Section 12 Perfect Bombardment (I)
Because the Japanese bomber group was flying towards the original position of the Fifth Fleet, and when Deng Zichao set off, the position of the Fifth Fleet had deviated from the original course. Therefore, when Deng Zichao and they went to the Japanese fleet, they did not encounter the Japanese bomber group. When Tan Renhao and the others were dodging the bombs and torpedoes dropped by the Japanese bombers, Deng Zichao had already led the bomber group across the Ryukyu Islands. Soon, they were confronted by another group of Japanese bombers.
This is the second wave of bomber formations sent by Nagumo Kazutada. After being attacked, Nagumo Yizhong did not hesitate, and immediately let the second wave of bombers that had already taken off before set off. Originally, there were also 24 "Zero Battles" in this wave of bomber groups, but in the previous fleet air defense operations, the "Zero Battles" that took off first took on the task of fleet air defense, and as a result, 18 "Zero Battles" were unable to complete the round-trip bombing and escort missions because of too much fuel consumption, and as a result, they were left behind. In fact, only 6 "Zeros" provided cover for bombers. This is obviously a huge drawback, one might even say fatal.
The 36 escort fighters ahead of Deng Zichao were the first to spot the Japanese bomber group. This time, Major Jiang Wenhan, who led the escort fighters, was not as polite as Luo Jinming, and as soon as he saw the escort of six "Zero Battles," Jiang Wenhan did not do anything, and immediately divided the escort fighters into two groups, one of which was 12 to deal with the "Zero Battle," and he took 24 "Sparrowhawks" to directly pounce on the Japanese bomber group.
The Japanese pilots were startled by the group of "Sparrowhawks" that swooped down from above, and they never dreamed that the fleet of the Tang Empire would be able to send a new group of bombers so quickly. It was this hesitation that the 13 "99 Ship Explosions" located at the top of the bomber group were concentrated. The Sparrowhawk, having completed the dive attack, immediately pulled up to the height and engaged in a dogfight with the clumsy Japanese bombers. The "Sparrowhawk" is not an opponent of the "Zero Battle" in terms of grappling, but those "99 Ship Explosion" and "97 Ship Attack" are not the opponents of the "Sparrowhawk", and after hanging bombs and torpedoes, they are even less opponents of the "Sparrowhawk".
At least one-third of the Japanese bomber pilots threw away their ammunition in the first place, and then quickly evaded the "Sparrowhawks" that killed them, and although two-thirds of the pilots did not drop their bombs, their planes were slower, more clumsy, and therefore more vulnerable to attack. Major Jiang Wenhan was not stupid either, and the bombers that had dropped their bombs and torpedoes had already been "scrapped", and he immediately ordered the other pilots to attack the bombers that had not lost their ammunition. Although this is a "side job" of escort fighters, in Jiang Wenhan's view, if he can kill the Japanese bombers halfway, then he has made a great contribution to the fleet.
By the time Deng Zichao led the bomber group to the airspace of air combat, the six "Zero Battles" had already been driven away by the larger number of "Sparrowhawks," and there were few Japanese bombers left. At this time, Jiang Wenhan ordered the attack to be stopped, and the 32 "Sparrowhawks" that could still continue to fight accelerated from the new formation to the Japanese First Air Fleet.
The news of the outbreak of fighting between the bomber groups of both sides soon became known to the commanders of the fleets of both sides. Nagumo Kazutada was very surprised, at this time he had already ordered the "Kaga" to organize the remaining bombers and carry out a third wave of bombing of the Tang Imperial fleet. And the "Kaga" has broken away from the fleet and is heading against the wind, preparing to lift the fighters on the flight deck. At this time, the Japanese aircraft carriers did not have catapults, and the disadvantages of all carrier aircraft could only take off on their own power were exposed (in the later part of the war, Japan added catapults to the aircraft carriers), and if the aircraft carriers did not sail against the wind at the fastest speed, those bombers with bombs and torpedoes could not take off at all.
Nagumo Kazutada was faced with a dilemma, if the "Kaga" was returned to formation, then he would have to abandon the third round of attacks. If the "Kaga" is not allowed to return to the fleet, then the "Kaga", which is sailing north at this time, will definitely become the first target of the bombers of the Tang Empire, and the "Kaga", which lacks the cover of air defense warships, will be vulnerable. At this critical juncture, Nagumo Kazutada took five minutes to make a decision to let the "Kaga" continue to take off bombers and the other warships to enter an air defense combat state.
Half an hour later, all the fighters on the flight deck of the "Kaga" were lifted into the air. Among them, there were 24 "Zero-Fight". However, at the same time, the "Sparrowhawk" group led by Jiang Wenhan also reached the sky over the Japanese fleet. Fighters from both sides fought again. This time, Jiang Wenhan did not deal with those bombers that were in formation, but commanded other fighters to directly fight the "Zero Battle" to provide support for the bomber group led by Major Deng Zichao.
In less than five minutes, the bomber group led by Deng Zichao arrived near the Japanese fleet, and the first thing Deng Zichao saw was the "Kaga" aircraft carrier, which had not yet had time to enter the core circle of the fleet's air defense firepower. Of course, this short-tempered and daringer major pilot will not be relentless in the slightest. While letting the other bombers split up to deal with the other three aircraft carriers, he took 8 "Ospreys" and summoned 4 "Kingfishers" in the sky at the same time, and rushed directly towards the "Kaga".
At that time, there were only two destroyers around the "Kaga", and the anti-aircraft guns on these two destroyers simply could not deal with so many bombers. Eight "Ospreys" were the first to enter the bombing channel. Although the shells landed on the surrounding sea and exploded in streams, Deng Zichao did not panic at all, and he only had the huge aircraft carrier in his eyes. I'm afraid that Deng Zichao was the most daring torpedo bomber pilot in the Imperial Navy at that time. According to the standards of the Imperial Navy, it is possible to drop mines at a distance of 1,000 meters from enemy ships, but he simply reduced this distance to 500 meters!
Almost at the same time that Deng Zichao dropped the torpedo, the other seven "Ospreys" of his squad (the captain had a squad under direct command, and the squadron leader was the same) also dropped torpedoes almost at the same time. These eight pilots usually train together, they also live together on the aircraft carrier, they know each other very well, they all know what Deng Zichao wants to do, and with such a bold commander, what else do they dare not do?
Almost at the same time as Deng Zichao and they dropped the torpedo, the four "Kingfishers" that had reached the "Kaga" also began to dive.
Click on the image link: