Ten Japanese bombers dropped 40 bombs. Every time a bomb explodes on the surface of the sea, a huge column of water rises. Tan Renhao clenched his fists, although the time difference between the bombs and the time difference was only a few seconds, he felt as if a few years had passed. When the last column of water fell, the aircraft carrier "Taizong" was still sailing fast on the sea, and when he saw that the aircraft carrier was safe and sound, Tan Renhao breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, the "Li Jing" also began to turn at full speed. Tan Renhao hurriedly grabbed the handrail next to him, and when he turned his head, he found that the "Li Jing" was breaking away from the "Taizu" aircraft carrier at full speed, and then he heard the sharp sound of the bomb breaking through the air when it fell.

The first bomb fell more than 200 meters away on the port side of the "Taizu," and when the water column had just risen, the second bomb fell nearby, and then several more bombs fell. The sound of the bomb exploding a few meters below the surface of the water was muffled, a bit like muffled thunder. The aircraft carrier "Taizu" is like a clumsy steel monster, constantly changing course at a maximum speed of 33 knots, dodging the falling bombs.

"The 'Taizu' has been shot!"

Tan Renhao also saw that a bomb should have landed near the No. 2 elevator of the "Taizu", that is, the flight deck was about 120 meters away from the stern. The bomb should have exploded directly on the deck, without entering the hangar below, and the "Taizu" seemed to be slightly entangled, but the speed did not slow down, and it was still maneuvering, dodging the bombs overhead.

When the sea water in the air was bombed, a thick black smoke rose from the "Taizu". From a distance of two nautical miles, Tan Renhao could still clearly see that many officers and soldiers were extinguishing fires on the flight deck, and some fighters parked on the deck and were ignited were directly pushed into the sea.

"How's the situation with the 'Taizu'?" Liao Hanxiang was also very nervous.

"The bomb exploded on the flight deck, the No. 2 elevator was blown up, but the hangar was not damaged, the power system was not damaged, it was still able to continue sailing, and now it is fighting the fire with all its might."

Liao Hanxiang wiped the sweat from his forehead, and then let out a sigh. Although the "Taizu" was badly damaged, as long as it was able to sail, there would be no major problems.

Tan Renhao also breathed a sigh of relief, the most vulnerable thing about the aircraft carrier is the flight deck. The flight deck of the "Emperor" class was just a layer of wooden planks covered with iron sheets, and there was no armor defense at all. Obviously, the "Taizu" hit a high-explosive bomb without a time-delay fuse, and not an armor-piercing shell, otherwise the bomb would have entered the hull and exploded, causing more damage, which was also more dangerous. Below the flight deck of the aircraft carrier is the hangar, which contains a lot of fuel pipes, and may even be stacked with bombs and torpedoes that have not had time to reach the ammunition depot, and if these munitions are detonated, the aircraft carrier will be blown into the sky. And under the flight deck is the ammunition depot, as well as the fuel tank, in the middle of which is only a layer of armor steel plate 20 mm thick, which cannot block the blow of armor-piercing shells at all.

"Report, the damage to the 'Taizu'."

Liao Hanxiang immediately took the telegram, and after reading it, he gave it to Tan Renhao. As with Tan Renhao's speculation, the damage to the "Taizu" was not fatal, the bomb only damaged the flight deck, the power system of the aircraft carrier was not affected, and the fire was already under control, except for the twelve officers and soldiers killed, only three fighters parked nearby were blown up. However, the aircraft carrier has lost the ability to accept the landing of fighters.

"Arrange for the returning fighters to land on other aircraft carriers." Liao Hanxiang smiled at this time, the Japanese bomber group had retreated, and those fighters in charge of the fleet's air defense were making a second interception of the returning Japanese bombers.

At this time, Ji Xiaobin also came to the command headquarters, and he was also sweating profusely. "We shot down 12 Japanese bombers, six of which were the record of the heavy cruiser 'Daisetsuki'. Only the 'Taizu' was damaged, and the other battleships did not suffer any losses. ”

Liao Hanxiang nodded and said: "Let the fighters return one after another after completing the interception mission, and keep 24 air defense fighters in the sky over the fleet at any time." Also, continuing at the current pace, we return to the port of Zhoushan. ”

Wu Xianyu helped Liao Hanxiang give the order, and after the air defense alarm was lifted, the fleet resumed its normal sailing formation, instead of a "dense" air defense formation.

Half an hour later, the results were counted. In the two interceptions before and after, the air defense fighters shot down a total of 37 enemy aircraft, while the air defense battleships shot down 12, a total of 49 low-level aircraft were shot down, and only 35 enemy aircraft escaped. Three fighters were lost, and all the pilots parachuted (all of them were later rescued by destroyers). The aircraft carrier "Taizu" was heavily damaged, and the other warships were unharmed. Five officers and men were killed and 12 wounded (one of them was burned while fighting the fire, and three gunners on the "Heavy Snow" were wounded by shells).

It wasn't a brilliant result, but everyone was satisfied. Of course, the greatest credit is still given to the air defense fighters, and if it were not for those dozens of air defense fighters, I am afraid that the losses would not be more than that, and maybe all three aircraft carriers would have been wiped out. Of course, what satisfied Liao Hanxiang the most was that there were actually no major problems with the three aircraft carriers. The damage to the "Taizu" is easy to repair, and it only needs to be replaced with a flight deck (the flight deck is composed of many sections, and when repairing, only the damaged part needs to be replaced), and other parts are repaired, and the combat effectiveness will be completely restored. The other two aircraft carriers were also only false alarms.

Tan Renhao's nervousness also left with the departure of the enemy plane. While others were celebrating "victory", or "narrowly escaped death", Tan Renhao was not so happy. This battle reflected at least two serious problems, one is that the anti-aircraft artillery on the battleship is defective, the 120 mm air gun is the main force, but the elevation angle is too small. The 40-mm air cannon was almost an ornament and had little practical effect. Second, the fleet's coordination in air defense operations is not ideal, and with the powerful air defense capability of the Fifth Fleet, it should not suffer such losses at all.

Of course, the war has just broken out, and the fact that the Fifth Fleet was able to discover these problems at the beginning of the war and learn from them will certainly be of great help in future battles.

Click on the image link: