"Sir, the 'Li Jing' was hit, half of the aft deck was blown off, and Lieutenant Colonel Chen Yuji was still able to keep the flight, and Lieutenant Colonel Chen Yuji was still directing the battle."

"Sir, the blow up of the north chimney of the 'Chai Shao' has been reduced to 21 knots, and I request to withdraw from the battle."

"Sir, the turret of the 'Li Xun' armor has been blown up, and the ammunition compartment has been filled with water, so there is no danger of explosion."

……

Tan Renhao listened to the staff officer's report with a pale face. Fifteen minutes earlier, he had ordered the "Liu Hongji" and "Chai Shao" to withdraw from the battle. Both large cruisers suffered heavy losses and could no longer hold on. "Li Jing" and "Li Xun" continued to hold out, and the other eight heavy cruisers and eight destroyers did not attract the attention of the Japanese planes and were not much threatened.

"New telegram." Lei Shaoqing ran over out of breath, "a new kind of Japanese bomber", which can also be said to be a suicide plane. Damn, *** actually loaded the plane with explosives and let the plane hit the battleship, damn ......"

"That *** gas is almost exhausted!" Tan Ren Haoxun glanced at the telegram: "I hope the shelling formation can hold on***, I already know that the Ogasawara Islands will be our next place to land on the 6th, this time we are desperately trying to send reinforcements to the island." We must not allow the convoy to reach the Ogasawara Islands. Prepare the bomber forces, and if the shelling formations are not up to the task of intercepting at night, then the bombers will come out. ”

Lei Shaoqing smiled bitterly and went to the staff officer to arrange the night bombing.

At this time, the battle ahead was still raging. At 6:20 a.m., Lieutenant Colonel Chen Yuji gave the order for evacuation operations, and the warships separated to avoid being hit by Japanese planes. But this was definitely a mistake, and the shelling of the formation, this bloody loss, brought only an experience.

The scattered ground fleet was no longer able to form an effective anti-aircraft fire network, and the retreating "Chai Shao" was hit a second time. A suicide plane crashed into the battleship's seaplane platform, but fortunately, the crew had already thrown all the nearby oil drums into the sea, otherwise the impact would have brought a devastating disaster to the "Chai Shao". Then. The "Liu Hongji" narrowly dodged the impact of three suicide planes, and also successfully shot down four suicide planes. It's nothing short of a miracle. After the bridge was blown up, it was the captain chief engineer who commanded the "Liu Hongji". The officers and men who were able to evade the impact of the suicide plane and shoot down the suicide plane "Liu Hongji" under such conditions did their utmost to do their best.

The most difficult situation was the large cruiser "Li Xun", and it was this battleship that created miracles. In less than five minutes, at least a dozen suicide planes were eyeing the battleship and giving it a deadly "flying kiss". "Li Xun" dodged left and right. First, three suicide planes coming from the port side were sent to hell, and then, with a beautiful right turn, two suicide planes were thrown behind the ass in an almost vertical dive, and in the blink of an eye, the anti-aircraft guns on the starboard side of the battleship turned four more suicide planes into four fireworks under the dusk sky. When the battleship turned left, the last three suicide planes were all shot down. The entire battle lasted only five minutes, and the anti-aircraft artillery on the "Li Xun" showed its might, shooting down 10 suicide planes in a row, but not a single one of them was damaged.

The situation of the "Li Jing" is not much better than that of the "Li Xun". After a blow in the ass, more than a dozen anti-aircraft guns located behind the seaplane platform were all blown up. Those Japanese special attack pilots weren't exactly stupid either. Almost all of the eight suicide planes that attacked the "Li Jing" entered from this direction. The "Li Jing" had to continue to turn non-stop. Intercept the suicide plane biting behind the ass with broadside artillery fire. Although the first three suicide planes were hit by artillery fire and landed on the nearby sea, blowing up a column of water, the "Li Jing" was not able to escape the attack of the fourth suicide plane. When the battleship turned left for the third time. A suicide plane rushed from its right rear flank, which was exactly the dead end of the anti-aircraft fire on the battleship. The suicide plane hit the part of the battleship again, and after entering the deck of the battleship, it exploded, causing more damage than the previous one. And it was only 6:27.

