Empire Conquest

Chapter 448 - 444: Nothing Gained

If you think about it, Spur’s concerns were actually somewhat redundant.

Cunningham was indeed stubbornly self-opinionated, but his predictions for the war situation were not significantly off, and the Expeditionary Fleet was leading the charge, with the weather also playing a role.

In the Southern Hemisphere, January is summer.

Although the high latitude regions are not too hot, near Far View Cape, there are terrifying waves, with average wind strengths generally above force eight during the day.

This meant that ship-borne aircraft simply could not take off or land on the carrier!

Moreover, just a few hundred kilometers to the northeast, outside the West Wind Belt, the weather would improve, and wind speeds would drop to around force five.

Clearly, Liangxia Fleet, located hundreds of kilometers away, could definitely deploy its ship-borne aircraft normally.

If the Expeditionary Fleet and the 61st Special Mixed Fleet were attacked south of Far View Cape, without being able to deploy ship-borne aircraft, they could only take a beating!

Thus, Cunningham decided that the two fleets should operate separately.

Even if one was attacked, the other could avoid it.

Furthermore, if the Expeditionary Fleet successfully entered Fan Flame Ocean, it could cover the 61st Special Mixed Fleet at the forefront.

If they could maneuver south, or southeast, of the Liangxia Fleet, they might even have the chance to launch a surprise attack, catching the Liangxia Fleet off-guard.

Regardless, for both fleets to enter the Fan Flame Ocean together would be utterly foolish.

As per the plan, after sending that telegram, the Expeditionary Fleet entered a state of radio silence and no longer contacted the 61st Special Mixed Fleet.

It wasn’t fear of exposing their position.

The Liangxia Empire’s radio monitoring stations were thousands of kilometers away, and there was reason to believe that the Liangxia Navy had not deployed submarines in the Fan Flame Ocean.

Using the radio would not expose the fleet’s position.

In Cunningham’s view, it simply wasn’t necessary.

Although Cunningham did not deny Spur’s capabilities, he always considered this Newland general, who was merely a colonel before the war, as a nouveau riche lacking the demeanor expected of a Navy general; in many respects, he seemed like a cowboy donning a naval uniform.

Dealing with such a person, Cunningham felt there wasn’t much to say.

As for whether Spur could comprehend his intentions, Cunningham didn’t think too much about it.

He was the overall commander of the expedition; Spur only needed to follow his orders.

The journey was silent.

On the evening of January 25th, the Expeditionary Fleet reached the waters south of Far View Cape and entered Fan Flame Ocean.

In fact, Sunset Ocean and Fan Flame Ocean have no actual borders.

During dinner, Cunningham announced via broadcast that the Expeditionary Fleet had entered Fan Flame Ocean and was about to engage the Liangxia Fleet.

That night, other than ensuring the pilots rested well and were ready to take off by pre-dawn, there were no other significant activities.

At 4 AM on the 26th, "Radiant" and "Terrifying" began to bustle.

After a tense half-hour preparation, "Swordfish" reconnaissance aircraft took off in succession.

It was summer in the Southern Hemisphere, still in high latitude areas, so dawn broke after 5 AM, with the sun rising around 5:30.

According to Cunningham’s plan, each carrier deployed eight "Swordfish" for reconnaissance missions.

Actually, this made up all the torpedo bombers aboard the two carriers.

Since the primary target in the operations against the Liangxia Fleet was their carriers, they had replaced the old bombers with SBDs before the expedition.

The most crucial replacement was the bombers, as the Bulan Royal Navy didn’t possess true dive bombers.

Additionally, the "Radiant" class could carry only up to forty or so ship-borne aircraft. As they were traveling through the harsh climates of the South Sunset Ocean and South Fan Flame Ocean, both carriers had loaded only 32 ship-borne aircraft and stored all aircraft in the hangar, not leaving any tied on the flight deck.

The result was that aside from 12 F4Fs and 12 SBDs, only eight "Swordfish" could be squeezed in.

Indeed, a low aircraft capacity had always been a chronic issue for the Bulan carriers.

Fortunately, the Royal Navy had made early arrangements, deploying a batch of ship-borne aircraft to the South Xuan region, including over 40 "Swordfish."

After leaving the West Wind Belt, it would be possible to get reinforcements.

Including the spots on the flight deck, a dozen more aircraft could be loaded.

Sixteen reconnaissance aircraft were not plentiful, but the search area was not vast.

As mentioned before, the West Wind Belt could be ignored; the focus was on the seas north of the West Wind Belt.

For this, Cunningham allocated all sixteen "Swordfish" to head northeast, expanding the search range to 800 kilometers, nearly the farthest flight radius of the "Swordfish."

Additionally, Cunningham had prepared a backup plan.

Both carriers readied four SBDs for takeoff.

If by 8 am the "Swordfish" reached their farthest reconnaissance radius without spotting the Liangxia Fleet, those SBDs would immediately take off, extending the sector-shaped search area by 30 degrees on both sides, sending six SBDs to focus on the seas near the Xuan Continent.

In this way, when the "Swordfish" returned around noon, they could be deployed again.

In short, the primary mission was to locate the Special Mixed Fleet of Liangxia.

To this end, the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force stationed in the South Xuan region would also go all out, deploying all available aircraft.

Including the Air Force units from Magas Island, a total of about 30 patrol aircraft could be assembled.

Some of these were the "Sunderland" long-range patrol aircraft that had previously demonstrated their prowess in anti-submarine combat in the North Sunset Ocean.

According to Cunningham’s judgment, unless Bai Zhizhan did not bring the Fleet, they would definitely be discovered.

Thus, he also preemptively arranged for an attack, ensuring the pilots were combat-ready, and even had the attack mission’s ship-borne aircraft pre-refueled.

It must be mentioned, this was also a significant advantage of the Bulan carriers.

Due to frequently operating in the harsh climate of the North Sunset Ocean, the Bulan Royal Navy demanded that, at crucial moments, ship-borne aircraft be able to complete pre-takeoff preparations inside the hangar, be sent fully loaded to the flight deck, and minimize the time spent on the flight deck as much as possible.

There were certainly risks, but they had never been apparent.

As for the benefits, they were very significant.

Putting it bluntly, when the Liangxia and Newland carriers with open hangars could not deploy ship-borne aircraft, Bulan carriers were still able to continue fighting.

To say, the small aircraft capacity of Bulan carriers, the use of fully enclosed hangars was the primary reason.

Of course, unless they continued to increase the carrier’s tonnage, a choice had to be made between aircraft capacity and seaworthiness; it was not possible to have both.

From another perspective, the Liangxia Navy continuously increasing the tonnage of its carriers was also to enhance the carriers’ seaworthiness.

The most notable feature of the "Province" class was that it significantly increased stability in high sea conditions, based on a modest increase in aircraft capacity.

Also, due to using a wide body configuration, the maximum speed was somewhat reduced.

Objectively speaking, it was only with the "Province" class that the Empire’s carriers surpassed those of Bulan in seaworthiness, something which was not feasible before.

After all the arrangements were made, what remained was just patiently waiting.

And that wait was for an entire day.

By the afternoon, when the "Swordfish" took off for the second and the day’s third reconnaissance mission, there was still no news.

Subsequently, the SBDs that had taken off in the morning gradually returned.

Even until dusk, the radio channel remained utterly silent, with no messages even from the patrol aircraft units deployed in the South Xuan region.

Could it be that the Special Mixed Fleet of Liangxia did not come?