The sound on the radio made the staff officers upset, and some of the officers could not help but curse their mothers quietly, especially when some pilots complained loudly that the bomb had not hit, and some staff officers also scolded as if they were on the battlefield.

Tan Renhao didn't stop the staff officer, he glanced around and called an officer over. "Go plug in the horn and let everyone listen."

"Fleet Radio?"

Tan Renhao nodded. "Yes, take the fleet radio and let everyone listen to it."

The staff officer immediately ran to prepare, and in a short time, the fleet radio sounded the sound of artillery on the battlefield ahead, the sound of bombs exploding, and more often than not, the pilot's cursing, roaring, and so on. It's as if those pilots can't hit an enemy ship without scolding before dropping a bomb, and scolding two words after dropping a bomb can increase the power of the bomb.

"Ren Hao, the first wave of bombers is almost all over, only Major Qiu Gengbo escaped." Lei Shaoqing was not so excited, after the battle started, he had to be busy. "The enemy fleet is seventy-five nautical miles south of us, and it couldn't be closer."

Tan Renhao nodded slightly, what he was concerned about now was not how many bombers would be able to return.

"In addition, the Japanese fleet does not have capital ships, and there are not many escort warships, whether you send our heavy cruisers to kill it, the battle can be resolved within three hours."

Tan Renhao was stunned, and Lei Shaoqing reminded him of this. 75 nautical miles, for a heavy cruiser in the fleet and a large air defense cruiser. It will only take two and a half hours at most, and then the Japanese fleet will be dealt with with the main guns of 240 mm caliber on large anti-aircraft cruisers of the "Li Jing" class. Thinking of this, Tan Renhao hesitated, the reason is very simple, if these warships are sent out, then the first task force will lose its air defense capability, and the bomber group of the Japanese fleet will be killed at this time. The remaining three aircraft carriers, as well as those destroyers, are only to be slaughtered.

Lei Shaoqing didn't say anything more. His suggestion was already in place, and he also knew that the five "Li Jing"-class large air defense cruisers, as well as those "Trotchi"-class heavy cruisers, were the backbone of the fleet's close air defense, and if the bombers of the Japanese fleet had already been killed at this time, then without the cover of these air defense warships, the three aircraft carriers would be vulnerable.

Tan Renhao hesitated for two minutes. He glanced at Lei Shaoqing and said decisively: "Immediately organize the heavy cruiser fleet to go south and shell the Japanese First Air Fleet." ”

Lei Shaoqing was stunned for a moment, and then turned around and ran out.

At this time, Tan Renhao also felt that his clothes were soaked with sweat. The reason for his judgment was simple: if the Japanese fleet had already sent a bomber group, then the fleet should have been bombed by now, but at this time the fleet still did not sound the air defense alarm. That is, the Japanese fleet was not able to attack before them, and the bombed fleet simply could not have sent bombers, unless the Japanese died!

The Japanese really didn't want to die, and it was when they were bombed in the first wave that the three aircraft carriers of the First Air Fleet each took off 24 "99 ship explosions." Because of the rush to take off, 8 "99 shipbursts" collided during take-off and fell into the sea. And when the second wave of "Kingfisher" planes, that is, the planes led by Zhang Naiding, arrived over the Japanese fleet, the first batch of 24 "97 Ship Attackers" had already left the flight deck. The "Kingfisher" group led by Zhang Naiding only had time to prevent the "97 Ship Attack" from taking off.

The eight "Kingfishers" personally led by Zhang Naiding were divided into two batches and began to dive at intervals of less than ten seconds. He first managed to avoid a Zero with difficulty, and then used two self-defense machine guns to take out a Zero that was about to ram. At an altitude of 500 meters, Zhang Naiding dropped a bomb and then pulled the "kingfisher" up. The three "Kingfishers" in the back also dropped bombs. Before the bombs fell, the second group began to dive down from the other side, and four "Kingfishers" also dropped bombs one after another.

Eight bombs simultaneously smashed into the aircraft carrier "Flying Dragon" on the sea. This ship has a displacement of more than 20,000 tons. The aircraft carrier, which still has more than a dozen bombers on the flight deck, is like a hulking whale. Make a quick turn on the surface of the sea to avoid falling bombs. The aviation crews on the deck were also desperately pushing the planes on the deck into the sea. Because these bombers have torpedoes under their bellies, if one bomb falls on the rear deck, then the torpedoes that are detonated are enough to destroy the entire aircraft carrier!

