Under the call of Colonel Luo Jinming, the 12 "Sparrowhawks" quickly converged together, and then flew towards the southeast. The place where they encountered the Japanese aircraft group was about 120 nautical miles away from the Japanese First Air Force, that is to say, Luo Jinming had just flown over the Ryukyu Islands and encountered the Japanese planes. At the cruising speed of the Sparrowhawk, 120 nautical miles takes about half an hour.

Half an hour passed, and Luo Jinming's patience was almost at the end, and he still hadn't found the Japanese fleet!

"Lower to an altitude of 3000 meters to search, I don't believe that I can't find the Japanese fleet!" Luo Jinming's bull strength came up, obviously the Japanese air fleet was in this direction, could it be that they all sank to the surface of the sea?

As soon as the group broke through the clouds, Luo Jinming and the other eleven pilots were taken aback. On the other hand, a huge fleet is sailing westward, and at the core of the fleet are the four huge fleet carriers. To Luo Jinming's surprise, the Japanese fleet did not deploy anti-aircraft patrol fighters on the periphery. What surprised Luo Jinming even more was that there were nearly 100 fighters in the sky above the Japanese fleet, of which at least 20 were "zero battles".

During the half-hour that Luo Jinming and his men were killing the Japanese fleet, except for the "Kaga," which was receiving the returning fighters, the second wave of bombers on the other three aircraft carriers were taking off one after another. At this time, the fighters carrying out the air defense mission of the fleet also returned home because they ran out of fuel and were preparing to land on the "Kaga," so there was a half-hour air defense gap over the Japanese First Air Fleet, and not a single air defense fighter was carrying out air defense patrol missions on the periphery of the fleet, so Luo Jinming and his men came to the skies over the Japanese fleet without any obstacles. If it weren't for Luo Jinming's timely order to lower the altitude and discover the Japanese fleet under the clouds, then he would probably have missed this huge fleet.

The "Zero Battle", which was in formation over the aircraft carrier, also immediately spotted the "Sparrowhawk" that had dived down, and almost at the same time, the anti-aircraft guns on the battleship escorting the aircraft carrier also opened fire. There was no time for Luo Jinming and other pilots to think, the only thing they could do was to dive down and take out a few fighters first, so that it would be easier for the bombers who followed up to break through the air defense network of the Japanese fleet. And Luo Jinming's wingman pilot, who was in charge of sending the report, also reported back the specific location of the Japanese First Air Force at this time.

Luo Jinming first shot down an oncoming "Zero Battle", and in the first round of fire exchange between the two sides, four climbing "Zero Battles" were beaten into the air, and the "Sparrowhawk" group led by Luo Jinming also lost two. Subsequently, the Sparrowhawk quickly got out of the fight, rose in altitude again, and prepared for a second round of dive attacks. After the Battle of Jeju Island, the Sparrowhawk's pilots were well aware that their only advantage was to take advantage of the Sparrowhawk's excellent dive performance over the Japanese "Zero Fight" dogfight.

The air battle was extremely fierce, and more than a dozen "Sparrowhawks" were soon driven out of the skies over the Japanese fleet by the "Zero Battle". At the same time, the "Kaga" aircraft carrier also began to release the "Zero Battle" that had just been replenished with fuel and ammunition, and the other three aircraft carriers quickly raised the fighters in the hangar to the flight deck in preparation for strengthening the fleet's air defense forces.

In the northwest direction of the Japanese First Air Force, the squadron of dive bombers and torpedo bombers led by Captain Qiu Gengbo and Captain Zhang Zhitao immediately pushed the throttle of their engines to the maximum power after receiving the enemy fleet information sent by Colonel Luo Jinming's wingman, and the two bomber squadrons immediately separated. The Kingfisher still maintained a flight altitude of 5,000 meters, while the Osprey began to accelerate downward. They were still about 15 minutes away from the Japanese fleet, and perhaps, Luo Jinming, they didn't hold out for 15 minutes at all.

The "Sparrowhawk" lags behind the "Zero Battle" in terms of overall performance, especially the three most important performances: maximum level flight speed, circling performance, and climbing performance, which are worse than the "Zero Battle". This was the biggest problem facing the Imperial Naval Aviation at that time. In terms of bombers, both the "Osprey" and the "Kingfisher" were better than the Japanese bombers, at least on par. Only the "Sparrowhawk" performed worse than the "Zero". It was not until the end of the second year of the war, when the Imperial Navy began to replace the Vulture fighters, that the Imperial Navy aircraft carrier fighters overwhelmed Japan in performance for the first time, and until the end of the war, the Imperial Navy had the best carrier-based fighters in the world.

Luo Jinming can be regarded as the best pilot, but in the five minutes of battle, his landline has been hit three times in a row. Fortunately, the body of the "Sparrowhawk" is indeed strong, unlike the "Zero Battle", which is prone to fire and burn as soon as it is hit. Otherwise, Luo Jinming would have lost his life a long time ago. This is perhaps the most positive point in the performance of the Sparrowhawk. The other pilots, though, weren't so lucky. Even if the "Sparrowhawk" preemptively occupies the height advantage, but they only have one chance to dive and attack, as long as they fall below the "Zero Battle", then the result is quite bleak, and it is difficult for ordinary pilots to escape the attack of the "Zero Battle" in this situation.

After Luo Jinming made the third dive, there were only two "Sparrowhawks" left in the sky. Luo Jinming didn't dare to climb again, and the attention of "Zero Battle" was focused on his captain's plane, and those Japanese pilots must have learned about the insignia of the Tang Imperial Navy's fighter unit, and the captain's logo next to his cabin, as well as several crash marks, became hormones that stimulated those Japanese pilots to fire at him.

"Keep up with me, don't climb!"

It was too late, and Luo Jinming's wingman adopted the wrong tactic and climbed at an altitude of less than 500 meters, which simply added to the results of those "zero battles" hovering overhead.

Hearing the screams of the wingman pilot when he was hit by a bullet in the headset, Luo Jinming gritted his teeth and lowered the altitude of the plane again. Since it cannot climb, it will take advantage of the sturdy (and also bulky) and good low-altitude control performance of the Sparrowhawk to withdraw from the battle at the altitude of the near sea surface. This is Luo Jinming's only chance. Because the fuselage of the "Zero Battle" is too light, at an altitude close to the sea surface (the air flow is also the most disordered and complex), its controllability is very bad, far inferior to the heavier "Sparrowhawk". More than a dozen "Zero Battles" quickly caught up, and then began to attack the last "Sparrowhawk".

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