The battleships of Japan and the United States have not yet met, and the aircraft carriers of the two sides have already fought with their carrier-based aircraft more than 100 nautical miles apart. Before the battleship's giant cannon entered the battle, it had already unleashed the violent side of the naval battle.

There was already a fire on the surface of the sea, and the sound of screaming and howling from the smoke could be heard far away.

The anti-aircraft artillery of the main Japanese fleet was already fully opened, but the gaps in the fire net were still somewhat sparse, which gave the Americans more opportunities for bombers and torpedo planes. Although they will not get too close, the number of bombs and torpedoes thrown has already compensated for the lack of accuracy.

The white lines of water staggered on the sea, and the action of avoiding torpedoes caused the formation of the Japanese fleet to begin to scatter.

Under the interference of the water column exploded by the bombshell, there were still Japanese warships that directly encountered the collision luck of American torpedoes, which still did not have much perfection.

In order to avoid the Shiyu steering on the left full rudder, the Agano also swerved to the left, but it happened to hit an American torpedo, and the stern power compartment was damaged.

Not the worst, with the Shorui Shiyu by its side, the lead ship of the newly commissioned Agano-class light torpedo cruiser that had only been in service for two months attracted a fierce attack from the Americans' dreadnought dive bombers because of the plumes of smoke that rose into the sky.

Even though the Agano was busy fighting the fire and draining the water, even though it desperately bombarded the remaining two 76mm and six 25mm anti-aircraft guns into the sky behind the smoke, it still could not parry the bombshells brought by the divewooping down of the dreadnoughts.

It was again hit with two 726-kilogram bombshells.

The latest Japanese light cruiser, known as the strongest torpedo warfare, had not yet demonstrated the power of its two 610mm quadruple torpedo tubes, and quickly sank 27 nautical miles from the harbor of Sydney's Rose Bay in a burst of explosions.

At this time, the Yamato, which was not far from it, could only raise its barrel in vain and watch the surrounding anti-aircraft artillery of all sizes fly into the air in retaliation against the scattered barrage.

This feeling of being beaten passively made Nagumo Zhongyi very depressed.

So when more American bombers and torpedo planes pounced, Nagumo Tadaichi finally ordered:

"Type 3 anti-aircraft bombs, ready!"

He had been a little worried about the damage to Yamato's main guns and the hull of the Yamato anti-aircraft bomb, and he had been hesitant. In addition, he was confident that Japanese fighters and other anti-aircraft artillery could withstand the attacks of the Americans, and he never had the air defense power to start the main guns. But in fact, the Type 96 25-mm anti-aircraft gun still dropped the chain, and even the rate of fire of the Type 89 on the Yamato with a 40-fold diameter of 127 mm gave the American fighters an opportunity to take advantage of.

The most critical thing is that the Japanese Zero fighters are all entangled in Hellcats and a large number of Wildcats, and are simply unable to intercept those dreadnoughts and Avengers.

Seeing that more and more fighters were coming up from the Americans, he couldn't help but accept Toshihei Inoguchi's suggestion.

Toshihei Inoguchi was fortunate enough to leave before the cruisers Myoko and Takao were sunk by the Vanguard, and went to the Yokosuka Gunnery School as the head of instruction, this time as the chief gunnery on the Yamato. and to promote him to a familiarization internship as the new captain of another Yamato-class battleship.

Nagumo Tadaichi still prefers this well-known Japanese gunnery expert who is also a fanatic of cannon giant ships, and he conveyed the order after a little hesitation.

The main cannon of the Yamato began to move slowly, aiming at the vast sea and air junction.

There was a large group of American warplanes hurrying to join the warband.

The Zero fighters on the Japanese aircraft carriers were far less numerous than the wildcats that pounced. After paying special attention to the Zero, the Americans' two Wildcats could also entangle one Zero.

Nimitz heard the news from the front and immediately made tactical adjustments, taking advantage of the fact that the Japanese fighters were pinned down and the Japanese anti-aircraft fire was weak, and began to send bombers and torpedo planes on a large scale.

A large group of U.S. warplanes swept in like a cloud from afar, and then scattered around Japan's major warships.

But this time, when they were still in a dense formation at 18 nautical miles, a loud sound rang out in their ears.

Faster than the sound, a huge explosion of flames spread around them, and a 1,360-kilogram giant cannonball instantly exploded thousands of bullets in the air. The small fragmentation shells and small incendiary bombs that exploded quickly rolled up a white cloud and completely annihilated the figures of more than a dozen planes flying in dense formation.

Although one or two planes came out one after another dragging thick smoke, in addition to bursting red flames and black smoke in the white clouds, more of them spit out a large amount of plane wreckage from below and fell to the sea.

"My mother, this is a Type 3 anti-aircraft bomb?" Zhao Xingbiao, the captain of the Wen Tianxiang airship, put down the binoculars and couldn't help but exclaim.

