Bright Sword: Heiyunzhai was closed at the beginning

Chapter 317 Chapter 318

On the vast sea, a reconnaissance plane swept across the sky.As the eyes of the 38th Task Force, scout pilot Sam has been doing this for several years, but it is not easy to catch the traces of the Little Devils fleet in the vast sea.

After all, the current progress in radar technology is not satisfactory, and everything must be seen through the eyes.This greatly reduces the reconnaissance efficiency of reconnaissance aircraft.

After all, the distance that a person's eyes can see is limited.

For Sam, his task is to find out the movement of the main force of the Little Devils Fifth Fleet Ozawa Fleet.

The Ozawa Fleet is now the absolute main force of the Little Devils United Fleet. He has four aircraft carriers and more than 100 fighters. In terms of combat effectiveness, he is the current main force of the Little Devils United Fleet.

The reconnaissance plane driven by Sam has an effective range of more than 2000 kilometers.He adopted a zigzag reconnaissance trajectory, with an east-to-west length of nearly 300km, and a north-south length of only about 10km each time, so as to ensure that there are no missed targets on the sea, so that every time he takes off, his reconnaissance range is as high as 18000 square kilometers.

Although this area is nothing compared to the sea, it can support a forward warning network of about [-] kilometers for the entire fleet through four or five reconnaissance planes. For the current fleet, this distance is not bad.

The naval aviation still has time to carry out reaction take-off operations, which is also the meaning of Sam's existence, even if they have a high probability of facing the air for reconnaissance every day.

But every reconnaissance pilot will complete his combat mission meticulously.No one knows better than them, if there is no warning, what is the scene when the enemy fleet appears over the aircraft carrier?
The tragedy at Pearl Harbor is vividly remembered.For Sam and the others, it is to try to avoid the recurrence of the Pearl Harbor tragedy.

Compared with the navy that has been sailing on the sea all year round, it is not easy to catch their traces.Many times, the two fleets are in a state of hide-and-seek on the ocean, and they pass by accidentally without knowing it.

If the Ozawa fleet is allowed to enter the sky above the Wright Gulf landing transport fleet, there is no doubt that it will be a great tragedy for the Allied Forces.

For a transport ship that lacks self-defense capabilities, it has no ability to counterattack when facing the attack group of the imp aircraft carrier.

This is why General Mike placed the No. 30 Task Force Eight and the 34 Task Force on the north to stop it. It is necessary to keep the Ozawa Fleet away from the landing force transport group in Wright Gulf.

But three days after the start of S-Day, the Allied large-scale transport fleet has begun to assemble in Leyte Gulf.

Of course, their movement did not escape the detection of the little devil's aerial reconnaissance plane.

收到了确切情报后小本子海军联合舰队司令丰田副武海军大将下达捷1号作战命令，小本子海军集结4艘航母、9艘战列舰、19艘巡洋舰和34艘驱逐舰和200架飞机投入莱特湾，准备一举粉碎盟军的登陆计划。

由于这一战美丽国海军准备充分，出动了高达12艘航母、18艘护航航母、12艘战列舰、24艘巡洋舰、141艘驱逐舰，1500架飞机投入莱特湾大海战。

Facing such an overwhelming force, Vice Admiral Toyoda had to play tactics, ordering Kurita Takeo's middle fleet to enter the San Bernardino Strait with 5 battleships and 7 cruisers, and directly rushed into Wright Bay to destroy the beautiful country's landing force.

The North Fleet of Ozawa Jisaburo used four aircraft carriers as bait to attract the 4rd Fleet of General Hal, the main force of the beautiful country, to stay away from Wright Gulf and keep it in the north, creating conditions for Awata's Central Fleet;
At the same time, the South Fleet of Nishimura Shoji and Shima Seihide entered the Surigao Strait as a surprise soldier, preparing to attack the beautiful country landing forces with Kurita Takeo's middle fleet on both sides!

The little devil's plan was good, but there were many mistakes and omissions in the implementation process. Under the command of Kurita Takeo, the middle fleet quickly entered Wright Gulf.

Unfortunately, the Ozawa fleet as a suspect has not been discovered yet, and the Awata fleet was discovered by the Allied submarine Archerfish just after it arrived in the waters west of Cape Palawan!
The Archerfish submarine quickly reported to its superiors that it had discovered the situation of the Japanese middle fleet, and then launched an attack.

