In 1937, night combat was almost unimaginable for the aviation forces of both sides of the Qiong and Japan, especially for fighter pilots. They could not accurately find their targets in a dark light, let alone intercepting bombers in the sky.

However, for those bombers, although the dark night would also pose a threat to their actions, it could also protect their actions well, especially for the Japanese special attack aircraft. Anyway, they don’t have to consider how to return.

After sunset, just after everyone in the Qiong Army believed that the air battle on this day had passed, a large number of highlights suddenly appeared on the radar of the destroyer responsible for the periphery. At the beginning, the periphery warship thought that this was a batch of planes passed by the Japanese when they returned, but after a moment, they were surprised to confirm that the direction of these planes was the Qiongya Fleet's station! This news couldn't help but shock Chen Xuchu and the others, because it was the first time they encountered a night attack by the Japanese, and the refugees were a little panicked for a while.

In fact, this is Toyota's second strategy, which is to take off the suicide attack aircraft at dusk, and then carry out suicide attacks on the Qiong Army's fleet after nightfall. Since Qiong Army fighters could not intercept at all at night, the efficiency of anti-aircraft artillery became extremely low, so even if there is no escort fighter jets, these suicide attack aircraft can fully fly to the Qiongya fleet to launch an attack.

If the Qiongya Fleet did not have radar, and if the pilot of the Japanese special attack aircraft was not a group of ultimate rookies that could not even be able to complete the transition flight, perhaps Toyota's night attack tactics would have succeeded.

Since the pilots of the Japanese special attack aircraft were all eliminated unqualified pilots, it was a bit difficult for them to fly at night, although they were not intercepted by any Qiong Army. However, the Japanese special attack aircraft that eventually flew over the Qiongya Navy fleet was still only about 70% of the time they set off, and the remaining 30% of them even trek directly into the sea, and even an accident of two aircraft colliding in the dark.

After receiving the warning from the peripheral warning destroyer, Chen Xuchu, who was frightened in cold sweat, immediately ordered the fleet to enter the light control state, which caused the suicide special attack aircraft entering the Qiongya Navy fleet to immediately lose its target. The dim night sky covered the Japanese special attack aircraft. At the same time, the Qiong Army's warships also merged with the darkness after extinguishing the lights.

Although there was only a thin layer of clouds in the night sky that night, and the outline of the Qiongya warship could be vaguely seen under the moonlight that appeared from time to time, it was too difficult for the rookie pilots of the Japanese special attack aircraft to identify the target of attack and impact the key parts under such circumstances.

In the end, all 76 special attack aircraft that tried to launch a sneak attack at night were lost in the dark, but the results they achieved were only one destroyer injured. Most of the special attack aircraft were either intercepted by Gatling's machine gun at close range or they could not see clearly the target and crashed into the sea.

Because the efficiency of night attack is too low, the roots are unable to choose a target, so the only way to do so is Toyota's deputy Technique had to stop the night attack and focus all his attention on the day attack.

Except for two more serious injuries, all the injured warships of the Qiong Army entered the advance base just established in the Keirama Island for simple repairs. Toyota's deputy warships required that the impact of the special attack aircraft was some key parts of the Qiong Army's warships, but in fact, very few could do this. The pilots were flying old aircraft carrying heavy bombs. The joysticks were extremely heavy and the control was inflexible. In addition, the tense scenes of artillery fire in the battle seriously disrupted people's minds. Finally, these pilots carried out suicide attacks, and no one's psychological endurance was so strong that they could ignore these pressures and calmly choose the target.

In fact, for those timid suicide special attack pilots, they were destroyed by huge pressure before they could fly to their destination. They could not expect them to choose their target calmly under mental collapse, while those madmen who were brainwashed by militarism were even more fanatical, and their brains were boiling into a cloud of mucus.

Therefore, after two large-scale suicide attacks, only a few of the Qiong Army's warships were attacked by key areas and caused sunk. Most of the damage was in general non-key areas. These ships were immediately dragged into the Qingliangjian Islands for repairs. If there was no big problem, they continued to fight. If there was more serious, they had to return.

While the Qiongya Navy and the Japanese suicide attack aircraft were competing, the landing operation was also launched. On the day of the landing, the torpedo cleaning operation had been completed, and the entire channel became very smooth. Even if it approached the Qiongya fleet on the shore, there was no need to worry about hitting a mine. Therefore, at the beginning of the landing operation, many ships of the Qiongya advanced to a very close distance from the coast and directly supported the landing troops with the large-caliber artillery on the ship.

He had previously received orders from the base camp. Niujima Man had to place his troops on the beach and use the defensive positions that had been set up before to block the operation of the landing troops of the Qiong Army. These defensive positions on the beach had already started construction after Niujima Man received the order to defend against Ryukyu. However, because Niujima Man was preparing to give up the positions in the central region, this part of the defensive positions stopped in the middle for a period of time. The construction of the defensive facilities at the current location was still not satisfactory.

