Chapter 643: The Battle of the Sea and the Air II
readx; The specifications of China's four aircraft carriers are roughly the same, although there are some slight design differences, but they are mainly manifested in protection and speed, and for single-story hangars, the hangar deck is the volume of the hangar has not changed much, so although the service time of these four aircraft carriers is five or six years apart, but the actual carrying capacity is the same. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
By 1930, after several changes, the number of Chinese aircraft carriers was the standard 87, of which 75 were standing military aircraft and 12 were standby. A standard carrier-based aircraft aviation wing has a fighter squadron with the number of fighters at twenty-four units. There were two squadrons of dive bombers, each with eighteen dive bombers, and another squadron of torpedo bombers, with fifteen torpedo bombers. Since there are no special reconnaissance planes attached to aircraft carriers, reconnaissance missions are carried out part-time by dive bombers or fighters. Because the B6 dive bomber can reach a range of more than 1,000 kilometers without bombing and loading auxiliary fuel tanks, and it is also equipped with a radio and is still a two-seater, the actual commanders use the dive bomber as a reconnaissance aircraft.
For example, in the F2 series of fighters, the main fighter in service in the Navy, although the surname can be much higher than the original F2 fighter, for example, the speed has increased from 250 kilometers to 300 kilometers, but the range has not increased but decreased a little.
For reconnaissance missions, although speed is important, the B6 dive bomber in service with the Chinese Navy has also increased from 240 kilometers to 280 kilometers per hour after many improvements, which is not too bad. In addition, range is also an extremely important criterion for reconnaissance aircraft, and in this respect, the F2 fighter is completely defeated by the B6 dive bomber.
As for the sensitive surname and firepower, it is not so important things.
In addition to seventy-five commonly used aircraft, there are twelve spare aircraft in order to replenish the combat losses of common aircraft during cruises in the open sea.
And this time the scale of the battle is so grand, and the Sasebo military port is the first military port in the western region, and the anti-aircraft firepower in it is naturally not weak, and there are still a large number of anti-aircraft firepower on the battleships in the military port, so even if it launches a sneak attack, it will inevitably be blocked by anti-aircraft fire, and although the losses cannot be estimated, there will definitely be.
Lieutenant General Guan Shijie looked at the already empty deck, and couldn't help but feel the gains and losses in his heart, calculating the time, the first wave of aircraft should have arrived.
Although due to the outbreak of the war, the military port was tightened up, but the Sasebo military port was not an unprotected military port, but a military port with a more complete protection of the coastal fortress than China's Lushun and Qingdao military ports.
Not to mention that at the moment there are still a large number of warships moored in the military port.
Due to the outbreak of the Sino-Chinese war again and the long-term threat of the Chinese Navy, it was said that the Sasebo Military Port had always been used as the main military port for maintenance, and a large number of warships were deployed in peacetime. The reason why the Chinese Navy decided to launch a large-scale air attack on Sasebo was also to sink the main force of the navy called "Ben" in the Sasebo military port.
However, after learning that the Chinese main fleet was going to sea, he said, "Ben's main fleet is also preparing to go to sea, and two days ago it has already gone to sea and moved about 120 kilometers southeast of Jeju Island, in other words, about 150 kilometers northwest of China's main fleet, and is now preparing to find China's main fleet and fight a decisive battle."
So much so that only two old Ise-class battleships remained in the Sasebo Naval Port, and the original goal of the Chinese Navy was to sink all the main forces of the Chinese Navy in the port, but unfortunately this wish was destined to be unrealized.
When the first wave of attack planes of the First Air Fleet arrived in the skies over Sasebo, the Navy, which was already in war time, reacted quickly, and soon sounded the alarm, and then fighter jets also took off from nearby airfields for air defense operations.
It's just that the dozen or so planes that took off were shot down by the escorting Chinese F2 fighters in the first place, and in the subsequent bombing operations, because it was found that most of the original targets were not there, the incoming bomber units all threw all the ammunition on the two battleships, and after the first wave of attacks, the two battleships had already sunk one after another.
When the second wave of attack groups arrived, they found that there were no targets to attack, so they had no choice but to drop a large amount of ammunition into various facilities on land, including barracks, ammunition depots, oil depots, etc.
After learning that the air raid unit had not discovered the main fleet, Guan Shijie sighed and immediately ordered to stop the preparations for the third wave of attack aircraft and make preparations for the return of the aircraft group.
Just as the Chinese main fleet was preparing to return home, the main fleet of the Chinese main fleet, which was operating in the northwest direction, also received a report of an air attack on the Sasebo military port.
