Empire Conquest

Chapter 458 - 454: Be the First to Discover

On January 28, just past 4 a.m., there was a flurry of activity aboard the "Fenjin."

After watching the first SBD take off for its reconnaissance mission, Spur returned to the Command Bridge and sat in the chair that belonged to him.

In his quiet state, Spur resembled a Stone Buddha.

Most of the time, he was in this quiet state.

Tanimoto even joked about it, saying that if Spur had been born in the Saiyi Imperial Country, he might have become a high-ranking monk.

It wasn’t until the last SBD took off that Tanimoto hurried over, and it was now 4:30 a.m., about an hour before dawn.

Sending out the Reconnaissance Aircraft an hour before sunrise was Spur’s idea, and Tanimoto did not object.

The main reason was that both of them believed that Bai Zhizhan would fully utilize the advantage of the new model ship-borne aircraft’s operational radius to maintain a sufficient distance from the Newland Fleet and the Bulan Fleet, avoiding early contact and ensuring safe operations at sea until an opportunity to initiate combat was found.

Somewhat conservative, but it also matched the actual situation.

Key to this was that the Liangxia Fleet might retreat some distance during the night and then turn back during the day, while deploying Reconnaissance Aircraft to search for targets.

According to this analysis, even if the 61st Special Mixed Fleet sailed northeast throughout the night, they might not be able to approach the Liangxia Fleet.

Besides, after the fleet oiler had been sunk, Bai Zhizhan was sure to consider the issue of anti-submarine warfare, which could potentially increase the Fleet’s retreat distance during the night.

Additionally, he might even decide to return home in the near future.

All things considered, the distance from the Liangxia Fleet might still be over 400 kilometers before dawn, perhaps even exceeding 500 kilometers.

As such, even if the SBD’s cruising speed approached 300 kilometers per hour and took off an hour in advance, they might not be able to locate the Liangxia Fleet after sunrise.

Of course, the extra half an hour was not a bad thing, because it would take at least an hour and a half to prepare the ship-borne aircraft assigned for attack missions.

On the flight deck, the aviation ground crew was busy preparing the newly arrived ship-borne aircraft for sortie.

There were still too few Reconnaissance Aircraft, only a total of eight.

It wasn’t that Spur didn’t want to deploy more Reconnaissance Aircraft, but there were no more SBDs available.

The "Fenjin" only carried 24 SBDs in total, and with eight assigned to reconnaissance, this left 16, just enough to form two squadrons.

This was the minimum number needed to attack two carriers at the same time in one sortie.

As shown by the Northwest East Ocean Battle, two squadrons of SBDs were far from enough. To engage two fleet carriers simultaneously, at least three squadrons of SBDs were required.

Furthermore, the "Fenjin" simply did not have enough aircraft on board.

When it set sail from Treasure Harbor, the "Fenjin" had 84 ship-borne aircraft, but this number was reduced to 56 due to severe wind and waves around the Joint angle. That meant only the aircraft stored in the Hangar remained, with none tied down on the flight deck.

Later on, above the South Sunset Ocean, the number increased to 75.

Traveling to the Fan Flame Ocean, some of the ship-borne aircraft tied on the flight deck were damaged when going through the West Wind Belt, reducing the number to 68.

Four of them were spares, only assembled in recent days, so whether they could operate normally was questionable.

This showed how adverse weather had impacted all aircraft carriers.

From this perspective, the Royal Bulan Navy’s insistence on using fully enclosed hangars on their carriers was not without reason.

Of the 68 usable ship-borne aircraft, besides the 24 SBDs, there were also 28 F4F Wildcats and 16 TBF Avengers.

The latter were manufactured by the same Grumman Company that produced the F4Fs, but they were pre-production models, with almost every aircraft being different and showing performance flaws.

Nevertheless, they were certainly much better than the previous TBD Devastators.

Indeed, it was precisely because of the TBD’s poor performance and the improbability of breaking through when engaging the Liangxia Fleet that the Newland Navy decided to procure dozens of pre-production model TBFs for the shipborne Air Force, giving priority to the "Fenjin" in fulfilling their needs.

With this number of ship-borne aircraft, at most they could organize one attack.

If they could find the Liangxia Fleet in time and launch a preemptive strike, then even if there was only one chance to act, it was better than being hit.

As usual, after dispatching the reconnaissance aircraft, they had to patiently wait.

But this time, Spur would only wait for a maximum of an hour and a half.

According to his request, all reconnaissance aircraft set their search radius to 450 kilometers, turning back after flying out 450 kilometers.

This distance was the maximum operational radius for the SBD and TBF when loaded with bombs and torpedoes for an attack mission.

Any further, and even if they found the Liangxia Fleet, they could only send the ship-borne aircraft on a one-way mission.

Not to mention there was no guarantee of completely destroying the Liangxia Fleet, even with a high level of confidence, Spur would not let his valuable pilots go on a suicide mission.

After the Northwest East Ocean Battle, the "Fenjin" had been operating in the waters east of the Howay Islands, with the main task being to train the ship-borne aircraft pilots.

In fact, Spur realized the value of pilots during the Northwest East Ocean Battle.

The Liangxia Navy’s overwhelming victory was directly related to the pilots’ extensive combat experience.

In Tanimoto’s words, after a year of fierce battle with the Saiyi Navy, the Liangxia Navy had the best quality and most experienced pilots in the world.

The invincibility of the Liangxia Navy was inseparable from the outstanding capabilities of its officers and soldiers.

From another perspective, wasn’t the Bai Zhizhan the most typical representation?

This was also related to the Liangxia Empire’s constant preparation for war.

Before the outbreak of the great war, the Liangxia Navy held fleet exercises annually, or rather, the fleet’s daily training revolved around the annual fleet exercise.

The most direct impact of this practice was to keep the officers and soldiers always in a state of readiness.

Although the Newland Navy emulated the Liangxia Navy and also held a fleet drill each year, in terms of intensity, vigor, and scope, they were far from comparable to the Liangxia Navy.

To use Tanimoto’s words, it was a bit like a homely woman trying to imitate the frown of a beauty.

Moreover, at the same time their reconnaissance aircraft found the Liangxia Fleet, the Liangxia Fleet would also detect the reconnaissance planes and determine that the Newland Fleet was nearby.

In short, if they did not find the Liangxia Fleet within half an hour after dawn, around 6 a.m., they would have to turn and retreat.

This point in time was crucial.

Not to avoid a potential attack, but because at this time, in addition to the 8 air defense fighters, other fighters would take off one after another.

As a result, throughout the morning for the next 6 hours, all 28 F4F Wildcats would carry out air defense patrol missions over the fleet.

Even if they were attacked, there would be enough fighters for air defense combat.

Despite the "Wildcat" being less capable than the "Xiaotian," as long as there were enough of them, they could certainly overwhelm the enemy planes and force them to drop their bombs and torpedoes early.

If a reconnaissance aircraft discovered the Liangxia Fleet, then before 6 a.m., the ship-borne aircraft assigned to attack missions would take off.

Under these circumstances, fleet air defense was a secondary concern.

Tactical arrangements had already been made.

But this time, they didn’t wait an hour and a half.

Soon after dawn, just before 5:40 a.m., the Communication Advisor brought over a telegram just received from Cunningham, sent from the flagship "Radiant" of the Expeditionary Fleet.

The Expeditionary Fleet had intercepted a wireless signal, which after comparison was confirmed to be sent from the radio of a Liangxia Navy seaplane.

In other words, the Expeditionary Fleet had been exposed.