When the first rays of morning light in the South Pacific Ocean penetrated the bridge of the Thunderbolt, the dark green silhouette of Malaita Island was still within the field of view of the high-powered telescope in Yuan Feng's hand.

Yuan Feng, whose eyes were bloodshot, took the steamed bun and pickles handed by Chief Staff Officer He Yuting, took two bites and put it down, his mind was still full of bullet marks and pillars of light that were intertwined like a net last night.

It doesn't matter anymore, last night's battle was like a muddled nightmare, first an explosion occurred on the starboard side of the flagship of the shelling unit, the Lightning Mine, which caused the first engine room to enter the water and a propeller to stall.

Doom followed: the bow of the Rì Army's Haruna was blown up; The Fenghua after the Hazel hit the reef and entered the water; The Reika before the Lightning was hit by a shell and caught fire......

In the midst of the confusion, Yuan Feng ordered all ships to turn due east and speed up their retreat to the open sea, and at the same time ordered the searchlights to be turned on and fire at any suspicious sight on the surface of the sea—at least four torpedo boats or small destroyers were blown up in just five minutes.

However, this did not prevent a second explosion at the stern of the Lightning Mine, this fatal explosion not only caused two of the remaining three propellers to lose their function, but also the two main rudders were stuck, and the huge hull was about to draw a circle on the sea surface, but fortunately, the backup cāo rudder system was successfully activated, and the cāo control on the left rudder surface was restored to a limited extent, which barely controlled the course.

Yuan Feng had no choice but to order the whole team to take a northwest course and retreat to Rabaul along the coastal waters east of the Solomon Islands, and at the same time call Lieutenant General Yamayahe, the acting commander of the main force 150 kilometers (about 92 nautical miles) away, ordering him to lead his team south and join up with his artillery unit as soon as possible.

Nearly four hours had passed, and Yuan Feng's scarred small fleet was turning its back to Malaita Island and cautiously moving towards Santa Isabel Island in the northwest.

Yuan Feng and He Yuting breathed a sigh of relief in unison, and did not wait for Yuan Feng to open his mouth to order. The communications staff officer on duty rushed into the bridge in a hurry.

"Commander, call from Shark 24 on the line of the first submarine: At 5:30 this morning, the enemy's aircraft carrier mobile unit was spotted 60 nautical miles southeast of Malaita Island, with two aircraft carriers and six cruisers, heading northwest at a speed of 22 knots."

He Yuting took the telegram and glanced at it, quickly picked up the tools on the chart table and measured them.

"One hundred and eighty nautical miles from us. However, with the current speed difference, it is entirely possible that the enemy's mobile forces will be before noon. Put us in the range of carrier-based aircraft strikes. ”

Yuan Feng gritted his teeth and didn't move: "What do you have in mind?" ”

"First of all, we can't give up on the Thunderbolt."

He Yuting was clearly tentative.

Yuan Feng glared at him sideways: "Nonsense." ”

He Yuting lowered his head and immediately withdrew his worst-case plan.

"Secondly, we still have five hundred and forty nautical miles to sail from the Rabaul base, and at the current pace of our formation, we will have to sail for at least four days and three nights, during which time we will have to passively deal with the possible pursuit of the enemy's mobile forces. And there is a high probability that there will be a big price. ”

"And then?" Yuan Feng's face was tired and depressed, and he knew that he had messed up this job, but he didn't think it was all his responsibility.

He Yuting stretched out his hand and clicked on the chart: "The only way to reduce losses is to get as close as possible to our army's aviation base in the Solomon Islands during the day and seek the protection of shore-based aviation." ”

"You mean to cross the strait between Malaita and Santa Isa Belle Island. Enter the trough sea and approach the Munda Air Base on New Georgia Island? Yuan Feng is quite sober - the so-called trough sea is a narrow sea area sandwiched between two island chains in the Solomon Islands, named because it resembles a manger.

He Yuting's finger crossed a straight line on the chart: "Exactly, the straight-line distance between us and the Monda base is one hundred and fifty nautical miles, which is beyond the normal combat radius of our fighters. If we move towards the Munda base now, we can close the distance by at least 30 nautical miles before noon, which is enough for the fighter squadron at the Munda base to provide us with uninterrupted escort in regular rotations. ”

"That's it."

Yuan Feng was also dry.

Without waiting for He Yuting to draft the order, another report from the second submarine Jǐng on the line of Shark-15 came from the telecommunications room: At 5:45 a.m., 110 nautical miles southeast of Malaita Island, the enemy's main force was discovered. Six battleships and seven cruisers headed north-northwest at a speed of fourteen knots.

A quarter of an hour later, the Shark-15's report was corrected to read: "Nine battleships, one aircraft carrier, and ten cruisers, heading northwest at a speed of sixteen knots." ”

"I'm grass, the intelligence of the base camp kills people, doesn't it mean that the main force of the enemy army is still on the coast of Australia? I'm dead......"

Yuan Feng greeted the female family members of the pit staff officers in the base camp in his heart, and personally measured it on the chart.

After a while, Yuan Feng turned to He Yuting, his face sinking.

"It seems that we really have no way out - first, send a telegram to Commander Zhang in Rabaul, requesting that all available aircraft in the theater be sent to the bases on New Georgia and Bougainville Island to protect our troops from Rabaul throughout the whole process. Second, he gave an order to Lieutenant General Matsumura, who was supporting the troops, to assemble all available forces in the waters south of Bougainville Island, and to be ready to meet our troops at any time. Thirdly, order all available submarines of the guerrilla forces to assemble north of Malaita and Kuah Islands, and make every effort to intercept the enemy's pursuing forces......"

……

In the air, off the east coast of Malaita Island, the 51st Task Force of the British-American-Australian Combined Fleet, the flagship of the U.S. large modified aircraft carrier "Panama".

Acting Task Force Commander Colonel Joseph Masson Reeves, looking out at the clear sea and sky of the South Pacific, fell into undisturbed contemplation.

As the captain of the USS Jupiter, the first seaplane carrier of the U.S. Army, Major Reeves was fortunate to save his warship and most of the crew in the Pearl Harbor air raid, and was then sent to Britain to study and investigate.

In the Battle of the Bay of Bengal, Reeves, as a U.S. observer, witnessed another "unmet naval battle" on board the British aircraft carrier force flagship Radiance - but this time he was not so lucky, the Radiance was finally sunk, he had to jump into the sea to escape, and was attacked by sharks, losing two toes.

After returning to the United States, Reeves was appointed director of the newly established Naval Aviation Tactics Research Office, with full responsibility for the research, absorption, collation, and training of naval aviation tactics. In the short period of four months after he took office, the research laboratory drew up a brand-new set of naval aviation combat and training programs for the US Navy, laying the foundation for this explosive development of this new branch of the armed forces.

In January 1916, Reeves, who had just been promoted to colonel, accepted a new appointment that thrilled him: the first captain of the USS Pearl Harbor, the first all-deck aircraft carrier of the U.S. Navy.

Although it was known in advance that this was just a 'quasi-fleet aircraft carrier' converted from a 20,000-ton Atlantic cruise ship, when Reeves first boarded the Pearl Harbor. Still a huge gap was felt: this "huge makeshift shed" was rough and ugly compared to the purpose-built aircraft carriers of the British or Chinese fleets. "Exposed brackets and beams can be seen everywhere", the maximum speed of 24 knots is not enough to escape the pursuit of the old protective cruisers, and the 33 aircraft carrier is even more pitiful - it is almost impossible to organize a decent shipborne attack force.

Aware of the gap, Reeves could only intensify his training and at the same time actively develop standard operating procedures for the mothership and carrier-based aircraft squadrons, and with the passionate assistance of his old subordinate of the "Jupiter", the former captain of the 1st Seaplane Squadron, Major Tors, the Pearl Harbor soon became a laboratory and training ground for the Navy's carrier-based aviation units.

However, things were changing, and three months later, Reeves was given command of the larger, slightly faster Panama. The 1st Carrier-Air Wing, carrying Major Thors, traveled more than 10,000 nautical miles from the east coast of the United States to the little-known South Pacific Ocean to "repay the blood debt of Pearl Harbor to the East Asian militarist bloc."

