The first to escape the effects of the hurricane was the fleet of the Third Fleet, which followed the First Fleet, the last of which reached the relatively calm waters at about 9:20 a.m., by which time the hurricane had moved into the waters between the Cayman Islands and Cuba, and the direction of movement had changed again, almost directly towards the western part of Cuba, and it would make landfall in Cuba before 10 o'clock.

Task Force 1 and Task Force 2 left the area affected by the hurricane at 9:35 a.m. and 9:50 a.m., respectively. By this point, the fleet was already 300 miles away from the hurricane, and the fleet had moved about 240 miles south of Jamaica Island, more than 35 nautical miles from the center of the hurricane, and about 420 miles from the port of San Diego.

After the hurricane was released, the first order issued by Tan Renhao and several other fleet commanders was to immediately repair the communications equipment on the battleship, especially the long-distance communication radio. Immediately, the officers and men on the aircraft carrier also began to check the state of the aircraft carrier. By 10:05 a.m., the electronic officers on board the "Longganhu" aircraft carrier first repaired a long-distance radio station and a radio station used to communicate with the carrier-based aircraft. Immediately, Tan Renhao received a lot of news.

The first to send the news was Lei Shaoqing, and Tan Renhao learned that the 3rd Task Force had defeated the 21st Task Force, but because Chang Zhixin was worried about being attacked by American bombers, he continued to shell the port of San Diego, and asked Tan Renhao to carry out supplementary bombing of the port of San Diego. This telegram was originally sent by Chang Jianxin at about half past nine, when he had just asked people to repair the damaged radio station, and the telegram was not received by Tan Renhao, but by Lei Shaoqing in the port of Cologne. Immediately, after Lei Shaoqing contacted Tan Renhao, he forwarded the telegram.

At this time, the air staff officers of the fleet also contacted the aircraft group sent out before. At that time, most of the reconnaissance planes had returned to the sea area where they departed, and were looking for the fleet to the west. The fuel on these reconnaissance planes was almost running out, in order to be able to prolong the time in the air. The pilots had to fly at the slowest speed, and immediately after making contact with the fleet, the reconnaissance planes all flew over. Because the Third Fleet was in front and the First Fleet was behind at that time, many First Fleet ground reconnaissance planes landed directly on the aircraft carriers after seeing the aircraft carriers of the Third Fleet.

The most serious were the fighters sent over Task Force 3. The fighters took off before six o'clock, and the fuel they carried was only capable of flying until half past ten. According to Tan Renhao's arrangement, these fighters left the Third Task Force and returned to the aircraft carrier by 9 to 9:30 a.m. at the latest. As a result, at about ten o'clock, most of the fighters had already returned to the previously determined rendezvous area, but the aircraft carrier was not found. By the time the aviation staff contacted them, more than half of the fighters had to make a forced landing on the sea because they had run out of fuel. The pilots all escaped, but so did the fighters who had landed in a forced landing. The other half of the fighters were not far from the fleet, but a large part of them could not fly at all, and could only get as close as possible to the fleet and then make a forced landing. The pilots could only wait for rescue planes and ships to fish them out of the sea.

In a hurry, Tan Renhao's first arrangement must be the rescue work, and the pilot is the most valuable asset in the fleet, and there must be no mistakes. But the problem was that at that time, the area where the fighters were forced to land was very large, and it would take a lot of time to find all the pilots who had made the forced landing. It's even more troublesome. The seaplanes that served as the main rescue force had been completely destroyed in the storm, and the much slower destroyers and cruisers had to be dispatched to find the pilots who had made the landing, which would have taken more time. Later, HNA also sent more than a dozen long-range water patrol planes to help the fleet find the missing pilot, and the fleet's search and rescue work continued until the evening of the same day, because more than a dozen pilots were still not found, and HNA long-range water patrol planes searched this sea area for another three days. The last pilot was found three days later, on the afternoon of the 27th, when the pilot had collapsed badly from lack of water, if it had been a few hours late. I'm afraid that all I found was a corpse floating on the surface of the sea.

