Seeing the smoke rising from the aircraft carrier, Lei Shaoqing tried his best to maintain his composure. The damage management team has been dispatched and is trying to control the fire, while the aircraft carrier, which had been in vigorous exercise before, is starting to slow down. Thanks to the excellent design of the aircraft carrier, the 1,000-pound aviation armor-piercing projectile only penetrated the armored flight deck of the aircraft carrier, and then exploded in the No. 3 hangar below, and the shock wave destroyed the second half of the flight deck, leaving a large hole in the flight deck with a diameter of about five meters, and the surrounding steel plates were curled upwards, and black smoke came out of it. Because the power system of the aircraft carrier suffered little damage, after being shot, the aircraft carrier also managed to dodge five torpedoes, and all of the TD's attacks failed.

The surrounding escort warships are preparing to approach and provide help to the aircraft carrier, and the damage management personnel on the aircraft carrier are also quickly rescuing the aircraft carrier. If the fire spreads, it will threaten the ammunition depot and fuel depot of the aircraft carrier, and the fire must first be controlled and the fire extinguished before repairing the damaged parts of the aircraft carrier.

"The fire is under control and it will take half an hour to clean up the scene and extinguish the remaining fires." Chang Jianxin quickly figured out the situation, "The flight deck can only use the first half to recover the fighters, and the front two hangars have not been affected, but we can only use the recovery net." ”

A recovery net is a type of backup landing equipment on an aircraft carrier. Under normal circumstances, fighters use the landing hook at the tail of the aircraft to hang the arresting cable on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier, so that the fighter can land on the aircraft carrier, and in some special cases. For example, when the fighter is damaged and the landing hook cannot be lowered, or the pilot is injured and cannot guarantee that the landing hook will be hung on the arresting cable, it is necessary to use the recovery net set up in the middle of the flight deck. A recycling net is actually a large, sturdy net, usually woven with high-strength fibers, much like a fishing net. It's just much stronger. The fighter plane crashed directly into the recovery net during landing, and then slowed down. This is only used in an emergency. Moreover, the recycling network can only recover a few fighters at most, which is difficult to use on a large scale.

"When will the bomber group return? How long will our fighters last? Lei Shaoqing sighed, he didn't ask the damage management team, but he could see from the ship island that the huge hole on the flight deck was probably not repaired at sea, and more than a dozen blocking cables were blown up, and it was also very troublesome to replace the blocking cables (under the local circumstances. It is difficult to replace the arresting cables on the aircraft carrier at sea, so the aircraft carrier at that time generally set up more than a dozen arresting cables).

"There are still 20 minutes left, and I have arranged for them to land on the 'Lake Bell' aircraft carrier as much as possible, and if the aircraft carrier cannot be put down, they will first receive the injured bombers, abandon the bombers that cannot be repaired, and focus on ensuring that the pilots can return home safely." Chang Jianxin looked at his watch, "The fuel of the fighter will probably last until about nine o'clock." But it's also impossible to say, the previous air battles consumed a lot of fuel. Are we not letting part of the bombers ......"

"Lao Chang, don't you think there's a problem?" Lei Shaoqing's mind suddenly flashed, and he recalled the scene in the "Second Battle of the Marianas", when he was attacked when he was recovering the ground bomber group of the First Task Force, and the Second Task Force lost two aircraft carriers. It was almost wiped out.

"You mean ......"

"The U.S. military has only a few dozen bombers, isn't that too little?" Lei Shaoqing glanced at Chang Jianxin, "Spruance has at least four aircraft carriers in his hands, and he has already discovered that we have two aircraft carriers, so he doesn't have any use for it, and only uses the bombers on one aircraft carrier, right?" ”

Chang Jianxin nodded slightly, and said: "Spruance's four aircraft carriers are organized into two task forces, if ......"