After the Battle of San Cristobal Island a month earlier, the First Battle of the Solomons, both the USS Panama and its 1st Carrier Air Wing far exceeded Reeves' expectations, but he was not satisfied.

From the experience of this naval battle, coupled with the study of carrier-based aviation operations in the naval battle of the Bay of Bengal. Reeves realized that the outcome of a "no-face naval battle" between aircraft carriers depends largely on the size of the attack wave, which in turn is closely related to the maximum number of aircraft carried by the aircraft carrier.

As the mother model of the first regular fleet aircraft carriers under construction in the US Navy, the fleet aircraft carriers in service in the British Royal Navy were first designed with the premise of operating in the North Atlantic. In order to withstand the harsh sea conditions of the North Atlantic, especially in the North Sea, closed hangars and low freeboards were introduced, which in turn limited the height of the hangars, which necessitated the elimination of spare aircraft dismantling parts.

Even so, thanks to the design of the double-decker hangar, the Tejas class aircraft carrier with a standard displacement of 20,000 tons can still carry 72 carrier-based aircraft, including 36 two-seat torpedo attack aircraft - for several months. The Glory, which has always been the backbone of Task Force 51, belongs to this class.

Reeves knew that it would not be easy for an inexperienced American engineer to design an aircraft carrier from scratch that was more suitable for Pacific operations in a short period of time.

What he wants to break through is the standard operating procedures of British aircraft carriers.

Normally, most of the carrier-based aircraft of the British aircraft carriers are stored in a two-story hangar below the flight deck, and only a few fighters or reconnaissance patrol planes on duty are tethered on the flight deck.

Most of the freed flight deck is used to ensure that carrier-based aircraft operating in the air can land "with maximum safety redundancy" when returning to the carrier, and that successful carrier-based aircraft will be returned to the designated hangar in the shortest possible time by penetrating the aircraft lifts on the flight deck and the two hangar decks below.

When the commander gives the order to launch the attack wave, the aircraft lifts will lift all the planes needed for the attack from the hangar one by one, and the ground crew will arrange them on the flight deck in the order of fighter in front and torpedo plane in the rear.

Since all carrier-based aircraft enter the battlefield with fuel and torpedoes and bombs in their hangars according to the tasks they may perform, the lined up fleet usually does not need to be prepared on the deck, and can take off sequentially according to the corresponding signal instructions.

Taking the take-off of an attack wave consisting of 12 fighters and 18 torpedo planes as an example, the entire process takes from one and a half hours to two and a half hours from the time the first plane is lifted to the time when the last plane leaves the flight deck, depending on the sea conditions, weather, degree of aircraft maintenance, and personnel training level.

Reeves was able to understand the British approach: in the North Atlantic, where wooden aircraft exposed to the flight deck could easily be damaged and even thrown directly into the sea, the fewer planes left on the flight deck, the better.

However, in most of the waters of the South Pacific. Although powerful typhoons occur from time to time in certain seasons, more often than not, the sea is calm, humid and hot, and even when it rains, the ensuing winds and waves are far from comparable to those in the North Atlantic.

In that case, why don't you put most of your planes on the flight deck in normal times?

Just when Reeves was struggling to try, the opportunity soon came: in the Battle of San Cristobal. The "Pearl Harbor" modified aircraft carrier and its sister ship "Manila," which temporarily undertook the task of transporting aircraft, were sunk one after another, and the 2nd and 3rd carrier-based aircraft wings equipped by the two ships became birds without a nest. Leaving Port Vila with nothing to do, the Panama's 1st Carrier-Based Aircraft Wing lost almost half of its carrier-based aircraft in the naval battle.

In order to supplement the Panama's losses, Reeves applied that the squadrons belonging to the 2nd and 3rd Carrier-Based Aircraft Wings be temporarily placed under the command of the 1st Carrier-based Aircraft Wing of the Panama, so that the aircraft available to Major Thors far exceeded the Panama's rated capacity.

The U.S. Navy's conceptual setting of the rated capacity of aircraft carriers is completely based on the British Royal Navy, which refers to the maximum number of aircraft that can be accommodated in the hangar as specified in the design.

