When receiving the first task force, Lei Shaoqing and Chang Jianxin both hesitated. They are not doubting Tan Renhao's judgment, but they have their own difficulties!

If Tan Renhao's judgment is correct, then the second task force is now about 3oo to 36o nautical miles away from the 16th US task force! If you calculate at an average distance of 33 nautical miles, this is already beyond the limit strike range of carrier-based bombers. Even if it is 3oo nautical miles, but the error of 8o nautical miles horizontally, even if the radius of 4o nautical miles is searched, the bombers have used up half of the fuel before finding the American fleet, and it is impossible to return at all, and it is impossible to land on the island (this sea area is more than 5oo nautical miles away from the nearest island airfield) In other words, if you attack now, then all the bombers will have no return, and if the aircraft carrier loses its bombers, it is not as good as even a destroyer!

"The fleet better turn, and in an hour we send bombers."

Chang Jianxin marked a new route on the chart, "And our reconnaissance plane will be able to reach this sea area in forty minutes, maybe the chance of the current US fleet is not high, but there is always a chance, if the reconnaissance plane does not come to the news, we will send bombers according to the information provided by Ren Hao!" ”

Lei Shaoqing nodded slightly. "Now, do you want to send fighter planes to support Task Force 1?"

At this moment, Chang Jianxin was silent, and he glanced at the contents of the telegram. The telegram mentions only the fact that Task Force 1 was attacked by American Task Force bombers and the approximate location of the American Task Force, but does not mention how many bombers were attacking Task Force 1. Obviously, it is impossible to intercept the first wave of American bombers by sending fighters in the past. But it is very likely that the US task force sent a second wave of bombers, and the second wave of bombers will generally arrive an hour to an hour and a half late (of course, if it is dispatched continuously, it will be different) If the second task force sends fighters at this time, it is very promising to help the first task force intercept the second wave of American bombers!

"It should be done. We can't watch Task Force 1 finish! ”

Chang Jianxin said as he looked at Lei Shaoqing, and the person who made the decision should be Lei Shaoqing.

"Commander, Chief of Staff, what should we not do!"

Lei Shaoqing and Chang Jianxin were both taken aback, and then looked at the lieutenant colonel named Huang Xiaotian. Huang Xiaotian is now the combat staff officer of the Second Task Force, and he was introduced by Hao Dongjue. Previously, he was an ordinary staff officer in the First Task Force (when Tan Renhao was still the commander). The main thing is to follow Hao Dongjue to be in charge of aviation operations. After Tan Renhao left the First Task Force, Hao Dongjue recommended him to the newly established Second Task Force and served as a senior staff officer in the Second Task Force Aviation Operations Staff. During the "First Battle of the Marianas", his superior, the previous aviation combat staff officer of the fleet, was wounded, and he was promoted to the post of aviation combat staff officer. It can be said that in the aircraft carrier task force, the status of the aviation combat staff officer is equivalent to that of the previous combat staff officer, and it is only below the fleet commander and chief of staff. In general, the combat staff officer of aviation is with the rank of colonel. But Huang Xiaotian is only a lieutenant colonel, not a colonel, because of his short length of service, and several promotions were obtained because of the departure of his boss (the most important thing in the promotion of military rank is combat merits).

"Lieutenant Colonel, what do you mean by that? Can we see death without salvation? ”

Chang Jiexin immediately glared at Huang Xiaotian. Although Chang Jianxin is the chief of staff of the fleet, to put it bluntly, he is the most senior staff officer in the fleet, and his essence is a staff officer, not a commander. Therefore, Chang Jiexin definitely does not want anyone to affect his relationship with the commander, even if the commander is his good brother.

Lei Shaoqing pressed his hand, blocking the middle between Chang Jianxin and Huang Xiaotian, and then said to the lieutenant colonel's staff officer: "Give me a reason." I'll take your advice! ”

"Commander, there is more than one reason!"

