Empire Conquest
Chapter 92 - 88 Successful Attack

Chapter 92: Chapter 88 Successful Attack

"Colonel, we only have enough fuel left to return!"

The navigator reminded Genda once more before, with reluctance in his heart, he controlled the Type 97 carrier bomber to turn and embark on the journey back to the Mobile Fleet, heading east.

Although he hadn’t found the two carriers from the other Special Mixed Fleet, which made Genda feel somewhat regretful, sinking two carriers in a single sortie had already left him more than content. However, the fact that Lieutenant Colonel You Yong from the Second Air Corps had died for his country filled him with immense grief.

If they had won this battle, You Yong would have definitely been the top contributor to the victory.

Genda had already decided, once back, to propose to Commander Takano that You Yong be awarded the Spirit House, symbolic of the highest honor for an Imperial Country serviceman. As long as the honor was bestowed, for thousands of generations henceforth, he would be remembered by the citizens of the Imperial Country, living forever in their hearts.

Of course, that was all to come later.

Because they had not encountered the fighters of the Special Mixed Fleet—more accurately, because they had received timely information and lowered their flight altitude below the clouds, skillfully avoiding the anti-aircraft fighters—You Yong’s Ship Attack Squadron, under his leadership, had rushed to the front and were the first to discover the Special Mixed Fleet.

At this time, You Yong did something extremely crucial.

He took over command from Genda.

At that moment, the situation had almost spiraled out of control.

The reason was straightforward: the scattered Ship Attack Squadrons and ship bomb squadrons, without any warning, were ambushed once again by fighters.

It appeared the pilots of those fighters had the eyes of a hawk, spotting the Saiyi Navy’s planes from afar, then seizing the advantageous position and even climbing higher to launch their attacks from above, from the direction of the zenith, catching the Saiyi Navy pilots completely off guard.

Let’s not forget, it was now noon, with the sun directly overhead.

The pilots involved in the attack mission had almost all participated in the battle that raided Chengjiang Port, many without even having lunch, to say nothing of rest.

Who in their right mind would stare straight at the sun above!?

As a result, after the sudden encounter with the fighters, most of the Ship Attack and ship bomb pilots were unprepared and frantically jettisoned their bombs and torpedoes. Even the few pilots who managed to react, staying calm and composed, found it was in vain as they were then shot down by the fighters.

Within just a couple of minutes, the squadrons up front were annihilated without a single ship bomb or Ship Attack successfully dropping their payload.

At that time, they didn’t even know where the Special Mixed Fleet was!

It was at this critical moment that You Yong’s squadron arrived.

Under his leadership, a few Ship Attack Squadrons turned south to avoid the anti-aircraft fighters and lowered their flying altitude in advance to enter attack mode.

Afterward, You Yong spotted the flagship of the Second Aviation Mixed Fleet, the "Heng River" carrier.

There was no mistake, on both sides of the island superstructure and at the front end of the flight deck, there were huge numbers painted "3"—that was the hull number of the "Heng River." In the Liangxia Navy, the code for "Heng River" was "103," with the first digit ’1’ representing a fleet carrier, followed by two digits for the battleship number.

You Yong didn’t hesitate; under the cover of several Zero Fighters, he led four Type 97 Ship Attacks to strike.

Tragically, You Yong’s luck was extremely poor.

Before he could drop his torpedo, his aircraft was hit by a high-altitude gun.

Flying so fast, and at such a low altitude, to be struck directly by a 40mm shell—if he wasn’t torn to shreds by the shell, he’d be killed upon impact with the sea.

Moreover, You Yong’s aircraft quickly sank after hitting the sea, leaving no time for the pilot to escape.

Before the great war broke out, the Saiyi Navy had several similar accidents during training exercises, where no crew member from a Ship Attack that had crashed into the sea ever survived.

Nevertheless, You Yong had made a significant contribution.

The squadron he led had three ship attack planes successfully drop torpedoes, and at least one hit its target at the stern of the "Heng River" carrier.

After being hit by the torpedo, the "Heng River" carrier immediately slowed down, and a large fire broke out at its tail.

The "Heng River" might not sink because of this, but it would certainly lose its combat capability. If the main structure of the hull was damaged, it would likely take months to repair. This meant that for the coming months, this powerful fleet carrier was effectively sunk.

Crucially, You Yong’s attack had successfully drawn the attention of all the nearby anti-aircraft fighters!

When the flagship was under attack and a Zero Fighter daringly approached and strafed the island of the "Heng River," aiming for the command bridge at the front, the nearby "Typhoon" fighters swarmed like stimulated wasps, rushing over to confront the enemy planes attacking the flagship.

At that moment, Genda’s plane group arrived.

Not just one squadron, but a full three squadrons!

Two ship attack squadrons, and the other a ship bomb squadron.

Aside from the ship attack squadron directly commanded by Genda, the other two squadrons had joined en route, one of which, the ship bomb squadron, came from You Yong’s "Canglong" carrier.

Because the "Heng River" had already been heavily damaged, the thick smoke from the fire obscured the sky and hindered the attack, so Genda spared this carrier. More crucially, as the ship bomb squadron climbed to higher altitudes, they spotted another fleet carrier to the northwest.

Correct, it was the "Ling River."

Genda did not think twice and immediately issued the order to attack the "Ling River."

Indeed, before departure, Major Tanimoto had repeatedly emphasized that the primary objective was to inflict crippling damage on the carriers rather than sinking them.

The reasoning behind this was all too clear.

The three squadrons consisted of nineteen ship attack aircraft and eight ship bombers.

The ship bomb squadron took the lead, initiating a dive from high altitude.

Although five of the Type 99 ship bombers were shot down before they could drop their bombs, they successfully drew the attention of the nearby battleships, creating an excellent opportunity for the Type 97 ship attack planes striking from low altitude. The fast battleships and heavy cruisers flanking the carrier were all firing at the high-flying bombers.

Genda’s eleven ship attack planes approached from the left rear of the "Ling River," and another eight struck from the right rear.

Caught in a pincer attack, the "Ling River" was doomed!

Furthermore, behind the "Ling River" was a light cruiser with weak anti-aircraft firepower! On the cruiser’s rear deck were a total of six high-altitude guns, but only two were quad-barrel forty-millimeter "pom-pom" guns, capable of engaging only two enemy planes at a time.

In such a short period, they simply couldn’t stop the dozens of accelerating Type 97 ship attack planes.

Aside from the four planes shot down, the remaining fifteen ship attack planes all successfully dropped their torpedoes, and thirteen managed to turn away after releasing their load.

Genda personally saw at least three torpedoes hit the "Ling River."

Before that, the "Ling River" had also been hit by a 250-kilogram air bomb dropped from a Type 99 ship bomber. The several intense explosions that followed were especially visible from the sky. The spray from the torpedo explosions nearly engulfed the carrier, giving the illusion that it had been sunk.

Even if that carrier was not blown up, it would certainly have lost its fighting strength.

However, after completing the attack mission, Genda did not turn to return.

According to Tanimoto’s plan, if not all four carriers were discovered, Genda was to continue searching toward the southwest after completing his attack.

For this purpose, two 100-liter auxiliary fuel tanks were crammed into his plane’s cockpit.

The extra two hundred liters of fuel would allow Genda’s plane to fly for about half an hour longer.

Regrettably, half an hour was far from enough.