Volume 1: The Empire Awakens Chapter 58: The Dragon Rises from the Sea (Part 2)
Two Sparrowhawks returned to the carrier due to carburetor failures in their engines.
This is the .
In order to increase the power of the engine, the designers used a new carburetor, which malfunctioned during two test flights.
If strict regulations are followed, the problem that could cause the aircraft to crash must be resolved before the "Sparrowhawk" can be officially put into service.
However, in order to save time, Liao Hanxiang intervened in the finalization process and asked the troops to first equip the "Sparrowhawk" aircraft factory while engineers started to improve the carburetor.
The loss of two escort fighters did not have much impact on the attack group.
The first news received was the advance of the escort fighter fleet.
The 48 forward fighters were about a hundred kilometers ahead of the first wave of attack aircraft. They first encountered the air defense fighters outside the First Fleet.
"Pull it up, pull it up!"
"I killed the enemy, damn, I got bitten!"
"Turn left, turn left quickly!"...
Although it was just an exercise, the pilots were very serious and it was almost like a real air combat.
It can also be heard from the voices of these pilots that the "battle" ahead is very fierce.
The pilot, who was in an extremely excited state, could only relieve the stress by shouting.
"Report, the escort group has driven away the anti-aircraft fighters over the 'enemy' fleet, the attack group can move in!"
Tan Renhao breathed a sigh of relief. The combat effectiveness of the "Sparrowhawk" was indeed not exaggerated . The pilots of the First Air Wing were all the best in the Imperial Navy. However, the "Gull" fighters they were flying were seriously outdated and were no match for the "Sparrowhawk" at all.
All the escort fighters that completed the mission of gaining air superiority flew over the First Fleet.
If it were an actual combat , they would use the machine guns and cannons on their fighter planes to strafe the warships on the sea, attracting the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower and allowing bombers carrying bombs and torpedoes to launch attacks more easily.
However, this was just an exercise, and there was no training ammunition for the aircraft cannons and machine guns. In order to prevent accidental injuries, the strafing "mission" was cancelled.
Having lost the cover of anti-aircraft fighters, the First Fleet could only rely on its own anti-aircraft artillery to deal with the bombers.
These guns are equipped with simulation training devices.
It's actually a small searchlight.
If the searchlight's light covers the fighter plane, the reflectors installed on the fighter plane will reflect the light back, and the exercise referee will make a judgment .
The first wave of bombers consisted of 24 dive bombers and 48 torpedo bombers.
When approaching the fleet, the two types of bombers immediately dispersed.
The dive bombers began to climb, while the torpedo bombers descended almost to the sea surface.
The two types of fighter planes also accelerated at the same time, preparing to launch an "attack" on the First Fleet. Tan Renhao was extremely nervous.
This is the most critical moment. Whether the First Fleet can be defeated depends on whether this wave of attacks can tear through the First Fleet's air defense firepower network and severely damage the First Fleet's warships.
Ji Xiaobin glanced at Tan Renhao, then grabbed his wrist.
"Captain, your heart is beating fast."
Tan Renhao was stunned for a moment, then immediately laughed awkwardly.
The staff officers in the room also became busy, constantly processing the feedback information and reporting important news to Colonel Ji Xiaobin.
From time to time, the loudspeakers could be heard from the pilots' screams, some excited, some cursing, and some shouting. Those excited pilots obviously didn't know that the dirty words they were saying were heard by the people behind them.
"Damn it, I hit the Dignity, I hit the Dignity."
Ji Xiaobin and Tan Renhao were both shocked, and they immediately looked at the communications officer in charge of this channel.
"It was the captain of the third dive bomber squadron. His bomb hit the command bridge of the Dignity!"
The two men smiled immediately. This was an unexpected gain. According to the exercise regulations, all officers and soldiers in the command bridge of the "Dignity" would be declared dead, and the First Fleet would lose unified command.
Maybe Marshal Sagittin was there too. If this was a real battle, the Imperial Navy would lose a marshal.
The first wave of attack lasted about ten minutes. When dozens of fighter planes left the sky above the first fleet, the second wave of attack began.
This time, 48 dive bombers and 24 torpedo bombers launched a coordinated attack.
Ji Xiaobin went to connect a communication channel to the loudspeaker in the room, and then there came the sharp whistling sound of a dive bomber diving from high altitude to the sea.
The person in charge of commanding this wave of attack was a major officer from the dive bomber brigade, who was flying his plane towards a warship on the sea.
When the sharp whistling sound suddenly came, the speaker was quiet for a few seconds, and then it became lively.
"Die, die. The Dignity is finished, the Dignity is finished!"
Tan Renhao glanced at Colonel Ji Xiaobin. It seemed that this major captain had forgotten his most important duty. He should first command other fighter planes to launch an attack, and then drop the bombs carried by his plane, instead of launching the attack himself.
Ji Xiaobin shrugged his shoulders. He didn't care about this little problem.
An intelligence officer was drawing big white crosses on the warships on the blackboard.
The "destroyed" warships will be directly named. This is the Fifth Fleet's own statistics on the results of the battle, and it can more intuitively reflect the "battle situation" in front. The second wave of attack lasted for about fifteen minutes. When the sound in the loudspeaker disappeared, Tan Renhao breathed a sigh of relief and then glanced at the blackboard recording the results of the battle.
Of the 12 main battleships of the First Fleet, only the oldest one at the rear of the fleet escaped the disaster and was not completely "destroyed". In addition, more than a dozen other battleships became the "victims" of this exercise. This result was already huge enough and fully met the requirements of General Liao Hanxiang.
If this had been a real naval battle, the First Fleet would have been "eliminated".
The intelligence center soon became quiet. Nearly twenty staff officers could hardly believe the "results" they had achieved. But the atmosphere soon became heated. These young officers, who had been tense for several hours, suddenly started shouting loudly, as if they wanted to vent all the depression and anger that had been suppressed in their hearts for more than a year.
The Fifth Fleet finally proved its strength and powerful strike force through its actions.
