The Second Task Force led by Hao Dongjue had already arrived at the attack area on the evening of the 17th, and that night, Hao Dongjue personally deployed a bombing mission for the pilots. In order to ensure the safety of the First Task Force, the first round of bombing by the Second Task Force also hit the forward airfields of the US military. Hao Dongjue assigned specific tasks to the bomber units of the three aircraft carrier battle groups of the Second Task Force.

The 1st Brigade, led by Colonel Zhang Naiding, targeted the U.S. field airfield north of Tali. According to the information obtained in the past, this is only an airfield for training and aircraft transfer, and there are no combat aircraft, and the scale of the airfield is quite limited. In order to achieve the goal of complete destruction, Zhang Naiding will lead a squadron of "water birds" and a squadron of "sea eagles" to carry out bombing missions. Because the group is very likely to be intercepted by US fighters, there are still 24 "Golden Eagles" accompanying the operation, and these fighters have also hung bombs, and if they do not encounter US fighters, then they can also bomb some secondary targets.

The 2nd Group, led by Colonel Yang Shihong, targeted another U.S. field airfield south of Tari. According to information obtained in the past, the airfield is home to a squadron of trainer aircraft, a squadron of patrol aircraft, and occasionally a squadron of fighter aircraft. The airfield was not very large, and it was very close to the landing site chosen by the marines, so in order to be able to guarantee destruction, all 72 bombers of the second group were dispatched, and in addition, 24 fighters were directly covered. Unlike Zhang Naiding's group, none of these 24 fighters carried bombs, but all of them carried out escort missions, because Yang Shihong's group was most likely intercepted by US fighters.

The 3rd Group, led by Colonel Gao Junhan, targeted the US field airfield, 25 kilometers west of Tari. A squadron of reconnaissance aircraft has been deployed at the airport, and it is also a transit base for transport aircraft in Tari. Also for the purpose of complete destruction, all 72 bombers of the Third Group were dispatched, and another 24 fighters were covered.

Gao Junhan was originally the squadron leader of a torpedo bomber squadron under Deng Zichao, and after Deng Zichao's martyrdom, Gao Junhan was promoted to the new captain. And at the time of the reorganization of the Second Task Force. Gao Junhan had been in charge of training new pilots in Wuxi, and he was transferred back after the Second Task Force expanded to three squadrons. Hao Dongjue originally planned to arrange Jiang Wenwei to be the captain of the Third Brigade, but later Jiang Wenhan took the initiative to recommend Gao Junhan to be the captain of the brigade, while he continued to serve as the captain of the fighter group of the Second Air Wing and did not direct the bombing operation. This was also a default rule in the Imperial Navy, whereby the ground captain of each combat unit was a bomber pilot (preferably a dive bomber pilot). Fighter pilots, on the other hand, only serve as captains in the administrative establishment. That is, the captain of the fighter group.

In addition to sending three groups of bombers, Hao Dongjue also had three squads in his hands, a total of 36 reconnaissance planes that could carry out bombing missions, and a squadron of fighters. The reconnaissance planes of the three squadrons were temporarily organized as reserve forces to replace the ground bombers lost in the first round of bombing, and that fighter squadron was under the direct command of Jiang Wenhan and was responsible for the air defense of the fleet.

From the point of view of arranging bombing operations, Hao Dongjue is much better than Zheng Guanhua. Trained in the 1st Task Force for so many years, and since joining the army, he has been dealing with aviation operations. Hao Dongjue's ability in aviation combat is almost unparalleled, and it can be said that he has thought of many details that others have not thought of, and he is also quite reasonable in terms of deployment tasks. Other than that. Hao Dongjue also has a very good understanding of the aviation units, he knows all the pilots in the air force of the Second Task Force, and he is well aware of the personal characteristics and abilities of all the pilots at the rank of squad leader and above, and he is also very clear about the situation of each air force.

