Section 25 The Broken Arrow (I)

In charge of commanding the second wave of bombers was Major Deng Zichao. There were 24 "Ospreys" and 24 "Kingfishers" in this wave of bombers, and 24 "Sparrowhawks" escorted them. Deng Zichao did not know the news of the attack on the fleet, but he knew very well that his task was to send the aircraft carrier of the Japanese Southwest Combined Fleet on a ride and complete the task that Colonel Luo Jinming and Major Zhang Naiding had not completely completed.

When the group arrived at the predetermined sea area, the Japanese fleet was not immediately spotted. The 24 escort fighters immediately dispersed to search, and soon the Japanese fleet was spotted on the east side of the fleet returning at a speed of 24 knots in the direction of the Japanese mainland. Deng Zichao immediately led the group of planes to pounce on the Japanese fleet, and when he saw those battleships on the sea, he was also surprised, among the three Japanese aircraft carriers, only the "Fengxiang" suffered heavy losses, and the "Akagi" and "Kaga" were able to keep up with the speed of the fleet, and there were fighters on the "Akagi" being lifted into the air! In other words, the first wave of bombardment launched by Major Zhang Naiding did not sink these three aircraft carriers, but only caused them to suffer losses.

Deng Zichao did not hesitate, he handed over the task of dive bombing to the captain officer of the 2nd Dive Bomber Squadron, and he himself took another 23 "Ospreys" to quickly lower the altitude and pounce on the aircraft carriers in the Japanese fleet.

The "Zero Battle" patrolling over the Japanese fleet immediately spotted the killing planes, and then, the "Sparrowhawks," which were covering the bomber group, also swooped down to cover the bomber group's approach to the Japanese fleet and block the "Zero Battles" that were carrying out interception missions.

In interception air combat, the speed of the "Zero Battle" is its most important "weapon", however, the dive performance of the "Zero Battle" is not as good as that of the "Sparrowhawk" at all, and its maneuverability during the dive is very poor, and it is even difficult to control, in addition, the low-altitude performance of the "Zero Battle" is not very good, which is mainly caused by the low power of its engine. On the contrary, the low-altitude performance of the hovering descending "Osprey" was excellent, although its agility was not as good as that of a fighter, especially after hanging a 1600-kilogram torpedo, its agility was already very bad. However, the maneuverability of this fighter, which is specially designed for low-altitude bombing, at altitudes close to the sea surface, is excellent.

Deng Zichao first let go of the closest "Fengxiang", he did not have the slightest "interest" in this kind of small aircraft carrier, and his target was the "Akagi" behind the "Fengxiang". He led the other seven "ospreys" in the team to move quickly at the height of the sea close to the surface of the sea. The eight "Ospreys" form a trapezoidal formation, so that when the mines are dropped, the fighters in front will not block the fighters behind, and at the same time, it can also ensure that the fighters in the formation can get out freely.

These eight "Ospreys" approaching at ultra-low altitudes immediately attracted the attention of the air defense warships in the Japanese fleet. With the lesson of the last time, now these Japanese air defense warships do not dare to be careless in the slightest, and they have "greeted" these "assassins" with "daggers" with fierce artillery fire. At the same time, the "Zero Battle", which quickly followed up, also went crazy and wanted to intercept these eight "Ospreys".

Before entering the fleet's anti-aircraft fire network, two "Ospreys" on the far left were hit by the artillery fire of the "Zero Battle", and the 20-mm machine gun shells splashed on the sea surface one after another. The four pilots on the two warplanes did not have any chance of escape. Like a big bird with broken wings, the "osprey" plunged headlong into the sea 100 meters down, and the pilot inside was torn to pieces by machine gun shells before the plane crashed into the sea.

Deng Zichao's eyes were already focused on the "Akagi" with a huge silhouette, and he didn't even notice that two friendly planes had been shot down. And when the other six "Ospreys" entered the fleet's air defense fire network, the "Zero Battle" that was in close pursuit immediately pulled up and stopped the pursuit. Obviously, those Japanese fighter pilots also knew at this time that if they entered the anti-aircraft fire network, they would also be intercepted as enemy planes.

Six "ospreys" soared over the sea, and their target was the huge "whale". When the Imperial Navy named this torpedo bomber, it was hoped that it would soar over the sea like an osprey, and then stretch out its claws to catch the big fish in the sea.

Deng Zichao is very familiar with his landline, and he is also very confident in his technology. The Osprey flew at a speed of nearly 220 knots, making it one of the fastest torpedo bombers in the world at the time. And when flying at such speeds, the speed of rotation of the anti-aircraft guns on the surrounding anti-aircraft battleships simply could not catch up. This is the best way for the "Osprey" to break through the defenses of the enemy fleet. However, not all "ospreys" can do this.

When he was about 800 meters away from the "Akagi," Deng Zichao still did not give the order to drop mines, and he wanted to draw the distance closer, and the minimum launch distance of the "Swordfish" torpedo had been reduced to 300 meters, and he wanted to drop mines at this distance, so that the "Akagi" had almost no way to evade the torpedo. The pilots of the other five "Ospreys" also followed Deng Zichao and continued to approach the "Akagi," preparing to drop mines at the closest distance.

On the starboard side of the "Akagi" was the heavy cruiser "Ashigara". It was a heavy cruiser built after World War I, but had been refitted three times before the war broke out, the last of which was to add more than 20 anti-aircraft guns. At this time, Deng Zichao's landline had bypassed the "Ashijo", and what he had to face was the "Akagi". However, the two "Ospreys" at the rear of the formation were ready to fly over the "Ashigara", and they were immediately concentrated by the anti-aircraft shells on the heavy cruiser, one of which fell directly into the sea, while the other shook a few times, and then planted headlong on the bridge of the "Ashigara", and the safety on the "Swordfish" torpedo had been opened, as a result, this huge torpedo turned into an aerial bomb, almost blowing up the entire bow of the "Ashigami"!

All four "Ospreys" dropped torpedoes at a distance of 300 to 350 meters from the "Akagi". Then, the pilots of the four torpedo bombers used two machine guns from the fighters to aim at the anti-aircraft gun position on the starboard side of the aircraft carrier and strafewed them. The Osprey was equipped with a 7.8 mm machine gun on each wing, which was not used for self-defense, but was used to strafe the anti-aircraft gun positions on the battleship when throwing mines.

Click on the image link: