"The order given above is to occupy the Philippines and, if possible, to annihilate the main fleet of the Japanese Combined Fleet, but..."

Standing on the bridge and looking at the endless ocean, Shen Honglie shook his head.

"If you can't find it, you can't talk about annihilation."

"Finding the enemy is the task of the Air Force, and we just need to cover the landing..."

"The problem is that if the Japanese are not found, if the marines suddenly attack when they land, I am afraid that there will be heavy casualties..."

Chen Shaokuan nodded, agreeing with Shen Honglie's opinion.

It is absolutely impossible for the main fleet composed of aircraft carriers to be close to the coast to support the marines, after all, the core combat method of modern naval warfare is to hide oneself and discover the enemy. If the fleet were to approach the coast of the Philippines, it would easily reveal its position.

At that time, whether it is the Japanese shore-based fighters in the Philippines or the underwater submarines, they can pose a great threat to the fleet.

Therefore, in order to ensure his own safety, Chen Shaokuan could only let the fleet sail in a safe sea area. In this case, if something happens during the landing, it will be difficult for the fleet to provide support to the landing force.

"But we're only providing air cover, and the rest won't be our turn..."

In fact, the fighters of the Air Force can also provide air support for the Marine Corps, after all, the range of the ZD-20 is extremely large, and the range of itself alone can reach nearly 4,000 kilometers, and even the heavy third-generation fighters of later generations are only this distance, and their combat radius can reach nearly 2,000 kilometers.

The distance between Guangzhou and the Philippines is less than 1,000 kilometers, and even to Davao City, the southernmost point of the Philippines, is just over 2,000 kilometers.

Ahem, of course, this southernmost one, you definitely can't go.

This time, no land-based fighters of the Air Force were dispatched to participate in the operation. The main concern is navigation, after all, the only thing that can accommodate a large number of fighters is the air base in Guangzhou, which is almost a thousand kilometers away from the Philippines ...

Nearly 1,000 kilometers, such a large distance, even if the range of a fighter is enough, navigation is a very difficult thing.

After all, the ZD-20, which is currently the main equipment of the Air Force, is not equipped with an airborne radar. Therefore, navigation can only be done by the navigator using a map and compass to calculate navigation. At that time, navigation mainly relied on ground references, and in dense foggy weather or at sea, it relied on gyroscopes, compasses, maps, and even sunlight, moonlight, and starlight, so the route formulation of those years was to find obvious ground references.

Of course, the error rate is very high, so many long-range fighters and bombers in World War II were not lost because of battle damage, but because they lost their navigators or were forced to parachute because they could not find an airfield due to a miscalculation.

Battle of the Coral Sea. The four SBDs led by Lieutenant Colonel Ault of the Yorktown were lost on their way back and all went missing.

Therefore, it is too dangerous to have Air Force fighters fly thousands of miles to provide cover for the Philippine landing force. Moreover, the failure rate of fighters during World War II was very high, and the farther the combat distance, the higher the failure rate, and if the destination is the Philippines, the round-trip plus the range required for the operation is at least 2,000 kilometers...

At a distance of 2,000 kilometers, it is possible to say that the number of fighters that crashed into the sea due to a malfunction. More than the number of warplanes shot down by enemy forces.

So in the case of no way, unless it is an emergency, Chen Shaokuan and Shen Honglie can only do it alone. In fact, Chen Shaokuan and Shen Honglie did not really want to seek the air force, after all, the contradiction between the air force and the navy is far greater than the contradiction with the army.

These. How much is due to the relationship between carrier-based aircraft.

World War II is not like later generations, later countries basically have air forces, and during World War II, even a considerable number of powerful countries did not have air forces, such as Japan and the United States. …,

Of course, none of this matters now, after all, the Air Force existed before the establishment of the Nationalist government, and it has been 30 years. Even if you want to, it's impossible.

The biggest contradiction between the Air Force and the Navy, and it should be said that the biggest contradiction besides military spending, is the struggle for the ownership of the Navy's carrier-based aircraft.

Believe that everyone knows a person. A man who is still alive now.

Air Marshal of Nazi Germany, the number two man of the German Nazi Party, Hitler's designated successor. The fat man who was sentenced to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials, and who committed suicide in prison two hours before the execution of the death penalty by taking a toxic potassium cyanide capsule, Herman? William? Goring.

Goering, the fat man, famously said, "Everything that can fly in the empire is in my hands." ”

This sentence. It is precisely the greatest contradiction between the Air Force and the Navy.