The "Flying Dragon" was no longer as lucky as it had been during the Battle of Ryukyu Island, and the bomb dropped by Zhang Naiding landed on the front of the flight deck, penetrating the wooden flight deck directly and burrowing into the front hangar before exploding. The second bomb penetrated the flight deck next to the island and landed in the hangar between the two lifts, where it exploded. The other six bombs all landed in the vicinity of the "Wyvern," and one of the bombs that exploded 10 meters away from the port side of the stern of the "Wyvern" caused a shock wave that destroyed the two propellers of the "Wyvern" and damaged the rudder on the left side.

Almost at the same time, another 16 "Kingfishers" swooped down on the aircraft carriers "Xianghe" and "Zuihe". It's just that none of these attacks have had much effect. The anti-aircraft gun position on the port side of the "Shohe" was hit by a bomb, and the flight deck was partially destroyed, but it was still able to continue its aviation combat mission, and the "Zuihe", which happened to burrow into a cumulonimbus cloud, avoided all the bombs and was unharmed.

Yamaguchi was only stunned for a few minutes by the strong shock wave from the bomb explosion, but was not seriously injured. The bomb that hit near the bridge was an armor-piercing shell, and if it was a high-explosive shell, then the shrapnel flying sideways would definitely kill everyone in the commander's bridge.

"Canglong" has lost its combat capability. While ordering the fleet to continue the battle, Yamaguchi Bunta moved to the heavy cruiser "Kinugasa" next to it. The wounded "Wyvern" also began to break away from the fleet. Prepare to withdraw from the battle first, and then return to the Truk naval base.

The battle is far from over. Yamaguchi Wenta had just boarded the dinghy and had not yet come to the heavy cruiser Kinugasa, when the third batch of 24 "Kingfishers" and the fourth batch of 22 "Ospreys" arrived.

Qiu Gengbo, who returned alone, did not notice the group of planes that were secretly following them over the clouds. That was the attack aircraft group sent by the Japanese fleet, and the leader of this group was Mitsuo Fuchida, who had distinguished himself in the naval battle of Ryukyu Island. Immediately after taking off with the group, he left the skies over the fleet. Then. He found the Kingfisher, which was returning home alone. Fuchida did not immediately follow, nor did he summon the nearby "Zero Battle". Instead, he first recruited more than 50 "99 ship explosions" in the surrounding area, and then followed the "kingfisher". Fuchida knew very well that the "Kingfisher" would take them to the Tang Empire's First Task Force.

Qiu Gengbo was only in a hurry to go back and hang up the bomb and take off again, even the navigator in the back seat was the same as him. They didn't notice the danger at all and flew like that for fifteen minutes. At this time, they were less than 25 nautical miles away from Task Force 1!

in the fleet. Five large anti-aircraft cruisers of the "Li Jing" class, as well as four heavy cruisers of the "Trotto" class, formed a separate artillery formation and were heading south at maximum speed. Tan Renhao's task for them was very simple, kill them as quickly as possible, and then use 240mm and 200mm guns to kill the Japanese First Air Fleet, without giving the opponent any chance to escape. The ground radars on these warships had been turned on, but no one had issued an air defense alarm, and those radar operators regarded the group of planes following Major Qiu Gengbo as the group of returning "kingfishers" led by Zhang Naiding.

Zhang Naiding was indeed returning home at this time. The bombing campaign of his group lasted less than five minutes, and all 24 "Kingfishers" dropped their bombs, only three were shot down, and the others survived. Zhang Naiding also had the same idea as Qiu Gengbo, and immediately returned to the fleet and loaded the bombs. You don't even need to refuel, you can set off again to bomb the Japanese fleet. Zhang Naiding was about fifteen nautical miles behind Qiu Gengbo, and the Japanese bomber group was flying less than eight nautical miles in front of them. This distance was within the pilot's visual distance, but the clouds between the two groups blocked Zhang Naiding's view!