In the to Zhang Naiding. When Yang Shihong, Gao Junhan, and others arranged specific combat missions, Hao Dongjue emphasized one point, that is, giving priority to ensuring the ability to destroy the use of airfields. Moreover, the distance between the three airfields is not very far, all within 100 kilometers, so the bombers of the three groups have to pay attention to supporting each other when carrying out combat missions. Support each other. And the first round of bombing would have to completely destroy the airfield's operational capacity, if it could be completely destroyed. It would be nice to guarantee that the U.S. military would not be able to repair the airfield within two days.

That night, the officers and men of the Second Task Force all went to bed early, and in particular, the pilots who were to carry out the bombing mission on the 18th returned to their cabins shortly after dinner at eight o'clock. As in the past, Hao Dongjue did not go to sleep, but arranged tasks related to the bombing operation at night. He handed over everything other than aviation operations to Wei Dongbei to deal with, and it seemed as if Wei Dongbei was the commander of the Second Task Force, and Hao Dongjue was only the chief of aviation operations staff of the Second Task Force.

In the early hours of the morning, the aviation crews of the fleet got busy and began to check the condition of the combat aircraft. It's a pretty meticulous and important job. Compared with the outbreak of war, the workload of the Imperial Navy's carrier-based aviation personnel is much lighter, and the main reason is that the maintainability of the combat flights used by the Imperial Navy is much better than that of the combat aircraft used before.

The Imperial Navy has always attached considerable importance to the maintainability of combat aircraft, and a direct manifestation of this is that the Imperial Navy has always insisted that the three main combat aircraft use the same type of engine. Although bombers and fighters have different performance requirements, so the engines cannot be exactly the same, the Imperial Navy has always tried to ensure that the engines of bombers and fighters have the greatest commonality, which can not only reduce the difficulty of logistics support, but also improve the maintainability of combat aircraft. And now the maintainability of the three combat aircraft "Golden Eagle", "Shooting Bird" and "Sea Eagle", which are preparing the carrier-based aviation of the Imperial Navy, is quite excellent. In peacetime, a flight hour requires about eight working hours of maintenance time, and in combat, if you want to ensure the sortie rate as much as possible, you can often only get a maintenance rate of four working hours, and this is enough to ensure that these combat aircraft can be dispatched normally.

Half past four. The three aircraft carriers were busy. The hangar was refueled, bombers were sent to the flight deck one after another, and the aviation crew began to do the final round of inspections. At five o'clock, the pilot got up and began to have breakfast. At half past five, the specific combat mission was issued. At six o'clock, the pilots began to board the plane. 6:15. Zhang Naiding was the first to fly a bomber to leave the "Xingkaihu" aircraft carrier. By 6:50. Each of the three aircraft carriers dispatched 96 fighters, and when the group left the sky over the fleet, the three aircraft carriers also returned to the formation and began to sail eastward.

Before Zhang Naiding and the others set off, in the first task force, Qiu Gengbo was the first to drive a bomber to leave the "Longganhu" aircraft carrier just after six o'clock, and then Yang Qinkai's group of planes also began to take off one after another. All the bombers took off at 6:40.

Tan Renhao and Zheng Guanhua's arrangements were even more thorough than Hao Dongjue's, and all the bombers of the First Task Force, including three reconnaissance aircraft squadrons, participated in the bombing mission, and only one squadron of fighters remained at that time. This was the result of Tan Renhao's revision of the battle plan during the night.

There are two squadrons of "water birds" and four squadrons of "sea eagles" in the Qiu Gengbo group. The fleet was divided into two groups and was to bomb the U.S. airfields in Denman and Skun. The distance between the two airports is about 120 km, with the vicinity of Sikun being a large official airport. It is the primary bombing target, and the vicinity of Denman is only a field airfield, which is a secondary bombing target. According to Tan Renhao's arrangement, the Qiu Gengbo group will bomb the two airfields at the same time, and the first task is to render the airfields incapacitated and ensure that they are unusable within a few hours, and whether or not to carry out the next round of supplementary bombing will be decided based on the results of the first round of bombing.

