One afternoon and one night, Huang Zhonghua and Li Guang took turns on duty, closely watching the movements of the Japanese army. Both of them were actually a little nervous, saying that they were on duty in turns, but in fact, neither of them really fell asleep, and when they were sleepy, they squinted in the bridge for a while, and they couldn't sleep at all.

On the surface of the sea on a rainy night, it is still rainy and foggy, and the field of vision is extremely limited, giving people a mysterious sense of ignorance. Several frigates surrounded the Liberty Dragon, and at this moment the defensive circle was also slightly expanded.

Li Guang was both proud and worried about the fleet he had built, and he was quite a bit of a loser. What is proud of this is that although this aircraft carrier group does not dare to say that it leads the world in training and equipment, it is definitely the clearest and most advanced in terms of operational concepts.

During the interval between Huang Zhonghua's duties, Li Guang spent two hours checking the post on the battleship. In the military, inspection of posts is not only a means of supervising discipline but also an effective means of boosting morale. A general's words and deeds have a huge psychological impact on the soldiers. After a long career in the army, Li Guang slowly found some means to boost morale.

Throughout the Navy, several senior officers had different methods of boosting morale. In terms of the navy, Zheng Xuechang and Li Guang's habits are the most similar, and the core is only four words - practice.

On the Liberty Dragon aircraft carrier, officers and men at all levels talked and laughed harmoniously, and there was almost no estrangement between officers and soldiers.

Ji Keliang is the first soldier, and in the long-term life and death with the soldiers, he has already become the anchor in the hearts of the soldiers.

In the army, Yang Weiwu, the commander of the mountain regiment, has the style of an ancient famous general, eating and living with the soldiers, caring about the soldiers' welfare, and loving the soldiers like children.

However, Bao Gang, the commander of the field regiment, was what Li Guang admired the most, and he did not have many means, but he truly achieved the equality of officers and soldiers. Don't look at Bao Gang, who administers the army the most harshly among all the colonels and lieutenant colonels, but he is loved by the officers and soldiers from the bottom of their hearts. This may be because Bao Gang was born poor, fighting step by step from a small soldier to now becoming the regiment commander. Although he is not highly educated, he understands the psychology of soldiers best.

Although the USS Liberty Dragon is considered to be in its first war, it is still very early to mature. Compared with the battleship Atlantic, aircraft carriers have more troops and are more complex to manage. Judging from the operation of the soldiers during the day, many links are not proficient. Moreover, since the aircraft carrier regulations of the Maritime Resistance Force are all copies of the British aircraft carrier training manual at the moment, many aspects are actually not completely suitable for Li Guang's aircraft carrier combat concept.

Li Guang was a cautious man, and he did not make many changes until he had thoroughly understood the rules and regulations of the British Navy. Although there are more decades of knowledge than people in this era, but the people who travel through are not omnipotent, Britain can formulate such a set of norms, it is definitely not three or five people can pat their heads, these things can be said to be the masterpiece of the British Navy, and it is not possible to do it in a day and a half if you want to study it thoroughly.

After the whole ship checked the posts, Li Guang just closed his eyes and was confused for a while.

At three o'clock in the morning, there was an abnormal movement in the Japanese fleet. Eleven Japanese ships turned and sailed westward, in the direction of the Mariana Islands.

Li Guang didn't understand the reason, but the Japanese army's move should be said to be reasonable. The nest was attacked, and there are generally two reactions, one is not afraid to go home, and the other is to hurry home to see.

However, these two thinking reactions can only be judged based on the personality of the generals, and there are not many sources of information in this regard, so there is no way to judge them. At this time, the Japanese fleet began to turn westward, knowing that this was not the nearest route, and the behavior of the Japanese army was not very normal. The staff officers of the Naval Resistance Army also could not understand why the Japanese army was like this.

Actually, the reason is simple. It took so much time for Muwei Gangding to know what was happening in Kwajalein Atoll. At this moment, his fleet had been sailing for thirteen hours, five hundred kilometers, and nearly a thousand kilometers from Kwajalein Atoll, and had just stepped into the radiating range of the low-power radio station.

Upon learning of the news of the sneak attack on Kwajalein Atoll, he chose not to dare to go home and wanted to go to the central base of the Japanese army in Truk.

But at this time, another submarine of the Naval Resistance Army engaged in radio wave relay was already following behind the Japanese fleet. Under the close surveillance of the two submarines, there was no possibility for the Japanese fleet to escape tracking.

During this battle, the Naval Resistance Force also saw that the Japanese Navy was not entirely an experienced commander, and the fleet did not pay attention to anti-submarine at all. According to the convention, if the fleet wants to prevent submarine tracking, it generally follows the "Z" route, which the Navy's resistance forces have long learned from textbooks or from the British Navy. But it is clear that the Japanese fleet did not at all expect the possibility of submarine tracking.

At this time, the main force of the naval resistance fleet was only 260 kilometers away from the Japanese fleet. At this distance, if it is daytime, the Japanese army is already a turtle in an urn.

But the problem is that it's night. Generally speaking, the dawn in the central Pacific Ocean is very early, with a slight light at about four o'clock and a bright light at five o'clock. But at three o'clock, it was still pitch black on the sea.

What is even more unfavorable is that from yesterday to now, there has been rain in the sky, although it is not large, but with the pilot's eyesight, it is difficult to detect the enemy.

You must know that according to the current technology, in the era when there was no satellite positioning, it was difficult to find the Japanese fleet just by relying on the operation on the map. Although there is a submarine tracking, the magnetic compass cannot re-compare the starry sky on a rainy night, and it is difficult to accurately describe its own position.