He was also shocked when Zhang Naiding discovered the ground group below through the clouds, and he thought it was Qiu Gengbo's group (at that time, due to the communication conditions, Zhang Naiding didn't know that Qiu Gengbo's group was almost completely wiped out). Then he found out that there was a problem, because those planes were not gull-shaped wings. And. The number far exceeds that of the Qiu Gengbo fleet. Then, Zhang Naiding reacted. It was by no means a fighter of its own people, but a bomber of the enemy, because at this time, in this narrow airspace, almost all the bombers of the Tang Empire were flying to the southwest, not to the northeast!

After Zhang Naiding asked the navigator to send the alarm back to the fleet, he was the first to dive. The "Kingfisher" is a bomber, but there are two self-defense machine guns on the wings, and even if there are no self-defense machine guns, for the safety of the fleet, even if the collision method is used, the enemy bomber will be knocked down!

When he received the alarm, Tan Renhao was also taken aback. Without waiting for him to give an order, Lei Shaoqing had already begun to arrange air defense operations. At this time, none of the ground air defense fighters over Task Force 1 took part in offensive operations, and these pilots did not receive orders from the fleet commander and therefore remained in the vicinity of the fleet. But the Japanese bomber group was only fifteen nautical miles away from the fleet, and five minutes was enough time for these bombers to kill the fleet!

Unfortunately, there were 24 "Vultures" among the fighters that carried out the air defense tasks of the fleet at that time, and these 24 "Vultures" were patrolling in the southwestern direction of the fleet. The pilots of these fighters spotted those Japanese bombers flying under the clouds almost at the same time as they received the order. The brutal battle of the air defense of the fleet began.

The performance of the "Vulture" is a notch higher than that of the "Sparrowhawk", and it is no less than the "Zero Battle" in terms of maneuverability, and its speed is slightly faster than that of the "Zero Battle", and its firepower is more intense. What's more, the Vulture has fully inherited the Sparrowhawk's excellent vertical maneuverability, that is, the dive attack action. Twenty-four "vultures" swooped down from the sky like mad watchdogs and pounced on the Japanese bombers who were stealthily killing the fleet.

Fuchida Mitsuo deserves to be the number one bombing ace of the Japanese Navy, and when he attacked Naha Port, he led the Japanese Navy Fleet Bomber Group to be the first to enter Naha Port, resulting in the first fleet of the Tang Empire, and had extremely excellent performance in several subsequent naval battles. When he saw the "vulture" diving down, instead of climbing high, he began to reduce his acceleration, evading the interception of fighters.

Other Japanese pilots were not so sophisticated. Through three large-scale naval battles, the Japanese Navy lost two-thirds of its excellent pilots. In particular, in the Battle of Ryukyu Island, more than half of the veteran pilots of the First Air Fleet did not return to the battle, and the battle damaged the territory. The high-intensity training arranged by Yamaguchi Wenta does not increase the actual combat experience of the new pilots, and the presence or absence of actual combat experience is almost the only criterion for measuring a pilot's ability. When intercepted by fighter jets, the first reaction of most pilots is an instinctive reaction, and only pilots who have passed the actual combat test can make a correct instinctive reaction, and the pilots who make the wrong reaction will suffer a painful lesson and even lose the opportunity to fly again.

The 18 "99 Ship Explosions" were enveloped by the blazing artillery fire fired by the fighters the moment they were pulled up. Mitsuo Fuchida had no way to command the other fighters, so he could only call the other fighters on the radio to follow him. When he rushed down, he immediately saw nine battleships on the sea, which were not aircraft carriers of the Tang Empire, but nine cruisers. Fuchida Mitsuo was taken aback, and he immediately let go of the nine battleships, because he had already seen that not far in front were the three aircraft carriers of the Tang Empire. But the more than a dozen "99 shipbursts" that followed him were not so smart, but took these nine cruisers as targets.

As Mitsuo Fuchida passed over the cruiser, nine cruisers on the surface of the sea also opened fire. At this time, the officers and men on the cruiser had already identified the "99 ship explosion" in the sky above and not the "kingfisher". After Mitsuo Fuchida also sent out the news that the Tang Empire's cruiser fleet was rapidly moving south, he immediately pounced on the three eye-catching aircraft carriers