About forty minutes later, a squadron of fighter jets released by the Ming Army's aircraft carrier formation flew over the predetermined sea area. The fleet was divided into four four-plane formations and searched separately on the 160 kilometers wide sea between Taiwan Island and the Diaoyu Islands.
Soon, a four-machine formation discovered a cruising Japanese destroyer. The Japanese destroyer immediately launched artillery fire in the air. The Ming army aircraft group dodged the artillery fire, passed the destroyer, and continued to search. Soon, a ship was discovered more than ten nautical miles away.
A heavy cruiser. Almost at the same time,
The other three four-aircraft formations also discovered Japanese destroyers and another heavy cruiser. It seemed that the Japanese warships were fully dispersed in order to fully guard the entire strait. When the aircraft of each group were gathered together, there were a total of Japanese troops in this sea area.
Two heavy cruisers and four destroyers.
The pilot judged that of the two heavy cruisers, one should be the 10,341-ton Furutaka class, and the other should be the 14,743-ton Myoko class. The latter was definitely not the Myoko, because the Myoko was seriously injured in the Battle of the Sea of Japan. Then
It should be one of the three remaining ships of the Miao Superior.
After determining the specific location of the enemy ship, the Ming fighter jets returned. On the way back, a group of fighter jets encountered a Japanese reconnaissance plane. The Japanese reconnaissance plane was unable to escape and was shot down.
At this time, the Ming Army aircraft carrier formation 100 nautical miles away in the north received the report and began to release the first wave of attack aircraft.
The first wave of attack aircraft consisted of 64 fighter jets, 36 torpedo bombers, and 42 dive bombers. The large fleet of 142 aircraft roared over the vast sea, with glass covers shining in the harsh sunlight, heading toward the southeast.
Japanese warships rushed over.
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At this time, the Okinawa Naval Base had also received alerts from various ships, saying that Ming army fighter jets had appeared in the sky above them, and they should be carrier-based Kingfishers, with a total of one squadron. Immediately afterwards, Okinawa Airport received another
The reconnaissance plane called for help, saying that it had encountered four Ming army fighter jets and was being attacked. Then the signal disappeared.
As soon as the Japanese military staff contacted the report of "discovery of the Ming Army aircraft carrier formation" they had just received, they immediately concluded that this was an aircraft on the Ming Army aircraft carrier, and the other party was conducting reconnaissance on the Nachi squadron.
The commander-in-chief of the Okinawa base was sweating on his forehead and immediately sent a report to the Tokyo Naval Command Headquarters for instructions. If it were the Japanese Army, they would not ask for instructions first at this time. As soon as several staff officers gathered together, they started fighting immediately. However, the Japanese Navy still pays great attention to respecting superiors and subordinates.
Damn it. The encrypted telegram was sent to Tokyo, encrypted and decrypted, and then the Tokyo Naval Command sent the order over again in encrypted telegram, which was then encrypted and decrypted... Twenty minutes passed.
However, the Japanese army followed the traditional battleship naval battle command habit. In a traditional battleship naval battle, these twenty minutes can really be delayed. Because they only discovered the opponent's reconnaissance plane, and the opponent's fleet may still be far away.
In the traditional naval battle mode, this means that it will take at least several hours before the fleets of both sides come into contact and start fighting. In that case, it is necessary to spend twenty minutes communicating with the military headquarters.
But now the Ming army is an aircraft carrier formation, and its weapons are not cannons, but airplanes. Although the cannons are still a hundred nautical miles away, the airplanes arrived in half an hour. Of course, the Japanese commander in Okinawa also understood that it was an airplane, but at this moment his thinking was still stuck.
There is no way to get out of the traditional fleet combat method.
Okinawa is 500 kilometers away from this sea area, and the Ming army's fleet is only 180 kilometers away. Even if the Japanese aircraft take off now, the Ming army's fleet will still arrive 40-50 minutes early. These 40 to 50 minutes are enough to
The two heavy cruisers were destroyed one by one.
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The Ming army also expected that the Japanese army must have received an alert at this moment, and Japanese aircraft from the Okinawa base would also take off for reinforcements. The Nanjing Maritime General Staff also sent power to the Taiwan Naval Base and ordered the land-based aircraft at Taoyuan Airport to take off immediately to intercept the Japanese aircraft flying from Okinawa.
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Taiwan's naval base has two military ports and two military airports. The northern end is Keelung Port and Taoyuan Airport, and the southern end is Kaohsiung Port and Kaohsiung Airport. However, neither the Ming Army's Taiwan base nor the Japanese Army's Okinawa base has many aircraft stationed there.
