When he flew into the clouds, Xu Fenglu was still fascinated by the pictures he had just seen, and the raging flames on the sea made him fascinated. He roughly estimated that there were about 11 warships, one of which was a large fleet aircraft carrier with a displacement of more than 30,000 tons, and under the attack of the sudden bombs of the Chinese attack planes, they turned into countless burning wreckage and debris floating on the sea.

At the same time as the group of planes withdrew, the battle report was also sent back to the aircraft carrier "Qiulong".

"Sink a large enemy aircraft carrier. But at the same time, the attack aircraft group has discovered another enemy fleet, so now is not the time to say victory, and the returning fighter squadron will not participate in the air defense of the fleet, and will not be able to participate. Now what we have to do is to take off all three squadrons of fighters as soon as possible with a full load, and we need to take on the task of outer air defense of the fleet......"

Wu Letian stood up, took a sip of chocolate, and said, "You just said that the fighters of the three squadrons will take off, how many planes will the army send?" So much so that all our fighters took off with a full load. ”

Wu Letian felt the sense of urgency in the eyes of the chief of aviation staff, and said that his attack aircraft group must have come from a bad one.

"No matter how many planes come, your job is to stop them." said the chief of the aviation staff.

After getting the task assignment, everyone waved their fists and shouted together, and then Wu Letian and Lin Zhenxuan, as well as other pilots, walked out of the aviation operations center, their fighters were either on the flight deck or in the hangar, anyway, at this time, they had already filled up their fuel, replenished their ammunition, hung up the oversized auxiliary fuel tanks, and waited for their owners to fly them into the blue sky to intercept the planes sent by the fleet to attack.

Before being ejected, Wu Letian said to Lin Zhenxuan with a smile: "I have to be a flyer again and walk the single-plank bridge again." ”

"Nothing remarkable." Lin Zhenxuan responded with a smile, "I heard that the lunch is very rich, so you can't miss it no matter what." ”

Just as Chinese fighter planes were taking to the skies, the Chinese military was meeting the fierce attack of the Chinese carrier-based aircraft group.

"The Chinese have discovered the Second Fleet and inflicted great losses on the Second Fleet." The aircraft carrier Soryu has sunk, and Chief Yamaguchi has transferred his flagship to the aircraft carrier Taiho. Chief of Staff Kusaka said to Lieutenant General Nagumo Zhongichi.

"The only one who can inflict such a big loss on the second squadron is the main force of the China aircraft carrier squadron." Nan Yunzhong nodded.

At this time, the aircraft carrier fleet of the Japanese army has all converged together, although the second aircraft carrier squadron of Yamaguchi Tashiwen has suffered heavy losses, but Nagumo Tadaichi did not feel uneasy, he has already learned the direction of the Chinese aircraft carrier fleet, in his opinion, the concentrated aircraft carrier fleet is the main force to pry open the air defense system of the Chinese fleet, at this time the attack aircraft group he sent has set off, 252 aircraft of the Chinese aircraft overwhelmingly attack, what kind of results the Chinese fleet will suffer, he can imagine. Moreover, the fleet is now fully prepared for air defense, fighter groups have taken off, and air defense radars on the heavy cruisers "Kumano", "Chikuma", and "Tone" have been turned on.

Under Nagumo's order, all the planes on board the aircraft carrier were ejected and flew in the direction where the Chinese aircraft carrier fleet was located.

After the plane left the ship, Nagumo made a cup of tea. He blew on the tea foam one by one. At the moment, although Yamaguchi's fleet suffered huge losses, he did not care. As long as the carrier-based aircraft of the Chinese army can sink the Chinese aircraft carrier, then a series of dominoes will fall in the direction of the Japanese army.

Nagumo's calm mood infected the officers and soldiers, and after a while, good news followed. The pilots finally found the Chinese aircraft carrier "Qiulong". It used to hide in the rain clouds, but now that the wind has blown the clouds away, it has nowhere to hide. Nagumo felt like he had grabbed his opponent's shirt in a judo match, and now, it was his turn to use his moves.

