On the night of the 17th, the fleet reached the southeast of Bajonuevo Reef, about 120 miles away and about 330 miles from Santiago de Cuba. On the evening of the same day, Hao Dongjue's Second Fleet sent more than 10 reconnaissance planes to southeastern Cuba to reconnoiter the situation at the US airfield. At the same time, the bombers in the five aircraft carrier task forces were ready to take off.

"The reconnaissance plane is expected to arrive over the US military airfield between half past four and five in the morning." Yan Yulong marked the flight routes of the more than 10 reconnaissance planes on the chart, and he was also a graduate of the Naval Academy, and his ability to operate on the map was quite strong. "To be on the safe side, there are two reconnaissance aircraft at each airfield. These reconnaissance planes will be active until dawn and will provide the most direct target information for the bomber group, which will leave the airfield and return to the fleet before the bomber group arrives. ”

Tan Renhao looked at the chart, and he didn't interrupt Yan Yulong's words. The reconnaissance and bombing operations were all arranged by Dong Jue, and as in the past, Tan Renhao rarely worried about aviation operations, and he was more worried that the fleet would be exposed in advance and thus be counterattacked by the US military. For Tan Renhao and the officers and men of the two main fleets, Bahonuevo Reef was not an auspicious place, and the last time the fleet was hit by a hurricane in the waters near it, otherwise the Atlantic Fleet would have been killed by him a long time ago.

In order to avoid the fleet's early exposure, the reconnaissance planes departed relatively late, and they had to spend one to two hours in dangerous airspace. In this way, it is possible to avoid the US military tracking the reconnaissance plane returning to the place of return and thus find the fleet. Relatively. The threat in this regard is not great, and the real threat to the fleet is the US submarines operating in the Caribbean Sea. Although the shore-based anti-submarine patrol aircraft that have been deployed to Jamaica can force US submarines away from Jamaica, and by tightly sealing off the Jamaica Strait and the waters between Jamaica and the Central American mainland, the number of US submarines entering the Caribbean Sea has been greatly reduced. However, this will not completely eliminate the threat from below the surface of the sea. In addition, after the US submarine discovers the fleet, it will definitely report the position of the fleet back, so that the fleet will be exposed.

"How is the anti-submarine work arranged?" Tan Renhao looked at Yan Yulong.

"As soon as the fleet turned, the anti-submarine warfare ships were already dispersed to the periphery. In addition, the anti-submarine patrol planes sent from Jamaica arrived more than an hour ago, and according to our arrangement, these anti-submarine patrol planes will accompany us at all times. Bear anti-submarine patrols on the periphery of the fleet. ”

Tan Renhao nodded slightly. "The point is to avoid exposing the fleet, and if there are no accidents, we will continue to act according to the plan, and after the bombers reach the target, let the other fleets keep in touch with us in real time, and I want to know the situation of the entire combat operation."

Because he no longer serves as commander of the task force. Tan Renhao no longer participated in specific combat operations, which made him feel a little uncomfortable. In the past. Even if most of the aviation combat operations were handled by Dongjue, and most of the aviation operations of the First Task Force were deployed by Zhu Rongzhe, he would also participate in the whole process and obtain information on the battlefield in a timely manner. At present, Tan Renhao can only remotely command the battle on the battleship, and what is the situation of the other fleets can only be grasped through the reports of the commanders of each fleet, and he cannot directly obtain information.

This kind of change had to happen, and Tan Renhao had to adapt to the new way of commanding, even if he didn't adapt to it. He could only endure it and slowly adapt to it.

At this time, except for the Third Task Force, the aviation service personnel on the aircraft carriers of the other task forces were already busy. After the reconnaissance planes departed, the aviation crew began to check the status of the bombers and fighters, and had to fill all the bombers with fuel and hang up the bombs before 5 a.m., and also had to prepare the escort fighters for takeoff.

