While Zhang Naiding and the others were celebrating their victory, Deng Zi was enduring the torment of a long-distance flight, Deng Zi was in charge of the bombing of Wake Island, and he also led three squadrons of fighters, but these bombers not only came out at least forty minutes late, but also flew farther and slower.

When the "Sea Eagle" is designed, the purpose of its use as a horizontal bomber is clearly defined, and when it carries out a bombing mission against the sea, it generally carries an 8oo kilogram aviation torpedo, while when it performs a horizontal bombing mission, the "Sea Eagle" carries much more bombs. Its maximum bomb load reached 12oo kg, including one 5oo kg bomb, two 25o kg bombs, and four 5o kg small bombs. In general, when the "Sea Eagle" is used as a horizontal bomber, it carries 1ooo kg of bombs, either two 5oo kg bombs or four 25o kg bombs. This time, Deng Zi's landline and 35 other "Sea Eagles" carried two 5oo-kilogram submunitions.

As in the case of the "Sea Eagle", when the "Water Bird" carries only one 5oo kg aviation armor-piercing projectile when carrying out a sea bombing mission, it will ensure the hit rate and the chance of penetrating the defense. And when dealing with ground targets, the "shooting waterfowl" generally carries two 5oo kg bombs, or four 25o kg bombs. This time, the main task of the thirty-six "Shooting Birds" was to suppress the US air defense positions on the island, so they all carried four high-explosive shells of 25o kg.

In addition to the two bombers, the Hayabusa fighters also had bombs, each with two 1oo-kilogram bomblets, and eight bazookas.

Obviously, the fastest cruising degree of these fighters will be reduced a lot when they are almost fully loaded, plus forty minutes late take-off, the flight distance will be more than 5o nautical miles, as a result. After Zhang Naiding and the others completed the bombing mission, the group of aircraft led by Deng Zi was still nearly 1oo nautical miles away from Wake Island!

"Captain, it seems that the Yankees didn't know that we would enter from the east, and now the fighters in front have not encountered the enemy!"

"Keep my eyes wide open, keep a tight watch, and don't let the enemy fighters kill me!"

Deng Zi originally had a fire and didn't know where to go, but now he naturally wants to vent it, "Everyone should be vigilant." The Yankees aren't that easy to deal with, so be careful with the fighters around, I don't want to fight the 'pirates' alone!" ”

There was a burst of laughter in the headphones, and then it fell silent, those pilots knew Deng Zidi's temper, and if he wanted to provoke this colonel, he would definitely not end well when he returned.

Deng Zi was also constantly scanning the surrounding airspace, although before leaving, Chang Jianxin told him that the focus of the US military's air defense was on the west side of the island. And not to the east. They could easily fly over Wake Island, but Deng Zi didn't think so, what to say. Those "pirates" are also very difficult to deal with, and if the group is exposed, I am afraid that it will not be necessary to face the interception of a few American fighters.

The fighters who came out of the front began to lose altitude about 75 nautical miles from Wake Island, flying fast at an altitude of less than 5oo meters above the surface. Until this time, American fighters did not appear, and Deng Zi immediately lowered the flight altitude with a group of bombers. Now they can only hope that American fighter jets are not operating on the east side of the island, otherwise they will be slaughtered.

The group was flying fast at the altitude of the sea, and the pilots were nervous. For pilots like Deng Zi, who are accustomed to flying low-flying, this is not a simple matter. In the past, flying at such a low altitude meant sprinting at the enemy's warships and about to drop torpedoes, but now, they are breaking through the air defense network set up by the US military on the island, risking their lives for an undetermined target without anyone being sure.

Deng Zi kept wiping the sweat from his forehead, and looked up at the sky around him from time to time. He always had a feeling of unease. Last time, I led the aircraft group to do a low-altitude breakthrough, or to bomb the Japanese Imperial Palace, but this time, it was only an airfield on a small island to deal with.

"Captain, maybe we'll really succeed."

