When he received the news that Qiu Gengbo had severely damaged the two aircraft carriers of the US fleet, Tan Renhao was not the slightest excited, because heavy damage does not mean sinking, and he was well aware of the US Navy's ability to repair ships, and if the two aircraft carriers could return to Pearl Harbor, then they would be back in combat effectiveness in a few months. He didn't want to send bombers to deal with these two aircraft carriers in a few months, what he needed was to sink these two aircraft carriers completely!

Initially, Tan Renhao didn't have much hope for the bombers of the Fourth Task Force, especially after knowing that Huang Xiaotian had only sent half of the bombers, he almost sent a telegram asking Huang Xiao and Tian to send the other half of the bombers immediately. The reason is very simple, the most important thing is to kill the two US fleet aircraft carriers, and the threat of those three small aircraft carriers is not great, and we must not miss the opportunity to sink the fleet aircraft carriers because we want to leave our strength to kill those three small aircraft carriers!

Tan Renhao's suspicions are not unreasonable; the Fourth Air Wing is the latest carrier-based aircraft aviation wing to be established, and although its backbone force has been transferred from the First Air Wing and the Second Air Wing, most of them are officers at the level of squad leader, and almost all the other pilots were assigned to Xinnen of the HNA only a few months ago, and their combat effectiveness is far inferior to that of the First Air Wing, which has been tested by war for a long time. Tan Renhao used more than 6o bombers to severely damage these two aircraft carriers, and the more than 6o bombers sent by Huang Xiaotian were able to finally sink these two aircraft carriers that are famous for their survivability? You know, in the "Second Battle of Wake Island", the other two "Essex" class aircraft carriers were sunk after receiving more than a dozen bombs and torpedoes!

In order to ensure that the two US fleet aircraft carriers could not escape back, Tan Renhao ordered the Qiu Gengbo aircraft group to return to the fleet immediately and prepare to replenish ammunition and go out again (because of the short combat radius, these bombers did not even need to be refueled). In addition, he asked Ellsler to lead a few fighters to stay over the U.S. fleet to determine whether the bombers sent by Task Force 4 had sunk the two aircraft carriers and whether it was necessary for him to arrange another supplementary bombing.

At 8:25 a.m., Ellsler made the first "commentary" on the front-line battle situation, and both aircraft carriers were hit by multiple mines again. And it's only one step away from being finished. At this time, Tan Renhao breathed a sigh of relief, even if the bombers couldn't kill the US aircraft carriers, he could let the fleet catch up and kill the two aircraft carriers with the cruiser's guns and the destroyer's torpedoes. At 8:35 a.m., just as the group of Qiu Gengbo planes returned to the sky above the fleet, Ellsler sent back the news again.

The "Valian" has been seriously tilted to the left and will definitely be finished, and the ammunition depot on the "Hornet" should have been bombed, and it is not far from the end.

"Let the bomber land now?" Hao Dongjue didn't seem to be too excited, at least the two aircraft carriers hadn't sunk immediately, and it was necessary to arrange supplementary bombing.

Tan Renhao was a little hesitant at this time, as early as more than half an hour ago, he received the news that a group of bombers sent by the US fleet had already hit the road, but the problem was. Why haven't these bombers appeared yet? Don't. All headed for Task Force 4? This was obviously impossible, Task Force 1 was closest to the American Fleet, and Halsey had enough time to arrange a group of bombers to deal with Task Force 4. Then the bombers that came out when the bombers of the 1st Task Force arrived should have come to deal with the 1st Task Force! So, where are these bombers?

If the bombers are allowed to land at this time, the aircraft carrier will have to break out of formation, and it is very likely that it will be suddenly attacked by US bombers.

After only thinking for half a minute, Tan Renhao made a decision. "Let Qiu Gengbo and them hover for another half hour, and in addition, arrange all the returning escort fighters around the aircraft carrier. The U.S. military ground bomber group may be looking for us nearby, and the bombers cannot be allowed to land now. ”

"However, those two aircraft carriers ......"