, basically there are one group each of fighter planes and bombers, with only seventy or eighty aircraft. After receiving the order, the Taiwan base first dispatched two squadrons of fighter planes to fight, and the remaining half of the fighter planes were on standby.
Now in the southern part of the East China Sea, that is, in the wide sea area of several hundred kilometers between Okinawa and Taiwan, the Ming army's fighter jets have an absolute numerical advantage. The only fighter jets the Japanese army can send over is a brigade on the island of Okinawa. Apart from that,
The closest one is Japan’s local machine
Including the four aircraft carriers of the Japanese army, they are all staying at the home naval port. They are all hundreds of thousands of miles away. In addition to a fighter group on the island of Taiwan, the Ming army also has three fighter jets from the aircraft carrier formation.
Brigade. A total of four brigades against one Japanese brigade.
In normal times, the ratio of Ming and Japanese fighter aircraft in the southern part of the East China Sea is basically stable at 1:1. Now, because Xiang Xiaoqiang suddenly invested three large aircraft carriers, the ratio of Ming army's fighter aircraft has suddenly increased, and it is very difficult for the Japanese army.
Reached 4:1. Now available
He said that no matter what the Ming army did in the southern part of the East China Sea, it would be difficult for the Japanese army to stop it. This was exactly Xiang Xiaoqiang’s purpose. He wanted to use this earth-shattering "air-sea battle" to make everyone in Nanjing, from the emperor to the generals, have a profound
My impression - aircraft carriers should be used this way.
At this time, the order from the Tokyo Naval Command came, but it was very vague. The order did not mention the Hiei battleship, but only ordered the base to send aviation forces to fight the Ming army.
The commander of the Okinawa base was faced with a choice at this moment: Should he send all the forty fighter jets in the base to fight the Ming army's aircraft fleet? Or should he leave some of the fighter jets to protect the bomber group and search for the Ming army's aircraft carrier formation?
If they are all sent to fight against the Ming army's aircraft fleet, then this is obviously a battle with no guarantee of loss. The only difference is that the loss is large and the loss is small. Because there is no fighter protection, bombers cannot be sent out to find the Ming army aircraft carrier fleet. If
If a part of the fighter jets were to protect the bombers and go to the Ming army fleet, it would certainly be possible to sink the Ming army aircraft carrier, but the protection of the two own cruisers would be much weaker.
After a fierce struggle for several minutes, the Japanese commander finally resisted the temptation to "sink the Ming aircraft carrier" and ordered all fighter jets to take off to confront the Ming aircraft fleet.
However, he still couldn't figure out why the military headquarters did not mention dispatching the battleship Hiei. The Hiei was a fast battleship, its speed was not much slower than the Ming army's aircraft carrier, and its firepower was much stronger than the opponent's. In any case, as long as it was dispatched
, it will all be Ming Junhang
A huge threat to the mother formation. And as a battleship, its anti-aircraft firepower is much stronger than that of a cruiser. The Okinawa commander is still very confident in the Hiei's air defense capabilities. At night, the Ming army aircraft cannot take off, and there are even more battleships on the sea.
’s world.
After much thought, he sent a secret telegram to the Naval Command in Tokyo, requesting instructions to send the battleship Hiei out of the harbor for combat operations.
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At this moment, there was also a fierce dispute within the Naval Command in Tokyo. The core of the dispute was whether the Hiei should be sent to attack the Ming army's aircraft carrier formation.
Like the Ming Dynasty Navy, the Japanese Navy at this time was also a "cannon club", a world dominated by giant ship cannonists. What they argued about was not "whether battleships can defeat aircraft carriers", but "whether battleships' anti-aircraft firepower is really effective"
So strong" and so on, but:
——Are these three aircraft carriers the main force of the Ming army’s fleet?
In the eyes of these giant ship and artillery enthusiasts, a fleet composed purely of aircraft carriers is unbelievable, even weird. In a word: I have never heard of such a use of troops.
Many people tend to think that this aircraft carrier formation is just a decoy fleet of the Ming army. Its mission is to feign an attack and divert the tiger away from the mountain in order to lead the battleship Hiei to the southern end of the Ryukyu Islands. The real main force of the Ming army's fleet is probably a
The fleet with two battleships as its core will take the opportunity to break into the Pacific Ocean from the northern end of the Ryukyu Islands.
All these speculations stem from a deep-rooted concept: How can the main force in naval warfare be an aircraft carrier? It must be a battleship!