Four torpedoes from the Archerfish submarine sank Kurita Takeo's flagship Atago heavy cruiser in one fell swoop. Kurita Takeo jumped into the sea and fled before the flagship sank. Fortunately, this little devil was lucky and was not sucked away by the sinking vortex, so he was lucky Fleeing to the battleship Yamato, Awata continued to command the battle with Yamato as the flagship, but this tragic experience cast a shadow over Awata.

With the successful ambush of the Allied submarine Archerfish, the Battle of Wright Gulf officially started.

The battle deviated from the plan of the Commander of the Joint Fleet of the Small Benzi Navy at the beginning-Ozawa's aircraft carrier formation was originally discovered as the main force of the suspect bait, and the Allied Forces have not found anything so far.

However, the Kurita Nakaji Fleet, which was originally the main force to raid the landing force, was discovered by Allied submarines due to some accidental reasons.

General Hal, commander of the Allied Third Fleet, did not take Kurita's attack lightly. He ordered the naval reconnaissance plane to report the details again.

Sam undertook this new task, and he flew along the target in the sea area provided by the Archerfish. Not long after, he found that a huge fleet of battleships had entered Wright Gulf!
After Sam confirmed the number and type of warships in the small book, he turned around and flew back!

In the air report on the fleet, we found a small battleship fleet, including a super battleship with a 460mm main gun!

General Hal was surprised and delighted by this discovery, but he was hesitant to discover Xiaobenzi's battleship fleet. After studying me on the chart for a while, General Hal judged that the little devil's Ozawa fleet should be nearby. .

At this time, General Hal didn't know that Xiaobenzi's Ozawa fleet was just a suspicious soldier, so he ordered all the carrier-based aircraft to take off.

On the 12 aircraft carriers, the Allied forces took off more than 1000 fighters. General Hal divided these fighters into two attack groups, one way to find the aircraft carrier fleet of Ozawa Jisaburo, to avoid being attacked by the Ozawa fleet; The Kurita Nakaji Battleship Fleet that has been discovered.

Awata's middle fleet was quickly bombed by more than 500 Allied aircraft.The battleship Yamato was severely damaged, the battleship Musashi was sunk, and other ships were also damaged. Almost all of the Awata fleet was injured, but they did not lose their combat capabilities. General Hal obviously did not fully estimate the battle situation. at this point.

When General Hal stormed the Awata Fleet, the air force on the little devil's Luzon Island was not idle.

One of the bombers that the little devil took off on Luzon Island broke through the interception of the Allied Air Forces, flew over the light aircraft carrier Princeton, and dropped a heavy aerial bomb on the aircraft carrier Princeton, which was hit by the vital Princeton The ship was seriously injured by the explosion and sank shortly thereafter!

This loss made General Hal feel a little imperfect. Therefore, after the Awata Nakaji fleet was severely damaged, it withdrew from the San Bernardino Strait and did not continue to pursue it. Of course, time did not allow it. After turning around for more than 500 hours, I had to land back to the aircraft carrier without getting anything.

Awata reported the latest battle situation to the Combined Fleet Headquarters, saying that General Hal intercepted him in the San Bernardino Strait with the main force of the Third Fleet, and suffered heavy losses. The suspect was so successful that General Hal didn't even notice it.

In order to attract General Hal's Third Fleet to come out of the San Bernardino Strait, Jisaburo Ozawa resolutely adopted clear code power generation, directly exposing the sea area where his position is located!

Sure enough, General Hal, who had a glorious record of destroying the aircraft carrier, was attracted by Ozawa's clear power generation. He thought that the main force of the Awata fleet could no longer fight. An aircraft carrier, more than 12 carrier-based aircraft went north to chase and destroy Ozawa!

General Hal has forgotten that his ultimate mission is to guard the Wright Gulf landing site.

However, after the main force of General Hal's Third Fleet left, Awata received a report from the reconnaissance plane. At night, the scarred Kurita Fleet quickly returned to Wright Gulf.

It’s just that Kurita Takeo was very cautious this time, and sent destroyers to explore the way ahead, for fear of being ambushed by Allied submarines again, but he guessed wrong this time, and the entire fleet passed through the San Bernardino Strait without any danger. , The fleet has reached the waters east of Samar Island, and they have not seen the main fleet of the Allied forces.

Only then did Kurita Takeo believe that Ozawa's fire had worked, and the scarred Yamato and other battleships whose still-rotating cannons began to turn their muzzles and bombard the Allied landing forces.