"We will definitely succeed, but this should be said after the bomb has been dropped."

Deng Zi let out a long breath, and when flying at such an altitude, he always had an inexplicable impulse, as if the enemy's battleship was in front, which made him feel very excited.

Major Liu Jinsong, the navigator, kept his mouth shut, he has been working with Deng Zi for five years, and he knows the character of this partner very well, and five years of living and dying together have also made Liu Jinsong grow into an excellent navigator. Now the highest-ranking navigator in naval aviation is a major, and he is also the first navigator to be promoted to major. Navigators are different from pilots, most of the time they are only supporting roles, but in the past five years of fighting, Liu Jinsong has become Deng Zi's indispensable partner. Especially in the bombing operation, Deng Zi had to concentrate on flying the plane and dropping torpedoes, while Liu Jinsong had to operate the machine gun to guard the "butt" of the bomber, and he must also be responsible for guiding the other bombers to attack together. It can be said that in their partner, Deng Zi plays the leader, while Liu Jinsong plays a commander.

After feeling that there was nothing to talk about, Liu Jinsong began to look around, and when he looked towards the sky above the back of the fighter, he suddenly saw several small black dots. He was a little puzzled at first, the bombers were all following behind, and the escort fighters should not be far from them, and the height would not exceed 500 meters, so could it be seabirds at an altitude of thousands of meters? Liu Jinsong only hesitated for a moment, and immediately rejected this judgment.

"Fighters, Yankee fighters!"

Deng Zi was taken aback and immediately asked, "Where is it?" Where are the enemy's fighters? ”

"In the air above the rear, the height is about 4ooo meters, the distance is about 5 nautical miles, they are approaching at a high level, there is no dive, did they not show us?"

When Deng Zi looked behind, the fighters escorting on both sides of the bomber group had begun to climb, Liu Jinsong had already alerted the escort fighters, and now it was definitely not the fighters of the Tang Empire that were flying at an altitude of 4ooo meters, but the fighters of the Yankees, and what made Liu Jinsong puzzled was how these American fighters could appear from the east? The closest island to Wake Island to the east is Johnston Island, more than a thousand kilometers away, no fighter plane can fly so far, and there is no US military airfield on Johnston Island. And the fighters that took off from Wake Island flew to the east of the fleet. It's not possible to return so soon! The only explanation is that it was a fighter of the American fleet!

"Brothers, follow me and let the fighters deal with those 'pirates'."

Deng Zixun regained his composure, he pushed the throttle stick to the maximum, and the bomber began to add.

The escort for Deng Zi was the fighter of the squadron led by Major Daniel Zhang, and there were only a few American fighters that appeared over the group, so Daniel Zhang only divided a small team of "falcons" to deal with these "pirate" escort fighters To participate in air combat, they must first drop the bombs they carry (rockets cannot be dropped at all). And the weight is not large, the impact on air combat is not great, when necessary, rockets or anti-air weapons) Daniel Zhang soldiers They also have bombing targets, although they are all secondary targets, but it is always a task, you can't let all fighters drop bombs, and then use machine guns to deal with American pillboxes on the ground.

It wasn't until the 12 "Falcons" came up that the pilots on the American fighters reacted. The fighters did arrive from Task Force 51. After escaping the pursuit of the escort fighters led by Colonel Jiang Wenhan, they already knew that the "Enterprise" was completely finished, so they could only try to return to Wake Island. Landing at the island's airfield, otherwise they will have to land on the surface and swim back to Wake Island. As a result, as soon as they were halfway through, they ran headlong into another escort fighter group, and this time they encountered an opponent who was not much worse than Colonel Jiang Wenhan.

There was no suspense in the battle, but Deng Zi was worried to death, those fighters suddenly climbed high, and they must have been shown by the US radar on the island, so the bomber group was also revealed. The raid is going to turn into a hard-fought battle.

"Damn, it looks like we're going to have to kill hard!"

Deng Zi spat out, "Lao Liu, how long do we have to reach the target?" ”

"Ten minutes!"

