Yan Renhao spent a day learning about the new fighter planes and new warships in the navy, which made him feel very excited. The Imperial Navy has grown from the beginning of the war to the current peak, and as the war gradually moves towards victory, the Imperial Navy is also gradually moving towards glory. For every officer and sailor of the navy, these new fighters and new warships are actually a direct manifestation of the powerful navy, and they are also the places that can make the officers and men of the navy feel the most proud. But armament is only a means. Instead of the goal, the real goal is to achieve the ground on the battlefield.

At that time, the only fleet that was still operating on the front line was the Second Fleet. Both the First and Third Fleets have returned to the rear and are training to equip them with Xindi bombers. After reading the technical documents on equipment, the first thing he learned about was the Second Fleet's ground operations in the South Atlantic.

When he was in Panama, Tan Renhao received an order from the Imperial Navy Command, which was to let the First Fleet immediately enter the Caribbean Sea from the Panama Canal, encircle and suppress the enemy fleet in the Caribbean, eradicate the bases and strongholds of the US military here, and cooperate with the Second Fleet to go north. Subsequently, the command of the Navy canceled this order, also for the second fleet: after the replacement of Xindi bombers, the second fleet was not able to complete the training mission as scheduled and could not go north in early October!

In mid-August, Jiang Zhongmin and Weng Yiming submitted a plan for the northward movement of Xindi, and the Second Fleet left Cape Town at the end of September, striving to reach Asunción Island in early October, and quickly moved north after capturing the island. Strive to reach the west coast of Africa by the end of the year. Then. Jiang Zhongmin seriously underestimated the difficulty of training after the new bomber. According to the experience of changing equipment in the past, two months of training should be a lot of time, but in reality, it is impossible for the Second Fleet to have all the pilots proficient in flying the new bombers within two months.

The Fifth Task Force was undoubtedly the Imperial Navy at that time, in addition to the Task Force 7th and 8th Task Forces. The quality is the worst. The aircraft carrier task force with the least experience certainly cannot be compared with the other three aircraft carrier task forces in terms of air quality. However, Tan Renhao also considered an important problem, that is, the training time of the First Fleet and the Third Fleet must be more than two months, and it will take more time for the pilots to adapt to the New Earth bombers.

After considering this issue. Tan Renhao got in touch with Hao Dongjue, who organized training in Naha, and Huang Xiaotian in Guam, asked about the fleet's refitting training place, and gave him several important advices. Let them pay due attention to the intensity of their training and let the pilots know more about the new bomber as soon as possible. Shorten the training time. Tan Renhao also learned some practical problems from Dong Jue and Huang Xiaotian, and the problems reported by the two were basically the same. Most bomber pilots were extremely uncomfortable with using the same type of bomber, and it was important for the pilots to fully adapt to the new ground bomber. There is a lot of work to be done, and the training time is not too short.

The biggest problem is to let the bomber pilots master the new ground combat tactics, that is, let the dive bomber pilots master the tactics of torpedo bombing, and let the torpedo bomber pilots master the technology of diving and dropping bombs. This problem is present in all pilots. No matter how experienced they are, they can't master all the tactical skills in a short period of time. Especially for some veteran pilots. Habit became their biggest problem.

At that time, the fourth task force bombed the ace Hao Lingheng in training

Fortunately, he parachuted in time and did not end up with the bomber. On the second day of the training ground, Yang Shihong of the second task force made a mistake because of habitual problems when he was diving and pulling up the ground, and as a result, the bomber crashed headlong into the sea, but fortunately, the "Falcon" was strong enough, and its self-inflating life-saving system allowed the bomber to float on the sea for half an hour, and the rescuers arrived in time to rescue Yang Shihong. As a result, Yang Shihong had to go to the hospital to lie down for a month.

