Douglas's latest deliveries of SBD-2 dreadnought dive bombers totaled just over 70 units, all of which were deployed on the USS Saratoga and USS Enterprise.

At present, with the exception of the VB-3, VS-3, VB-6, VS-6 squadrons, the rest of the carrier-based bomber squadrons are still equipped with SB2U Defenders.

The SB2U eliminated by the Saratoga and Enterprise was put to good use in Makin, Tarawa, Kwajalein and other places.

It was part of it that was attacking the second formation at the moment.

Many of the Navy's land-based pilots were severely inexperienced, many of them had graduated from flight school not long ago, and the rear-seat gunners had only one or two target training.

The vast majority of pilots were rookies who had only dropped a model torpedo at a training ground once before, or dropped a bomb on a rectangular dive painted in white paint on the ground.

But now they really had to use real torpedoes and aerial bombs to attack the most powerful aircraft carrier formations.

At 9:59 local time, for the first time in their lives, the US pilots who were approaching the Ming fleet saw a fleet of so many aircraft carriers, and many people were shocked by such a magnificent momentum.

More than two dozen Type 37 ships swarmed in, hunting this group of moths almost at will.

In the eyes of the Ming pilots, the stupid F2A Buffalo fighter was a complete waste, while the TBD ravaging torpedo machine was slow and clumsy, no different from a live target.

All six Buffalo fighters were shot down in thirteen minutes, not to mention two fists against four hands, and even one-on-one heads-up had no chance of winning.

The rest of the torpedo planes and dive bombers could only desperately strafe with their self-defense machine guns, but such weak return fire had little effect, and one ravaging torpedo plane after another was damaged and fell out of control and fell into the sea.

A minute later, the torpedo formation and the dive bomber formation separated, the former descending to fly close to the sea surface, and the latter remaining at an altitude of 2,500 meters.

The torpedo pilot, Second Lieutenant Donald, struggled to maneuver the plane, and the ravager withstood three rounds of dive strafing, which was riddled with holes, the hydraulic system failed, and one cylinder of the star-shaped engine was punctured.

"Da-da-da-"

The rear-seat heavys fired incessantly, and the twin 7.62mm machine guns fired strings of tracer rounds.

When he was attacked by the Ming fighters for the fourth time, Second Lieutenant Donald suddenly noticed that the roar of the machine gun behind him had stopped abruptly, and he turned his head to see that his partner had collapsed in his seat, and there was no movement.

When they were about to enter the range of anti-aircraft fire, the Ming fighters flew away one after another.

At this time, only 2 TBD torpedo planes and 4 SB2U dive bombers remained in the attacking US fleet.

The Mk30 aviation torpedo, which was advancing at a speed of 13 knots, was actually not as fast as most of the Ming aircraft carriers, and although the quality of its fuse was acceptable, the overall reliability was poor.

For example, during an exercise in July 41, the torpedo squadron of the Enterprise dropped ten Mk13 torpedoes, only one of which was operating normally, and the remaining nine were either seriously yawed or sank outright.

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"Lost thunder!"

The attack was on the Taiwei Zuoyuan, and the sailors saw two torpedo planes flying towards them and dropping torpedoes, splashing large waves on the sea.

After the torpedo falls into the water, it will plunge into the sea due to inertia, and then float up to a set depth and sail forward......

But more than ten seconds have passed, why is the torpedo gone?!

"Where's the torpedo?!"

"Can you see it?!"

"Fucking gone!"

"Good boy, what's the situation?!"

The officers and men of the Taiwei Zuoyuan thought that the Americans had used an unknown secret weapon, and they were greatly surprised.

The captain hurriedly ordered the right rudder to be full, and turned the bow in the direction of the torpedo overboard.

As a result, a few minutes passed, and nothing happened.

During this period, the four SB2U dive bombers did not attack the same target as the torpedo planes, and appeared to be uncooperative.

One by one, they dived towards the Riknomiya, but were forced to hurriedly drop bombs at an altitude of more than a thousand meters due to intensive anti-aircraft fire.

Four columns of water rose and fell, but the nearest one was about 600 meters away from the Riknomiya, and instead splashed a pool of sea water on a nearby destroyer.

In view of the fact that it had been in the air for a long time, the Type 37 ship, which had little ammunition and fuel left, gave up after a quarter of an hour of pursuit, and returned one after another to prepare for landing.

In the end, almost all the attacking US aircraft fleet was wiped out, and only one SB2U was lucky to return home.

"The performance of this electric detector is still not good, and it has a better detection range for a group of aircraft." Zhou Changfeng said.

"It's just a test thing, and I didn't expect it to be very useful." Ouyang Zhanghua said casually.

Shipborne radar has more restrictions on the size of the equipment, and it is too hasty in just half a year, and the land-based radar that will be developed by the electric exploration is decent, but the performance of several shipborne radar samples that are still being tested is still very rudimentary.

At present, only the Ziwei Zuoyuan, Taiwei Zuoyuan, and Xuande have installed experimental anti-aircraft warning radars, and the Huangpu River Light Patrol has installed experimental microwave sea-to-sea search radars.

The former works at 200MHz with a peak power of 10.5kW, and has a detection range of about 70km for aircraft formations and about 45km for a single medium-sized aircraft, and is sometimes affected by clutter.

As a result, the U.S. fleet of U.S. planes taking off from the Tarawa base had been spotted out of sight, but the Katerina few hours earlier had clearly exceeded the capabilities of such a radar sample.

"The U.S. fleet should still be on the outside line, the enemy is dark and I am clear, it is too dangerous." Zhou Changfeng is particularly disturbed by this state of unilateral information transparency.

"What would you do if you were to take the command?" Ouyang Zhanghua asked disappreciatively.

"Me?" Zhou Changfeng thought for a moment and replied: "If you use the idea of land warfare...... I should keep the fleet out of here as soon as possible, and send planes to intercept the planes on the opposite side, so that the other side can't find them. ”

"If it's a good way to hide in the woods and dig into a ravine, you can avoid being tracked down by others." Ouyang Zhanghua smiled, "But this is the sea, the goal of the fleet is too big, and it can't run far in a short time, so it will be easy to be found again." ”

He immediately coughed dryly and gave instructions, "Order that the destroyers of the Taizuo, Taiyou, and a group of destroyers immediately break away from the squadron, move away at full speed in the direction of 165, and keep the radio silent; The team turned to the direction of the seventies. ”

The two Taiweiyuan-class aircraft carriers are the most offensive aircraft carriers in the Ming Navy, and they can carry 80 or 90 carrier-based aircraft, while reaching a top speed of 32 knots.

Now they left the second formation under the escort of a light cruiser and four destroyers and turned to the right.

Seven warships of various sizes gradually increased to their maximum speed and galloped towards the depths of the ocean to the southeast.

At this time, it had been three hours since the early morning flight of the reconnaissance planes, and they had theoretically reached the maximum distance required by the mission, about 600 kilometers.

According to common sense, the US aircraft carrier formation should not be located farther away, because the combat radius of carrier-based aircraft will not exceed 400 kilometers.

There is also another possibility, that is, the Americans misjudged the strategic direction of the Ming fleet, so they did not deploy the aircraft carrier formation near the Gilbert Islands.

"If that's the case, the U.S. fleet should be in the Marshall Islands, and it won't be able to catch up." A lieutenant colonel staff officer said.

If the U.S. military miscalculates, the task force near the Marshall Islands is now out of reach.

From there, it can be as little as 600 or as much as 800 kilometers, far exceeding the combat radius of carrier-based aircraft in combat load.

Maybe the enemy will attack one-way?

But just as everyone was discussing whether there was a possibility of a forced one-way attack by the enemy, a sudden telegram was like a stone smashed into a pond, instantly causing ripples in circles.

"Shangbi No. 3 has spotted the enemy fleet, suspected to be a number of battleships, located directly south of the Great Pavilion."

The big pavilion is the code name of Tarawa, and this telegram was sent back by a Type 37 ship of the Ziwei Zuoyuan reconnaissance fleet.

This lack of detailed information made the generals in the bridge a little confused, and immediately called back to ask for clarification on the reconnaissance results.

However, the Upper Shot-3 missed a call back from the flagship, and the pilot and backseat gunners saw several fighters coming towards them from the U.S. fleet and had to slip away.

In the process, it sent a second cable.

"The enemy fleet has about ten battleships and one aircraft carrier, coordinates 0°2'N, 173°4'E, and its speed is slow."

In fact, the TF-30 task force had only 8 battleships, and the heavy cruisers had 5.

A battleship formation with one aircraft carrier?

The distance between the two sides is only 300 kilometers, and this aircraft carrier may release carrier-based aircraft at any time!

Even... Its carrier-based aircraft may already be on the way.

Now Ouyang Zhanghua's current situation is very clear.

The U.S. military did not misjudge its own strategic direction, so many battleships are definitely not here to see when they are acting together, so the rest of the aircraft carriers must also be near the Gilbert Islands.

So now do you want to attack this fleet?

If you give up the attack, that aircraft carrier will be a huge hidden danger!

If you choose to attack, what size of carrier-based aircraft formation should be sent?

