Empire Conquest
Chapter 359 - 355 Good News and Bad News

Chapter 359: Chapter 355 Good News and Bad News

The first to launch the attack wasn’t the Attack Aircraft Group sent out by Spur, but the one dispatched by Hal, specifically by the Newland 16th Special Mixed Fleet.

In terms of attack tactics, Hal’s boldness was undeniable.

Following the departure of the Reconnaissance Aircraft, he ordered the ship-borne aircraft tasked with the attack mission to take off, trailing behind the Reconnaissance Aircraft and heading south.

It can be said that this exceptionally decisive decision had a crucial impact.

Boldness and resoluteness were Hall’s hallmarks.

Given the situation at the time, deploying ship-borne aircraft to launch an attack was indeed the right decision.

The presence of Hal’s 16th Special Mixed Fleet had already been revealed, and it was bound to come under attack. According to the situation reported by the 18th Special Mixed Fleet, specifically, the battle that took place over the airspace of the Liangxia 43rd Special Mixed Fleet, the much-anticipated F4F "Wildcat" was not as powerful as Hal and the other generals had hoped.

Compared with Liangxia Navy’s new generation of ship-borne fighters, the F4F was clearly outclassed. Hence, upon being attacked, the fate of the 16th Special Mixed Fleet was more likely to be grim than fortunate.

Dispatching the ship-borne aircraft in a timely manner still presented an opportunity to launch an attack.

If the ship-borne aircraft remained on the carrier, waiting for discoveries by the Reconnaissance Aircraft before taking off, they might be too late to get airborne.

Indeed, that was the case.

Before Hal’s dispatched Reconnaissance Aircraft could locate the Liangxia 41st Special Mixed Fleet’s carriers, Liangxia Fleet’s Attack Aircraft Group appeared above the 16th Special Mixed Fleet, launching two successive waves of attacks from different directions, one of which came from the south.

Still, Hal managed to exact some revenge; the Attack Aircraft Group he sent out bombed four Heavy Cruisers that were in advance.

By the end of the attack, two Heavy Cruisers had been sunk, and the other two were severely damaged—likely to sink before long.

Since the Attack Aircraft Group of the 16th Special Mixed Fleet had reached their target first and launched their attack, the second Attack Aircraft Group deployed by the 17th Special Mixed Fleet did not engage in the battle. Instead, they continued flying westward and discovered two Long-range Cruisers about half an hour later.

Those two Long-range Cruisers were located more than 100 kilometers to the west of the four Heavy Cruisers.

Half an hour later, mainly because they did not know where Liangxia’s 41st Special Mixed Fleet carriers were hiding, Major Dutte ordered a decrease in flight speed to extend the time the aircraft could stay in the air.

Initially, the message the advisors sent was about the discovery of the Long-range Cruisers and the commencement of the attack.

But where were the carriers?

In the telegram sent back by the group leader, Major Dutte, only the Long-range Cruisers and the attack were mentioned, not the carriers!

Could dozens of ship-borne aircraft have failed to find the carriers?

Clearly, this was the key issue that was causing Spur such consternation.

Since both Attack Aircraft Groups were launching attacks simultaneously, Tanimoto emphasized one point in the tactical arrangements: the group arriving first should not take all the glory, and if needed, they must target Liangxia Fleet’s Anti-Air Warships, especially the Long-range Cruisers with their particularly ferocious anti-air firepower.

These warships had replaced their Main Guns with High-altitude Guns—in fact, they had 32 of the 130mm-caliber High-altitude Guns!

This number surpassed all other warships.

Even the renowned Liangxia Fast Battleships, known for their fierce anti-air firepower, had only 24 such guns.

On a Heavy Cruiser of the same ten-thousand-ton class, normally there would be just 12 130mm high-altitude guns, and even with dedicated enhancement of anti-air firepower, there would still only be 16.

Because of this, the second Attack Aircraft Group that arrived first encountered resistance and subsequently bombed those two Long-range Cruisers.

At this juncture, the situation had become exceptionally precarious.

The key point was that the first group to depart, led by Major Clark, had already passed the point of return, and those dozens of ship-borne aircraft surely couldn’t make it back.

Even if Major Dutte’s group could return, the combat power of the Newland 17th Special Mixed Fleet would be halved.

If they didn’t annihilate the 41st Special Mixed Fleet in one fell swoop, or even if they didn’t find the 41st Special Mixed Fleet, what could the remaining ship-borne aircraft possibly accomplish?

Then, should they consider retreating ahead of time?

Tanimoto hesitated a bit.

He wasn’t afraid to die, but he felt that continuing to fight with absolutely no chance of victory meant nothing but adding to their losses.

It was at this moment that the Communication Advisor hurried over again.

This time, he brought two telegrams, one containing good news and the other bad news.

The bad news was that the "Sara" from the 18th Special Mixed Fleet had been sunk, but fortunately, more than a thousand officers and sailors, including Frey, had been rescued.

The surviving officers and sailors had been transferred to escort battleships, and Frey had issued the order to retreat.

A few escort battleships had been bombarded, and disconcertingly, aside from a destroyer operating near the carrier hit by a stray torpedo, the rest were all unscathed.

The good news was that the Plane Group of the 16th Special Mixed Fleet had successfully annihilated Liangxia’s 21st Special Mixed Fleet, sinking two carriers.

Yes, the telegram explicitly mentioned "sinking."

According to the pilots’ descriptions, both carriers were of the "Longjiang" class. The first one to be attacked was already listing severely after being hit by bombs and torpedoes and was on the verge of capsizing at any moment. The other, after being bombarded, had its flight deck engulfed in a massive fire, with almost the entire carrier consumed by flames.

Before Tanimoto and Spur could rejoice, a third telegram arrived.

It was still from the 16th Special Mixed Fleet and sent personally by Hal.

The "York" had been sunk, and before sinking, a large explosion occurred, sparing only about 100 injured personnel who had been transferred earlier from the tragedy; over 2300 officers and sailors, including Captain Buck, perished in battle, among them dozens of Air Force pilots.

Moreover, the "Lek" had also lost its combat capability.

Although not many enemy aircraft had attacked the "Lek," the quality of the enemy pilots was very high, and the bombing accuracy was frighteningly impressive.

Additionally, the "Lek’s" resistance capability wasn’t much stronger than the "York," which was 10,000 tons smaller.

Before sending the telegram, Hal had already issued the order to retreat.

Despite water in two boiler rooms reducing its power by half, the rate of water intake into the ship’s body had been controlled, allowing for an approximate speed of 22 knots.

Because the flight deck had been damaged beyond repair and water had been ordered into the ammunition stores to prevent a sympathetic detonation following impacts, even if they could recover a batch of ship-borne aircraft, they couldn’t launch them, let alone continue fighting.

If Hal said combat was no longer possible, it certainly was no longer an option.

Perhaps the actual situation was even worse.

Additionally, Hal had made plans.

He directed the second Attack Aircraft Group’s ship-borne aircraft to fly east after completing their mission and land on the 17th Special Mixed Fleet’s carriers.

The telegram also mentioned that the "Lek" would head southeast

Only after leaving the combat area would the "Lek" head to Wei Island.

Essentially, this was telling Spur to rendezvous at Wei Island after the battle was over.

Originally, the plan had been to head straight back to Treasure Harbor after the fight, without any stops en route, let alone a rendezvous at Wei Island.

Though the telegram didn’t detail the specific damages, the fact that Hal had decided to retreat indicated that the "Lek" had been severely damaged.

Even if it could leave the battlefield and return to Newland, it would take a lot of time to repair.

Now, the only ones left on the battlefield still capable of continuing the fight were the two carriers from the 17th Special Mixed Fleet.

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