@@@@@@@

"150? Or at least! Zhang Peng, who had just completed the sixth shootdown, got the news, and his heart sank suddenly. Judging from the attack aircraft group and the defensive battle just now, the lightning fighter is obviously superior to the zero battle in terms of maneuvering and protection, and as long as the pilot himself does not make mistakes, he can completely suppress the opponent. But the problem is that he can guarantee a one-on-one or even one-on-two victory, but with a one-on-three or even a one-on-four, the technical advantage will be leveled or even greatly diminished by numbers. But now it's too late to say this, fortunately, the remaining fuel in the formation is still relatively sufficient, but the ammunition is a little tight.

"Eagle One calls, Eagle One calls. The enemy situation is wrong, and now I need all the fighters to hear it, immediately climb up and move closer to me, ready to meet it. Zhang Peng made an emergency call while quickly climbing to an altitude of 5,500 meters. Within a few moments, twenty-two lightning bolts were gathering around him. Because both sides maintained a speed of more than 300 kilometers per hour, ten minutes later he spotted a dense group of Japanese planes below.

When they saw the size of the fleet, all the pilots gasped: "God, this is at least 200 planes, right?" ”

"yes, where did you fly from? Isn't it the sun? ”

"What to do? We only have twenty-three, and Captain Yun is still refueling. ”

After the discovery of the Japanese swarm, the communication channel was quickly filled. Everyone knows very well in their hearts that as long as they move the operating lever and rush down, it will definitely be a life of death! But at this time, there was no choice, Zhang Peng knew better, so he took a few deep breaths, slowly rolled up his sleeves, and spoke slowly: "The order of targets is very clear to everyone, no matter what, you can't let bombers (torpedoes and dives are both bombers) get close to the fleet." Also, I'm here to tell you that we won't die because it's our airspace! He flicked the lever softly. Lightning turned sideways and began preparations before diving. Behind him, the war eagles formed a column and turned sideways. "We are the Navy, we are the elite 5th and 6th Air Brigades. Believe me! Follow me! I will fight side by side with you, and I will go with you to sweep away thousands of armies! ”

"Rush!"

Twenty-three lightnings, twenty-three large hands pushing the joystick at the same time. The dull sound of the engine became crisp, and the whimper of air rushing past the heat sink turned into the loudest charge of the Chinese naval aviation. "Enemy attack!" The frightened siren sounded from the Japanese group, and Zhang Peng and his comrades had already run through the entire formation from top to bottom, and one hundred and thirty-eight black-red lines of fire were like the leather whip of death. In an instant, it whipped over the Japanese bombers.

It's a wave of twenty-three to two hundred and twenty heroic attacks! The momentum displayed during the dive attack actually suppressed more than 200 elite pilots of the Japanese Navy. With just one charge, he shot down 14 Japanese bombers neatly. This slap made Yan Che San Shaozuo, who led the team to protect, only feel a rush of qi and blood rushing to his brain, but he didn't expect to be attacked when he was close to the target, so he was so angry that he pushed the joystick fiercely: "Protect the bomber." Sortie! ”

"Captain, the Japanese are here!"

"Twin formations, keep up!" Zhang Peng turned his head to look, and dozens of enraged Zero Fighters broke away from the group and rushed over. Without any hesitation, he immediately beckoned the planes to sway up from a low altitude of 2,000 meters, and used Lightning's super vertical climbing ability to rush to the sky again before the Zero War arrived. "Be careful. Again, they are going to perform dive tactics. Seeing Lightning's incredibly fast climbing ability, Yan Che divided a part of the Zero Battle into pursuit, and flew under the bomber group with the remaining Zero Battles. Zhang Peng, who entered the high altitude, saw this posture and immediately understood that he had met a master. This is clearly to wait for yourself below. But he had no choice, the Japanese group was only fifteen minutes away from the air defense circle of the fleet, and in these fifteen minutes he had to shoot down as many bombers as possible, so he dived down again at the scattered bomber group.

Just when he led the team to complete the dive tactic again. And when he shot down seven bombers, Iwa Che San also took more than thirty Zeros. Using the excellent circling ability, he rolled quickly and grabbed the tail of the Eagle squadron. "Spread out, swoop and shake them off." At any time, being bitten is an extremely dangerous thing, so Zhang Peng sighed and had to order the disbandment of the formation to fight separately.

At the same time, the Sichuan aircraft carrier was already in disarray, and the orderly replenishment work had been sharply accelerated, but it was impossible to complete the refueling and reloading of bombs in just 20 minutes. Especially reloading, it takes at least half an hour or more! But now Gen didn't have time, so Yun Xiangnan, the captain of the Sixth Air Brigade, rushed directly into the cockpit, glanced at half of the fuel gauge, and forcibly started the engine.

"Captain, it's not full yet." "It's too late, get out of the way and clear the runway."

"Sir, your bullets. It doesn't matter, two machine guns are enough. ”

"No, you can't fly anymore! The holes in the wings should be repaired immediately, otherwise the skin will tear during the fight. "Fuck you, I'm going to take off!"

The entire deck was filled with such shouts. The pilots who had just landed were not tired of their fatigue, and some even took to the air with water and cans. When Yun Xiangnan brought his formation back to the sky, his nose suddenly became hot and his throat was on fire. I saw that Zhang Peng and his comrades-in-arms had been completely surrounded by Zero Battle, and the sky was full of flickering lines of fire, and hundreds of fighters were fighting each other. "I'll your grandma!" Ignoring the four Zeros pursuing behind him, a pilot rushed from 2,000 meters to 500 meters, and attacked and shot down a 97 ship with round eyes. But then he himself was hit by a zero-fight that was high and below zero, and he was never able to pull up again.

"Up, up, up! Hit the bombers first, let's go! "The sacrifice of the comrades-in-arms deeply stimulated the pilots. Yun Xiangnan didn't care about the amount of oil, pushed the throttle to the end, and roared towards the two nearest 99 ships.

The battle in the sky was extremely chaotic, and despite Lightning's best efforts, the Japanese bombers still took advantage of their numerical superiority and swooped down on the 23 Fleet at high speed evasion from the passage separated by the zero battle. Like the Eagles of the 23 fleet, the Japanese bombers also chose two aircraft carriers as their first targets. "Protect the aircraft carrier! Full rudder on the right and fire at full speed! "On the light cruiser Heilongjiang, Rayong saw more than a dozen 99 ships rushing straight over his head towards the Guizhou, and immediately turned the rudder to aim the bow at the aircraft carrier, so as to give full play to the anti-aircraft firepower of the whole ship." Boom, boom, boom. Clusters of cannon flames erupted from the battleship, a dense stream of shells burst through the sky, and countless shells flowed from the gun positions to all parts of the deck. The loader sweated profusely, and he just buried his head in sending boxes of ammunition into the magazine.

But there were too many Japanese bombers. Even though the escort battleships under the leadership of the two battleships exerted their full firepower, there were still Japanese planes that broke through the air defense circle. "Be careful!" At the same time as the lookout on the bridge of the Sichuan shouted, the two 99 shipbursts had already drilled out of the dense artillery fire and dived down on the deck. "Left full rudder! Rapid-fire guns concentrate fire, shock ready! "The Rear Admiral shouted loudly, alerting the officers and sailors." Hit, hit! A 20-year-old anti-aircraft gun loader shouted excitedly as the Japanese wingman was hit by his squad and turned into a ball of fire into the sea hundreds of meters away. But I didn't wait for everyone to breathe a sigh of relief. The 99 shipburst piloted by Mishio Fuchizu Nakasa was already less than a kilometer away from the aircraft carrier. This pilot, who had hit targets in both the Andaman and the Seychelles and was known as the No. 1 ace of the Japanese Navy's ship-explosive planes, lived up to his reputation and braved a dense rain of bullets to rush to 450 meters before steadily dropping a 250-kilogram aerial bomb on the rear deck of the Sichuan.

