afterglow

Chapter 651: One-day Ace; Unprecedented Bloody Battle

One of the dive bombers from the other two squadrons was broken while the other was intact. The eight dive bombers from the Gou Chen attacked the Constellation (CV-16), all carrying 500kg armor-piercing bombs.

After the continuous explosions of 127mm conventional anti-aircraft shells in the air, 40mm high-explosive shells followed one after another as dense as popping beans, and countless Bofors anti-aircraft guns were firing fiercely.

Several Type 37 carrier-based bombers were shot down, turning into flaming meteors and falling into the sea, and even their formation was disrupted.

In the end, only four bombs were thrown at the Constellation, and four tall water columns splashed up in succession, reaching the same height as the bridge.

None of them hit the target! The closest one was dozens of meters away.

It is true that the pilots of the Gou Chen had received complete carrier-based aircraft training, but had they ever seen such a horrific scene before?

A rookie is a rookie after all. He has not been tempered by the fire of battle, and even if he has received professional training, he will inevitably be afraid.

No one is born with the experience of fighting on the battlefield. Everyone grows from a rookie to a veteran.

In a sense, the carrier-based aircraft pilots at the beginning of the war were very lucky because they started playing from the "easy" difficulty.

At that time, the U.S. military was still using the Browning 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun and the Chicago Piano 28mm anti-aircraft gun, a combination that was not very useful.

可现如今美军舰队防空体系已经迭代为厄利孔20㎜高射炮、博福斯40㎜高射炮、Mk12型127㎜高平两用炮、Mk37火控系统，这套组合相当强大。

In other words, the carrier-based aircraft pilots currently in service have to play the "Hell" difficulty level directly from the start, with no chance to familiarize themselves with the game from easy to difficult levels.

The last attack was carried out by seven dive bombers belonging to the USS Qiming, targeting the light aircraft carrier USS Independence.

The armor-piercing bomb dropped by the third plane was amazingly accurate, or it could be said to be extremely lucky, as it hit the bull's eye - the impact point of the warhead was exactly on the center axis of the flight deck, with a deviation of less than one centimeter.

The bomb caused many fires and blew up several boiler pipes. Hundreds of degrees of superheated steam shot out and spread, causing the surviving sailors in the engine room to let out blood-curdling screams.

Although the sixth plane did not achieve a direct hit, its bomb grazed the port side and fell into the sea, removing a large piece of paint in the process.

The power of the underwater explosion was greatly increased. The shock wave tore through the hull made of HTS structural steel and blew a hole between ribs 23 and 24. In an instant, a large amount of seawater poured in...

This time, the US military verified the huge role of fighter dispatchers for the first time. Each of the four aircraft carriers had a dispatcher, and the four were under the command of Captain Paul, the chief dispatcher of the Constellation, and used radar to instruct the fighter formations in the sky to go where they should go.

Before the war broke out, Paul was a securities broker working for a private stock advisory firm in New York and had excellent management skills.

The U.S. Navy believes that stock brokers are very suitable for this position. They usually have the ability to quickly read large amounts of data, then calculate the results in their minds and use them to decide the quantity and timing of buying and selling. They can remain calm and not panic when faced with a large amount of dazzling data.

The duties of a fighter dispatcher are essentially similar - obtain various data through radar and maps, then quickly calculate the speed difference, distance, flight time, and threat size between the enemy and our side, and finally instruct how many fighters to go to the designated airspace.

"The air raid is over. The Essex class was hit twice and the Independence class was hit once. The enemy fleet is resisting fiercely. The unit is returning."

The attack was completed and the surviving Ming army aircraft began to withdraw from the battle.

As the air defense systems of the Ming and American fleets became more complete, the combat losses of aircraft also increased sharply. At the beginning of the war, only a few aircraft might be lost in one attack, but now less than half can return.

第二波攻击编队出发时有44架俯冲轰炸机和40架战斗机，期间有2架飞机因机械故障返航，攻击完成以后只剩下19架俯冲轰炸机和25架战斗机。

The Yuannian-type destroyer Haidongqing, which was carrying out the escort mission, performed well. The Ming army reported that it had shot down 18 Hellcats, while the US military registered the loss of 16 Hellcats.

The fleet returned under the setting sun, only to discover that the fleet had recently suffered an air attack. A medium-sized hole had been blown in the flight deck of the Gou Chen, which was still under repair.

However, the fuel tanks of the carrier-based aircraft belonging to the Gou Chen had run out, so they could only be temporarily recovered with the assistance of the Tianshu.

Landing at night was already difficult, not to mention that it was the first time to land on the Tianshu, which led to two landing accidents.

When the Ming army's second wave of attack formation went to attack TF-58.1, TF-58.2 and TF-58.3 jointly released a large-scale fleet.

Because the Indomitable had a limited number of carrier-based aircraft, and they were British-made aircraft, unlike the Glorious which was equipped with American-made aircraft, it did not participate in the war.

