"Attention to all units, attention to all units. The escort fighters www.biquge.info attack and entangle the enemy's air defense fighters, and the attack aircraft group will follow me! Because of his continuous meritorious achievements in the naval battle against Japan, and his reluctance to return to the rear as an instructor, Wu Hao, who had been promoted to the rank of colonel at this moment, became the flight commander of the Second Air Fleet. The first attack wave group launched by Lin Luo was commanded by him.

It was 8:20 a.m. on November 4. The 1st Attack Wave Group of the Ming Navy, which basically maintained a cruising speed of 210 knots, came to the vicinity of the 59th Task Force very smoothly. They could already see the huge fleet of lotus flowers in the distant sea.

In fact, during the journey, they were almost caught by an American reconnaissance plane flying in the direction of the Ming naval fleet. It's just that the heavy clouds and distance in that airspace at that time were too far away for both sides to detect each other, so that Wu Hao's fleet avoided being exposed in advance.

The radius of the outer air defense posts of the average aircraft carrier formation is about 20 nautical miles, but the cautious Fletcher expanded the range to 30 nautical miles after learning that his position had been revealed. At the same time, he also greatly strengthened the air defense force, and many air defense fighters were sent into the sky, making the air defense force of the 59th task force even stronger. As for the air defense radar, the effective radius of the air defense radar of the Americans in this era was about thirty nautical miles. And that's on a sunny day.

Fletcher had a whopping eight aircraft carriers in his hands, with a total capacity of about eight hundred aircraft when fully loaded. Although this figure cannot be reached for various reasons, the number of carrier aircraft is still very considerable.

Based on the establishment of two fighter squadrons and spare aircraft, the entire 59th Task Force has about 300 to 320 fighters at the moment. In addition to the 72 fighters that previously served as escorts for the 1st Strike Wave Group, Task Force 59 also has nearly 120 air defense fighters in the sky. The main reason why all the fighters were not sent out was because Fletcher wanted to leave enough escort fighters for the second attack wave group.

The first attack wave commanded by Wu Hao had only 72 fighters on escort duty, and two had to return due to mechanical problems on the way. At this time, it was already very difficult to fight nearly 120 air defense fighters with 70 fighters, but the commander of the first attack wave of the US Navy made a shocking decision.

The commander with the first attack wave did not leave his fleet too far before he saw the swarming Ming attack group. After all, there were hundreds of huge aircraft fleets not far away, and it was impossible for him not to see them.

Anxious for the safety of his own fleet, the commander actually ordered the fighters escorting his attack group to leave the formation to intercept the Ming group. And he himself continued to fly in the direction of the Ming fleet with bombers and torpedo planes.

No one knows what the commander was thinking at the time, because he didn't return to his mothership alive. Although there was an order for the escort group to chase after the blockade was completed, in practice this was simply impossible.

"Their warship has just finished flying its fighters, and they haven't returned to the core area yet, so everyone seize the opportunity to kill them!" Wu Hao looked at the huge lotus array on the sea slightly, and loudly ordered his subordinates to rush over, and he himself was the first to take the lead.

At this moment, the sea and the sky were boiling. Hundreds of dense aircraft flocked all the way to the skies above the fleet from 30 nautical miles away, and the sky was full of warplanes from both sides, and the intensity even dazzled the officers and men on the American warships. There are endless incidents of mishits.

The quality of Daming's fighters has been improved many times and has always maintained a very high level. However, when the U.S. Navy launched the latest F6F single-engine single-seat fighter Hellcat, Daming HNA's technical advantage in fighters is basically not much.

It's not that the Americans have exploded black technology, but both sides have pushed the performance of their latest fighters to the peak of piston engines. If you want to continue to improve the combat performance of fighter jets, you can only count on the jets that are still in the laboratory.

Da Ming's long-standing lead in fighters began to be gradually shortened by their opponents, because they were already at full level. After more than two years of actual combat, the allies have also mobilized all their strength to quickly complete the technical catch-up work under the wartime constitution. No one dares to take this kind of thing lightly.

The quality of the fighters on both sides was about the same, but in terms of quantity, the Americans completely had the upper hand. Nearly 200 air defense fighters are far from being able to be completely entangled by just 70 Fighting Falcons. At this time, the technical and experience advantages of the Ming pilots were revealed.

American pilots, especially those on aircraft carriers, are basically carefully selected elites. In the time since the outbreak of the Great War, they have not let go of their rigorous training, and frankly they have done well enough. But compared with the pilots of Daming Hainan Airlines, there is still a big gap between them.