"Boom!" Bombs pierced down the back deck of the Sichuan. And exploded inside the hangar. Dozens of air crew members who were hurrying to assemble spare planes were killed, and flames filled the entire space in an instant. The explosion also affected the 40-millimeter anti-aircraft gun in the stern, detonating the anti-aircraft ammunition depot here. Fortunately, the Sichuan-class aircraft carrier uses an easy-to-maintain wooden-clad iron-clad deck and an open hangar, so the blast wave did not cause further damage after the pressure was relieved through the ventilation window. But I have to say that this is also because the Japanese planes attacked too far this time, so they carried 250 kg bombs. If it is 500 kg, then this is enough to take half a life for the aircraft carrier. When the Sichuan rushed out of the gunsmoke, even Yang Guochang was startled. I saw that the left stern of the aircraft carrier seemed to have been bitten by something, and there was a hull nearly ten meters long missing. The nautical deck was exposed. "It's okay, it didn't slow down." Lin Ruosheng also patted his chest, but just as he was about to rejoice, four more 99 ships broke through successfully. Rushed to the Sichuan and Guizhou respectively.

"Knock them out, knock them out! Concentrate your fire! Lin Ruosheng's eyes were red. But the sudden tremor under his feet made him unable to care about the aircraft carrier. The bomb hit the port side of the Anhai, destroying three 40-mm anti-aircraft guns and smoothing out the transport boat and crane, causing a fire. Seeing that the 99 ship exploded triumphantly and quickly fled, a lightning plane that rushed into the air defense circle of the fleet recklessly avenged the dead sailors of the Anhai.

"Report the loss! Power compartment. ”

"The power is intact, the three compartments on the port side are destroyed, the auxiliary generator No. 4 fails, and the radar antenna is broken! Damage management, block adjacent compartments, start the commander, Sichuan! "Yang Guochang hasn't finished asking about the loss, and the Sichuan next to him has been hit again! The second bomb hit the bridge directly, piercing the nautical bridge and the air traffic control tower, and the explosion and flames instantly destroyed all the glass and cabins. After the smoke faded, everyone found that half of the bridge had disappeared, half of the chimney had collapsed, and more than 20 senior officers, including the captain, had all died! To make matters worse, after the chimney broke, a large amount of toxic smoke poured into the hull. When the first officer, who was dealing with the first bomb damage in the stern, learned that he had become the top officer of the ship, he immediately ordered half of the boilers to be turned off to prevent the spread of toxic smoke and cause more damage. Although the threat of toxic fumes was lifted, this also reduced the speed of the aircraft carrier to 23 knots.

When dealing with air raids, speed can make the difference between life and death, and stalling means that bombs and torpedoes cannot be evaded. Seeing that the Sichuan had slowed down significantly, Luo Yong, who had already led the ship to shoot down three enemy planes, fiercely ripped off his hat and roared hoarsely: "Nineteen degrees on the right rudder, lean over, 1,000 meters away!" Maintain the same speed and the same direction of avoidance. Send a signal for the Sichuan to continue sailing, and our ship is responsible for the protection of the starboard side of your ship! Others didn't know the meaning of what he did, but Yang Guochang and the officers and men of the 23rd Fleet were full of hot noses. Because in the past dozens of exercises, the Navy has found that torpedo machines are the most dangerous to damage ships. The torpedo machine has great restrictions when it is used, and it must be guaranteed to drop the bomb at a low altitude of 500 meters, otherwise the torpedo will plunge into the deep sea because of the excessive impact force. If the fighter wants to enter a low altitude of 500 meters, it does not mean that a distance of several hundred meters is enough, at least it must slow down and descend from a distance of two to three kilometers, so at this time, if a warship is inserted between the target and the aircraft, it can disrupt the attack of the torpedo plane from this direction to the greatest extent. Of course, at this time the warship in the middle will be caught in the blow of enemy torpedoes.

A simple tactic of simultaneous sailing, but it requires great courage. When the Heilongjiang decisively rushed forward, it meant that more than 600 officers and men swore to protect the safety of the core aircraft carrier with their flesh and blood!

After the dive bombers broke through the air defense circle in succession, the slower torpedo planes also came from low altitudes. At the same time, it is necessary to deal with both high and low directions. The anti-aircraft fire of the fleet began to disperse. "Ninety-seven ship attack, three!" Sure enough, shortly after the Heilongjiang was taped to the starboard side of the Sichuan for a synchronous maneuver, three 97 ships rushed out of the smoke with torpedoes. In the dense firepower, the Japanese pilots obviously did not expect that there would be a light patrol in front of them; Jaw launch angle, two of them had to turn low and wanted to go around the back. But the rapid-fire guns of the Heilongjiang and the other destroyer quickly hit them, shooting down one and scattering the other. But in the end, the torpedo plane still fired the torpedo from a distance of a thousand meters.