The dive bomber pilots of the first attack wave of the Japanese army were the essence of the naval aviation of the Japanese army, and they had experienced a hundred battles and fought tens of thousands of nautical miles with Nagumo Tadaichi. Despite the interception of Chinese fighters in the sky and the fire of naval guns on the sea, they still hit the enemy ship under the leadership of Shigeji Murata, causing a serious fire. The "Qiulong" was paralyzed on the sea.

Although the attack was successful, the losses of the pilots were also quite heavy. The gunners of the "Dragon" put up fierce resistance. The mid-[***] ship next to it has become a porcupine covered in thorns. The anti-aircraft guns, which had an extremely high rate of fire, were able to fire a drop of water, and many of their planes were shot down by artillery fire.

The torpedo bombers failed to coordinate their attack with the dive bombers. After the dive bombers retreated, they arrived on the battlefield, and about a third of these planes were shot down by the gunfire of the Chinese [***] ships, and all the torpedo planes dropped torpedoes, most of which were dodged by the Chinese aircraft carriers. Only one light aircraft carrier was torpedoed, exploded and stopped at sea.

Fortunately, the second wave of dive bombers of the Japanese army achieved the expected results. The clouds covered the "Dragon" again, and it was lost. When the pilots found it again (in fact, it was another Chinese aircraft carrier), they dealt a fatal blow. Although half of the planes were shot down, the torpedo planes were missed, and the famous Guan Wei Shaozo was killed in battle, the aircraft carrier was hit hard and caught fire. If it was at Pearl Harbor, Nagumo would probably not hesitate to strike again. But that was before. Nagumo understands that things are far from simple, and that the war is still very long, and he can't gamble all the planes in a single naval battle. He gulped down the bitter tea and ordered the fleet to retreat. At the same time, he received intelligence from reconnaissance aircraft: the Chinese fleet had also begun to retreat.

"Sir, please come over here, it's on the radar."

At this time, in the radar duty room of the heavy cruiser "Chikuma", a radar fighter stared at the radar screen tirelessly, beckoning Matsui Shinpei, who was resting.

Shinpei Matsui, the radar master on the heavy cruiser "Tsukuma", was very respected throughout the battleship, not only because he graduated from Tokyo Imperial University and had a high knowledge of radio, but most importantly, because he knew the radar on the battleship well, and any fault in his hands was not a problem. So although he is still a recruit who has been on the ship for less than a year, he is already very respected by the veterans, especially the admiration of the other four radar soldiers, which always makes him feel that he is the best.

After a hard night's work, Shinpei Matsui was dreaming, and when he heard the greeting, he immediately rubbed his reddened eyes and got up and came to the radar screen.

At this time, there were a lot of snowflakes on the radar display screen, and they were getting brighter and brighter.

"I've never been like that." The young radar soldier on the side said that he was afraid that the radar equipment would be damaged because of his improper control, so that such a bright spot appeared.

"The radar is not broken, these bright spots should be enemy aircraft." Matsui Shinpei's mind soon presented a terrible picture, and he hurried through the intercom to call the lookout at the top of the mast to see what was on the southwest side of the fleet.

The effect of visual observation is often more effective than that of unreliable radar. As a radar player, Matsui Shinpei has always insisted on this.

Lookout Koyama Straight heard the request from the radar duty room and immediately smiled with disdain.

What kind of bullshit radar is this, if something goes wrong, you can only turn to yourself for help. Thinking of the wind and sun he endured, and thinking about the radar soldiers in the comfortable duty room, Xiaoshan Zhili was very dissatisfied, but the request was a request after all, and the tone of "begging" was enough to show respect for him, so he quickly glanced at the southwest direction, and there was nothing strange in it, and then he raised the high-powered telescope and observed it carefully, but it really showed him something.

Xiaoshan stood upright and saw that on the sea level in the southwest direction, under the thick clouds, there were black dots, and the black dots were moving very fast, and after adjusting the magnification of the telescope to the maximum again, he saw clearly what it was, and his face couldn't help but change!

