When the Japanese planes withdrew from the bombing, they were intercepted for the second time by the air defense fighters of the Fifth Fleet. Previously, these air defense fighters could only watch the aircraft carrier "sway" in a hail of bullets. Now that the Japanese fighters have left the air defense fire network of the fleet, they naturally will not let those Japanese pilots return safely to their aircraft carriers.

"Torpedo attack!"

Hearing the shouts of the staff officer, Tan Renhao immediately rushed to the porthole on the right. The aircraft carrier's island is on the right front side of the flight deck. When he looked out to sea, under the surface, six gray torpedoes were approaching the battleship, all at a very fast speed, and the distance was already less than 400 meters.

It is too slow to do any evasive maneuvers, this is the "Spear" oxygen torpedo launched by Japanese submarines, its maximum speed is close to 50 knots, and at this speed, the range reaches 22 kilometers, the mine diameter is 610 mm, which is much larger than the 530 mm torpedoes equipped by the Tang Imperial Navy, and the charge of the battle mine head reaches 500 kg, while the charge of submarine-launched torpedoes in other countries is about 250 to 300 kg. Another important feature of the "Lance" torpedo is that the gas emitted by it is very easy to dissolve into the seawater, so there is no obvious wake, and it is difficult for the lookout on the battleship to detect it from a distance, and by the time it is discovered, it is already too late.

All six torpedoes were fired from a very close distance, and a heavy cruiser patrolling near the "Taizu" spotted the periscope of the Japanese submarine and quickly summoned two destroyers. However, this could not stop the torpedoes fired at the "Taizu". The "Taizu" turned to the left at maximum turning speed, trying to turn the bow towards the torpedo, but it was too late. 400 meters, for a "Lance" torpedo with a speed of nearly 50 knots, it only takes less than 20 seconds to hit the aircraft carrier, and for an aircraft carrier with a speed of 33 knots, 20 seconds, it can only sail about 260 meters, and when it turns, it can turn at most 30 degrees, and six scattered torpedoes can cover the range of the captains of six aircraft carriers!

The first torpedo concentrated the starboard side of the aircraft carrier near the bow, and the powerful force generated by the explosion directly blew up the 2.5-ton anchor on the right side of the aircraft carrier into the sky, deformed the entire bow, and curled the front of the flight deck. The most serious thing is that a large hole with a diameter of nearly 5 meters was left in the bow of the aircraft carrier, and more than 20 nearby crew members were all killed. If it weren't for the fact that all the watertight doors on the aircraft carrier had been closed, this damage alone would have been enough to kill the "Taizu".

The second torpedo hit the amidship behind the starboard island of the aircraft carrier. Tan Renhao only felt a shock under his feet, and then the whole person was bounced up, hit the ceiling, and then hit the floor. Almost all of the more than ten staff officers in the cabin were blown away, and Tan Renhao also lost consciousness at this time. This torpedo left a big hole in the power compartment on the right side of the aircraft carrier, and the four boilers located on the right side all shut down, and the aircraft carrier lost one-third of its power, and within two minutes it was 1000 tons of water nearby, resulting in a serious **** of the aircraft carrier.

The third torpedo presumably hit the propeller shaft in the tail section of the right side of the aircraft carrier. Although it did not hit the hull directly, the powerful shock wave from the explosion directly damaged the propeller shafts of the three propellers, leaving only the leftmost propeller to continue working, while leaving a small hole in the stern.

When the "Taizu" was torpedoed, the heavy cruiser escorting the ship had already fired at the periscope sticking out of the sea. At that time, the fleet was in a state of air defense operations, the fleet formation was very dense, and destroyers and other warships with weak anti-aircraft fire were arranged on the periphery of the fleet. There were no depth charges on heavy cruisers, and there were no sonars for detecting submarines. Even if the officers and men of the heavy cruiser were in a hurry, their only weapon was to aim the muzzle of the empty cannon at the periscope of the submarine and fire a few shots (the depression angle of the main gun was too small).

Fifteen minutes later, four anti-submarine destroyers arrived, and the other warships in the fleet dispersed. The "Taizu" aircraft carrier could only sail slowly at a speed of 8 knots, and the water on the right side of the battleship was so severe that the chief of staff who took over the wounded captain had ordered the watertight doors near all damaged areas to be closed, and at the same time water was injected into the left side of the battleship to restore the balance of the aircraft carrier. More than a dozen pumping machines on the aircraft carrier are running at full speed, pumping water out of the battleship to slow down the sinking of the aircraft carrier. The large cruiser "Li Jing" also approached and connected a cable to the aircraft carrier. Because two of the three power compartments on the aircraft carrier were already flooded, and the generator compartment next to it was also affected (a very obvious flaw in the design of the "Emperor" class aircraft carrier), as a result, the pumping machine could not work at full power and had to rely on the power provided by other warships to drain the water.

The Japanese submarines that launched the attack simply did not have time to escape from the strike range of the fleet's anti-submarine destroyers. Moreover, the maximum water depth in the vicinity is more than 200 meters, and the ultimate depth of Japan's best submarines is only about 150 meters. Four anti-submarine destroyers frantically searched the sea like watchdogs whose owners had been attacked. Soon, two destroyers began to drop depth charges. With the sound of a dull explosion, white columns of water rose on the surface of the sea. The destroyers of the Don Empire were armed with at least dozens of depth charges. These destroyers had already been derelict in their duties by letting the Japanese submarines slip in, and now if they could not find the Japanese submarines, the captains of these destroyers would definitely be punished.

Tan Renhao was soon transferred to the "Li Jing", he was still in a coma, and when he began to explode, he hit the steel plate twice in a row, and when he fell, his head hit the ground first. Fortunately, the neck was not broken, otherwise the Imperial Navy would have lost an elite talent.

Wu Xianyu directly took over the command of the fleet, he only hesitated for two minutes, and then ordered the fleet to return to Zhoushan Port at full speed, and at the same time let the air defense fighters land on the other two aircraft carriers, refuel and take off again, responsible for vigilance. Subsequently, he left behind two heavy cruisers, and four destroyers returned to Zhoushan with the battered aircraft carrier "Taizu". Wu Xianyu didn't dare to gamble with all the Fifth Fleet's belongings, even if he suffered losses, at most it would only be the end of "Taizu".

The "Li Jing" quickly broke away from the "Taizu" aircraft carrier. At this time, no one believed that the battered aircraft carrier would be able to return to Zhoushan Port, because the water intake speed of the aircraft carrier was much faster than the displacement rate, and several watertight doors had been damaged, which could not stop the spread of seawater in the hull.

Click on the image link: