Second Lieutenant Jarvis, who was part of the Marine Corps Air Corps, was supposed to be on a routine anti-submarine patrol today, but found a fleet sailing in the distance at the outermost part of the intended search area.

When he flew closer, he was surprised to find that this was the Ming aircraft carrier formation, so he quickly hid in the clouds, and cautiously followed the plane while letting the backseat machine gunner send a telegram back to the base.

In the ensuing chase, the SB2U defender's backseat machine gunner wounded a Ming carrier-based aircraft that came to chase him, but he was soon killed as well.

However, the remaining Type 37 gave up the chase and turned around and returned to the carrier, and Second Lieutenant Yalvis was able to escape.

The discovery reached Kumukhasi Air Station on the island of Hawaii at 14:23 and was then relayed to Pearl Harbor Command about twenty minutes later.

"They could find the British at any moment! Damn it! We must drive them out. ”

Colonel Clarence was alarmed and hurriedly ordered the air force stationed on the island of Hawaii to organize all available forces to carry out air strikes.

Chester-Nimitz ordered the situation to be communicated to the British as soon as possible - the W fleet was 200 km east of the island of Hawaii, only about 310 km away from the Ming aircraft carrier group.

In addition, the TF-31 task force immediately headed south and rushed to support at full speed.

At the same time, the 22nd Air Raid Fleet was already flying its own fleet.

Both Ziweiyuan-class armored carriers have turned upwind and increased their speed to 24 knots, but in order to keep the black smoke from the chimney away from the rear of the flight deck, the carriers are actually not completely upwind, but slightly to the right.

For those on the flight deck, the wind speed at this time exceeded fifty kilometers per hour, and the warm sea breeze blew in the face, blowing the clothes bulging.

The herald reported aloud: "Report! The head machine is ready! ”

Then the air guide officer of the Ziwei Zuoyuan gave the order, "Take off!" ”

The ground crew, standing next to the mid-flight deck, held the orange signal flag in both hands and made a gesture that allowed takeoff.

In the cockpit of the first Type 37 ship, the pilot pushed the throttle valve to the end.

A few seconds later, the pilot released the brakes when he saw the signal flag held by the ground crew flung in the direction of the bow.

The plane carrying 250kg of bombs accelerated sharply, roared forward, and after dozens of meters of taxiing, rushed out of the flight deck and calmly pulled up.

"Beat the British away in one go!"

"I wish you all a victorious start!"

Under the watchful eyes of the officers and sailors, another 19 Type 37 ships took off one after another, and each plane had an altitude of more than 20 seconds.

This was followed by 14 Type 36 torpedo planes, which were also slower to take off, taking eight minutes to take them all into the air.

At the same time, on the Ziwei Youyuan, three kilometers away on the right-hand side, planes were constantly pulling up from the front of the aircraft carrier.

The experienced pilots showed a fairly high level of competence, and it took about a quarter of an hour to complete the launch of the dive bomber formation and the torpedo aircraft formation.

The group then completed the formation in the sky north of the fleet, and then slightly adjusted its course and flew in a uniform direction to the northeast, like a flock of geese returning home.

In the past, there were various dissenting opinions in the Ming Naval Aircraft Carrier School - differences in aircraft carrier design, differences in aircraft carrier use, and differences in attack tactics.

Last year, that is, before the 39th year of Zhichang, the Ming Navy regulations clearly defined the role of large aircraft carriers as reconnaissance of enemy fleets, harassment of enemy vanguard fleets, interception of incoming enemy aircraft groups, and it was considered impossible to destroy capital ships alone at that time.

As for the light aircraft carrier, its status in the doctrine is even lower, and the Beiluo Division-class light mother is purely for the battleship formation and assists its own battleships in combat.

It was not until last year that Fleet A was wiped out and Fleet Z retreated in disarray, that the Ming Navy began to study and perfect the strike tactics of large aircraft carriers, and gradually changed from a "small formation" to a "large formation".

In order to release as many carrier-based aircraft as possible at one time, this time the two Ziweiyuan-class did not even plan to raise their fighters to the deck, and the dozens of planes just released were all dive bombers and torpedo planes.

It was not until the deck was emptied that the fighters were hoisted up by lifts to warm up their engines.

After liftoff, they will go after the bomber formation, which is expected to catch up in about three quarters of an hour.

At 15:36, the first wave of the attack formation of the 22nd Air Attack Fleet successfully converged.

Flying at the forefront was a dive bomber formation composed of 41 Type 37 ship-bombers; About 400 meters to the lower right of it was a torpedo formation of 27 Type 36 torpedo planes; Five hundred meters above them was a fighter formation composed of 12 Type 37 destroyers.