Liu Jinsong recorded flight data in his notebook.

"The group will disperse in three minutes, and each will bomb the identified target, brothers, see you on the aircraft carrier later!"

"Captain, we'll see you on the aircraft carrier!"

The fleet quickly dispersed, about ten nautical miles from Wake Island. Deng Zi began to climb high first. The bomber had to drop bombs at an altitude of at least 5oo meters (mainly to avoid accidental damage to bombs) and at the same time began to adjust the direction of flight. If the group of planes has been exposed, then Deng Zi and the others will only have one chance to enter, and they will drop two submunitions on the US airfield when they enter this time. One submunition can destroy a runway about 1oo meters long, and to destroy the entire runway, two submunitions are necessary, and counting the error, a repeated bombing must be carried out. In other words, 36 "Sea Eagles" will destroy a maximum of 18oo meters of runway, and the airport runway on Wake Island is 15oo meters long.

Deng Zi became nervous when Wake Island appeared ahead, and when he felt that the American anti-aircraft artillery was about to open fire, the island was quiet. At this time, Deng Zi was also a little surprised, are the Yankees all blind? I didn't even see so many bombers!

"Old Deng, start throwing bombs!"

Deng Zimeng woke up, immediately aimed at the route, and immediately dropped the bomb when he flew over the airport runway, two 5oo kg sub-bombs broke away from the hook on the belly of the plane, shook in the air a few times and then fell, and then a small-scale explosion occurred at a height of about 2oo meters from the ground, and dozens of small time bombs carried inside were ejected.

Other "sea eagles" also began to drop bombs, and when Deng Zi pulled the bomber up, the anti-aircraft artillery on the ground rang out. However, these anti-aircraft artillery pieces did not last long, and when the "waterfowl" made a sharp whistling sound, several US air defense positions were shrouded in flames.

Another batch of "waterbirds" and those "falcons" that did not drop their bombs on the way attacked the hangar, as well as the identified fuel depots, ammunition depots, for which some of the "waterbirds" hung 25o kg armor-piercing shells, not high-explosive shells.

The bombing proceeded very quickly, and it took about 15 minutes from the time Deng Zi was the first to drop the bomb to the withdrawal of the last "Falcon" that had fired the rocket.

"It seems that there is no need for supplementary bombing this time!"

At an altitude of more than 4ooo meters, Liu Jinsong clearly saw that the entire runway had been blown up and there was no place for US fighters to take off and land.

"Then let's hurry back, maybe we need to carry out a bombing mission in the afternoon!"

Deng Zi wiped the sweat from his face, "I don't know if Zhang Naiding and Yang Shihong have killed the American fleet, I hope our actions are not in vain!" ”

"Now that we've all got it, they won't be far behind!"

When Deng Zi counted the losses, only two "water birds" did not follow, all the "sea eagles" withdrew safely, and only one took a few machine gun bullets on the left tail, and all the other escort fighters followed.

What Deng Zi didn't know was that it wasn't until the moment he dropped the bomb that the U.S. troops on the island reacted, and it was not the U.S. fighters that took off from the 51st Task Force that flew in, but the bombers of the Tang Empire. When the 51st Task Force was bombed, the fleet's communications officer contacted the U.S. commander on the island, but there was no way to determine the exact location of the Tang Imperial Fleet at that time, because the U.S. Air Force commander on the island did not immediately send bombers, but let the bombers that took off before dawn6 continue to return, and let several long-range patrol planes that had already been out to find the location of the Tang Empire task force. And the group of F4u who escaped the pursuit made contact with the defenders on the island when they flew to Wake Island, but this contact was very short-lived, because the radio frequencies used by the two troops were different! As a result, when these fighters were hit suddenly, the US military on the island did not know that these things were happening at all. When Deng Zi led the bomber group to arrive, the US lookout took the Tang Army bomber, which was also a gull wing, as a returning US fighter plane, and as a result, by the time the US military reacted, the bomb had already fallen on the airfield.