"At least more than two hundred aircraft attacked, and the planes dispatched by the China people are all carrier-based aircraft, so in this case, the four aircraft carriers of the China people must have poured out!" Ryozo Nakamura said this, but his focus was obviously not on these four aircraft carriers: "In this case, then China's main fleet must also be nearby!" "In the eyes of Ryozo Nakamura, only those four Chinese battleships are the main force.
At this time, he had already chosen his surname to forget, although the air raid of the Chinese First Air Fleet just now did not catch the main fleet of the Ben, but it sank two old battleships of the Ben, and these two battleships are the remaining two battleships of the Ise class, Suruga and Omi. It is very interesting that all four battleships of the Ise-class were sunk in the harbor by Chinese naval aviation. Having not participated in even a single actual naval battle, the fourteen-inch guns on it were sunk without any effect.
But then again, it was said, "In this navy, these two Ise-class battleships have long been old and have not served as major combat missions for many years, and if they were not sunk in the first place in this war, then the four old battleships of Suruga, Omi, Fuso, and Yamashiro could only be used as frigates for the transport fleet, and could not be used to participate in the decisive battle of the main fleet at all."
It is precisely because these two old battleships are no longer of much use, so Nakamura Ryozo did not pay much attention, and now he is more concerned about whether he can stop the main fleet of China, and then carry out a decisive battle, when the time comes, with the huge advantage of the imperial navy, there will be no problem in crushing the main force of the Chinese navy.
This was not only his idea, but also that of Vice Admiral Eisuke Yamamoto, commander of the 1st Fleet, who was ambitious as the new commander of the 1st Fleet and commander of the Combined Fleet.
As long as the main force of the Chinese Navy can be eliminated, it is very possible that his prestige will surpass that of Togo Heihachiro back then.
Therefore, after thinking about it for a while, Eisuke Yamamoto immediately ordered the fleet to sail directly to the southwest, and at the same time ordered the two air warships in the fleet and the seaplanes on each warship to reconnoiter the southern seas in an attempt to find the location of China's main fleet.
At this time, the exposure of China's main fleet was already a certainty, the East China Sea was so big, the main enemy had found a general direction, and it was not difficult to find out the fleet that had always been large.
At about 10 o'clock in the morning, the first wave of attack aircraft returned and landed on the aircraft carrier, and half an hour later, the second wave of aircraft also returned and landed on the aircraft carrier, and the sortie group immediately reported losses after returning home, and the loss of combat aircraft in this battle was 19 combat aircraft, which can be described as a small loss, but the same result was not much, although it was said that an old battleship was sunk, but the expected goal was not achieved.
After recovering the group, Vice Admiral Guan Shijie immediately ordered the fleet to start returning, and at the same time, the First Battlefleet led by Vice Admiral Wen Ting and Vice Admiral also returned with the First Air Fleet.
And at this time, they didn't know that Ben's main fleet was already coming at full speed in the southwest direction.
However, for fleets with carrier-based aircraft on both sides, the distance between the two sides to find each other is roughly the same, so when a water reconnaissance plane called "Ben" flew over the sky over the Chinese main fleet and discovered the huge scale of China's main fleet, a B6 dive bomber on the other side also discovered a "Ben plane" returning to the north when it was also carrying out a reconnaissance mission to the north, so this B6 bomber quietly followed behind this plane, and finally successfully discovered the main fleet 20 minutes later.
So the B6 bomber quickly used wireless telegraphy.
Just a few minutes later, Guan Shijie on the Huashan received this telegram, looking at this telegram, the corner of Guan Shijie's mouth showed a sneer: "Hmph, it didn't take much effort to get here, I didn't catch them in the Hong Kong raid, but now I found them on the sea!" ”
Although there is no plan for a decisive battle at sea in this sea operation, in any case, the main force of the Chinese Navy has come out of the nest in order to strike at the main force of the navy, whether it is said that the main force of the navy is in the port or on the sea, the purpose is the same.
Looking at the watch on his wrist, it was already one o'clock in the afternoon, and the time was pressing, so Guan Shijie immediately ordered all aviation wings to immediately carry out maintenance work.
As a result, the planes, which had just returned from Sasebo for only two or three hours, once again began intense rearmament work, and the planes on the deck and the planes in the hangar were carrying out various tasks at the same time, and this time the rearmament work was extremely fast, and after only 35 minutes, the aircraft carriers had already completed the rearmament work one after another and began to take off combat aircraft.
As a result, at 1:45 p.m., the first wave of attack planes sent out by the First Air Fleet of the Chinese Navy was already heading in the direction of the main force of the Navy in the north.