Because Zhang Cheng attaches great importance to it, the pilots of Daming Naval Airlines, especially the pilots of aircraft carriers, have been trained rigorously for a long time before the war, and every pilot is an elite selected from continuous screening. Because the Ming Dynasty has a large base of high-quality people, the elites they selected are not the kind of Japanese.

After the outbreak of the war, the Daming Navy basically won all the naval battles against Japan. Victory in naval battles means that more pilots will survive, and these veterans with actual combat experience are far from being able to compare with those who train hard but have little experience in warfare.

In the midst of the rain of bullets, a large number of Daming fighters successfully broke through the blockade of US air defense fighters and rushed into the air defense fire network formed by the air defense fire of the sea surface fleet. Whether it is the regulations of the combat regulations or the experience of daily training, the US Navy pilots have long been told not to easily rush into the air defense fire network of their own warships under any circumstances.

In this era, there are no identification devices for friend or foe, and in order to protect the safety of warships, the anti-aircraft fire on battleships has always been denied. They will fire at all aircraft that come within range. Whether it is the Ming Dynasty's fighter or his own people, it is the same.

The air defense fighters of the defending side were all chasing the bombers and torpedo planes, and they were all ignoring the fighters escorting the escort. Because fighters with only machine guns could not pose a mortal threat to warships on the sea.

On the other hand, the attacker's escort fighters had to entangle the enemy's air defense fighters as much as possible in order to buy time and fighters for their attack aircraft units.

The elite pilots of Daming Hainan Airlines successfully entered the air defense circle of the 59th task force with their superb experience and technology, but they also paid a lot of price for this.

Only about 70 of the 108 dive bombers rushed in, and the losses were close to half. The losses of 86 torpedo planes were even greater, and less than 40 fighters managed to break into the air defense circle.

The main reason for such a large loss was that the US military had too many air defense fighters, especially the escort fighter group of its first attack wave came to defend its fleet, resulting in heavy losses to the Ming attack aircraft group.

At the same time, although the US pilots are inexperienced, their training is not bad. Their new Hellcat is also very good at attacking slow dive bombers and torpedo planes.

This is also the outstanding ability of the pilots of Daming Hainan Airlines, if it is replaced by those rookie pilots of Japan Hainan Airlines in the later period. Maybe they won't even be able to get a tenth of the planes into it.

"Follow me!" Wu Hao, who had reached the level of perfection in technology, shouted loudly and beckoned several dive bombers in his formation after assigning tasks to each detachment, and rushed towards an aircraft carrier on the outermost part of the 59th Task Force.

The USS Wasp aircraft carrier is actually an aircraft carrier of an experimental nature. The Americans' aircraft carrier technology is not like the Ming Dynasty, which has Zhang Cheng's technical guidance, and there is no need to take detours, they are groping their way forward step by step. The Wasp was born out of this background. If analyzed in terms of displacement, the Wasp can only be counted as a light aircraft carrier, since its displacement is only fifteen thousand tons.

With nearly 80 fighters and more than 2,000 crew members in such a small tonnage, it can only reduce the performance in other aspects as much as possible.

The first is a weakening of the engine capacity, a reduction in the boiler compartment. The consequence was a direct drop in power, which could barely reach a top speed of thirty knots. Then there was the fact that the entire battleship had basically no armor to speak of, especially under the waterline, which basically had little ability to resist torpedo attacks.

In addition, because of the limitation of tonnage and area, the Wasp can carry limited anti-aircraft weapons, making this aircraft carrier the worst air defense capability among the regular aircraft carriers of the entire US Navy. Because of this, the aircraft carrier has been on a training mission on the west coast before.

The main reason why this aircraft carrier was brought to the battlefield this time was that this naval battle was so important that the US Navy had to send out all the resources it could use. The Wasp, which was no longer suitable for a new sea and air battle, also had to be put on the battlefield.

Due to its own lack of capabilities, the Wasp has always been in an awkward position in the tail of the crane in the 59th task force. After the previous release of fighter planes, this aircraft carrier was the last to complete the release work. And because of the slow speed, it also became the only aircraft carrier that failed to return to the core area of the fleet.

In this context, it is not difficult to understand that the Wasp is used as a preferred target.

Braving the flying artillery fire, Wu Hao, who was obviously excited, held the operating stick with a hideous expression, and drove his fighter plane from the blue sky to the Wasp, which was turning like a huge whale on the sea, and rushed down! (To be continued.) )