And Kincaid's 7th Fleet is full of escort aircraft carriers and destroyers. How can it fight against the artillery of the Japanese battleships?

When Kincaid saw the battleships of Awata's middle fleet entering Wright Gulf, his heart was broken. The Allied forces who were landing suffered heavy casualties under the bombardment of the battleships.

General Kincaid had to order the fleet to resist desperately, and at the same time sent an urgent telegram to General Hal, requesting that the main force of the Third Fleet must retreat to Wright Gulf to support the Seventh Fleet and the landing force.

After all, the 7th Fleet was too weak and had almost no ability to resist the small battleships. However, General Kincaid still commanded the 7th Fleet of the Allied Forces to resist desperately.

Soon the destroyer Birmingham was hit by the shells of the battleship and sank shortly afterwards. The escort aircraft carriers of Gambia Bay and Bradbury launched a counterattack against the enemy's giant ship with flesh and blood, and a few carrier-based aircraft rushed towards the enemy ship. , The destroyer formation even carried out a suicide charge, and other attacks disrupted the enemy's formation, giving little chance for torpedo attacks.

But it was of no use. The destroyers were too fragile against the giant cannons of the battleships. One after another, the destroyers were sunk by Awata's battleships.

The unprecedented crisis in the Wright Gulf battle shocked the high-level Allied forces. General Nimi, the commander of the Pacific Naval Command, directly sent a telegram-the whole world wants to know where the 34th Task Force is?
At that time, General Hal had received Kincaid's emergency call for help, and he had realized that his misjudgment had caused a huge crisis to the landing force and the Seventh Fleet.

Therefore, after leaving 2 aircraft carrier combat brigades and continuing to go north to eliminate the Ozawa aircraft carrier fleet, they have led most of the aircraft carriers and 6 fast battleships to rush to the rescue of Wright Gulf.On the way back, he received this telegram that the whole world wanted to know. Facing the telegram from the headquarters, General Hal was furious.

In fact, General Nimi’s original message did not include the whole world wants to know, but in order to increase the degree of secrecy, the translators of the Allied Army’s telegram took it upon themselves to add “the whole world wants to know” before the message, which has nothing to do with the content of the telegram. "These words.

Obviously, this became a stain on General Hal's life, but the military situation was so hot that General Hal couldn't care about it anymore. He led the main force of the fleet to rescue Wright Gulf at full speed.The remaining two aircraft carrier task forces under the command of General Mitchell caught up with Ozawa's fleet, and took off to launch a fierce air attack on Ozawa's aircraft carrier formation. This time it was all killed.

In the end, under the torpedo attack of the bomber launched by General Mitchell, the four aircraft carriers of the Ozawa fleet, Zuikaku, Zuiho, Chitose, and Chiyoda, were all sunk. Got benevolence.

If there hadn't been something suspicious about Takeo Kurita, the little devil's tactical arrangement would still be back on track in the end.

The Nishimura Fleet responsible for outflanking is almost in place. If the fight continues according to the current progress, General Kincaid's Seventh Fleet and most of the landing forces will face disaster!

However, when the fleet was still fighting vigorously, Awata suddenly ordered the fleet to retreat across the board.

Although the subordinates of the Awata fleet did not understand very much, Awata observed a large number of fighter planes landing on Wright Island.

Awata thought that this was the carrier-based aircraft of the main Allied aircraft carrier starting to land on Wright Island.In fact, those fighter planes were just fighter planes on the allied escort aircraft carrier of the Seventh Fleet. After the escort aircraft carrier was severely damaged, it had to land at Wright Island Airport.

But Awata didn't know this, and Awata, who had been shadowed by General Hal's fighter plane, chose to retreat!
Kurita's retreat made it impossible for the Japanese navy to find a chance to turn around.

With Kurita's withdrawal, General Hal won the most precious time, and he led the main force of the aircraft carrier formation back to Wright Gulf.

After finding the location of the Kurita Fleet, General Hal quickly dispatched the main force to launch a fierce air attack on Kurita. This time, General Hal really severely damaged the Kurita Fleet and sank most of the ships to the bottom of the sea. In the end, there were only 5 Kurita Fleet left. The ships were able to withdraw to the mainland, and among the battleships, only the Yamato still had a little combat effectiveness.

The decoy Ozawa fleet was almost completely wiped out. With the complete annihilation of the Ozawa fleet, the Xiaobenzi Navy lost the last aircraft carrier mobile force, and the mighty combined fleet no longer existed.

(End of this chapter)