Countless eyes from top to bottom of the fleet fell on the Tianshi Zuoyuan, and everyone looked at the damaged aircraft carrier with concern, and they could vaguely see the damage management team members on the deck setting up water pipes to pour water into the holes emitting smoke and sparks.

A quarter of an hour later, the first damage report was issued: "One torpedo hit the port side, two bullets on the runway, the No. 3 boiler room was seriously flooded, the middle lift was damaged, and the top speed was still 23 knots."

Subsequently, the captain of the ship, Zhu Yuanwei, sent another message saying that the runway was seriously damaged and the aircraft could not be recovered.

"The ship itself is fine. Tell the group that it is advisable to fly to land and then abandon the plane and parachute. Liu Zaiyao was not surprised and gave the order very decisively.

The flight deck of the Amagichi Zuoyuan will definitely not be able to land, and the returning carrier-based aircraft formation is very close to the land, and the remaining fuel is more than enough, enough for them to find a suitable position to parachute en masse.

At this time, the radio listening group of Yuan Fenghao also reported that it had found a large number of telecommunications in the east, and the communication frequency was very high.

Eight or nine are not far from ten, this should be an exchange between the US fleet, and it must also be a big headache for the attack on the Lexington.

The thought that he might encounter two Colorado-class battleships next, Zhou Changfeng became more and more apprehensive.

Come on! Those two ships have 406mm main guns, and the Yuan Feng and Yuan Ding, as old battleships thirty years ago, have only 352mm main guns.

Liu Zaiyao also did not want to risk putting Zhou in danger, although he was confident that he would command the fleet to crush the interception of the US army, but there was no guarantee that Yuan Fenghao would be safe and sound at that time.

So while looking at the charts, he said indifferently: "I'm afraid there will be a big battle when I cross the strait at night, and it would be better for Chief Zhou to go to the Tianshi Zuoyuan to sit in town." ”

"Okay." Zhou Changfeng is not verbose, just go.

He actually didn't quite understand why the admirals were so confident, so he immediately and decisively transferred.

In his opinion, the risk of the next engagement can be said to be quite large, and it is better to wait until after dawn for his land-based air forces to take off from Darwin to force back the American fleet, and then cross the channel.

What Liu Zaiyao and others considered was that the Tenshi Zuoyuan temporarily lost its take-off and landing capabilities and could not provide air alert for the fleet after dawn, so it had to take advantage of the cover of night to quickly approach Moresby.

Of course, the safest way to do this would be to go straight back, but that would also mean that the plan to attack Moresby would collapse in the middle of the road, which was obviously not a good choice.

This is true on a macro level, and although it seems that the gap between the capital ships is not small at the specific level, it is not the case with the screen guards - the admirals believe that their screen ships have a huge advantage, which is the main reason why Liu Zaiyao and others finally decided to continue the operation.

The total known enemy fleet consisted of 2 battleships, 1 heavy cruiser, 2 light cruisers, 1 aircraft carrier, and 9 destroyers; The damaged aircraft carrier cannot fight, and it is impossible to return to port alone, and there should be 1~2 destroyers to escort it.

The T-39 landing fleet had 2 battleships, 3 light cruisers, 1 aircraft carrier, 1 super destroyer, and 12 destroyers; Four of them are Wenchang-class destroyers with extremely strong melee combat capabilities.

At the same time, in addition to the fighter and bomber units of the Air Force, stationed at Darwin Airport was also the first team of the Second Naval Air Detachment, the only torpedo bomber unit in the whole Ming Dynasty that had conducted night sea attack training.

"Order, catapult all reconnaissance aircraft, zigzag search the strait; Let the daimyo take the lead, and go out two thousand meters in front of the whistle. Liu Zaiyao ordered.

"Order!" The adjutant immediately received the order and repeated it aloud: "Release all the maritime reconnaissance, zigzag search the strait, and the destroyer Daimyo is out of the fleet 2,000 meters in front of the sentry guard." ”

The faint light reflected by the Emei moon at the beginning of the month is better than nothing, and under the reflection of the faint moonlight, the sea takes on an extremely deep blue-black.

The fleet headed east, disappearing into the endless depths of the night......

For the pilots of carrier-based aircraft who are returning home, the current situation is typical of joy and sorrow.

The remaining fuel is considerable, almost enough to fly at cruising speed for about an hour, but it is nowhere near enough to support Darwin Airport.

Zhou Qi hesitated for a long time, and finally ordered: "Go south, to the Cape York Peninsula, I remember that some people say that there are our own people over there." ”

"Team Zhou, will you make a forced landing or a direct parachute jump at that time?" Someone asked.

"It's too dangerous to make a forced landing, just parachute jump."

"Yes."

Objectively speaking, pilots are not necessarily worth more than airplanes, and it is impossible to generalize.

