Volume Twenty-Three: The Springboard for Advancement Section 9 Scout Eagle

When the "Falcon" was only beginning its service, the reconnaissance planes equipped on the aircraft carrier were still old-fashioned "waterbirds," and soon the fleets discovered that the reconnaissance radius of the "Falcon" reconnaissance planes was not as good as the bombing radius of the "Falcon," so they all replaced the "waterbirds" with temporarily modified reconnaissance "Falcons." At that time, Hafei was in full swing to develop a reconnaissance plane with more powerful reconnaissance capabilities, and was ordered to be called a "reconnaissance eagle."

The most important feature of the "Reconnaissance Eagle" is that a disc-shaped radar cabin is installed under the aircraft engine and is equipped with a radar specially designed for sea search. This not only increased the distance at which enemy warships could be detected, but also enabled carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft to have the ability to carry out reconnaissance missions at night. This is definitely an epoch-making advance for carrier-based aviation. Soon after, some actual combat proved that the radar equipped on the "Reconnaissance Eagle" also has the ability to detect the air, and as long as it flies high enough, it can detect enemy planes in the distance. It was this discovery that eventually brought out the AWACS. Of course, that's all for later.

In order to maximize the reconnaissance capability, the "Reconnaissance Eagle" has also made many improvements. For example, in order to increase the range, the bomb bay of the "Reconnaissance Eagle" was designed as a monolithic fuel tank, so that the endurance of the "Reconnaissance Eagle" was also the same as that of the "Falcon" when carrying two large 650-liter auxiliary fuel tanks without carrying an external auxiliary fuel tank (if it carried an external auxiliary fuel tank, it would limit the detection ability of the radar and make it difficult to detect sideways targets). In addition, some of the armor was removed as standard on the Falcon. The weight reduction compensates for the negative impact on speed due to the addition of an integral fuel tank and a change in aerodynamic shape. At the time of the test, the maximum speed of the "Reconnaissance Eagle" was even about 20 knots faster than that of the "Falcon", and its acceleration performance was significantly higher than that of the "Falcon". In order to strengthen the communications capability, two radio stations have been deployed on the Recon Eagle, and a third radio station has been installed in the future. This is very important. Later, with the use of three radio stations, the "Reconnaissance Eagle" developed a certain air command capability. It is possible to guide other ground bombers and even fighters to fight.

These improvements have greatly strengthened the Reconnaissance Eagle's ability to carry out reconnaissance missions and left enough room for its future improvements. But at the same time, this has also seriously weakened the bombing capability of the "Reconnaissance Eagle", which can only carry external ammunition at most, and because of the influence of the radome, its ability to carry external ammunition is not very strong. The "Reconnaissance Eagle" was the first specialized reconnaissance aircraft of the Imperial Navy. Although it was commissioned in the latter part of the war, and before the end of the war, the "Scout Eagle" never carried out a bombing mission, but its excellent reconnaissance ability in the war is very worthy of recognition. It was also from the "Reconnaissance Eagle" that the Imperial Navy increased its attention to reconnaissance aircraft and continued the tradition of developing specialized reconnaissance aircraft.

In early March, Hafei delivered the first batch of "Scout Eagles" to naval aviation for performance testing. The Technical Office of Naval Armament was extremely satisfied with the results of the tests and placed an order before the test work was completed. He also asked Hafei to manufacture the first batch of "reconnaissance eagles" as soon as possible, so that they could be used by the aircraft carrier task forces fighting on the front line. By the beginning of late March, Hafei had completed the manufacture of the first batch of 36 "Reconnaissance Eagles" by adjusting the production schedule and appropriately reducing the production of the "Falcon", and they were soon delivered to the naval aviation. The Recon Eagles were originally planned to be used by the Third Fleet's Fourth Task Force, but the Third Fleet was resting in the Gulf of Limon at the time. Moreover, the planned next campaign will not begin until the end of April, when Hafei will produce more "reconnaissance eagles," so these reconnaissance planes will be assigned to the First Fleet on a priority basis.