Armored aircraft carriers with closed hangars do not allow aircraft to start warming up their engines in the hangar, and in general the release efficiency is lower than that of ordinary fleet aircraft carriers with open hangars.

Despite a lot of efforts, the attack waves released by the two Ziweiyuan-class armored aircraft carriers were still less than 100.

At the other end of the ocean, as the bell rang, the W fleet was busy, and the Radiance and Brave were increasing their speed and adjusting their course.

Due to poor communications, the W Fleet did not receive the first warning telegram from the Pacific Fleet Command.

The Americans later sent it again to be on the safe side, and this time the Brave received it, but the captain, Colonel William Jones, thought that the nearby Brilliant must have also been informed and did not take action.

After several minutes, seeing that the Radiance was unresponsive, Colonel William ordered a light signal to be issued.

The fact was that the Radiance did not receive the telegram, and Sir Dennis Boyd, the captain and commander of the fleet, had no time to investigate the cause, and hastily ordered the carrier-based aircraft to take to the air and prepare for air defence.

The take-off of the two British aircraft carriers began at 15:18, and the Brave performed reasonably well, but the Radiant released its fleet in a terrible way.

Not only was the take-off process delayed, but a tube-nosed swallow fighter of the 880 squadron failed to pull up after rushing out of the flight deck and fell directly into the sea.

Sir Dennis made a sharp turn, and the helmsman quickly filled the right rudder, but the massive Radiance smashed the floating pipenose swallow.

By 15:55, the Brave had finally released all of the 801 Squadron's Sea Fighter biplanes and was ready to fly some more Skua bombers.

The release of the Tejas was even more speechless, not only because of the accident, but also due to a lack of adequate training and unfamiliarity with the Pacific environment, and two Tubenose Swallows were unable to take to the skies due to mechanical problems.

Sir Dennis, the commander of the W fleet, became extremely agitated, and his mood at the moment was probably difficult to comprehend.

Originally, the fleet was on guard against the Ming submarines, but suddenly learned that the Ming aircraft carriers had already pounced, and the damn warning telegram was delayed for a while.

Every minute and every second is about the survival of the W Fleet, and if the tragedy of the A Fleet in Malaya last year is repeated, where will the Royal Navy's face go?

"Sir, I suggest sending some planes to attack the Chinese fleet." One officer proposed: "We should be able to take off the torpedo planes of the 827 squadron." ”

Now there are almost twenty fighters hovering over the fleet, which should be enough for the upcoming air raids, right?

Obviously, the Royal Navy officers, accustomed to being at ease in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, had not yet experienced the intensity of a naval and air battle in the Pacific, and most felt that it was more than enough to have so many fighters for fleet air defense.

At 16:01, the abnormal target that appeared 92km away from the 79Z radar of the Guanghui was preliminarily judged to be an incoming Ming army aircraft group.

The Tejas then stopped the radio silence and issued a warning to the rest of the ships by radio, light signals, and flags.

The British carrier-based aircraft formation in the sky was also informed, and the commander, Major Enoch, asked 12 sea fighters to stand by at an altitude of 4,000 meters to be responsible for fighting the enemy planes, and he himself led 9 tube-nosed swallows to continue to climb to an altitude of 5,500 meters.

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At 16:15, after more than an hour of flight, a Type 37 ship of the Ziwei Youyuan took the lead in discovering the British fleet on the sea.

Major Cheng Jianhuai, who immediately ordered the offensive formation to be adjusted, and three minutes later led the team to turn to the southeast, hoping to launch an attack from a more suitable position, directly behind the aircraft carrier.

The mission objective is also very simple and straightforward - the fleet of the Ziwei Left Pivot will attack the Brave, and the fleet of the Ziwei Right Wall will attack the Radiance.

Dozens of Type 37 ships flew southeast while climbing, but the torpedo formation was just the opposite, and began to descend in altitude.

The fighter formations were ordered to form a V-shaped formation, maintain altitude and course, and be ready to meet the British carrier-based fighters at any time.

"All of them go to combat positions!"

"Here they are, with a 19-degree line of sight."

The Sheffield light cruiser, the air defense cruiser Dedo, and six destroyers guarded the two carriers in the middle, and the Dedo's twin 5.25-inch high-level dual-purpose guns were loaded and pointed diagonally at the sky.

Major Enoch in the air issued an interception command and ordered all fighters to intercept it.

At the same moment, Cheng Jianhuai's voice also appeared in the radio frequency band, "After each team enters the battle position, make their own decisions and strive to kill them in one go!"

The Ming pilots then noticed some of the oncoming biplanes, much to their shock.

Is there any mistake, when has this been, and why are the British still using biplanes?

Knowing the advantages of the biplane's maneuverability, the vigilant pilots refused to engage in dogfights, simply dived and strafed them, and then immediately left.

As the last generation of biplane fighters, the comprehensive performance of the Sea Fighter is among the best among biplanes, but now it has long been the world of monoplanes.

Two Sea Fighters were shot down in a single shot, and the slow biplane lacked a strong countermeasure in this situation.

A few minutes later, 20 dive bombers belonging to the Ziwei Zuoyuan Shaozai team took the lead in attacking.

However, just as they reached the dive point and prepared to start the dive, five Tubenose Swallow fighters suddenly burst out of a higher cloud.

Major Enoch took the lead, aiming at a Ming army plane and firing fiercely, and the eight 7.7mm aviation machine guns on the left and right flanks sprayed a dense stream of bullets like raindrops!

The Type 37 ship, which was caught off guard, caught fire instantly, and the pilot parachuted to escape, but he still had flames on his body.

At the same time, three Ming planes were also attacked, and several pilots panicked and subconsciously fled from the formation.

However, the remaining dozen planes still maintained order, stabilized their formation and continued to dive.

Not to be outdone, their rear-seat self-defense machine guns returned fire on the British fighters, damaging one of the Tubenose Swallow's engines, which pulled away with a long stream of white smoke.

This is where the downside of a liquid-cooled engine comes in: a coolant leak can cause the engine to overheat and fail.

At 16:38, the anti-aircraft guns of the Daido, the Radiance, and the nearby destroyers roared in unison, opening fire with all their might at the invading enemy.

The powerful 5.25-inch high-level dual-purpose gun fired a 133mm high-explosive shell weighing 36kg, which is significantly more powerful than its American counterpart.

The dense nets of fire created by the quadruple and eight-pack bangbang guns were also quite terrifying, and the power of a 40mm high-explosive shell was enough to destroy any light aircraft with a single shot.

As soon as possible, the situation was very difficult, and there were still 11 Type 37 ships in a dive attitude, and from this moment on, the possibility of them being intercepted was greatly reduced.

At 16:43, the first dive bomber cut in from the stern direction dropped the first bomb of the battle, and the 250kg armor-piercing blaster missed due to the sharp turn of the target, and exploded a column of water on the sea on the right.

A minute later, Lieutenant Zhu Yu, who also cut through the stern, made a hit, and the bomb landed in the middle of the deck of the Guanghui.

"Boom!"

A large mackerel torpedo machine that had been raised to the deck was blown up, and some bridge glass was shattered in an instant!

However, this mere 250kg bomb could not help the sturdy armored flight deck.

Just over 20 seconds later, the third plane immediately after Zhu Yu hit again, but when it pulled up, it was hit by a 40mm high-explosive bomb in the tail, and the whole plane spun and fell into the sea!

Again, this shot only slightly dented the flight deck.

The Radiance relied on strength rather than luck, but the Brave next to her was different, she had neither luck nor strength.

At 16:45, the first bomb hit the central elevator of the Brave, destroying it instantly.

The captain, Colonel William Jones, calmly commanded, and the Brave made a sharp turn and maneuvered, narrowly avoiding the next two attacks.

However, from the fourth time, the follow-up Ming army planes seemed to find out the trajectory of the aircraft carrier, and they were hit three times in a row.

One of the 250kg piercing bombs pierced through two decks in succession, exploding in the middle compartment of the Valiant.

At 16:52, a Type 37 ship bombardment was destroyed by eight gunboats during the dive, and the powerful shells caused it to disintegrate in the air.

But the wreckage of the main body of the plane still hit the bridge of the Brave, and it immediately caused a mess!

The splashing aviation gasoline caused a raging fire, and several damage management team members were trying to extinguish the flames at the elevator, but they were stained with the splashed gasoline, and in the blink of an eye, they became fire men......

At this time, the Ming fighter formation had given up the entanglement with the sea fighters and went to attack those Guanbi swallows, which was considered to have solved the difficulties of friendly forces.

The torpedo formations that were slowly flying also began to enter the attack position, and without the interception of enemy fighters, the pilots thought that the next step would be relatively easy.

The 27 Type 36 mines were divided into two, each dealing with an aircraft carrier, and then split into four to carry out a flanking attack on the target aircraft carrier.

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(End of chapter)