Commanding the second batch of bombers of Task Force 1 was Colonel Yang Qinkai, who had been promoted the last time he returned to Naha. He was promoted along with Qiu Gengbo and Zhang Zhitao, and a group of majors were also promoted to lieutenant colonels. Brigadier General Luo Jinming also made a special trip over to confer titles on his subordinates. This can be regarded as a reward for the outstanding performance of their pilots in the war. Of course, Yang Qinkai knows very well that they can be promoted to colonel, which has a huge relationship with the commander of the first task force and the chief of staff, and in addition, if they don't want to take a back seat, in the front-line battlefield, colonel is the highest military rank of pilot, and in the future, they will be able to receive various medals, not military ranks. However, Yang Qinkai himself doesn't care much about the military rank, he has finished eating, drinking and living in the army, the allowances have been sent to his family, and the army also takes care of the elderly, and the biggest benefit of the military rank may be to be able to change into a more beautiful military uniform.

Because the take-off time was ten minutes late, and the time for the group to assemble over the fleet, the group led by Yang Qinkai set off half an hour later than the group commanded by Qiu Gengbo and Zhang Zhitao. Because the specific location of the U.S. fleet was not known before departure, the routes of the two groups were staggered, Qiu Gengbo's route was a little more northerly, while Yang Qinkai's group was a little more southerly. This increases the chances of the bomber group hitting the enemy fleet.

Tan Renhao instructed Hao Dongjue to make this arrangement. After analyzing the situation on the battlefield, Tan Renhao believed that Spruance would definitely arrange his two task forces in tandem. The U.S. fleet is most likely to be northeast of Task Force 2, so one task force is in the southwest and the other is northeast of it. In this way, only one task force is exposed in front of the bombers of the second task force, and even if it is attacked, only one task force will be attacked, while the other task force will remain in a lower position, which will also reduce the chance of exposure of the fleet. If the two task forces were one in the southeast and one in the northwest.

Then the front is much larger, and it is not only easy to attack, but also easy to be detected by reconnaissance aircraft.

Standing in the position of Task Force 1, Spruance's two task force flanks were effectively exposed to the ground strike range of Task Force 1. In order to increase the chance of the bombers "colliding" with the target, Tan Renhao staggered the two bomber groups, of which the route of the first wave of bombers was in the north, and if his judgment was not wrong, then this route would be farther. So the first wave of bombers was responsible for the attack. Yang Qinkai's fleet is a little further south, and this route is a little shorter. This shortened the time lag between the two groups to bomb the US fleet, made it impossible for Spruance to quickly adjust the deployment of the fleet and increase vigilance after a certain task force was bombed, and at the same time could disrupt the US military operational command, and the benefits were very obvious.

The bomber was shaking slightly, and Yang Qinkai rubbed his eyes. He did what the commander and chief of staff arranged, and never thought too much. After so many battles, he has great trust in his current commander and chief of staff. even dared to give their lives to them. Yang Qinkai belongs to that kind of thinking, which is very simple. People who don't think cranky are also rarely excited in battle (except in extreme cases).

He and Qiu Gengbo are two stark contrasts in the First Air Wing, which also makes him less eye-catching. Of course. No one will doubt his ability to command bomber groups in battle, and being able to become a group leader is enough to show his ability.

"Lao Yang, we've been flying for nearly an hour, did we miss it with the enemy?"

"Maybe, the enemy may still be ahead!" Yang Qinkai looked around, the group was a little scattered, dozens of "water birds" lined up in two horizontal columns, and about 1,000 meters below them, there was another squadron of "sea eagles". Only fighters were above Yang Qinkai in front of them.

This time, there were only 18 "Falcons" escorting Yang Qinkai and them, and according to the previous practice, they needed at least 24 "Falcons" to cover the ground, and most of the time there would even be 36 escort fighters. At the departure place, Hao Dongjue also specifically told him that the fleet also needs air defense fighters, so it can't provide them with more escort fighters. Yang Qinkai didn't say much, even if Hao Dongjue didn't give him an escort fighter. He will also lead the bombers to depart, and it would be nice to have 18 escort fighters. It was also because of the small number of escort fighters that only 4 of them went out and carried out reconnaissance missions at the same time, while the other 14 were all flying above the front of the bomber group.

"Old Yang, do you want to lower the height? We have entered the sea where the US fleet may be present, and the clouds are so thick that we cannot detect the warships on the surface of the sea at such a high altitude. ”

"Okay, let the 'sea eagle' lower to fly below the clouds." Yang Qinkai also knew that flying too high would not be good for them, and anyway, there was no need to worry about fuel in this bombing operation. "Also, contact the fighters in front and ask them if they have spotted it."

The "sea eagle" below the "water bird" began to descend to the altitude and disappeared from Yang Qinkai's sight after the bomber drilled into the clouds. In command of the squadron's torpedo bombers was Major Lee Hsien-jen, who had just been promoted to squadron leader, and the previous squadron leader was still undergoing surgery to remove his appendix in the hospital in the rear. Li Xianren was Yang Qinkai's old subordinate, in fact, at this time, the First Air Wing was compressed, there were originally three air groups, it stands to reason that one air group should be withdrawn, or stay in the rear base, but the commanders of the three air groups were unwilling to leave the fleet, as a result, Hao Dongjue could only reduce the number of each of the three air groups and send a squadron leader back to the rear to train new pilots. At that time, Yang Qinkai kept Li Xianren, and later recommended Li Xianren to be promoted to squadron leader.

As soon as the "Sea Eagle" broke through the clouds, Li Xianren was taken aback, and the sea was densely packed with warships, only a dozen of them, and they were in a dense air defense formation. Then he saw the "pirates" who had been killed.

"Captain, enemy planes!"

Hearing the voice in the headphones, Yang Qinkai was also stunned, he didn't hesitate, and immediately gave an order: "Prepare for battle, call the escort fighters, damn it, we actually hit the jackpot!" ”

Spruance left 30 air defense fighters for himself, and when Yang Qinkai and his team were still 50 nautical miles away from the American fleet, the radar on the American warship detected the bomber group. Spruance immediately adjusted the air defense of the fleet. Having all the fighters concentrate in the direction of the enemy aircraft group, Spruance was a little surprised that the group was not facing the fleet at that time, and the course was still off. Just when he was puzzled, a group of bombers came out of the clouds, this is the squadron "Sea Eagle" led by Major Li Xianren, and at this time they were still about 20 nautical miles away from the US Task Force 51, and the US air defense fighters had also been concentrated.

In the "sea eagle" tenaciously evaded the pursuit of the "pirates". When the formation was in chaos, "4 "Falcons" quickly swooped down from a high altitude. As soon as the summoned "Falcon" broke out of the clouds, the machine guns on the wing opened fire. The five "pirates" were taken by surprise and fell down with black smoke in tow, and the other "pirates" immediately dispersed, and then divided into two groups, one group came to entangle the "Falcon", and the other group continued to storm the "Sea Eagle" group to intercept these bombers approaching the aircraft carrier at full speed. But at this time, none of the American pilots knew. Above the clouds above their heads. There was also a squadron of "water-shooting birds" with 500 kg of aviation armor-piercing shells

Killing towards the aircraft carrier.

The clouds protected the U.S. fleet, so that the four fighters who went out could not detect the U.S. fleet (at this time the four fighters were returning at full speed), but at the same time covered Yang Qinkai and them.

So that the US air defense fighters did not notice that there was a group of more threatening dive bombers secretly approaching the fleet. But the losses of the bombers of the Tang Empire were also very large, and this was all concentrated on the "Sea Eagle".

More than 20 "pirates" quickly broke up the formation of the "Sea Eagle", and Lee Hsien-in asked the recoil navigator to do everything possible to summon the bombers around him that were not shot down, while he piloted the "Sea Eagle" to do an unskilled dive. Only at low altitudes can the characteristics of the "sea eagle" be brought into play, and in the air of thousands of meters, the bulky "sea eagle" can only be slaughtered by others. However, the group of planes had already been dispersed, and when it came time to kill the US aircraft carrier, Li Xianren only summoned five other "Sea Eagles," while the other "Sea Eagles" had already flown in other directions. Some are still trying to get rid of the fighter behind the butt.

