The pilots of the Japanese army had a lot of experience in actual combat, and this is where they had an advantage. Zhang Qifan's formation sailed south all night, leaving the stormy sea, and entered the sea area with clear weather on the 8th. The Japanese fleet was still operating in the stormy seas, and the cloudy weather made it difficult for the Japanese fleet to be spotted. This naval battle was actually a battle launched simultaneously by the aircraft carrier formations of both sides. From 9 a.m. to 9:25 a.m., the assault aircraft groups of Chinese aircraft carriers struck one after another. The first batch of aircraft to take off from the aircraft carrier "Longtian" was 36 aircraft: 2 fighters to cover 21 dive bombers, 4 fighters to cover 9 torpedo aircraft. At about 10:30, the dive bomber group was the first to spot the Japanese aircraft carrier. The Japanese fleet sailed in a sparse formation and was escorted by alert ships. While the pilots waited for the arrival of the torpedo planes under the cover of the clouds, the aircraft carrier "Zuihe" had disappeared into the storm. As a result, the "Xianghe" became the only target of the Chinese planes.

By the time the Chinese torpedo planes met the enemy, the dive bombers had already begun to dive. The two attack aircraft groups cooperated tacitly, but the results were very small. Because the speed of the Chinese torpedo planes was relatively low, it was easy to evade, but the attack of the dive bombers was very effective, hitting two bombs on the aircraft carrier "Xianghe". The assault aircraft group of the light aircraft carrier "Feiwei" was 10 minutes later than that of the "Longtian", in which 12 dive bombers failed to find targets, and only 11 torpedo planes and 4 reconnaissance bombers discovered the Japanese troops. The torpedo projected by the Chinese pilot still failed to hit, and it was still the dive bomber that hit another bomb against the "Xianghe", which had already hit two bombs. These three bombs made the "Xianghe" aircraft carrier incapacitated. Due to damage to the ship's flight deck, it was no longer possible to contain the aircraft, and Takagi ordered it to leave the formation and return home.

Almost at the same time as the Chinese Navy's aircraft took off, 70 Japanese attack aircraft and 20 fighters also left the ship. When the Japanese planes were still 70 nautical miles from the Chinese warship, they were detected by the radar of the Chinese Navy. But before the attack by both sides, only 3 fighters of the Chinese Navy were able to intercept enemy aircraft. The Japanese planes, 20 nautical miles from the Chinese fleet and before they were intercepted by Chinese fighters, divided into three groups, two of which were torpedo planes and one of bombers.

At this time, the three aircraft carriers of the Chinese Navy are in the same ring alert sequence. The evasion movement gradually increased the distance between the ships, and the alert ships were divided into three, which invisibly weakened the vigilance, which was obviously beneficial to the Japanese attack.

The "Ryuten", which was the first to be attacked, managed to evade the torpedoes fired by the Japanese aircraft, but was hit by a bomb. But the combat effectiveness of this aircraft carrier has not been greatly reduced. The "Feiwei," which was much smaller than the "Longtian" in tonnage but had poor maneuverability, suffered heavy damage when the enemy torpedo planes simultaneously "flanked" from both sides of the bow of the ship. As a result of the port side hitting two torpedoes, three boiler compartments were flooded. At the same time, two more bombs were hit, but these two bombs did not cause much damage. The ship's hull tilted due to a mine, and after adjusting the heavy fuel oil, the balance was restored. The ship's main engine was not damaged, and the speed could still reach 24 knots. For the pilots who returned home after completing the attack mission, the aircraft carrier remained intact.

When the Chinese Navy began to recover the returning aircraft, it believed that it had won the battle. Neither of Zhang Qifan's aircraft carriers suffered fatal damage. On the contrary, the Japanese aircraft carrier "Shozuru" had lost its combat function, and the "Zuizuru" could not accommodate all the aircraft, so it had to let these aircraft go to other aircraft carriers. Takagi has only 19 aircraft that can be used in combat, while Zhang Qifan still has 47 attack planes and 22 fighters that can fight.

Zhang Qifan and Lin Moqian failed to take advantage of this advantage, although they knew that the Chinese navy was now in a relatively advantageous position. Because the aircraft carrier "Feiwei" exploded at 12:47. This was caused by sparks from the generator bursting onto the gasoline leaking from the ruptured pipe. At first, it didn't seem to pose much danger, and the Flying Guard continued to contain the aircraft. But at 14:45, a more serious explosion occurred. The fire spread quickly and could not be controlled, so I had to call for help. Although the "Longtian" and "Feitian" contained the "Feiwei" planes in the air, they did not have time to transfer the planes that had already landed on the "Feiwei," and the fire on the ship was raging, and the hull of the ship shook violently frequently, and all the crew had no choice but to leave the ship. After all the crew members were ordered to leave the ship, Zhang Qifan sent a destroyer to sink the "Feiwei." The destroyer fired five torpedoes in quick succession, causing the aircraft carrier to disappear into the waves of the Pacific Ocean at 19:56. …,

The returning Japanese pilots reported that two Chinese aircraft carriers had been sunk. Takagi made a very optimistic estimate and reported the situation to Nagumo Tadaichi and Yamamoto Isoroku. This subjective assumption of exaggerating the results of the battle led Nagumo Tadaichi to decide to let the injured aircraft carrier "Shozuru" return to Singapore, and it also prompted Isoroku Yamamoto to decide to withdraw the entire assault force from the battlefield. Although two Chinese aircraft carriers had already been sunk and some subordinates suggested using the giant cannons of the "Yamato" to destroy the port of Truk, Isoroku Yamamoto still believed that the implementation of the landing operation at the port of Truk must be postponed. Obviously, he already felt that it was difficult to protect the landing force from Chinese shore-based aircraft, and the huge cannon of the "Fuxi," which still had a strong fighting force, was also a factor of concern for him.

Yamaguchi strongly opposed the withdrawal of the assault force from the battlefield, and at 24 o'clock on August 18, he tried to go to completely annihilate the "remnants" of the Chinese navy. The Yamaguchi formation changed course and searched and advanced to the south and east. But by this time, Zhang Qifan's fleet was far away, and the Japanese army could not catch up anyway.

In this way, the first naval battle between the Chinese and Japanese aircraft carrier formations came to an end. In this unprecedented naval battle, both fleets engaged outside of each other's line of sight.

From a tactical point of view, the Japanese had a slight advantage in the Battle of the Marianas. Although the Japanese army suffered far more aircraft losses than the Chinese army, and the casualties of the Japanese army were twice as many as those of the Chinese army, the losses of the Chinese army greatly exceeded that of the Japanese army when the light aircraft carrier "Feiwei" sank 25,700 tons and the light aircraft carrier "Baifeng" that sank 12,000 tons. The losses of the destroyers and small ships sunk by the Japanese at the beginning were no greater than the losses of the oil tankers "Huakai" and "Antares II" sunk by the Chinese army. From a strategic point of view, however, it was China that won. For the first time since the beginning of the war, the expansion of Japanese forces in the Pacific was frontally contained; The landing convoy attacking the port of Truk also had to return halfway. There were other important effects of this naval battle, such as the fall of the Diaoyu Islands on August 16 during the Battle of the Marianas, which frustrated the Chinese people; The strategic victory in this naval battle has improved this sentiment somewhat. More importantly, the damaged aircraft carrier "Xianghe" needed to be repaired, and the badly damaged "Zuihe" air force needed to be rebuilt, so neither aircraft carrier could participate in the subsequent naval battle.

Japan, Fukuoka Prefecture, Sakamura Aviation Base, Japanese Army Aviation Air Defense Combat Command Post.

It is a semi-underground building, with steel doors closed and heavily guarded, because the central nervous system of Japan's latest "white light" radar complex is located here. The inside of the building resembles a small and elegant movie screening room, and the commander's room and staff room are located on the second floor, which looks a bit like a box for aristocratic women to watch a play.

Downstairs in the lobby is the studio, with a large display screen embedded in the front wall. A map of Japan with the location of each base and the coastlines of the surrounding countries is displayed on the screen. On the condition display on the left and right sides of the screen, various light spots and lines are constantly changing with the continuous input of data, from the standby of each air interceptor regiment to the preparation of anti-aircraft guns for firing. All conditions are fully displayed.

What is not known to the world is that while Britain and Germany were starting radars and early electronic warfare on both sides of the Channel, the Japanese secretly developed their own radar systems at that time.

Although Japan's radar was lagging behind its British and German counterparts in terms of performance, there was no shortage of first-class technical experts and electronic engineers in Japan at that time, who succeeded in developing a fairly reliable cavity magnetoelectric tube in 1936 (10 cm wavelength, Britain and China successfully developed it in 1939, but it was immediately used in radar and actual combat), but the senior generals of the Japanese military were intoxicated with the traditional "bushido" spirit, not interested in new technology, inclined to discipline, blind courage, The spirit of sacrifice can overcome everything. On the other hand, the limited resources of the Japanese island nation and the investment in high-tech equipment also limited the motivation of the Japanese at that time. …,

The problem was also exacerbated by unhealthy rivalry between the Japanese navy and army, which sometimes quarreled more fiercely than the rivalry between the naval and air forces of the allies, Germany. Since the Japanese Army was originally modeled after the German Army under Wilhelm, and the Navy began to be modeled after the British Royal Fleet, both had some of their own conservative traditions, rather than the new scientific research and technology that the emerging United States and China did.

The Japanese military began to develop a radio detection system for air defense needs, which was the prototype of Japan's earliest anti-air radar, which was permanently installed and could only detect aircraft within more than 100 kilometers of the narrow beam between the transmitter and receiver. This system, named "Type 1 Electric Exploration," was deployed in small quantities on the main island of Japan, and in the years after the improvement, more than 100 units were included internally, even along the coast of southern Korea and in Siberia. This system is set up to be more than 100 kilometers apart from each other, one end is the radio wave transmitter, the other end is equipped with a receiver, when the aircraft is in the radio beam between the two ends, the receiver will have abnormal signals. Since it is impossible to measure the distance of the aircraft, it can only be known that there are planes on this line, which can be said to be quite primitive and of limited military value.