This kind of problem exists in all fleets, where torpedo bomber pilots make the wrong change of manoeuvre while diving. Dive bomber pilots often make somersaults while flying at low altitudes. It's all because of habits that cause problems. The Third Fleet lost more than 20 bombers in less than a month of training, while the First Fleet had already scrapped eight bombers in just a few days of training, and many of the bombing aces made jokes during the training. The most extreme thing is that Qiu Gengbo, a madman, lost three bombers in three days, and if it were not for the loss of training and not holding the pilot responsible, I am afraid that Qiu Gengbo would not have paid all the allowances for the rest of his life to buy back three "Falcons".

Of course, for the pilots of the Imperial Naval Aviation, they needed time, and with enough time, they could break their habits. Moreover, the Navy has not completely reorganized its bomber force, and most of the pilots are still carrying out the same tasks as before. As long as they gain experience in battle, sooner or later they will be able to master all the capabilities of the new bomber ground .

Time is what the Imperial Navy lacks now. After the Second Fleet temporarily canceled its operational plan at the end of September, it set the time for the fleet to go north to the end of October. Just a few days before Tan Renhao returned to the naval headquarters, Jiang Zhongmin left the port of Cape Town with the Second Fleet, and set off with the German "Far East Fleet".

In Jiang Zhongmin's new battle plan, the first target of the Second Fleet's attack was not Asunción Island, but St. Helena, to be precise, to occupy St. Helena, and establish a seaplane base here, as well as a temporary dock. The Second Fleet was accompanied by a convoy of transports carrying about 800 engineers and tens of thousands of tons of engineering equipment and supplies. As well as dozens of water patrol aircraft .

The fleet reached St. Helena at the end of October without any danger. The convoy arrived at the same time, and the engineers quickly landed on the penguin-filled island, and opened a clearing on the island that day. Temporary camps were set up.

According to Weng Yiming's plan, the Marine Corps engineers will spend about a month improving the support facilities on St. Helena Island, building a temporary dock and seaplane base. The main thing is also a seaplane base. The seaplanes deployed here mainly carry out anti-submarine patrol missions

■■■Moving submarine. In addition, the temporary dock can support several small destroyers and also perform mainly anti-submarine patrol missions. Protect the fleet on the route.

The Second Fleet led by Jiang Zhongmin and the "Far East Fleet" of the German Navy only stayed near St. Helena for three days. This time, Jiang Zhongmin's destination is Asunción Island.

At the time of the departure of the Second Fleet from Cape Town. Jiang Zhongmin has already obtained specific information on the island of Asunción. The British Navy strengthened the defense of Asunción Island, but it was still not enough to deal with the Second Fleet's attack. Judging from the photographs taken by the submarines, the British strengthened the defensive positions on the island and expanded the scope of the defensive positions. In addition, the number of British fighters deployed on the island has also increased, but the British army has not had time to expand the airfield. It will not be possible to deploy more fighters. Judging from the reports received by the naval command at that time, the number of British fighters deployed on the island would not exceed 100. Maybe not even 80 . In addition, the small fleet deployed by the British on the island of Asunción consisted mainly of four "Grandpa"-class destroyers built during the First Global War, as well as several speedboats, and this fleet was not to be feared. The total strength of the British army on the island of Asunción will not be too large, and there is no definite information at that time. Judging by the size of the British camp on the island of Asunción, there will be no more than 2,000 British troops stationed here. Counting aviation

The assault on the island of Asunción went quite smoothly. The ground bombers of the Fifth Task Force only made two sorties, and they could no longer find targets worthy of bombing. On the contrary, the German "Far Eastern Fleet" behaved unusually positively. After seizing air supremacy, the German fleet was the first to kill, although they were not able to outrun the bombers. There was no chance to sink the British ground warships with naval guns, but in the ground strike, the German fleet lost half of its ammunition. Almost the entire island of Asunción was covered once. If it weren't for Jiang Zhongmin's threat not to replenish ammunition to the Germans. I'm afraid the German fleet will be a little more thorough. The next day, a small landing fleet landed two regiments of marines on the island of Asunción. The ground battle continued until the end of the same night. In addition to the 800 British soldiers who were killed. About 1,400 other British officers and soldiers surrendered. That

