John on the other end of the phone looked at the photo, and vaguely felt that what Zhang Chi said made some sense, and the smoke was indeed a little suspicious, but he quickly denied it: "Colonel, I don't think it's an airport, and I don't think the Japanese will have any plans...... In fact, they've been blown up by us, and they're just sending smoke to save their lives! Isn't that normal? ”

This does make sense, but the battlefield is not the same as a peaceful society, and a peaceful society pays attention to the fact that there is no suspicion of guilt, and the battlefield emphasizes the existence of doubtful crimes...... Even the slightest worry and suspicion must be prepared for the worst. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

So Zhang Chi insisted: "General! At least...... We shouldn't move on now, but let's see the situation or reconnoiter clearly! ”

"I don't think there's a need to worry too much, Colonel!" John replied: "You should have faith in our US Navy, if the Japanese planes dare to appear in front of us, the 'Hellcat' will teach them a hard lesson!" ”

John especially highlighted the words "U.S. Navy" and "Hellcat" when he said this, and although he didn't say anything in his words, there was a strong sense of superiority in his tone.

In the end, John stopped when he was only 80 kilometers away from Tinian Island, and gave an order that made Zhang Chi very embarrassed...... The escort aircraft carrier was divided into two parts to bomb Tinian Island.

From the point of view of improving the efficiency of bombing, it is of course correct that the fleet is divided into two parts; the five escort aircraft carriers are clustered together and the fighters are prone to interfering with each other when taking off and landing, and it is very difficult for the pilots to distinguish which aircraft is their own formation when taking off, and it is also difficult to distinguish which aircraft carrier is the aircraft carrier they should land on when they land, so it is more likely to cause confusion or even accidents.

However, in terms of defense, dividing it into two parts would disperse the already small number of destroyers and fighters in Zhang Chi's hands, making it impossible for Zhang Chi to organize an effective defense.

"Master!" Zhang Junhua asked Zhang Chi: "What should I do?" ”

After thinking about it, Zhang Chi replied: "Organize the defense group A!" ”

"Yes!" Zhang Junhua responded.

Group A has three escort aircraft carriers, and Zhang Chi can only choose one group with more aircraft carriers.

Then Zhang Chi ordered again: "Send reconnaissance planes in several directions to the north, and report back as soon as you find it!" ”

"Yes!"

However, the reconnaissance of the US military reconnaissance planes generally does not have any effect, especially since the Chinese army still uses "wildcat" fighters...... The combat radius of the Wildcat fighters was only 500 kilometers, which the Japanese army was very clear, and the Japanese army was very aware of the location of the US fleet, so they parked the fleet at a distance of 500 kilometers.

However, the combat radius of the Japanese Zero and other fighters is far more than 500 kilometers, not to mention that they can also use the island airfield as a transit, so they don't have to worry about fuel and other problems at all.

When it was half past eight in the morning, Jizaburo Ozawa calculated the time, and when the fighter planes arrived over the enemy fleet, it was ten o'clock, which was exactly the right time for the American troops to be exhausted from the bombing of the morning and not yet at noon lunch break.

So Ozawa Jizaburo gave an order, and the Japanese fighters flew into the air one after another and flew in the direction of the target.

The first wave of attack aircraft consisted of 69 aircraft, and as usual, most of the fighters in this part were Zero fighters, and only about twenty were Comet bombers and Tien Shan torpedo planes...... The Comet bomber is the bomber that is nicknamed the "Aircraft Carrier Killer", and this "Aircraft Carrier Killer" does not kill the enemy's aircraft carrier, but its own aircraft carrier, because at this time the quality of the Japanese pilots has declined, and the Comet is a high-speed bomber, and its landing speed is very fast, and it is difficult to land it safely on the aircraft carrier with the existing quality of the Japanese pilots, so there are accidents almost every day when using this bomber.

As a result, the Comet bomber was once moved to the island airfield as a shore-based bomber.

The reason why it has been moved to the aircraft carrier again now is that, on the one hand, it is because the Type 99 bombers have suffered a large number of battle losses, and it is no longer enough to fill the aircraft carrier at this time.

On the other hand, at this time, the US military was already equipped with close-to-fire fuse shells, and there were also new fighters, and if they still used the slow Type 99 bombers, they would not be able to break through the US military's air defense fire network at all, and it would be no different from sending them to death.

Although equipping a comet is similar to sending people to death, the chance of breaking through the anti-aircraft fire network will be greater, that is, at least it can give the enemy some damage, so that it will not die worthless.

However, this raises another problem...... Even if the novice Comet bomber survived the battle and made it home, they were not confident that they would be able to land on the carrier, so they thought: it is better to crash into the enemy's carrier than to die on their own carrier...... So he turned the nose of the plane and simply rammed into the enemy battleship and aircraft carrier.

This approach was later imitated by the Japanese air force, and it developed into a kamikaze attack with a shocking suicide attack.

In less than half an hour, that is, at 8:56, Ozawa sent another wave of the largest scale, this wave was dominated by the 97 ship attack, the 99 ship explosion, the Tianshan ship attack, and the comet ship explosion, with a total of 128 sorties.

From the formation of the Japanese army's 97, 99, Tianshan, and Comet bombers, which mixed and matched the old and new, it can also be seen that the Japanese army was seriously short of fighters at this time, to the point of piecing together...... Otherwise, no one will like to weave so many types of bombers together, the flight speed of these bombers is very different, not to mention the great variables in the performance of the mission, not to mention the big trouble in maintenance, such as the problem of parts not being common, the problem of maintenance personnel will be multiplied, and so on.

This wave was clearly the main force of the Japanese attack, and their task was to do everything possible to severely damage the "Xianghe" formation, especially to sink the "Xianghe".

After thinking about it, Ozawa Jizaburo felt a little uneasy, so ten minutes later, at 9:06, Ozawa sent a third wave of 47 fighters as a supplement to the second team.

If this had been before, there would have been no need to worry about it at all...... At this time, the Japanese army clearly knew the location and strength of the enemy's aircraft carriers, and more than 100 fighters could be sent out to deal heavy damage to the target even if it could not sink it. However, at this time, Ozawa Jizaburo was a little worried, Ozawa Jizaburo had carefully studied the Chinese army and even studied the training and actual combat of the Chinese navy, and he knew that the training of the Chinese navy was not worse than that of the US military, and even better than that of the US army. In terms of actual combat, the last defensive battle in the Marshall Islands was quite good, so Jizaburo Ozawa was not as confident as his superiors Toyoda Vice Takeshi and Kusaka Ryunosuke.

(To be continued.) )