Empire Conquest

Chapter 502 - 498 Follow Tactics

The early morning of June 28, in the Northwest sea area of Transfer Island.

With almost two hours until dawn, the air service personnel had already started to get busy.

The planes preparing for takeoff were not bombers or attack aircraft, but several reconnaissance aircraft.

The reason was simple, there was still no definite news about Transfer Island!

Indeed, this was the most headache-inducing issue for Bai Zhizhan.

Because the distance was simply too great, the patrol aircraft stationed at the Volcanic Islands couldn’t fly over, unable to perform aerial reconnaissance of Transfer Island.

Of course, even if they could make it over, it wouldn’t be of much use.

The Newland Navy had long been equipped with radar, and they would certainly keep several fighters in the air at all times to intercept any incoming reconnaissance aircraft in a timely fashion.

Previously, reconnaissance operations on Transfer Island had been carried out by submarines.

In these past few days, the submarines that had headed towards Transfer Island had not sent out any messages, perhaps unable to approach Transfer Island.

Of course, this was not surprising.

In the past, whenever the Empire’s Main Battle Mixed Fleet left port, the Newland Navy would immediately strengthen its defenses, not only putting its main battleships on standby but also increasing patrol intensity around the main islands to avoid sudden attacks, while also exerting psychological pressure on the Empire’s Navy.

Before the Northwest East Ocean Battle, when the Newland Navy made a large-scale deployment, the Empire’s Navy would also strengthen its defenses.

Thus, after the departure of two Special Mixed Fleets from the anchorage, the Newland Navy would inevitably reinforce the anti-submarine forces around Transfer Island.

If there were enemy vessels operating nearby, then the submarines on reconnaissance missions would certainly not dare to surface, let alone approach Transfer Island.

When drafting the plans, Bai Zhizhan had not counted on receiving reconnaissance reports from submarines.

According to the schedule, on the day of the attack, the first move would be to send out reconnaissance aircraft to determine the situation on Transfer Island, especially at the airfield, before launching a strike.

Here, two very important tactics were involved.

The first was ultra-low altitude ingress.

After several months of probing and a few real-world tests, having suffered some losses, it had been determined that ultra-low altitude penetration could effectively shorten the detection range of the enemy’s air defense radar and compress the enemy’s air defense operation time, thus improving the penetration efficiency of the aircraft group.

Obviously, this was useful not only for attacks but also for reconnaissance.

The second was coordinated operations.

In fact, the issue of integrating reconnaissance with attacks had always been present, and it was quite prominent.

The principle was simple: after the arrival of the reconnaissance aircraft, the enemy would certainly strengthen their air defenses, and the air defense fighters could generally patrol for several hours in the air.

That is to say, if the attack aircraft group arrived too late, they would certainly face formations of air defense fighters.

In past battles, the usual approach was to increase escort fighters and to have these escort fighters move forward to address this issue, meaning that escort fighters would aim to seize air superiority; only after securing a decisive advantage would they allow the attacking bombers to enter.

Clearly, this was not an ideal solution.

Sometimes, it was not possible to deploy enough escort fighters.

When operating near the enemy’s bases or fleet, because they could not receive effective command, the operational efficiency of escort fighters was certainly not as good as that of the air defense fighters.

This tactic had worked in the past, and a very crucial factor was that the fighter performance of the Empire’s Navy had surpassed that of the Newland Navy’s fighters, as well as those of the Newland Army Air Force. The key factor was that the pilots of the Empire’s Navy had far more experience.

That is to say, the Empire’s Navy had been using the performance of its fighters and the personal abilities of its pilots to make up for other deficiencies.

In the initial phase of the war, the most obvious advantage of the Imperial Navy was the individual quality of its officers and men.

Regrettably, this advantage could not be maintained indefinitely.

After the Southwest Fan Flame Ocean Battle, the Sixth Bureau issued a warning that the Newland Navy had expanded its pilot force and had trained a number of pilots with rich combat experience, many of whom came from the West Continent battlefield, namely the volunteers previously sent to the Bulan Kingdom.

In addition, it was very possible that the Newland Navy would acquire advanced new ship-borne fighters within the year.

Therefore, to maintain the advantage, it was necessary to innovate tactically.

It was for this reason that Zhou Yongtao suggested splitting the first strike force into two plane groups, with the vanguard group following closely behind the reconnaissance aircraft. Once the reconnaissance aircraft had identified the target, the vanguard plane group would immediately commence the attack, focusing on bombing airfields, radars, and command centers.

After crippling the enemy airfield, the following plane group would arrive and bomb other military targets, or perform supplementary bombing on key targets such as the airfield.

The key was to incapacitate the enemy’s airfield right after the first wave of attacks, not giving the enemy’s air defense fighters any time to ascend and engage in combat.

Of course, this required close coordination between the reconnaissance aircraft and the attack aircraft group, hence, personnel had to be dispatched to lead at the front.

To put it another way, it meant sending commanders on scouting missions!

After completing the reconnaissance task, they would remain to direct the plane group’s attack and assess the results to determine if supplementary bombing was necessary.

Clearly, this placed a very high demand on the commanders.

Fortunately, what the Imperial Navy Air Force did not lack was experienced commanders.

By this time, the pilots who had been serving before the war had all become officers, and many of the pilots who had joined the military during the engagements with the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom had also become officers.

With several battles under their belts and dozens of combat missions executed, nearly all were capable of commanding in battle.

In the words of old-school pilots like Shen Pu, ace pilots were forged in precisely this way.

If one were to say, the Imperial Navy’s unbroken string of victories owed greatly to these experienced ship-borne aircraft pilots.

Without them, the Imperial Navy definitely would not have been able to win so many fleet decisive battles.

Of course, the contributions of staff officers like Zhou Yongtao cannot be neglected.

Many tactics that ordinary people would never think of were conceived by these staff officers and, after being honed through training and combat, were eventually promoted and applied throughout the forces.

Sometimes, an ingenious tactic could be as effective as a Special Mixed Fleet!

For example, in the Southwest Fan Flame Ocean Battle, having seaplanes fly at night to the sea area where the enemy fleet might appear and then land on the sea surface, played a decisive role.

This time, the "follow-up attack tactic" was adopted.

According to Zhou Yongtao’s arrangement, the ship-borne aircraft executing the attack would ascend after the reconnaissance aircraft, and were loaded with ammunition primarily designed to destroy airfields, such as cluster bombs that would cripple runways, aviation armor-piercing bombs for targeting reinforced concrete hangars, and timed bombs to hinder repair efforts.

No matter how many combat planes were on the airfield, the first thing was to cripple the airfield.

Since there were many uncertainties, the scale of the first wave of attack was relatively small, with a total of 80 ship-borne aircraft, of which 24 were escort fighters.

Although the number was not large, they were all ace crews, and each pilot had abundant combat experience.

If the surprise attack was successful, perhaps the vanguard plane group could incapacitate the airfield, followed by the later groups completely destroying it.

After the first wave of attack had ended and the bombing assessment was made, the second wave of attack would be launched.

Quite frankly, the second wave of attack would be an all-out effort.

As for whether a third wave of attack was necessary, that would depend on the results of the second wave of bombing.

In simple terms, it was a matter of adapting to circumstances.