"We still have a chance, even if the bombers sent by Huang Xiaotian didn't sink those two aircraft carriers. We can also catch up in a few hours and finish them off with escort warships! Tan Renhao glanced at his partner, "The most important thing is to save yourself now, I hope that Annsler and they will begin to disperse the group of American bombers, so that they cannot organize and attack." If it arrives in batches, then we have a much better chance of carrying it! ”

The escort fighters led by Ellsler did disperse the second group of US bombers, that is, the group of bombers that came to deal with the First Task Force, and in the melee, the leader of these bombers was shot down. Two more squadron leaders' planes were shot down. As a result, the remaining squad leaders, as well as the ordinary pilots, lost their direction, they simply did not know how to organize to attack the 1st Task Force, and the ordinary pilots did not even know the specific location of the 1st Task Force, only a few squad leaders led the bombers they contacted to fly towards the general direction of the 1st Task Force.

Task Force 1 has been heading northeast since the bomber group was released.

Tan Renhao's judgment is very accurate, Halsey's bombers are flying from the southeast, and bad weather will reduce the probability of the bombers in the current fleet (in fact, after the reconnaissance planes have formed the fleet, because the fleet is in motion, so before the bombers arrive, the fleet will continue to sail, so after the bombers arrive, it is necessary to search for traces of the enemy fleet within a relatively wide range, and it is almost impossible for the enemy fleet to stay in the sea area where the reconnaissance planes appear. This is also the main reason why when calculating the strike radius of bombers, it is necessary to set aside a large part of the remaining range), and the fleet sailing in the southwest or northeast direction is most likely to avoid American bombers. If you sail southwest, you will rush directly to the island of Santa Isabel, which has not yet been captured. The fleet sails northeast with the highest safety.

And in this almost an hour, the 1st Task Force has sailed 3o nautical miles to the northeast. At that time, US bombers flying below the clouds could only appear as warships within two nautical miles of the side, and at a distance of 3o nautical miles, at least seven bombers were required to fly sideways in this direction. The largest formation of the scattered US bomber group was only six bombers. In other words, whether the US bombers can find the First Task Force depends entirely on luck.

Luck isn't exactly on Renhao's side. At 8:38 a.m., just after he had decided to let the bombers piloted by Qiu Gengbo and the others hover for half an hour, the radars on the two cruisers in the fleet simultaneously showed a small group of bombers approaching in the southwest direction. Eight fighters, who had already returned to the fleet, immediately rushed over there, and even Qiu Gengbo and others rushed over in bombers.

That's six U.S. bombers. And these bombers are flying under the clouds, and the radar is now at a distance of no more than 5 nautical miles. By the time the fighters arrived, the American pilots had already appeared in front of the fleet (in fact, the two destroyers behind the fleet). Then.

The leader of the captain plane came out with the news, summoning all the bombers operating in the vicinity to immediately concentrate in this direction. Now, Task Force 1 is in trouble.

All six U.S. bombers were shot down within five minutes, but within five minutes, three groups of planes had already been killed at Task Force No. 1. At this time, there were only more than a dozen fighters in the sky over the First Task Force, and it was simply impossible to intercept the fighters from the northeast and southeast in time. As well as three groups of American bombers in the north-western direction. Among them, the four sBds flying from the northwest were not intercepted by fighters at all, and very "smoothly" entered the inner air defense network of the fleet.

The problem that Halsey had faced came to Tan Renhao, and the four sBds burrowed into the clouds immediately after the appearance of Task Force 1, and flew out only once every half a minute to determine if they were heading correctly. The 12o mm anti-aircraft guns on the ground on the battleship are already difficult to keep up with the bomber's ground speed at this distance, and the 4o mm and 2o mm anti-aircraft guns without radar guidance are difficult to deal with the bomber in the clouds!

The minimum dive drop altitude of the BD is more than 5oo meters, and these dive bombers are still not capable of dive dropping. And the four US pilots are all novices, and they have no idea that they can still slide and drop bombs. When they emerged from the clouds about 1 nautical mile away from the "Xingkaihu" aircraft carrier, they immediately lowered their altitude and prepared to carry out low-altitude horizontal bombing.