Due to the limitations of the cruise ship's hull. Coupled with the tight renovation period, the Panama, with a standard displacement of 27,000 tons, was only equipped with a single-story simple hangar, which could carry a total of 24 fighters in two squadrons, a total of 18 torpedo planes in two squadrons, and 3 spare aircraft (fighter 2 and torpedo machine 1) disassembled and stored, totaling 45 aircraft.

Pearl Harbor with a standard displacement of 18,000 tons. A simple single-story hangar was also set up, but due to the smaller hull, the hangar was also reduced, and its standard carrier-based aircraft wing had one less torpedo squadron than the Panama, and there were no spare aircraft, so the total number of aircraft on board was only 33.

The 1st Carrier-Based Aircraft Wing lost 20 aircraft in the Battle of San Cristobal. There are still 25 aircraft left, including spare aircraft, and after being merged into the 2nd and 3rd carrier-based aircraft wings, the total number of aircraft has reached 91!

With enough aircraft, Reeves began to implement his plan: to completely break the original aircraft carrier operation process, no longer to store most of the aircraft in the hangar at all times, but to fold the wings of as many aircraft as possible and place them on the flight deck, and only those that could not fit were left in the hangar. At the same time, there should be sufficient space in the hangar for aircraft relocation.

When it is necessary to take off a small number of reconnaissance planes, anti-submarine patrol planes, and fighters on anti-aircraft duty, the standby aircraft group placed on the flight deck should move as far as possible to the stern of the ship, so as to vacate a short section at the front of the deck as a take-off runway.

When the above-mentioned aircraft need to land, the standby fleet is then transferred to the bow to vacate a section at the rear of the deck as a landing strip.

In order to prevent a failed landing aircraft from crashing into a crowded group of aircraft in front of it and causing a major accident, one or two blocking nets are to be pulled up at the end of the landing section, and aircraft that fail to hook the deck blocking cable will be plunged into the net - although this is likely to cause damage to the nose engine part or even the entire fuselage, it is much more cost-effective to damage one aircraft than to crash several planes at once, or start a fire that engulfs the entire ship.

As a result of these measures, Reeves crammed three squadrons of fighters and three squadrons of torpedo planes into his Panama, for a total of 63 carrier-based aircraft, of which at least 42 were on standby and placed on the flight deck at all times.

In order to store enough spare parts for the 21 additional aircraft, Reeves also eliminated the Panama's three disassembled standby aircraft and converted the spare hangar into a spare parts warehouse.

As the number of aircraft increased, but the aviation gasoline and ammunition depots could not be temporarily expanded, Reeves' solution was to risk storing hundreds of 1-gallon portable gasoline canisters in soldiers' quarters and reducing the stock of anti-aircraft guns in order to convert part of the anti-aircraft ammunition depots into aviation ammunition depots.

When Colonel Reeves took command of Task Force 51 from the experienced Rear Admiral Witson and set sail, the total number of aircraft carriers in the fleet increased from 117 at the Battle of San Cristobal to 135 at present – 72 single-seat fighters and 63 two-seat torpedo aircraft.

From dawn to this time, at 11 a.m. local time, the fleet had already dispatched two groups of nine torpedo planes each to search for the Chinese task force that had shelled the landing site on Malaita Island at midnight yesterday, and at the same time, the "toucano" air force on San Cristobal Island also sent a total of 27 shore-based bombers in three groups to repeatedly search the waters around Malaita Island, but no trace of the enemy was found.

According to a report from the Malaita Island, after carrying out a 15-minute rapid attack, the Chinese task force broke into the mine positions and reef groups southeast of the landing site, triggering at least two mines, and then was further attacked by the remaining torpedo boat squadron and submarine detachment, and the enemy fleet fiercely returned fire, resulting in the destruction of three of our torpedo boats on the spot, and the grounding of one after heavy damage.

According to the report of the remaining submarine detachment, the enemy fleet broke away at a speed of 6 to 8 knots after repelling the assault of the torpedo boat squadron, and out of excessive caution, none of the four submarines of the submarine detachment launched a tracking of the retreating enemy fleet.

Based on the above information, Reeves determined that the daring Chinese task force should not have escaped from his hands.

"Commander, discover the enemy fleet!"

…… (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. )