"At this rate, we'll be outside Port Moresby at about ten o'clock." The nautical staff officer reported to Tan Renhao, "The artillery bombardment plan has been drawn up, it was made by the chief of staff, and in addition, news has been sent from Lae that the supply fleet has set off at noon and will meet us near Basilaki Island at noon tomorrow, where there is a shallow sea suitable for anchorage." Task Force 2 and Task Force 4 will be in position at about 4 a.m. tomorrow and will continue to bombard Port Moresby at dawn. Our long-range patrol planes did not detect the US convoy heading north in the afternoon, and several reconnaissance planes searched the western waters of the Coral Sea during the night, and if they found one, they would immediately notify us. ”

Tan Renhao patiently listened to the report of the navigation staff officer. "Is there anything else?"

"Not for the time being, this is the message we received in the afternoon."

"Okay, you also go and rest, and come back in the middle of the night to make a route map to the supply sea." Tan Renhao nodded with a smile at the navigation staff, "Go quickly, you will have to be responsible for a lot of things during the day tomorrow." ”

The navigation staff officers immediately took their leave and left, Tan Renhao also quieted down, the staff officers in the fleet will change shifts around six o'clock, and there is still more than an hour, and many staff officers are quite tired. At this time, there were no other important things in the fleet, so Tan Renhao didn't go to cheer up those staff officers.

Staff officers are also human beings, and they also need to rest, and even more so, they need to relax. Tan Renhao was born as a staff officer, and he knows very well how difficult it is to be a good staff officer.

At 6:15 a.m., the staff officers on the night shift arrived one after another. The shift change lasted about 15 minutes, and more than 10 minutes after the staff officers who were on leave on shift, Tan Renhao greeted the communications staff officers who were on duty at night, and then went to the officers' cafeteria for dinner. By the time he returned, it was already about seven o'clock. The staff officers were still working in a hurry, but there was nothing to do, the route of the voyage had already been drawn up, and there was no new news to be delivered, most of the officers were actually sitting in a daze, and some even brought some books. Take this opportunity to pass the time.

Tan Renhao still didn't restrain these subordinates, the headquarters of the First Task Force was already elite enough, and these were shown on the battlefield, and Tan Renhao was not the kind of commander who liked to be too strict with his subordinates. In his view, as long as everyone does their essential work, then there is no need to restrain their private behavior. This made Tan Renhao a relatively easy commander in the eyes of the staff officers, although this commander rarely had in-depth communication with them.

In order not to embarrass the staff officers, Tan Renhao went to the outside of the command cabin to blow a gust of sea breeze. At the same time, I was thinking about this combat operation. Beginning with the interception of the US transport fleet sent to Wanggua Island, the battle progressed smoothly for several days, and there were no major mistakes, and the only major losses were those of the First Task Force. But who knows what the next battle will bring? Thinking of this, Tan Renhao suddenly found that he had missed a very important point.

"Commander, what's the matter?" Seeing Tan Renhao waving at him, the communications staff officer immediately ran over.

"We don't have a couple of aerial photographs of Port Moresby, and that. The distribution of the three US military airfields is clear, right? ”

"This ......," the communications staff officer hesitated. I'll look for it, there should be photos, and the other U.S. military airfields have been marked on the chart. ”

Tan Renhao nodded. When the communications staff officer went looking for those pictures, he flipped through the chart table for a while, and turned out the map that clearly marked the location of the US military airfield, which was a tall and large-scale map of Port Moresby and its environs. Soon, Tan Renhao was sure that he had indeed missed a point, which had a great impact on the entire combat operation. When the communications staff officer brought the photo, he immediately looked at it and was even more certain that he had ignored this tactical problem when making the plan.

"Commander, do you want me to call the chief of staff?"

"No, let him rest a little longer. Don't bother him. Tan Renhao glanced at the communications staff officer with a puzzled face, "You go and prepare the radio, maybe I will send a report to the theater command later." ”

The communications staff officer didn't say anything more, and immediately returned to his post or anything.

What Tan Renhao missed was the distance of the U.S. military airfield from the coastline. Prior to this, the fleet shelled almost exclusively airfields very close to the coastline. This is actually an important feature of the island airfield, most of which are outside the coverage area of the naval guns, so when shelling targets on the island, it is generally only taken into account after the shelling parameters are determined before the shelling. Tan Renhao also ignores this point, and the island of New Guinea is the second largest island in the world. The Port Moresby airfield, which can accommodate hundreds of warplanes and has a 1,200-meter-long concrete runway, is just behind Port Moresby, a full 16 nautical miles from the coastline, even if you don't take into account the distance between the sea and the coastline, the airport is out of the range of naval guns. In other words, the warships of Task Force 1 could not threaten this airfield at all!

Now, Tan Renhao is a little big. The report of the aviation force has already been delivered, and the bombing during the day only paralyzed the three US airfields, not completely destroyed. This means that the US engineering units can repair the airfield at night, and the US fighters can be transferred before dawn and then dispatched at dawn to drop bombs on the fleet. And what can really threaten Task Force 1 is those American bombers. Now the second task force and the fourth task force are still approaching, preparing to send bombers at dawn, that is, the bombers of the US military can also deal with these two aircraft carrier fleets. If Lei Shaoqing's whereabouts are exposed, then the US bombers will definitely give priority to "taking care" of them!

The more he thought about it, the more Tan Renhao felt that the problem was serious. He went outside to get some fresh air and calm himself down before returning to the command cabin.

"Immediately send a telegram to General Yan Guozhong asking if HNA can arrange for a few reconnaissance planes to monitor the airfield north of Port Moresby at night." Tan Renhao didn't let the staff officer speak, and quickly gave an order, "In addition, if there are night fighters in the HNA operating here, if so, they will be sent over immediately." If not, arrange for bombers to bomb the airfield at night. ”

"Do you want to contact Task Force 2?"

Tan Renhao hesitated slightly. "Don't use it for the time being, let General Yan Guozhong tell us as soon as he has an answer. Then decide if we want Task Force 2 and Task Force 4 to help us. ”

The telegram was sent at 7:45 a.m., and Yan Guozhong sent a reply at 7:55 p.m. HNA's night reconnaissance plane has already taken off and will arrive by half-past nine. In addition, the HNA does not have night fighters, and if necessary, it can immediately apply to the rear, and it can send night fighters to intercept the fighters transferred by the US military at night at the earliest, and Yan Guozhong has already notified the HNA and the strategic strike force. Bombers will be dispatched at night to deal with the US field airfield, but the bombing effect cannot be guaranteed, after all, it is very difficult to bomb at night.

At this time, Tan Renhao hesitated a little. The quality of the shore-based air force of the sea is much worse than that of the fleet air force, and when the heavy bombers of the strategic strike force carry out high-altitude bombing at night, they only hit urban targets, while the field airfield targets are relatively much smaller, and the bombing effect is naturally much worse.

After hesitating for a while, Tan Renhao asked the communications staff officer to send a telegram to Yan Guozhong again, asking Yan Guozhong to apply for the dispatch of a group of night fighters as much as possible. After all, the strike on Port Moresby will last at least three days. Other than that. He also asked Yan Guozhong to arrange for as many heavy bombers as possible to carry out night bombing missions, and even cancel the daytime bombing operations of heavy bombers.

But it was still not enough, at half-past eight. Tan Renhao sent a telegram to the Second Task Force.

"That's what the telegram says," Tan Renhao thought quickly, expressing his meaning as clearly as possible in as short a language as possible. "If you can send a bomber group half an hour in advance, if you can, you can arrange it as much as possible, if not, you must bomb the airfield at dawn, and pay attention to the air defense of the fleet. That's right, no need to call back. ”

"That's it?" The communications staff officer was a little uncertain.