Considering that the fortifications on the beachhead position cannot be called a solid wall, and since all the mines in the nearby waterways were cleared by the Qiong Army and there was no reef blocking, the Qiong Army destroyers could approach the extremely close distance of the landing coast to provide direct artillery support. In this way, if they deploy heavy troops on the beachhead, they would inevitably suffer heavy losses.

Naturally, Niu Daoman was not interested in letting his troops be bombed by Qiong Army naval guns on the beach, so he only left a small number of left-behind forces stationed in the fortifications near the beach to delay the progress of the Qiong Army landing troops, while more troops were placed in solid fortifications far away from the beach to avoid being attacked by Qiong Army destroyers artillery.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, the main attacking troops of the Qiong Army landed down the rope net on the side of the landing ship to the landing craft. The landing craft transported the landing troops lined up into five attack waves. They rushed to the shore in a neat formation. At 8:30, the bombers that the Qiong Army carried out suppressive shooting on the beach ended their last strafing, and the naval guns immediately stopped firing. The first wave of landing craft was only 70 meters away from the beach at this time.

At 8:35, the first wave of landing craft rushed to the beach, and the Qiong Army Marines began to jump off the landing craft, rushed to the beach with the rifles in their hands to establish positions.

The Japanese counterattack began as soon as they were put down the springboard of the landing craft. The Japanese machine guns lurking in the broken fortifications began to fire, and they were still firing wildly from the mortars to the large-caliber howitzers. Although they were mentally prepared enough, the first wave of landing troops still suffered huge casualties in the instantaneous attack. In just a few seconds, more than a hundred people fell on the beach and never got up again.

Just above the sea more than a thousand meters away from the Marine Corps soldiers was a destroyer formation responsible for providing firepower support. A total of 14 destroyers naturally would not allow the Japanese to bully their companions so much. They immediately opened fire at the exposed Japanese firepower point and carried out suppressive shooting.

Soon, the destroyer formation with more large-caliber artillery won the attack, and the overwhelming artillery fire suppressed the firepower of the Japanese positions on the beach. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the landing Marines successfully captured the beachhead positions and cleaned up all the few Japanese troops inside.

An hour after the battle began, there was no gunfire on the beach, and more troops began to board Okinawa Island via the beach. After the beachhead positions were consolidated, some Marines still attacked in depth, trying to expand their positions and gain more space for the subsequent troops.

Soon, a Marine Battalion advancing deep into Okinawa was raided by Japanese firepower. In order to implement the command of the base camp, Ushima Man arranged more than 100,000 troops in the deep area of ​​central Okinawa, especially concentrating almost all the heavy artillery in his hands to areas in the depths where the Qiong Army warships would not be bombarded by the Qiong Army.

The most powerful weapon among Niujima Mitsuki is obviously the Type 96 150mm field howitzer. The purpose of this field howitzer is to suppress shooting. It is a field howitzer equipped by the Japanese elite division or brigade artillery units and the field heavy artillery brigade. It is also the new 150mm caliber howitzer produced by the Japanese Army during the war. This artillery has extremely high accuracy and has a long range. It is called the most perfect 150mm caliber howitzer by the Japanese army.

The Type 96 150mm field howitzer was a good 150mm class at that time. Its range reached 26,200 meters, an initial velocity of 860 meters/sec, and a bullet weight of 50.2KG. It is equipped with a circumferential chassis seat with a pitch angle of 180 degrees, with a pitch angle of -7 to 35 degrees. The US M-2 Type 155mm cannon at the same time. The initial velocity is 854 meters/sec, a maximum range of 23,500 meters, and a bullet weight of 43.4kg. It can be seen that the performance of the Type 96 150mm field howitzer is quite good.

However, the number of new artillery in Niujima's hands was not large. His heavy artillery troops were more equipped with Taisho 4-year 150mm field howitzer and the older Meiji 38-year 150mm field howitzer. These two types of artillery were old-fashioned products before World War I, and their performance was outdated during World War II.

However, no matter how much 150mm caliber is placed there, its power is naturally insignificant. In addition, the new 96 150mm field howitzer is expensive, so the Japanese, who have always been used to saving money, have no intention of retiring these antique cannons that have been discontinued, and are still in use until now.

It would be nothing if they just couldn't bear to leave these antique cannons and allowed them to continue serving. It was just that the Japanese had always been difficult to understand. It was less than a year before the war began, but the Japanese magically stopped the production of the new type of artillery, the Type 96 150mm field howitzer, which had excellent performance, and instead resumed the production of the Taisho 4-year 150mm field howitzer and Meiji 38-year 150mm field howitzer, and planned to use these old cannons to replace the new type 96 150mm field howitzer.

