The British fleet quickly advanced to the east, and the entire fleet was forced to base itself on the warweary's 24 knots, which made it impossible for the carriers to exert their speed.

The light aircraft carrier USS Licorne, 220 nautical miles ahead, relied on radar superiority to continue to pass through the waters between the Coco Islands and Preparis Island. On both islands, there were Japanese air bases, but the British fleet had nothing to fear. They had just won a battle, their morale was good, and now was the time to show their strength and show their U.S.-China allies the power of the British Empire.

Of course, behind the self-confidence, the British believe that they have a huge advantage in technology. The cruiser Aurora at the forefront of the advance fleet had just been modified with the Type 279 anti-aircraft radar, and in the encounter just now, it had detected the target earlier than the radar on the Unicorn aircraft carrier. If these useful equipment had been equipped earlier, instead of the Type 286 radar at the beginning of the war, perhaps the tragedy of the Prince of Wales would not have happened.

In the radar room behind the bridge, the radar soldier saw a flickering signal from the circular cathode ray tube. The signal is very unstable, coming and going, but the experienced radar soldier can see the trajectory, and he is sure that it is a small formation of fighters, approaching at an altitude of 500 meters to 2000 meters.

A Japanese Tianshan-type bomber, flying at an altitude of 3,000 meters, did not carry * on the plane, because it was on a reconnaissance mission.

This kind of carrier-based bomber is superior to the 97 ship-based attack, but because it is difficult to take off and land on the aircraft carrier, it is temporarily used by the land-based naval air force, of course, its large range, still makes it able to control a large area of the sea, this aircraft from the Tateyama air force, because it can sit three people, is considered to have some small advantages when reconnaissance at sea.

The pilot quickly found the faint smoke at sea level, and just at the point where the course extension reported by the previously downed plane, it seemed that the British had not changed their course, not even the speed, something must have gone wrong with one of the warships, otherwise the smoke would not have been so loud.

The bombers continued to get closer, trying to confirm the size of the enemy fleet, which was somewhat risky, especially as the Anglo-American fleet alert radar became more and more mature. But today he was a little lucky. The aircraft carrier Unicorn was just due to a fire on the deck caused by a sea fire landing accident, which caused the temporary inability to take off fighter jets. This is why he was able to observe the movements of the British fleet from a long distance. The navigator on board sent a brief telegram to the base in Thailand, confirming that there were at least four British ships, possibly an aircraft carrier.

At this time, Mikawa Gunichi's fleet was cruising in the Andaman Sea, and when he heard the communication, he judged that this was a small British fleet, which could approach quickly, and perhaps after the air strike, he could pick up the leak himself.

His fleet is composed of some small ships, but the average speed is more than 33 knots, so the purpose of this visit is to use the coastal air force to cover a naval guerrilla war with the British, according to Yamamoto's judgment, the British fleet in the Indian Ocean is actually composed of a bunch of old warships, if the enemy sends out the old war-weariness to give himself courage, then the enemy will not be able to get up.

At Bhiburi Airport in Thailand, the sirens sounded in the sky, and the ship-attack pilots of the Tateyama Air Force were quickly boarding the plane, these people had just moved to this place from the mainland and the Philippines, some of them were not adapted, and they should have rested for a few days, but the task came too quickly, and now they can only rely on awakening agents to relieve fatigue and concentrate. This early * became a secret weapon for Japanese pilots to dispatch at any time.

The escort was an elite pilot of the Tainan Air Force, piloting the Zero Type 21 fighter whose superiority was gradually disappearing. These aces were less fond of the Zero Type 52 with its enhanced power, and although the speed increased, the hovering performance was reduced. The Japanese army's air combat theory has not fully evolved to the height of energy air combat, and tactically, it still pursues a series of horizontal maneuvers to circle the enemy until six o'clock. This has led to a mysteriously obsessive attachment to reducing wing loads. Many fighters in this flight team have also removed about 100 kilograms of load from the radio station and the battery to increase some circling angular velocity.

After takeoff, the group of attack aircraft flew in the general direction, and they divided into different squads, separated from each other, and were at different altitudes, hoping to compress the time for enemy radar detection.

The Japanese carried out corresponding experiments with captured British radars, large groups of aircraft moving at high altitudes, which could be detected at the limit of 120 kilometers, and that was still the British radar technology of 1940, the latest pulse radar level of the British, and only some paper analysis data could be obtained from the Germans, in short, stronger.

The Unicorn finally solved the deck problem, began to take off fighters, and pursued the reconnaissance plane. Of course, in addition to the good speed of the Tianshan Mountains, there are Japanese island airfields everywhere that can land, which is also a reason why the pilots are more daring.

News of the discovery of the British fleet, constantly being photographed. The Japanese did not have an information distribution system and an advanced command model that could coordinate with each other, but the garrison on Andaman Island, the Onishi staff at the Thai base, and the Mikawa fleet at sea all received these short-wave information at the same time, and they all pounced on the British.