The Air Force has been established for more than 30 years, although history cannot be compared with that of the Army. There is also a big gap with the Navy, but after all, the position of the Air Force has gradually become solid in the past 30 years, and the whispers against the Air Force have gradually disappeared.

In the final analysis, in the case of more and more countries establishing air forces, there are still very few people who will go backwards in history, not to mention that Yan Guang has Yan Guang behind them as a backer.

Before the advent of aircraft carriers, although there were some contradictions between the air force and the navy, they were mainly in military spending, and the contradictions in other aspects were not very large—————— if the air force did not always talk about the affairs of Longkou Bay.

However, after the appearance of aircraft carriers, there was a public opinion in the Air Force, that is, everything that could fly should be managed by the Air Force. The same should be true of carrier-based aircraft on aircraft carriers.

Although the Navy at that time had not yet recognized the importance of aircraft carriers, this argument was an offense in the eyes of the Navy, and a contradiction between the two sides arose, and this contradiction has continued to this day.

It is precisely for this reason that Chen Shaokuan and others are reluctant to ask the Air Force for help.

However, if it is a bombing during the landing, then it is no problem, because it is a matter for the army, and the air force dispatched bombers to bomb the Japanese army and the naval attache in the Philippines, Chen Shaokuan and others naturally do not have to worry...

As for why there is no need to worry about navigation when dispatching bombers ...

The bomber has a large enough range, so even if something goes wrong, there is plenty of time to adjust the direction, and there is even a toilet on the latest H-40. And most importantly, when the bombers come, they can go home as long as they drop their bombs. And if the fighters come, they will have to fight in the air for at least half to an hour, and then they can go home after the fight...

If you are wounded in an air battle, you will not even have a place to make a forced landing, so you can only make a forced landing on the surface of the sea.

The most critical thing is. If the fighter and the bomber come together, you can't let the bomber wait for an hour in the airspace of the war zone and then go back together...

Thinking so, Shen Honglie glanced outside again.

"No news yet?"

Regardless of whether there is news or not, it will be done in the end, after all, it is impossible to change the entire battle plan because of a combined fleet.

"Count the time. The bombers of the Air Force should be almost there..."

looked at the clock on the side, and after calculating the time, Chen Shaokuan asked.

At this time, the fleet was still in a state of radio silence, and it was impossible to contact the air force, after all, once the radio was used, it would be equivalent to exposing its position, and doing so would put the fleet in a disadvantageous position.

So everything can only be carried out by a strict schedule.

Shen Honglie on the other side looked at the form. I nodded too.

"It's time..."

"Then let's attack..."

With Chen Shaokuan's order, the originally huge mixed fleet began to split up and continue to sail to the Philippines, while the other part changed course. …,

A certain degree of deck wind is required for carrier-based aircraft to take off, so the fleet must not anchor. Of course, this is what later generations of jets will need. Piston planes of this period were not so much of a problem, especially if the deck length was sufficient, even without deck wind, it could take off, but it would not be as smooth as with deck wind.

Of course, none of this is important, and the most important thing is if the fleet stops at all. Then if a submarine discovers the fleet, all the ships of the fleet will become live targets.

You must know that in this era against torpedoes, the best way is neither mine nets nor naval guns. It is precisely the speed of the ship itself—————— the early torpedoes are sailing close to the water, so they can also be hard killed with naval guns, but this is not the case with later torpedoes, so there will be no situation where close defense guns such as phalanx will prevent torpedoes, because if the torpedo is sailing at a depth of about ten meters, the power of weapons such as phalanx will be greatly weakened. Naturally, it is not much of a threat to torpedoes.

————————————————————

The sortie fleet consisted mainly of landing ships and escort ships, and in the escort fleet there were not only a certain number of light cruisers. There were even a few heavy cruisers and battleships in the —————— battlecruisers, the skin was too thin, but the cost of construction was higher than that of the heavy cruisers, so they were left around the aircraft carrier as escorts.

"Sortie !!"

After entering the Qianhai area, the landing ships, which had been traveling under the escort ship, opened their hatches one after another and sent out the landing craft and amphibious landing vehicles from the ships.

Landing craft aside, the amphibious combat vehicle was specially developed for landing on these islands in the South Sea, after all, the main battlefield in the future will still be in the Pacific Ocean...

At this time, the Japanese army had also discovered the landing fleet, but in an instant, the dense landing craft and amphibious combat vehicles on the sea surface were covered by the fire of the shore defense artillery.

On the other hand, after receiving the warning from the coastal defense troops, Japanese fighters and bombers in the rear also took off one after another, preparing to strike at the landing force on the sea.