Huang Xiaotian blushed and looked a little excited, "First, this combat mission itself is very likely to sacrifice the First Task Force. Second, our mission is to take out Task Force 16, and if we send fighters, it will not only expose our presence, but also disperse the limited number of fighters in the fleet. Third, General Tan did not mention the size of the American bomber group in the telegram, and he certainly did not want us to be distracted and wanted us to concentrate our forces on attacking the 16th Task Force. Finally, and most importantly, we must accomplish this task, and if we miss the sacrifice of annihilating Task Force 1 in order to support Task Force 1, it will be in vain and meaningless. ”

Lei Shaoqing and Chang Jianxin glanced at each other, these reasons have enough weight, but can they see Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue being bombed, and they will not be saved when they die?

"Commander, Chief of Staff......"

Huang Xiaotian hesitated for a moment, and then said firmly, "General Tan, they are sure that the auspicious celestial phenomena will never be fine, now we should immediately organize an attack and send out the bomber group!" ”

"But the distance is too far for our bombers to return at all!"

Chang Jiexin immediately became excited.

"Then there is no need to return home, let the pilots focus on the predetermined sea area to parachute, and we will send seaplanes to the rescue. In addition, the situation may change! ”

Lei Shaoqing frowned slightly and asked, "What do you mean by this?" ”

"Commander, I don't think the U.S. Task Force 16 is that far away from us!"

Huang Xiaotian quickly drew several arcs on the chart. "I have carefully read the telegrams from General Tan, and judging from these telegrams from General Tan, they judged the back of the 17th Task Force, which was the basis of the whole judgment. Now that Task Force 1 has been bombed, there is no doubt that Task Force 16 is somewhere to the south. ”

"Yes, we think so, but it's far away."

"Maybe a few hours ago it was, but not now."

Huang Xiaotianyou drew a straight line on the chart, "The commander of the American task force quickly found the first task force, maybe not to find it, but to be blinded, because their bombers flew from the east, so the route of the bombers was not directly directed to the first task force." Since the other side dared to send bombers without knowing the location of Task Force 1 in definitively, they would certainly guess that we were behind Task Force 1. If he could, he would definitely send reconnaissance planes, and estimated that the distance between us was that Task Force 16 would have to go north, otherwise their bombers would not be able to fly. If Task Force 16 had gone north three hours, or even two hours ago, they would have been within our range by now! ”

Lei Shaoqing and Chang Jianxin both hesitated, this analysis has some truth, but there is no evidence to support it. Do they have to rely on the analysis of a lieutenant colonel staff officer to make a decisive judgment on victory or defeat?

Huang Xiaotian also fell silent, his previous performance in the fleet was not outstanding. When Tan Renhao commanded the First Task Force Fleet, he followed Hao Dongjue, and most of the knowledge of aviation operations was learned from Hao Dongjue, but in the same way, Hao Dongjue's light overshadowed him, so that he never had a chance to perform. The Second Task Force finally arrived at the Second Task Force, but as a result, the Second Task Force did not have several actual combat operations against the sea. As early as the "Battle of the Philippines," he judged that the US aircraft carrier was operating in the central waters of the Mariana Islands. However, at that time, the 2nd Task Force was subject to the orders of the Navy Command. If you don't dare to get too close to the central waters of the Mariana Islands, you missed this opportunity. When it came to the "First Battle of the Marianas", Huang Xiaotian once reminded Chang Jianxin. It is possible that the American fleet appeared to the east of them (actually the northeast, but the deviation was not very large), but at that time, the fleet had to rush south, so Huang Xiaotian's opinion did not attract attention (he was not an aviation combat staff officer at that time, and his voice was not too strong) "Maybe the lieutenant colonel's words make sense!" ”

Lei Shaoqing broke the silence first, "Lieutenant Colonel, when will our bombers be able to come out?" ”

"Within ten minutes, the bomber will be ready to take off!"

Seeing that the commander had adopted his opinion, Huang Xiaotian immediately became excited.

"Prepare to go out, arrange the bombing mission according to General Tan Renhao's wishes!"