Yang Qinkai's group has one squadron of "water birds" and five squadrons of "sea eagles". The three squadrons of reconnaissance "waterbirds" were organized into a separate squadron. The group was also split into two groups to bomb two U.S. airfields near Armidale and Tamworth. The distance between the two airports is about 180 kilometers, and they are both large field airfields, not regular military airfields, and there is no priority. The primary goal of the bombing is still to destroy the airfield's operational capacity, to ensure that the bombers cannot be dispatched for a few hours, to buy time for the next round of bombing, of course. It would be nice to be able to destroy it completely.

Two groups were escorted by fighters of one squadron each. And the fighters of both squadrons carried large drop fuel tanks, and did not set off with bombs. Tan Renhao introduced the tasks to the squadron leaders of the two squadrons in detail. They would cover the bomber group to reach the target, and if the raid was successful, the fighters would have to return before the bombers returned, and return to the skies over the fleet as soon as possible. When the bombers departed, the distance between the fleet and the target was about 280 and 310 nautical miles. And the "Golden Eagle" with a large auxiliary fuel tank can patrol the sky over the fleet for at least an hour after flying back and forth. The return time to the fleet was between nine and ten o'clock, which is when the fleet was most vulnerable. If these fighters can return in time, then by that time there will be three squadrons of air defense fighters over the fleet. On the contrary, if these fighters do not return in time, it proves that the US military is dealing with bombers, and the air threat to the fleet is not very great.

This is also Tan Renhao's wishful thinking, and the basis is that the endurance of the "Golden Eagle" fighter is much better than that of the "Falcon", and it has a longer stay in the air, which gives him more choices. And there is another key point in the whole bombing campaign, and that is suddenness. The group departed at about half past six, and the time to arrive at the US military airfield was about eight o'clock, which was half an hour later than the scheduled time, and judging from the intelligence, the breakfast time of the US military was eight o'clock. Therefore, as long as the fleet can reach the vicinity of the airport in concealment, the purpose of the surprise attack can be achieved. But this brings new problems.

If the fleet were to arrive suddenly, it would have to fly at ultra-low altitudes, which was probably not a challenge at all for the pilots of Task Force 1. But the problem is that if the aircraft flies at an ultra-low altitude, the fuel will be consumed very quickly, that is, the strike radius will have to be shortened. Therefore, the time for carrying out bombing missions over airfields must be shortened, which requires pilots to be able to accurately enter the bombing channel and complete the bombing operation in the shortest possible time. In addition, in order to shorten the flight distance of the fleet on the return voyage to ensure that the fleet still has enough fuel to land when it returns to the fleet, the fleet must continue westward, and finally the distance from the Australian coastline is about 150 nautical miles. In addition, there is another problem, that is, the time for the two bomber groups to return to the fleet must be staggered, that is to say, the target of the Qiu Gengbo group is closer, but it must be set off first, and the target of Yang Qinkai's group is farther, but it can only be set off later, so that the time for the two groups to return to the fleet can be staggered by about half an hour. The problem is also here, Yang Qinkai's group will definitely arrive at the target more than half an hour later than the Qiu Gengbo group, if the US military reacts quickly, then Yang Qinkai's group may be intercepted by US fighters!

The problem is the problem, and there was no other way at that time. This made Tan Renhao feel a little worried, and after seeing that all the bombers had taken off, Tan Renhao asked people to call Zheng Guanhua, and then went to the restaurant with Zheng Guanhua, and neither of them had breakfast. Zheng Guanhua was also a little uneasy, he proposed several other plans last night, but after deliberation, he found that there was no more effective than the plan determined by Tan Renhao, so he gave up.

"You can wait and get some rest!" Tan Renhao looked at Zheng Guanhua, "You will come back to change me in the afternoon." ”

"No, let's wait until the bomber group returns."

Tan Renhao didn't say much, no one would go to rest now, at least no one could sleep until he received the news of the bomber group.