Shortly after the Hayabusa left, the faster Skuas arrived first and swooped down from the clouds to bombard. The eight 127-mm anti-aircraft guns on the Hiei were completely useless, and the timing fuses could not threaten small bombers at all because of poor ranging. And the defensive height of the 20-mm machine gun is almost just at the height of the Skua bomb. As for the 12.7 machine gun, although it was a lively fight, it did not reach the target at all.

Unlike the bomb dropped a day earlier, Captain Channing was already familiar with the cockpit and operating environment, and he swooped down, swooped down against the locust-like machine guns, successfully dropped at an altitude of 1.5 kilometers*, and then pulled off and walked away. It was hit once or twice, but the rough skin and thick flesh were one of the few advantages of the skua, and although the plane once pulled up black smoke, the self-sealing fuel tank quickly worked, and the fire was extinguished by the strong air flow in the second dive. During this time, the rear-seat machine gunner saw the 500-pound* fall near the No. 2 turret in the bow and explode.

The planes came from behind and dropped bombs one after another, and the luck seemed to be sucked away by Chanin, and none of them hit directly, and there were only a few close misses. However, in addition to billowing smoke, the hit turret also raised fireballs from time to time, apparently causing a series of explosions.

The black smoke obscured the view of one side of the gun emplacement, so that the bombers flying close to the sea level were not detected at the first time, and all the gun emplacements were still chasing the dive bombers fleeing south. For the * aircraft that are quietly approaching, they can still aim at the silhouette of the giant ship through the smoke. Although there is also some interference with accuracy.

The planes dropped at close range without fire, and then turned and slipped away, never a single shell was fired at them.

The accuracy of this attack was close to the level of the exercise, with 4 shots and 2 hits. Although the Aviation* was less powerful, Hiei happened to be a slightly weaker battlecruiser with a slightly weaker defense. * A huge opening was torn in the side of the side, which caused the hull to begin to roll around. Then 10 P38 fighter-bombers arrived to replenish their guns. This fighter carries a larger amount than the Skuas, but it cannot carry out very accurate dive bombing. However, once the enemy's air defense capability is reduced, they can use the length of the battleship to compensate for the error and carry out horizontal bombing.

Seeing the escort fighters approaching from a distance, the planes ventured over the axis of the battleship, dropped several 227-kilogram attacks* in volley, and then accelerated to escape. Although it was a horizontal bombing, the 222-meter-long giant target on the table still had a high 10% hit rate, and three were hit in front and back.

The Hiei was hit in succession and inevitably began to flood, barely maintaining buoyancy by the afternoon, but with a 30° roll. Most of the weapons on the deck surface were destroyed, and the rest were difficult to shoot because of the unstable inclination of the station, and the fire on the ship was never completely extinguished, and the fuel and ammunition compartments caught fire one after another.

The second T-class submarine, the Tuna, approached from below the surface of the sea, chasing the black smoke from afar, and found that the enemy ship had lost power and had no escort. The captain estimated that if he didn't do it, the ship would sink itself within 10 hours. So he steered the submarine closer, and from a distance of 1 km, fired 6* at Hiei, four of which hit, and the attack was devastating, and the giant ship could no longer escape its fate. Arima Dasa ordered to abandon ship. Since the beginning of the war, the Japanese finally lost their first battleship.

North of Calcutta, Zhou Youfu's tank and mechanized units quickly moved to the rear of the enemy's main positions. This was a speed that the Japanese infantry, who relied entirely on foot and horse-pulled, could not adapt.

When the tanks arrived, the 18th Division Engineer Wing was digging fortifications. Bai Qi's original plan was to fight and withdraw step by step, dragging the war into the rhythm he wanted. This strategy was very successful for a time, almost holding Zhou Youfu's nose and making the mechanized power of the 200th Division invisible. But now that it has broken down, it naturally has to be repaid twice.

Bai Qi's command did not notify the transfer of the engineer troops in time when the situation was in a mess, and he lost his cool, expecting that the 200th Division would kill all the way to his headquarters.

Of course, Chu Tingchang is not so crazy, what he wants is to annihilate the enemy outside the city.

The Stewart tank emerged from behind the enemy flank and strafed at the enemy with shovels and pickaxes, and soon the half-track arrived and joined the battle with a 12.7mm machine gun. The enemy hurriedly counterattacked, not to mention that there were no anti-tank weapons, half of them did not even have rifles, where was the opponent. It was quickly dispersed. The troops pushed over from behind. It was found that there were hundreds of war horses scattered behind the small hill, and these cattle were transported from Manchuria all the way with the Isono troops, because they lost fat during the transportation and could not participate in the war.

The tank troops, anticipating the Isono troops in front of them, quickly dispersed the horses, and ran into a patchwork reinforced company of the Isono troops, who had discovered that something was wrong and was about to slip away. Many of them were still wounded, and they were simply bandaged and rushed back to fight. Bai Qi now wants to break one person into two, where does it matter if they live or die.

The poor tank arrived first and took up a good position in the firing range. The enemy was completely exposed, blocked and retreated, and all the shots were fired. The Nanhai detachment in the rear found that the situation was not good and hurriedly fled to the eastern position. Zhou Youfu's frontal attacking troops, a charge broke through the position and joined the tanks.

