The third wave of attacks by the Austrian-Chinese fleet failed to find the Nagumo fleet, and the rain clouds piled up in the sky saved the fate of the Japanese fleet from total annihilation. Abe Hiroki commanded the fleet to hide in the rain area, avoiding the search of the Austrian-Chinese fighter group.

At 1:20 p.m., Admiral Yankel and Admiral Marshall's two fleets met again, and Admiral Chen Shiying was also invited to Admiral Yankel's flagship.

After consulting with the Expeditionary Force Command, a new plan of operations was approved, and Yankel ordered the three wounded carriers to return to Colombo, which was capable of repairing large ships, under the protection of four cruisers and all eighteen destroyers, while he continued the pursuit in the Sunda Strait with an Axis fleet of 11 aircraft carriers, seven battleships, four heavy cruisers, and 10 cruisers.

The battered aircraft carriers "Guangxi" and "Bosnia" and "Dalmatia", escorted by four cruisers and the Austro-Chinese destroyer fleet, began to withdraw from the southwest of the Mintawe Islands to the Colombo base. Both Bosnia and Dalmatia were lightly injured by only one bomb and are working hard to repair the damaged flight deck. The situation of the "Guangxi" was much more severe, and the most fatal thing was that the torpedo that exploded in the amidships penetrated one of the boiler compartments, thus causing the two boilers to be scrapped, and the entire warship lost one-sixth of its power.

However, the "Guangxi" was still able to maintain a speed of more than 20 knots, and although there were still some parts of the aircraft carrier emitting black smoke, the flames had been mostly extinguished, and the sailors were hammering the edge of the hole on the flight deck like a huge octopus. The damaged planes were thrown into the sea, and the "Guangxi" lost a total of 37 planes, of which only 12 combat planes were lost in the two waves of air raids on the Japanese fleet, but 25 planes were blown up on the warship, and 23 planes were forced to land on other Chinese ships, and now only 16 intact combat planes remained on the entire aircraft carrier, including the hangar and deck. Only two of them were fighters awaiting repair due to engine failures.

The naval battle was effectively over, and the second major naval and air battle since the Battle of the North Atlantic ended with a resounding victory for the Axis powers, with the Japanese Navy's mobile fleet losing all of its aircraft carriers, except for the Fifth Air Force, which had escaped death after being transferred back home. This is also a real contrast between the huge gap in strength between the two sides. The Japanese fleet had only about 300 carrier-based aircraft, while the Axis fleet had 1,200 combat aircraft.

"Oh hey!" Sa Shijun returned to the bridge and watched the other ships of the main fleet sail into the distance. went to continue the pursuit of the enemy, but he had to start to return to the sea, and he couldn't help but burst out with a foul mouth.

He ordered the pilots on the aircraft carrier to retreat to the escort warships, and the cruiser "Fuzhou" leaned against the port side of the "Guangxi," and several cables about 20 meters long were tied between the two warships, and about 400 personnel of the aviation department slid down the cables to the deck of the cruiser and evacuated first.

The deck of the aircraft carrier was filled with the sound of clanging metal, and repairmen began to temporarily repair wounds on the warship with electric welders or gas welding guns, while firefighters continued to extinguish the ship's sporadic re-ignition fires and conduct careful inspections.

No one would have thought that the aircraft carrier would sink. The confidence of the crew was also high, because in the naval battle of the North Atlantic, the aircraft carrier suffered much more damage than it is now, and it held out and regained its vitality.

Rear Admiral Sa Shijun has been sitting in the war room of the aircraft carrier, and his commander's cabin is also on fire.

Reflecting now on this naval battle, the initial tactics and attacks were simply perfect, with the Austro-Chinese fleet inflicting heavy damage on almost all the aircraft carriers of the Japanese fleet in just the first wave of attacks. It loses its ability to fight back. The Austrian-Chinese fleet sank all five aircraft carriers of the Japanese in just two waves, and if it were not for the carelessness of the last moment, the Japanese would have succeeded in a sneak attack. The whole battle will end on a happy ending.

It was a regrettable mistake, and several of the returning formations noticed the Japanese group behind them, but no one thought to turn around and confirm the identity of the other party, so it gave the Japanese a chance to save face.

Thankfully, the Japanese had less than 30 bombers left, if they had more counterattacks. The consequences are unimaginable. The Axis fleet made a fatal mistake, but the Japanese were unable to seize it and turn the tide in one fell swoop, also because of the huge disparity in strength between the two sides.

If such a serious mistake occurs in a naval battle that is evenly matched, it may lead to the serious consequences of the annihilation of the entire army, and this is an area that needs special attention in the future.

Sa Shijun stood on the bridge of the ship, looking down at the battleship that had become pale and scarred under his men, and couldn't help but feel full of regret. Vilmots? While Admiral Yankel planned to lead the fleet into the South China Sea and then return to the Gulf of Tonkin to cut off the Japanese supply routes, his battleship had to return to the shipyard for months to become a spectator during this crucial naval campaign.

This was the most unacceptable part of his life, and on the eve of his return to fight in the war, his warship was damaged again.

"What a fucking back!" He had already cursed many times in his heart that the "Guangxi" was indeed unlucky, and at the moment when the Japanese planes carried out a sneak attack, it happened to be on the outermost side of the entire air fleet, and became the target of the Japanese attack.

After more than six hours of sailing, the fleet had left the waters near the South Sea, entered the depths of the ocean, and sailed northwest along the confluence of the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean.

It was getting dark.

At this time, the Japanese submarine I-68, which was cruising in the waters west of Banda Zia, emerged from under the surface and was also ordered to the waters off Colombo to monitor the activities of the Axis convoy.

Japan's I-68 submarine is the largest number of large ocean-going submarines built by the Japanese Navy, with a displacement of 1,780 tons (surface)/2,440 tons (underwater), and its performance is similar to that of the large ocean-going submarines built by Germany and Austria in the late stage of World War I, with a maximum depth of only 70 meters. However, the submarines of the Japanese Navy also have a characteristic, that is, they pay more attention to the surface speed, the Japanese submarine is equipped with a ship-based diesel engine with quite good performance, its power has reached 4500 horsepower, and the later model has even reached 5700 horsepower, although the volume is slightly larger, but it can make the Japanese submarine reach a surface speed of 23.5 knots, which is currently the fastest surface speed submarine among the submarines in the world, such a speed also makes the Japanese submarine have enough speed to accompany the fleet to act together.

Now, the Japanese submarine that surfaced is heading west at a speed of 20 knots.

In the evening, the sea seemed very quiet, and only the roar of two ship-based diesel engines was heard, and the captain of the boat, Nakamura Otoji Shosa, climbed onto the small bridge of the submarine, but his heart was full of unease. Several senior officers on board had already learned of the defeat suffered by the Combined Fleet in Sumatra through Guò listening to the radio communications of the Combined Fleet, five aircraft carriers and two heavy cruisers of the Combined Fleet had been sunk, and the strength of the German-Austrian Expeditionary Fleet was far beyond the imagination of the Japanese naval personnel.

Coincidentally, the course of the Japanese submarine coincided with the area in front of the Austrian-Chinese fleet on the way back. (To be continued.) )xh118R1052