The first to arrive were the four Navy Type 96 bombers on the Andaman Island, they had long been under the radar surveillance of the British army, this old bomber, long since the courage to sink the Prince of Wales, but they are eager to try, ready to come out on top.

The extremely fast Sea Fire fighters, leaving the reconnaissance plane, rushed to intercept the bombers, the Sea Fire quickly took advantage of the position from above, and then with a sharp roll and dive, hiding under the bombers, this kind of bombers lacked defensive firepower below, and only took a beating. Soon, two bombers were shot down, and the other two remained stubbornly in the direction of the British fleet, but reduced in altitude. The two bombers were close to the sea, thinking that in this way, they could prevent the British from burrowing from below to dig out their crotch. But this did not save them from being shot down, and British fighters began to fire the machine-gun towers of Japanese bombers directly from the direction of 6 o'clock. The two 20 mm Sispano machine guns fired at a distance of more than a kilometer, which was much more powerful than the 7.7 mm machine guns on the Japanese plane. Soon, all the rotary machine guns were destroyed, and after the British planes approached, they fired heavily at one side of the bomber's wing, and the two Japanese bombers folded their wings and crashed into the sea.

But at this time, Colonel George Scott, who was commanding on the bridge of the Unicorn, noticed that the second group of Japanese planes had arrived. It seemed that he did not have time to land the Sea Fire fighters, so he gave the order to continue to take off the rest of the squad and ordered to shoot down the enemy plane just now. More than half of the fuel consumption of the sea fire is intercepted together.

One of the attack planes carried a new type of aircraft named "Huitian," which was piloted by Second Lieutenant Toshijiro Shinjo and hid 5 kilometers behind the last three-plane formation.

Unlike other companions who need to penetrate the fire net to attack, he only needs to be 3 to 4 kilometers away to make sure that the target is fired within 60 degrees of the *sector. Although the passive seeker designed by Makino has a range of less than one kilometer, due to the low speed of the warship, it can always find the target as long as it is launched not too off.

Of course, this is only a theory, this weapon has only been tested with a launcher, and the airdrop experiment has not yet been carried out, and the battlefield can only be used as a testing ground for the urgency of the war.

The Haihuo fighters quickly intercepted the Tianshan* planes at the front, and swarmed down together to slaughter these bombers. The planes are not fast enough or agile enough to dodge fighters before they are thrown. In particular, these British aircraft, in addition to four machine guns, were also armed with two 20mm cannons, and they were more efficient at hunting Japanese attack aircraft that lacked armor, and were more efficient than American aircraft.

With a full 25 kilometers to go of the Unicorn aircraft carrier, the first Tien Shan was shot down, and the rest of the Japanese aircraft were forced to turn to dodge. Since the Zero fighters that took off from Thailand have not been able to catch up with the attack aircraft, it is not possible to provide protection at this moment. When Onishi made his plan, he found himself facing a contradiction, if he let the fighter escort, it might increase the distance that the enemy's radar could detect, and finally he decided to take a compromise approach, let the first batch of bombers carry out a sneak attack without cover, and the sneak attack failed, and then the attack plane that was closely protected by the fighters launched a decisive attack.

Tien Shan attack planes were shot down one after another, and Colonel Scott could no longer see the glittering Japanese planes on the sea level with a telescope on the bridge. His anti-air and anti-sea alert radars did not find any Japanese planes that had slipped through the net, and it looked easy and simple, and he ordered the deck to be emptied and let the first batch of Sea Fire fighters take off to land, which was the more critical moment, and the landing of this excellent fighter always made people sweat.

Ace Hiroshi Nishida from the Tainan Air Force led his small squad of Zero fighters to quickly enter the radar line of sight, and he deliberately chose a higher altitude because he needed to create opportunities for the attack aircraft in the rear, and the simple way was to divert the enemy fighters and let the low-altitude Tianshan Mountain sneak closer. Hiding fighters in radar waves with the help of sea clutter has become a new tactic.

The British radar saw this formation, and a four-plane formation that stayed in the air quickly launched an interception, and it was difficult for the pilots in the air to determine whether it was a Zero or a dive bomber, so it had to be driven away, and several * planes hiding below secretly approached the target.

The Unicorn landed in trouble again, and a Spitfire failed to land and fell into the sea, but fortunately this mistake did not affect the takeoff. Colonel Scott gave the order to continue the take-off of fighters. His anti-air and anti-sea radars did not detect the rest of the enemy planes, but the Lin Xian-class cruiser reported that there seemed to be enemy fighters approaching in the southeast, and judged that the altitude did not exceed 500 meters. Experienced radar crews can still judge the approximate altitude of enemy aircraft based on some signs in the absence of altimetry radar.