The pilots of the Yue Army have rich experience in actual combat, and this is where they have an advantage. Zhang Qifan's formation sailed south all night, leaving the stormy sea, and on the 8th, it had entered the sea area with clear weather. However, the fleet was still active in the stormy sea area, and the cloudy and foggy weather at that time made it difficult for the fleet to be detected. 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 a.m., the dive bomber group was the first to discover the aircraft carrier. The 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 dispatched 10 minutes later than that of the "Longtian," and 12 dive bombers failed to discover the target, and only 11 torpedo planes and four reconnaissance bombers discovered the Japanese army. 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 planes took off, 70 attack planes and 20 fighters left the ship. When these planes were still 70 nautical miles away from the Chinese [***] ship, they were discovered 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. When the planes were 20 nautical miles away from the Chinese fleet and had not yet been intercepted by Chinese fighters, they were divided into three groups, two of which were torpedo planes and one was 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 also divided into three, which invisibly weakened the vigilance, which was obviously beneficial to the attack of the Japanese army.

The "Longtian," which was the first to be attacked, managed to evade the torpedo fired by the plane, 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 tonnage of the "Longtian" but had a worse maneuverability, was severely damaged by enemy torpedo planes that 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 aircraft carrier "Xianghe" has lost its combat function, and the "Zuihe" cannot accommodate all the planes, so it has to let these planes 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 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 troops from the battlefield, and at 24 o'clock on August 18, he tried to completely annihilate the "remnants" of the Chinese navy. The Yamaguchi formation changed course and searched and advanced to the south and east. But at this time, Zhang Qifan's fleet was far away, and the army could not catch up anyway.

In this way, the first naval battle between China and the aircraft carrier formation 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 army had a slight advantage in the Battle of the Marianas. Although the Chinese army suffered far more losses than the Chinese army, and the casualties of the Chinese army were twice as many as those of the Chinese army, the losses of the Chinese army greatly exceeded that of the Chinese army when the light aircraft carrier "Feiwei," which sank 25,700 tons, and the light aircraft carrier "Baifeng," which sank 12,000 tons. The losses of the destroyers and small ships that were sunk at the beginning were not greater than the losses of the oil tankers "Huakai" and "Antares II" that were 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 the armed forces of the Japanese army 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 loss of the Diaoyu Islands on August 16 during the Battle of the Marianas, which frustrated the Chinese; 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.

Sakamura Aviation Base, Fukuoka Prefecture, Air Defense Combat Command Post of the Army Aviation.

This is a semi-underground building, with steel doors closed and heavily guarded, because the central nervous system of the latest "white light" radar complex system 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. On the screen, a map of the locations of each base is displayed, as well as the coastlines of the surrounding countries. 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, he himself secretly developed his own radar system at that time.

Although the radar of the British and German counterparts was more backward than the British and German counterparts, there was no shortage of first-class technical experts and electronic engineers in the country at that time, and these people successfully developed a fairly reliable cavity magnetoelectric tube in 1936 (10 cm wavelength, Britain and China successfully developed it in 1939, but it was immediately applied to radar and actual combat), but the senior generals of the 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 island country and the investment in high-tech equipment also limited the motivation of the island country at that time.

The problem was also exacerbated by the unhealthy rivalry between the navy and the army, which were sometimes more intense than the rivalry between the naval and air forces of the allies, Germany. Since the Army was originally modeled after the German Army of Wilhelm's era, and the Navy began to be modeled after the British Royal Fleet, both have their own conservative traditions, and do not attach as much importance to new scientific research and technology as the emerging United States and China.

Out of the needs of air defense, the military began to develop a radio detection system, which was the prototype of the earliest anti-air radar in Japan, 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 Scout," was deployed in small quantities on the main island, and in the years after the improvement, more than 100 units were subordinated internally, and even in the southern coast of Korea and 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 he was slow to make progress on a new, more accurate pulse radar, he found Germany, an Axis ally. At the beginning of 1940, military technicians secretly visited Germany to exchange their technological developments. The Navy and the Army each sent their own technical teams, and there was no communication or cooperation in their schedules, and the Germans received two missions of the same purpose.

When these people arrived in Germany, the two sides did not exchange technology in a sincere manner. Although the Germans asked them to 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 similarly did not tell Germany that they had successfully developed a microwave cavity magnetotube. The Germans have always thought that they have nothing worth mentioning in front of them, and they think the same way, "Germany may be ahead of us in this regard." ”

At the same time as he returned to China, the Navy also received information that the United States and China were equipped with radars, and when the experts returned, the Navy began to develop its own radar system. 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 problems in the manufacturing process, the "Type 21" radar is not reliable when used on warships, and it is very bad in bad sea conditions.

At the same time as the Navy, the Army also developed its own new radar, the prototype at the beginning was very unsuitable for field use, but then the "6" type of 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 is active 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 Pearl Harbor attack at the end of 1941, the Chinese 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.

On the other hand, the Navy used captured US radars to imitate the "41" type air defense fire control radar system, which was later improved into the "42" type radar, which was slightly better than the former, and the navy produced a total of several hundred sets of this type of system. The army also derived its own series of radars from the captured American radars, but the effect of the imitation was very poor, and he was very dissatisfied with it, and only produced a small amount. In the later stages of the war, the army finally succeeded in improving a new radar that was reliable and practical. In this way, both the Navy and the 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 plagued by endless failures, and it is rare for it to run so smoothly today. The light inside the air defense combat command post is dim, and the electric fan is turned on to maintain a constant temperature; judging from the situation on the display screen, the whole autumn weather today is crisp and cloudless, and perhaps this is the reason why the system is running smoothly.

Its air defense system relies on the support of many radar bases across the country, and in the past it has always used backward manual methods. 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 political axe decided to establish a "white light" system.

There are three large companies that manufacture "white light". As soon as the news came out that the company had decided to adopt the "white light" system, the major companies launched a fierce sales war.

The "Mitsubishi" Corporation used all means to bribe and win over the high-ranking officials who said to be the political axe, and to make huge donations to the political circles, and finally won a large order.

However, 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 the people.

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 crew manually showed that its course extension was pointing to the expected meeting point with the enemy plane.

(To be continued)