When he heard Deng Zichao's scolding in the formation channel, Zhang Naiding could only smile bitterly. This time he was preempted by Deng Zichao, and he had nothing to say. But thinking that the battle in front of him was not over yet, Zhang Naiding couldn't laugh. At this time, the group of planes he led was still 120 nautical miles away from the US fleet, and Deng Zichao's group was already returning home, about 60 nautical miles away from them. Because Deng Zichao and the others first discovered the US fleet, Zhang Naiding and the others did not waste time searching for the US fleet and chose the most direct route.

When the two groups missed, Zhang Naiding first saw Deng Zichao's landline.

"Old Deng, your ass seems to have been bitten, right?"

"Damn, don't laugh at me, when we go back, we'll count the guns, whoever has more will have a treat." Deng Zichao unceremoniously replied to Zhang Naiding's greeting, "How many bombers do you have?" ”

"60, the last batch."

"All three aircraft carriers have been damaged, and whether they can be blown up and sunk depends on your performance." Deng Zichao gave Zhang Naiding a thumbs up, "Don't waste our hard work!" ”

Zhang Naiding didn't say anything more, the two planes staggered by, and now it was their turn to dive bombers.

On the USS Franklin, Spruance ordered two light cruisers and three destroyers to be left behind to cover the most seriously injured aircraft carrier "Ticonderoga" when the first batch of bombers of the Tang Empire began to retreat, and the other two aircraft carriers that could maintain a speed of more than 30 knots went north at full speed, and the large cruiser that provided cover for the "Ticonderoga" aircraft carrier was also transferred.

At this time, all three aircraft carriers were bombed, and the "Randolph" was hit by a torpedo. Only "Franklin" dodged all the torpedoes, but two bombs hit the flight deck of the aircraft carrier. The damage management personnel are still extinguishing the fire, and the aircraft carrier is temporarily unable to dispatch fighters. There are also no more fighters on the aircraft carrier.

The Tang Empire's ground bombers came from the southwest and northeast, and Spruance's first judgment was that the Tang Empire had other fleets operating nearby. But he immediately rejected this judgment, and the reason was very simple: all the torpedo bombers came from the southwest, all the dive bombers came from the northeast, and those fighters flew from the southeast. Other words. This is actually a group of bombers, but these bombers are scattered. Obviously, the commanders of the Tang Empire were not able to determine the exact location of the 51st Task Force, so its first bombers had to search before attacking. But the problem is that Task Force 2 must have sent more than a bunch of bombers.

Before the arrival of the Tang Imperial bombers, Spruance received a message from the first batch of bombers he sent that there were no bombers on all four aircraft carriers in the second task force, and that the last group of bombers had just left the sky over the fleet (there would be one or two temporary reconnaissance planes in any bomber group to perform such a mission, and the US military would arrange two squadron leaders. The Tang Emperor naval aviation arranged two to four squad leaders to undertake this task). That is, all the bombers of the 2nd task force departed. At that time, the 2nd Task Force had at least six squadrons of bombers. In addition to a group of bombers on reconnaissance missions, it is enough to form two waves of bomber groups!

The aviation combat staff also quickly calculated the possible arrival time of the second batch of bombers of the Tang Empire, and at this time, the first batch of bombers of the Tang Empire had been killed in three batches.

bombs, as well as the capabilities of cruisers of the "Alaska" class manifested. In addition to the aircraft carrier "Ticonderoga" because of intensive bombing, which was hit by two torpedoes and nearly ten bombs, the aircraft carrier "Randolph" was hit by one torpedo and seven bombs, while the "Franklin" was hit by two bombs. In addition to this, four light cruisers were sunk (two of them were torpedoed), three destroyers were sunk, and several battleships were damaged (the large cruiser "Guam" received a 500-kilogram bomb and was badly damaged).

In the past, the first batch of more than 100 bombers would have been enough to wipe out all three aircraft carriers of Task Force 51.

