At 1 o'clock, 4 nautical miles southwest of Betty's avant-garde force, the flagship of Jellico's main force, "George V". 】

"An unknown large group of aircraft was found in the direction of o'clock, approaching at high altitude!"

The grim alarm instantly spread throughout the ship, and Admiral Jericho, who was sitting on a mahogany seat in the bridge of the "George V", frowned slightly, and ordered without thinking: "Prepare for air combat." ”

"Still being targeted......" Captain Anson, the adjutant standing on the left side of the seat, muttered nervously, and was immediately blinded by Colonel Willy, a senior staff officer with a big beard on the other side of the seat, and busily covered his mouth.

A more detailed report followed: "Quantity 4 to!" ”

"All of them are Lingayen-type four-engine land-based bombers, and no escort fighters have been found!"

"Escort the fighter team to meet it!" ——

Jericho just listened silently with a gloomy face, the order had been issued, and the next thing was to test the level of training of the fleet in peacetime, as soon as the formation unfolded, the zigzag route, the air fire net, there was no need to give another order; There are more than 10 "Camel" fighters of the Royal Indian Flying Corps in the air, and the captain of this ship is naturally responsible for the operation, and there is no need for him to interfere, not to mention that he himself lacks a perceptual understanding of naval aviation warfare, a brand-new mode of warfare. \

Half an hour ago, Jericho received the news that the Royal Navy's newest aircraft carrier, the USS Brilliant, had been forced to abandon after being hit by a mine, and a few minutes earlier, he received a report that the last aircraft carrier in the fleet, the "Great Ocean," had been mined and sunk. Jericho didn't make any comments, but his more solemn expression could not hide the wavering of his will.

In between, the battle between the two avant-garde has begun, and Betty still seems to have the upper hand, if she can inflict heavy damage or even annihilate the enemy avant-garde forces, there will be drama in the battle later. After all, the East Asian side has also had three aircraft carriers hit mines, and the loss of carrier-based aircraft should be quite a lot, and the Entente Fleet, which is sailing close to the east coast of India, can get the nearest support from its own shore-based air forces, while the East Asian Fleet, which is far from the coast of Burma, can hardly get shore-based air support.

The Chinese's shore-based aviation has developed to such a point that it can organize multiple waves of large aircraft groups to fly over the ocean of more than 4 nautical miles, accurately find and attack targets that are constantly maneuvering in a large range -- Jericho is keenly aware that under the premise that his own carrier-based aviation forces are completely wiped out, the shore-based air forces fail to assemble as planned, and the losses far exceed expectations, the fleet will face incalculable dangers if it continues to advance into the depths of the Bay of Bengal. \

As events develop, there is a tendency to become a replica of the battle of Lingayen...... You have to make up your mind early!

Jericho's fingertips, hanging outside the armrests, trembled slightly.

The bridge loudspeaker was still buzzing. Pretending to be calm electric music one after another:

"Enemy aircraft group diversion! The high-altitude team has about 3 planes, and the low-altitude team has about 3 planes. ”

"The high-altitude team is approaching in a straight line!"

"The low-altitude team is making a detour to the left front of my route—

"Escort fighter hit!"

"Starboard anti-aircraft artillery group autonomously fire - start!"

Amid the rumbling sound of artillery, 48 "Haiyan Lei" heavy land attack planes of the 11 th Land-based Wing of the Seventh Air Force of the Third Air Fleet of the Chinese Navy, under the guidance of four "Haiyan Lei Reconnaissance" long-range reconnaissance planes, launched a fearless onslaught against a huge box-shaped array composed of 71 enemy ships, of which 16 horizontal bombers carrying eight one-kilogram bombs each entered from an altitude of 3 meters, and three 14-year-old 4-millimeter Type 2 aviation torpedoes with one kilogram each hanging at a low altitude of tens of meters to several meters -- the main ship attack of the carrier-based aviation unitThe "Golden Eagle" was mounted on a 12-year-old 4-millimeter torpedo with a torpedo machine weighing 1 kilogram.

The 14 "camel" fighters, which were hovering at low altitude only for the purpose of intercepting the attack of Chinese warships, had no time to climb to the altitude entered by the horizontal bomber fleet, and simply faced the low-altitude torpedo fleet. When a few brave pilots approached cautiously, they found that most of the barrels were fakes that could not sound, but the Chinese lightning strike team, which had lost a few planes, had already rushed into the fleet's anti-aircraft fire circle-

Probably because they were deceived and enraged, the "camel" pilots mostly chased after them, regardless of the high-explosive shrapnel that was flying from the sky. More than 100 medium-caliber antiaircraft guns flew through and fired at the ground in a dense barrage of bullets, regardless of life and death, and turned one after another "Haiyan Thunder," which was several times the size of a "camel," into a large and dazzling fireball. At the same time, they also endured the strafing of the air-burst shrapnel that did not have long eyes -- six of the 11 "Camel" fighters that pursued into the anti-aircraft fire network were shot down by their own artillery fire or the self-defense fire of the "Haiyan Thunder," and the frames that were lucky enough to come out were scarred, and three of them had accidents when they landed at the base, and the planes were scrapped.

