Empire Conquest
Chapter 353 - 349: The Sudden Surprise

Chapter 353: Chapter 349: The Sudden Surprise

"Boss Shen, do you see it?"

Hearing the reminder from the navigator in the back seat, Shen Pu still vigorously rubbed his eyes.

Yes, that was a carrier!

This surprise came so suddenly that Shen Pu wasn’t even mentally prepared.

Judging from the size of the deck, or rather the proportion of the island to the deck, it was a "York" class, not the larger "Lek" class.

However, that was enough.

The carrier was right ahead, less than 10 kilometers away.

It seemed that the carrier had detected the attack aircraft group approaching from low altitude, and was rapidly turning to try to bring its high-altitude guns into play.

What surprised Shen Pu even more was that there were neither escort battleships nor anti-aircraft fighters nearby.

There was the carrier, with nothing whatsoever to obstruct it from the attacking plane group.

The closest warships were several kilometers ahead of the carrier, firing their high-altitude guns fiercely, appearing to be a heavy cruiser.

Where had the Newland Fleet’s anti-aircraft fighters gone?

What was there in the front, the northwest direction, the attack aircraft group from the 21st Special Mixed Fleet or seaplanes from other squadrons?

"Boss Shen!?"

"Alert the others, 4th Wing follow me up, 3rd Wing continue the forward search."

"Yes!"

As the navigator began to call the other squadron leaders in the wing, Shen Pu had already pushed the control stick down, reducing the flying altitude to below 100 meters.

Behind, two squadrons of "Wasps," upon receiving the order, had already spread out to both sides and flew up to higher altitudes.

One had to admit that Zhou Yongtao’s tactics were very effective.

After receiving the telegram from the "Longxing" suspecting that the Newland warships were equipped with gun-aiming radar, Zhou Yongtao specifically told Shen Pu and the other pilots that the Newland Navy must have been equipped with anti-aircraft search radar, capable of detecting enemy aircraft from great distances.

The reason was that the development of gun-aiming radar was more difficult than that of anti-aircraft search radar.

For this reason, Zhou Yongtao particularly emphasized one point when arranging tactics.

Upon reaching the predetermined area, or rather about 150 kilometers away from the predetermined area, reduce the flying altitude to below 500 meters, preferably below 300 meters, and have the "Flying Fish," with better low-altitude flying performance in front leading the way, with the "Wasp" plane group lagging 20 to 30 kilometers behind.

Only low-altitude flight could evade radar detection.

In theory, anti-aircraft search radar had a detection range of no more than 50 kilometers against aircraft flying at low altitudes. If the weather was not good, it could not even reach 40 kilometers.

If the flying altitude was reduced to below 300 meters, the aircraft could even enter visual range without being detected by radar.

Mainly because the interference from sea wave reflections would mask the signals reflected by the fighter aircraft, so the anti-aircraft search radar would have difficulty detecting low-flying enemy planes.

In fact, this had been proven.

As long as one maintained ultra-low altitude flight, there was a good chance to break through the enemy fleet’s air defense network.

Of course, this posed a challenge for escort combat.

According to the new tactical arrangement, fighters were also flying behind, together with the "Wasps."

Only when the "Flying Fish" in the lead detected enemy planes and called out, could the escort fighters advance.

The problem that arose from this was that if the fighter aircraft’s performance was not good enough, particularly the speed, the leading "Flying Fish" group would be slaughtered by anti-aircraft fighters.

Only after the "Xiaotian" was commissioned, could such escort tactics be adopted.

In short, when approaching the 16th Special Mixed Fleet, all plane groups of the 41st Special Mixed Fleet were flying at low altitude.

"Flying Fish" Plane Group pushed forward, not only because the "Flying Fish" had better low-altitude performance, but also because it was inherently the slowest.

Because the "Wasp" Plane Group had not yet caught up, in fact, they had not yet climbed to the desired altitude, and it took some time to prepare for the torpedo drop. The main reason was that the navigator sat at the machine gunner’s position in the rear, not the middle, so as they approached the "York" class carrier, or rather just before the approach, Shen Pu led the Plane Group into a ninety-degree turn, passing in front of the carrier.

This move also served the purpose of attracting anti-aircraft fire.

When facing incoming enemy aircraft, the machine gunners on any battleship would first engage torpedo bombers.

For a time, over a hundred High-altitude Guns on the Newland carrier all aimed at the low-hovering "Flying Fish" Plane Group.

However, at a distance exceeding 5,000 meters, the small-caliber High-altitude Guns were practically ornamental; the large-caliber High-altitude Guns were not very efficient against close-range enemy aircraft.

In fact, there was a firepower gap of several kilometers between the 40 millimeter Machine Guns and the 5-inch High-altitude Guns.

This was precisely why the Empire Navy began installing medium-caliber rapid-fire guns on battleships.

Because there was a Heavy Cruiser to the Northwest of the carrier, the "Flying Fish" Plane Group made another turn halfway and reformed formation after the turn.

During the cruising phase, 8 "Flying Fish" flew in a column formation.

For the attack phase, they had to switch to an echelon formation, that is, they also needed to spread out laterally to avoid interference from the torpedo bombers in front during the torpedo drop.

At this time, a "Wasp" squadron had completed climbing and entered the sprint phase.

"Boss Shen, the ’Stinger’ has arrived!" the navigator reminded Shen Pu.

"Everybody, follow me."

There was no need for more instructions, all the pilots were veterans, and the "Wasp" up high were clearly visible; they could see them just by looking up.

The first to charge were actually the Xiaotian Fighters escorting.

Because there were no enemy Fighters nearby, at least Shen Pu didn’t see any, the Xiaotian Fighters all pounced on the carrier, strafing the High-altitude Guns on both sides of the flight deck with their machine guns.

As a result, the High-altitude Guns on that "York" class carrier all targeted the Xiaotian Fighters.

Perhaps the machine gunners mistook the Fighters for Dive Bombers.

It was not surprising; the Xiaotian was often used as a Dive Bomber, and it performed exceptionally well in dive bombing.

Crucially, the Fighters’ diving angle was very steep.

To increase the strafing coverage, the Fighters would keep their diving angle below 45 degrees, whereas Bombers would use an angle over 70 degrees when dropping bombs.

The High-altitude Gunners would identify the type of enemy aircraft based on their diving angle.

Speed?

No gunner could accurately estimate the flight speed of an enemy aircraft by sight.

As for the shape, that was even less reliable.

At a distance of several kilometers, the aircraft seen were really just shadows.

Even using binoculars, it was difficult to discern the model of the aircraft from its shape.

For this reason, Shen Pu led the "Flying Fish" Plane Group unhindered onto the torpedo attack course, and 8 "Flying Fish" dropped their torpedoes in sequence.

High above, 8 "Wasp" divided into two groups of four, entering from the left aft and right aft sides of the carrier, respectively.

In theory, Dive Bombers entering along the longitudinal axis of a ship could maximize the hit rate, but the ship would turn to evade, so the Bombers’ entry path would create an angle with the ship’s longitudinal axis, or rather its heading, usually around thirty degrees.

It was only after the Dive Bombers arrived that the Newland carrier began to perform evasive maneuvers.

It must be said, the shrill sound emitted by Bombers during a dive was the most obvious characteristic; at least the Xiaotian didn’t have such an aura when diving.

Unfortunately, it was all a futile struggle.

Caught between torpedo bombers and Bombers, no amount of maneuvering was useful, because even if all the bombs were avoided, the torpedoes would strike.

That carrier was doomed for sure!