"Enemy aircraft spotted!" The intercom's upright voice sounded over the intercom - "Enemy planes are approaching!" There are hundreds! ”

Hearing the siren, Nagumo Tadaichi hurriedly ran out of the bridge, at this time the group of air defense fighters in the distance had already exchanged hands with the enemy planes, and the gray sky flashed from time to time with firelight, followed by black smoke clouds.

As soon as Nanyun Zhong raised his head, he looked at the enemy planes that flew like a swarm of bees, and his mouth opened wide in surprise.

Before he could utter a shout, the warships on the perimeter had already suffered, and the Chinese dive bombers broke through the warning circle of the Yumoto fleet at a very fast speed and dropped bombs, and the rapid explosion instantly shook the destroyers out of the water, and the monstrous fire and all kinds of things flying sideways came into Nagumo Tadaichi's sight.

The light aircraft carrier "Chongying" at the outer edge of the center of the fleet was hit by six bombs like meteors falling, and as soon as Nagumo Zhong saw that the bombs that were whistling down easily penetrated the fragile flight deck of the aircraft carrier and drilled into the middle of the "Chongying", the violent explosion instantly tore the entire aircraft carrier into two sections, and the planes and sailors on the deck suddenly disappeared into the violent explosion, and the island-like superstructure of the "Chongying" was like being pulled away from the deck of the aircraft carrier by the hand of a powerful giant. Along with the anti-aircraft gun mounts that were knocked away and the few fighters on the deck that were ready to take off, they were thrown into the air.

At this moment, Mitsuo Fuchida, who was on the bridge of the aircraft carrier "Shozuru", like Nagumo Tadashi, witnessed the destruction of the "Okika".

“…… The reconnaissance planes that took off from the aircraft carrier soon reported that the enemy's aircraft carrier fleet had been spotted about 160 nautical miles southwest of the aircraft carrier. The attack force of the 'Zuihe' and 'Xianghe', with a total of 78 bombers, torpedo planes, and fighters, immediately took off, and after flying to the location reported by the plane, they launched a fierce attack, and a total of two cruisers and four destroyers of the Chinese fleet were sunk, and a light aircraft carrier was severely damaged and caught fire, and the crew abandoned ship and fled for their lives. ”

"Shortly after the attack force took off, General Nagumo Tadaichi received a report from a reconnaissance plane of Goto's unit that the enemy situation just reported was wrong and that the enemy's aircraft carrier fleet was located in a southerly direction. However, it was too late to attack, and we lost the precious opportunity to strike the enemy's fleet for the first time. This loss cost our fleet a lot, because while the planes of the 'Zuihe' and 'Shozuru' were busy attacking, the enemy's carrier-based aircraft discovered more valuable targets. Almost a hundred Shina bombers and torpedo planes discovered our fleet and made a fierce attack. Enemy aircraft attacked the light aircraft carrier "Chong Eagle" almost with all their strength. The "Rushing Eagle" was hit by many bullets and sank at 11:35. ”

"At this time, the attack forces of the 'Zuizuru' and 'Shozuru' were ready to take off again, but it was too late, and although Nagumo felt that it was too risky to send all his forces to attack the enemy aircraft carriers, he was still anxious to attack the enemy as quickly as possible, so he decided to launch a large-scale attack. The reconnaissance planes spotted the China Fleet 235 nautical miles from the Fleet, including six large aircraft carriers, and our entire attack force of about 370 bombers and torpedo planes took off at once. At 14:20, the attack team flew over the target and began the attack under the fierce resistance of enemy anti-aircraft artillery fire and fighter jets. ”

"The attack was very successful, but not as great a victory as the reports of the returning pilots convinced both Vice Admiral Takagi and Rear Admiral Hara. According to the returning pilots, two enemy aircraft carriers had been sunk (one of them was falsely reported as 'Qiulong', but in fact it was 'Panlong' and the other was 'Jiaolong') and one heavy cruiser had been sunk. The actual result I learned much later was that although the 'Panlong' was not sunk during the attack, it was seriously wounded, and the people had to abandon the ship, and later that day one of its escort destroyers was torpedoed and sunk, while the 'Jiaolong' was hit by six bombs and torpedoes, suffered considerable damage, and lost its combat effectiveness, but it was not sunk. ”

