The focus of the Alliance's interception is the second wave of incoming attack aircraft of the Empire, the largest of the scale

When the keyhole early warning and control aircraft reported to him the type and number of the second wave of the Imperial attack group, Colonel Taylor, as the commander of the interceptor group, knew where he should focus on the interception, unlike the alliance that has already used a universal heavy fighter to act as a fighter and attack aircraft at the same time, the base of the Imperial starfighters is too large, and the mass production of Super Banshee is not long, so it is not possible to completely replace all the starfighters, and even just replacing a large number of ordinary Banshees is already overstretched, Therefore, the strength of the strike force of the Imperial attack aircraft group is mainly reflected in their short sword attack aircraft.

In the first wave of the Imperial attack group, there were only sixty-two Gladiator attack aircraft, accounting for only about one-third of the total number of attack aircraft and slightly less, most of them were Banshee and Super Banshee Starfighters, and the second wave of attack aircraft was different, the scale of the sortie was much larger than the first wave, this wave of aircraft had a total of 144 Gladius attack aircraft, accounting for more than two-thirds of the total number of aircraft, and there were only sixty-four Banshees and Super Banshees escorting the ship. The second wave is much stronger than the first wave.

As an experienced commander, Colonel Taylor knew that if they were caught up in a battle with the first wave of Imperial attack planes, especially since the first wave was mostly composed of starfighters, even if they could completely intercept the first wave of attack planes, then rushing to the second wave of attack planes in a short period of time would cause them great trouble, and they would not have time to regroup in the future. They will only be able to engage in battle in a scattered, chaotic, and ineffective manner when they are unable to form an effective formation to fight in a combat area, and the interception efficiency will be greatly reduced, and a considerable number of dagger attack planes will be able to take advantage of the weakness to break through the fighter interception network and launch an attack on the fleet.

He still remembered what General Martin had said to him: the Allies could not afford any more losses. Although they can almost say that they will win this battle, if they are not careful, resulting in the sinking of a space carrier, it is also unacceptable. Although in the eyes of the outside world. Destroy four Imperial space carriers at the cost of one mothership. It was a brilliant victory anyway. But the crux of the matter is that they only have a few space carriers in total, and the life and death of the challenger are still uncertain, so this kind of victory is definitely not what they want, at least not what they want now.

That's why the colonel ordered the first wave of interceptors to ignore the first wave of Imperial attack planes that broke through their defenses, after the first wave of interceptors was regrouped. Immediately pounced on the larger second wave of Imperial attack aircraft, but they were not numerous enough to prevent the enemy planes from continuing to approach the fleet at the risk of losses, so in addition to leaving a few squadrons of fighters to continue to take care of the already heavy losses of the first wave of Imperial attack aircraft, most of the lightning also joined in the interception of the second wave of Imperial attack aircraft.

Colonel Taylor judged that the first wave of attack aircraft of the Reich had already suffered serious losses and should not be able to pose much of a threat to the fleet. But obviously. His judgment, like Major General Piper, had gone awry, and he still overestimated the few squadrons he had left. The enemy was inferior, but not as serious as Rear Admiral Piper: the first wave of Imperial attack planes continued to approach and attack the fleet relentlessly, despite the heavy losses suffered, and their escort fighters, despite being beaten to pieces, still desperately dragged the few remaining squadrons of fighters to cover their comrades for the first round of attacks on the fleet.

Hearing the loss report, the shock in the colonel's heart was indescribable for a while, although these losses were not large, and the consequences were not serious, but after all, this was achieved under the condition that the formation was scattered, the group was almost completely disabled, and the formation could not form a formation to attack the ground, everyone knew that an attack without a formation could not pose a great threat, and this could also make the alliance break out in a cold sweat, the tenacious offensive spirit and excellent attack skills of the imperial pilots made him look sideways, and those pilots were probably veterans, The novice was shot down long before passing through the fighter-interceptor net.

He couldn't help but feel afraid, if they had been entangled with the first wave of aircraft for too long, so that the second wave of Imperial attack aircraft could easily break through the fighter defense network and launch an effective formation attack on the fleet, if it was not good, the empire would really be able to destroy or severely damage one or two space carriers or battleships, and at this time to be heavily damaged, it would be almost the same as being destroyed, don't forget, the imperial reinforcement fleet is coming, they can't stay here for too long for emergency repairs, they can't keep up with the fleet, the damaged ships that can't move, they have to be abandoned.

