Empire Conquest
Chapter 182 - 178: Hitting a Rock with an Egg

Chapter 182: Chapter 178: Hitting a Rock with an Egg

The reconnaissance aircraft’s report was correct; a large wave of Type 96 land-based attack aircraft was flying in from the north.

Just past eight o’clock, which was after the second batch of air defense fighters had all taken off, the first eight "Typhoons" that had departed encountered the enemy plane group approximately 150 kilometers north of the fleet. According to the leader’s report, there were definitely more than fifty enemy planes, perhaps even as many as a hundred.

To send so many bombers!

The Saiyi Navy really held the Third Aviation Mixed Fleet in high regard.

Judging from the number, they not only deployed the land-based attack plane groups stationed in the western part of Saiyi’s homeland but also likely the ones from the central and eastern regions.

Even though the Type 96 land attack aircraft didn’t have an impressive bomb load, its range was frighteningly long.

Having a huge range is a significant characteristic of Saiyi Navy’s combat aircraft, and this applies to the Type 97 ship attack, Type 99 ship bomb, Zero Fighter, and Type 96 land attack without exception.

After more than ten minutes of fierce combat, the fighter jets had shot down about twenty enemy planes, lost three of their own, and another five fighters had withdrawn from combat after exhausting their ammunition.

The pilot leading the formation visually estimated that there were still about eighty enemy planes left.

These bombers were divided into two formations, one front and one back.

The front group of planes flew at a lower altitude and slower speed, and appeared more cumbersome when evading, suspected of carrying air torpedoes.

The bombers flying higher in the back were likely carrying air bombs.

Since the Type 96 land attack aircraft could not dive bomb and air torpedoes posed a greater threat to battleships, the first batch of fighters focused on intercepting the front group.

When reporting the combat situation, the leader’s aircraft pilot also specifically mentioned that besides focusing on intercepting the front group, a portion of fighters needed to be allocated to intercept the back group, forcing the high-flying bombers to drop their bombs before reaching the fleet’s airspace or to turn away and evade.

At this time, the "Wuzhou" and the "Changzhou" sent out alarms; the air defense radar had already detected the enemy plane group.

A few minutes later, the second batch of air defense fighters encountered the enemy plane group about eighty kilometers north of the fleet.

As arranged by Li Yunxiang, two-thirds of the fighters were responsible for intercepting the front group flying low, and the remaining third of the fighters attacked the higher-flying back group.

Although the dive bombers had made significant achievements in the previous battles, and the highly-regarded torpedo attack aircraft had not performed as spectacularly, the Type 96 land attack was not a dive bomber and had no capability to dive bomb.

Horizontal bombing?

As there was no assurance of hitting the target, a horizontal bombing tactic is generally not used against highly mobile targets like battleships.

If horizontal bombing was the only option, the bombing altitude had to be lowered as much as possible.

Low-level horizontal bombing might pose no issue for targeting old-fashion battleships whose air defense firepower had not been enhanced, but it was suicidal against modern advanced battleships.

However, the Type 96 land attack was capable of dropping torpedoes.

For anti-ship missions, the Type 96 primarily used air torpedoes and played the role of torpedo attack aircraft.

Initially, Takano proposed the development of this medium-sized bomber that could only be deployed at land-based airports to compensate for the deficiencies of the shipborne air force. Therefore, during its development, there was a particular emphasis on its capability to carry torpedoes for anti-ship combat, while horizontal high-altitude bombing was not as highly valued.

The battle was intensely fought.

With the enemy having significantly many aircraft, robust self-defense firepower, and being more durable than ship-borne aircraft, the more than twenty fighting planes, despite fighting with all their might, only managed to shoot down about thirty enemy aircraft and forced some enemy planes to drop bombs and torpedoes far away from the fleet.

The battle also reflected that the "Typhoon’s" four machine guns were indeed a bit few, and the ammunition allocation was not sufficient; a few longer bursts of fire could deplete it.

Around eight-thirty, approximately fifty Type 96 land attack aircraft closed in on the Third Aviation Mixed Fleet.

However, nearly half had discarded their bombs or torpedoes.

The air defense combat entered its final stage.

Fortunately, the four "Wuzhou" class ships had joined up with the carrier and appeared where they were supposed to be.

Indeed, right beside the carrier.

Before this, four Light Cruisers and six Destroyers had launched a second round of torpedo attacks against the four enemy ships behind them, temporarily preventing the enemy from shelling the four "Wuzhou" class Battleships.

Simply put, the "Wuzhou" class were thus free to focus on anti-aircraft combat.

At the same time, the last few Fighters that had scrambled managed one final interception of the enemy Plane Group.

These Fighters, not even fully loaded with bullets, could only disrupt the enemy by high-speed assault, preventing them from accurately dropping bombs or torpedoes.

At this moment, the main threat was from the high altitude.

After two intense rounds of interception, there were hardly any Type 96 Attack Aircraft left for low-altitude assault, and they were dispersed, unable to coordinate an attack.

An attack by one alone posed little threat.

At 8:45 AM, the High-altitude Guns on the "Wuzhou" and "Changzhou" fired first.

With that, the inner Fleet’s anti-aircraft combat began.

To avoid friendly fire, before letting the High-altitude Guns fire, both the "Wuzhou" and "Changzhou," serving as anti-aircraft combat Commanders, had sent signals requiring all nearby anti-aircraft Fighters to immediately turn away and evacuate, otherwise, they risked being indiscriminately targeted by the High-altitude Guns.

It was an unavoidable measure.

The enemy planes were still over ten kilometers away, and even if the gunners could see them, it would be very difficult to identify them, and in the heat of battle, there was no time for gunners to distinguish between friend and foe.

More importantly, the large-caliber High-altitude Guns were radar-guided.

In long-range anti-aircraft combat, it was actually the radar that detected targets and calculated the target’s distance and altitude, then relayed the firing data to the anti-aircraft combat Commander. Based on the situation, the Commander would then assign several High-altitude Guns within the control area to fire at the target.

On the "Wuzhou" class, there were generally four dedicated anti-aircraft combat Commanders to assign targets for the large-caliber High-altitude Guns.

Moreover, the large-caliber High-altitude Guns on the "Wuzhou" class were divided into four groups, theoretically capable of engaging two separate groups of targets from one direction simultaneously.

The large-caliber High-altitude Guns began firing at the high-altitude enemy planes first.

There was no other way; radar detected the high-altitude enemy planes first.

The hit rate was not high, but the intense barrage forced more enemy planes to veer off course to evade, with some even dropping their bombs in panic.

The critical point was that once again, the enemy planes were dispersed.

After passing through the interception of the large-caliber High-altitude Guns, there were no Bombers left that could operate in groups, at most two or three formed a small formation.

By around 8:50 AM, the anti-aircraft combat entered its final stage.

Although there were still over twenty enemy aircraft that had managed to break through the two layers of anti-aircraft defense, less than ten, still carrying bombs and torpedoes, were able to commence an attack.

All the other enemy aircraft were providing cover for their companions!

At this stage, there wasn’t much to be said, just one word: fight.

Under the command of the "Wuzhou" and "Changzhou," the four Heavy Cruisers executed a swift turn, angling their broadsides towards the direction of the incoming enemy planes.

Immediately after, hundreds of machine guns on the four Heavy Cruisers roared to life.

It wasn’t long before the machine guns on the "Imperial Capital" and "Peijing" joined the battle one after the other.

Witnessing all this on board the "Imperial Capital," Bai Zhizhan couldn’t help but feel deeply moved.

In the face of a Fleet with powerful anti-aircraft firepower, heavy Bombers like the Type 96 Attack Aircraft simply stood no chance.

To attempt it was like throwing an egg against a rock.

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