Japan's torpedo technology has always been dominant, and the Republic of China and Europe and the United States have lagged slightly behind in this regard. The Type 91 aviation torpedo also maintained the tradition of the Japanese army's heavy torpedo tactics. A 450 mm diameter projectile has a 240 kg warhead and a speed of up to 42 knots! If he didn't slow down, Rayong thought he had a good chance to avoid it, but now he had to maneuver at a low speed for the safety of the aircraft carrier. A loud bang rang out from the stern. The Heilongjiang, which tried to evade, failed to avoid it and was torpedoed to the starboard side of the stern. The violent explosion tore through the fragile underwater protective armor, and in less than a few minutes hundreds of tons of seawater poured into the ship's hold. But what is surprising is that after Rayong ordered the water injection to maintain balance, the Heilongjiang was still able to maintain a speed of 24 knots and stubbornly stand by the side of the aircraft carrier.

At this time, the fleet formation had begun to be confused, following the Sichuan. Dinghai and Ninghai also ate bombs and torpedoes in succession. Fortunately, the two battleships were overhauled with a focus on strengthening their horizontal armor and underwater protection capabilities, and the Japanese bombs were not powerful enough to cause more damage. But the losses of both ships were also significant, especially the Dinghai. Because it was flying the flagship flag, it became the third target of the Japanese bombers, and after being hit by two torpedoes in a row, the speed dropped sharply, not to mention, and the deck was tilted five degrees.

"Can you keep it up?" But the most dangerous are the Sichuan and Heilongjiang. Rayong was not worried about the damage of the stern. Running to check on the situation himself, the huge gap and damage made him feel distressed to death. Just as he was about to go to the lower level to take a look, the captain of the damage management team suddenly shouted and threw him to the ground: "Captain, be careful!" "A penetrating Zero strafed the stern of the ship, killing several sailors on the spot with bullets. Taking advantage of this opportunity, two assault 97 ship attacks also fired torpedoes from a distance of 700 meters. The boom exploded twice in succession, shaking the hull of more than 7,000 tons violently, and Rayong and the sailors who had just climbed down fell down one after another. The three torpedoes could not be carried even by heavy patrols, so the Heilongjiang soon had a large tilt and sank in the Philippine Sea, the deepest part of the world, twenty minutes later, with two hundred and seven of the 632 officers and men killed.

The tragic battle did not end with Rayong's order to abandon the ship, and even the aircraft carrier Guizhou, which had always been favored by Lady Luck, rose black smoke, and even ate two bombs, and half of the deck began to catch fire.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the group of attack planes led by Lei Shaobao and Liu Yu finally appeared in view, but what they saw was a terrifying scene. The fleet, which was intact before leaving, was already in disarray, and almost every battleship was on fire and smoking! The sky was full of strangled warplanes, the torpedo tracks on the sea were terrifying, and the explosions and smoke made it almost impossible to distinguish the ship's gunwale. To make matters worse, the decks of both aircraft carriers were already on fire, and it was completely impossible to see if they were still usable. "Fuck! If you have oil, follow me! "Since most of the fighters are running out of fuel, even if they have the heart, they don't dare to do fuel-consuming actions such as fighting, so Lei Shaobao and Liu Yu joined the battle circle with the plane with fuel on the side, and at the same time let the plane with insufficient fuel go to the seaplane to make a forced landing.

Although dive bombers and torpedo planes cannot fight fighters, they can deal with aircraft of the same class. Moreover, the addition of dozens of planes also made Yan Chesan, who couldn't figure out the details, dare not fight, and immediately beckoned everyone to retreat. At this moment, the most heart-wrenching scene appeared! Using the thick smoke from the destroyer's explosion as a cover, a 99 ship exploded and suddenly swooped down from a height of 1,000 meters toward the Pearl River. Since the anti-aircraft fire of the Pearl River had been destroyed by bombs before, it did not wait to stop the explosion of the 99th ship.

The light cruiser had poor protection, and after the bomb broke away from the pylon, it penetrated the horizontal armor from the junction of the first and second turrets and penetrated the turret shaft. The explosion ignited the propellant on the winch, which eventually spread and detonated the entire ammunition depot! In the rumbling explosion, the foredeck of the Pearl River, with a standard displacement of 10,350 tons, burst in all directions, and the hull of the ship was broken from here, raising explosion dust hundreds of meters high! In the end, the warship lasted only five minutes on the surface of the water before sinking into the sea with 790 officers and men.

All the pilots went crazy, the explosion of the Pearl River made them forget about the amount of fuel and ammunition, and everyone rushed to the Japanese plane at full speed! At this time, more than 30 Lightning and more than 40 Mighty Winds from Penghu and Keelung also joined the battle circle, and in the face of an increasing number of Chinese aircraft, Yan Chesan took the remaining Zero Battles and covered the bombers to fight and retreat.

Since many fighters were already seriously short of fuel, Yang Guochang ordered the pursuit to be stopped. By 3:20 p.m., the last Japanese 97 boat to rescue the pilot was shot down, announcing the end of the Ryukyu Naval Battle.

In this first real aircraft carrier battle in human history, both sides paid a heavy price. During the six-hour battle of wits and courage, two battleships of the Japanese Navy, Matsushima and Itsukushima, the aircraft carriers Fengxiang and Zuiho, and two light cruisers and six destroyers were sunk, with a total of 153 warplanes shot down. The 23rd fleet of the Republic of China Navy was also imprisoned by the "combat radius", which led to a sneak attack by the main force of Shan 56 after the big victory, and the Sichuan aircraft carrier was seriously damaged, and capsized on the way back to Keelung Port, and had to be sunk by its own torpedo, and the Guizhou aircraft carrier also stayed in the dock for half a year. Two battleships, Dinghai and Ninghai, were moderately damaged and each entered the slipway for four to six months for repairs, two light cruisers and five destroyers were sunk, and the rest of the battleships were also wounded. Due to the destruction of the aircraft carrier's deck, the pilots had to make a forced landing or parachute, and in the end, 39 fighters were shot down, and 96 were destroyed during the forced landing. Fortunately, due to Yang Guochang's advance arrangement, only 22 pilots were killed or missing in the battle, and the rest were all rescued. More than 2,000 naval officers and men were killed in battle, and the rear admiral of the Sichuan aircraft carrier also became the highest-ranking officer killed in the Republic of China since the beginning of the war. Zhang Peng, captain of the Fifth Brigade of the Navy and Air Force, shot down six Zero Battles in World War I and shot down 16 Japanese planes in total, and suddenly became a nationwide nemesis of Zero Battles, and Yun Xiangnan, Lei Shaobao, Liu Yu and others were also awarded the title of trump card.

If the first round of raids was a wonderful performance of shore-based air forces, then the Battle of the Ryukyus was a solo dance of the navy, which truly punctured the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese navy. After the war, the two countries declared victory at the same time, the Republic of China announced the sinking of 40 warships, including battleships and aircraft carriers, and destroyed 800 aircraft, while the Japanese even claimed to have sunk four Chinese battleships and four aircraft carriers, destroying the main force of the Nanyang Fleet. During the day's fighting, Zhanjiang, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou were also bombed by Philippine Japanese planes, and because the radar and air defense were well prepared, most of the Japanese bombers were intercepted, and only a small number of bombs were dropped, and they did not cause much damage.

After getting Yang Guochang's battle report, Yang Qiu was in a daze on the sofa for a full hour. It was not because of the loss, but because of the loss of two aircraft carriers, the Navy had only three fleet aircraft carriers left to use (the escort aircraft carriers were very flawed in use because of their speed and protection). After Yaman-goroku returned, the Japanese Navy already had four fleet aircraft carriers in the Ryukyu waters, and Rabaul's Shuanghe was also on his way back.

What's worse is that due to the sinking of the Sichuan, the Guizhou needs to be overhauled, and whether or not he can successfully take Guam and hold it has suddenly become a problem for him