He shook his head, the level of alliance pilots was uneven, he remembered the glory of the fifth independent mobile fleet in the Siberian galaxy when it covered the transport fleet before, when they intercepted nearly a hundred imperial attack aircraft groups that were about the same number as them and all of them were composed of super banshees, none of the imperial interstellar fighters could break through their interception, and the battle loss ratio between the two sides was as high as one to nine, if there were those people today, the imperial fleet would definitely not get any chance, veterans and novices are different, and there are still more new pilots under him

This is one of the short-term side effects of the great expansion of the fleet, and his training and cooperation are far from sufficient.

The colonel couldn't help but be a little envious, two of the three wing commanders of the Ninth Air Force of the Fifth Independent Mobile Fleet were super aces, and the number of enemy planes shot down by the two couples alone was almost two, and the number of downed enemy planes of the other wing was also dozens...... None of them are willing to be transferred out, alas, the value of the aces has depreciated significantly in the Ninth Air Force.

But now is not the time to be envious, the current reality of his subordinates is that there are many new pilots, and he still has to rely on them to complete the mission.

He then made up his mind and gave a death order, no matter what, he could not let go of the second wave of Imperial attack planes, the second wave of Imperial attack planes had more than twice as many dagger attack planes as the first wave, who knows how much they could achieve? The colonel's exact words were that he was going to knock the enemy plane down with me, and of course, he didn't really let the pilots use ramming tactics, he just let his pilots know his determination. Fortunately, the empire no longer has a third wave of attack aircraft groups, and he can devote all his energy and all his fighters to the attack on the second wave of imperial aircraft groups, and the pilots of the alliance can't help but feel ashamed.

Shame is almost brave......

The guilty Confederate pilots soon made the second wave of Imperial attack planes see their determination and anger, and under the leadership of their commander, they ignored the interference of the Imperial escort fighters and rushed into the queue of those dagger attack aircraft again and again, a large number of Imperial gladius attack planes were shot down before they could enter the attack distance, and during the battle, although the colonel did not really ask the pilots to ram the enemy planes, there were still many collision incidents, although most of them were because the attack distance was too close, The attacking pilot forgot to pull up the fighter and disengaged and caused the two planes to collide, but there were also real collisions, such as Everred, the second lieutenant pilot of the 4th team of the space carrier Sweeper, when he was chasing a short sword attack aircraft, due to lack of experience, the pilot made his lightning speed too fast, and when he was about to cross the rapidly decelerating short sword, he deliberately did not dodge or dodge, and directly let his lightning hit the tail of the short sword attack aircraft, and the short sword quickly went to control and was destroyed by another lightning that participated in the pursuit, Ensign Everred's lightning was badly damaged, but he barely made it back to the USS Sweeper, where he was awarded a medal for his bravery.

Acts of bravery are not the preserve of Ensign Everred alone, in the air battle the fighter plane was damaged, an ion engine was turned off, the shield system was also ineffective, and the captain of the 22nd Phantom Squadron of the USS Victor was preparing to land on the USS Raider space carrier--Ma ordered that any damaged fighter could land on any of the space carriers they found, and several Gladius attack aircraft were found approaching the fleet under the cover of fighters, and he ignored the damage to the fighters, Resolutely led two other equally damaged fighters to join the interception, they shot down a total of two daggers, and forced the other two daggers to fire their quantum torpedoes indiscriminately from a distance, naturally, none of these torpedoes reached their target.

The situation in the air battle is more and more one-sided in favor of the Alliance, the communication is full of chaotic screams and curses, shouts of warning and encouragement, the XY-1984 domain has become a nightmare and graveyard for the Imperial starfighters, the second wave of the Imperial attack aircraft group suffered much more tragic than the first, although they are more numerous than the first, but in total less than twenty-five fighters can break through the Alliance's fighter interception network, and the attacks carried out are ineffective. The pilots of the USS Liberator, who had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor and therefore had some knowledge of pre-ephemeris history, especially the world war, exclaimed ecstatically: "Hey, brothers, you say, is this not like the Mariana turkey hunt?" ”

Since then, this large-scale air battle of unprecedented scale has been informally called the "Second Turkey Hunt in 1984".

Note: In June 1944, the United States and Japan fought for the Mariana Islands, and the Pacific Theater, which was also the largest aircraft carrier battle in World War II, the Japanese army had a total of nine aircraft carriers 475 combat planes against the fifteen aircraft carriers and 956 combat aircraft of the US Fifth Fleet, in the air battle on June 19, the US military did not have a single battleship suffered heavy damage, only lost 23 Hellcat fighters, but shot down the Japanese aircraft 373, and the Japanese naval aviation has been in a state of desperation ever since. Faced with a series of Japanese planes falling like flaming leaves, an American pilot said triumphantly: "Hey, this is really like the ancient turkey hunting, and from then on, this battle was famous for the Mariana turkey hunting)