At this time, because neither the reconnaissance aircraft nor the reconnaissance submarine had sent back clear information, Morikawa was already a little restless. All the ships in the raiding fleet were not equipped with air defense radars, which made them almost deaf and helpless when facing air attacks. The blind man, until the dense black dots appeared in the lookout soldier's field of vision, the Min-02 and Min-03 submarines remained on the water at this time, and the shrill alarm sounded, which immediately reached his ears, "Nanni ." He was asking the men next to him with a dark expression when an anxious voice sounded from the loudspeaker in the command cabin: "Colonel Morikawa, air strike, the Chinese fighter jets are rushing towards us, the Kaohsiung is requesting a combat order."
Morikawa's face instantly turned pale, he picked up the microphone and shouted: "I am Morikawa Kobayashi, Goto-kun, enter air defense operations immediately, everyone pay attention, enter air defense operations immediately, Goto-kun, please report the number of enemy aircraft." Use There is no precedent in world naval history for a submarine to be the flagship of a mixed fleet. It was Koizumi Toshiichiro's idea that Morikawa insisted on using the Toshi 02 submarine as the flagship. Although Morikawa had objections at the time, he did not refuse in person. Now he has tasted it. It was a bitter pill. Living in the bridge of the submarine greatly affected his vision. As a result, he was unable to obtain the situation of the incoming enemy aircraft group immediately, so he could only rely on the captain of the heavy cruiser Kaohsiung. Goto Ichiro,
"The number is no less than fifty, and there are a large number of torpedo planes. Colonel Morikawa, we need reinforcements from the aviation force." Goto shouted hoarsely on the walkie-talkie,
A dense number of enemy planes swooped over, more than fifty in number. This made Ichiro Goto, who had rich practical experience, feel like he was trapped in an ice cellar. He had no aviation force and could only rely on a small number of anti-aircraft weapons. He knew very well what this meant. He called for support from the aviation force, but he did so subconsciously. The nearest land airport to them at this time was the Sandakan Airport in Malaysia, but even if the Army Aviation Force in Sandakan could take off immediately, it would take at least an hour. Arriving there, an hour later, they should all be dead at the bottom of the sea.
"No less than fifty." After hearing this number, any trace of luck in Morikawa's heart disappeared. He realized that the reconnaissance plane of the Pacific Fleet must have discovered them first and killed the reconnaissance plane he sent out. "Get ready to fight." "Quick, enter the combat position immediately."... The voices of the captains of each ship issuing combat orders came from the command channel. Morikawa gritted his teeth, his mind turned quickly, and he made a decision in a split second. He called Goto, gave him full authority to command surface ships to conduct air defense operations, and then ordered all submarines to dive immediately and leave the combat sea area, and set a rally point and time for them. Finally, he shouted to Goto through the walkie-talkie: "Goto-kun , I’ll leave this to you, please take it seriously.” After saying this, he gritted his teeth and ordered the captain of the Min-02 submarine to immediately organize a dive to escape from the combat sea area where the battle was about to take place.
The Min 02 submarine began to dive. Not only it, but nearly ten other submarines in the raiding fleet began to dive almost at the same time. When Lian Xiaosheng saw this scene, he felt anxious and immediately reported the discovery to Xu Sidong and asked for immediate help. Entering the battle, Xu Sidong did not agree to his request. As a joke, the weapons of the Baiji on the reconnaissance mission were only cannons and machine guns, which were not enough to cause damage to the Japanese submarines. On the contrary, they might be attacked by enemy anti-aircraft fire. If Therefore, the loss was an unnecessary loss. Xu Sidong felt a little regretful at this time, because the attack fleet was not equipped with depth bombs. If there were depth bombs at this time, when the Japanese submarine force was relatively concentrated, it would definitely be able to achieve twice the result with half the effort. The effect was regrettable, but it would not affect his normal combat deployment. He immediately ordered the bomber formation to attack, and at the same time prepared the torpedo aircraft formation to wait for an opportunity to attack when the enemy ship's anti-aircraft weapons were hit.
Thirty-six Tiger Shark medium bombers slowly dispersed and immediately entered the battle under the command of the group leader Feng Aokong. "Li Shengguo, you come first. Brothers, don't be nervous. Just treat it as a live-fire training." Feng Aokong shouted in the command channel,
His order immediately received a response from Li Shengguo. Li Shengguo is from Sichuan and speaks with a strong Sichuan flavor. He shouted: "Brothers, one battle will determine the outcome. Let the turtle sons of the Second and Third Squadrons watch the show and have confidence." No need."
"have."
"If you must, follow me and dive."
"Li Shengguo, the focus is on the submarine force." Feng Aokong reminded,
"Got it, the target is a Japanese submarine, brothers, don't let the idiot get away." Li Shengguo said as he had already piloted the aircraft into a dive, and his target was the Min-02 with only the bridge exposed on the sea. submarine,
The Japanese raiding fleet adopted a straight formation. Because of the value of the Min-01 submarine, the two submarines were protected by Goto Ichiro's Kaohsiung heavy cruiser and several destroyers in the middle. The Xuebing Army's attack group attacked from the southeast. , at an angle of thirty degrees to the direction of the raiding fleet, which allowed Ichiro Goto to easily determine the focus of the Li Shengguo squadron's attack, and determined that the attack targets of the twelve bombers were the Min-02 and Min-03 submarines. Fuji ordered the Kaohsiung to stop moving forward and turn into reverse, and then ordered the air defense weapons to open fire when the fleet dived to an altitude of about three thousand meters. The Kaohsiung's anti-aircraft weapons were modified into four twin-mounted 127 mm caliber and ten Two twin-mounted 25mm-caliber anti-aircraft guns, four of which are 127-mm-caliber twin-mounted anti-aircraft guns, have a maximum range of more than three thousand meters. They are a big threat to dive bombers like the Tiger Shark.
At the same time as the Kaohsiung's anti-aircraft weapons opened fire, another heavy cruiser and numerous destroyers also opened fire at the same time. Amidst the empty gunfire, the sound of booming explosions could be heard, and clouds of black smoke burst out among the fighters of Li Shengguo's squadron. Suddenly, Li Shengguo heard a violent explosion from the right side. He turned his head and saw a fire burning under the belly of the Tiger Shark piloted by Wang Shilin. Thick smoke billowed out, and the muscles on his face flashed. Twitching, he shouted: "Wang Shilin, Jiang Fangyou, parachute, parachute immediately."
Just after entering an altitude of about two thousand meters, a Tiger Shark was hit. This affected the mood of the HNA cadets. Many of them were stunned and even couldn't control the joystick. Li Shengguo was sensitive. When he noticed it, he immediately shouted on the walkie-talkie: "Brothers, hold on tight, we're about to drop the bomb, and it will sink the hell."
Walking through anti-aircraft fire was a severe practical test for the young naval aviation cadets. Fortunately, Li Shengguo was very calm. He shouted from time to time to stabilize the morale of the troops. Except for Wang Shilin and Jiang Fangyou, everyone else passed this practical test.