While the angry "Camel" fighter squadron was making every effort to intercept the Chinese torpedo fleet, the horizontal bomber squadron braved a "scary-looking" air-burst barrage to smoothly fly above Jelico's troops, aimed at the four warships surrounded by dozens of small ships, and dropped 128 1-kilogram bombs in one go......

Suddenly, in the midst of the huge and majestic array, a column of water that was not too tall but was unusually dense sprang up. There were one or two flashes of light in between. The column of water that rose to the highest point was scattered, and the truth was as clear as a bride who had taken off her snow-white skirt**: the ship "Ocean" (France) of the 3rd Battleship Detachment and the "Neptune" (English) of the 3rd Battleship Detachment of the 4th Battleship Detachment were each miraculously hit by a bullet. The fire broke out in the middle superstructure of the "Ocean" and was quickly extinguished, and the bow of the "Neptune", which was not protected by the horizontal armor deck, was smashed from a height of 3 meters and a large iron lump of 1 kilogram pierced to the bottom and exploded, quickly flooding hundreds of tons.

At the moment when the water columns were scattered one after another, the 16 or 7 huge and clumsy "Haiyan Mines" that had escaped the interception of the "camels" and the air-burst barrage were clinging to the sea surface, facing the network of light chains of hundreds of machine guns and machine guns fired in staggered succession, and with mortal determination, they drilled through the gaps of several layers of cruisers and destroyers, and in the end, less than 10 planes succeeded in dropping mines, and three huge water columns several times the height of the battleship's mast rose one after another from the starboard side of the "Sumatra" and "Aginkut" that were in the far right position of the four battleship columns.

The Dutch Navy's Sumatra, modeled on the German Helgoland-class battleships, apparently inherited the high level of defense of its mother, and the starboard front was able to control the flooding in less than five minutes after being mined, and its speed was almost unaffected. The British forcibly requisitioned the "Agincourt" from Brazil to order ships, but not so lucky, from the beginning to the end of the center line of the seven twin 3 mm main turrets occupy the limited weight and space of this crane boat, not only the thickest main armor belt is only 8 mm, the underwater defense is also far inferior to the same period of considerable tonnage of warships, two 4 mm aviation torpedoes far less powerful than caliber ship torpedoes hit the starboard middle and aft of the "Agincourt" within a minute, thousands of tons of seawater poured into the boiler room and engine room, The 24,000-ton giant ship immediately stalled and stopped, the water discharge device lost power, the water could not be discharged, and the balance could not be restored, and the hull quickly tilted to the starboard side......

Betty's avant-garde unit flagship "Lion".

"War weariness is covered in pinch bullets!"

Hearing the exclamation on the loudspeaker, the big man in the crooked military hat, Lieutenant General David V Betty, gritted his teeth in surprise and annoyance: "Is there a mistake!" 18,000 yards to make a fork? It's not called artillery, it's magic! ”

Before Betty could get angry, the report that made him scratch his head followed:

"The enemy's lead ship switched to shooting at Balham, and the ship took over the shooting and was war-weary."

Betty hurriedly lifted his military hat: "Stupid, I only changed the target until I hit the fork, so I have to test again?" Waste of time, waste of shells - can anyone tell me what that Yuan bald head is thinking! ”

"It is self-confidence, absolute confidence in the quality of one's own fire control equipment and soldiers."

Lieutenant Colonel Kanter, the usually taciturn second staff officer, suddenly spoke leisurely like an immortal.

Betty glanced at him in shame and sneered, "What the hell are you trying to say?" Be clear. ”

"I don't think it's a matter of luck to be able to hit a pinch bullet beautifully in just a few rounds of test firing at this distance," Kanter said to himself with a blank face, "If I'm not mistaken, I'm afraid that the replacement of the war-weary enemy No. 2 ship will no longer need more test firings, and will soon be able to hit a new round of pinch crosses - or even a direct hit!" ”

"According to? What basis do you have? Betty clenched her deformed military hat in her hand.

Kanter tilted his neck at the megaphone on the other side of the bridge: "Listen there, we'll soon be able to draw conclusions." ”

——