"Yes, that's all. Send it out. Tan Renhao sighed, "Then turn off the radio, now it's up to HNA and General Lei Shaoqing to arrange the bombing operation during the day tomorrow." ”

The fleet was still moving forward, and Tan Renhao looked a little distraught. He felt that he had been so negligent that he had forgotten such an important factor. This is the first problem that comes to light in the entire battle plan, which is likely to lead to a complete failure of the combat operation and even threaten the security of the fleet. Of course, there is also an uncertain factor, that is, whether the US military commanders are also aware of this. And made targeted deployments?

Tan Renhao didn't speculate, anyway, there will be an answer in a few hours, and now all he has to do is to try to arrange the shelling of the other two airfields. Thinking of this, Tan Renhao laughed, maybe this is a good thing. The situation of the fleet was extremely unsatisfactory now, and the size of the other two airfields, much larger than the airfields of the islands where the previous shelling had taken place, meant that more ammunition was consumed, more time was taken, and more effort was required to ensure destruction. One less target, which also reduces the pressure on the fleet.

At half past nine, Tan Renhao dispersed the two formations. The formation he led was responsible for dealing with the US military airfield about 3 nautical miles southeast of Port Moresby, while the formation led by Wei Dongbei was responsible for dealing with the field airfield about 4 nautical miles northwest of Port Moresby.

Just after 10 o'clock, the ship formation led by Tan Renhao maneuvered into place, and the seaplanes dropped the first two "incendiary bombs" five minutes earlier. But less than five minutes after the shelling was underway, one of the cruisers in the formation had a problem.

"It's the 'Qingcheng River', the No. 2 cannon of the first turret is blown up, the casualties are still unclear, look at the ......"

Tan Renhao had already walked to the porthole, a fire had already broken out on the foredeck of the cruiser, and the figures on the deck were shaking, probably the dispatched damage management team was putting out the fire.

"Commander, the 'Qingcheng River' sent a telegram that there was a problem with the gyrophone of the C turret and it is now stuck."

"Let them withdraw from the battle, go to the rear of the fleet first, and see if they can repair the damaged C turret, and if not, wait for the fleet to return together." Tan Renhao gritted his teeth, and the small problem finally turned into a big problem, "In addition, extinguish the fire on the battleship as soon as possible, and don't become the target of the US shore artillery!" ”

In order to prevent the attack of the US shore defense artillery, the fleet carried out artillery bombardment while sailing at a speed of 12 knots, and the "Qingcheng River" quickly broke away from the formation, and the battleship that followed immediately caught up and filled the position of the cruiser.

At 10:50 a.m., the two destroyers of the 1st Task Force also broke down and had to withdraw from the battle with the cruiser "Qingchenghe". Tan Renhao was also very simple, directly let these three battleships return to Lae first, and then return to China for overhaul, anyway, these three battleships may not be repaired well, and it will not be of much use to stay.

The shelling did not end with the departure of the three ships, and continued until about twelve o'clock. When the seaplanes again judged that there were still some valuable targets on the airfield that had not been destroyed, the shelling resumed at one o'clock and ten ten. This time the shelling was shorter and more rapid, the first half of the shelling lasted 20 minutes, and then the seaplanes set off again to confirm that the shelling was still needed, and the second half of the shelling continued for another 20 minutes. This time, the seaplane finally confirmed that there was no value in continuing the shelling.

Tan Renhao did not dare to let the fleet stay longer, and immediately ordered the fleet to return. When they broke away from the shelled sea, the formation led by Wei Dongbei also rushed over, and the airfield over there was also completely destroyed. The two formations were united, and now sailed south, preparing to enter the open sea before turning.

It was already 2:40 a.m.

Hao Dongjue rushed back at half past two, still holding a supper in his hand. The nautical staff officer arrived at the command cabin ten minutes later than him, and then began to plan the route to the supply point, and did not even bother to eat for supper.