The line of sight on the sea gradually became clearer, and Sa Shijun had been holding on to the bridge of the "Beihai" for more than two hours. This past night, the entire fleet sailed south for more than 60 nautical miles, and then began to turn back to the south. The first group of reconnaissance planes dispatched in the early morning had already begun to return home, and no trace of the Japanese fleet was found, and it was certain that the Japanese fleet had not entered the 250-nautical-mile sea area on its side.

"Are the Japanese scared?!" The staff officers in the command room joked, but his intuition told him that the Japanese, although they were a little stupid, would never admit it easily, and Ozawa's fleet must be somewhere in the sea waiting for him to show his flaws.

When the morning sun was about to jump above the sea level, the captain of the ship, Colonel Deng Taixiang, who was on duty in the second half of the night, also got up, so Sa Shijun called the staff officers for a brief meeting, and decided that after breakfast, the air fleets would send a second group of reconnaissance planes to the farther sea.

The weather at sea was not very good, and there were large clouds piling up in the sky, which caused a lot of inconvenience to the reconnaissance activities of the aircraft. The pilots who had eaten breakfast drove in and into the standby room one after another, and the number of people walking around the deck also increased. A heavy aircraft carrier like the "Beihai," which has a displacement of more than 41,000 tons and a crew of more than 3,200 people, can be seen on the deck at any time during the day, as long as the sea conditions are not too bad.

Although it was the height of summer, there was no heat on the ship, and the temperature was very comfortable. Most of the dozens of people moving around the bridge looked relaxed, and the young crew was maturing under the leadership of the old sailors, and there was not much nervousness before the war.

After daybreak, the main forces of the Axis fleet, which was on standby in the waters of the East China Sea west of Okinawa, under the leadership of Admiral Yankel, also began to sail in the direction of Kyushu Island, preparing to meet the Yamamoto fleet, and a battleship battle was about to be staged again.

7.40 a.m. The aircraft carriers of the Sashijun fleet were sailing at maximum speed into the wind and preparing to take off the second group of reconnaissance planes, when the air defense alarm in the fleet suddenly sounded, and the destroyer "Yiyang," which was on guard duty on the fleet's perimeter in the northeast, reported that the radar had spotted several unidentified planes about 150 nautical miles to the northwest. In response to this expected situation, Sa Shijun did not adjust his deployment too much, but only ordered a few fighters to take off to expel the approaching enemy planes. What made him feel a little hesitant was a little. He still has no trace of Ozawa's fleet.

Subsequently, more and more enemy reconnaissance planes appeared in the nearby waters, and several enemy planes even came into the range of the fleet's anti-aircraft fire, and it was obvious that the position of the Sa Shijun fleet had been exposed.

But where is the enemy? How far away is it from yourself?

Nothing is known about this at the moment, but it is certain that enemy planes will not arrive here anytime soon. The mood of the entire fleet suddenly became tense. It seemed as if time had stood still, but the order to attack and take off did not come, and Sa Shijun stood on the bridge of the flagship with a blank face. It seems that something is still waiting.

"I think it's time to take off some fighter jets for air defense alert!" Vice Admiral Hoffmann, commander of the German air fleet, suggested to him via the fleet's wireless intercom. In the eyes of the Easterners, such a suggestion could be seen as a distrust of the command ability of the superiors and a challenge to the authority of the fleet commander.

Sa Shijun knew that the Germans did not trust him very much, but this situation was normal in the German-Austrian navy. Lieutenant General Hoffman did not intend to disobey orders and go his own way, he just gave himself some advice.

"Not needed now, the first fighters began to take to the air only after the discovery of enemy aircraft!" Sa Shijun rejected Hoffman's suggestion, and according to his judgment, the enemy was 300 nautical miles away. The first wave of the enemy's attack, even if it has taken off early, will take at least an hour before it reaches the battlefield. Moreover, the new radar equipped on German and Chinese warships has an air warning distance of 200 kilometers. He had enough time to deal with the enemy's attack, and what he needed was for the fighter to stay in the air for as long as possible after the battle began.