It was at this time that Spruance ordered the two aircraft carriers that could run to retreat at full speed, and the "Ticonderoga" was almost hopeless, it was the same whether they could escape or not, and it was more valuable to stay and create a chance for the other two aircraft carriers to escape. There was nothing wrong with his decision, and any commander would have made the same judgment at this time. If you stay, you will have to be all finished, and now you can run for your life, and maybe you can save two aircraft carriers.

Zhang Naiding's fleet caught up with the U.S. fleet in twenty minutes. When he found that there was only one aircraft carrier on the sea, and a few escort warships, he immediately ordered a squad of bombers to deal with the aircraft carrier and the escort warship, and the other four squads pursued the other American warships at full speed.

The 48 "waterbirds" did not care about the doomed aircraft carrier, and Zhang Naiding did not want to waste bombs on this aircraft carrier that was about to sink. Previously, the U.S. fleet was sailing north, so he led the fleet directly to the north. Twenty minutes is a maximum of ten nautical miles for the fleet, and for a bomber group, ten nautical miles, a maximum of three minutes. When Zhang Naiding saw the two aircraft carriers in the two aircraft carrier formations in front of him, it was already twelve past fifteen.

"Disperse the attack, two squads against one group, knock out their main escort battleship first."

Zhang Naiding was very confident, and he first led the team under his command to rush forward.

The escort fighters were already fighting with the American fighters in front, and perhaps the only thing Spruance should regret was not being able to leave an extra batch of air defense fighters. At this time, he only had more than a dozen fighters, and the ammunition and fuel of these fighters were about to run out, while the more than 20 escort fighters that flew in had enough ammunition and fuel.

When the escort fighters entangled the opponent's air defense fighters, Zhang Naiding had already approached the aircraft carrier emitting black smoke, which was the "Randolph". The seven aviation armor-piercing shells that hit the aircraft carrier before failed to destroy the power system of the aircraft carrier, but they blew up the flight deck and hangar of the aircraft carrier, and part of the ship island was also blown away, and the entire aircraft carrier was miserable. And the fire has not been extinguished, and now it is just barely keeping up with the fleet and fleeing for its life.

"Three groups, go kill that cruiser. One group, two groups follow me! ”

Zhang Naiding was very calm. He knew how fierce the anti-aircraft fire of the large cruiser, which looked not much smaller than the battleship, and that the cruiser had to be eliminated before he could successfully bomb the carrier. At this time, the cruiser "Guam" was covering next to the "Randolph", and the other two large cruisers were in the vicinity of the "Franklin".

Four "waterbirds" began to dive from two directions.

The "Guam" anti-aircraft artillery was relatively concentrated on the aft deck, and as a result, only the first two bombers entering from the bow direction were intercepted, while the two bombers entering from the direction of the ship successfully broke through the interception net of the antiaircraft guns and successfully dropped the bombs. A bomb exploded less than ten meters out of the port side of the cruiser, and a powerful shock wave certainly caused damage to the battleship's hull. The second bomb landed on the ship's amidships, and after passing through the three decks, it exploded in the ship's forward engine room, and the damage was very great.

When the "Guam" lost its combat effectiveness, Zhang Naiding had already led two other groups of bombers to the airspace over the aircraft carrier. He was the first to start the dive. The aircraft carrier is turning. However, at this time, the fire on the aircraft carrier seriously weakened the anti-aircraft fire of the aircraft carrier itself, and as a result, it was impossible to stop the bomber leading the group. And Zhang Naiding's accuracy rate of bomb dropping is more than seventy percent, as long as he drops the bomb, there is almost no possibility of missing the ground!

Seven other bombers dropped bombs in less than three minutes. Then, the bombers of the second squad began to enter. When Zhang Naiding pulled up the bomber. The 12 bombers of the second squad also dropped bombs.

"Lao Zhang, at least thirteen of them were hit, I saw it with my own eyes, this aircraft carrier is finished!"

Zhang Naiding looked at the aircraft carrier below, and then laughed. Dive bombers pose the greatest threat to aircraft carriers, and the power of the 500-kilogram aviation armor-piercing bombs used by the Tang Imperial Navy is also great, and Zhang Naiding, the pilots of these dive bombers, jokingly call them "500-kilogram hammers". Not to mention aircraft carriers, even a stronger battleship will definitely be sunk if it is hit by so many bombs.

