On the other side of the battlefield, the Japanese pilots who had returned to the aircraft carriers reported to Ozawa that they had damaged five aircraft carriers, one battleship, and three cruisers in the attack, which was much more exaggerated than the real situation. This made Ozawa think that the battle was brilliant, made a wrong judgment, and decided to send all the planes to pursue the victory and deal a greater blow to the coalition forces. But in fact, all the battleships of the coalition forces were concentrated on the front line of the East China Sea by Yankel, preparing for a decisive battle at sea with Yamamoto, and the Sashijun fleet had no battleships at all, only 2 aircraft carriers and 2 cruisers were lightly damaged, but the "Prince Albert" and "Zhejiang" were still able to barely take off and land fighters after emergency repairs, and the damage to the two cruisers was not very serious.

At 11:50 p.m., Ozawa ordered the dispatch of the only 87 combat aircraft on hand to begin the fourth wave of attacks. However, at this time, the No. 1201 submarine of the 12th Submarine Group of the Chinese side under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Chen Zhuguo took advantage of the chaotic opportunity of the Japanese fleet's take-off and landing fighters to break through the warning circle of the Japanese fleet and occupy a favorable attack position.

The Japanese fleet, which was taking off its fighters, was unaware that danger had quietly descended.

At the same time, about 1,600 meters from Ozawa's flagship, a black periscope rod quietly rose out of the sea.

"I've seen that group of damn devil warships, two destroyers, about 900 meters away, they shouldn't have spotted us yet!" Chen Zhuguo focused his attention on the periscope, and a full 30 minutes had passed since the initial discovery of the Japanese fleet, and he had finally found a suitable opportunity to attack the submarine in a constantly changing position.

At this moment, through the thin hull, it seemed that the sound of water rolling under the hull of the warship not far away, as well as the sharp echo of the ping-pong sound of the sonar.

"Good! Keep the current depth! Chen Zhuguo raised his voice. The voice was loud and a little excited: "Good boy, my God, I met a big fish!" Write it down! The right front entry angle is 43 degrees, and the enemy has a large aircraft carrier! The bow torpedo tube is ready! ”

The echo rangefinder was screaming louder and sharper, and the propellers were louder. The torpedo commander enters the data reported by the captain into the torpedo launch data computer. On an automatic track reckoning detractor. Boat 1201 is represented by a moving point of light, and the course of the enemy ship and the torpedo attack route are represented by two intersecting straight lines.

Commander Tower was silent, and the entire submarine was silent, as the crew waited for the captain's attack order.

"Distance 1600, bearing 162. Write it down! The leading edge enters the angular starboard 44 degrees. Lower the periscope! Chen Zhuguo frowned, the two escorting destroyers on the right side of the enemy's aircraft carrier were a little tired, and it was possible to block the offensive line of one or two torpedoes, but now they can't control so much! He lowered his voice. In an urgent voice, he ordered: "Now, all in position, the torpedo is ready to fire, open the cover of the bow tube." ”

"The outer cover of the launch tube has been opened, sir!" Soon, the bow torpedo compartment replied.

"Good. Six rounds, fast launch! Lower the periscope"

"Launch One! …… Launch Two! …… Launch Three! …… Launch IV ...... Launch Five, Launch Six! "Just over ten seconds, after a jolt and the sound of water waves. Torpedoes were fired from the 1201.

"Raise the periscope. Very good, the six wakes are very beautiful! Little Japan. It's time for you to pay for the beatings. Well, everything is normal, lower the periscope! Dive to 120 meters! ”

At this time, a Japanese bomber that had just taken off discovered six torpedo tracks on the sea that were aimed at the "Zuizuru" aircraft carrier, and the pilot pressed the nose of the plane to crash one of the torpedoes. At first, the aviation commander and the crew on deck of the "Zuihe" thought that there had been a take-off accident, but then the escorting "Island Kaze" sounded the siren. It was only then that the personnel of the aircraft carrier discovered the torpedoes fired at them.

Although the "Shimakaze" bravely intercepted one torpedo, two torpedoes hit the hull near the starboard front elevator and in the rear parking area of the "Zuihe," and the entire aircraft carrier immediately burst into flames.

The disaster of the Japanese army did not end. The No. 1205 submarine immediately broke through the alert of the Japanese ships and launched an attack on the "Xianghe" aircraft carrier; because the sonar equipment of the destroyer responsible for protecting the "Xianghe" was relatively backward, it was impossible to detect the approach of the US submarine in the sea area where many warships were active, so the No. 1205 boat calmly occupied a favorable firing position 1,100 meters in front of the starboard side of the "Xianghe" and fired six torpedoes in a salvo. Three torpedoes hit the target directly, sea water rushed in through the blasted hole, and a fire also ignited inside the aircraft carrier, which exploded from time to time, and the hull quickly tilted.

The Project 1201 submarine took advantage of the confusion of the Japanese fleet and got rid of the enemy's tracking. Boat 1205 was not so lucky, they were tracked by Japanese destroyers for more than two hours, and several Japanese destroyers dropped more than a hundred depth charges. However, with the calm command of the captain and the excellent performance of the submarine, the No. 1205 submarine suffered only minor damage under the indiscriminate bombardment of the Japanese army, skillfully escaped the pursuit of the Japanese ships, and returned safely to the temporary anchorage on Miyako Island.

Ozawa's bad luck was not over, and after withstanding three waves of attacks by Japanese carrier-based aircraft, Sa Shijun commanded the fleet to advance rapidly in the northeast direction of the Japanese planes, and at the same time constantly sent out combat reconnaissance aircraft to expand the search area. By noon, no trace of the enemy had yet been found.

At 12:05, he received a report from the submarine force that the Japanese fleet was directly east of him, so Sa Shijun ordered the fleet to change course and pursue it to the east.

At 2 p.m., finally a plane reported the sighting of the Japanese fleet about 240 nautical miles northeast and that it was retreating.

Sa Shijun is determined to strike immediately!

As a result, the nine aircraft carriers belonging to the entire fleet turned against the wind together, and the aircraft carriers also moved very quickly, and within 15 minutes, 15 squadrons and 246 fighters were in the air, including 106 fighters, 97 bombers, and 43 torpedo planes. The entire air fleet continued to move eastward at full speed, shortening the distance of carrier-based aircraft to return as much as possible in order to meet the landing of the aircraft that had completed the attack.

At 2:45, Sa Shijun sent another 264 fighters from the second attack wave.

At 4:27 p.m., the 1st Attack Group first caught up with the Japanese supply fleet, and some coalition fighters immediately attacked, sinking three Japanese oil tankers and damaging two more oil tankers and one transport ship. Most of the remaining fighters continued eastward, and soon spotted the Japanese fleet and launched an attack.

As early as 15 o'clock, Ozawa knew that the coalition aircraft carrier group was pursuing behind, and his position had been exposed, and he would definitely be attacked by US planes, so he ordered a retreat to the northwest at full speed, and organized a broken rear formation with some surface ships to take cover. Subsequently, he sent out all the remaining 79 fighters of the entire fleet to provide air cover. At the same time, the three aircraft carrier formations moved closer to each other and narrowed their spacing in order to make use of the anti-aircraft firepower of the escort warships.

Although the Japanese planes were inferior to the allied forces in terms of number, performance, and pilot quality, they still fought stubbornly and desperately to the death, and shot down a total of 22 allied fighters with surface anti-aircraft fire. However, most of the allied fighters still broke through the air interception of Japanese planes and launched a fierce attack on the Japanese fleet, sinking the aircraft carriers "Flying Eagle" and "Ryuchamp" one after another, and again severely damaging the wounded "Zuizuru", in addition to the battleships "Kirishima" and "Maya" heavy cruisers covering the fleet, and the battleships "Haruna" and "Hiei" were severely damaged.

As Ozawa retreated to the northwest with all his might, the second attack wave of the coalition was in the wrong direction, and by the time it turned back, the enemy was already 4 to 50 nautical miles away from the combat radius. Fearing that he would not be able to return, the air commander ordered the attack to be cancelled, and Ozawa's fleet was finally saved from being wiped out.

Seeing that it was too late to be colorless, and that he still had to search and rescue the pilot who had fallen into the water, Sa Shijun ordered the cancellation of the scheduled third wave of attacks. At this time, the Japanese fleet had only 41 carrier-based aircraft left, and the only three remaining aircraft carriers were also heavily damaged, almost completely losing their combat effectiveness, and could no longer pose a threat to the coalition transport fleet that was landing in Okinawa.

At 17:35, Ozawa received an order from Yamamoto and began to retreat to the mainland. (To be continued.) )