"Yes, that's it!" Lei Shaoqing reacted violently, "Immediately order, the fleet will return to air defense." Fighters were all patrolling the perimeter. The emergency repair of the aircraft carrier was stopped, and all personnel entered their positions. And also. Contact Zhang Naiding and Deng Zichao and them, try to return to the 'Bear Lake' aircraft carrier, and if they can't land, they will make a forced landing on the sea and let the destroyer salvage them. Also, the USS Lake Bell aircraft carrier battle group withdrew from the battle at full speed, leave us alone. ”

Chang Jianxin did not hesitate to give the order, the battle alarm sounded again, the escort warships that were still approaching the "Hulun Lake" began to evacuate to the periphery, and the fighters that had entered the inner air defense circle of the fleet before began to accelerate the expansion of the fleet's air defense interception range. Soon the "Bell Lake" also sent a telegram, and they were still retreating south at full speed, and were ready to receive the returning bombers.

Lei Shaoqing glanced at his watch at this time, it was already 8:50, and the first wave of US bombers had been defeated for twenty-five minutes, so where was the other group of US bombers? He looked into the sky to the north of the fleet, and soon, about twenty nautical miles from the fleet, a dense group of small black dots appeared. When Lei Shaoqing reacted, the air defense alarm in the fleet also sounded, and the second batch of bombers of the US army finally arrived.

The U.S. commander who led the bomber group of Task Force 52 did not know that the bomber group of Task Force 51 had been completely wiped out (the bombers that had dropped bombs and torpedoes and escaped were also intercepted by fighters, and none of them slipped away, and the destroyers of Task Force 2 had picked up dozens of U.S. pilots). When he saw only one smoking aircraft carrier on the surface of the sea, and a large number of escort warships, he thought that the other aircraft carrier had been blown and sunk. Obviously, the US commander regarded all the cruisers that remained behind to cover the "Hulun Lake" as escort warships in another aircraft carrier battle group.

This time, the interception range of the fleet air defense fighters was only 20 nautical miles, while the killing range of the fleet air defense artillery was almost 8 nautical miles, and the fighters could only operate at a range of 12 nautical miles, and the interception time was less than five minutes. The battle was still very fierce, and most of the air defense fighters did not have much ammunition and fuel left, but in front of the American bombers and escort fighters, these "falcons" did not retreat. Their mission is to protect the aircraft carrier, and every fighter pilot who is integrated into the aircraft carrier's fighter unit is told that when the aircraft carrier is threatened, even if he sacrifices himself, he must ensure the safety of the aircraft carrier and must not hesitate at all.

More than 20 "Falcons" and more than 20 "pirates" fought together, and both sides were desperate. The American pilots were also excited, there was only one aircraft carrier left. Moreover, it is also an aircraft carrier that has been injured and is accelerating (when the US bombers arrived, in order to control the fire on the aircraft carrier, the ground speed of the "Hulun Lake" aircraft carrier had been reduced to 18 knots, and the aircraft carrier accelerated from 18 knots to 33 knots, which took at least five minutes), and it took at least five minutes to kill this aircraft carrier. And they won. Of course, none of these American pilots realized that where were the bombers of Task Force 51 flying in front of them. If the bombers had run out of ammunition, they should have turned back, and on the way they should have encountered them, but they did not encounter the bombers of Task Force 51 (the scattered escort fighters were retreating from different directions, and they had already retreated long before the bomber group was *lost). At this time, I am afraid that not a single US military pilot is thinking about this issue. All they saw was the dying aircraft carrier.

This time, when the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns on the battleship roared, the "Falcon" did not withdraw from the battle, and in the previous interception, they shot down less than 10 American bombers, and in the American fleet, there were a total of 66 bombers. There are still more than 50 US bombers continuing to advance, and no matter how brave the anti-aircraft artillery on the battleship is, it is impossible to block the attack of more than 50 bombers!

The battle was extremely fierce, the VT shell could not identify the enemy target, and after the shell left the muzzle, the electromagnetic proximity fuse was activated, and it exploded as soon as it got close to the metal object. The shells mainly rely on the ground fragments generated by the explosion to kill the target, and in order to enhance the effect, each 120-mm shell also contains more than 500 steel balls weighing 5 grams, which are spilled. Not only capable of destroying aircraft. It is also capable of taking out pilots in airplanes (VT bombs have earned them the title of "Pilot Killer"). In the air defense of the fleet, the gunners on the battleship could not distinguish between the enemy and the enemy. And even if it is distinguished, in the heat of battle, who can control the shells to hit only enemy planes, and not at their own planes?

