afterglow

Chapter 466 couldn’t even break through the defenses; where were the other two ships? !

At 14:46 local time, Yorktown's VB-5 squadron began to attack Ligong and Ziwei Zuoyuan.

The dense long-range anti-aircraft firepower actually broke up the US military fleet. This is the main role of large-caliber anti-aircraft guns.

The first round of attacks was led by Lieutenant Colonel Ives, with a total of three SB2U Defenders. The remaining aircraft were mixed up by artillery fire into several groups of twos and threes, about six or seven.

However, as soon as the aircraft piloted by Ives entered the dive, a 38.4㎜ anti-incendiary bomb hit the tail of the aircraft. The horrific explosion tore the right horizontal tail to shreds on the spot and tore a large hole in the fuselage.

"Boom!"

The unbalanced plane spun uncontrollably and fell downward at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters.

Ives tried his best to pull it up, but almost succeeded in the end. The unrecognizable SB2U Defiant had already had an upward trend a few seconds before it fell into the sea, and finally fell into the sea at a relatively small speed.

The violent impact stunned the rear-seat machine gunner on the spot, and Ives also felt that he had lost consciousness. It was not until seawater poured into the cockpit that he barely regained consciousness.

"Warner! Wake up! We have to get out of here..."

The water was up to his neck, and Lieutenant Colonel Ives had no time to pay attention to his unconscious partner. He began to pull the hatch cover hard to try to open it.

However, how can the deformed hatch cover be opened so easily?

One, two, three... The sea water has almost filled the interior of the aircraft, the buoyancy is almost non-existent, and the wreckage has begun to gradually sink.

Ives felt that he had reached the limit of holding his breath. He used his last strength to pull, but he was able to pull it open by a small amount.

He grabbed the survival kit and got out of the cockpit. He surfaced a few seconds later, breathing heavily.

At this moment, a plane roared past his head, only a dozen meters away from the sea.

"boom!!!"

A deafening explosion came from above, followed by rising black smoke.

The hit was made by the third plane, which dropped a 500-pound semi-armor-piercing bomb that landed on the rear flight deck of the Rikyu.

The huge air waves knocked the two Type 37 carrier-based destroyers flying out and fell into the sea.

Over the next four minutes, several more dive bombers attacked the Rikyu.

The second aerial bomb hit the top of the bridge without any bias, blowing up many optical equipment and pushing several lookout posts on the mast down, causing them to fall to death on the deck.

The third one missed and was a near miss.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth pieces are also all deviated, very different from each other.

The seventh bomb landed in the rear section, penetrated the flight deck and exploded in the hangar. Dozens of damage control team members had gathered here to control the fire caused by the previous bomb. As a result, half of the casualties were caused on the spot. Hangar No. 3 was almost covered with blood and broken limbs.

The next two missiles missed, and only caused high water jets to explode on both sides of the Rikyu.

The A-shaped bomb release rack of the last SB2U Defiant seemed to have malfunctioned. It did not release bombs, but fired wildly at the bridge from a small dive angle. A series of bullets crackled on the deck and buildings, and saw chips and sparks. Splatter.

But what it did was tantamount to committing suicide, and it was immediately destroyed by the powerful anti-aircraft firepower of the Ming warships, turning into a fireball and hitting the right side of the ship heavily.

"Boom!!!"

The three-ton aircraft was like a huge cannonball, and a huge mushroom cloud mixed with black and yellow rose into the air!

The shortcomings of the open hangar were thus reflected, and most of the aircraft wreckage rushed into Hangar No. 1.

The horrific impact caused the Ming army sailors to stagger, and the captain fell to the floor full of broken glass, covered in blood.

Warrant Officer Wei Ming, a trainee military doctor, took the risk and rushed out of the bridge. He took three steps at a time while carrying the medical kit, hoping to rescue the wounded who were shot on the deck.

What caught his eyes was an extremely tragic scene. There were all kinds of metal fragments and broken limbs everywhere on the deck. Puddles of blood were clearly visible. The dying wounded were struggling, and other people nearby were Calling for help anxiously...

At the same time, Ziwei Zuoyuanhao also suffered an equally violent attack.

Zhou Changfeng, like other officers, wore a steel helmet. He had witnessed dive bomber attacks many times, but this was the first time that he was the one being bombed.

The defenders of SB2U cannot compare with the famous SBD Dauntless. It usually only carries 500 pounds of aerial bombs. If it mounts 1000 pounds of aerial bombs, the combat radius will be too small to be seen, and it will take up a longer takeoff and rolling distance.

One after another, enemy planes were hit by 20.8mm or 38.4mm anti-personnel incendiary bombs, dragging black smoke and spinning uncontrollably into the sea.