Looking at the landing craft and amphibious combat vehicles on the sea, and the decrease in the firepower covering the shore defense, Li Shijing was not surprised. Just like Taiwan, there are only a few places where the Philippines can land, and it is easy to guess where it will land, so it is not surprising that there are such strict precautions here, and what really needs to be considered is how to successfully seize the beach under this strict precautions.

"General, the Japanese planes are coming!!"

An officer ran into the bridge and reported to Li Shijing.

In fact, there is no need for him to say that Li Shijing can see those dense Japanese planes in the sky.

"Coming towards us..."

Smiling calmly, Li Shijing said to the officer.

"Order the ships to circumvent !!"

That is, when Li Shijing said this, the landing ship he was on and the nearby ships were in unison, and then a burst of dense anti-aircraft artillery fire was already facing the incoming enemy planes.

The security of the landing force is indeed protected by the navy, but it is not that it does not have the ability to defend itself at all, at least both the escort ships and the landing ships themselves have quite strong air defense capabilities.

Because it was the first time to fight, the attacking Japanese planes obviously did not expect that the fleet on the sea had such strong anti-aircraft firepower, and in an unguarded situation, several enemy planes were shot down, and one enemy plane was even torn apart by a 30mm multi-barreled Gatling gun equipped with a heavy cruiser.

On the sea, although the number of multi-barreled cannons equipped by heavy cruisers is small, and some ships even have only one on it, these cannons are like killing machines, and as long as they target the enemy planes, they will basically inevitably die. …,

Unfortunately, these cannons consume the amount of ammunition so quickly that sometimes they have to be reloaded before they have been fighting for a minute, after all, the rate of fire of thousands of rounds per minute is really terrifying, but it is precisely because of this that these cannons can show the style of killing machines.

It's just that even with such a killing machine, the fleet is still in a state of passive beating after all, and in a short time, several ships have already been hit by aerial bombs dropped by Japanese planes.

Fortunately, although the lethality of these bombs is high, they cannot cause lethal damage to the ship—————— at least as long as it is not as unlucky as the Arizona.

And the torpedoes, which were capable of causing fatal damage, were also dropped by the Japanese, but none of them hit the naval ships, so so far none of the ships have sunk to the bottom of the sea.

And at this time, a group of planes also flew in the other direction.

"Our plane!"

When a bunch of small black dots appeared on the horizon, some of the sailors who were fighting shouted loudly.

In fact, there is no need for them to shout out, Li Shijing already knew, after all, his ships were also equipped with equipment such as radar, and when those planes were more than 100 kilometers away, Li Shijing already knew.

"It's finally here..."

Looking at these friendly opportunities, Li Shijing also exhaled, and then explained.

"Command the people below, pay attention to the beating, don't beat your own people."

"Yes!!"

If you beat yourself down, it's really a joke.

The Navy is equipped with not the ZD-20, but another carrier-based aircraft, the JZ-20, which is designed for use on aircraft carriers. In fact, this is not surprising, because the fighter used by the general air force pays more attention to high-altitude and high-speed performance, while the carrier-based aircraft used in naval warfare pays more attention to low-altitude performance, and the focus of the two is not the same.

And in order to reduce the position occupied by carrier-based aircraft on the deck and hangar of aircraft carriers, generally speaking, carrier-based aircraft have to fold their wings, and some aircraft even have to fold the nose of the aircraft. Of course, these are nothing for carrier-based aircraft, after all, they are taken into account when it is involved, but it is more troublesome for high-altitude and high-speed fighters, because then the strength of the wings will be more or less threatened—————— if it will not be affected, it is estimated that the fighters of later generations will have folding wings, after all, it will save space.

This carrier-based aircraft, named JZ-10, can be said to be completely different from the ZD-20, but in terms of performance, JZ-10 is not bad at all, at least it will not be inferior to aircraft like Zero Battle, so the Navy is quite trustworthy in this carrier-based aircraft.

At the moment, these fighters are engaged in a series of air battles with the Japanese army's roadbed aviation.

From time to time, one or two fighters would crash on the sea, and even sometimes during the chase, the ammunition fired by the fighters would hit the ships below.

But at this time, it can't be so much, after all, the pilots in the air are also fighting to the death.

The JZ-10 is generally stronger than the Zero and Type 3 in terms of performance, but there are also a certain number of Type 4 in the Japanese army, so at this time the two sides are inseparable in the air, and on the other side, the landing craft and amphibious combat vehicles of the landing fleet have already driven to the beach...