"A report came from the fighter that had just departed that the enemy's reconnaissance plane was a land-based fighter plane that had taken off from an Okinawa airfield!" At this time, the communications staff officer walked over and reported softly.

At this time, Sa Shijun, who had no expression on his face, turned his head and ordered the communications officer: "Reconnoiter the farther range!" ”

"I'm sorry. Sir! The lieutenant colonel clearly didn't quite understand what he meant.

"Let our aircraft expand their observation range, especially in the direction of the northeastern Palau Ridge!" Sa Shijun calmly explained to him, "It is possible that the enemy is outside our reconnaissance range, so they can expand the reconnaissance range to a maximum combat range of 350 nautical miles!" ”

"Understood, sir!" The veteran communications officer immediately came to his senses. With some apologies on his face, soon the latest order was accurately conveyed.

At 8:30 a.m., the pilots of the second wave of search missions sent back a report that a large number of incoming enemy planes had been spotted at a distance of about 200 kilometers, but still no trace of the enemy fleet had been found.

The air raid sirens of the entire fleet sounded, and the destroyers spewed out clouds of black smoke, and as a signal to detect the attack of enemy aircraft, Sa Shijun ordered the fighter units on the decks of each aircraft carrier that were waiting to take off immediately and go to intercept them. The air fleets began to turn into the wind, and 3 minutes later, the first fighters began to rise into the air.

At this time, a squadron of fighters on alert duty over the fleet had already begun to set off to meet the enemy. The radars on the large warships were already able to pick up the incoming fleet, and the enemy was still 150 kilometers away, giving the fleet plenty of time to send fighter units to intercept it.

At 9:15 a.m. on 5 June, the first batch of 68 fighters of the first attack wave of the Ozawa fleet arrived at the periphery of the air defense circle of the Sino-German combined fleet, and were intercepted by the superior strength of more than 230 fighters from 13 fighter squadrons sent by Sa Shijun. The Japanese had only 16 escort fighters, 9 torpedo planes and 43 fighter-bombers. The fighter-bomber is a new type of aircraft developed by the Japanese army because it found that the bombers suffered huge losses in the Southeast Asian theater and the losses of the fighter unit were far less than the bombers, that is, the Zero fighter was modified to carry 60 kg of bombs, and later developed to be able to carry 250 kg of aerial bombs to carry out attacks on ships.

However, the problem was that after a long-distance flight of more than two hours, the Japanese pilots had almost reached the limit of their physical strength and energy, and after being attacked, they were simply unable to counterattack and had to scatter and flee. And those fighter-bombers simply did not have time to approach the skies over the Axis fleet, so they were forced to drop their bombs in a hurry and barely engage in battle.

The Sino-German fighter group, under the guidance of radar and the command of the air control commander on the aircraft carrier, unified guidance to engage the enemy, carried out a condescending attack on the Japanese planes in the airspace about 60 nautical miles away from the fleet, and shot down 25 Japanese planes in one fell swoop, while losing only one of them.

The rest of the Japanese planes broke through the air interception of the Chinese and German fleets and forcibly began to attack the Sino-German aircraft carrier formation in the forefront, and another 18 Japanese planes were shot down under the intensive anti-aircraft fire of the escort warships. Because they were equipped with a new type of "wireless proximity fuse," the hit rate of the Chinese and German warships' air defense guns was greatly improved, and the Japanese torpedo planes were unable to fire air defense fire, and all of them were shot down, and the bombers had to hurriedly drop bombs at high altitudes, and only the heavy cruiser "Chongqing" and the heavy cruiser "Lüzov" were each hit by a bomb and suffered light damage.

Subsequently, a total of 129 fighters of the second attack wave of the Japanese army, including 48 fighters, 24 torpedo planes, and 57 bombers, arrived on the battlefield and were intercepted by the allied fighter forces, and the entire air battle entered a climax. (To be continued.) )