The air defense siren blared shrilly, and the hearts of the Japanese soldiers who were washing on the troop transport suddenly accelerated. They ran to the cabin door and looked up, only to see densely packed fighter planes attacking. Many people were dumbfounded and turned to stone, while some people With a towel or something, they ran to the cabin, then carried their 38s and came out, loaded the bullets, pulled the bolt, and took aim. It wasn't until the crosshairs caught a fighter plane that they realized that the distance was so far. Far, the range of Sanba Gai is simply out of reach.
On the "Kinjiang Maru", Muto Akira was being served by his adjutant and put a towel soaked in hot water on his face. The air raid siren sounded. Muto Akira's heart jumped suddenly, he ripped off the towel on his face and ran out. ,
In the cabin next door, Fushima Futaro also ran out. The two of them looked up, and then roared at the same time: "Hakka."
Lieutenant Commander Toyoda Hideshima, the captain of the "Kinjiang Maru", hurried over with a few of his men. When he saw them, he stood at attention, nodded and bowed, and shouted: "Your Excellency, Commander, a large number of enemy planes have been spotted in the northwest, please give instructions."
"Convey air defense operations orders to all ships and order everyone in the 1st and 2nd Guards Divisions not to leave the cabin."
"Hai."
"Your Excellency, this is by no means an accident. I suspect that our time at sea was detected by the Chinese." Toyoshima said to Muto,
Muto wanted to scold "Nonsense, isn't this obvious?" However, thinking that we should be in the same boat at this moment, he suppressed his impatience and said: "Toyoshima-kun, now is not the time to discuss this. Now, we should dispatch the escort fleet to come. Protect large troop carriers."
"Yes, I'll do it."
Toyoshima went to the captain's room and conveyed Muto's order to Hideshima Toyoda, asking him to direct the signal troops to send semaphores to the ships of the convoy and summon them to protect the "Kinjiang Maru" and several other large troop transport ships. At the same time, he asked him to send electricity to "Soryu", asked Tsukahara to immediately take off fighter planes to meet the enemy.
They had just finished their arrangements, and the air battle had already begun in the sea area about three kilometers in front of the "Kinjiang Maru". The signal soldiers of the "Kinjiang Maru" waved the signal flag, and played the signal message over and over again, asking all the gunboats of the escort fleet to " The waters where the "Kinjiang Maru" is located are approaching. However, after almost ten minutes, not a single battleship has responded to its call. All the battleships are rushing towards the "Soryu" aircraft carrier. This makes Toshima extremely angry. He jumps to his feet and curses: "Tsukahara Er Sisan, this bastard, is really too arrogant, doesn’t he know his mission?”
The mission of the escort fleet is to protect the troop transport ship. Now, all the warships have escorted the "Sangryu" aircraft carrier. What is this? Toyoshima went to see Muto with a pale face and said: "Your Excellency, you have seen it. Not a single ship in the convoy obeyed the order, Ba Ge, which one is more important is the power of the ship or the life of the imperial army. These bastards of the combined fleet, if I can go back, I will sue them in a military court."
Although Muto Akira's face was also very ugly, his mood was much calmer than him. While watching the air battle not far away, he said: "No wonder they, the Chinese must be aware of the threat of the 'Canglong' aircraft carrier, so Taking this ship as the target of the first round of air strikes, has there been any information about the 'Wangshan' and 'Shinkawa Maru'?"
"Wangshan", "Nosikawa Maru" and "Kinjiang Maru" are the three ships with the largest tonnage and number of troops in the reinforcement fleet. Among them, in addition to "Kinjiang Maru", which has certain air defense capabilities, the other two ships Because they were originally just passenger ships and cruise ships, they had no air defense capability at all. These three ships carried a total of nearly 15,000 officers and soldiers. No wonder Muto Akira was so nervous about them.
"They have slowed down and are retreating to the rear of the fleet."
"Very good, tell them not to get too far away. Ships and fighter planes cannot compete in speed. If you want to escape this disaster, you have to rely on the performance of the escort fleet."
"knew."
Xue Changkong is still flying the Sky Fortress numbered 0008. Like the previous air strikes, this aircraft will play the role of an early warning aircraft and a command aircraft, flying over the battlefield. It has been confirmed that there is only one aircraft carrier, the "Canglong". Xue Changkong was condescending, and with the assistance of radar, he discovered that the small formation led by the enemy plane numbered 1003 posed the greatest threat to the fleet, and decisively ordered: "Zuo Anzhao, target, five enemy planes in the right front, shoot them down at all costs." Of."
Zuo Anzhao: "Yes, brothers, follow me."
The person piloting that 1003 was none other than Yamabekawa Sankan. Under his command, the six-machine formation he led was like a kite, pecking here and there, scattering the 12-machine formation led by Xiu Minghai. , which prevented the latter from taking full advantage of its numerical advantage, and instead lost three fighters in succession in the air battle.
In terms of pilot quality alone, the Japanese army was still superior. However, as Xue Changkong took a bird's-eye view of the battlefield and personally directed the entire battle, the advantage gained by Yamabe and others with their outstanding flying skills quickly disappeared.
The sacrifice of the Xiu Minghai Brigade bought Wang Hai time to suppress the group of aircraft waiting on the flight deck of the "Canglong". One after another, the Baiji dolphins dived down at the risk of being hit by anti-aircraft weapons. They first fired at the approaching aircraft. Several enemy planes were shot down one by one, and then they dropped the only two bombs they carried randomly. Five or six bombs exploded at the front of the flight deck. Although they failed to tear the flight deck apart, they severely deformed it and it was no longer possible. Maybe fighter planes will take off again,
A Falcon, controlled by a Japs named Yamane Dayun, rushed onto the deformed flight deck without believing in evil. Then, the speed it had just gained was suddenly slowed down, amidst the exclamations of dozens of Japs. , plunged into the rolling sea water,
"Stop, stop, take off from the back." Tsukahara 243 ignored the dissuasion of his men and appeared in front of the hangar. He waved his fist and shouted. Several fighters stopped awkwardly, turned around, and then headed towards the flight deck. Rush away at the end,
All the Japanese pilots were angered. The sinking of the "Akagi" and the sinking of the "Flying Dragon", the scenes of raging flames and billowing smoke kept replaying in their minds. They were really unwilling to let the "Canglong" follow suit. Following in their footsteps, a belief arose in their hearts, and they felt that they should do something to save the "Sangryu". Therefore, under Tsukahara's crazy command, even though they knew that taking off from the rear deck would probably result in crashing into the sea, they Still without hesitation, the aircraft rushed towards the rear deck, and then, amid the exclamations of many Japanese soldiers, like dumplings, one after another, the Falcons and Type 99s crashed into the sea, as if they were committing collective suicide.
"These Japs are so damn tough." Many trainees were shocked when they saw it.
"You're just looking for death." Xue Changkong sneered coldly. Under his command, several Baiji dolphins dived down. The rear deck of the "Canglong" was also hit by several bombs, and the flight deck completely lost its function.
The loss of the flight deck's function is tantamount to declaring that the "Sanglong" has been scrapped.