Leading the 1st Task Force escort fighter group was Lieutenant Colonel Ellsler. Now that he was still the squadron leader of the fighter squadron, he had no opinion, and he was already satisfied with being able to keep him in the fleet and continue to fight. Of course, for this operation, Ansler was still very active, and when he received the order, he was the first to take off in a fighter jet. In order to reach the enemy fleet 11o nautical miles away as soon as possible, Ellsler waited for the first squad of fighters to take off and then immediately left the sky over the fleet, without waiting for the other two squadrons to catch up. In less than 11o nautical miles, 12 "Falcons" have been flying at an altitude of 45o meters at maximum cruising power, and Ansle is not worried about the fuel for returning, anyway, this distance is a bit ridiculously close.

At 7:23, Ellsler and the others saw the US fleet in front of them (because of the fog on the sea and the low flight altitude, the distance from which they could see the US fleet was only 3 nautical miles, and the detection distance of the radar in the US fleet to the fighters at an altitude of 45o meters would not exceed 5 nautical miles). When they were now judging the bombers in the sky above the U.S. fleet, Ansler and they immediately became excited. Although they had not seen the aircraft carrier at this time, they could no longer control the anti-aircraft artillery on the US warships on the sea, and immediately stepped up and killed the US bomber group without fighter cover.

The air defense alarm in the US fleet was sounded only one minute earlier, and when the escort warships on the periphery reacted, the fighters under the command of Ellsler had already passed over the two destroyers on the outermost periphery. Then, six F4U rushed out of the clouds and headed directly at the group of "Falcons" below

Kill the past. Before the "Falcon" fighter formation could react, three were shot down.

Ellor narrowly avoided the attack of a "pirate", and when he pulled the fighter up the fighter, it was only then that there were only six fighters on the other side, and the other fighters had not yet arrived. Now Ellsler will not be soft, he immediately took two two-plane formations to deal with those pirates. Have the other five fighters work together to deal with those bombers.

"Lao An, front and bottom, two targets, you left and me right!"

"No problem, you're keeping up!"

As soon as Ellsle and his wingman broke out of the clouds, they immediately aimed at the two "Falcon" "pirates" in front of them, and then the 2o mm machine gun shells flew out of the guns on the wings of the fighters and flew towards the two unlucky American fighters. The "pirate" attacked by Ellsle was immediately smashed into a ball of fire, and the "pirate" attacked by Ellslor's wingman fell to the surface with a tail of smoke. After two enemy aircraft were shot down. The two "Falcons" also immediately pulled up and quickly broke away from the dangerous low-altitude airspace.

"Lao An, play well, wait and rush out!"

"Contact the other pilots, enter the clouds after the fight, and don't be a target for the US warships below!" Ellsler laughed, "Damn, the Yankees are not our opponents compared to the reflexes!" ”

Because the clouds are too low, and there are still some of the American bombers under the clouds. So neither fighter nor the fighters of both sides fought above the clouds. Instead, they concentrated their operations under the clouds.

At this time, the US bombers were burrowing into the clouds, and a group of them had already gone out in the direction of the first task force. The other group flew above the clouds, waiting for the escort fighters behind to catch up, and then went to attack the fleet of the Tang Empire.

The air battle was raging, and at 7:28 a.m., a second group of two squadrons of "Hayabusa" joined the battle, and these fighters entered directly above the clouds, and the first to attack the American bombers hovering above the fleet. And the US escort fighters that took off from the two aircraft carriers, as well as the air defense fighters who rushed from several other directions, had not yet arrived at this time. The attacked US bombers immediately burrowed into the clouds to avoid the attack of the fighters when the number of Tang Imperial fighters they were killing was really a little unimaginable. Outcome.

Most of the bombers sent by Halsey flew away in the clouds, and most of the bombers flew in a formation of four, at most, in the direction of the Tang Imperial fleet.

At this time, Halsey no longer doubted that the fleet that came out about 11o nautical miles northwest was the Tang Empire's task force, otherwise, the Tang Empire's fighters would not have come so quickly, and the reconnaissance plane that had returned half of the telegram must have been shot down by the Tang Empire's escort fighters (it was shot down by the second batch of escort fighters, and the squad of ground fighters led by Anderson missed the US sBd reconnaissance plane). But when there were more than 30 escort fighters of the Tang Empire that Halsey had killed, he was a little puzzled.

The number of standard fighters carried by an aircraft carrier of the Don Empire was 36 units. And this is also the most reasonable preparation. And according to the normal situation, the fleet should leave at least half of its fighters to carry out air defense tasks, and it is impossible to send all fighters to carry out escort missions. Now there are more than 3o escort fighters coming, which is enough for all the fighters on an aircraft carrier. That is, in that fleet 11o nautical miles away, there is a high probability that there will be two, and not one aircraft carrier. However, at this time, the Tang Empire absolutely did not have Sidu aircraft carriers to fight in this sea area, and the second task force was still on the side of the Marshall Islands, unless it could fly over, it would be impossible to participate in the battle here. Having ruled out the impossibility of the 2nd Task Force entering the battle, Halsey had to think that one of the telegrams sent back by the two reconnaissance planes must have been wrong, or that the adversary 11o nautical miles away had sent all the fighters directly to carry out the escort mission, leaving no air defense fighters.

Halsey thought for three minutes, and he almost decided to turn the first wave of bombers to attack targets 11o nautical miles away, but in the end he did not give this order, and there was only one reason for him to stick to his previous judgment, because the second telegram mentioned that the aircraft carrier 11o nautical miles away was the "Lake" class carrier. And Halsey knows very well that the two aircraft carriers in the Fourth Task Force are old aircraft carriers, not the latest "Lake" class aircraft carriers in the Tang Empire, and only the aircraft carriers in the First Task Force are "Lake" class aircraft carriers. The commander of the First Task Force was Tan Renhao, the most difficult opponent Halsey thought he would ever be. Tan Renhao will definitely go all out to attack, and in the case of only more than 3o fighters, if he leaves half of the fighters for air defense, then not only will he not be able to let the bomber group break through the opponent's air defense network smoothly, but the half of the fighters left behind will also be difficult to provide himself with effective air defense cover, even if all the fighters are left. It is also difficult to ensure the absolute safety of the aircraft carrier. With the possibility of one for two, Tan Renhao will definitely choose to attack.

It was through this that Halsey judged Task Force 1 and Task Force 4. But he still couldn't figure out why the two task forces of the Tang Empire were so far apart, and dividing troops was originally a taboo for soldiers. Halsey didn't think so much about it, the fourth task force that attacked the two aircraft carriers was naturally the top priority, and he still had those reconnaissance planes that had returned. As well as the "Independence", which is about to return to combat effectiveness, the fighters on the "Belauwood" can also carry bombs on bombing missions. If he can take out the fourth task force, then he can also organize the forces on two small aircraft carriers to deal with the first task force, of course, no one knows if the second batch of bombers that have been dispersed can pose a threat to the first task force.

Immediately after Halsey made these judgments, the escort fighters, who had previously performed the mission, were ordered to join the air defense operation. In fact, there was no longer any need for Halsidi's command.

When the 18 F4U finally climbed above the clouds, all they could see were the "Falcon" fighters, and the bombers that needed their protection had been dispersed, and the "Falcon" that had lost its target immediately rushed over. Then. The US fighter pilots saw a large number of bombers flying in the direction of the fleet. It was the first "waterfowl" to arrive. After receiving the news of the arrival of the fighters, these dive bombers flew over the clouds to avoid anti-aircraft fire on the sea. Directly over the American fleet. There was no need for Halsey to give any orders at all, and the bombers, who had lost their cover targets, immediately adjusted their course and rushed towards the Tang Empire bombers that had killed them.

Almost at the same time, on the sea, 32 "Sea Eagles" also approached the American fleet. The 11o nautical mile distance was so close that the pilots didn't have to worry about fuel on their way back, so they could get the motivation to move forward at full speed. Both groups of bombers arrived over the American fleet at about 7:55.

The cruisers and destroyers escorting the Brave and the Hornet immediately turned their guns on the approaching torpedo bombers, and the gunners on the battleships could only see the torpedo bombers flying below the clouds. Although the clouds also blocked the view of the dive bomber pilots, they also protected the dive bombers. In the first place, only torpedo bombers were hit. The officers and men of the American battleship on the ground ignored the dive bombers above the clouds.

The greatest threat to torpedo bombers was not escort warships. Rather, two aircraft carriers. Neither the cruisers nor destroyers in Task Force 31 actually had much anti-aircraft artillery on them, but only a temporary batch of anti-aircraft machine guns. This is not at all the same as an aircraft carrier, which already has a large number of anti-aircraft guns installed at the factory. At that time, the most powerful anti-aircraft firepower in the fleet was the aircraft carrier, and the bomber attack object was also the aircraft carrier.

It has long been proven in actual combat that the threat posed by the anti-aircraft machine guns of the US army to the extremely strong torpedo bombers is not very great. Unless the bullet hits the bombers in a direct way on key parts of the bombers, such as the cockpit, the engine, and the controls, there is no way to stop the bombers. In previous naval battles. Once, a "sea eagle" was hit by more than 20 machine gun bullets and miraculously returned to the aircraft carrier. And what can really threaten these bombers is only shells of more than 2o mm caliber, and by no means machine gun bullets!

The 32 "Sea Eagles" were divided into two groups, 16 of which rushed to the "Yongmeng" aircraft carrier, while the other 16 flew around the US fleet for most of the circle and killed the "Hornet" aircraft carrier southeast of the "Yongmeng." The 127-mm anti-aircraft guns on the aircraft carrier were a little more effective, and the six twin-mounted 127-mm anti-aircraft guns on the "Brave" shot down four "Sea Eagles" within two minutes, three of which were aimed at the "Hornet." And the 127-mm anti-aircraft guns on the "Hornet" also shot down two "Sea Eagles" in the ensuing battle. During this period, the anti-aircraft fire of the American cruisers and destroyers shot down a total of four "Sea Eagles".

Seeing the approaching torpedo bombers and the poor performance of the escort warships, Halsey could no longer describe how he felt in words, and he had no hope for the next battle. Therefore, when the "Brave" was maneuvering quickly to evade, Halsey asked the staff officer to give the "Independence" class small aircraft carrier formation a final order, and asked the "Independence" and "Bellawwood" to immediately organize bombers to attack the first task force of the Tang Empire. In addition, it was prepared to receive the returning bombers, and then, depending on the situation, to carry out supplementary bombing of the task force of the Tang Empire.

When the battle came to this point, not only Halsey was basically desperate, but the vast majority of the American officers and men in the fleet were about to despair. Especially those veterans who participated in previous battles were well aware of how efficient the penetration efficiency of the bombers of the Tang Empire was. Now that so many bombers have been killed, what hope do they have?

Only four of the 16 "Sea Eagles" attacking the "Valiant" aircraft carrier were hit before the torpedo was dropped, and the other 12 all successfully flew in the straight line before the mine, and dropped the torpedo when the distance was 8oo to 6oo meters. Immediately after dropping the torpedoes, the 12 "Sea Eagles" split into two groups, one to the right and one to the left, and quickly departed from the combat course to avoid the shells fired from the battleship.

The "Brave" aircraft carrier quickly turned to the right as if it had been hit by a bear from the ship's department, trying to avoid the 12 torpedoes that were fired. The traces of the torpedoes under the surface of the sea were so obvious that the anti-aircraft guns on the battleship almost all gave up on chasing the torpedo bombers that slipped out, aiming their guns at the approaching torpedoes. It was at this time that a creepy voice sounded from the US officers and soldiers......