At about two o'clock, Yang Qinkai's bomber group returned to the First Task Force one after another. They received the warmest welcome. When the pilots jumped out of the bomber, they were even brought beer, as well as pastries. Everyone was celebrating the victory, even the anti-aircraft gunners who had been in their positions.

"Perhaps, this victory came a little too late, but it finally came." Tan Renhao was also very emotional at this time.

"It's better to come late than not at all!" Hao Dongjue also showed an emotional look.

The United States has been involved in the war for more than a year, and in this year or so, several large-scale naval decisive battles broke out between the Tang Imperial Navy and the US Navy, from the "Battle of the Philippines" to the "First Battle of the Marianas", to the naval battle of annihilating the "Z Fleet", to the "Second Battle of the Marianas", "the First Battle of Wake Island", "The Battle of Kuah Island", "The Battle of Wake Island", "The Battle of Solomon", "The Battle of Midway", "The Battle of Taungi Island", before this "Battle of the Coral Sea", how many naval battles, Both sides were defeated, both sides were fighting to the death, and even if they won in the end, it was a very painful victory after paying a huge price in casualties.

The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first major victory of the Tang Imperial Navy in the Pacific, and it was an absolute victory with relatively small losses. What is even more commendable is that this was a decisive victory immediately after the "Battle of Taunji", the Tang Imperial Navy suffered a great defeat!

Throughout the Great War, the "Battle of the Coral Sea" was identified as a turning point in the Great War. Before that, it was the Tang Empire that defeated Japan. and the phase of strategic stalemate with the United States, after which the Tang Empire gained the absolute initiative in the Pacific theater. Although in the future war. The Imperial Navy of the Don Empire was going to continue to face the stubborn challenge of the US Navy, and even lost several naval battles. But the situation on the ground in the entire Pacific Theater has completely fallen to the side of the Tang Empire.

During the same period, the German strategic offensive on the Western European battlefield was regarded as the turning point of the entire Great War, the German offensive on the Western Front in Europe was the turning point of the continental war, and the "Battle of the Coral Sea" was the turning point of the maritime war.

In this battle, the Tang Imperial Navy with two small aircraft carriers. The slight loss of one battleship, as well as several cruisers and destroyers, annihilated all the main battleships of the Third Fleet of the US Navy, establishing the absolute superiority of the Tang Imperial Navy in the Pacific theater. Moreover, the door of the Australian continent has been completely opened to the Tang Empire, and the US military no longer has any ability to prevent the Tang Empire from sweeping the Southwest Pacific and entering the Australian continent!

Of course, the significance of the "Battle of the Coral Sea" is much more than that. If you look at the thousand-year-old history of the Tang Empire, this can be said to be the beginning of the Tang Empire's navy began to recover after World War I and re-emerged as the world's maritime hegemon. Compared to the significance of the victory in this battle, and the impact on the entire war. Perhaps, the self-confidence and honor brought by this battle to the admirals of the Tang Empire are even more important.

At this time, Tan Renhao has also realized. This one-sided victory will be a turning point in the entire Pacific War, the stalemate between the Tang Empire and the United States in the Pacific has ended, and the Tang Empire's navy has an absolute superiority in forces, and what to do next. It is to turn this superiority in forces into an actual victory, and to achieve the final victory.

"There is news from the seaplanes that the American troops are retreating too quickly and have not had time to take our pilots away."

"That's good, send all the seaplanes out, and you have to make sure that every pilot who falls into the water is brought back." Tan Renhao glanced at his partner, "When will the second batch of fighters be able to depart?" ”

"Preparations are underway, and after all these bombers have landed, they will be able to take off within twenty minutes."

Tan Renhao frowned slightly, this efficiency was obviously much lower than when he was fighting.

"Dude, you also have to understand, the aviation crew has been busy since before dawn, and many people haven't even eaten breakfast until now, so let them take a breath."