The reason why this new artillery with old antique cannons replaced outstanding performance is simple - it is really unaffordable! The Japanese Army did not get enough resources to manufacture the Type 96 150mm field howitzer, which was much more expensive than the old artillery, could only continue to use the antique cannons before World War I.

Although it has been discontinued after only a little over a year since its official production, the batch of Type 96 150mm field howitzers in Niujima still use actual combat to illustrate how excellent their performance is.

The Marine Corps battalion, which was advancing in depth, was stunned by the violent artillery suddenly burst out from the Japanese army. Then, a large number of Japanese troops launched an attack on the unstable Qiong Army beachhead under the direct command of Niudaoman. In just one hour, Niudaoman relied on the large number of people and generals Qiong Army Marines to compress the narrow beachhead.

A large group of Japanese seemed to be too proud and rushed into the Qiong Army's beachhead position. Then they were violently fired by the Qiong Army Marines stationed on the position, and the machine gun bullets poured wildly as if they were not worth the money. The destroyers anchored on the sea also launched a powerful force, and the fierce artillery instantly covered the large group of Japanese soldiers. Just ten minutes later, there was no Japanese soldier moving in front of the Qiong Army's beachhead position, and even a complete body was rarely seen.

Facing the superior artillery fire of the Qiong Army from the sea, Niujima Man would naturally not be so crazy that his troops would launch a suicide charge on the Qiong Army's beachhead. He just used a wave of shock to drive the Qiong Army back to the beachhead and no longer had the next move. He directly pulled his troops back to the fortifications in the depths of Okinawa Island.

Niudaoman was unwilling to attack the Qiong Army's beachhead position. The Qiong Army also believed that there were too few troops currently landing and not enough to launch an attack on the Japanese superior forces, so it was not in a hurry to continue advancing. It was preparing to strengthen the position to guard against the Japanese raid while waiting for the arrival of subsequent reinforcements. Only after sufficient troops would continue to try attacks on Niudaoman's position.

Just as the battle on the island fell into a strange calm, Chen Xuchu's fleet received a report sent by a reconnaissance aircraft sent by Zhejiang Air Force Base - a Japanese aircraft carrier formation was found in the waters between Ryukyu and Shanghai!

……………………………………………………………………

Chen Xuchu was sitting in the command room of the "Ehyai" and stared at the models of several ships placed on the map.

"What are you thinking about?" Chen Houfu walked to him and patted Chen Xuchu on the shoulder, "Since the Japanese came out, let's fight. What are you going to think about?"

Chen Xuchu shook his head: "It's a fight, but I can't figure out what the Japanese want to do. Although the number of light aircraft carriers combined is the number of ours, it is the last few aircraft carriers that the Japanese can take? Why are they willing to send them out? Or do they really think that with those few small boats, how can our fleet be done?"

"Maybe it's here to act like a show." Chen Houfu guessed, "The Japanese navy and army have always been in disagreement. Niujima Man probably wanted to pull the navy into the water. Then the Japanese navy was naturally not a fool, so he sent out a few ragged ships to act like a show. It was an explanation to take a walk here and go back."

Chen Houfu, who was an ordinary warlord, naturally knew very well about such intrigues between friendly forces. When he saw the strange performance of the Japanese, he immediately remembered the dirty things between the Japanese army and the navy.

"Is this really the case?" Chen Xuchu was not sure but couldn't think of other possibilities.

After careful consideration, I felt that it was a bit unreasonable to not eat the meat on my lips. Since the Japanese sincerely sent a fleet to die, they would be disharmonious if they failed. In addition, since the landing troops were waiting for the landing of subsequent reinforcements, there was no attack for a while, and they did not need to provide too much firepower support from their navy. A fleet was still idle when they stopped. It would be better to take this opportunity to annihilate the Japanese fleet. According to Chen Xuchu's estimate, after they annihilate the Japanese fleet, the subsequent reinforcements should also arrive, and then return to the waters near Ryukyu to continue to provide air support to the landing troops.

After deciding on the countermeasures, Chen Xuchu took eight aircraft carriers and a large number of air defense cruisers to leave the formation and began to sail westward to search for Japanese aircraft carrier formations. At this time, almost all destroyers and three "Shang"-class aircraft carriers remained in the waters near Okinawa. Chen Xuchu believed that the strength of these warships should be enough to deal with general emergencies. In order to avoid the suicide attacks of the Japanese army, these warships were mostly hidden near the Keirama Islands, because on the Keirama Islands, the Qiong Army had already arranged 208 88mm air defense guns that arrived with the landing troops on various islands to provide air defense cover for the fleet.

Currently, the temporary base of the Keirama Islands is also the Xia-class aircraft carrier Yu and two pocket battleships. They were anchored in the temporary base of the Keirama Islands for repairs due to damage during the previous "Kamikaze" attack.
Chapter completed!