"Ding-deng-deng-"

The anti-aircraft guns on both sides never stopped firing, but there were still lucky people who broke through the layers of fire nets and threw the bombs over.

"The bomb is coming..."

"Boom! Wow -"

It can be said that an aerial bomb missed the bridge, fell into the sea, set off a large group of spray, and showered the officers and soldiers on the platform outside the bridge.

Zhou Changfeng took a deep breath, but before he finished inhaling, he heard an increasingly sharp and harsh sound breaking through the air.

"Boom-boom!!!"

A flash of light suddenly appeared on the forward flight deck, and flying wood chips even hit the glass windows of the bridge.

The 500-pound semi-armor-piercing aerial bomb cannot penetrate the 64mm thick strong deck of the Ziweiyuan-class armored aircraft carrier. At best, it only makes a small dent in that place.

On the other hand, a large piece of the 48mm teak track was torn into pieces, but emergency repair was easy. All you had to do was put something on top and nail a thin steel plate.

The Ziwei Zuoyuan was attacked by nearly twenty enemy planes in a quarter of an hour, with a total of seven direct hits. The solid and powerful deck withstood the test without any serious damage.

All damaged areas on the deck can be repaired within two hours. The only regret is that the No. 2 elevator was blown up. This cannot be solved by the damage control team alone.

Boy! Nano aircraft carrier!

The attacks by US military aircraft have not stopped yet, and the belatedly arriving Raider fleet has also joined the battle.

VB-4 Squadron currently has 11 SB2U Defenders present, 5 of which were previously shot down or damaged and retreated.

Now they are divided into three, attacking Ziwei Zuoyuan, Fomalhaut and Ligong respectively.

The Rikyu was already severely damaged, and now the enemy planes attacking her continued to add salt to her wounds.

However, the thick smoke that gathered together and shot straight into the sky hindered the sight of the US pilots. The final result was one out of three.

After another roar, the Riggong had completely lost its original appearance. Flames were igniting from the inside to the outside, and the fire was getting out of control!

Most of the internal communication cables and sound pipes were burned, and more than half of the cabins were cut off from communication, and they could only use primitive human power to convey messages.

At the same time, Fomalhaut was also attacked by four enemy aircraft.

Unlike the previous bombings, which took turns one after another, the Raider fleet seemed to prefer concentrated raids?

The four SB2U Defenders, working in pairs, landed together, dived, dropped bombs, and executed a complete set of actions as smoothly as clouds and water.

Fomalhaut, which performed a large steering maneuver, tilted as much as 20°. The teacups in the dining room slipped and shattered on the floor, making a crisp clanking sound. She was lucky enough to escape the first three bombs, but the fourth 500-pound bomb hit the mid-deck.

At this moment, on the sea 83 kilometers south of Tarawa Atoll...

The ocean-going submarine No. 16 on the Vernal Equinox is sailing slowly on the sea. She ended her combat cruise mission three days ago and is preparing to return to Dagu.

She does not belong to the A-180 special agent fleet. The submariners only know that the main force of the navy will launch an offensive in the southwest Pacific region.

In the past two months, they cruised between the Fiji Islands and the Gilbert Islands and sank three merchant ships.

There are still a lot of torpedoes left, but three-quarters of the food reserves have been eaten. According to the regulations, we should return to the home port in time.

"Dagu can't compare to Guangzhou, but the girls in Guangzhou are really nourishing."

"Fart, it's obvious that the one with the drum is pretty."

"Don't say that. To be honest, as long as it's a woman, I think it's fine."

"Ha ha ha ha--"

The submariners inside the boat were chatting, while the three lookout posts standing on the top of the submarine's control tower were vigilantly observing the surrounding situation.

The price of slacking off is to die without a burial place and to sink forever into the unknown abyss!

After a while, one of the sailors held the telescope and said to himself: "Huh? That's..."

"What did you see?" someone else asked.

"There is a situation."

"what?!"

"Prepare for war!!!"

The electric bell dinged, and the chatter in the boat suddenly stopped. Everyone subconsciously ran to their posts, ready to dive in an emergency at any time.

The captain climbed the ladder to the top of the conning tower, and then ordered to speed up and turn to get closer to the discovered target.

The target discovered on the 31th of the Equinox B was none other than the TF- task force that the main force of the Ming Navy fleet was eagerly awaiting!

However, Equinox B 16 had left port several months ago and did not have the latest encrypted code book. The telegrams she sent were ignored by the fleet, but were received by Moresby and Guam, which were further away.

The Admiral's Mansion of the A-180 Special Agent Fleet in Guam also carefully verified the accuracy of this telegram. They were worried that it might be decoy information that would affect the judgment of frontline commanders, so a group of staff members pondered for a long time before deciding to send this message. The message was forwarded to inform the fleets at the front.

It took a full hour and thirteen minutes for this extremely important information to be handed over to Ouyang Zhanghua.

"His grandma is so cunning!"

Where was the US fleet before?

They were hiding due east of Tarawa Atoll. No wonder they were not found.

Zhou Changfeng didn't care whether it was an afterthought as an outsider. He said happily: "It's a good thing we separated those two ships before, otherwise it would be really difficult to deal with now."

Ouyang Zhanghua didn't mind, he just smiled and said with emotion: "We underestimated them, what about them? The same goes for them."

"Who is the enemy commander?" After Zhou Changfeng finished speaking, he murmured to himself: "It can't be Nimitz, right?"

"I don't know who the opponent is this time, but the most likely one is John Halsey." A lieutenant colonel staff member replied calmly.

"It's okay, let's see who is more cunning." Ouyang Zhanghua held up his military hat and ordered in a relaxed tone: "Send the order, Taizuo Taiyou immediately organizes an air strike to strike hard at the enemy aircraft carrier fleet. Be sure to Hit them hard in one fell swoop and don’t let down the public’s expectations.”

The main force of the second formation is temporarily unable to carry out the attack.

Ziwei Zuoyuan still needs another hour to repair the deck damage; Fomalhaut Division's mid-section flight deck was blasted with a large hole, making it impossible for carrier-based aircraft to take off and land.

The Ziwei Youyuan and Tiangang, which are safe and sound, need to continuously release and recover fighter jets to ensure that as many fighter jets as possible are on constant alert in the sky.

As for the Riggong, it had been abandoned forty minutes ago.

Her fire was completely out of control, and the flames engulfed every inch of space from the bow to the stern. Several main ammunition magazines had been filled with water, but there were still sporadic bombs and torpedoes exploding.

At 5:2 pm on February 17, the 40th year of Chang's reign, the second ship of the Fomalhaut Division light aircraft carrier, the Rikyu, was sunk by four torpedoes fired by the destroyer USS Aita.

Hundreds of lifeboats and kali rafts were filled with crew members. The bow of the aircraft carrier and a section of the flight deck were still exposed on the sea. It took another ten seconds to completely disappear. A large heavy oil stain spread on the sea.

The ship suffered 92 casualties, 24 missing, and 373 wounded. Many officers and soldiers inhaled toxic smoke or were burned while fighting the fire.

The sailors silently looked at the place where the Rikyong sank, and their hearts were filled with an indescribable feeling of depression - it was here that the Ming Navy lost its first aircraft carrier since the outbreak of the war.

What is happening now in the Gilbert Islands is a decisive battle unprecedented in human history.

In ancient times, boarding battles and gang-hopping battles were the mainstream. In modern times, the emergence of artillery has made the fighting distance slightly longer, but zero-distance gang-hopping battles still occur.

In the industrial age, in naval battles dominated by large ships and cannons, the fighting distance between the two sides was generally only a dozen kilometers, or at most dozens of kilometers, and each was within the visible distance of the other.

But be careful, things are no longer what they used to be. The fighting distance has been extended to more than 200 kilometers.

For naval battles in the era of large ships and huge cannons, even if one's side discovers the enemy first, the advantage one can occupy is not unilaterally overwhelming. Both sides will still use huge cannons to bombard each other.

But in the era of aircraft carriers, whoever can discover the other side first will have an unparalleled huge advantage. They have the opportunity to preemptively strike and kill with one strike. Both sides are like hunters wearing ghillie suits and sneaking in dense jungles with rifles.

When Ouyang Zhanghua's orders were fired into the ionosphere through electromagnetic waves, the TF-31 task force was preparing to welcome the triumphant warriors.

"Well done! God bless."

"Today is a good day and has taught those Chinese people a profound lesson!"

"This is just the beginning, the battle is not over yet, go back to your posts!"

"Yes, sir!"

The cheerful air traffic controller even asked people to ask the restaurant chef to prepare more food.

The attack formation has already appeared in the field of vision, and it will take more than ten minutes to fly over and land.

"The boys claimed they had six or seven bomb hits in total, and we're sure they severely damaged at least one enemy carrier and damaged another..."

The commander of the Saratoga's aviation group was reporting the latest news from the radio to Halsey.

The latter's expression was calm, but his expression changed instantly when he heard "only five enemy aircraft carriers were found."

He frowned and said eagerly: "Are they sure?! Where did the other two ships go?!"

(End of this chapter)