At about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, the southwest coast of Santa Isabel Island.

On the bridge of the Lightning under the tropical sun, the small fans whirring around him did not alleviate Yuan Feng's anxiety at all: the short-sleeved shirt was already soaked with sweat, beads of sweat the size of beans kept sliding down his forehead, and the small square scarf in his hand was a puddle of water - even the saber that had never left his hand was inconvenient to hold because of the slippery palms of his hands, so he sent someone to put them back in the cabin.

The obvious fat on Yuan Feng's body was not the only reason why he sweated like rain.

After daybreak, Yuan Feng's artillery troops converged with the main force of reinforcements from the south to form a theater task force, with a total of two battle cruisers, three high-speed battleships, six light cruisers, and 16 destroyers.

About an hour earlier, the first batch of nine fighters of the air defense convoy dispatched from the Munda base flew over the task force and were replaced by the second group after circling for 30 minutes.

Rabaul's Theater Joint Air Force Command immediately sent a telegram saying that there were only 45 available fighters at the Munda base, and that for the time being, they could only provide uninterrupted air defense escort support for the task force in a nine-plane formation. In addition, the base will continue to dispatch medium bomber squads and heavy bomber units to provide anti-submarine escort and long-range reconnaissance support for the fleet.

Prior to this, several enemy planes had appeared in the sky over the task force, and they were scrambling to send the fleet's latitude and longitude position, force composition, course speed, and other data in clear code.

At this moment, Yuan Feng was facing the most difficult choice in his life: the position of the fleet had long been exposed, and the enemy's air attack force could arrive at any time, and the entire fleet could only stagger forward at a speed of 6 knots because of the drag of the Thunderbolt, which not only could easily become a live target for the enemy's torpedo planes and submarines, but also could not obtain the support of the theater air force in a timely and effective manner -- either the entire fleet would be in great danger for the sake of a single Thunderbolt, or the Thunderbolt would be left behind in order to save the rest of the fleet's combat strength.

Which is more important. It's easy to get the answer from the theory, but from the emotional point of view, it is difficult for Yuan Feng to make a decision-you must know that even in the Battle of the Bay of Bengal, which gambled on the fortunes of the country, the entire East Asian Combined Fleet only sank only two capital ships: one of them was the same type of ship of the Rì Army of the Lightning Cruiser, the sister ship of the Haruna, the Kirishima, and the other slightly outdated Nanyue battleship was the sister ship of the Empire's first dreadnought-type battleship, the Beiyue.

Against this background, it is difficult for any naval commander to accept. In such an irrelevant tactical operation, not even the masts of the opposing warships were seen. It's easy to abandon a front-line capital ship - the potential pressure of public opinion is enough to immobilize it.

"Commander, I'm afraid time is running out, please make a decision quickly."

He Yuting, who was behind Yuan Feng, glanced at the ship clock on the wall and couldn't help but urge.

After muttering half a cigarette, Yuan Feng wiped his face violently, and said word by word: "All ships maintain their positions and prepare for air combat." ”

He Yuting paused for a moment, and was about to open his mouth to persuade again, but was already blocked by Yuan Feng with his hand raised.

"Execute the order."

"Yes......"

The order just came out of the bridge. The anti-air command post overhead suddenly heard a jǐng report: "A large group of aircraft has been found behind the port side!" ”

……

At an altitude of 6,000 feet (m), in the open back seat of a "Cuckoo" MK3 torpedo machine, Major John Torles put down the telescope in his hand, drew the flare gun in his hand, fired three red flares into the sky, and then picked up the radio voice microphone and ordered: "Attention squadrons, the target is at two o'clock." We split into two roads, Payne and Keynes detoured from the left, and Morris and Fidel attacked from the right, act! ”

As the third pilot in the history of the U.S. Navy, the first squadron leader of a carrier-based seaplane squadron, and the first squadron commander of a carrier-based aircraft wing, Major Tols, who is not as impressive, never considered himself anything special: "Like all naval officers, I am first and foremost a soldier. ”

But as one of the most experienced pilots and commanders of aviation units in the US Navy. Major Thors was strictly forbidden to take part in the attack, and his plane never carried torpedoes, but installed an additional "high-power" airborne radio under the belly, which allowed him to make voice calls to all the squadron commanders of his wing, and also to communicate with the fleet or shore bases at any time to exchange information in a timely manner, or to call for support and help in locating.

An hour and a half ago. Major Torles' plane rose from the wide flight deck of the Panama, and above him, circled the fighter squadrons of Captains Keynes and Fidel, and the torpedo squadrons of Penn and Morris -- a total of 24 fighters and 17 torpedo planes.

While Major Thors led the first wave of 42 planes to a target 100 nautical miles away, the planes of the second wave of the air raid unit were still being removed from the elevators one by one on the flight deck of the Royal Navy's "Glory," which was on a par with the "Panama."

The arrogant British stubbornly adhered to their deck procedures, still keeping most of the planes in hangars, and it took a lot of time to raise the planes to the flight deck before launching an attack, while most of the Panama's planes were tethered to the flight deck at all times, and it only took a short time to prepare for release.

In view of the fact that the enemy fleet was moving closer to the Chinese military aviation base on the island of New Georgia, in order to alleviate the danger that the air attack force and the fleet itself might face, Colonel Reeves, acting commander of the 51st Task Force on the "Panama," decided that the "Panama" would launch the first wave of air strikes alone without waiting for the "Glory" to complete its preparations; Then the "Glory" launched a second wave of air raids alone; After the 18 torpedo planes that had been sent out for reconnaissance missions returned to the group, the "Glory" and the "Panama" jointly launched a third wave of air strikes.

Now, the target was in front of Major Thors' right, and dozens of snow-white tracks were clearly visible in the blue waters of the South Pacific, and a few small black dots hovered over these tracks, and it was difficult to distinguish the specific type of aircraft from such a distance - either enemy shore-based aircraft coming to reinforce them, or seaplanes carried by enemy fleets.

Major Thors's order was quickly carried out, and the air attack force was divided into three: the left attack team made a detour south of the target, and the right attack team made a detour north of the target, with seven British-made "Cuckoo" MK3 torpedoes carrying 18-inch (457 mm) aviation torpedoes each, each covered by 10 American-made TS-1 fighters; Major Thors' plane was grouped with another alternate command structure, covered by four fighters, and was in the center behind the target.

Just as Major Thors was looking expectantly at the two attack teams in a graceful arc and pincer-like "clipping" towards the enemy, the headset suddenly shook, and Captain Carson, who was preparing to command the plane, exclaimed on the radio: "At four o'clock, enemy planes!" ”

…… (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )