Empire Conquest
Chapter 94 - 90 Heavenly Fire

Chapter 94: Chapter 90 Heavenly Fire

About an hour and a half ago.

Although the Commander of the attack plane group had sent a message stating that they had found the Liangxia Navy’s Special Mixed Fleet and that the attack operation was a great success, sinking the "Heng River" and "Ling River" from the Second Aviation Mixed Fleet, no one from Lan Yun down felt happy.

It wasn’t that they hadn’t found the "Longjiang" and "Mo River" of the First Aviation Mixed Fleet.

At that time, the search operation was not yet finished, and according to the report from the attack aircraft group, the First Aviation Mixed Fleet was definitely nearby; otherwise, there wouldn’t have been so many anti-aircraft fighters. Therefore, even Tanimoto believed that finding the First Aviation Mixed Fleet was only a matter of time.

The key issue was actually the impending second wave of attacks!

Tanimoto’s judgment was correct, the Special Mixed Fleet indeed had not given up and immediately launched a second round of attacks. Perhaps there was some delay in organizing, but this slight delay didn’t have much effect on the attack operation.

The problem facing the Mobile Fleet was simple: a severe shortage of anti-aircraft fighters!

After launching two waves of sudden strikes on Chengjiang Port, the previous air defense operations, and providing escort protection for the attack aircraft group, there were fewer than forty fighters left. What was even more critical was that half of these forty fighters were parked on the carriers, needing to be refueled and rearmed. Even those fighters patrolling in the air; two squads of eight Zero Fighters would need to return to the carrier within an hour to refuel.

This meant that at the time, there were only ten Zero Fighters in the air with sufficient combat strength!

Just these ten Zero Fighters against hundreds of bombers and attack aircraft!?

But, what else could be done?

In a dire situation, Lan Yun could only follow Tanimoto’s suggestion to let the three carriers sail against the wind and deploy all the ship-borne aircraft they could.

This included quite a few Type 99 ship bombs.

Mainly, the Type 99 had two shipborne machine guns. Although much slower and less agile than fighters, they can act as fighters at critical moments. Even if they didn’t qualify to counter "Typhoon," they could still cope with similarly cumbersome bombers and torpedo bombers.

As for the Zero Fighters, all that could take off had to be airborne.

While making this arrangement, Tanimoto had already given up on the second wave of attacks, because no matter what, it was impossible to get the already airborne ship-borne aircraft to land again before dark, complete preparations for attack, and fly hundreds of kilometers to launch an attack before sunset.

Of course, giving up was the wise move.

If they couldn’t withstand the Special Mixed Fleet’s second wave of attacks and the Mobile Fleet suffered heavy losses, especially the carriers, what would they use to launch a second round of attack?

However, there still wasn’t enough time.

When the first batch of enemy planes attacked, the three carriers had only deployed some Type 99 ship bombs, and the crucially important Zero Fighters were still parked on the flight deck.

What was fatal was that the first to arrive were the fighters!

Only nine, yet exceedingly lethal.

These fighter pilots surely weren’t planning on returning to the Special Mixed Fleet, as they were sprinting at full speed before even encountering the intercepting Zero Fighters!

And another key point was that their flying altitude was above 7000 meters.

What was this for?

Turning themselves into dive bombers!?

Clearly not!

The nine "Typhoon" fighters were divided into four formations, each charging at the four carriers in a diving approach to attack.

The fighters didn’t carry bombs but were equipped with several heavy machine guns.

As they dove down, they strafed the carriers with their machine guns!

The critical point was that they weren’t aiming for the superstructure or the high-altitude guns on the hull, but for the flight deck where the Zero Fighters were parked!

The intent was obvious—to destroy those Zero Fighters before they could take off, or at least make it impossible for them to get airborne.

Such a reckless tactic was extremely bold; the gunners on several carriers didn’t react in time or simply couldn’t believe it.

Those fighters, descending from the sky amid howling noises and adorned by tracer bullets, looked like falling meteors.

No matter how strong the Zero Fighter was, if it didn’t take off, it was just a heap of scrap metal.

Even if it did manage to take off, it was less agile than the cumbersome "Typhoon" fighters during a dive.

Not just others, even Tanimoto was marveling.

The Liangxia Navy pilots had incredibly strong learning abilities and were extremely observant; they had figured out the performance flaws of the Zero Fighter after just a few battles.

The Zero Fighter was a very nimble, extremely agile fighter.

However, its agility and maneuverability were achieved by reducing weight.

The reason was simple: the engine power was too low, and to meet the speed requirements, they had to work on reducing the weight aggressively.

In fact, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom lagged significantly behind other powers in terms of engine technology.

Had it not been for the help from the Newland Federation and Bulan Kingdom, which solved several critical issues with the air-cooled engines, the Saiyi Navy would still be using the 96 Naval Fighter. The Third Air Corps didn’t participate in this operation because those two small carriers hadn’t been equipped with Zero Fighters.

The lighter weight resulted in lower inertia, poor vertical maneuverability, and difficulty in accelerating during a dive!

It wasn’t that they couldn’t accelerate; rather, it became difficult to control once gaining speed, so they had to strictly limit their speed during dives. Mainly, the lack of structural strength reduced the reliability of the Zero Fighter in complex environments; during test flights, there were even severe incidents of disintegrating in the air.

This principle is like the difference between the falling speeds of a stone and a feather in the air, and how a feather is more easily affected by wind.

Crucially, impacted by poor diving capabilities and also having to deal with torpedo bombers breaking through from low altitudes, the Zero Fighters generally operated their air defense patrols at altitudes under five thousand meters. If prepared in advance, they might even lower their altitude to three thousand meters.

Clearly, those "Typhoon" pilots had discovered this flaw of the Zero Fighter.

Compared to the Zero, the "Typhoon" was much heavier; even if its level flight speed wasn’t much faster, it could reach speeds in a dive that were unreachable for the Zero.

As a result, the Zero Fighters assigned to perimeter air defense had not yet had an impact before the battle moved to the stage of close air defense.

Although in the face of dense high-altitude gunfire only three "Typhoons" managed to escape, the rest were shot down during their dive or while pulling out of their dives; nonetheless, these "Typhoons" had disrupted operations sufficiently that three carriers were unable to launch any fighters, and over a dozen Zero Fighters parked on the flight decks were destroyed.

Moreover, all the Zero Fighters in the air were drawn over.

Although responsible air defense staff made timely adjustments, instructing the airborne fighters to expand their search parameters and intercept incoming bombers and attack aircraft, in the chaotic situation, commands were simply not communicated effectively, and the Special Mixed Fleet’s Attack Aircraft Group had already made their approach.

Over the next fifteen minutes, from 2:10 PM to 2:25 PM, the Mobile Fleet suffered a catastrophic disaster.

Those mere fifteen minutes not only completely wiped out the advantage gained from sinking the "Heng River" and "Ling River" but also reversed the balance of forces between the two sides.

In Tanimoto’s words, if he could turn back time, he would trade the rest of his life for those fifteen minutes.

In fact, no one among the Mobile Fleet’s officers and crew believed that a strategic battle of such magnitude, both naval and aerial, could be decided in a mere fifteen minutes.