After the battle, Jiang Zhongmin also had a big quarrel with the commander of the German fleet. The contradiction was that the Germans who followed the Imperial Marines ashore shot and killed several British officers, and the real reason was that the German fleet had always wanted to go it alone and did not cooperate with the Second Fleet, which made Jiang Zhongmin very faceless, for example, before the Marines went ashore, Jiang Zhongmin clearly mentioned not to completely destroy the airfield, so that a group of fighters could be quickly deployed on Asunción Island, but the German fleet poured hundreds of tons of ground shells on the airport within half an hour, causing Weng Yiming to temporarily send engineers to repair the airport. And the deployment of fighters here has also been delayed for nearly ten days. This matter was not resolved later, and the German "Far East Fleet" was also honest, after all, they still had to rely on the Imperial Navy for supplies, and if they wanted to go it alone, they did not have the strength to do so.

It was precisely because of the contradiction with the German "Far East Fleet" that Jiang Zhongmin did not immediately go north, but let the fleet wander near Asunción Island for more than ten days, and it was not until the supplementary fighters arrived that he led the fleet back to Cape Town, and suddenly ended the northward operation, and this was all caused by the German "Far East Fleet".

At that time, the biggest problem between the two sides was not the command, but the northward route, the German side has always advocated to attack the British colonies in the coastal areas of Africa, and the Germans are also very clear about their small calculations, they want to replace the British, at least control part of the colonies that originally belonged to Britain, France and other hostile countries. Perhaps, Jiang Zhongmin did not take this issue into account when he revised the route to the north, but in fact, it was precisely because he decided not to go north along the African coastline that the Germans began to cause trouble, because they lost the opportunity to expand their colonies in Africa.

Tan Renhao knew very well that fighting the ground fleets of two countries together would definitely cause a lot of trouble. Now, the honeymoon period between the Tang Empire and Germany has basically come to an end. At the end of September, the Germans captured St. Petersburg, and a few days before that, the Persian corps had also entered Kiev. With the end of the war in Russia. The Don Empire and Germany practically had little common interest anymore. Although the goal of winning the war still unites the two countries, it is inevitable that the two sides will have conflicts and even conflicts over the interests of the war.

Jiang Zhongmin's encounter was only a minor problem, after all, the German "Far East Fleet" did not have an aircraft carrier in it, and it did not dare to approach the African coastline easily. Go and provoke the British bombers deployed over there. But this also directly reflects how big the contradiction between the Tang Empire and Germany was at that time. This minor problem was quickly resolved, and without the support of the Reich Navy, it would have been difficult for the German "Far East Fleet" to even leave the port of Cape Town, let alone go north alone, penetrate the enemy's heavy blockade line, and return to the ports of German soil. Before the Second Fleet returned to Cape Town, the German Prime Minister personally sent a telegram to Xue Xiyue, apologizing for what happened to the "Far East Fleet" and saying that he would instruct Raeder to properly solve the problem as soon as possible. Eventually, the Germans replaced the commander of the Far Eastern Fleet, and once again clarified the command authority, and the problem was properly resolved.

After returning to Cape Town, Jiang Zhongmin also felt very sad, and the trouble caused by the Germans stopped him. The Reich Navy command also realized that it was impossible to cooperate with the German Navy for a long time, and sooner or later the "Far Eastern Fleet" returned to Germany. Therefore, if you want to seize the sea power in the Atlantic and enter the North Atlantic, you have to rely on your own strength. Jiang Zhongmin also clearly mentioned this in the combat report, if another main fleet can enter the Atlantic, then going north is no longer a problem. finish

It is already clear that the Second Fleet will go north again, and it will need the cooperation of other fleets. Tan Renhao also knew from here that he would not stay at the naval headquarters for long, and I was afraid that in a few days, he would have to return to Naha and lead the First Fleet to the expedition again!