Lei Shaoqing nodded. At the same time, he sighed, "Lieutenant Colonel, it's up to you this time!" ”

It took Huang Xiaotian only five minutes to complete the pre-departure briefing. There were only two main contents for the pilots to listen to the briefing before they went out. The first is the situation of the enemy fleet, that is, the size of the enemy fleet, how many aircraft carriers there are, how many escort warships, which aircraft carriers are mainly attacked, and which battleship is the target of each bomber unit (generally a squad or a group as the basic unit). The secondary target is which battleship, and the third target is which battleship (generally there are only three targets, and the pilot can't remember if there are more) In this way, repeated bombing can be avoided and the power of the limited ammunition that can be delivered can be used to the maximum. In fact, this work has been assigned a long time ago, and the situation of the three aircraft carriers of the 16th task force, as well as the size of the escort warships, has long been told to the pilots. The second is the flight route, the sea area where the enemy fleet may appear. This is the basic information that guides the bombers forward, and it is even more important than the size of the enemy fleet. Huang Xiaotian only needed to introduce the situation, and it didn't take more than a few minutes at all (if the situation was urgent, you could even let the bomber take off first, and then tell the situation to the several pilots who led the team by radio) At 2:20 (the pilot was still listening to the briefing at this time) The first bomber was towed to the catapult, and two minutes later, the pilot came to the flight deck, and at 25 minutes, the first "Kingfisher" left the flight deck of the "Yellow River" aircraft carrier, and within ten minutes, two "Kingfishers" on the three aircraft carriers The dive bomber squad (the "Pearl River" sent only one squad) all rose into the air. At thirty-six minutes, the first "Osprey" left the flight deck of the "Huaihe". At 48 minutes, the "Falcon" fighters escorting the bombers also began to take off in 6 consecutive flights. The group left the skies over the fleet at about 3:10 a.m. and began to fly in a direction of about 15 degrees east-south.

Seeing the group leaving, Lei Shaoqing let out a sigh, if this attack can be successful, it will be even better, if it can't succeed, there are still two-thirds of the bombers on the "Pearl River" that have not taken off, and one-third of the bombers on the other two aircraft carriers have not yet been dispatched, and the fleet can also organize a second wave of bombers!

"Commander, enemy aircraft, enemy reconnaissance aircraft!"

The air defense sirens sounded almost at the same time as the shouts of the staff officers, and when Lei Shaoqing rushed to the porthole and looked up at the sky, the US reconnaissance plane had already fallen to the sea with its tail smoke in tow.

"Enemy planes are coming from the north-west, and our fighters are patrolling in the south-east, so ......"

"It must be a returning US military reconnaissance plane!"

Huang Xiaotian immediately grabbed the topic, "We have been sailing eastward, and the enemy plane flew over this sea area before the fleet arrived, and now it is returning home, flying right above us. The maximum reconnaissance radius of the US reconnaissance aircraft is within 3oo nautical miles of us from the 16th task force! ”

Lei Shaoqing nodded, he also thought of this. "Did the enemy plane send a telegram?"

The staff officer in charge of radio monitoring nodded with an ugly face, the US military reconnaissance plane had already emitted a radio signal when it was shot down!

"Commander, now that the U.S. military is in our position, we should immediately send other bombers!"

Huang Xiaotian's expression was very firm, "Immediately organize a second wave of bombing, don't give the enemy any chance, attack before the enemy, so that we can do our best to kill the 16th Task Force!" ”

Lei Shaoqing glanced at Chang Jianxin, now the news of the reconnaissance plane has not returned, he left some bombers just in case, if the enemy fleet is not in the sea area judged before, what will the fleet use to counterattack at that time?

Chang Jianxin is also a little hesitant, this is a desperate way of playing, maybe Tan Renhao will make a decision immediately, but they are not commanders like Tan Renhao!

"Commander, we can't afford to delay any longer!"

Huang Xiaotian was so anxious that he was about to jump up.

"The reconnaissance plane should have news in ten minutes, and it won't be a problem for us to wait another ten minutes, right?"

Chang Jianxin made a completely different opinion.

Lei Shaoqing nodded slightly, he also preferred the latter, and if he waited for ten more minutes, he might have one more chance to choose!