Of course, the latitude and longitude calculated according to the work on the map will not be too far apart. The Naval Resistance Army knew very well that the Japanese fleet was not far from them, but it would take a lot of effort to find an opponent.

The weather conditions are favorable for the tracking of the submarine of the Maritime Resistance Army, but the search for fighters is really not favorable.

Of course, the Maritime Resistance Force also has a magic weapon, and if the submarine is allowed to risk sending signals continuously, the Yagi antenna on the fighter plane can determine the exact direction. However, this is really risky enough, and once the submarine fights in the deep sea, once it is surrounded by Japanese destroyers, the consequences are unimaginable. Following the opponent, the submarine was already in a rather dangerous situation, and Li Guang was unwilling to let the submarine force take even greater risks.

But if he didn't attack immediately, Li Guang was worried about one thing. It is not very far from Saipan, the Japanese colony of the Mariana Islands, less than 700 kilometers. (Wake Island was only 500 nautical miles from Guam, and it was closer to Saipan, but the Japanese fleet was sailing south, so it was about 700 kilometers away.) I checked the map. ）

Saipan is also one of the nests of the Japanese army, which has been operated by the devils for many years, and can be regarded as one of the outer strongholds of the devils in the Pacific Ocean to protect the core base of Truk. Here the devils have arranged a large number of fighters. In short, the closer the naval fleet was to Saipan, the more vulnerable it was to Japanese fighters. The book implies that at this moment the Japanese army has occupied Guam. Japanese fighters on Saipan were ready to escort the Japanese fleet at any time.

The range of the P40 fighters of the Maritime Resistance Force is too short, and the combat radius is about 400 kilometers. However, 700 kilometers is not a problem for the Japanese army at all, and if the Zero fighter is attached to the auxiliary fuel tank, the endurance is 3,000 kilometers, which is more than double that of the P40 fighter that went to sea to resist the army. Even without the addition of auxiliary fuel tanks, the range is 2,200 kilometers.

Li Guang remembered the battle in the Arabian Sea, where the naval resistance army slowly accumulated the advantage of distance, and finally obtained the support of fighters, thus avoiding a fiasco. The first aircraft carrier of the Maritime Resistance Army fought against the sea, and Li Guang was quite careful. As a general, he can't help but think about it more, although the Maritime Resistance Army has grown a lot, it is still a stage where he can't afford to be injured. As far as the Naval Resistance Force is concerned, it is necessary to keep the warships out of the deterrent range of the Japanese fighters as much as possible. Even the battlefield should be set outside the combat radius of the Japanese fighters as much as possible.

At this time, the excited flight captain Liu Gensheng ran to the aircraft carrier island, and he had already woken up, or he couldn't sleep at all. On this expedition, there was actually no flight commander on board the Liberty Dragon, and Yuan Zi was not in good health before the expedition and was not able to set off with the ship, and only two young staff officers served as flight commanders. Although these two flight staff officers have read a lot of books and memorized the regulations of British aircraft carriers, due to their lack of experience, they can only command and coordinate the take-off and landing of fighters.

Without further ado, Li Guang had already realized that the sooner he made up his mind at this moment, the safer his fleet would be.

Li Guang asked: "Gensheng, can you find the Japanese fleet in this weather?" ”

Liu Gensheng thought for a moment and said, "I'm sure I can." ”

Li Guang was a little surprised that this kid had such a big breath.

"Commander, we can do this, forty-eight fighters, lined up on the sea to search, each fighter is one kilometer away, and they will definitely not lose their target."

Liu Gensheng's idea has some truth. The Maritime Resistance Force also used this method to search for Japanese submarines, and gave it the name Grid Search. Under normal circumstances, Li Guang was not very worried that these elite pilots would be in disarray. But in this case, the flight must be low-altitude. The clouds on the sea do not exceed 1,000 meters now, and it is extremely dangerous to fly at low altitude at night. Night flights can only rely on the altimeter to grasp the flight altitude of the fighter, plus the search for Japanese warships on the ocean, it is simple to say, but in practice, it is not so easy. There are 24 water reconnaissance planes in the current formation of the Maritime Resistance Force, but in such sea conditions, it is difficult for the pilots to reach the level of fighter pilots.

"After takeoff, we fly over the clouds, and when the distance is estimated to be about the same, we should reduce the altitude and search on the grid, and the danger should not be great." Liu Gensheng explained.

Seeing Liu Gensheng's repeated assurances, there will be absolutely no problems with his elite subordinates. As the saying goes, riding a horse and taking a boat is three kinds of risk, and it is impossible to fight without taking a little risk. Since this is the case, Li Guang no longer hesitated, and immediately made a decision. Ordered Liu Gensheng to go down to convey the order, arrange the formation, and attack the whole deck half an hour later.

At 3:10 a.m., the aircraft carrier Liberty Dragon began to accelerate against the wind, and all the officers and men of the ship were ready to fight.

Li Guang didn't know how, but he actually liked to attack on the whole deck. However, he is not completely reckless, the water reconnaissance planes on the Atlantic and PJP are not ornaments, and although there is still a gap in the pilot's skills, he is quite qualified to take on the vigilance mission. In such weather, Li Guang still cautiously ordered the water reconnaissance plane to make preparations for battle.

At 3:40 a.m., in the midst of rain and fog, the aircraft carrier Liberty Dragon turned on its deck lighting, and 48 fighters gradually rose into the air.

(Thank you to Arthur Wang, the silver sea shadow, the sword light and sword shadow are murderous.) )

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