April 22, 1939, 8:30 a.m.

On the aircraft carrier HMS Brilliant, the flagship of the British Indian Grand Fleet, the tension before the battle was already enveloped. On the deck, the Swallows, Swordfish, and Prisms carrier-based planes were lined up, and the flight crew made the final preparations before takeoff, and the bombs and torpedoes were already in place. Inside the ship, the eyes of the staff officers were nervous and anxious, because 30 minutes ago the "Walrus" seaplane sent a telegram that they had spotted the Chinese fleet heading south 220 nautical miles away! Fearing being shot down by the opposing FW-190C, the clumsy "Walrus" seaplane simply searched with radar from a distance and did not dare to approach in detail. Therefore, the specific situation of the Chinese fleet has not been clarified. However, everyone still understands that the time has come for carrier-based aircraft to go into battle.

"Admiral, the carrier-based aircraft are ready to strike at any time!" "220 nautical miles, the flying fish is just able to land, isn't it a little farther away?" Cunningham left, looking down on the porthole of the aviation deck, and walked to the chart.

"Can't get any closer." Phillips pointed to the symbol representing the Chinese fleet that had just been marked by the staff officer. "The Chinese reconnaissance planes will also detect us at any time, and their A-4 Thunderhawk is more than twice as fast as the Swordfish, if both sides set off at the same time, they will definitely arrive first, and maybe they can meet our Swordfish on the way back!" "Broken plane!" Cunningham gritted his teeth and cursed. The British Empire really fell,

The torpedo bombers on the aircraft carrier are actually still biplanes! At the thought of the Chinese A-4 Thunder Eagle and the German Stuka, Admiral Cunningham had a feeling of wanting to cry. In fact, Britain's aviation technology is not lagging behind Germany, whether it is engines or aircraft materials, it is not lagging behind, but why is the design so like garbage? If you have FW-190C and A- in your own hands

4b such an aircraft, that Chinese Taiwan is simply meat on the chopping block.

Cunningham puffed out another cigar, and all the officers in the command center were watching him.

Everyone knows the fact that the carrier-based aircraft of the British Imperial Navy are in tatters, but no matter how broken the planes are, this battle will have to be fought! Otherwise, the British Empire would be gone. Besides, how can you say that now it is four aircraft carriers fighting one aircraft carrier, and if you don't even dare to fight this kind of battle with a clear advantage in strength, then how can this world war be fought? Simply surrender to the Chinese and Hitler.

After exhaling a cloud of white smoke, Cunningham took a deep breath: "The carrier-based aircraft will attack in 30 minutes!" We would have moved another 20 minutes to the northwest, and the distance between the two sides would have been about 200 nautical miles, or 390 kilometers. After sending the carrier-based aircraft, the formation was immediately disbanded, and Phillips, calculated the optimal route and grouping, as well as the position of the aircraft carriers in 4 hours, and then told the navigator of the carrier-based aircraft.

"Upper groove, where is the fleet going to regroup?" Phillips asked after a moment's thought.

"To Perth Harbour, we also have to defend Australia!" "But General, we may not have enough burning cakes, I'm afraid there is no way to get all the ships to get to Perth Harbor." Phillips mentally calculated and reminded.

"I know that as long as we make sure that the aircraft carrier can get to the port of Perth, the Counterattack and the Sovereign will go to Madagascar for shelter, and the heavy cruisers will go there too, and let the high-speed tankers follow the carrier." Cunningham wrinkled his brows and ordered: "Also, urge Whitehall and let them quickly transfer a batch of F4F fighters, SBD dive bombers, and TBD torpedo planes to us, I can't stand it anymore......"

"Scouting ......,."

Just as Admiral Cunningham was complaining about the poor performance of the British planes, the shouts of the radar director made the air in the island suddenly nervous.

"Admiral, it's their Min 25 type, 10,000 meters away! 9500 meters! They're in range of their radar, and they're afraid they've spotted us! ”

The words of the radar director made Cunningham shake slightly, when he sent a seaplane to search for the opponent, the opponent's seaplane was also looking for him! And now that both sides have exposed their positions, it's up to them to see who is more ruthless!