A fledgling rookie pilot isn't necessarily worth more than an expensive four-engine aircraft, with a B-17 worth $259,000, a B-24 worth $300,000 and a B-29 costing up to $605,000.

However, naval aviation, especially carrier-based aircraft pilots, is different, each of these elites is highly prized and much more scarce than ordinary pilots.

Moreover, the most valuable thing is the hearts of the people, and the troops without morale are just showmen.

If it is advertised that the aircraft is more valuable than the pilot, the result in the long run is that the latter gradually becomes a bastard who does not dare to fight and fight.

"Keep an eye out for a check-in, look at your respective logbooks or something, and bring them with you." When he was about to fly over the land, Zhou Qi reminded him.

Later, he pulled open the hatch, and the heavys reached for their flare guns.

"Bang! Phew-"

White flares flew into the sky, especially in the dark.

Zhou Qi let go of the lever and stood up from the seat. At his beckoning, his partner took the lead in flipping out and successfully opened the umbrella.

A few seconds later, he also jumped out of the cabin and pulled open his parachute bag.

Looking up diagonally, I saw a cluster of stars moving, which was a formation of carrier-based aircraft with night lights on.

It had been agreed that five minutes later one of the crew would fire a signal flare, and everyone would gather close to him because he had been injured by anti-aircraft fire and could not move.

If he had an accident and didn't launch on time, then Zhou Qi would take over.

A few minutes later, everyone set foot on the pine meadows of Queensland, scattered over a vast area of several square kilometers.

The yellow flare rose into the air as promised, and the pilots trotted in that direction with flashlights and pistols......

At 21:37 that night, on the sea 12km west of the Torres Strait, three more seaplanes catapulted and took off from the Qiantangjiang, Xiangjiang, and Beipanjiang light cruisers.

More than an hour ago, a seaplane ejected by the Yuan Feng clearly spotted the TF-12.2 fleet, and the search for the enemy was completed.

The Lexington's ingress and engine failures resulted in a low-speed voyage, and Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher ordered the destroyer USS Masteen to escort her to Townsville - Moresby, though close, was too dangerous.

Now, the rest of the TF-12.1's heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers have joined the TF-12.2, preparing to intercept the invading Ming fleet near the Torres Strait channel.

The Torres Strait is shallow in the south and deep in the north, with a width of about 60km at the narrowest point, an average water depth of 50m, and only 14m at the shallowest point.

Rear Admiral Frank judged that the Ming fleet would definitely take the northern route, and he only needed to wait there to seize the advantageous position in advance.

As soon as the Ming army appeared, they greeted them with shells and torpedoes.

Liu Zaiyao graduated from the Hangzhou Military Academy, which was the cradle of the Ming naval officers, and he worked his way up from the destroyer second lieutenant navigation officer to the major ship, and served on many cruisers and battleships, and then began to actually command the fleet after studying at the Tianjin Naval Staff College.

The Torres Strait is shallow in the south and deep in the north, and full of reefs, so it is naturally most appropriate to take the northern shipping lane.

Liu Zaiyao can guess how the US military commander is deployed, and he can think about it from another position.

So...... In order to counter the US interception, he ordered the four destroyers, the Qinshui, Qingyuan, Longchuan, and Yunhe, to break away from the fleet, form a lightning strike detachment, and take the southern channel by surprise to the enemy.

Yunhe is the second ship of the Jinghai-class super destroyer, with a standard displacement of 2,920 tons, equipped with 5 single-mounted 144mm naval guns, and a top speed of nearly 40 knots, which is quite expensive.

Unlike the French super-destroyers, the Jinghai class is heavier, and these tonnages are allocated to armor, giving it a certain level of protection - the situation room can withstand 5-inch guns at medium and long ranges, and the power compartment can also resist 3-inch guns, which is extremely rare among destroyers in the world.

The Wenchang-class destroyer is essentially a lightning strike ship, which is a freak born under the guidance of the decisive battle strategy and ideology of that year - responsible for carrying a large number of medium-sized torpedoes for close and dense lightning strikes.

With a standard displacement of 1,750 tons, they are equipped with three 480mm quintuple torpedo launchers, three twin 128mm naval guns, and a maximum speed of 38 knots.

This style is very different from the long-range launch of heavy torpedoes that the Japanese have historically liked, and the Akito, who is not often extreme, chose to hit the bullet in this regard.

The 39th T-shaped landing fleet left behind more than 20 transport ships and landing ships, leaving only an old Binh Duong-class destroyer to escort the fleet and the wounded Tenaichi Zuoyuan.

The rest of the ships gradually increased to a speed of 18 knots and passed through the strait in the middle of the night.

All battleships had their main lights and shutters turned off to ensure that no light leaked to reveal their whereabouts.

As the minutes ticked by, the Strait was more than halfway through the voyage and it was soon time to leave this haunted place full of islands and coral reefs.

At 1:37 a.m. on December 4, the whole fleet became more and more nervous, and there was no sleepiness at all.

The seaplane sent back a search report, confirming that there were multiple navigation lights and ship shadows in the waters east of the strait, and judged that it was the US fleet.

In a few moments, the lookout post of the Daimyo destroyer also discovered that an unidentified point of light appeared about 8,000 meters away.

At first he thought it was a starlight reflection, but soon realized that it was the ship's navigation lights, and identified it as a destroyer.

Then, the lookout post spotted two more shadows of the ship one after another.

"Pass my orders!" Liu Zaiyao ordered sharply: "The whole team is deployed in battle, the whole team is speeding up, and prepare to avoid torpedoes!" ”

At the same time as the battle alarm sounded, the four seaplanes that had been hovering in the nearby night sky began to fly towards the center of the sea, ready to perform their unique tricks.

In fact, all of this had been known to Rear Admiral Frank, and the radar had detected the ship ten minutes earlier - though the XAF experimental radar had not performed well due to the sheer number of islands and reefs, otherwise it should have been detected much earlier.

More than a dozen U.S. warships have been waiting here for a long time, and they are arranged in a slender single vertical formation, occupying the natural T-shaped horizontal head position.

Both sides of the encounter were mentally prepared, but there were no surprises.

The naval battle began with the first shot fired by the destroyer Nashville, followed by the heavy cruiser USS Northampton with a round and a half of salvos.

Several 127mm artillery flares hung high in the night sky, illuminating the sky and the sea.

Then, the twin 406mm guns of the West Virginia and Maryland also began to roar, and the 1016kg armor-piercing shells flew out of the muzzle at twice the speed of sound!

The sea around the Ming fleet immediately splashed with columns of water of varying heights.

At this time, the American sailors in the battle position suddenly heard the faint noise of the aircraft propeller in the rumbling cannon.

Two seaplanes belonging to the Yuan Feng swept in front of the U.S. fleet at an altitude of about 100 meters, while a long curtain of smoke was spread.

This is a solution of sulfur trioxide mixed in chlorosulfonic acid liquid, which reacts with water vapor in the air to form a mixture of sulfuric acid mist and hydrochloric acid mist, which is extremely corrosive, but the effect is also very good.

The Ming Navy has always attached great importance to the use of smoke, and each screen ship has a smoke and mine department, which refers to smoke and fish (water) mines, and how to use smoke in a multi-directional way is a compulsory course for officers.

Whether it's a land or naval battle, smoke is indispensable. In some special cases, it is a power multiplier and a life-saving hole card.

Two long curtains of white smoke hung down from the sky, like a fairy-world waterfall.

The TF-12 fleet, which occupied a dominant position, was still firing fiercely just now, but now it was blocked by such a smoke screen, and the artillery fire suddenly stagnated.

[Picture]

"Sir! What are we going to do?! ”

In the command tower of the Maryland, a lieutenant colonel asked eagerly and loudly.

Major General Frank said lightly: "You are an officer, calm down." Now, fire the torpedo and adjust the course to 115. ”

With his order, several American destroyers began firing torpedoes.

One Mk15 torpedo after another drove aimlessly towards the smoke curtain, passed through it one after another, and then disappeared.

Rear Admiral Frank tried to disrupt the formation of the Ming fleet with this, but to no avail.

The threat of oncoming torpedoes is minimal, not to mention the fact that at the moment it is a nimble destroyer approaching at high speed.

Some of the battleships had already moved away from the places covered by the smoke curtain and resumed shelling, but the five or six Ming destroyers that launched the assault had already closed more than 2,000 meters during this time.

The two sides once again launched a fierce firefight, and the light cruisers Xiangjiang, Qiantangjiang, and Beipanjiang set fire to the Phoenix.

The 144mm, 54x-diameter naval guns they carry not only have slender barrels, but also have a heavier cartridge, so they have quite straight ballistic performance, which can be called laser cannons at medium and close ranges.

The Phoenix was hit by 17 shells in just four minutes, and there were fire points everywhere.

One of her turrets was destroyed, the superstructure was in shambles, the bridge was hit four times in a row, and the officers suffered heavy casualties.

For a time, the entire sea area was full of cannons, and the flames were soaring into the sky, and the scene was unprecedentedly chaotic.

The operation of the Ming fleet completely exceeded the expectations of the US military, and the confident waiter was disturbed and chaotic.

The Changyi rushed out of the smoke curtain first, and the captain shouted on the radio: "The brave are invincible, this battle will be won, kill it!" ”

"Hooray!"

(End of chapter)