In fact, it was a strike group composed of carrier-based aircraft launched from the Glorious, Bunker Hill, Enterprise, Saratoga, Cosburn, and Monterey, with a total of 99 dive bombers, 92 fighters, and 34 torpedo bombers.

This is the first time in history that a carrier-based aircraft strike group of this size has been established, with more than 200 aircraft.

Such a large fleet is enough to destroy several aircraft carriers. Fortunately, the Ming fleet had more warning time because of the Cormorant 28. If it only relied on the Tianshu's warning radar, it would only have half an hour to react. The unexpected discovery made by the Cormorant 28 increased this time to nearly one hour.

The First Air Strike Squadron also launched a large number of fighter jets to assist in the interception, and more than a dozen warships of the bombardment fleet also approached the Second Air Strike Squadron at the fastest speed to provide protection.

A total of 86 Saker Falcons participated in the interception, facing a massive 225 US aircraft.

During the fierce battle, some people became "ace of the day". The Tianshu did not have full combat capability and only brought 12 fighters to perform alert patrol missions. Warrant Officer pilot Deng He shot down one F1F Hellcat and five TBF Avenger torpedo planes within an hour and a half.

Deng He piloted a Saker Falcon and fought with a Hellcat, eventually shooting it down. His own plane was also damaged. After he withdrew from the battle, he found that his plane was relatively stable, so he rushed towards a team of low-flying Avengers nearby. Due to limited ammunition, he deliberately attacked from the side every time, aiming at the target cockpit and firing.

The Ming Army Air Force prefers the ballistic characteristics of weapons. Whether it is a 12.8mm machine gun, a 14.4mm machine gun, or a 25.6mm machine gun, the common points are fast initial velocity, high kinetic energy, and straight trajectory, which makes it very easy to use.

However, as the threat from heavy bombers intensified, the Ming army had to consider re-unifying its aviation guns and artillery, replacing the various guns currently in service with 20.8mm and 32mm machine guns.

In the process of resisting the air raid, the Bauhinia, Lilac and Hibiscus went on a killing spree, and the three anti-aircraft cruisers shot down a total of 15 US aircraft; the Yuanxing battlecruiser was not to be outdone, consuming 743 128mm shells, 9002 38.4mm shells, and 1.05 20.8mm shells, and shot down 4 US aircraft, ranking second.

The Yongle battleship was accidentally hit by unidentified friendly fire and its bridge was hit by bullets, suspected to be a ricochet after its own shells hit the sea surface at a very small angle of incidence, resulting in one death and eight injuries.

Only a few American torpedo planes had the opportunity to drop torpedoes, but none of them hit the target. Compared with the clumsy and slow torpedo planes, the penetration rate of dive bombers is much higher.

Six SB2C Helldivers and three SBD Dreadnoughts attacked the Enlightenment, hitting it with one 1600-pound heavy armor-piercing bomb (which penetrated) and one 1000-pound armor-piercing bomb (which did not penetrate).

In addition to the largest and most conspicuous Qiming, the Tianshu was hit by a 1000-pound armor-piercing bomb (which did not penetrate), the Gouchen was hit by two 1000-pound armor-piercing bombs (which penetrated), and the Kaihuang was damaged by multiple near misses.

The flight deck armor of the Ming army's armored aircraft carrier was 96mm thick. The American 1000-pound armor-piercing bombs could only penetrate it if dropped from an altitude of 1100m. However, the hit rate at this altitude was low. Usually, a considerable hit rate would be achieved when dropping bombs at an altitude of 500 to 800m, and bombs dropped from low altitudes could not penetrate it.

【Picture】

It was late at night, and the bright moon like a white jade plate was in the center of the starry sky.

Inside the bridge of the Chang Gung, although Ouyang Zhanghua looked calm and composed, he had no appetite for dinner.

"Report!" The communications officer, a major, strode over and reported with a fist clasped, "Commander-in-chief, the 99th Fleet has just passed waypoint No. 2 and will be able to reunite with us in the second half of the night."

"Okay." Ouyang Zhanghua nodded, took out his pocket watch and looked at it, and said calmly: "Come on, we can get ready. Be alert."

It is imperative to conserve energy during breaks between battles. This is true for both humans and warships.

The Ming army fleet began to change its formation and prepare for refueling operations at sea.

The naval battle here has been going on for two days and one night. The Type 99 Air Attack Fleet acting as bait in the south will certainly not continue to stay within the combat radius of the Hawaiian shore-based aviation force. In fact, they had already slipped away yesterday.

The U.S. military's shore-based aviation in Hawaii launched four attacks on the decoy fleet, sinking the escort carrier Yanping, seriously damaging the escort carrier Zhending, seriously damaging the armored aircraft carrier Ziwei Youyuan, and slightly damaging the anti-aircraft cruiser Haitang.

The Ming army's shore-based aviation and decoy fleet also sank the escort carrier Saint-Lô and caused some damage to ground facilities.

