On the outskirts of Visakhapatnan, a port city on the east coast of India, on a large open space that has obviously been artificially leveled, dozens of large and small planes painted with the blue, white and red concentric circles of the Royal Navy on their sides are spinning one after another gust of paddle wind, and on the side of the clearing, on a wooden tower more than five meters high, Major General Westland, commander of the Royal Indian Flying Corps, is carrying a telephone with one hand on his waist and the other hand, roaring something amid the noisy sound of engines and propellers.

“…… Tell them that the air raid team is on its way, 33 Cuckoos, 19 V100s, loaded with torpedoes and 250-pound bombs, and 18 Camels, and that this is the only way to do so for the time being, and that I will keep you informed as soon as there is an update...... Yes, you repeat it for me...... That's it, I send it out immediately and it's finished. ”

Hanging up the microphone, Major General Westland propped his hands on the railing of the tower, looking forward to the field airfield, which had only been hastily expanded half a month ago, and all kinds of aircraft from far and near that were ready to go: the clumsy Thorpweith "Cuckoo" single-engine torpedo plane, the huge Handleypeti "V100" four-engine heavy bomber, and the lightweight Thorpweith "Camel" single-engine fighter.

The planes are all brand new.

As early as early July, the Chinese army launched a large-scale air offensive from Burma, inflicting huge losses on the army and navy air teams in India, destroying more than 150 planes – most of them on the ground – and for the next two months, several transport ships loaded with aircraft parts sailed into the port of Mumbai every week, replenishing more than 300 aircraft parts of various types and nearly 1,000 engines. @到八月底, the Royal Indian Flying Corps, a hybrid of the Army and Navy Flying Corps, now has 300 operational aircraft, most of which are grouped at bases on the west coast of India. While serving as a guard around the Port of Mumbai, he also continued to carry out coordinated exercises with the Combined Fleet of the Entente.

The shore-based air force, which was proposed by Jericho, was originally intended to be used to cooperate with the fleet and was not tasked with providing support to the army, so it was only natural that the commander of the force should be Rear Admiral Westland, who had been the commander of the Navy's home flight detachment since the outbreak of the war before arriving in India. Extensive experience in the use of shore-based aviation units.

Thanks to the efforts of Major General Westland, who was known for his rigor and diligence, the Royal Indian Flying Corps, which was demoralized in the early days of its formation, had backward combat thinking, and generally had a low level of combat skills, underwent a near-radical transformation in just two months.

While constantly replenishing new aircraft and skilled pilots, Westland has conducted rigorous training throughout the fleet, focusing on improving the sea positioning, communication and sea attack capabilities of the relevant crew members. In view of the task orientation of the support fleet, the ^^^^ has carried out many maneuvering exercises in which units are continuously transferred to the field, and with reference to the establishment of carrier-based aviation units, the entire force has been mixed into three strike detachments and several patrol detachments, each of which has a considerable number of torpedo attack planes, horizontal bombers, and fighters, and theoretically has the capability of sea attack and air self-defense no less than that of a fleet aircraft carrier. Each patrol detachment is equipped with more than 10 reconnaissance planes of various types, which can independently monitor a fan-shaped sea area with a bottom length of 400 nautical miles and a radius of 200 nautical miles. Multiple detachments can also cross-monitor the same sea area to increase the probability of detection.

Finally, an air carrier that can carry 16 aircraft and cruise continuously for more than a week at an altitude of thousands of meters at a speed of fifty or sixty knots that is difficult for ordinary ships to achieve, the "R11", as a direct team under the command, is ready to carry out special tasks in a temporarily designated place at any time - unfortunately, this unique catamaran air carrier, which has left a deep impression on Westland, has lost contact with the command since the afternoon of September 6. It wasn't until a pilot pilot, who had landed on the carrier's plane off the coast of Ceylon, found the garrison the next day, that Westland finally knew exactly where R12 was going: "It exploded, a fireball brighter than the sun." There was nothing left but black smoke. ”

In terms of number and composition alone, the Royal Indian Flying Corps can actually be regarded as the second aircraft carrier squadron of the Combined Entente Fleet, and the V100 heavy bombers in each strike detachment can have a combat radius of up to 250 nautical miles. It is more than twice as large as that of carrier-based attack aircraft.

However, the above conclusions are only extrapolated in the paper sense, and Westland is well aware that although more than a dozen pilots have been killed and wounded in the heinous and brutal training camp, the troops in other places still appear to be undertrained, and the combat effectiveness of the various grass-roots units is uneven - one or two months is not enough time to equip those army pilots who have never received training in sea flight before to have the basic qualities of naval and air combat.

Today, for example, the flying team was supposed to assemble two strike detachments and two or three patrol detachments at any time at the coastal base in front of the fleet's trajectory that day. However, the various forces scattered in the various bases scattered by the storm were slow to complete the transition and assembly as Westland had expected. It wasn't until he received a briefing from Lieutenant General Hood that Westland reluctantly cobbled together 70 planes belonging to a dozen squadrons into a wave of air raid teams that looked like that. hurriedly refueled and loaded, hastily arranged the task, and caught up with the shelf.

"Even if you can't bomb the enemy ship, at least you can get a chance for your allies......"

With this in mind, Westland raised his hand and adjusted his military hat and sent a blessed salute to the group of planes that had been lifted off one after another at the end of the runway......

More than 100 nautical miles east of Visakhapatnam, the flagship of the reconnaissance unit of the Indian Raiders Fleet of the East Asian Combined Fleet, the Imperial Chinese Navy battle cruiser "Thunderbolt" was spewing out black-gray oil smoke from the only two flat and tall chimneys, and the bow of the ship was fiercely splitting the blue and quiet sea at a speed of 28 knots, and the foamy sea water continued to splash onto the bow deck, washing the 300-millimeter-thick panels of the bow A turret and the two 350-millimeter gun barrels protruding impressively in front of the turret......

“…… The vanguard Qingbao of our unit received a light signal report from the mobile force rear guard ship Taihang, which was forwarded to the commander of your ......"

Inside the bridge, the slender and beautiful boy-looking adjutant carefully presented the manuscript paper with the contents of the report to the commander of the reconnaissance unit, Lieutenant General Yuan Feng, who stood still like a fierce god in the temple with his stomach and saber.

Yuan Feng took it with one hand, swept his eyes sideways, threw it away, the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, and his originally hideous face became a little more fierce.

"What kind of tricks is this surnamed Liang playing...... When is Lao Tzu going to be led by the nose by this kind of guy! ”