Hearing the shouting and scolding of those pilots in the headphones, Yang Qinkai resisted the idea of diving down in advance, he knew very well that he had to reach the sky above the American fleet before he could break out of the clouds and then give the enemy a fatal blow. Although those "sea eagles" had no way to drop torpedoes, they succeeded in attracting US fighters, and this was enough.

"Old Yang, left front. There's a gap over there. ”

"See, brothers, get the bombs ready, let's go down and kill the son of a bitch!"

At Yang Qinkai's beckoning, the "Shooting Birds" quickly approached, and Yang Qinkai also beckoned the other three "Shooting Birds" of his group to enter the maneuvering flight stage before the dive, and began to rapidly reduce their altitude.

There are four stages in the process of dive-dropping bombing, the initial change from a cruising route to a dive maneuver flight, at which point the dive bomber has to lower its altitude to reach the altitude of the dive. Then there is the straight line dive stage, in this stage, the glide angle of the dive bomber is about 45 degrees to 60 degrees, the bomber's maneuvering ability is very limited, and can only barely adjust the course to aim at the target, followed by the vertical dive stage before the bomb drop, although the name is vertical dive, but in actual combat, most of the bombers' dive angle is between 75 degrees and 85 degrees, this is mainly to take into account the final adjustment of the route, improve the hit rate, if you enter the vertical dive of 90 degrees, It will be difficult to adjust the route. And after dropping the bomb, the dive bomber immediately changed out of the dive course, and this was the final stage.

The height of the bombers was rapidly decreasing, and when Yang Qinkai and the others came out of the gaps in the clouds, they immediately saw the two large fleet aircraft carriers in front of them. At this time in "Essex"

Spruance on the carrier island also saw the bombers, and he immediately pointed above his head and shouted at the same time, causing all the anti-aircraft fire to divert the target against the dive bombers.

Yang Qinkai aimed at the aircraft carrier "Essex" with the number CV-9, and he did not see the side of the aircraft carrier, but this aircraft carrier was the closest to him. The bomber has begun to shake violently, when the altimeter points to 1500 meters, Yang Qinkai quickly opened the flow control board on the plane, and at the same time pressed down the nose, the bomber entered the gliding flight phase, this flight phase lasted about 3 to 5 seconds, and he had to let the bomber roughly aim at the target during this period.

Then, the bomber entered the stage of vertical dive bombing, the gliding angle continued to increase, until 80 degrees, Yang Qinkai controlled the bomber, when the altimeter pointed to 500 meters, and at the same time the ring on the bombing sight was aimed at the middle of the aircraft carrier on the sea surface, Yang Qinkai released the bomb button, when he felt that the bomber was suddenly much lighter, Yang Qinkai quickly pulled back the operating stick, the bomber let out a sharp whistling sound, and at the same time violently vibrated up, about 200 meters above the aircraft carrier, Yang Qinkai pulled the bomber back, and with the increased speed during the dive, he quickly slipped out of the strike range of the small-caliber anti-aircraft guns on the enemy aircraft carrier, and only then did he begin to increase the flight altitude of the bomber.

The other three "waterbirds" also dived and dropped bombs at intervals of about five seconds.

Because the blow came so suddenly, the "Essex" did not have time to turn at all, and the hit rate of the four bombs was as high as 50%. When Yang Qinkai flew the bomber below the clouds (about 1,700 meters), he glanced at the aircraft carrier on the sea. There was already smoke and fire on the carrier, and the four "waterbirds" of the third group were diving and dropping bombs, and the pilots would not have considered dealing with other warships until the aircraft carrier was killed. On the surface of the sea, several "Sea Eagles" are advancing rapidly and have entered the straight flight course where the torpedoes are dropped.

On the other side of the battlefield, a flock of "waterbirds" is besieging another aircraft carrier, the "Yorktown". The four "Falcons" that rushed back were also diving and strafing the anti-aircraft guns on the aircraft carrier, opening the way for the "waterfowl". The battle has already begun, and whether or not the two US aircraft carriers can be blown up depends on whether the bombs dropped by the "water birds" are accurate enough.