"It's a tempting bait." Ouyang Zhanghua took a deep breath and calmly ordered: "Order, the Northern Division, Tiangang, and Ligong immediately prepare for battle and attack the enemy aircraft carrier." Telegraphed to the Yongle and asked the first formation to move south as soon as possible to meet the enemy battlefleet. ”

"Order!" The adjutant stood upright, clenched his fists and repeated: "Beiluoshimen, Tiangang......"

Because the main force of the enemy aircraft carrier formation in an unknown location may appear at any time, Ouyang Zhanghua hopes that this attack can go and return quickly.

He had originally planned to have only two light carriers attack, but given the precedent of the USS Lexington, he finally decided to send a little more.

In order to release the air attack formation as quickly as possible, the three aircraft carriers turned to sail against the wind, each responsible for a type of aircraft.

The Beiluo Shimen released 14 Type 37 ship drives, the Tiangang released 18 Type 37 ship bombs, and the Ligong released 10 Type 36 ship mines.

In the eyes of the reporters accompanying the army, this group of dozens of carrier-based aircraft is like a wild goose soaring in the blue sky in formation.

At about the same moment, a group of US carrier-based aircraft came to the southwest of the second formation of the Ming fleet, but only saw the empty sea.

Previously, the TF-31 task force was located 50km east of Tarawa.

Upon learning of the Ming aircraft carrier formation, Vice Admiral William Halsey ordered the fleet to turn due west, and all four aircraft carriers were ready for a fierce full-deck attack.

According to the predetermined plan, the carrier-based aircraft released by the four aircraft carriers will assemble at a coordinate southwest of Tarawa and then carry out a coordinated attack with an unprecedentedly large group of aircraft.

However, because of the distance of 400 kilometers, fuel is tight, and the fault tolerance rate is very low.

However, the weather conditions on the west side of Tarawa Atoll were not good, with a large patch of thick cumulonimbus clouds.

The Raider's VB-4 and VS-4 squadrons were lost and forced to abandon halfway.

The VT-5 and VB-5 squadrons of the Yorktown attempted to bypass the cumulonimbus cloud, but underestimated its extent and had to return to the ship due to more than half of the fuel.

In fact, only the 40 or so dive bombers, fighters, and torpedo planes of the USS Saratoga and the USS Enterprise arrived at the assembly coordinates on time, and they chose to continue flying to the predicted location of the Ming fleet.

However, when they reached the predicted sea area, they found that there was no trace of the Ming fleet at all, and the vast and boundless sea was as calm as a mirror.

They continued to fly more than 60 kilometers to the southeast, but still found nothing, and by this time the fuel gauge was more than halfway through, and they had to turn back.

On the way back to Tarawa, frightened and nervous U.S. officers and men made the group of planes flying from the west a hostile target – they were ordered to open fire on all unidentified aircraft.

"Enemy planes are coming! Look for cover! ”

"Knock those bitch guys down!"

The shrill and piercing sound of air defense sirens resounded throughout the island, and for a time there was a loud burst of gunfire.

More than a dozen M3 76.2mm anti-aircraft guns opened fire violently, and hundreds of clouds of black smoke suddenly appeared in the sky......

I didn't find the target and had to go back to the ship stupidly, and I was beaten by my own people on the way back? What kind of business is this!

The embarrassed and depressed American pilots planned to question the operational staff officers of the aviation group after landing.

But just as they landed one after another, a bad news reached their ears - the radars of many warships in the TF-30 fleet had discovered that unknown air targets were approaching!

"Let the Raider and the Yorktown have the available aircraft to the TF-30, now!" Lieutenant General Halsey ordered loudly.

Several squadrons of the two aircraft carriers were previously forced to return due to weather conditions, and now the flight deck is clear, except for the rear section, and carrier-based aircraft can be released immediately.

There was only a two-minute gap between the front and back, and when the last TBD torpedo plane left the Raider, the Vespa light carrier received the first bomb to smash her.

"They're coming from seven o'clock! Captain! ”

"Left full rudder!"

The Vespa made a clear track on the sea, trying to evade the attacking Ming dive bombers, and the Chicago piano on both sides sounded non-stop.

"Wow-w-w-"

The seemingly dense tracer bullets came at you, and the light marks passed by!

However, most of the Ming pilots felt that the short-range anti-aircraft firepower of the US warships was far inferior to the long-range firepower, and when they broke through the outer layer before, the high-level dual-purpose guns of more than a dozen battleships and heavy cruisers almost blackened half of the sky.

"Boom!"

At 13:01, a 250kg armor-piercing blasting shell smashed through the bow of the Vespa!

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(End of chapter)