Chu Tingchang's follow-up reinforcements came one after another, and he could only hand over the four newly arrived recruit battalions to Zhou Youfu and Tao Mingzhang for the time being, because the battle for the remnants of the 18th Division in the rear had not yet been resolved.

If you look at the map alone, this operation is almost a battle commanded by a layman, with troops everywhere and no focus at all, but in fact, the 200th Division won every battle on the chaotic battlefield.

Tao Mingzhang successfully blocked the attack of the 2nd Division on the battlefield. Chu Tingchang's choice of blocking positions was all suitable for the development of firepower, and the Japanese found that the situation was not good, and decided to postpone the attack, but as soon as they got out of contact, the screaming shells could still fall on their heads.

Chu Tingchang once again repeated the old trick and sent a reconnaissance unit directly under the division to reconnoitre, of course, it was only a pretense, he took over the artillery after Tao Mingzhang's troops separated from the enemy, and still kept shooting, and the enemy was dizzy. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong.

In the sea, 419 continued to simulate the Japanese signal, revealing to the British that there were about to be support ships to rescue the sailors of the Hiei, and of course deliberately leaking the channel. The Royal Air Force became more and more courageous, and many flew over the Hiei, spotted planes that had no chance to drop bombs, and began to search for the enemy fleet. It was soon discovered that two unlucky transport ships were nearby, but they were still spotted despite their strict radio silence all the way. The Air Force dropped bombs and easily sank them.

By this point in the battle, the Japanese naval reinforcements in the East Indies had been largely cut off, and signs of defeat on land had been revealed. If Kolkata and Chittagong were abandoned at this time and the forces were to be brought together, there would still be a chance to follow the coastline all the way south and slowly retreat back to Burma. But Kimura, who was in command in Burma, had lost his composure, and he had already sent telegrams to his troops asking to stay in the port for reinforcements, but he no longer had absolute air supremacy and enough transport ships to ensure sea transportation, and in the past ten days, the army had lost 25 transport ships in the Bay of Bengal. The past 24 hours have also proved that the 5th Flying Division's operations across the sea with the British Royal Air Force completely outweigh the losses, and the British have greatly improved both in terms of maturity in the use of radar and in terms of self-confidence.

Chu Tingchang did not forget to send a telegram to Sun Liren to give him some advice, reminding him to pay attention to the Gornopuri River on the south side of Chittagong, saying that it was a divination and a hexagram, and that it was the death den of the Japanese, and as long as he occupied the small town of Milapur on the north bank, the enemy would be doomed.

Sun Liren happened to notice this key node that could close the enemy's escape back to Burma a few hours earlier, and was about to send a telegram to exchange views with Stilwell. His anger is not unreasonable, this place was obviously discovered by him, but it was said by Chu Tingchang, I am afraid that in the future, that guy will be publicized outside, saying that it is appropriate for him to teach him face-to-face, after all, he has a telegram to rely on.

Zhou Youfu cleared the north of Calcutta and waited for reinforcements to prepare for the attack. His scouts reported that the enemy was carrying out a blast on the street ahead. He didn't know what was going on, so he hurriedly stepped forward to take a look in person. It was found that the enemy was not destroying buildings indiscriminately, but only blowing up some buildings along the main street, and a certain directional blasting method was used, causing the buildings to fall into the street, forming piles of rubble that hindered the attack. He had never seen such a formation, but it was easy to guess the intention, which was some kind of obstructive tactic against the attack of mechanized troops. It seems that the Japanese who defended this fortified city were by no means ordinary people, and they had very bright brains. He ordered the scouts to reconcon the rest of the offensive routes, and found that even the enemy, who had not lost their outlying positions, had abandoned their field positions and retreated into the city, and were still carrying out blasts to destroy the roads into the city. In addition, British aerial reconnaissance also found that the enemy had blown up the bridge over the Hooger River. It is equivalent to dividing Kolkata into two completely isolated areas. In other words, the possibility of the rapid occupation of the city by the Chinese army was basically completely eliminated. Zhou Youfu returned to the headquarters sullenly, unable to think of a plan.

"Why is this dog day so insidious? If you catch him, you must have skinned him alive. ”

He had nothing to do, and it seemed that there was no other way but to storm it. He was about to send a report to Chu Tingchang, and he heard the noise outside, as if the reinforcements had arrived first, he thought it was just 2 new barracks, but it didn't sound right, it was clearly a tracked vehicle approaching. He hurried out and found a large trolley full of sandbags and machine guns.

A company commander ran over to report to him, bringing with him the order of Ting Commander Chu. He opened it to see that he wanted to give up the illusion of a quick capture of Calcutta and prepare for a street-by-street and house-by-house fight. The order was accompanied by the new tactics brought by Chu Tingchang, which called for bulldozer advance, with infantry following behind, in two groups, each marching along one side of the street, each side only watching the opposite window. Rear tanks pressed into formation, at a distance, large enough to play high and low shots, to monitor the enemy on buildings. When clearing a street, it is necessary to monitor the nearby street with heavy fire to prevent enemy support or evacuation.