"Attack!"

Cunningham knew he couldn't wait any longer!

At the sound of an order, the four British aircraft carriers floating on the surface of the Indian Ocean began to turn their bows at the same time, looking for a suitable wind direction, and after a while, a series of Tubenose Swallow, Prism and Swordfish planes took off from the deck, and 40 Tubenose Swallow fighters, 75 Prism dive bombers, and 76 Swordfish torpedo bombers were divided into several groups and flew northward in the sky. At the same time, the huge British and Indian fleets began to disperse into six teams, each galloping in different directions.

At 9:40 a.m., the carrier-based aircraft of the Chinese Navy's advance aircraft carrier battle group were all ready to go.

The USS Taiwan aircraft carrier was speeding up to the wind at a speed of 30 knots, and it seemed that a 12-level typhoon had suddenly blown on the deck, making many sailors almost unable to stand. Two FW-190C carrier-based fighters, which had already driven their horsepower to the maximum, suddenly jumped out and rushed out of the deck first.

Then, one after the other, one after the other. The USS Taiwan released fighter jets at a freezing rate of two per minute, and a huge cluster of 65 A-4B Thunderhawks and 18 FW-190Cs obscured the sky in an instant.

Seeing that all of his 83 carrier-based aircraft were safely lifted into the air, the speed above Chapter 855 could run more than 60 nautical miles in 2 hours! That is, more than 100 kilometers, in this cloudy weather, it is difficult to say whether you can find each other! If this wave does not find an opponent, then this naval battle will be lost in half.

Just when Colonel Anderson was worried about this naval battle and the future of the British Empire, the sound of the "Walrus" seaplane in charge of reconnaissance suddenly came from the earphones.

"Boston 1, Boston 1, I'm Haiyan 5, I'm Haiyan 5, a Chinese seaplane was spotted at 6 o'clock, at a distance of 85 kilometers, at a speed of 300, in the direction of southeast."

Damn it! Just after taking off was discovered, these Chinese reconnaissance planes are really annoying! Colonel Anderson gritted his teeth and ordered loudly, "Radiance Chapter 855 Group 70."

Those who carried out detection within a kilometer were also chased and killed by a squadron of pipe-nosed swallows for this purpose. "How can there be only 192?" Zhao Zheng frowned and said to himself, "Could it be that Cunningham still has any strength left?" ”

"No!" Chief of Staff Meng Hailong shook his head and said with certainty: "At this point, Cunningham will not spare any more strength, he sent 192 carriers, which can only mean that the number of ships in his hands is only about 230." It should be four motherships......"

"Four motherships!?" Zhao Zheng opened his hand and interrupted Meng Hailong: "There are still two motherships to go to Bei'er?" Is it time to attack our convoy? ”

Without waiting for Meng Hailong to answer, Zhao Zheng continued to ask: "Where is the nose losing fleet now?" ”

"It has been withdrawn to the Andaman Islands, where the Navy has deployed a night aviation regiment, a combat aviation regiment with a total of 250 fighters, in addition to an anti-aircraft artillery brigade." Meng Hailong smiled and said: "With such a powerful air defense force, the 120 carriers of the two British aircraft carriers can't help them. Moreover, there are FW-200F reconnaissance planes and 48 Min-25 reconnaissance planes responsible for the search, so there should be no problem.

"Then I'll be relieved." Zhao Zhengda breathed a sigh of relief and asked again: "How far is the British carrier-based aircraft group from us?" When will it arrive? "It's 200 nautical miles, and if we don't move, we're going to... It takes 2 hours to get to 1 If we drive 60 nautical miles north, it will take about 2 hours and 40 minutes to get there. Meng Hailong calculated it again and said with a smile: "We and the main fleet still have a strong nautical mile, if we get close at full speed, the distance between the two sides will only be about 180 nautical miles in 2 hours." ”

Zhao Zheng understood Meng Hailong's suggestion, he wanted the main fleet in the north to send fighter jets to cover his advance fleet. If the advance fleet goes north at full speed and runs more than 60 nautical miles in two hours, it will have no problem, while the main fleet sends dozens of 190Cs after driving south for an hour, then the 192 carriers of the British will not be able to hurt the Taiwan even if they find it.

Just when Zhao was about to give an order according to Meng Hailong's suggestion, the communications staff officer handed over another urgent telegram.

"Sir, the British have disbanded the formation!" Meng Hailong glanced at the telegram and said in a deep voice: "The report of Yunying 10, they found that the British fleet was scattered into 6 routes, fleeing in the direction of South Africa, Madagascar, Australia, and the Middle East. ”

"Cunningham can run if he wants to! Zhao Zheng gritted his teeth and laughed a few times, "What a Cunningham!" If it weren't for the stinky cards in our hands, we really wouldn't be able to clean him up with our means. As he spoke, he leaned over and stared at the charts. Sea Dragon, where do you guess Cunningham's aircraft carriers will flee? ”

"Australia!" Meng Hailong thought for a moment and replied.

"Same as I thought! This old fox will not give up Australia! No! It was their British Empire that was reluctant to give up Australia. Zhao Zheng stretched out his right hand and slapped it heavily on the map, and sneered: "Okay! Let's spread out too! Give the order to the main fleet and ask them to divide the 8 motherships into two groups, one to the south and one to the southwest. "In addition, tell the USS Taiwan carrier-based fleet that the enemy fleet has dispersed its operations and let them carefully search in the southerly direction of the original location." "Sir, do we want to?" Meng Hailong asked.

"No, let's just hide under these clouds!" Zhao Zheng shook his head slightly, "We run too far north, and the carrier-based fleet will have to reduce the time for searching the enemy fleet accordingly." "The fleet was ordered to take the aircraft carriers as the center, and the ships were scattered and the air defense formations were put up. The second squadron of fighters, ready to go. Let the aircraft carrier Canton send a squadron of FW-190Cs to cover us. ”

After giving this series of orders, Zhao Zheng sat back on the high-backed armchair in the middle of the command center, closed his eyes, and began to recuperate. He knew that now as the commander-in-chief of the fleet, all he could do was wait for the results of the battle, and pray to the heavens.

At this time, in the depths of the Indian Ocean, the British Royal Navy's aircraft carrier Radiance, under the escort of a light cruiser and five destroyers, was heading at full speed towards the sea under a large white cloud to the south.

Like Zhao Zheng, Cunningham chose to hide the fleet under the clouds and leave his fate to God. Because he can't run away at full speed now, and then his carrier-based plane won't be able to come back! He was an admiral of the British Royal Navy, not an admiral of the Japanese Navy, and he could not leave hundreds of pilots to flee for his life!

"Sir, the radar has spotted an unidentified plane." Inside the island of the USS Tejas aircraft carrier. The exclamation of the radar director made everyone's hearts feel as if they had fallen into an ice cellar.

"Another Chinese reconnaissance plane!" Admiral Cunningham's teeth were about to be crushed: "Send fighter jets to shoot it down!" Hurriedly! Can't let it follow us! "Admiral, now we only have 10 tube-nosed swallows." Phillips reminded in a low voice.

"10 Tube-nosed Swallows" Cunningham gasped, he dispersed the fleet to reduce the possibility of being wiped out by the opponent, but correspondingly, his own defense capability was also dispersed!

Originally, the four aircraft carriers could take out a total of more than 30 pipe-nosed swallows to provide air cover, but now they only have 1 aircraft available, so once they are locked by the opponent's reconnaissance aircraft, it means the loss of the aircraft carrier!

"Admiral, let's head south at full speed! Try to distance yourself from Chinese aircraft carriers. Phillips suggested at this point.

"And what about our carrier-based aircraft?" Kan Yu'an hesitated and asked rhetorically.

"Let them land on other aircraft carriers" Phillips took out a white silk handkerchief and wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead, "Now that we are locked by the Chinese reconnaissance aircraft, let's simply attract their carrier-based aircraft and exchange them for a chance to escape for other aircraft carriers!" ”！。