operations center, where Deng Zichao was standing there wet and complaining, while Zhang Naiding was in a daze.

"Lao Jiang, are you back? It seems that we are all the same, how does the sea bath taste? When Deng Zichao saw Zhang Naiding, he immediately ran over.

"Is there any news of the commander and the chief of staff?"

Deng Zichao's expression darkened suddenly, Zhang Naiding glanced at Jiang Wenhan, and then sighed.

"Is something wrong with them?" Jiang Wenhan reacted immediately.

After waiting for a few seconds, seeing that the two captains did not speak, Jiang Wenhan immediately left the aviation operations center and ran towards the command cabin above.

In the command cabin, more than a dozen staff officers were busy, all of them staff officers on the aircraft carrier.

Jiang Wenhan immediately found an aviation operations staff officer he knew, and asked Deng Zichao again what he had begun to ask them.

"Hey!" The aviation operations staff officer sighed, "The chief of staff just sent a telegram, he is fine, but ......"

"But what?" Jiang Wenhan grabbed the officer's shirt.

The staff officer sighed and shook his head again, what he knew was by no means good news.