Tan Renhao laughed, he really forgot about this. In this battle, the hardest are those aviation service personnel. They can't fly fighter planes to attack enemy warships like pilots, but it is precisely because of their efforts that bombers can take off smoothly and drop bombs on enemy warships.

Soon, news came from Task Force 4 that the bomber group sent by Huang Xiaotian had destroyed all the American warships that could be found, and assisted the seaplanes sent by Task Force 1 to search for the pilot who had fallen overboard. The Fourth Task Force has also arranged for fighter planes to carry out patrol missions over the Third Task Force.

Tan Renhao did not rush the second batch of fighters to depart, not only were the aviation service personnel tired, and the pilots also needed to rest, but he had already sent a squadron of fighters to the skies over the third task force. At least 60 to 70 fighters now carry out anti-aircraft patrols on the side of Task Force III. As long as it lasts until about five o'clock, Task Force 3 will be in the cover range of shore-based fighters, and it will also be almost dark, so there will be no need to worry about the Yankees' heavy bombers.

At 2:20 p.m., all the bombers of Yang Qinkai's group landed on the aircraft carrier, and the aviation service personnel first sent these bombers into the hangar before they began to make preparations for the take-off of the 30 or so fighters that were about to depart. Many of the aviation service personnel have been busy for almost eight hours, and some have not even taken a sip of water, so you can imagine how tired these officers and men are, so the preparation for the fighter is much slower.

It was not until 2:50 p.m. that the first fighters were sent to the flight deck, and ten minutes later, the first fighter left the "Xingkaihu" aircraft carrier, followed by fighters from the other two aircraft carriers taking off one after another. After all the fighters left the aircraft carrier, some aviation service personnel sat on the flight deck eating steamed buns, while others were so tired that they lay down and didn't even have the strength to raise their hands.

Tan Renhao also returned to the command cabin at this time. He was so tired that he was about to crawl down.

"General, the radar has made a discovery, in the southwest direction. A group of enemy aircraft is approaching, at a distance of about 75 nautical miles. And ......"

"And what?" Tan Renhao was startled, and the fatigue immediately disappeared without a trace.

"And they're all big planes, about 20 or so." Because heavy bombers are much larger than tactical bombers, radars are able to spot heavy bomber groups at greater distances.

Tan Renhao was taken aback and immediately said: "Let the air defense fighters go over immediately." In addition, the fighters that had just taken off also immediately went over to intercept these US bombers! ”

It was a group of B-24 Liberator heavy bombers that had taken off from an airport in northeastern Australia, a group of 22 bombers.

Tan Renhao did not dare to be negligent, victory was not easy to come by, if this group of US bombers did not come to deal with the Third Task Force, but to deal with the First Task Force, then what should we do? Moreover, no matter what these US bombers are going to do, there is nothing wrong with shooting them down! Therefore. He immediately intercepted all the fighters and wanted to intercept these American heavy bombers at all costs.

When the fighter suddenly appeared, the pilots on the American bombers were also taken aback. The information they received at departure was that Task Force 1 was heading north, so they would miss Task Force 1 and could reach Task Force 3 directly. The bombing mission was completed, and they didn't know that the first task force had turned to the northeast before one o'clock, so this group of American bombers did not miss the first task force, but crashed into it!

At this time, the 1st Task Force had 24 air defense fighters, another 32 fighters that had just taken off, and more than 50 fighters to intercept 22 B-24s. These "liberators" were eventually eliminated, and not a single bomber flew over Task Force 1, let alone Task Force 3, which was more than 200 nautical miles away.

In the following hour, two other groups of US bombers were spotted by the radar of the First Task Force, and as a result, neither group of bombers was able to complete their mission and were "stayed" by the fighters of the First Task Force.

Tan Renhao has always been very nervous, those bombers are hanging a few tons of bombs, a random bomb can make an aircraft carrier go to the dock to repair for a few months, and now the Imperial Navy can no longer have aircraft carrier losses, otherwise the next stage of offensive operations will not be completed. Of course, Tan Renhao did not forget to warn Huang Xiaotian, and told Chang Jianxin the news that the US heavy bomber group had departed.

