In the distance, the surviving Wyvern was finished, and after sending out the last wave of attack aircraft, its planes were lost. At this time, there were only a few Zero fighters left in the sky desperately resisting, but it had no effect at all, and there were too many enemy planes.

Two squadrons of dive bombers and twelve torpedo planes of the enemy attacked the "Wyvern" in turn, and the anti-aircraft guns on the "Wyvern" were firing desperately, but the effect was limited. Captain Calais Daisa commanded the battleship to desperately dodge the sea, avoiding the first few bombs dropped. However, more enemy planes then dived down, and the "Wyvern" was hit by six 350-kilogram aerial bombs in succession, which immediately caused a fire and explosion. A huge column of black smoke rose into the air, and the speed of the "Wyvern" quickly decreased.

Now, the Austrian-Chinese fighters are beginning to turn their attention to the alert ship.

At 8:49 a.m., the battleship "Haruna" was attacked by four bombers, and at 9:07 a.m., it was attacked by two more dive bombers. But none of the bombs hit, and the "Haruna" was intact.

The heavy cruiser "Ligen" was attacked by four dive bombers at 9:20 a.m., and at 9:28 a.m. by seven more dive bombers, two bombs were hit.

At 10:23, the "Wyvern" had completely lost speed, and the hull began to tilt constantly, to fifteen degrees due to water ingress. Any rescue efforts were ineffective, and Rear Admiral Yamaguchi reported to Vice Admiral Nagumo that he had ordered the crew of the Flying Dragon to abandon the ship.

Captain Michio Kobayashi led the remaining 30 or so carrier-based aircraft of the Japanese to follow behind the Austrian-Chinese aircraft group, which was immersed in victory and returned triumphantly. The pretentious pilots, who had just won a naval battle, paid no attention to the danger lurking behind them, and all regarded these Japanese military planes as their teammates. The pilots chatted unscrupulously in the radio-intercom, boasting about their achievements, but no one thought to ask what was going on with the group of planes behind them.

The radar crews of the Austrian-Chinese combined fleet noticed that these planes did not send out automatic radio identification signals, but the current radar detection accuracy is still very poor, and the radar crews mistakenly believe that these fighters are with the returning group, but in fact these planes are about 2 nautical miles behind the Chinese group. Moreover, the flight altitude is about 500 meters higher than that of the returning group, so that their light and shadow are displayed on the radar screen and overlap with the returning group.

No one gave any warning, until the two patrol fighters patrolling the outer layers of the fleet wanted to go up to meet them. Only then did I discover the Japanese military insignia sprayed on the opponent's fuselage.

Now the whole thing is in chaos, the air defense sirens are suddenly sounding, all the aircraft carriers are recovering the fighters, unprepared, and those fighters that have not yet landed are pulled up again. I wanted to turn the nose of the plane to meet the enemy, but I was not in a hurry, and the Japanese rushed to the aircraft carrier battle group on the sea with full hatred.

And most of the planes hovering over these aircraft carriers are their own fighters, and the anti-aircraft artillery of the fleet does not dare to fire lightly.

What a disaster!

Fifteen of the eighteen Japanese dive bombers broke through the interception of the more than 40 fighters escorting the escort, roared and pounced on the carrier battle group scurrying around on the sea, and then dropped bombs, which were better at intercepting the torpedo planes, but seven torpedo planes also dropped torpedoes smoothly.

The unfortunate "Guangxi" was hit by a bomb again, and the bomb landed in the dense parking area of the stern, and a large hole about 10 meters in diameter was instantly blown open on the rear flight deck. Several warplanes were blown into the air and then deplunged into the surrounding seawater, and some of the bombed-out planes were burning on the deck.

This was not the end, two enemy torpedo planes rushed from a low altitude to the starboard side of the Chinese aircraft carrier, which was billowing black smoke and was rapidly turning on the sea, and at a distance of less than 1,000 meters, they dropped two black torpedoes one after the other, and after the two torpedoes entered the water, they made a splash more than 10 meters high, and then pounced on the aircraft carrier with an adjustment of nearly 50 knots under the water.