Many questions poured out almost all at once, and just when Tan Renhao had just arranged the search and rescue work, various warships also sent damage reports one after another. The problem of escorting the battleship is not very big, at most it has been blown off the wires, a few small-caliber anti-aircraft guns are missing, and some of the equipment exposed to the ship's body is missing, or it is out of order or something, anyway, it can continue to sail and continue to fight. The biggest problem is still the aircraft carrier. At that time, of the three aircraft carriers of the First Task Force, only the "Longganhu" could barely allow bombers to take off, the other two aircraft carriers had their bow decks blown over, and one did not even have the ability to land even the planes. The situation of the other task forces was not much better, and only the "Xingkaihu" of the second task force could barely receive and take off fighters, and the other two aircraft carriers had to repair the flight decks. Only two aircraft carriers in the Third Fleet still have a little air combat capability, and the other seven aircraft carriers have been damaged to varying degrees.

In fact, none of the damage to the aircraft carrier was serious, the most important thing was that the flight deck was blown over in the storm, or it damaged key equipment such as catapults, arresting cables, etc. These damages are relatively easy to repair, and can even be repaired at sea, and when they are in port, they are easier to deal with. The problem is that these damages are enough to deprive the aircraft carrier of its aviation combat capability, which in turn makes it impossible for the aircraft carrier to continue operations. 94b941

A storm exposed the flaws on the "Lake" class aircraft carriers. In fact, the defect of the low strength of the flight deck at that time had been exposed in the Pacific theater, and the aircraft carriers of the First Fleet and the Third Fleet at that time had been modified in China before entering the Atlantic to fight, and all of them were modeled after the aircraft carriers of the British Navy, and the "Hurricane Bow" (this name was given by the British). I thought this would solve the problem, but the problem is still serious. This time, there was no incident of the bow being blown into twist by the hurricane, but the flight deck was generally problematic, and one of the main reasons was that the "Lake" class aircraft carrier adopted a flight deck with a bracket structure, that is, the flight deck was connected to the main deck of the hangar through some load-bearing brackets. This minimizes the weight of the structure, reduces the footprint of the structure, expands the capacity of the hangar, and reduces the cost of construction and speeds up construction

The problem is that the strength of the bracket structure is not high, and the requirements of the I limit are extremely fragile in the storm.

Later, it was this encounter between Tan Renhao and Huang Xiaotian that made the Imperial Navy make up its mind to adopt a semi-enclosed hangar. After the war, all the "Lake" class aircraft carriers that continued to serve were semi-enclosed hangars when they underwent a mid-term overhaul. And several aircraft carriers of the "Island" class, which were about to enter service at that time, returned to the shipyard before being delivered to the Navy, with the same modifications, using semi-enclosed hangars. Therefore, after the improvement of the "Island" class aircraft carrier, 800 tons of steel plates were added, and in order to ensure the stability of the aircraft carrier and reduce the weight of the part above the water surface, it had to reduce the amount of ammunition for each anti-aircraft gun, and in addition, many equipment rarely used on the aircraft carrier were all canceled, such as the two cranes equipped with the standard equipment in the past, only one was retained on the "Island" class, which reduced the weight of about 600 and basically ensured the stability of the aircraft carrier.

After the reports of the various task forces were delivered, Tan Renhao remembered that Chang Zhixin had asked for a supplementary bombing of the port of San Diego, and he immediately sent a telegram to Huang Xiaotian, asking Huang Xiaotian to organize a group of bombers as much as possible, not to wait for the First Fleet, and to bomb the port of San Diego immediately. Of course, the First Fleet is not idle, how to say, there are two more aircraft carriers capable of allowing bombers to take off. However, the problem is not so simple.

In addition to the damage to the aircraft carrier itself, the situation with the carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier is not optimistic. The carrier-based aircraft tethered to the flight deck were almost completely destroyed, and the situation of the carrier-based aircraft preserved in the hangar was not much better. In the wind and waves, many carrier-based aircraft were not firmly fixed to the deck, and as a result, they collided with each other. At that time, several planes on the "Longganhu" aircraft carrier were hit with missing arms and legs, which made the service personnel extremely distressed, and it was a fighter worth hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands!

It was almost eleven o'clock when the results of the First Fleet came out. Only 42 bombers, as well as 22 fighters can be used. Prior to this, Tan Renhao had just received a telegram from Huang Xiaotian that 44 bombers and 21+ fighters of the Third Fleet had been ordered to organize these fighters to take off. Tan Renhao did not hesitate, and he immediately gave the order to attack. Although the number was a little less, this was enough to form two bomber groups, and the fleet at that time did not need to think about air defense. It is impossible for US bombers to be dispatched at this time, and there is no need to even arrange escort fighters, so those fighters can also hang bombs and carry out bombing missions.

At 11:10 a.m., the bombers and fighters of the Third Fleet took off first, and the two aircraft carriers of the Third Fleet were only about 400 miles away from San Diego. Five minutes later, the First Fleet fighters also took off. At this time, the aircraft carrier "Longganhu" was 440 miles away from Shengdia, and the "Xingkaihu" was 430 miles away from Shengdia, which was exactly in the maximum combat radius of the "Falcon" and "Peregrine Falcon".

After letting the bomber take off, Tan Renhao contacted Chang Zhixin again, and at this time it was impossible for him to provide air defense cover for Chang Zhixin. Wait until after a new call-back is often recommended. Tan Renhao breathed a sigh of relief. Task Force 3 did not return directly south, but passed through the Cayman Channel between Jamaica and Grand Cayman, and then returned south from the western waters of Jamaica. Although this route was a little tortuous, the Third Task Force was within the scope of the hurricane at this time, and it was unlikely that it would be discovered and tracked by the US military, and the hurricane would not enter the Gulf of Mexico until the afternoon, so the Third Task Force only needed to ensure that it would not be attacked before dark, and it would be able to leave the dangerous sea area before dawn on the 25th.

At this time. Tan Renhao also knew that the wounded battleships of the Third Task Force were heading south from the Jamaica Strait, that is, towards the First Fleet. Tan Renhao immediately arranged for several destroyers to respond. Later, it was after the sinking of the "Lidong" that Tan Renhao ordered the other damaged battleships to go to the port of Limon, and not to the farther port of Cologne, otherwise the other four cruisers would most likely sink before they reached the port of Cologne.

At that time, the search and rescue work was not complete, and the bombers would not have much fuel left when they returned. Neither the First Fleet nor the Third Fleet immediately retreated. At around 12 o'clock, Tan Renhao contacted Huang Xiaotian and asked Huang Xiaotian to retreat, and at the same time, the four aircraft carriers in the First Fleet that could not fight will also retreat with Huang Xiaotian, and Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue will take the other two aircraft carriers to receive the returning bombers, and at the same time be responsible for search and rescue work. After all, it is not a good thing for the fleet to stay in this sea area for a long time, even if the US bombers have no way to deal with them, but this is the main passage for US submarines to go to the southern waters of the Caribbean Sea, and the fleet is gathered together, and it is easy to become the target of submarine ambushes, and leaving only two aircraft carrier battle groups will naturally be much less dangerous. 94b941

Huang Xiaotian did not refuse this proposal, he also hoped to repair the aircraft carrier as soon as possible, and before one o'clock in the afternoon, Huang Xiaotian took the Third Fleet and the four aircraft carrier battle groups of the First Fleet to return south and go to Cologne.

By about three o'clock in the afternoon, the wounded battleships of the Third Task Force had not joined Tan Renhao. At this time, the bombing of San Diego had already returned to the aircraft carrier, and Tan Renhao did not delay much time, and immediately returned with the warships of the Third Task Force. Of course, he didn't forget to tell Chang Jianxin about this, so that Chang Jianxin wouldn't worry. In the end, Tan Renhao also sent the news of the return to Lei Shaoqing, which was the last telegram sent by the fleet before returning to the port of Cologne.

At this point, the campaign ended, and on the night of 26 June, the last of the 3rd Task Force returned to the port of Cologne, without taking into account the wounded ships of the 3rd Task Force. On the way back, the US submarine tried to sneak attack the fleet several times, but the result was unsuccessful, whether it was Tan Renhao, Huang Xiaotian, or Chang Jianxin, they did not ignore the threat of submarines, after all, after completing the combat mission, the fleet at the place of return was the most likely to be attacked by submarines.

Unlike the battle in the Bahamas, this combat operation was shorter, and there were more unexpected situations, and on the whole, this combat operation has achieved its goal, and the next step will depend on Han Shaofeng's performance.