At 7:30 in the morning on April 10, a Ming Army twin-engine reconnaissance aircraft conducted an aerial search 300 kilometers southeast of Taiwan Island. The aircraft flew from Pingtung Airport in southern Taiwan and took off at dawn.
Several more planes took off together. These planes came out early in the morning to patrol, in order to search the waters around the entrance to the Western Pacific as carefully as possible before the Tianji squadron arrived, and to detect every Japanese ship in time.
The goal of the reconnaissance plane is to find Japanese aircraft carriers or battleships. Both of these are opponents that can pose a serious threat to the Ming fleet. But so far it has been going smoothly. No one on the radio has said that battleships and aircraft carriers have been discovered. At present, these
The reconnaissance plane only encountered a few Japanese seaplanes. The Japanese seaplanes were all single-engine carrier-based aircraft, and they obviously took off from large warships.
Both sides have no weapons, and the Japanese reconnaissance planes obviously want to get rid of the Ming army reconnaissance planes. But the Ming army reconnaissance planes know very well that as long as they follow each other, they can find the Japanese warships. The Japanese seaplanes are all carrier-based aircraft and are single-engine.
, the endurance is very limited. Once several Ming Army twin-engine land-based reconnaissance aircraft discovered the Japanese reconnaissance aircraft, they followed closely behind them. The seaplane was slow, and they tried their best to get rid of the land-based aircraft behind them, but they couldn't get rid of them.
.After spending more than an hour in the sky, we finally returned to the direction of the warship.
In this way, Ming army reconnaissance planes discovered three Japanese cruisers. At least two of them were "tracked" and found in this way.
As soon as the Ming Army reconnaissance plane appeared, the Japanese cruiser below immediately fired a salvo of artillery, and the clouds were suddenly filled with black cloud barrages. The Ming Army reconnaissance plane was not wordy, reported the position of the Japanese cruiser via radio, and turned around to leave.
…
At about nine o'clock in the morning, the Tianji Squadron passed the southern tip of Taiwan Island and entered the Western Pacific. The three Japanese cruisers were about 100 kilometers to the east. Now that the general location was known, the Tianji Squadron naturally did not want to
Let this first prey go. Although his mission is mainly reconnaissance, he will never let go of an enemy who knocks on the door and can deal with it.
The two aircraft carriers Tianji and Tianxuan began to launch combat aircraft groups. This time, half of the carrier-based aircraft took off, a group of bombers and a group of fighters. The remaining two groups of aircraft, except for one group of bombers, stayed on the ship.
In addition, half a brigade of fighter jets took off for reconnaissance and surveillance missions. The other half of the fighter brigade was originally on the ground to serve as a guard, but now they have landed back on the ship to replace and rest.
A fighter group and a bomber group were divided into three groups, flying towards the three Japanese cruisers in the east. Because the two Japanese aircraft carriers were not in the port recently and were probably wandering around the Western Pacific, the Ming army had to be careful. Even if the Japanese were not found
There are traces of the aircraft carrier, and the fleet heading for air strikes is still equipped with fighter escorts.
Twenty minutes later, the first fleet flew over the Japanese light cruiser "Naka" and immediately launched an air attack. Within the next ten minutes, the other two fleets also found the fleeing "Kinugasa" and "Ao" respectively.
An air strike was launched over "Yehao".
The Ming army used a mixed bombing squadron of dive bombers and torpedo bombers, plus a fighter squadron, a total of more than 30 aircraft to attack a cruiser. It should be said that the power disparity was very different. Moreover, the results were achieved quickly.
The light cruiser "Naka" was sunk, and the heavy cruiser "Kinugasa" was shot and wounded, with thick smoke billowing. It seemed that it would soon follow in the footsteps of the Naka. Although the Aoba had not yet been hit, it was still a matter of time.
At this moment, a terrifying voice came from the radio headset of the Ming army's fleet:
"...Abandon the current attack and return immediately...Abandon the current attack and return immediately...The fleet is under air attack..."
At this moment, the Ming army pilots who were fighting vigorously were all hairless, and a cold air ran straight down their spines. Without saying a word, the squadron leader immediately ordered to stop the attack, regroup, and return immediately.
The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty - not only the pilots sent out, but also the officers and soldiers on the fleet, were almost all confused. They didn't know where the large group of Japanese planes in the sky came from. The Japanese planes arrived for a long time.
Hundreds of dozens of them, half of them dive bombers and torpedo bombers, were surrounding the two Ming aircraft carriers and bombing them indiscriminately.
The two aircraft carriers are speeding up and performing S-shaped dodges on the sea surface. Water columns are rising and falling around them, and long snake-shaped white marks are trailed behind them. The Tianxuan has been hit by a bomb, and smoke is billowing on the deck. The damage control sailors are working on it.
Braving the hail of bullets, they dragged long pipes to spray water to extinguish the fire. An air battle was going on in the sky, but there was a huge disparity in power. The Ming army only had half of its fighter squadrons in the sky - the two fighter squadrons of the Tianji, and the two squadrons of the Tianxuan.
The fighter squadrons were originally cruising around and on alert. After the attack planes were dispatched, these two squadrons landed and rested. Now let alone taking off, they haven't even replenished their fuel. Besides, now the aircraft carrier has to avoid bombs and torpedoes.
In this situation, the carrier-based aircraft was unable to take off at all.
Now there is half a fleet of the Ming Army, with less than thirty fighter jets facing nearly three times the number of Japanese fighter jets. There is a tragic scene in the sky above the fleet. The planes of both sides are falling like dumplings, and there are planes dragging smoke everywhere.
From time to time, a plane crashed into pieces, and the wreckage jumped on the sea surface like water...
And just below, the situation was even more tragic. The Tianji was also hit by a bomb, and the Tianxuan had already been hit by two bombs. Half of the deck had become a sea of fire. The fighter jets parked above lay down in the sea of fire one after another.
, some directly dragged the flames into the sea in an S-shaped turn...
Suddenly there was a loud noise, and a huge water column rose up from the side of the Tianxuan, which was several stories high. Then the water poured down, and the Tianxuan's hull had tilted slightly to the left.
A torpedo hit the Tianxuan.
With the torpedo in the flank and the influx of seawater, Tianxuan's speed quickly slowed down, and it was no longer flexible to avoid turning. Immediately, the second torpedo also hit the port side of Tianxuan.
In the command tower of the flagship Tianji, the fleet commander looked at the thick smoke billowing in the distance and the half-tilt Tianxuan. He knew that the Tianxuan might not be saved.
However, this place is not far from Kaohsiung Port. As long as it can pass the current hurdle, as long as the Tianxuan can barely sink, it can allow the Tianji to tow the Tianxuan. Although it is much slower, it only takes one day and one night.
can enter the protective range of Taiwan's land-based fighter jets.
But at this moment, the third torpedo hit the Tianxuan again. The Tianxuan was already tilting at a very large angle. It was clear: in half an hour, the entire aircraft carrier would roll over.
A feeling of despair surged into his heart, and the fleet commander turned his head and ordered:
"Tell the Tianxuan that they can abandon the ship."
…
There were bombs falling like raindrops above our heads, torpedoes rushing straight towards us, and in the distance were the sailors of the Tianxuan jumping into the sea from the raging fire... The fleet commander continued to give steering orders in a deep voice while assessing the situation.
He judged how likely it was that the Tianji could escape from hell. In fact, like the officers and soldiers of the entire fleet, he still felt that he did not understand what was going on. The aircraft carrier formation of the Ming Navy has always been "victory".
Synonymous with "good sea battles", they have always sunk Japanese warships with ease. How come they suddenly fell to the point of being sunk by the Japanese today?
