.Chapter 70: Heavy shot down

At 2:00 p.m., after suffering painful mental torture, Nixon finally decided to temporarily abandon the Fourth Fleet. The Burning Ocean's latest chapter novel rankings

Why say it is temporary?

Because the damage of the Kitty Hawk has been controlled, the speed has been increased from sixteen knots to twenty knots, and it is sailing south under the escort of four destroyers, so he cannot abandon the Fourth Fleet, but just decided to turn the Third Fleet south and leave the more dangerous seas.

According to his thoughts, wait until it gets dark and sail westward to Digo Garcia.

Of course, in this way, he would not be able to obtain additional fighter jets on the night of the 27th. He would have to wait until the early morning of the 28th, and he would have to send the news out.

At less than four o'clock in the afternoon, Nixon received the news that the speed of the Kitty Hawk had increased to twenty-four knots.

This is undoubtedly a miracle.

The aircraft carrier was hit by a total of 17 1,000-kilogram anti-ship guided bombs, the worst-hit among the three aircraft carriers in the Fourth Fleet. At the end of the battle on the 26th, the Kitty Hawk completely lost its navigation ability and did not even have enough power to pump out the sea water pouring into the hull. It was able to repair the damaged hull in such a short time and increase the speed to 24 knots, mainly due to the destroyer who arrived in time. With the help of the destroyer, the Kitty Hawk restarted the closed fusion counter.

The power supply was restored, and with the efforts of hundreds of officers and soldiers, the loopholes in the main hull were blocked and the water inflow was controlled. More importantly, the protection design of the "Little Eagle" was mainly aimed at aerial strikes. The main body part of the suspended air can withstand direct attacks of 1,000 kilograms of bombs. The structural strength of the main hull in the center was very strong and it was not easy to be directly hit by the bombs. If the traditional ship type was adopted, the "Little Eagle" would have been blown to pieces long ago and it would not be possible to stick to it.

This news is more or less a comfort.

After confirming that the fleet could turn to Digo Garcia, Nixon sent a transport plane at four o'clock to prevent Djibouti fighter jets from rushing to fly over.

Then, the Third Fleet turned westward.

Until this time, Nixon still didn't know that he had been targeted by a Chinese submarine.

It is no wonder that the Third Fleet suddenly turned south, forcing the "Stepstone" to follow along, and reduced its speed to twenty-four knots after 2 pm. The reason is very simple. As we approached the Third Fleet, the probability of "Stepstone" being exposed increased greatly, and we had to slow down and reduce noise.

However, the Third Fleet turned west and gave the "Spirithide".

The reason is: after the Third Fleet turned, it immediately increased its speed to thirty-three knots.

Navigating at this speed, the submarine exploration equipment on the warships will fail, and only anti-submarine aircraft can come in handy. The anti-submarine aircraft dispatched by the Third Fleet are mainly concentrated near the "Kitty Hawk", because Nixon believes that Chinese submarines will first attack the "Kitty Hawk" in the north. The Burning Ocean Full Text Reading Supernatural Novel Ranking

In other words, there were no anti-submarine aircraft from the USS near the "Spirit Sting" at that time.

In this way, the "Stingray" can chase the third fleet at a speed of thirty-five knots and can advance along the shortest tangent route.

At this time, the task force's reconnaissance plane had set off.

Half an hour before this, the Navy's anti-submarine patrol aircraft had already taken off. These anti-submarine patrol aircraft carried heavy anti-ship missiles, but the flight speed was very slow, so they needed to set out in advance to arrive at the battlefield within the time specified by Mu Haoyang and cooperate with the air force fighters that set out later.

At half past four, the Air Force fighter jets began to set off.

At five o'clock, the air force and the Navy's tanker planes began to take off.

Because the speed of the tanker is also very slow, and the attack distance this time is even longer, and the refueling airspace needs to be moved south by more than 500 kilometers. Therefore, after the tanker sets off at 5 o'clock, it will not arrive until around 6:30, which is just in line with the ship-based combat opportunity that has completed the reconnaissance mission.

It can be said that all tactical links are arranged as precise as Swiss watches.

The problem is that there is still a lack of a condition: tactical intelligence provided by task force reconnaissance aircraft.