"At the same time, Takagi's forces were also attacked by the China aircraft carrier air force. At the same time that the plane was flying toward the 'Panlong' and 'Jiaolong,' the enemy planes on the way appeared over Takagi's unit at 14:50 and continued to attack until 15:20. The 'Zuihe' managed to sail into the rain area and took advantage of the torrential rain to evade enemy attacks. However, the 'Xianghe' came under heavy attack and was hit by three bombs, making it unable to continue its flight operations. The "Xianghe" was therefore ordered to retreat, and the "Zuihe" recovered the planes of the two aircraft carriers. ”

"At this time, the situation of the battle seems to be more favorable to the side of the company, for although the 'Chongying' was lost and the 'Shozuru' was damaged, most of our aircraft carriers were not damaged, and the two main aircraft carriers of China are believed to have been destroyed. This seemed to give Takagi's troops a good opportunity to continue their offensive and complete the annihilation of the enemy. However, Vice Admiral Nagumo suddenly ordered the attacking forces to stop fighting and retreat. The reason for Commander Nagumo's decision was apparently that he estimated that although the Shina fleet had been defeated, the remaining aircraft carriers on his side would not be enough to cover the fleet's resistance to enemy shore-based air attacks. Because the losses of the Yamaguchi troops were caused by the enemy's shore-based aviation. ”

"In this naval battle, the losses were: the aircraft carrier 'Soryu,' the light aircraft carrier 'Chongying,' six cruisers, and 17 destroyers were sunk, the aircraft carrier 'Xianghe' was wounded, more than 120 planes were destroyed, and more than 2,000 people were killed or wounded. On the other hand, the actual losses suffered by the enemy were discovered only after the war because the aircraft carrier Panlong, the light aircraft carrier Jinfeng, the light cruiser Lishui, and five destroyers were sunk, nearly 100 aircraft were lost, the aircraft carrier Jiaolong was wounded, and more than 1,800 people were killed or wounded. It can be seen that even if we do not take into account the fact that the 'Dragon Triangle' operation was blocked, if we say that this naval battle is a victory in the original book, this victory is not very reluctant in terms of numbers. Of course, this was a far cry from the great victory announced to the people of the country on the radio accompanied by the rousing Navy March. ”

"Chief Nagumo then ordered the Fifth Aircraft Carrier Squadron and the Fifth Cruiser Squadron to return to their homeland immediately, and I returned to Kure Harbor with the 'Shozuru,' and sailed into this naval base with the unenviable honor of the warship Saimoto, the most wounded since the beginning of the war. The fact that only three medium bombs were hit, leaving it without the ability to fly operations, speaks volumes about the fragility of an aircraft carrier. And after inspection, it has been proved that the 'Xianghe' will take at least a month to repair, which means that it will not be able to participate in subsequent operations. ”

"A few days later, the 'Zuihe' followed the 'Shohe' into port. The hull of the Zuihe was not injured, but due to the severe attrition of the flight crew, apparently, it could no longer participate in the battle. Even if the 'Zuihe' was to be replenished with flight crews and planes immediately, it would obviously not be too late to provide the additional personnel with on-board training. In this way, it will not be possible for the aircraft carrier to play a good role in battle. Therefore, the 'victory' of this naval battle will have a far-reaching impact on future operations. The absence of the Zuizuru and Shozuru reduced Nagumo's air attack force by a third – a difference that could determine the outcome of a naval battle. ”

"However, the outcome of this naval battle increased the optimism of the Combined Fleet Command and the Nagumo forces for future operations. Because the two main aircraft carriers of China have been sunk, the comparison of the number of aircraft carriers that can be used for subsequent operations still seems to have an overwhelming advantage. ”

(To be continued)