Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 699 The Contest in the Decisive Battle (1)
Captain Andrew Cunningham, the commander of the Hundred-Eyed Giant, was extremely excited when he received the telegram. The aircraft carrier battle group under his jurisdiction sought a decisive battle with the Chinese navy, but the commander-in-chief ordered his fleet to return first, which made him very upset, so he intentionally delayed the time on the way back, in order to hope to find the Chinese fleet on the sea, Avenge that arrow.Now, the opportunity came, but he needed more accurate information, so he immediately ordered Brian to report the details.

After confirming that the enemy ship was heading due east, Brian closed the throttle, brought the aircraft close to the water surface, and then turned due north, at a right angle to the direction the enemy ship was heading.After traveling north for about 15 minutes, it turned due west and flew about 25 nautical miles.

At this time, Cunningham was impatient to wait. Although Brian's report was extremely important, it was not detailed enough. He decided to use Lancaster bombers to attack the enemy ships after he had a general understanding of the number and types of enemy ships.So he urged Brian again to report the details.

It was several minutes before Bryan issued a further report.Before doing so, he flew cautiously to an altitude of 800 feet to further observe the enemy ship about 25 nautical miles due south.Then, report to the mothership: "Eleven enemy ships, heading 11, speed 090, traveling in column, requesting instructions."

The officers and soldiers of the reconnaissance squadron have been very excited and attentively observing the enemy's situation, not paying attention to their position at all.At this time, Brian suddenly realized that he was about 750 nautical miles west of the Andaman Islands. He was closer to the Chinese air base in the north of Sumatra than the Chinese fleet was to the air base.Moreover, the original scheduled return time has passed more than 20 minutes, and the fuel left is just enough to fly back to the base.He immediately asked for instructions to return to the voyage, and was immediately approved.After driving out of the range of the enemy's possible anti-aircraft fire, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

However, at this time, because the task force led by Sogo also discovered the traces of the enemy's reconnaissance plane, two Falcon reconnaissance planes immediately took to the sky, and followed Brian's return direction until they found the enemy aircraft carrier. Outer patrol ship of the battle group.

After Yu Chongguang received the telegram, he quickly deployed and reported to Sa Zhenbing.Radio waves immediately transmitted to the aircraft carrier Xiazi, which was returning: "I found the enemy's main fleet with a bearing of 156 degrees, 600 warships at a distance of 11 nautical miles, a heading of 030 degrees, and a speed of 20 knots. 9 Lanxiang bombers have taken off and bombed."

The communications officer took the report and ran to Xia Zihao's command room.Sa Zhenbing was discussing the next step with Huang Guangrui. After reading the telegram, he suddenly stood up from his seat and said excitedly, "Old Huang, have you read this report?"

"What is this, Commander?"

"We found those two aircraft carrier teams!" Sa Zhenbing beamed with joy, feeling relaxed, and handed the telegram to Huang Guangrui as he spoke.

"You should be relieved this time." Huang Guangrui said with a soft smile, "The final suppression is coming!"

Almost at the same time that Sa Zhenbing received the telegram of the discovery of the coalition fleet, Cunningham also received an urgent telegram from Mountbatten: "My convoy was searched by a Chinese plane 9 nautical miles west of Andaman Island at 600 o'clock. The plane found it. Be alert to all Chinese sea power on the way back!"

Cunningham laughed at this, and said in his heart that this is the moment I was waiting for. If the Chinese dare to confront the tough, I will definitely make them pay a heavy price.At this moment, a watch post reported: "90 degrees on the starboard side, 70 degrees of elevation angle, it seems to be the light of a reconnaissance plane. Above the clouds, approach me!"

Cunningham was taken aback, and immediately ordered the battle siren to be sounded, and the crew took their positions.But the stars in the sky flickered through the gaps in the clouds, and there was no trace of the enemy plane.It turns out that Wangshao took the stars as his target.Cunningham was so angry that he yelled at the lookout post, and the nerves that had been tense just now relaxed a little bit, and was about to order to disarm the alarm, when the lookout post suddenly reported loudly: "There is still a light in that direction! No! Star!"

Cunningham did not dare to be negligent, and the order for air combat was immediately sent to all ships.Unexpectedly, the result was another false alarm.Cunningham was so angry that he dismissed the Post of Fame on the spot.

After these two false alarms, Cunningham made his own judgment after analyzing various situations: "The enemy has not yet noticed our intention, nor has it discovered our aircraft carrier team. The enemy fleet is probably performing a security mission on the sea surface. The formal response will be made after the discovery of our fleet. There is no sign that the enemy's mobile force is near me. In view of the detected situation, the enemy fleet is not the main force, and our fleet is fully capable of destroying it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Must not be missed."

His judgment was completely wrong.It was this judgment that nearly wiped out his army a few hours later.