In early April, 36 Scout Eagles arrived in Ceuta with five transfer flights. On the issue of deciding on the land allocation for these new reconnaissance planes, Tan Renhao took the initiative to make concessions and let Hao Dongjue take advantage. The main reason is that the Second Task Force is the main air strike fleet of the First Fleet, and Hao Dongjue knows how to use aerial reconnaissance forces better. In addition, the 2nd Task Force lost a lot of fighters in the "Battle of England", which can be regarded as a little compensation for the 2nd Task Force. At last. The 36 Recon Eagles were assigned to three aircraft carriers of Task Force 2. The previous reconnaissance type "Falcon" was replaced.

Before the fleet left the Gibraltar fortress, Hao Dongjue organized a reconnaissance aircraft unit to conduct several tests. Hao Dongjue was also full of praise for the performance of the "Scout Eagle". Of course, some problems were also exposed during the test. For example, the navigators of the reconnaissance aircraft unit of the fleet at that time were not familiar with the operation of the radar, and as a result, they had to be urgently trained by the radar crews of the cruisers. In addition, the "Scout Eagle" is still a two-person configuration, and the navigator has to bear more tasks, and the pressure naturally increases a lot. Later, by extending the cockpit of the aircraft, a third pilot, that is, a specialized radar operator, was added, which reduced the speed of the "Reconnaissance Eagle" a little, and at the same time reduced the volume of the internal fuel tank, reducing its endurance by about 20%.

Immediately after completing the basic training and testing, the reconnaissance aircraft unit of the Second Task Force organized high-intensity training and through this training it was able to concretely grasp the performance of the "Reconnaissance Eagle," especially the performance of the radar it was equipped with. During training, the pilots quickly discovered that the detection range of the "radar" is much greater than the visual distance of the naked eye. At an altitude of 4,000 meters, if the weather conditions are ideal, the radar can detect large warships up to 50 nautical miles ahead, and destroyers can also detect at a distance of 30 nautical miles. And its lateral detection range is also about 40 nautical miles. Even in bad weather, with visibility of less than 3 nautical miles, radar can detect warships up to 20 nautical miles away. This is far beyond the visual distance of the human eye. And in the same situation, it is difficult for the radar on the battleship to detect the "reconnaissance eagle" flying alone at a distance of 50 nautical miles. That is, if the "Scout Eagle" turns to the ground in time after spotting an enemy ship. Then the radar on the enemy ship will not be able to detect the "Scout Eagle", so that the "Scout Eagle" will avoid being intercepted by enemy fighters.

It was also during these trainings that the pilots discovered that the radar on the "Reconnaissance Eagle" was also capable of detecting fighters. It's just that because the radar is installed under the hood, it can only detect the fighters below, but not the fighters flying higher. Of course, the radar can detect the fighter at a much closer distance. At an altitude of 4000 meters, it can be found 20 nautical miles away. In a group of more than 10 aircraft, the distance between a single fighter plane is also 10 nautical miles. At that time, this did not attract much attention, after all, in good weather conditions, the visual detection of enemy aircraft could reach a distance of up to 12 nautical miles, and the radar on the battleship was more powerful, which was able to detect enemy aircraft at a greater distance. Most importantly. At that time, no one thought of using reconnaissance aircraft to look for enemy aircraft, and there were not many reconnaissance opportunities to fly higher than enemy fighters.

These trainings can only determine the specific performance of the "Scout Eagle", and the significance of these performances in actual combat, and the ways in which these performances should be turned into victories, can only be determined through deeper exploration. Before officially participating in actual combat, the only way is to simulate the actual combat environment through exercises, and finally explore and summarize new tactics.

From the point of view of improving the combat effectiveness of the fleet, Tan Renhao's organization of exercises at this time was not just to confuse the Germans. Arguably. After the "Reconnaissance Eagle" is equipped with the Navy's carrier-based aviation, what is most needed is a confrontational exercise. On 13 April, after planning the steps of the exercise and arriving at the exercise observation group sent by Lei Shaoqing, the exercise began.

"I don't know if Hao Dongjue will use tactics. When Tan Renhao was in charge of planning the exercise, Zhu Rongzhe took on the heavy responsibility of commanding the First Task Force. Because before he became the chief of staff of the 1st Task Force. Zhu Rongzhe has worked under Hao Dongjue for several years, and he is very clear about Hao Dongjue's ability, so he can't help but be a little worried at this time. If anyone can defeat Tan Ren Haodi's First Task Force in aviation operations, it is probably only Hao Dongjue.

