Under the hot sun, Lu Zhiyuan stood motionless in front of the lookout window of the commander tower of the Shandong aircraft carrier, as if he was completely ignoring the busy soldiers on the deck and the artillery with his head held high on the side-eared fork. The warship was sailing southeast at a speed of 18 knots. The three eagle dive bombers that had been released undoubtedly represent the first time he commanded such a new weapon!

"General, the five torpedo planes have been prepared. Are you ready to attack?"

The staff officer who hurried into the command room loudly reported that he had paused his somewhat disturbing thoughts. He waved his hand and said in a deep voice: "Don't be anxious, wait a little longer, we are not in a hurry to enter the battlefield!"

However, the first wave of Sima Jian's attack team has not returned yet, which made him feel uneasy. He raised his hand and looked at his watch. It was already 12:22. Because the aircraft carrier was about to sail in the wind and provide carrier-based aircraft to take off, it had to adjust its course and separate it from the main force of the large fleet. There were only six warships of the second destroyer team around him to provide protection, and the four battleship formations under Tang Town had disappeared at the sea and sky.

As the second of the first-generation domestic aircraft carrier, the Shandong aircraft carrier only carries 25 carrier-based aircraft. In fact, the Shandong will return to the Port of Manila in Luzon in August for pre-war maintenance, and will also carry the newly-entered e2 dive bomber and Yii torpedo attack aircraft of the Navy, and increase the number to the maximum load of 40.

However, the Americans' sudden action stranded the plan. In addition to escorting a large number of pilots trained at Guam base back to the country, the Shandong chose to join the fleet immediately to participate in the war. The missing dozens of fighter jets made Lu Zhiyuan feel helpless, but it gave him a little more confidence in winning. After the aircraft carrier was put into service, he devoted all his efforts to train. Isn't what he expects today's war test...

The whistling sea breeze was filled with a salty smell. Lu Zhiyuan touched his unshaven chin, but never put down his raised telescope. At this moment, a faint burst sound from the sky on the left immediately attracted his attention. First-class black smoke passed through the thick clouds and swept over the battleship with the rumbling sound of wind. The bright red five-star under the wing immediately attracted a lot of shouts from the Shandong.

When the Eagle dive bomber number 011 was steadily parked on the aircraft carrier deck, it brought news that Lu Zhiyuan felt a little sad. The first team captain Sima Jian's fighter plane crashed due to an engine failure. At the same time, the good news was that the US squadron, which became the aircraft carrier target in front, obviously did not have strong high-elevation air defense firepower. The acting team leader suggested another round of attack!

A few minutes later, the first team that had just landed and completed the supply was pushed into the taxi takeoff passage after replenishing a dive bomber. Lu Zhiyuan finally saw the second flight team jumping out of the clouds, the complete second flight team!

"Reported that aircraft No. 3 found three American destroyers 60 nautical miles northwest, heading towards our fleet. It is expected to contact the second outer destroyer team No. 033 in 40 minutes!"

Just as Lu Zhiyuan was preparing to issue a new combat order, a new situation suddenly appeared. This American destroyer formation was obviously affiliated with the large American fleet under Lieutenant General Abbot. After losing Tangzhen's main fleet, the other party must have not figured out the direction at first, but the Second Squadron of the United States was attacked by its own air strike, which was enough to attract the other party.

There are obviously two choices for my own choices. One is to let the destroyer No. 033 return immediately, get out of contact with the other party, and release several Harrier fighters to block the possible aerial reconnaissance of the Americans... It has shot down two reconnaissance aircraft of the US large fleet before, but it still cannot rule out that the opponent's battleship also carries other reconnaissance aircraft.

The second choice... He immediately drafted a telegram to inform the results and suggestions of the air strikes. The Tangzhen battleship formation, which was sailing at full speed to the combat waters! And he issued a new round of combat orders, "maintain the course, complete the supplement to the second and third bomber formations within 20 minutes, and order the first bomber team to take off again!"—

Lieutenant General Aber stood beside the chart of the command room of the battleship Utah battleship. He looked at the two surveying and mapping officers nervously mapping the current chaotic sea situation. The Chinese suddenly turned around and rushed to attack the Second Squadron, which was originally in an assisted position, and launched a round of air strikes that made him stunned.

For the US Navy, the aircraft carrier is actually not a news. After the Chinese built the first USS Jiangsu aircraft carrier, the Royal Navy followed suit to build the USS Athletics aircraft carrier. The US Navy also considered building a mothership, but although its country has the technology to build a mothership, it does not have the ability to build a supporting fighter.