He immediately ordered that the aircraft carrier team change course and pursue the detected Chinese navy fleet.With an order, the officers and soldiers of the fleet are all gearing up, ready to have a real duel with the Chinese!On the water 240 nautical miles northwest of the Andaman Islands, there was a murderous scene.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, the order "All pilots, assemble!" came from the horn of the Hundred-Eyed Giant.The pilots quickly squeezed into the situation room, listening to the final instructions.A few minutes later, the pilot listened to the briefing, ran to the deck, and rushed to the waiting plane.Cunningham ordered the captain to turn the carrier into headwind and increase her speed to 21 knots.

Lightning fighter jets rolled out of the hangar on the aircraft carrier, and they were neatly arranged on the deck. The engines of the planes started, and bluish-white gas spewed out of the exhaust pipes.At this time, Captain Hobert of the Royal Navy Air Force who participated in World War II walked up to Cunningham and said goodbye to him.Cunningham wished him success, then silently watched him climb the gangway and into the cabin of his lead bomber, which was parked not far from the bridge.

At this time, an orderly reported loudly: "Sir, all aircraft are ready!"

Cunningham gave a British military salute: "Start taking off!"

At 10:30, the first Lightning fighter soared into the sky amidst cheers on the deck, and people waved their arms and hats frantically to see it off.Subsequently, eight more Lightning fighters took off, followed by dive bombers.Hobert's plane took off with the canopy closed, and he waved goodbye to those on deck as he led the group into the climb.

About 4000 meters away from the port side of the "White-Eyed Giant" are also lights shining.This is the plane of the "Hermes" aircraft carrier taking off.The task of leading the squadron fell on the shoulders of Captain Alexander, the flight captain of the "Hermes".Alexander came to the ship when the "Hermes" was about to sail to the Indian Ocean. He had not shown his skills in the Indian Ocean naval battle, but like Hobert, he was also a war-baptized officer in World War II. Known as "The Brave and Fighting Leader"

In this wave of attack aircraft, in addition to the aircraft that took off from the "Hundred-eyed Giant" and the "Hermes", there were also 36 horizontal bombers from other ships.

36 dive bombers led by Lieutenant George who took off from the "Hundred Eyes Giant" came up from the left behind the horizontal bomber group.George participated in all battles including the air raid on Bremen in World War II, and was known in the Royal Navy for his skill and bravery in combat.

At this moment, Cunningham suddenly received a report from a search plane: "10 enemy ships were found, with Andaman Island as the reference bearing 10, 240 nautical miles away from our own side, heading 150 degrees, and a speed of more than 20 knots."

When Cunningham and his staff received this telegram, it was like a bolt from the blue. They never expected that the surface troops of the Dragon Army would appear so quickly, let alone that the enemy warships had already arrived in the nearby waters waiting to ambush them.The whole situation changed drastically immediately!

The staff officer immediately found out the position of the enemy ship on the chart, estimated the distance between the two sides, and reported to Cunningham: "The enemy is exactly 200 nautical miles away from us, and this distance is within the attack circle of our aircraft. With an aircraft carrier, we are also within the attack circle of enemy aircraft."

What Cunningham was eager to know was, what was the composition of the enemy force?Are there aircraft carriers?The report of the search aircraft did not say exactly what forces the enemy included.But at this critical moment, everything is still unknown.This worried and annoyed Cunningham and his staff.

The "Hundred-Eyed Giant" immediately sent a telegram, strictly ordering the search engine: "Immediately find out the type of enemy ship and keep in contact."

Before the news was clear, Cunningham had ordered the horizontal bomber fleet ready to go to war to remove the torpedoes and replace them with 800-kilogram bombs.If search aircraft confirm the presence of aircraft carriers in the enemy fleet, that is the greatest threat to the carrier fleet.Therefore, he believes that it is necessary to be prepared to deal with it.

At 10:45, Cunningham ordered the two aircraft carriers to immediately stop the ammunition reloading work and prepare to attack the enemy ships.At the same time, the search plane reported that the enemy ship had changed its course, and the current course was 080 degrees, but the ship type was still not reported.In this regard, Cunningham has been anxious to go crazy.

After 10 minutes, the search plane finally reported: "The enemy ships are 5 cruisers and 5 destroyers."

After receiving the telegram, Cunningham breathed a sigh of relief and said triumphantly: "As I thought, there is no aircraft carrier." He handed the telegram to the chief of staff.

However, the relief brought by this news did not last long. Five minutes later, the search plane reported again: "There seems to be an aircraft carrier at the end of the enemy fleet." Everyone tensed up.The search plane sent another report: "There are two other warships in the enemy fleet, obviously cruisers. Bearing 5, 1 nautical miles away from our side, heading 2 degrees, speed 008 knots."

According to the size of the Dragon Army's force, Cunningham can now conclude that there is at least one aircraft carrier in the enemy's force.Therefore, he decided to double the number of bombers to ensure the attack effect.

(End of this chapter)