Empire Conquest

Chapter 460 - 456 Impending Disaster

Is the Liangxia Fleet really north of the Expeditionary Fleet?

Perhaps not!

After the Northwest East Ocean Battle, Spur had repeatedly conducted simulations, and the conclusion he reached was that the Liangxia Fleet Commander displayed great flexibility in choosing aerial tactics, not rigidly adhering to conventions, and placing special emphasis on maintaining their own secrecy.

In naval battles centered around carriers, concealment is indeed the best form of protection.

No matter how powerful a fleet is, once its position is exposed and it comes under attack, it often can’t escape destruction, so utmost efforts to remain hidden are essential.

This is exactly why control over the flight paths of the Attack Aircraft Group is necessary.

As long as they’re close enough, it’s not an issue for ship-borne aircraft to take off and then detour a certain distance.

The key is the interval between when the Expeditionary Fleet is spotted and when it comes under attack.

In total, there’s only one hour!

Even if the Liangxia Fleet’s ship-borne aircraft fly in a straight line at top speed after taking off toward the Expeditionary Fleet, one hour is very short.

It would mean that the Liangxia Fleet is no more than 200 kilometers away from the Expeditionary Fleet.

The reason being: The Liangxia Fleet wouldn’t let the attacking ship-borne aircraft take off in advance, at most allowing them to be on standby on the flight deck; once the Reconnaissance Aircraft’s scouting report is received, about 20 minutes are needed for the ship-borne aircraft to take off and then about 10 minutes to form up; even if the ship-borne aircraft are dispatched in batches and form up during flight, there are only 40 minutes of flying time.

For heavily laden torpedo bombers, 40 minutes would only allow for a range of 200 kilometers.

So close yet the Liangxia Fleet remained undetected.

How is that possible!

Could it be that Cunningham did not send out Reconnaissance Aircraft before dawn, or did he not send any northward?

Crucially, the Expeditionary Fleet has several large Battleships, equipped with more than a dozen Seaplanes, and the Royal Navy has a tradition of using Seaplanes for reconnaissance missions.

In short, being this close yet undetected is simply illogical.

While Spur was pondering this issue, Tanimoto was doing something else.

"Based on the telegraphs received successively, I’ve compiled the statistics, and this is the result," Tanimoto said as he handed a slip of paper to Spur.

Taking a glance, Spur’s brow immediately furrowed.

Cunningham exaggerated the battle results!

According to the intercepted telegraphs, during the previous battle, the Expeditionary Fleet’s achievements were only seven, or rather, a maximum of seven enemy aircraft were shot down by Anti-Air Warships.

Moreover, there were just four squads of Bombers and Torpedo Bombers attacking two "Radiant" class carriers.

By this calculation, the total size of the Liangxia Attack Aircraft Group is probably just over forty.

To cripple the Expeditionary Fleet and heavily damage two Fleet carriers with just over forty ship-borne aircraft - the combat efficiency is terrifyingly high.

The remaining ship-borne aircraft of the Liangxia Fleet, aside from fulfilling the Fleet’s air defenses, are ample to form another Attack Aircraft Group.

Furthermore, after the Attack Aircraft Group returns, which is after 10 A.M., the Liangxia Fleet will recover its full strength, able to launch two waves of attacks continuously.

Of course, with enough ship-borne aircraft, anything is possible.

"What do you think?" Spur asked with a headache.

At this stage, it’s already too late to consider retreating.

Now, even if you don’t want to fight, you must!

If Reconnaissance Aircraft can discover the Liangxia Fleet and launch an attack in time, perhaps the tide could be turned.

"It’s not too late to change course now."

Spur was slightly taken aback, clearly not expecting Tanimoto to say this.

"Although Cunningham did not mention it in the telegram, there are reasons to believe that he definitely sent out reconnaissance planes before dawn, and surely a few flew north. If the Liangxia Fleet is indeed north of the Expeditionary Fleet and had dispatched Seaplanes before dawn to prepare the attacking ship-borne aircraft for takeoff in advance, then there’s a high probability they were discovered by the Reconnaissance Aircraft of the Expeditionary Fleet prior to that."

"Why?"

"Liangxia carriers all have open hangars, so they must refuel and arm on the flight deck, which means they need to use lights for illumination at night."

Spur nodded in agreement with Tanimoto’s deduction.

In combat status, not just carriers but any battleship must control lighting at night, meaning that they aren’t allowed to use deck illumination equipment at will.

"From my personal perspective, I’m afraid we’ve had it wrong from the start; the Liangxia Fleet isn’t to the north of the Expeditionary Fleet."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I can’t explain it; it’s just my gut feeling."

After saying this, Tanimoto also sighed. If he could have explained his intuition clearly, he would have already told Spur.

"Do you think we should turn and retreat?"

"At the very least, we need to get the fighters into the air as soon as possible to expand the range of our air patrol. For all we know, we might have been exposed as well, and the attacking Plane Group could be arriving soon."

Spur was startled again, but he immediately stood up.

Tanimoto was right, they had been thinking about how to locate the Liangxia Fleet and why the Expeditionary Fleet suddenly came under attack, but they hadn’t considered anti-air defenses.

The crux of the matter was one thing.

Ships’ listening posts generally operate on long-wave bands, which can’t intercept all radio signals, so they can’t guarantee the timely detection of enemy aircraft radios nearby.

If this was the case, even if they had been discovered by the enemy planes and the enemy had transmitted a radio message, they would be none the wiser.

The critical point was that now the radio equipment used by Reconnaissance Aircraft and Seaplanes was much more advanced than the radios at the outbreak of the war.

Moreover, intelligence indicated that the Liangxia Navy had already obtained shortwave voice radios with a working distance of over 100 kilometers.

Who could assure that the Liangxia Navy didn’t have shortwave radios with a range of several hundred kilometers?

Spur didn’t understand technology, and neither did Tanimoto, but neither of them ruled out this possibility.

While the Liangxia Empire wasn’t leading in every aspect, it did indeed lead the trend in naval technological equipment.

The most representative of this was radar and other electronic equipment.

If someone now told Spur that the Liangxia Navy had a device capable of detecting enemy ships hundreds of kilometers away, he wouldn’t be surprised.

Perhaps the Expeditionary Fleet had been discovered before 5:30, which is why the Liangxia Fleet was able to launch its ship-borne aircraft earlier.

It was for this reason that the Expeditionary Fleet came under attack from the Liangxia Navy’s ship-borne aircraft an hour after spotting that Liangxia Navy Seaplane.

Spur didn’t delay and immediately ordered the fighters to take off.

In addition, he ordered the Fleet to enter combat air patrol status.

As for whether to turn and evade, Spur hadn’t made a decision yet.

Either way, it was just Tanimoto’s guess, and the SBD tasked with the scouting mission would return around 7:30, and it was already 7:15.

What would another ten minutes or so change?

Clearly, ten minutes were enough to finish a battle, to decide the life and death of a fleet.

Actually, it boiled down to just a few minutes.

When the air raid alert sounded, and the communication reported that the radar on the escort battleship detected enemy aircraft coming from the south, Spur was stunned.

However, he immediately recovered.

Both he and Tanimoto had misjudged the situation, or rather, underestimated Bai Zhizhan’s audacity, committing a very serious and fundamental mistake.

Knowing full well that the Newland Fleet had also entered the Fan Flame Ocean, did Bai Zhizhan dare to engage in a decisive battle without absolute confidence?

Since he launched the attack, it meant Bai Zhizhan was absolutely certain!