February 13, 5:55 a.m. Starting

The sky gradually increased, and the first rays of morning finally burst into the limelight, dispelling the night that enveloped the earth and the sea. The sky had turned light blue, and a red glow on the horizon was slowly expanding its range, shooting out orange-red rays of light, which looked like the Rising Sun Banner representing the Great Ben Imperial Navy!

Ryunosuke Yokoyama, the lookout soldier of the battleship "Hyuga", came to his post and held an eight-fold telescope to watch the scene of the rising sun, where the rising sun was his family and his motherland, but he already knew that he could not go back. Although Commander Shiozawa would not convey the order of the "Jade Crushing Assault" to the rank of ordinary sailors, everyone still guessed from the direction of the warship!

Maybe after his death, his own spirit can return to his original and accept the admiration of 80 million people in the "Kudanzaka" that was talked about by the officers? Yokoyama was thinking about the Yasukuni Shrine, and suddenly in his telescope, a lot of black spots appeared somehow! Was that flying from the northeast, could it be an army plane? I didn't expect that the army animals were quite interesting, and they didn't forget to send planes to cover this naval fleet that was heading for a dead end.

"Planes were found in the northeast, the number is about a hundred, the identity is unknown, the model is unknown, it's over." Yokoyama hurriedly hung up the phone on the bridge, then raised his binoculars and began to take a closer look.

"Your Excellency, Commander, the lookout post reports that about a hundred planes have been spotted in the northeast direction, and it is not known whose it is." A staff officer put down the phone and returned loudly.

"What?" Zengo Yoshida, the chief of staff of the fleet, was stunned when he heard this, and a trace of joy slipped across his face, but it was replaced by solemnity in an instant. Although the fleet had sent a telegram to the Kwantung Army Command before, asking them to send fighter planes to cover it, everyone knew that the army's fighters were now mainly deployed at the Port of Arthur to protect this important port and not to let the Chinese planes blow it up, and there were not many planes at all on the Jinzhou side.

"It's a Shina man." Shiozawa Koichi shook his head, his face pale: "They came so fast!" Looks...... They built two airfields in Huludao and sent a telegram to the Combined Fleet, informing them that they had encountered an air attack from the direction of Huludao! Also, sound the air defense alarm! "Hail!" Major General Yoshida Zengo turned around and ordered the staff officers behind him: "Sound the air defense alarm and discharge the air defense formation!" "Shiozawa's analysis is good, this huge group of aircraft in the air really belongs to the Kuomintang Air Force.

It was in the early hours of this morning that 82 A1B light dive bombers and 26 NB fighters took off from Qinhuangdao before dawn.

As soon as they flew over Huludao and had not yet begun to bomb the Japanese artillery positions, they suddenly received an order from the Qinhuangdao side through the short BO point platform that had just been installed on the A1B: "About forty kilometers south of Huludao, this fleet has been discovered, and the order is to go to bombing!" ”

Major General Ye Qiu, the commander-in-chief of the air group and deputy commander of the 2nd Aviation Division, piloted an A1B light dive bomber and directed this huge group in the sky to gallop towards the southwest. It didn't take long to spot more than 20 warships gliding out of the sea. At this time, the Japanese fleet also seemed to have spotted the rapidly approaching group of aircraft, and was writhing on the surface of the sea, as if it was following the S-shaped course to avoid bombs.

Rear Admiral Ye Qiu ordered loudly: "Attention all bombers, our target is the Japanese destroyer!" The target is a Japanese destroyer! The four teams will deal with the two leaders, and the five teams will follow me...... "Yes! ”

Suddenly, a voice sounded in Ye Qiu's headset: "Report, report 2002, the Japanese fleet has opened fire on my cluster, the enemy fleet is fierce, and it is difficult for my cluster to get close!" "Understood, all planes are at an altitude of four thousand, ready to dive."

With the order, the group dispersed into three formations, one of the squadron's fighters was on guard on the perimeter, and two groups of dive bombers climbed to an altitude of four thousand meters.

"Report 2002, an enemy destroyer in the lower left is within range of my dive attack." "2002 knows!" Ye Qiu finished answering and opened another channel: "The fifteenth bomber squadron, immediately attack the destroyer on the lower left." After receiving the order from the air commander, Major Chen Huaishan, the squadron leader of the 15th Bomber Squadron, hurriedly said: "The 15th Bomber Squadron is with me, at an altitude of 4,000 meters. ”

Twelve AA1B dive bombers split into four groups in the air and began bombing in turns. The three dive bombers of each group began to dive at a 58-degree angle from three directions at the same time, as if three swooping goshawks were rushing towards their prey! Squadron Leader Chen Huaishan was in the first group, and while the other three groups were still looking for their own positions, he had already piloted the plane and began to pounce on the enemy ship. By this time, all his attention had shifted to the various tenon instruments of the plane.

Angular calendar, height 4000, 3500, 3000...... 1000 When the altimeter pointed to 1000 meters, Chen Huaishan decisively pulled down the red handle on his right hand. Soon he felt his plane jolt violently, and then the whole plane became much lighter. The bomb has been dropped! Chen Huaishan immediately subconsciously pulled up the nose of the plane. The clumsy biplane immediately drew a beautiful arc upward freeze climb. While climbing, Chen Huaishan looked at it with a burning nose,

There is no huge water around the warship, it should be a direct hit!

Thundered......

With a loud bang, a huge red mushroom cloud emerged from the destroyer's approach to starboard.

"Good! Hit accurately! Look at you, guys! The first time a warship was bombed, Chen Huaishan shouted loudly.

Seeing that their boss directly hit the enemy ship, the pilots who were still hovering in the sky also began to dive and drop bombs on the unlucky "Fengfeng"-class destroyer in accordance with the order prescribed during the training. Unlike the Navy's A2A dive bombers, these Air Force A1Bs had a low bomb load and only had a 130-kilogram bomb hanging from them, so one bomb was not enough to blow the destroyer into two sections. However, twelve dive bombers, piloted by Air Force pilots who are more experienced than the pilots of the Navy (the Air Force and the Army Aviation have been established for a longer time than the Navy Airlines, so the pilots are generally more experienced), are still fatal enough for a destroyer with little armor! A total of twelve 130-kilogram bombs were dropped in this round of bombing, six of which hit! Almost the equivalent of taking a heavy hit from the 203-mm guns of six heavy cruisers, if not sunk again............... That's unreasonable!

Three minutes after Major Chen Huaishan dropped the bomb, the destroyer "Fengfeng" of the 1st Foreign Fleet sank. A 130-kilogram bomb hit accurately, the bomb penetrated its weak armor, and then detonated the ammunition depot below deck, instantly turning the 1,345-ton destroyer into a violently burning torch, killing all 154 officers and men on board!

The 1920 destroyer, built in 1920, was also attacked by twelve A1B light dive bombers, and five bombs were hit in just six minutes.

One of them hit its second turret, and the bomb passed through the armor on top of the turret and blew it away. The other bomb concentrated a Taisho six-year twin-mounted 533-mm torpedo tube located in front of the bridge, and the two Ma-millimeter torpedoes that remained inside were directly detonated!

The entire battleship was directly blown into two sections, and none of the officers and men of the entire ship survived!

Completed in 1911, the almost obsolete destroyer "Shankaze" became the third casualty of these dive bombers. The small 1,030-ton warship was hit by four 130-kilogram bombs, almost all of the buildings on board were destroyed, and a raging fire broke out. After all the officers and men of the ship struggled to rescue for 30 minutes, they had no choice but to abandon the ship.

The entire bombardment lasted about twenty minutes, and eighty-two dive bombers divided into seven groups attacked four destroyers, two minesweepers, and a larger light cruiser "Tatsuda" of the 1st Foreign Fleet. In the end, except for "Longtian, the ship survived because it was strong after all, and the remaining six warships were all sunk!" The losses on the part of the National Air Force were only five dive bombers.

And the six sturdy capital ships in this fleet did not suffer a single loss until the planes of these countries flapped their wings and flew away. However, the officers and men of these battleships and heavy cruisers, after witnessing the tragic fate of these six destroyers and minesweepers, had fallen into deep despair. Not despair for their own lives, but despair for this war.

"Your Excellency Commander" Fengfeng, the destroyer "Zefeng", the destroyer "Shanfeng", the destroyer "Numakaze", the destroyer, the minesweeper No. 8, and the minesweeper No. 9 have all sunk! "Tatsuda, the light cruiser was broken."

On the battleship "Hyuga", the combat staff officer reported the losses of the fleet with a sad face.

Fleet Commander Shiozawa was silent for a moment after hearing this before replying: "Order all ships to increase their anti-aircraft firepower, and we must not allow the Chinese fighters to easily break through our army's anti-aircraft fire network!" ”

"Hay!"

Looking at the back of the staff officer leaving, Shiozawa Koichi sighed softly: "Fortunately, the capital ship was not damaged..."

Yoshida Zengo nodded slightly: "The planes of the Shina people are not yet able to carry enough bombs and torpedoes to sink the battleship...... So they wisely chose to attack the destroyers and light cruisers, and wait until all our auxiliary ships were sunk, and then attack them with submarines or torpedo boats........."

Shiozawa smiled: "It's okay. He pointed to the coastline looming to the north: "As long as we can help the empire win this war and get Manchuria, we will be willing even if we are crushed!" Yoshida-kun, we just need to destroy the port and airport of Qinhuangdao...... The logistical supply of the 300,000 Kuomintang troops in Manchuria should be reduced by at least seventy percent, right? The army should be able to win at that time, right? ”

After the loss of four destroyers and two minesweepers, the First Detachment had nineteen warships of various types, six of which were capital ships of battleships, battlecruisers, and heavy cruisers, and the remaining eleven were auxiliary ships of light cruisers, destroyers, and minesweepers. However, the fleet did not stop rushing towards Qinhuangdao, and did not even waste time to look for survivors in the icy waters of Bohai Bay. By this time, the entire fleet had already made up its mind to die, and no longer took any Z-shaped route to avoid submarines, but sailed straight to Qinhuangdao, seemingly planning to crash headlong into the dock of Qinhuangdao!

At 7:45 a.m., as a terrible siren sounded on the flagship "Hyuga", the second air raid on this fleet that was bent on death began!

Compared with the bombing organized by the Air Force two hours ago, this large-scale bombing organized and implemented by the Naval Aviation of the National Life Force really made Shiozawa Koichi really worry about the future and fate of his empire.

"Oh my God! There are at least four or five hundred warplanes there! The people of China sent so many planes at once, are they going to make a desperate bet? Looking at the huge fleet of planes outside the window, Shiozawa Yuichi muttered, "Eight grids! Those animals in the Army, as well as His Majesty the Emperor, should really come and take a look! The people of China have so many planes...... They sent more planes at one time than the total number of planes owned by the Imperial Army and Navy! How should this war be fought? ”

This time, all the belongings of the Kuomintang naval aviation were dispatched, and the 150 planes on one naval division and the two aircraft carriers "Zhongshan" and "Guangdong" were dispatched, and the total number was as high as 400! Or more accurately, four hundred pilots! Because airplanes or something, for the current rise of the unspeakable southern country, it is not a problem at all. More than 200 are now being produced every month! And what is really valuable is precisely these excellent pilots who have undergone rigorous training.

Unlike the Air Force, which is still using the F1 and A1 series of aircraft, which are somewhat outdated, the equipment of the naval aviation has been updated to the more advanced F2A and A2A. The performance indicators of the two aircraft are also very close, the wingspan is 8.6 meters long, and the height is 3.4 meters: the engines are also manufactured by the engine branch of the Sino-German aircraft company.

The 129B 660-horsepower star engine, the maximum speed F2A is 340 kilometers per hour, A2A is 300 kilometers per hour, and the range is 750 kilometers, while the A2A, as a dive bomber, can carry up to 200 kilograms of bombs, which is enough to threaten the heavy cruiser! However, it still can't cause fatal damage to big guys like battleships and battle cruisers.

The more than 240 A2A dive bombers that knew that they were not yet capable of blowing up and sinking the battleship also adjusted their altitude to 4,000 meters like the A1B just now, and then formed a six-plane squad of 40 dense formations, and then these planes began to attack their respective targets.

Those A2A dive bombers first began to fly sideways like devils, and then a 60-degree high-angle dive, braving the scorching artillery fire of the enemy's warship, through the rain of bullets, rushing downward, the fuselage of the plane also made a terrifying sound, and soon the plane reached a certain height, dropped the swarthy bomb and then pulled up rapidly. The roar of explosions came from the hull of the warship, although these warships kept making S-shaped movements to avoid the bombing, but there were too many planes that dived and bombed, and the bombs dropped were too dense, and the sea around the warship was like a high tower of water blown up by the bombs, and the warships seemed to be diving in the falling water columns, and soon several warships were hit by bombs. With a 200-kilogram bomb, a destroyer of more than 1,000 tons will lose its combat effectiveness as long as it hits one, and the middle two will almost be saved...... Even a light cruiser with much stronger armor would be hit hard by one, and if it hits three or four, it can only sink. Soon, the dive bombers set their sights on important targets, the cruisers Kako, Aoba, and Kinugasa.

These three cruisers of more than 7,000 tons were nothing more than small men in the heavy cruisers, and they were classified as heavy cruisers because they carried six 200-mm heavy guns, and their armor was inferior to the "Königsberg" class with the light cruiser brand. This time, each of the three heavy cruisers was targeted by more than 30 A2A dive bombers. They first began to dive, then descended to a distance of about 1,000 meters, firing several bursts with machine guns for calibration, and then dropped bombs at 800 meters. In an instant, the three heavy cruisers were surrounded by several huge columns of water. In just ten minutes, they each hit eight to ten 200-kilogram bombs. Among them, the second turret of the "Gagu" was pierced by a bomb, and the thin 25 mm armor could only be a joke for the turret of a heavy cruiser. A violent explosion sent the heavy cruiser to the bottom of the sea.

After the sinking of the "Kako", the heavy cruiser "Aoba" also quickly ushered in their end. Among them, the heavy cruiser "Aoba" suffered eleven 200-kilogram bombs, the most lethal one was dropped by Major Long Yuhui, the captain of the bomber group of the "Nakayama" aircraft carrier, this bomb directly penetrated the deck of the "Aoba" and exploded in the boiler room, and caused a fire, the fire burned the entire cruiser's power system, and finally the captain of the "Aoba" had to give the order to abandon the ship. @ws