Twenty-six Aerial Fortresses rushed out with great force. When they all turned on their horsepower to the maximum and began to lower their flying altitude, Zhang Xiaolin endured it again and again but could not hold it back anymore. He gritted his teeth and shouted: "Each aircraft reports its fuel inventory."
After a while, "Zizzi..." There was only the sound of electricity but no human voice. Zhang Xiaolin knew everything. He closed and opened his eyes again, took a long breath, and said to the dispatcher on the side: "Is it connected?"
"Already connected."
"Connect."
"Yes." Zhang Xiaolin wanted to connect to the radio of the commander of the HNA force who came to assist him.
The commander of the first batch of support mixed battle groups of the Songzu aircraft carrier fleet was named Zhao Qianjin. After the call was connected and the two parties confirmed their identities, Zhang Xiaolin said: "Captain Zhao, the rest is up to you."
Zhao Qianjin had paid attention to the Naval Battle of Guam before, so it had been more than an hour and a half until he saw the flying fortress stranded on the battlefield. As an experienced pilot with more than 3,000 hours of flying time, he certainly understood what this meant, but he did not expect it. The battle was actually so brutal, and once he thought about how many air fortresses would fall at sea due to exhaustion of fuel in this battle, he was infected by Zhang Xiaolin's fighting will, and he immediately replied respectfully: "General Zhang, Don't worry, the Americans can't take Guam, I assure you as a member of the Chinese National Unity Party."
The concentrated bombing of twenty-six flying fortresses was quite destructive. After the last round of bombing by the Chinese flying fortress cluster, six US destroyers were directly sunk, and several other destroyers and two heavy cruisers were damaged. Severe damage. Compared with the losses of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the losses of the Aerial Fortress Group can be described as minimal. Only one Aerial Fortress was shot down on the spot, and another eleven Aerial Fortresses suffered some damage. Of course, if these two Aerial Fortresses are taken into account, In the end, only three of the sixteen Flying Fortresses landed at Kaohsiung Airport, another six made an emergency landing in the waters near Taiwan Island, and the others sank into the vast Pacific Ocean. The price China paid was also huge.
In Chongqing, Ouyang Yun received a telegram from Tielin Fei very late, and he learned that only a quarter of the flying fortress that went on the expedition returned safely, and only one-third of the air force officers and soldiers who participated in the battle were seriously injured. At that time, he threw the cup and kept asking why this was the result, and what was the meaning of such a victory. He would rather not have this kind of victory that was obtained by sacrificing a large number of pilots...
Ouyang Yun's emphasis on the Air Force, especially the safety of pilots' lives, has been clearly revealed since the early days of the Air Force. Otherwise, he would not have said that pilots could choose to surrender in an emergency to ensure their own safety. words, and the Ningbo rescue was the concrete embodiment of his concept.
In the Battle of Guam, after the Chinese aircraft carrier Song Zu fleet promptly supported Guam, the outcome was no longer in suspense. However, although the battle ended with China's victory over the US Pacific Fleet and the destruction of the entire fleet, because China Too many air fortresses and too many pilots were lost in the battle. Therefore, it was a long time after the Battle of Guam that the Supreme Command made the decision to reward the front-line troops and officers and soldiers who participated in the war. This was beyond everyone's expectations. Unfortunately, as the major project of this battle, Zhang Xiaolin, the front-line commander of the Air Fortress Cluster, not only did not receive a commendation, but was also transferred back to the Central Air Force Academy soon after. This was a very promising young general like Zhang Xiaolin. , there is really no more cruel punishment than this.
Whether Ouyang Yun was right or wrong in handling Zhang Xiaolin can only be left to later military historians to discuss. What is worth specifically pointing out is that because another US aircraft carrier was captured in the Battle of Guam, Huang Tianxun and Huang Tianxun His raiding fleet was immediately artificially exaggerated into a legend, and its popularity even overshadowed Chen Ce, Bai Chongxi and the Pacific Fleet.
Huang Tianxun and the others were able to capture the US aircraft carrier. As Huang Tianxun said in his "acceptance speech": I would like to especially thank General Li Mei, the commander of the US Pacific Fleet. It was precisely because Li Mei adjusted the fleet formation to include destroyers and heavy cruisers. The ships originally belonging to the aircraft carrier escort ships were organized into a separate group, which gave Huang Tianxun and others the opportunity to sneak attack on the US aircraft carrier.
"When we boarded the American aircraft carrier, we probably didn't expect that we would dare to launch a ship-seizing battle. The Americans who saw us were shocked. To be honest, I was very nervous before we decided to launch a ship-seizing battle. , one of our torpedo boats has only thirty-two people when it is fully loaded, and the number of people on an American aircraft carrier should be more than five hundred, but what I didn’t expect is that the Americans have no will to resist at all, haha, luck, luck." This is what Huang Tianxun said in an interview a few weeks later. From his words, it is not difficult to see that after feeling that they have been abandoned, the American officers and soldiers on the US aircraft carrier no longer have the desire to fight. .
Based on the facts, under the circumstances, Li Mei's decision was actually the right choice. However, he obviously overestimated the strength of his own Marine Corps. When the team was sent to the beach of Guam, he thought he was sure of victory, but the result was that the Marines of this division were driven back into the sea before they could hold out for half an hour. So, when he was ready to use intensive force again, When artillery fire bombarded the gate of Guam Island's defenders, Wang Feiming no longer gave him this chance.
There is a contest between the HNA force and the aircraft carrier Song Zu and the U.S. Pacific Fleet without the HNA force. Although the latter has three times the number of ships as the former, one side can dominate the enemy from a distance, while the other side cannot. They can only be beaten passively and have little power to fight back. The real combat power of both sides is actually inversely proportional to the number of their ships.
At the last moment of the battle, the stubborn Li Mei once thought of defeating the enemy, that is, he wanted to organize his gunboats to launch a counterattack. However, under the suppression of the Chinese naval forces, the American destroyers and heavy cruisers did not approach the Chinese ships at all. opportunity, so with the loss of more than twenty destroyers and five heavy cruisers, Li Mei, who had no choice but to surrender, had no choice but to surrender.
The surrender of the U.S. Pacific Fleet was the turning point of the Second Pacific Battle. News of the entire U.S. Pacific Fleet's destruction spread, which was tantamount to telling the Japanese that the sacrifice of their combined fleet was in vain. Not only that, after the U.S. Pacific Fleet was eliminated, , it can be said that China’s Pacific Fleet has no worries anymore. With one loss and one gain, the outcome of the Palau naval battle can naturally be imagined.