As Japan was slow to make progress on new, more accurate pulse radars, it found its Axis ally, Germany. In the early 1940's, Japanese military technicians secretly visited Germany to exchange their technological developments. The Japanese Navy and Army each sent their own technical teams, and there was no communication or cooperation in their schedules, and the Germans received two separate delegations of the same purpose.

When these people arrived in Germany, the German and Japanese sides did not exchange technology in a sincere manner. Although the Germans let the Japanese inspect their air defense early warning radar for a period of time and saw the new "Freya" radar, Germany did not tell them what their "Freya" radar was used for, and the Japanese did not tell Germany that they had successfully developed a microwave cavity magnetoelectric tube. The Germans had always believed that the Japanese had nothing worth mentioning in front of them, and the Japanese thought the same: "Germany may have been ahead of us in this regard." ”

At the same time as the Japanese returned home, the Japanese Navy also received information that American and Chinese warships were equipped with radars, and when the experts returned, the Japanese Navy began to develop its own radar systems. These experts soon developed a prototype of a pulse radar, a total of 80 sets were produced, and later improved the shipborne air defense surface search radar "21" radar, which was equipped with about 80 sets. Unfortunately, due to manufacturing process problems, the reliability of the "Type 21" radar was not good when used on warships, and it was terrible in bad sea conditions, and the Japanese operators could be said to be quite annoyed by this.

At the same time as the Navy, the Japanese Army also independently developed its own new radar, the initial prototype was very unsuitable for field use, but then the "6" type air early warning radar appeared, its transmitting beam is very wide, similar to the early British radar, the transmitting beam sweeps over several vertical planes, and the receiver activity in 3 to 4 directions to receive the reflected signal. A total of about 300 units were built, and they entered service in 1940.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941, the Japanese army began to launch a full-scale attack on the former British, Dutch, and American colonies in Asia and the Pacific, and then began to threaten New Guinea and Australia.

Japan's radar system was the first to incorporate the "Yagi antenna" invented by the Japanese themselves, and on the other hand, the navy used the captured US radar to imitate the "41" type air defense fire control radar system, which was later improved to the "42" type radar, which was slightly better than the former, and Japan produced hundreds of sets of this type of system. The Japanese Army also derived its own series of radars from captured American radars, but the effect of the imitation was very poor, and the Japanese were not satisfied with it, and only a small number were produced. Later in the war, the Japanese Army finally succeeded in improving a new radar that was reliable and practical. In this way, both the Japanese Navy and Army derived new radars from their earlier fixed radar systems. The Navy's radars were improved to the lighter and mobile deployment of the "Special 13" radar, and in 1942 the lighter "Special 14" radar was produced, and thousands of sets of this type of radar were produced that year. …,

At this moment, the officers on duty are sitting in front of several rows of monitoring desks, nervously monitoring the display screen. However, in addition to being nervous, there is also a little pride. Behind the officer on duty there was the technical guidance of several well-known domestic experts.

This "white light" system has been full of failures in the past, and it is rare for it to run so smoothly today. The air defense combat command post is dimly lit, and the electric fan is turned on to maintain a constant temperature, and judging from the situation on the display screen, the whole of Japan is cloudless in autumn today, and perhaps this is the reason why the system is running smoothly.

Japan's air defense system relies on the support of multiple radar bases throughout the country, and in the past it has been a backward manual method. That is, the radar base indicates the location of enemy aircraft to fighters by radio and guides them to the meeting point. With the manual method, it takes a lot of time from target discovery to identification. If the speed of the enemy aircraft is high, by the time the fighter arrives, the enemy aircraft has already flown far away.

It was in order to solve this problem that the Japanese government decided to create a "white light" system.

There are three major companies that manufacture "white light" in Japan. As soon as the news broke that the Japanese government had decided to adopt the "white light" system, the major companies began a fierce sales war.

The "Mitsubishi" company used all means to bribe and win over high-ranking officials of the Japanese government and provide huge donations to political circles, and finally won a large order.

The Japanese government decided to purchase the "white light" system of the "Mitsubishi" company, but from the time of the purchase of the No. 1 electronic equipment, failures occurred one after another, and the project was postponed for a time. Of course, these expenses are covered by the hard-earned money of Japanese citizens.

Now, the installation phase is finally over, but the whole system is not very flexible, and it has to be used as a scheduling period to cooperate with the manual vigilance control system.

At this moment, on the display screen of the monitoring station, many semicircle symbols are displayed everywhere, indicating the location of the radar located everywhere.

Suddenly, over the East China Sea, 400 kilometers northwest of Kagoshima, a white double circle symbol of an aircraft of unknown nationality appeared on a giant display screen.

The officer on duty in front of the identification console pressed the keyboard and converted the "unknown" key into the "enemy aircraft" key. The commander sitting on the second floor gave the order for an emergency take-off to the Shintawara Air Base. Not long after, the symbol of a squadron of Gale fighters that had taken off urgently from Nittawara appeared on a huge display screen, and the operator manually showed that its course extension was pointing to the expected meeting point with the enemy aircraft.

!d@T——

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