The good fortune of the "Li Xun" also ran out at this time. When the sixteenth suicide plane was killed, one of the suicide planes smashed down like a meteorite directly over the head of the battleship. At that time, the anti-aircraft artillery on the battleship was dealing with suicide planes in other directions, and the plane did not notice the threat overhead. The plane crashed between the two chimneys of the battleship. According to the previous design, this was supposed to be the place where torpedo tubes were deployed, and now here is the place where 4o-mm anti-aircraft guns are most dense. At the same time, it was also a place where small-caliber anti-aircraft shells were stacked during battles. As a result, in addition to several hundred kilograms of explosives on the suicide plane, hundreds of small-caliber anti-aircraft shells were also detonated.

"The degree of the 'Li Jing' has been reduced to 18 knots, two propellers have been blown up, and the steering gear of the right hand drive has been damaged, and the battleship can only barely maintain course." Lei Shaoqing wiped the sweat on his forehead, "The damage to the nose engine room of the Li Xun has now been controlled, and the degree of water ingress has been reduced to 24 knots. It's still holding on. “

"Let both battleships immediately withdraw from the battle. Don't make unnecessary sacrifices. Tan Renhao immediately gave the order: "In addition, what about the situation with the heavy cruisers?" ”

"The heavy cruisers have been attacked less, and so far only the 'Frostfall' has been slightly damaged, and the rest is fine."

"Okay, organize the heavy cruisers, and let the captain of the 'Lichun', Major Geng Weiming, be the commander of the artillery formation." Tan Renhao didn't hesitate, "Let them hand in the loss report as soon as possible, if they don't have the ability to intercept the Japanese transport fleet heading south, then don't hold it hard." Of course, if the losses of the heavy cruisers were not very large, then let them continue to fight, after all, night bombardment was far less effective than shelling. ”

Tan Renhao did not abandon the idea of intercepting the Japanese convoy with artillery formations, the danger of night bombing was too high. Moreover, when the bombers are returning home, the aircraft carrier must turn on the navigation lights, and if there are Japanese suicide planes killing at this time, then the aircraft carrier is killing itself. He can't risk the most valuable treasure of the Imperial Navy!

The Japanese bomber group withdrew at 6:33 a.m., and the entire bombing lasted twenty-five minutes. It was only at this time that the officers and men on the battleships of the Tang Empire, as well as the fighter pilots who were returning home, figured out that the twin bombers were actually here to provide guidance for the suicide planes. Other words. Those bombers, on the contrary, did not pose much of a threat.

Major Geng Weiming took the place of Lieutenant Colonel Chen Yuji as commander of the artillery formation. According to Tan Renhao's order, when the Japanese bomber group was withdrawn, he sent the telegram back at 6:45 a.m.

During the twenty-five minutes of bombardment, all four large cruisers in the artillery formation suffered heavy damage and all withdrew from the battle, returning to the port of Naha under the protection of the four destroyers. Of the nine heavy cruisers that took part in the battle, the "Frostfall" suffered the greatest losses. The ship's C turret was destroyed, but it was not completely incapacitated, and the power system was not damaged, and it was still able to move with the fleet. In addition, the "Bailu" and "Autumn Equinox" ships were both attacked by close range, and cracks appeared in the hulls of the ships, but they have been urgently repaired, and this will not affect their participation in combat operations. At least 400 naval officers and men were killed in the battle, and the heaviest losses were the two large cruisers, the "Chai Shao" and the "Liu Hongji."

Throughout the course of the engagement, the shelling formations shot down 127 Japanese suicide planes. As well as 28 bombers. This is only a provisional statistical result.

In the last part of the telegram. Geng Weiming promised to intercept the Japanese convoy and persist in fighting to the end, never retreating easily. Anyway. Said a lot of rhetoric and nonsense.

After reading Geng Weiming's telegram, Tan Renhao couldn't smile bitterly. Geng Weiming was transferred from the Second Fleet, and like Jiang Bangguo, he was an outright conservative. In the first task force before, he was the most unconvinced captain of Tan Renhao, and after several battles, his opinion of Tan Renhao has changed a lot, but he has never given up the pursuit of artillery warfare. Of course, he was also a very brave officer. Before the large air defense cruisers entered service in large quantities, the "Lichun" was the escort battleship of the aircraft carrier "Taizu". Meritorious service many times in battle. And now Geng Weiming finally got the artillery battle he had always dreamed of.

"Let him do it!" Tan Renhao didn't mean to discriminate against Geng Weiming at all, "Since he is so sure, let him wave it." ”

"Let's not do anything else?" Lei Shaoqing asked.

Tan Renhao hesitated slightly. "Let the bomber pilots of the 1st and 2nd Brigades be prepared at night, and tomorrow the bombing mission during the day will be undertaken by the 3rd Group. If Geng Weiming can't handle the Japanese transport fleet, then let Deng Zi and Zhang Naiding out. ”

Deng Zi and Zhang Naiding, the two aircraft groups, had previously carried out night bombing missions, and they were the only aircraft groups in the fleet with a little pitiful night combat experience. Therefore, Tan Renhao left the task of night operation to the two of them. As for whether it will be their turn to play, it depends on whether the shells on the heavy cruisers commanded by Geng Weiming can wipe out all the Japanese fleet.

"Shaoqing. One more thing. Tan Renhao stopped Lei Shaoqing: "I will write the battle report this time, you first organize a group of staff officers to analyze the reasons for the Japanese army's suicide planes, and the loopholes and defects that the fleet showed in fighting the suicide planes. Give me a report as soon as possible. If these suicide planes are to be our biggest threat in the future, then we will have to think about how to deal with it. ”

"I'll do it right away."

"Once you've got it done, send it to my cabin, and I'll think about how to write this report first."

After returning to his cabin, Tan Renhao realized that he could barely write this report. In just twenty-five minutes of fighting, the losses of Task Force 1 exceeded the sum of all previous losses in battles with the Japanese Air Force (not counting the lost aircraft carriers). In particular, four large cruisers withdrew from the battle sequence, which had a very significant impact on the 1st Task Force. By this time, there was not a single large air defense cruiser left in Task Force 1!

In a battle, the ships are badly damaged and lose their combat effectiveness, which is actually not much different from sinking in battle, because these ships have to leave the fleet. If the damage is not critical, it will be repaired quickly, and there are enough dry docks in the empire to repair warships, and there are two docks in Naha Port alone that can be used to repair aircraft carriers, and there are four docks that can carry large warships of less than 20,000 tons. However, if the damage is to the most important parts, the repair of the ship will be very difficult, and it will take at least several months. During these months, the battleship will be unusable, which is equivalent to sinking the battle.

This was the first time that the Japanese had engaged Japanese suicide planes, and the Japanese had already tasted the sweetness, and Tan Renhao did not think about how Japan would exaggerate and publicize the results of this battle, he only thought that if Japan built hundreds, thousands, or even thousands of suicide planes in the future, and put hundreds of suicide planes each time to deal with the First Task Force, would the fleet be able to withstand such a fierce blow?

Those suicide planes are bombs with eyes, bombs that can change course in flight, making the maneuver of the battleship useless. How to deal with these suicide planes and how to keep the battleship has become a new topic, a problem that Tan Renhao has not encountered in the Naval Academy and all previous books.

Thinking of this question is a headache to talk about Renhao. The Japanese use the most primitive and barbaric style of play, which is not at all what a civilized society should have. But the problem still exists, what should I do, and how to solve it?

I don't know how long it took, when Lei Shaoqing knocked on the door and came in, Tan Renhao still didn't write a word.

"The shelling formation is starting to move, do you need to go and see?"

Tan Renhao glanced at the few paper balls he had thrown on the table, which were drafts from the beginning, and then stood up. "Okay, let's go to the command cabin, maybe Geng Weiming will surprise us this time!"

Lei Shaoqing laughed, and then retreated first. He had already arranged for three staff officers to analyze the previous battle, but this was not the most urgent matter, and it was the most important thing to intercept the Japanese convoy now!