Empire Conquest

Chapter 529 - 525: Thunderbolt on a Clear Day

The morning was calm and tranquil; nothing had happened.

But this lasted only until breakfast time.

Because the officers’ dining room of the "Wasp" was located inside the hull, the only high-class officers’ dining room was between the hangar deck near the island and the flight deck, in an interlayer. Mostly because the island itself was too small to accommodate a dining room, so breakfast was usually delivered by staff officers.

It wasn’t long after the breakfast had been brought over that a communications officer delivered a newly received telegram.

But this time, the communications officer did not hand the message to Tanimoto but delivered it directly to Spur.

After noticing the change in Spur’s expression, Tanimoto’s heart began to pound, and he immediately realized that it was definitely not good news!

At the first glimpse of the telegram, Spur became stunned, not even realizing that his fork had slipped from his hand.

Having worked with Spur for more than a year, Tanimoto had never seen him this dispirited and listless.

Strictly speaking, Spur’s expression was one of shock and panic.

Just as Tanimoto reached out to grab the telegram, Spur began to shake and then collapsed.

"Commander? Someone come quickly, call a medic!" Tanimoto stood by Spur’s side, reacting very swiftly as he caught Spur.

In the midst of the panic, while holding Spur, Tanimoto glanced at the telegram now in his hand.

There was just one sentence.

That sentence struck Tanimoto like a thunderbolt on a clear day, making him feel as though the world were spinning even as he struggled to control his emotions.

People rushed in, lifting Spur, who had collapsed on the floor.

Others came to support Tanimoto, who was also on the verge of falling.

With both leading officers down, no one paid attention to the telegram.

By the time Tanimoto regained his senses, he found himself in the sickbay, being examined by a medic with a stethoscope.

Spur was lying on the adjacent bed, hooked up to a respirator, but he was awake.

"Commander..."

When Tanimoto called out, Spur’s gaze turned towards him, but it was devoid of any vigor, an empty look that sent shivers down Tanimoto’s spine.

"Commander, we’ve not lost yet, there’s still a chance..."

He couldn’t finish his sentence.

At that moment, two medics tactfully left the sickbay.

Both Tanimoto and Spur were physically fine; the problem lay with their spirits.

It was that telegram.

The one issued by Hal from the "Lek", forwarded by the Fleet Headquarter at Treasure Harbor.

About an hour ago, around 3 p.m. local time, the 51st Special Mixed Fleet commanded by Hal was suddenly attacked. Before sending the telegram, both the "Lek" and the "Fenjin" had been hit, losing their air combat capability, making it impossible to deploy fighters.

Crucially, before the attack, the 51st Special Mixed Fleet hadn’t sent out fighters to patrol.

This couldn’t be blamed on Hal.

The location of the attack was 20 degrees northeast of the Galapagos Islands, about 700 kilometers away, and around noon, approximately 3 hours before the attack, Hal’s fleet had just separated from Frey’s "Independent" combat group—probably maintaining stealth, Hal had not arranged for fighters to patrol.

There were only more than 2 hours left until darkness at the time of the attack.

No one could have anticipated that they would encounter an attack in such circumstances.

That’s precisely why the 51st Special Mixed Fleet had only dispatched cruisers to deploy seaplanes to assist destroyers in anti-submarine patrols ahead of their course.

The attack came very suddenly, and before it happened, the 51st Special Mixed Fleet had not detected any enemy reconnaissance aircraft.

Although the telegram didn’t mention it, given the circumstances at the time, it was certain that the warships of the 51st Special Mixed Fleet were not using radar when they were attacked.

After all, they were roughly 10,000 kilometers away from Transfer Island.

The only certainty was that the attacking party had to be the Liangxia Navy’s Special Mixed Fleet, with at least two large carriers involved.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to inflict such heavy damage on two of the fleet’s carriers in the first wave of the attack.

Half an hour later, Spur and Tanimoto returned to the Command Bridge.

Several telegraphs had come from Treasure Harbor, still forwarding messages.

About an hour after the first attack, which was roughly half an hour ago, the 51st Special Mixed Fleet had undergone a second bombing.

The "Fenjin" was sunk first, and the "Lek" could not escape its fate either.

Since both fleet carriers were finished, the escort cruisers and destroyers were also bombed by the enemy aircraft.

The third telegraph forwarded from Treasure Harbor came from a "Cleveland" class light cruiser, and it was sent by the captain of the ship.

The "Lek" and the "Fenjin" had sunk consecutively, and Hal was not among those evacuated from the "Lek."

Since almost all senior officers at the Fleet Headquarter had perished, this captain had become the highest commander of the 51st Special Mixed Fleet.

According to the last report, to avoid interception by the enemy at night, the remaining warships would head full speed back to Wangxi Canal after collecting the men overboard.

By the time of the report, the sky had already darkened.

In addition to the two carriers, one light cruiser and three destroyers were sunk, and over 2000 officers and men, including Hal, were either killed or missing.

The key point was both fleet carriers sank rapidly after massive explosions, leaving few aboard to survive.

Lastly, the cruiser sent one more piece of information.

According to the captured enemy pilot, the ship-borne aircraft unit belonged to the 7th Air Force Wing, stationed on the "Pu" of the 21st Special Mixed Fleet.

Meaning, it was the 21st Special Mixed Fleet that had attacked the 51st Special Mixed Fleet.

However, no additional intelligence was provided, such as the location of the 21st Special Mixed Fleet.

From the two waves of attacks, it was very likely that the 21st Special Mixed Fleet was positioned to the northwest of the 51st Special Mixed Fleet.

Furthermore, the adopted tactic was to follow; the first Attack Aircraft Group followed the reconnaissance aircraft and launched an attack immediately after the 51st Special Mixed Fleet was spotted by the reconnaissance aircraft.

Most importantly, the 51st Special Mixed Fleet had already revealed its location while passing through the canal.

Shortly after entering the East Ocean, it was discovered by a Liangxia submarine lurking nearby, but the telegraph sent by the submarine was not intercepted promptly.

Otherwise, the Liangxia Navy would not have known the location of the 51st Special Mixed Fleet or been able to launch an attack.

There was ample reason to believe that the Liangxia Navy’s submarines were equipped with short-wave radios that had a range of several hundred kilometers and were difficult to intercept.

Months ago, there was intelligence confirming that the Liangxia Navy had equipped a new type of short-wave radio.

Regrettably, the Newland Navy still had not obtained effective countermeasures or equipment capable of effectively intercepting short-wave signals.

Clearly, this was the key reason why the 51st Special Mixed Fleet had failed to detect the danger in time.

It could be said that the technical superiority of the Liangxia Empire in radios, radars, and other electronic equipment was a key element to their overwhelming success.

In several decisive naval battles, Liangxia Fleet’s advanced electronic equipment played a decisive role.

Of course, this time was no exception.

This battle was completely one-sided; from beginning to end, the 51st Special Mixed Fleet just took the hits, unable to even return fire, much less locate the enemy.

Undoubtedly, the one commanding the 21st Special Mixed Fleet was Bai Zhizhan!

Not only had the 51st Special Mixed Fleet been crushed, but it was also annihilated; the operation to rush towards Transfer Island had completely failed, and shortly after, Transfer Island would fall.

Is there still any hope of victory?