readx; It has to be said that although the navy has been losing ground in the past two years and the combat effectiveness of the carrier-based aircraft unit has also declined very seriously, they still have a certain combat effectiveness. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In the two air raids they launched, including the air attacks on the 24th and 25th Fleets and the 21st Fleet, they all created certain results, the 25th Squadron's Emperor was heavily damaged, and the rest of the ships were also damaged to a certain extent, while the 21st Squadron's Huashan was heavily damaged, and the other ships were also more or less damaged.

Comparatively speaking, the three waves of attack groups launched by the 21st and 22nd Chinese fleets caused the sinking of at least three or more cruisers, and even the sinking of one battleship, which severely damaged two aircraft carriers. The results are much more brilliant.

However, it must be taken into account that this time the strength of the two belligerents was not proportional, and the total number of escort fleet and the main fleet was only two large aircraft carriers, and although the number of battleships was large, the number of cruisers and destroyers was far inferior to that of the second mobile fleet, and the number of carrier-based aircraft was even worse.

In the three waves of attacks, the 21st and 22nd Squadrons dispatched a total of more than 250 warplanes, in addition to 70 or 80 fighters to serve as the fleet's air defense mission.

Although it is supported by dozens of land-based aircraft, it is still far inferior to the number of carrier-based aircraft in China.

In fact, this is far from a big victory for the second mobile fleet of the Chinese Navy, at most a small victory.

However, this naval battle is far from over, it is not just ten o'clock in the morning, it is still a long time before it gets dark!

At 10:40 a.m., on the way back from the second wave of the 21st Fleet, they encountered the return group of the second wave of the plane, which was the return group of Ben's plane, and there were only about a dozen planes left in the group, and they did not go due west to the Amami Islands on the way back, but returned to the northeast, where the reinforcement fleet was coming at high speed, and there was a battle group composed of the Zuizuru and two escort aircraft carriers. After a high-speed gallop in the early hours of the morning and several hours in the morning, this reinforcement fleet was already approaching the main escort fleet. And they can accept this wave of returning home, called 'Home Fleet.'

But these more than a dozen planes said, 'This plane is destined to not return!'

When China's second wave of returning planes discovered this small group of planes, more than 20 F8G fighters hunted them, and the strength of the two sides was not proportional, and China shot down more than 10 of these planes at the cost of two F8G fighters being injured.

Sincerely, it is said that the second wave of attack aircraft sent by the main fleet has been completely annihilated, and it has become a veritable suicide attack!

If we add in the planes lost in the first wave of aircraft and the planes lost in air defense operations, the more than 130 carrier-based aircraft on the Dafeng and Xianghe have lost most of them, and even if the Dafeng and Xianghe had not been seriously damaged, they would have become aircraft carriers without carrier-based aircraft.

Judging only from the previous battle, it is said that Ben's main fleet has already suffered a serious defeat!

However, although Ben caused great losses, they did not give up, because the rear of the main escort fleet, the reinforcement of the Second Air Fleet had arrived, and the Xianghe and several other escort aircraft carriers were still able to make up hundreds of fighters, and there were still dozens of shore-based aircraft in the Amami Islands.

And more importantly, their reinforcement escort operations to the Ryukyu Islands continued.

The transport fleet composed of dozens of transport ships is facing the interception of the 24th and 25th detachments of the Chinese Navy, and the escort fleet in the transport formation cannot complete the cover at all.

On the other hand, after intense fighting in the early hours of the morning and in the morning, Vice Admiral Lu Jian was already determined to send this convoy to the bottom of the sea, and absolutely could not let them reach the Ryukyu Islands, because that would greatly increase the defense strength of the Ryukyu Islands, and would become extremely unfavorable to the subsequent landing operations that China was preparing to launch against the Ryukyu Islands.

On the other hand, Lu Jian was not satisfied with merely inflicting heavy damage on the two aircraft carriers of his own fleet, and he wanted to sink the main forces of his carrier-based air force in one fell swoop in this naval battle, so as to provide sufficient convenience for the subsequent blockade operations, and he wanted to make him dare not go to sea again to meet the battle, and then he would be able to use a large number of fast minelaying ships to lay mines in the entire coastal waters of his own country to blockade them.

Vice Admiral Lu Jian's idea is not a utopian dream, but he has this strength, and the strength of his Second Mobile Fleet has already accounted for almost one-third of the strength of the Chinese Navy, and the strength of the entire fleet is not much weaker than that of the 58th Fleet of the US Navy, and he is fully capable of completing this combat mission.

Even though the 23rd Squadron was too far away to participate in the battle, he had the 21st and 22nd Fleets at his disposal, as well as the 24th and 25th Fleets and the direct fleet of the 2nd Mobile Fleet. With such a huge strength, even though he was severely damaged on the Huashan and lost the combat effectiveness of one aircraft carrier, he could still use the strength of five aircraft carriers and hundreds of carrier-based aircraft.