Although the Ming army's carrier-based fighter Haidongqing was not inferior to the Hellcat, it was at a disadvantage against the Corsairs and Mustangs. Therefore, the decoy fleet suffered heavy losses and lost dozens of crew members.

The severely damaged Zhending and Ziwei Youyuan returned under the escort of five destroyers, and the remaining warships of the Bingzi 99th Air Attack Fleet quickly headed north to support the main battlefield.

Based on the battle report of the attack aircraft group, Ouyang Zhanghua judged that the two US aircraft carriers had been damaged, and he decided to wait until dawn and fight another day.

The confusion between TF-58.2 and TF-58.3 affected the judgment of the Ming army generals. They mistakenly believed that there was another US fleet lurking in the dark and not exposed. This non-existent fleet made the Ming army too fearful and cautious.

Otherwise, the Ming army could have organized a larger-scale attack formation instead of sending out only half of it at a time.

In the second half of the night, the Ziwei Zuoyuan, Beiluo Shimen and several screen ships joined the main fleet.

At about the same time, after nearly ten hours of fighting, the first Independence-class light aircraft carrier, the USS Independence, lost control of its internal fire and was forced to abandon the ship. The destroyer then fired a torpedo to sink it.

10月15日拂晓，明美两军在黎明时分很默契的派出侦察机进行搜索，分别在8：45和9：13发现对方。

The Ming army launched as many carrier-based aircraft as possible while ensuring the voyage, forming a strike group of nearly two hundred aircraft.

The air battle was extremely fierce. The Ming army planes tried desperately to break through, while the American army planes tried their best to block them.

The sky was filled with clouds of smoke from anti-aircraft shells and countless tracer bullets. Every minute, an airplane turned into a fireball and fell, trailing black smoke.

The Washington Post reporter and photographer on board carried a rare color camera and shot four clips using expensive Kodak color film.

More than thirty Ming army dive bombers broke through the heavy obstruction of American fighter planes and rushed towards the TF-58.1 task force in a wheel formation. Then more than a dozen of them were shot down by the three layers of long, medium and short air defense fire nets.

Ten planes attacked the Yorktown. She had suffered serious damage yesterday and was still able to fight after emergency repairs. Today, she was hit again by three armor-piercing bombs, one of which was an unexploded dud.

Six other planes attacked the Constellation. Two of the bombs were near misses, and one bomb exploded in mid-air for unknown reasons, causing more than 40 casualties. There are many different opinions about the cause. Some people believe that it was hit by a shell fired by the Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun and detonated.

The last three planes also attacked the Constellation. The dive bomber piloted by Lieutenant Wan Zhangzong dropped its bomb at an extremely low altitude of less than 300 meters. It was hit by anti-aircraft guns the moment of dropping the bomb and lost control and crashed into the sea. It was a high-explosive bomb that did not penetrate the hangar deck armor, but exploded inside the hangar, causing dozens of casualties and starting a fire.

Near noon, strike groups launched by British and American aircraft carriers also launched air strikes on the Ming Army's First Air Strike Fleet.

The Taiwei Zuoyuan was hit by a 1000-pound conventional aerial bomb and was seriously damaged.

The Chang Gung was hit by three bullets, including one 1600-pound armor-piercing bomb (which penetrated), one 1000-pound armor-piercing bomb (which did not penetrate), and one 1000-pound conventional bomb (which did not penetrate), causing minor damage.

Up to this point, although the carrier-based aircraft of both sides suffered huge losses, they were still full of fighting spirit and had no intention of retreating.

The sea and air battle took place again in the afternoon, and both armies did their best to attack each other.

Due to the incompleteness of the fleet, both the size and coordination were significantly reduced, and the afternoon attack had little effect.

The Ming army dispatched more than 60 aircraft, but only half of them returned in the end. The result was that a killer bomb hit the Bunker Hill, causing serious damage to its wooden flight deck that could not be temporarily repaired. Commander Raymond Spruance was also injured and withdrew from the battle, and William Halsey took over the command.

The U.S. military dispatched more than 70 aircraft and suffered heavy losses. The only substantial result was an armor-piercing bomb that hit the Ziwei Zuoyuan. Although the Chang Gung was also hit by a heavy armor-piercing bomb, it was a dud.

"It is estimated that the Yorktown cannot be saved. It was hit by two 500-kilogram bombs yesterday and three more today." A staff officer recounted: "A submarine will arrive at midnight, and two more will arrive tomorrow morning."

"That's so cruel, commander-in-chief. Our unit can still fight, but we need several detachments to get together. It will take an extra half hour to assemble the formation, and the combat radius will be reduced by 100 kilometers." The captain of the Chang Gung carrier-based aircraft detachment was speaking, his face, neck, and arms were wrapped in bloody bandages.

Ouyang Zhanghua paced slowly beside him with an expressionless face, without saying a word.

(End of this chapter)