Finally, a large group of black spots flew in from the east. They were Ming army aircraft groups returning in a hurry - a group of fighter jets. There was also a group of bombers. After learning that the mothership had been attacked by an air attack, the leader ordered them to divert to Taiwan.
We landed at Pingtung Airport. Bombers have a long range and can fly there.
Now, the new force of this brigade has joined the battle group, and the fighting situation has quickly changed greatly. Although the Japanese army still has more fighter jets than the Ming army, the disparity is not that big at least. And with the superior performance of the Ming army's aircraft, with the Ming army's
Thanks to the superior skills of military pilots, the Ming army's fighter groups gradually recovered from the decline.
The Japanese bombers began to fall like dumplings. Soon, the Japanese bomber group retreated first and fled the war zone. After fighting for a while, the remaining Japanese fighter group felt that they could not take advantage, and one of them was seriously injured.
The Ming Army aircraft carriers were about to sink before their eyes, and they had already achieved remarkable results, so they all withdrew from the battle group and returned home.
The Ming army fleet was almost out of fuel at this time, and had no intention of pursuing them, so they all reluctantly landed on the Tianji. Half of the planes were too late to land and fell into the sea because they ran out of fuel. The six destroyers around them rushed non-stop.
Shuttle back and forth, salvage and rescue.
After holding on for another half an hour, the blazing Tianxuan finally rolled over. The fire was instantly extinguished by the sea water. A large amount of white gas jumped up from the sea surface, and the surrounding sea water boiled. It was hundreds of meters in radius.
There was a lot of oil floating on the sea surface.
The Tianji squadron received an order from the Nanjing Maritime General Staff: cancel the original plan and sail to the nearest Kaohsiung Port for rest.
…
At the Nanjing Ming Army Headquarters, there was also a state of consternation. The Tianji squadron was ambushed, the Tianxuan aircraft carrier sank, the Tianji was injured, and a large number of aircraft were lost... Such heavy losses have never been suffered by the navy since the beginning of the war.
. The whole sea ginseng was reflecting in astonishment, what is going on? Why is this happening?
The conference room was very quiet. No one spoke. There was only one staff officer pointing at the chart with a pole and analyzing it softly. Xiong Dingming bit his pencil and leaned on the back of the chair, listening almost in a daze - not knowing.
Is he listening?
The staff officer said carefully:
"...The distance from this sea area to any Japanese airport is very long, and it is definitely beyond the range of land-based aircraft. Therefore, in order to achieve this ambush, the Japanese army must use aircraft carriers. According to the battle report, the Japanese army has a very large number of aircraft.
It is about 130-150 aircraft, so the Japanese must have dispatched both the Akagi and Kaga aircraft carriers. Not only that, this number of aircraft must also be the carrier-based aircraft of the two aircraft carriers at once.
They were sent out in full force, leaving no backup, not even planes for reconnaissance and surveillance...
"Obviously, the Japanese are determined to win this time and must sink our aircraft carrier... To this end, they even put their only two aircraft carriers in an extremely dangerous situation: without aircraft protection, they will
It’s like we have no power, so we can only rely on concealment and luck..."
Xiang Xiaoqiang was also sitting at the conference table, with an extremely cold face, as ugly as the bottom of a pot. The aircraft carrier was his favorite and most valued thing, and now a quarter of it was sunk in one fell swoop!
However, when he heard this, he suddenly said "Oh" thoughtfully.
Xiang Xiaoqiang can be said to have a high status in the headquarters now. Even if he just made a few noises casually, the conference room fell silent and everyone looked at him. Xiong Dingming also looked at him and saw that he seemed to have remembered something, so he asked
road:
"Stand for it...?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang was startled, then nodded and said slowly:
"He who dares to take such a big risk, likes to gamble so much, and gambles very well, as far as I know, looks like a person's style..."
"Oh, which one is it?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang licked his lips and said:
"Undersecretary of the Japanese Navy, Isoroku Yamamoto."