And these forces are enough for Lu Jian!

"After postponing the sortie of the third wave of attack aircraft groups, and after taking up some fighters to take up air defense tasks, order Songshan and Taishan to be ready to accept the landing of the second wave of attack aircraft groups!" Rear Admiral Zhao Zidong of the 21st Squadron was the busiest and most nervous squadron commander in the entire Second Mobile Fleet at this time.

From the early hours of the morning to the present, in fact, the entire naval battle revolved around the 21st Squadron, and the other squadrons were just auxiliary, and Rear Admiral Zhao Zidong also felt the huge pressure!

Admiral Chen Shaokuan, commander of the First Fleet, personally sent telegrams of encouragement and condolences to several important generals after learning of the outbreak of the naval battle on the Amami Islands, and at about nine o'clock in the morning, he received a telegram of encouragement from Marshal Guan Shijie, commander-in-chief of the Admiralty.

At about 10 o'clock in the following year, he received a telegram from Chen Jingyun from the Presidential Palace, which did not contain much content, which was to encourage Major General Zhao Zidong to fight bravely and make contributions to the party and the country.

These telegrams from the Navy and the Presidential Office did not involve any command or orders, because the supreme command of the naval battle this time was not in the hands of Admiral Chen Shaokuan, commander of the First Fleet, nor in the hands of Marshal Guan Shijie, commander-in-chief of the Admiralty, let alone Chen Jingyun, who could interfere in the supreme command of the naval battle this time in the hands of Vice Admiral Lu Jian, commander of the Second Mobile Fleet.

According to the relevant regulations of the Chinese Navy, the superior generals have no right to interfere in the specific command in a specific battle, and how to fight it is the absolute power of Vice Admiral Lu Jian!

If it is said that he has strategic command over this naval battle, it is not Chen Shaokuan, commander of the First Fleet, nor Guan Shijie, chief of the Admiralty, but Admiral Jin Hongye, director of the Operations Department of the Admiralty.

The command structure of the Chinese Navy is much more complex than that of the Army and Air Force, and in addition to the three major fleets, there are seven coastal defense fleets, all of which are nominally subordinate to the Admiralty, but the Admiralty has only administrative jurisdiction over these fleets, and the three major fleets on the other side have only administrative jurisdiction over the subordinate mobile fleets and task forces.

In other words, the Admiralty and the three fleet commands do not have operational command, but only administrative jurisdiction.

If the Operations Department in the early Admiralty was only a staff organization, but after the thirties, with the rapid expansion of the scale of the Chinese Navy and in order to coordinate the coordinated combat capabilities of the various detachments in this huge navy, the Operations Department was upgraded to a department. In addition to still being administratively under the jurisdiction of the Admiralty, its internal operational planning operations have been read.

At this time, Admiral Jin Hongye, chief of operations of the Admiralty, was standing in front of Chen Jingyun, and Marshal Shijie was next to Chen Jingyun.

"What's the situation now, is Lu Jian sure on his side?" Chen Jingyun had already learned of a large-scale naval battle in the Amami Islands at about seven o'clock in the morning.

If the Second Mobile Fleet only had a skirmish with the main fleet, it would not have been reported to Chen Jingyun, but at about seven o'clock in the morning, the Second Mobile Fleet had already determined that there was a main fleet on the opposite side, and the upcoming big battle might be the largest naval battle that the Chinese Navy had fought in decades, so this news was reported layer by layer and finally learned by Chen Jingyun.

It can be said that from seven o'clock in the morning, the admiralty in Nanjing has already begun to be busy, and the staff officers inside deduce the situation of both sides according to the intelligence of the front line, and judge the situation of both sides, and when the 21st Squadron is engaged in air defense warfare, a large group of admirals in Nanjing are also nervously and worriedly waiting for the results.

Admiral Jin Hongye stepped forward and said: "According to Lu Jian's report, now that the 22nd Fleet and the 21st Fleet are about to converge, it will be able to greatly strengthen the attack force that the Second Mobile Fleet can send out, and at the same time, the convergence of the fleets can also make the air defense circle closer and avoid the attack of the enemy's aircraft group." After integrating the forces, the side is fully capable of launching an attack on the remnants of the forces of Ben, and strive to completely leave the two aircraft carriers of Ben! ”

At this time, due to the influence of the reconnaissance distance, the Second Mobile Fleet did not know that the reinforcement fleet of the Commander had approached at high speed, and their current judgment was still based on the existing strength of the Commander, and this was also the fundamental reason why Vice Admiral Lu Jian wanted to continue to launch a third wave of attacks and leave the main fleet of the Commandery Fleet behind.

However, even if he knew about the arrival of the reinforcement fleet, Lu Jian would not give up the idea in his heart, but would change the target of the third wave of air raids to the reinforcement fleet of Ben.