You should know that the Air Force's fighter jets and the Navy's anti-submarine patrol aircraft carry sea attack ammunition. The former has to fight in sea areas beyond the combat radius, while the latter has almost reached the maximum combat radius and is not able to perform reconnaissance tasks. It must be supported by the carrier-based aviation force.

Without accurate tactical intelligence, this round of attack will not receive any results.

At 5:15, an unexpected encounter began.

The transport plane sent by Nixon at four o'clock encountered a reconnaissance plane sent by Mu Haoyang at four o'clock, and was located about a thousand kilometers west of Digo Garcia.

This sudden encounter scared the pilots on both sides.

However, the battle ended soon, and the reconnaissance aircraft used aviation artillery to shoot down the transport plane.

Interestingly, the US transport plane issued a report as soon as possible, but the task force's reconnaissance plane did not report the situation to Mu Haoyang.

Perhaps, the reconnaissance pilot believes that the third fleet has not been found, and there is no need to report to the fleet.

The result was that Mu Haoyang was not aware of the situation, but Nixon made the Third Fleet turn south again at 5:20.

Unfortunately, this time Nixon did not let the fleet go south directly, but only adjusted the course.

To be precise, it is to point the course to the south of Digo Garcia. The ranking of urban supernatural novels

Later, Nixon admitted that he made a mistake at that time, that was, underestimating his opponent's determination, and that he could avoid the task force by relying on the south side.

On the evening of the 27th, the Third Fleet did avoid the task force.

Before six o'clock, a reconnaissance plane flying south broke the radio silence, and found the Third Fleet near the battle waters in the morning. The Burning Ocean Read online

Immediately, the reconnaissance plane, which had already flown for 2,500 kilometers, turned to the refueling airspace.

What the reconnaissance planes discovered was not the third fleet, but the single aircraft carrier "Kitty Hawk" and the four anti-submarine destroyers that accompanied it.

There is no doubt that the reconnaissance pilot made a serious mistake.

However, this cannot blame the pilots. In the past day, the pilots of the task force performed an average of three combat missions, with a total mission time of more than fifteen hours and less than four hours between them. It is conceivable that the pilots are exhausted.

It can be said that this is a problem that even Mu Haoyang cannot solve.

In high-intensity combat operations, the energy of officers and soldiers has always been a serious problem. Although the Chinese Navy has already made targeted arrangements, such as each air wing equipped with flight crews at a standard of 125%, these are all solutions to treat the symptoms but not the root cause, and cannot fundamentally solve the problem. In the subsequent wars, due to insufficient human resources, similar problems will emerge one after another.

This reconnaissance report ignited the war on the evening of the 27th.

In the next half an hour, more than 200 fighter jets of the Air Force and more than 100 anti-submarine patrol aircraft of the Navy launched a devastating blow to the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier battle group.

There is no doubt that the ending of the Kitty Hawk and the four destroyers was very tragic.

According to the memories of the surviving US officers and soldiers, at the end of the attack, four destroyers had been blown to pieces, and the "Kitty" was interrupted in several pieces in the fierce bombing, and sank into the sea with more than 3,000 officers and soldiers. In the end, less than 30 officers and soldiers on the five warships survived.

However, this is an absolutely wrong strike.

Even if it is not bombed, the "Little Eagle" will be sunk by a chased submarine on the night of the 28th or early morning of the 29th.

What's even more unfortunate is that this battle consumed the last round of aerial strike power arranged by Mu Haoyang.

Before 6:30, Mu Haoyang received the front-line battle report and learned that it was not the third fleet that was attacking, but the US fleet with only one aircraft carrier. Although Mu Haoyang was not sure what was going on at that time, because before the attack, the USS America and Enterprise had already sunk, so no one knew that the Fourth Fleet was only the "Kitty Eagle", but it was certain that this round of attack did not achieve the expected effect. The novel rankings were completed.

At this time, it is too late to adjust the plan.

Judging from the situation at that time, even if Mu Haoyang broke the radio silence, it would be useless, because fighter jets and anti-submarine patrol aircraft carrying ammunition could not wander over the battlefield. They must complete the attack as soon as possible and then combine with the refueling opportunity that had already been in place.