"Who knows? This kid knows us too well, but we also know him well, don't we? Tan Renhao smiled a little reluctantly. In the last confrontation exercise with the Third Fleet, Hao Dongjue performed well, and it was his performance that finally preserved the reputation of the First Fleet. Both in the Imperial Navy, and in the navies of other countries. Tan Renhao is only afraid of two people. One is Huang Xiaotian, and the other is Hao Dongjue. And on the ability to command aviation operations. I'm afraid that even Huang Xiaotian has to be ranked behind Hao Dongjue. The main purpose of this exercise was to test the fleet's aerial reconnaissance and aviation strike capabilities, which also happened to be what Hao Dongjue was best at!

Both of them are a little weak-hearted, and the fleet will not meet directly. The task force of Task Force 1 is to detect and intercept the bombers of Task Force 2, and if half of the bombers of Task Force 2 succeed in breaking through the interception of air defense fighters of Task Force 1, then the exercise will end with the defeat of Task Force 1. This requirement is a bit harsh, but this is just the right way to test the performance of the "Reconnaissance Eagle," because the key to the exercise is to see whether the "Reconnaissance Eagle" can quickly find the First Task Force, and at the same time, whether the First Task Force can discover the "Reconnaissance Eagle" and make timely evasion and air defense preparations.

Time passed minute by minute, and when it was more than nine o'clock in the morning, Tan Renhao was also a little impatient. The exercise began in earnest in the middle of the night, when Task Force 2 had enough time to maneuver and send reconnaissance aircraft to locate Task Force 1 and Task Force 3. Of course, Tan Renhao would not wait for death, and after the departure of the Second Task Force, he ordered the fleet to turn. One night was enough time for Task Force 1 to pull the distance more than two hundred nautical miles. In the past, it would have been difficult for Task Force 2 to find Task Force 1 in such a large area of sea without being able to determine the whereabouts of Task Force 1. But the problem is that Tan Renhao himself doesn't know much about the capabilities of the "Reconnaissance Eagle", so he can't know how Hao Dongjue will arrange the reconnaissance operation and whether he can quickly discover the First Task Force.

Tan Renhao was not completely ignorant of the performance of the "Reconnaissance Eagle", and before that, he knew that the "Reconnaissance Eagle" could use radar to detect warships dozens of nautical miles away in ideal weather, and the detection range of the fleet was even a little farther. And that's exactly what Tan Renhao is worried about. If the detection capability of the "Reconnaissance Eagle" is so powerful, then Hao Dongjue can complete the search with fewer reconnaissance planes, or use the same number of reconnaissance planes to search a larger area of the sea area. What is even more troublesome is that when the "reconnaissance eagle" discovered the fleet, the air defense warships in the fleet were not necessarily able to detect the reconnaissance aircraft. In other words, Tan Renhao does not necessarily know that the fleet has been exposed, so he will not be able to organize the air defense of the fleet in time! According to the regulations of the exercise, if the 1st Task Force does not have reconnaissance planes that can detect the enemy, it can only arrange one squadron of air defense fighters, and not allow more fighters to rise into the air!

Throughout the day, Tan Renhao was a little nervous and out of breath, and he was not relieved until it was dark. At the very least, Task Force 2 won't attack at night. The next day, the exercise continued, and tensions still pervaded Task Force 1. As the day before, the bombers of Task Force 2 did not appear. It was only on the evening of 14 April that Tan Renhao realized that Hao Dongjue must be deliberately delaying time, after all, the exercise must be carried out for three days, so that the Fifth Task Force and the landing fleet would have enough time to reach Britain. And that night, the destroyers in the fleet spotted several submarines approaching, and if it weren't for the fact that these submarines quickly revealed their identities and proved that they were allies, they would have been sunk by the destroyers. After learning that the German submarine was monitoring their whereabouts, Tan Renhao also became happy, at least the main purpose of the exercise had been achieved.

On the morning of the 15th, the fleet turned again, but at noon, the bombers of the second task force still did not appear. Just when Tan Renhao thought that there were only the last few hours and that as long as he could get through these last hours safely, he would be able to thwart the Second Task Force, at half past four in the afternoon, hundreds of ultra-low-flying bombers approached the First Task Force, and by the time the air defense warships of the First Task Force discovered these bombers, it was too late to summon fighter planes to intercept them. Subsequently, this group of bombers roared over the "Longgan Lake", and this was the bomber sent by the second task force!

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