After getting acquainted with the Falcon, the efficiency of the aviation service personnel increased a lot. At that time, Hafei specially commissioned a special vehicle factory. A batch of special vehicles was produced for carrier-based aviation. And fundamentally, the service performance of the "Falcon" is better than all previous bombers. Like what. Its use of a universal ammunition interface was very advanced, and later became one of the standards of the Imperial Air Force. With the cooperation of special service vehicles, the efficiency of aviation service work soon reached its peak. In the past, it took about 15 to 20 minutes to replenish ammunition and fuel for a "water bird". Preparations for take-off can be completed in about a clock, and a service group is responsible for three or four bombers, that is, if it is fast, it can be completed in half an hour, and if it is slow, it will not exceed 40 minutes.

In addition to the improvement of the ground service capability of the bomber itself, the service management on the aircraft carrier at that time was also adjusted in a targeted manner. For example, most bombers only need to be refueled in hangars and loaded with ammunition after they are delivered to the flight deck, and a standardized operating procedure has been established for this. At the beginning, there was an organizational problem, that is, more than two service groups must work together, if the coordination is not good, it is easy to have problems, but with the formation of service personnel familiar with the new way of working, its service efficiency has naturally improved a lot. From then on, the Imperial Navy's carrier-based aviation unit gradually formulated various support regulations for the service units, standardized the mode of operation, and finally changed the operation mode of taking the "service group" as an independent unit, and adopted a more advanced and efficient assembly-line service support mode, thus greatly improving the attendance efficiency of the carrier-based aircraft unit.

It can be said that this war is a war in which aircraft carriers have never been taken seriously and become the main force of the navy, and it is also in this war that the imperial navy has summed up a lot of experience in using aircraft carriers and improving the combat capability of aircraft carriers, and has set a lot of standards and specifications, laying the foundation for aircraft carriers to eventually become the absolute main force of the navy. In terms of aviation operations, several major changes took place throughout the war, and gradually formed a common model after the war.

For example, in 28 years, Hao Dongjue first adopted the classification system in the Second Task Force, and first distinguished them by letting the service personnel performing different tasks wear different colors of clothing, such as those wearing red vests for ammunition loaders and white vests

Supplements, take-off pilots in green vests, guides in yellow vests, etc. This became the standard system for the air service personnel of the later fleet, and its norms were perfected, and eventually the standard air operation system of the Imperial Navy was formed, which was promoted throughout the navy.

In many cases, these soft power advances are not remarkable, and many people only notice more advanced warships, more advanced combat aircraft, and more trump cards, not that there are better service personnel, and a better aviation service operation system. But in fact, it is these soft power advances that have played a truly critical role. After the war, many aircraft carrier combat theories actually appeared during the war, and when more people realized the importance of aviation service operations, the Tang Imperial Navy had already taken the lead in working soft power.

To a large extent, the importance of these aviation service personnel and a rational aviation service operation system is by no means inferior to the new aircraft carriers and new fighters. After the war, Hao Dongjue wrote a thesis on the combat aspects of fleet aviation, which became one of the main contents of the textbook of the Imperial Naval Academy. In this paper, Dongjue ranked the aviation service operation capability in the third place among the ten most critical technical and performance indicators affecting the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier, second only to the aviation combat theory and advanced combat aircraft, and even more advanced than the performance of the aircraft carrier itself. And when the empire designed aircraft carriers after the war, it took the ability of aviation operations as an important performance indicator, that is. When designing aircraft carriers, engineers need to consider improving the efficiency of aviation operations, not just improving the survivability of aircraft carriers on the ground and the number of combat aircraft they carry. Often, the ability to operate efficiently in aviation is much more important than the number of fighters carried!