While Task Force 1 intercepted the U.S. bombers, the other nine U.S. bomber groups were still approaching Task Force 3. After receiving the alarm, Huang Xiaotian immediately asked the Fourth Task Force to sail east at full speed, and let all 24 fighters who had previously carried out the fleet's air defense mission go to the Third Task Force to strengthen the air defense of the Third Task Force. Huang Xiaotian did not keep air defense fighters for himself, he was betting on the Fourth Task Force, and he obviously made the right bet, the US military commander would not be stupid enough to use heavy bombers to bomb the aircraft carrier task force with strong air defense capabilities, and these bombers were all flying towards the Third Task Force.

At half past four, the first group of American bombers approached the Third Task Force, a group of 16 B-17s, but these bombers had to face the interception of at least 30 fighters, and none of the bombers succeeded in dropping bombs. Over the next half hour, four groups of American heavy bombers reached the skies over Task Force 3, and all of them were intercepted by fighters with superior numbers, and although several bombers successfully dropped bombs, none of them hit the two battleships.

By five o'clock, the shore-based fighters of the Navy, which had been transferred from Woodrack Island (a flat island in the middle of the Solomon Sea, on which was a field airfield of the Tang Empire's naval aviation) reached the skies over the 3rd Task Force and strengthened the air defense of the 3rd Task Force. The four groups of American bombers that arrived in the second half hour were also defeated without exception. Not a single bomb fell on those two battleships!

MacArthur's adventurous operation ultimately failed completely, and under the joint strangulation of hundreds of fighters, none of the 210 heavy bombers he sent flew back, and all of them were shot down, and the biggest result of this raid was that more than 30 fighters were shot down by the self-defense machine guns of US heavy bombers in air combat, and more than 10 fighter pilots were killed as a result.

Before dark, Tan Renhao received a telegram from Chang Jianxin, saying that the Third Task Force had entered the Solomon Sea, that more than a dozen destroyers sent by General Yan Guozhong had also joined the Third Task Force, and that the two captured American battleships had not been damaged and were being towed to Lae.

At this time, Tan Renhao breathed a sigh of relief, at least those US bombers did not achieve their goal. He sent a final telegram to Task Force 4, requesting that Task Force 4 enter the Solomon Sea overnight and that all fighters belonging to Task Force 1 that had landed on Task Force 4 take off and return to Task Force 1 before dawn. Then, Tan Renhao asked the fleet to turn off the radio station and reset the return course. When it was dark, the speed of Task Force 1 was reduced to 18 knots (mainly in consideration of the use of destroyers for anti-submarine patrols), and the fleet headed in the direction of the Solomon Sea.

The battle officially ended at this time, and Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue, who had not closed their eyes for almost two days and two nights, did not feel sleepy at all.

"I have asked the officers and men to rotate their posts in accordance with the normal combat readiness system." Hao Dongjue took out the last cigarette in the cigarette case, which was the third pack of cigarettes he had smoked in a day. "It's been a fierce day, and it looks like a lot of people won't be able to sleep tonight."

"At least three people couldn't sleep." Tan Renhao turned around and leaned against the fence, "One is the President of the United States, the second is Nimitz, and the third is MacArthur. These three people definitely can't sleep! ”

"I think Prime Minister Xue Xiyue, Marshal Nie Renfeng, Chief of General Staff Gan Yongxing, and General Yan Guozhong can't sleep."

"Anyway, I'm going to sleep!" Tan Renhao patted his partner's shoulder, "Let the navigation staff officer be on duty at night, and you can also go and rest." ”

Hao Dongjue nodded, and after Tan Renhao left the commander's bridge, he went to deploy the night duty work, and then went back to his cabin to sleep, maybe the two of them were the two who slept the most soundly this night!