The supply of aircraft mainly relies on Britain and France, but the rapid strikes of the Germans have now almost destroyed the industrial capacity of the French Republic, which directly led to the United States having to rush to launch the Thorpeves torpedo technology transferred from Britain, rather than purchasing it in large quantities from Britain and France. However, the East Coast factory that was just launched at the beginning of the year is currently unable to produce supporting fighter jets at all, let alone designing aircraft separately.

The "Cuckoo" torpedo attack aircraft to be equipped with its domestic aircraft carrier is from the UK's recent torpedo technology. The aircraft has undergone wing modifications to cooperate with the shipboard. It has an air weight of 1,000 kilograms and is equipped with an Mkii Viper Water-cooled Engine. It has a take-off weight of 1,780 kilograms, which is enough to mount a 450 kilogram and 18-inch Milli long-range attack torpedo on the abdomen of the aircraft.

However, after hanging a large bomb on his stomach, the speed of the Cuckoo torpedo attack aircraft dropped to only 170 kilometers per hour. For aircraft that were about to launch an attack from the flank of the warship, this was roughly equivalent to a torpedo boat with a speed of 100 knots. Faced with the current torpedo boat speed of nearly 40 knots, the torpedo attack without any protection is actually a crisp flying torpedo boat.

After the Royal Navy evaluated the effect of torpedo aircraft attacks, it actually did not recognize it. At least 20 aircraft were required to gather intensive attacks to achieve the effect of 5 torpedo boats. What's more, the attacks launched by the torpedo boats were launched according to the saturation attack theory launched by the Chinese more than ten years ago, and launched 10 at a time and two to three consecutive rounds. This required the slow and thin-skinned torpedo attacks to complete, and how large a formation would be enough to complete it.

Moreover, thin-skinned torpedo bombers must reach a distance of five or six hundred meters to launch torpedoes. In the face of the current Navy's large-aperture heavy machine guns and high-speed fire artillery, the Royal Navy's many exercises should not think that it is almost a death sentence...

Therefore, in the argument for the combat effectiveness of the Chinese navy, even the cautious Lieutenant General Aiber did not include this Chinese aircraft carrier as a key target. However, in fact, the terrible blow encountered by the second battleship formation, which was falling into the Chinese trap, was entirely due to their inability to resist the air strike.

Brigadier General Lucius sent a telegram that the Delaware battleship encountered three rounds of 15 Chinese bombers attacks. This kind of Chinese fighter jet that had never heard of and made a terrifying whine when descending could actually reach a distance of two or three hundred meters and then accurately drop bombs. What's even more amazing is that at this height, the Chinese fighter jets could also break through the dense firepower on the warships!

In fact, the so-called concept of intensive firepower of Brigadier General Lucius was almost never truly achieved during the entire raid. Almost all large-caliber weapons on the warship could not reach an elevation angle of more than 60 degrees. As for a small amount of light firepower, after being attacked by the first bomb, there were only a handful of combat personnel and officers on the deck of the battleship. After all, the battleships had never expected to rely on hand-held weapons to fight.

In three consecutive rounds of strikes, the USS Delaware battleship unexpectedly became the dog who was beaten to the water, and was hit with 6 bombs. Among them, among the three bombs hitting the central hull, two high-explosive bombs caused serious damage to the upper floors of the deck. The 10 5-inch secondary gun positions located under the deck of the battleship were severely damaged during the explosion and subsequent death explosions.

An armor-piercing bomb dropped by the third attack team successfully penetrated the horizontal armored belts of the two-layer cabin. After the explosion in the upper part of the bottom cabin, the blasting shrapnel damaged two of the 14 Balkirk boilers of the USS Delaware battleship and damaged some high-pressure steam pipelines, which caused 15% of the power loss of the warship. However, since the speed of the USS Delaware battleship was originally higher than the fleet navigation speed, this did not make Commodore Lucius feel worried.

However, the other two bombs hitting the main turret of the warship's head did not destroy the heavy armor of the main turret, but also caused amazing damage. The sight sight and direction mechanical control inside the C gun position were confirmed to be unrepairable. Although the bomb in the A gun position did not hit the turret, it drilled into the under turret from the turret and almost landed on the bullet-raising channel. This little difference made the A gun position lose the ability to supply ammunition after starting the run... More than 300 kilograms of shells and the same weight of **** are not difficult to solve by manpower.

Regarding this situation, Brigadier General Lucius had no choice but to propose to Lieutenant General Abel that he must immediately give up his plan to continue sailing westward to meet with the main fleet, otherwise, the Second Squadron would soon be knocked out of all its teeth and eventually become the target ship of the Chinese battleship group. After the telegram was sent, Lucius turned around and sailed southeast without waiting for a reply, and at the same time ordered three destroyers to sail southward, disrupting the Chinese's reconnaissance... (~^~)
Chapter completed!