Postwar. It has been commented that during the Great War, the three unknown groups of people in the Imperial Navy who made great contributions to the war effort, the aviation crews on the aircraft carriers ranked after the sailors of the transport fleet. This proves that not many people really noticed this group of people who could not fly planes to fight the enemy, but who made great contributions to defeating the enemy. In fact, among the officers and men of the fleet, it is these aviation service personnel who have received the least promotions and awards. In general, the highest rank of an aviation service officer is only captain, and very few can become officers. For the most part, there were non-commissioned officers, as well as ordinary soldiers. In particular, those with skilled skills are basically technical non-commissioned officers, not officers. In addition, during the entire war, the number of aviation service personnel who received medals was only about 20% of the total number of personnel, and they were in other positions in the fleet. This proportion is more than forty percent, and some departments. For example, among the battleship gunners, more than seventy percent of the officers and soldiers who have won medals!

After the war, the Imperial Navy raised the salaries of technical non-commissioned officers three times in ten years, in order to retain these technical backbones and prevent more talents from going to civil airlines because of the treatment problems, resulting in a shortage of sufficient personnel in the navy. From this you can see the importance of aviation service personnel, especially those technical non-commissioned officers. Of course, that's all for later. There was no brain drain during the war.

It was with such a large number of unknown naval officers and men who made great contributions that the aircraft carriers of the Imperial Navy were able to cross the seas and defeat every powerful adversary. Without such a group of high-quality aviation service personnel, I am afraid that the outcome of many naval battles in the Pacific theater would have changed.

The reconnaissance planes departed between three and thirty o'clock, and by half-past four, most of the bombers on the aircraft carriers were ready to take off. At this time, the pilots also went to the aviation operations center on the aircraft carrier one after another, received combat briefings, and accepted task assignments. Before five o'clock, the pilots on the ground of the various aircraft carriers began to board the plane one after another. At the same time, the ground engines of the first bombers to take off were running. It's time to go.

In order to ensure the destruction of four regular airfields and three large field airfields, the aviation units of the five aircraft carrier task forces were all mobilized, and with the exception of the first task force and the fourth task force, which will retain a reserve strike force, the bombers of the other task forces will be divided into two groups to carry out bombing missions. The specific mission objectives were directly assigned by Hao Dongjue, and in this round of bombing, the Third Fleet would be the absolute main force, while the First Fleet would only supplement its strength.

Just like Hao Dongjue himself, the bombers of the Second Task Force set off first and flew all the way to the front. It was Zhang Ding who served as the leader of the captain's plane, and it was Jiang Wenhan who escorted him. This can be regarded as the "golden partner" in the Imperial Naval Air Force, the two are the number one bombing ace and the number one air combat ace respectively, and they have to deal with the US military airfield in Palmasoriano, which is the closest to Santiago and the largest official airfield in southeastern Cuba.

The first bomber groups of the 7th and 8th task forces quickly followed, followed by the 1st task force bomber groups. Four bomber groups will be responsible for bombing four airfields of the US military, each with 120130 bombers in each group, along with a squadron of escort fighters.

By 5:15 a.m., the second group of bombers of Task Force 2 had begun to take off, and ten minutes before that, the bomber group of Task Force 4 had already departed. The second batch of bombers of Task Force 8 also took off. The mission of these three aircraft groups was to bomb three large field airfields of the US military, and the scale of these three field airfields was not much smaller than that of regular airfields, but the infrastructure was a little worse. There were still 80 to 90 bombers in each group, while being covered by at least one squadron of escort fighters.

The second batch of bombers of Task Force 7 began to take off at 5:25 a.m., which was part of the replenishment of the first strike force, and if any of the aircraft groups did not complete the strike mission, the aircraft group would carry out emergency supplementary bombing. To this end, there are 14 additional reconnaissance planes in the group, and these reconnaissance planes will be the first to take off, and they will catch up with the bomber group in front of them and accompany the front seven bomber groups on their missions to determine whether supplementary bombing is necessary.

At this point, the first strike force has been dispatched, and about half of the bombers of Task Force 1 and Task Force 4 remain on the flight deck, ready to take off for the second round of supplementary bombing!