In the ocean east of Ryukyu Island, Nagumo Kazutada is also in a dilemma on his flagship "Akagi". Previously, he received a request from the Ryukyu Island garrison and sent more than 20 "Zero Battles" to support the Ryukyu Island. At the same time, it also proves that near the Ryukyu Island, there is an aircraft carrier fleet of the Tang Empire that is active, and the size of this fleet will not be very small, maybe the three aircraft carriers of the Tang Empire are among them, otherwise, it is impossible to launch two waves of attacks in a row, with almost no interval in between. However, the question is, where is the aircraft carrier fleet of the Tang Empire?

Fifteen minutes ago, the fleet received a telegram from a submarine. However, the contents of this telegram were incomplete, and then the communication was interrupted. Obviously, the submarine was attacked by an anti-submarine destroyer and had to be urgently dived in order to avoid the destroyer's strike. But the problem is that the telegram does not say at all whether it is an ordinary fleet or a fleet with aircraft carriers!

In fact, Nagumo Kazutada did not know that five minutes earlier, another telegram had been delivered to the base of the anti-submarine patrol aircraft of Zodo. It was from here that the downed seaplane took off, tasked with patrolling the western side of the Ryukyu Islands in search of submarines of the Don Empire. However, the plane found not the submarines of the Don Empire, but a huge fleet with three aircraft carriers, a battleship (the pilots took the tall "Li Jing" for a battleship), and several heavy cruisers. The pilot on the seaplane had already sent out the full telegram before he was killed by the Sparrowhawk. However, the problem lies here, the anti-submarine patrol aircraft unit still uses the old code, and the 1st Air Fleet of Nagumo Yizhong has been replaced with a new code. The 1st Air Fleet did not receive this telegram. And after receiving the telegram, they could not contact the First Air Fleet, and they did not even know that the First Air Fleet was already east of the Ryukyu Island. As a result, this extremely important intelligence was first sent to Shimizu's anti-submarine aviation command, then to the Combined Fleet Command, and finally to Nagumo Kazutada's 1st Air Fleet. The whole process took a full half an hour, and this half an hour was enough to decide the final victory or defeat of this naval battle.

"Yaga! Why is it half an hour late? Minoru Genda's hand holding the telegram was trembling slightly, and he immediately ran to Nagumo Yizhong's side, "Commander, it has been determined that the aircraft carrier fleet of the Tang Empire has been discovered, this is the specific location!" ”

Almost at the same time, another staff officer sent new information that the radio mapping device of the Japanese naval command had determined that a large number of radio waves had suddenly appeared in the waters near the downing of the maritime reconnaissance plane, and among them were the radio waves of the "Li Jing", the flagship of the Fifth Fleet of the Tang Empire (at that time, Japan did not know that the Tang Empire had reorganized its naval fleet).

Nagumo Yizhong did not hesitate this time, and immediately ordered the fighters parked on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier to take off and launch the first round of attacks. Although half an hour was wasted, during this half hour, the bombers and escort fighters on the four aircraft carriers were ready to go, and the pilots stayed in the engine room. Therefore, when Nagumo Yizhong gave the order to attack, these fighters took off directly.

None of the carrier aircraft of the Japanese aircraft carrier did not need the help of catapults and could glide and take off directly from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier. Of course, the first to take off was the lightest "Zero Battle", then the "99 Ship Bomb", and finally the "97 Ship Attack" (this is a three-seat torpedo bomber that the Japanese Navy is only equipped with). However, it was also when these fighters took off that the returning "Zero Battle" reached the sky over the fleet, and there was chaos in the fleet. These "Zero Battles" all took off in an emergency, and none of them had auxiliary fuel tanks attached, and after the air battle on Ryukyu Island, there was not much fuel left, and they all had to rush to land on the aircraft carrier.

This also disrupted Nagumo's attack plan, and he was going to send a second wave of bombers immediately, but now, he had to recycle the fighters back to the carrier. As a result, more than 20 "Zero Battles" landed on the "Kaga" aircraft carrier, and at the same time, the other three aircraft carriers began to prepare to send a second wave of bombers, and the bombers on the "Kaga" failed to participate in the second wave of attacks, and they organized a third round of bombing alone.

The Japanese bomber group flew directly in the northwest direction, and the distance between the two fleets at that time was more than 350 nautical miles, which was almost the ultimate combat radius of the Japanese carrier-based bombers, and they could only take the most direct attack route. At this time, the 12 "Sparrowhawks" led by Colonel Luo Jinming were also flying in a two-plane formation in the direction of the Japanese First Air Fleet with a wide frontal direction.

Luo Jinming was forced to use this kind of scattered formation, because he had to find targets for the bombers behind, so he had to expand the search area in order to discover the Japanese fleet as soon as possible. However, the first thing Luo Jinming and the others found was not the Japanese fleet, but the huge Japanese fleet shuttling through the clouds two thousand meters below it!

The fighters of the Tang Imperial Navy were equipped with turbocharged engines, so the high-altitude flight performance was much better, and the attack channel taken was generally about 5,000 meters. On the contrary, because the Japanese Navy's fighters were not equipped with turbocharged engines, their high-altitude performance was greatly affected, and the maximum altitude of their offensive routes was limited to less than 4,000 meters, and was generally controlled at about 3,000 meters. At that time, the height of the clouds on the sea surface was about 3,500 meters, which just allowed the two groups to stagger each other, and the Japanese group below was unable to detect the enemy planes overhead, while Luo Jinming and they were searching the sea, so they found the Japanese planes under their eyelids.

"Colonel, do you want to attack them?"

"No, let the other groups not attack, now, let's fly in the opposite direction of the Japanese bomber group and kill their homes!" Luo Jinming is very sensible, his "Sparrowhawks" are not the opponents of those "zero battles", and his mission is to attack the Japanese fleet, not to attack the Japanese bomber group.

At this time, Luo Jinming also had a bottom in his heart, the Japanese aircraft fleet must have taken a straight course to save fuel, so it would be easy to find the Japanese air fleet. Of course, he did not forget to do a more important thing, which was to send back to the fleet the news that the Japanese fleet was on its way.

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