It can be said that Mu Haoyang was a little depressed at that time.

Based on the information he had, he could only surely sink an aircraft carrier, and in his opinion, the other two aircraft carriers of the Fourth Fleet had escaped. Although the Fourth Fleet could not have escaped too far, Mu Haoyang also used up all his aces. It was not until the early morning of the 28th that he could organize a new strike operation, and within the next few hours, he would not even be able to dispatch carrier-based fighters to perform reconnaissance missions.

In other words, if there is no miracle, the naval battle is over.

Although the task force did not suffer serious losses, carrier-based fighter jets could be replenished soon, and the navy had a relatively abundant talent reserve, after releasing the US joint fleet, especially the five aircraft carriers, Mu Haoyang had to reconsider whether to attack Digo Garcia.

In his opinion, this was a major strategic failure, and the tactical victory achieved could not reverse the situation at all.

Not to mention anything else, if you miss this opportunity, you may have to wait until the second half of 2053 before the Chinese Navy can concentrate enough troops to attack Digo Garcia. In addition, the Chinese Navy must also insist on fighting defensive wars and protect the fleet in its hands as much as possible.

If it really delays until 2053, the battle situation will become beneficial to the US military.

However, there were many miracles in this largest naval battle after the war began.

Judging from the situation at that time, even if the naval war ended, the task force achieved a decisive victory, because the Fourth Fleet had been wiped out and the Third Fleet was severely damaged. Even if it could not land on Digo Garcia immediately, it would have the ability to initiate the next naval war.

There is no doubt that the task force has enough strength to defeat the lonely third fleet.

More importantly, this naval battle is not over yet.

Just after seven o'clock, a telegram was sent to Mu Haoyang. The content of the telegram surprised him and rekindled his hope of victory.

Volume 2 Crazy Prelude Chapter 71: Try your best

Chapter 71: Do your best

The telegram that Mu Haoyang received after 7 o'clock was sent by the "Stingray" and was directly intercepted by the fleet and was not forwarded by the submarine base.

About half an hour before this, the "Spirit Striped" attacked the Third Fleet almost at the extreme range of the torpedo.

At that time, the "Stingray" had no choice because the Third Fleet adjusted its course again after four o'clock, which made the submarine's efforts was wasted. After feeling that it was about to miss the opportunity to ambush the Third Fleet, the captain of the "Stingray" did not wait any longer and shot six heavy torpedoes in one breath. The top 10 novel rankings

This is not the end.

Because the third fleet was not fast and was too far away, the torpedoes launched by the "Spirithi" were sailing at a speed of fifty-five knots.

It is precisely because about half an hour after the torpedo was launched, the "Stingray" sent a telegram with a communication float. Ranking of overhead historical novels

Interestingly, the submarine, which had made great achievements, did not leave the battlefield immediately, but continued to sail south, only reducing its speed to 18 knots.

Navigating at this speed, the noise of the "Spirit Striped" is less than 95 decibels.

The greatest value of this telegram is that it accurately mentions the location of the Third Fleet and its navigation information.

Mu Haoyang's first reaction was that the Third Fleet had not left the strike range and was advancing towards Digo Garcia, which was consistent with his judgment made on the night of the 26th.

In this way, the advance deployment he made on the 26th could come in handy.

Don't forget that the shelling formation consisting of eight large integrated warships and four anti-submarine warships had already separated from the task force on the night of the 26th and sailed south for twenty-one hours at a speed of forty-five knots, less than a thousand kilometers away from the third fleet.

Interestingly, the telegram of the "Stingray" did not mention that the Fourth Fleet had been ambushed.

Perhaps, when sending the telegram, the captain was too focused on the Third Fleet ahead and threw the ambush of the Fourth Fleet behind his head.

The result was that Mu Haoyang felt very confident in catching up with the Third Fleet.

In fact, judging by the circumstances at that time, as long as Nixon immediately turned the fleet south, he would be confident enough to avoid the shelling formation sent by the task force. Don't forget that the telegram mentioned that the Third Fleet was sailing south towards Digo Garcia, and not that the Third Fleet was sailing south.

The problem is that Nixon missed this opportunity very much.
To be continued...