The aircraft carrier "Randolph" also reached the end of the route. The power of thirteen aerial bombs is very huge, the flight deck of the aircraft carrier before, as well as the armored main deck have been seriously damaged, at least seven bombs have penetrated into the hull of the aircraft carrier and exploded, not only completely blowing up the power system of the aircraft carrier, but also blowing up the fuel depot of the aircraft carrier, and finally detonating the ammunition depot of the aircraft carrier. Although the "Randolph" is still stubbornly floating on the sea, it has reached the end of the road, and even God cannot save the aircraft carrier.

In the midst of the violent explosions, the part of the "Randolph" aircraft carrier on the sea surface was blown to pieces, and after the aircraft carrier's ammunition depot was detonated, the thousands of tons of ammunition stored on the aircraft carrier finally made it lose its ability to survive, and the thousands of officers and men on the aircraft carrier did not even have a chance to escape. The debris that had been thrown flew hundreds of meters into the air before being scattered on the surrounding sea.

Zhang Naiding laughed, at first he received a report from the squad behind him, another aircraft carrier also began to sink, and the US officers and soldiers on the aircraft carrier were jumping into the sea to escape. Now, two aircraft carriers have been finished, but when he looks ahead, he immediately can't laugh. The two squads that assaulted the third aircraft carrier were almost all shot down by bombers, only a few flew back, and almost all of them were wounded, and the three bombers who were seriously injured were preparing for a forced landing.

"!" Zhang Naiding yelled.

"Lao Zhang, we don't have any bombs!"

", who else has a bomb?"

It was silent in the headphones, and all the bombers had already dropped their bombs. At this time, Zhang Naiding also found that the anti-aircraft fire on the large cruiser guarding both sides of the American aircraft carrier was indeed fierce, and the bombers were not given any chance at all.

"Lao Zhang, that aircraft carrier was hit by at least three bombs, but it may not sink!" The navigator also asked about the situation at this time.

"Prepare to return home, contact the fleet, mark the areas of engagement, and arrange for seaplanes to come and search and rescue our pilots as soon as possible. The enemy fleet is definitely on the run, they won't stay long! Zhang Naiding also held back his anger, "The formation is concentrated, and each squad reports the attack and losses......"

The "Franklin" did hit three bombs, but it did not damage vital parts. Although the speed of the aircraft carrier has been reduced, it is still stubbornly sailing north.

Spruance had five of the most thrilling minutes, and when the twenty-odd bombers roared toward him, he almost thought he was finished. When the guns on the two large cruisers came into play, Spruance didn't react for five minutes. One bomber after another was shot down, and although in the end more than a dozen bombers still succeeded in penetrating the defense, and three of the bombs dropped hit the aircraft carrier, in the end, the "Franklin" was still stubbornly sailing.

When the bomb hit the aircraft carrier, Spruance was shocked and flew out, and when he got up, he found that most of the officers in the commander's bridge were wounded, and he himself was wounded, only slightly, his forehead was broken, and several other shards of glass left several wounds on his arms.

The two large cruisers shot down eleven bombers in these five minutes, and all of them were small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, and the anti-aircraft guns on the carriers also shot down four bombers. Several of these bombers were damaged after dropping their bombs. And in the past, no two cruisers were able to shoot down so many bombers in five minutes.

"General, are you alright?" The Medic helped Spruance to a stool and began to help him with his wounds.

"The fleet continues to return, leaving four destroyers to search for our overboard officers and men, and, remember to scoop up all the enemy pilots." Spruance gave the final order, "After receiving the report of the second batch of bombers, report to the theater command on the state of the battle, and then turn off the radio." ”

Five minutes later, a telegram from the second group of American bombers returned, by which time Spruance had already left the commander's bridge, and it was the task force chief of staff who handled the telegram. The search and rescue work is still ongoing, and at this time, for every US military officer and soldier, perhaps the significance of surviving is far greater than winning the battle.