The "Falcon" is desperately intercepting US fighters, and US bombers are desperately breaking through the firepower network composed of anti-aircraft artillery fire and fighter planes. This time, the US pilots were not "disappointed", and they also learned the power of VT bombs. In the distance of 8 nautical miles to 3 nautical miles, the bomber only needs about 2 minutes to fly, and within 2 minutes, a 120 mm anti-aircraft gun can fire at least 40 shells against at least four targets, and at that time, the second task force participated in the battle on the battleship with a total of 184 120 mm anti-aircraft guns, of which sixty percent can fight (the other four percent are in the direction of the US bombers and cannot be used), that is, there are about more than 100 120 mm anti-aircraft guns in combat, At least 4,000 shells can be fired within 2 minutes, and during the entire war, an average of 100 rounds of 120 mm VT shells can shoot down an enemy aircraft (this efficiency is already quite high, before the advent of VT shells, 1,000 rounds of 120 mm shells may not be able to shoot down an enemy aircraft), the initial efficiency of VT shells is not so high, but 150 to 200 rounds of artillery shells can still kill an enemy aircraft, that is, before the US military enters the inner defense circle of the fleet, Nearly 30 bombers were knocked down by 120-mm anti-aircraft guns.

The outcome of any battle cannot be calculated statistically, after all, there is a chance in battle, and this chance is also important. However, the results of the entire war can be calculated statistically, and the actual combat effect does not deviate much from the statistically calculated results. This time was no exception, when the US bombers broke through the fleet's outer artillery fire and air defense network, 27 bombers were beaten down, and after the war, the air defense warships of the second task force fired a total of more than 4,200 VT shells in this battle, that is to say, an average of about 155 VT shells shot down a US fighter plane. This result is very close to the average result of post-war statistics.

There were 23 US bombers that broke through the anti-aircraft fire network organized by fighters and large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, and at this time most of the warships in the fleet were still returning to their positions in formation, and there were several huge loopholes in the fire network organized by 80-mm anti-aircraft guns and other small-caliber anti-aircraft guns. The US pilots also quickly discovered these loopholes, and those who were able to break through the first two levels were the best pilots in the US military, many of whom had participated in previous battles, and even a group of veteran pilots during the "Philippine Naval Battle."

Of the 23 bombers, there are 14 SD, 9 TD. The two types of bombers were still divided into two ways, the SD penetrated from a high altitude and attracted most of the anti-aircraft fire, and the TD attacked from a low altitude and seized the loophole to drop torpedoes.

Lei Shaoqing witnessed the "performance" of US military pilots on the flagship, and he was surprised by the growth rate of US military pilots. It was only two years after the outbreak of the war that the quality of the pilots of the Tang Empire improved significantly, and the backbone pilots were all real trump cards. It has only been one year since the United States entered the war, and the quality of its pilots has improved so much that even Lei Shaoqing has to admire the ability of the United States to train pilots.

The anti-aircraft guns on the battleship were roaring, and the gunners, who had no idea about the danger of overheating the barrel and possibly bore, fired the shells as much as possible, which always had a little effect. This was also the most tragic stage of the naval battle, and the US bombing only needed to break through the last layer of air defense net before dropping bombs and torpedoes on the aircraft carrier. It was also the most life-and-death moment in naval warfare, and it was clear to the officers and men on both sides that they were only one step away from victory or defeat.

When the aircraft carrier was maneuvering violently to avoid the bombers that were diving down from overhead, Lei Shaoqing tightly grasped the handrail next to him, he couldn't play any role at this time, the aircraft carrier had been handed over to the captain under command, and he could only pin his hopes on the captain and the officers and men on the battleship, whether they avoided the bombing of the US military, or were bombed and ate torpedoes, it depended on the performance of these officers and men.

The screaming sound when the bomb fell, Lei Shaoqing subconsciously wanted to squat down, but in the end he held back, the first bomb exploded under the sea surface outside the port side of the aircraft carrier, and then the second bomb fell on the track behind the aircraft carrier's buttocks, and then the aircraft carrier shook violently, before the violent vibration of the explosion and the sound of the explosion came, Lei Shaoqing knew that the aircraft carrier was shot.