The white smoke spread bigger and bigger, stretching into a patch, like a cloud of white clouds, sweeping in all the scattered and fleeing American warplanes in the surrounding area. The scale was so large that he couldn't help but compare the damage of this kind of shell to the airship.

Look at the dozen or so American warplanes that fell in the distance. Zhao Xingbiao quickly came to a conclusion, I am afraid that it will be difficult for the Kirov airship to gain advantage from such shells.

Even if the maximum speed of the second-stage Kirov airship has exceeded 200 kilometers, it is definitely not as fast as the speed of the shell.

The only advantage is that the Kirov airship can rise to an altitude of more than 20,000 meters, and although the power of the Yamato main gun just now is huge, and it can shoot into the sky more than ten nautical miles away, the damage to the airship at a height of 20,000 meters away is still unknown.

"Not fatal though. But the damage is certain! Thinking of this, Zhao Xingbiao couldn't help but give an order, and began to let the airship at an altitude of about 10,000 meters continue to rise. Anyway, the observation is made by telescopes and other equipment, so it doesn't matter how close or far away it is. However, if the Japanese fired a Type 3 anti-aircraft gun at them, I am afraid that the altitude of 10,000 meters may not necessarily be safe.

"The maximum firing height of this type three anti-aircraft gun is 11,900 meters!" Chen Guan whispered beside him.

In order to make a better observation, Chen Guan and the others had been trying to lower the height as much as possible.

The presence of their gigantic airships. The Americans' radar detected it, but they already knew that it was the Chinese observation group, and the Japanese radar had not yet been installed on the major capital warships, and the naked eye was not enough to penetrate the clouds and observe the Kirov airship above the clouds.

They were too busy to care about anything else. Even if the corner of the airship was occasionally revealed, they didn't pay much attention to the huge shadow that had been hovering high above the clouds.

But just in case, for the sake of the many naval elites on the airship at this time, no one dared to take this risk, Zhao Xingbiao's order was quickly conveyed.

"This type of three-type anti-aircraft gun has great damage to the barrel of the main gun, and it is easy to affect the shooting accuracy of the main gun, which is generally rare!" Wang Xiu's slow voice came from behind Zhao Xingbiao, "Besides, using a 460 mm main gun to shoot at the air, the slow rate of fire is a fatal gap. The Americans just accidentally landed, as long as the formation is dispersed, I'm afraid the Japanese will really shoot mosquitoes with artillery! ”

Everyone looked at it, and sure enough, the formation of the other fighters of the Americans quickly opened the distance, and even the smoke cloud filled by the Type 3 anti-aircraft guns could not cover too many American fighters.

One attack by the Japanese Type 3 anti-aircraft guns shot down 13 American dreadnought dive bombers at once. Where would the Americans dare to commit the same negligence again?

However, the Americans were also intimidated by the might of this artillery, and the momentum of the attack slowed down significantly.

But at this time, the 32 Hellcats and 84 Wildcats on the battlefield had overwhelmed the blockade of the 36 Zero and 17 Ultra Zero fighters, which gave 45 Dreadnought bombers and 38 Avenger torpedo planes more chances.

"Boom!" A huge explosion accompanied a column of smoke rose from the Flying Crane, and a heavy bomb dropped by the Dreadnought from a height of 1,200 meters pierced through the three decks and detonated directly inside.

Successive explosions rang out, and the entire deck of the Flying Crane was arched by fiery flames, and then torn apart continuously. Several planes on the deck were also directly shredded by the flames, mixed with burning wood chips and screaming figures, sprayed into the sky with the smoke and flames that rose into the sky, and then crashed into the sea.

After the Agano and the Shiraro-class destroyer Arashio were sunk by bombs, one of the main warships of the Japanese also thoroughly tasted the taste of the American bombshell.

The deck on the Flying Crane was no longer usable, and even the anti-aircraft artillery was affected by the shock wave and stopped for the most part. The air defense system of the main Japanese fleet was missing a corner, which was quickly seized by the Americans.

Three Avenger torpedo planes roared through the smoke of the Flying Crane, with a dozen bullet holes, and rushed towards the figure of the Yamato that the Flying Crane was blocking.

The two destroyers below and the anti-aircraft fire on the Yamato concentrated on them, and when they pursued them to attack, they had already leaped up, leaving only the white wave figure of three mark-13 aviation torpedoes sprinting at full speed.

The attack at close range made the Yamato's difficult dodge futile. Although one was dodged, the other two were all hit.

But the Americans' torpedoes went wrong again, one hit the broadside row about 150 mm underwater on the port side of Yamato, and with only a heavy impact, it bounced back and fell to the bottom of the sea.

Instead, the other one directly penetrated the first layer of side plate armor and exploded inside, instantly tearing open a large hole and destroying the four adjacent sealed capsules.

A steely groan on the Yamato represented the loss of the Japanese main fleet, but at this time the excited Americans did not know that their main fleet was also suffering a disaster.