Unlike the large fleet aircraft carrier formation of the 31st Task Force. Task Force 1 has extremely strong anti-aircraft firepower. 2 nautical miles northwest of the "Xingkai Lake", "Li Jing"

All the small-caliber anti-aircraft guns on the ship were on standby, and the anti-aircraft fire on the "Xingkai Lake" was even more powerful than that of the American fleet carriers. The assault of the four sBds was actually sending them to death. The quality of the ground air defense gunners in the Tang Imperial fleet far exceeded that of their counterparts in the American fleet!

All four sBd were shot down before the bomb was dropped. Seeing the sBd that crashed on the sea surface more than 3oo meters outside the port side of the aircraft carrier, Tan Renhao was so nervous that he almost ran out of breath. The bomber was hit at the last moment by shells from several 2o mm machine guns before the bomb was dropped, and one of the shells hit under the cockpit, and the pilot was killed instantly, otherwise the 16o pound bomb hanging from the bomber's belly would have been smashed down.

Tan Renhao wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled at Hao Dongjue. At this time, the US bombers killing in the other two directions were intercepted by fighters. It seems that not many American bombers arrived.

"Commander, look, behind starboard!"

When the nautical staff shouted. Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue had already rushed to the porthole on the right, and then looked behind the starboard side of the battleship. On the sea, dozens of bombers are approaching, and there are escort fighters! The two were startled at first, and at first thought that they were bombers from the Fourth Task Force that had returned home, but soon, the air defense fighters flying away fought with the fighters in the group, and it was obvious that they were not bombers from the Fourth Task Force. It's the bombers of the US military!

"Small aircraft carrier!" Hao Dongjue made a judgment first.

"There are so many coming, it must be the shore-based bombers of the US military!" Tan Renhao immediately vetoed Hao Dongjue's judgment, at this time he had already thought that the US military still had more than 200 shore-based tactical bombers on the nearby islands, and this time it must be the shore-based tactical bombers of the US army!

Tan Renhao's judgment was not wrong, at that time, only two small fleet aircraft carriers participated in the battle, and only 2o sBd could actually be used on these two aircraft carriers, and the others were all fighters. And in the US aircraft group that came this time, in addition to sBd, there are TBd with torpedoes and a large number of escort fighters, and the total number of US fighters in the group is about 8o, obviously, it is impossible for those two small aircraft carriers to send so many bombers.

The bombers came from the island of Makila. Their original mission was to bomb Task Force 3, and before that, a group of bombers had already flown towards Task Force 3. Before the bombers took off, the commander of the U.S. Air Force on Makila Island intercepted Halsey's telegram to the small aircraft carrier group, confirming that Task Force 31 had been attacked, and also learned the location of the two aircraft carrier task forces of the Tang Empire. Although it is a little too far to bomb Task Force 4, it is still fully capable of dealing with Task Force 1, which is close at hand.

Comparatively speaking, the fleet carrier in Task Force 1 was certainly much more attractive than the four dying battleships in Task Force 3, at least the commander of the U.S. Naval Air Force was sure of that. Anyway, there is already a group of bombers to deal with the third task force, so sending the second batch of bombers to attack the first task force is likely to receive the greatest results. Thus, while Halsey was battling the brutal blows of the 1st Task Force bomber group, the bombers took off urgently from two U.S. field airfields on Makila Island. At this time, Task Force 1 was only 15o nautical miles from Makila Island, and these American bombers could arrive within forty-five minutes.

At 8:35 a.m., the leader of the bombers arrived at the sea where the First Task Force had been found, but they were not able to find the First Task Force immediately. Just as the bombers scattered to search for the First Task Force, the leader received the news from the carrier-based bomber, and then, dozens of bombers and escort fighters were immediately concentrated and killed by the First Task Force in the northeast direction. The distance of 3o nautical miles is only 1o minutes for these bombers.