At 10:28:30, a torpedo hit the starboard front of the "Guangxi". Another torpedo hit the ship's amidships, and the violent explosion caused a tongue of fire to erupt there, and the hull of the "Guangxi" shook violently.

Now the battlefield is in shambles, and three of the ten aircraft carriers of the Austrian-Chinese fleet have been bombed. It was a shame to be attacked by a small enemy force without preparation, and three aircraft carriers were damaged.

Vilmots? Admiral Yankel jumped to his feet in anger on the bridge of the flagship, and ordered the fighter unit to make sure that all the invading Japanese fighters were annihilated. Needless to say, the returning fighters had already turned around at this time, chasing the Japanese bombers that had finished dropping bombs. One Japanese bomber after another, besieged by several fighters, crashed into the sea from mid-air with a blazing light. However, they had completed their mission, and finally saved some face for the almost completely annihilated Japanese mobile fleet.

In the end, only three Zero fighters escaped the pursuit and made their way back. Of course, they had nowhere to land, and finally had to make a forced landing on the sea, and two of the five aircraft carriers of the Japanese mobile fleet had already sunk, and the other three were only struggling to survive on the surface.

Enraged, Admiral Yankel sent a third wave of attack planes in the direction of the Japanese fleet, but the attack aircraft sent by the Marshall fleet ran into the Japanese Navy's Second Fleet led by Vice Admiral Kondo Nobutake and found the wrong target, allowing the Nagumo fleet to escape.

The German attack aircraft group was bombarded indiscriminately by surrounding the retreating Kondo fleet, and in the end the battleship "Kongo" was severely damaged, the "Hiei" was only slightly damaged, the "Atago" and "Chokai" heavy cruisers were severely damaged, and the "Myoko" and "Haguro" heavy cruisers were sunk. Vice Admiral Takeo Takagi, commander of the Japanese Navy's Fifth Cruiser Squadron, was killed, the only Japanese Navy vice admiral to be killed in this naval battle. In addition, the destroyers "Chaoyun", "Xiayun", "Murayu", "Yutachi" and four transport ships were sunk.

Rear Admiral Sa Shijun, wearing a steel helmet and a life jacket, got off the bridge and stood on the deck of his flagship, directing the firefighting and rescue work of the warship. Now that the battle has long ended, the officers and men on the aircraft carrier have been busy making up for and repairing the losses caused by the Japanese to the "Guangxi."

The Japanese Type 93 acid torpedo was very powerful, and it hit the underwater mine protection shell of the bow and amidships of the starboard ship. The anti-mine shell is a non-pressure-resistant shell built along the waterline of the warship, located outside the main hull, and is a watertight compartment for waterproof mines and torpedoes attached to the outside of the main hull, forming the real buoyancy of the warship inside. These compartments are usually filled with very lightweight, non-flammable fillers, sometimes filled with fresh water, and their function is to provide a protective wall for the warship, to keep the explosion point away from the real hull when torpedoes or mines are touched in the warship, and to absorb some of the explosion energy.

German warships pay special attention to underwater protection in the design, especially the fine watertight compartment design for improving the anti-sinking of the warship has great benefits, in addition to the arrangement of the cabin fuel tank, aviation gasoline tank and fresh water tank in the compartment around the hull, is another lightning protection device. These deep vertical tanks are parallel to the warship, next to the armor protection layer, so that most of the underwater energy will be absorbed by these liquids, thus greatly improving the protection of the hull armor layer.

"Graff? The Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers are designed with nearly 800 watertight compartments, which increases the weight of the hull, but is good for underwater protection and for balancing the weight of the superstructure.

Even so, the two torpedoes broke through the armor protection of the hull, causing the entire side of the aircraft carrier to pour about 800 tons of seawater, and the entire warship had tilted to the right by about 5 degrees.

After more than an hour of rescue and the help of two escort destroyers, the fire on the warship was brought under control, and in general, the structure of the "Guangxi" did not cause major damage.

Thankfully, the "Guangxi" was able to remain in the fleet at a speed of twenty-five knots and did not have much risk of sinking. (To be continued.) )xh118R1052