Empire Conquest

Chapter 591 - 587: The Luck Factor

During those crucial 10 minutes, the "Royal Ark" urgently dispatched eight "Sea Fire" fighters.

Likewise, during those same 10 minutes, the Land Heart Sea Fleet’s aerial combat commander made a fatal mistake.

At that time, the four "Sea Fire" fighters on air patrol did not return to cover the "Royal Ark", but instead were sent to intercept the Tiaoman bombers attacking the "Prince of Wales" and "Reputation", specifically those few heading towards the "Royal Ark".

From information disclosed later, the Captain of the "Prince of Wales" had judged that a few bombers had not dropped their bombs yet and were heading in the direction of the "Royal Ark"; therefore, he ordered the anti-aircraft fighters to intercept these bombers.

In fact, his judgment was not wrong.

Indeed, out of the first group of 12 bombers that had arrived, 4 had not dropped their bombs.

The problem was that these 4 bombers were on a reconnaissance and guiding mission, carrying no bombs.

As a result, the most precious 4 fighters were sent to intercept 4 non-threatening bombers!

At that moment, only the already airborne four "Sea Fire" fighters could arrive in time, while the fighters that had taken off in an emergency were unable to climb fast enough.

Around 3:45 PM, the second squadron of 12 long-range bombers arrived.

Because the earlier bombers had been intercepted, these 12 bombers were targeted and did not waste time searching.

At this moment, luck once again played a crucial role.

Just five minutes earlier, the "Royal Ark" had been hiding beneath a layer of cumulonimbus clouds, undergoing a deluge.

Consequently, by the time the Tiaoman bombers arrived, the cumulonimbus clouds had dissipated!

Like the first squadron, only 8 of the bombers carried bombs, while the other 4 were on a leading search and guidance mission.

Before launching their attack, these 4 bombers had already begun their dive.

For an undeniable reason, the urgently ascended eight "Sea Fire" were still climbing, while the 8 bombers on bombing missions needed time to aim and drop their bombs.

After dropping the bombs, they still needed to remotely control the bombs towards their target.

Within a mere 5 minutes, the 8 bombers dropped their bombs in succession.

But this time, the anti-aircraft fighters wasted no time.

The next few minutes were decisive for life and death.

In fact, months before, the Tiaoman Air Force had used radio-controlled bombs in the Land Heart Sea battles and achieved commendable results, sinking several cruisers of the Bulan Royal Navy; on one occasion, they nearly destroyed the "George V" near Malta during a bombardment mission.

After several encounters, the Bulan military realized that Tiaoman bombers had to remain above the battlefield from the moment they dropped their bombs until the impacts.

The key point was, as long as the bombers were interfered with, the bombs would mostly miss their targets.

Therefore, the urgently ascended eight "Sea Fire" did not engage the 4 approaching bombers; instead, six of them continued to climb higher.

These six "Sea Fire" saved the "Royal Ark".

During these pivotal minutes, 5 bombers, distracted by the attacks, failed to complete their guiding work.

Moreover, one bomber’s guidance equipment was damaged and failed to guide as well.

In the end, only 2 bombers succeeded in their guidance, and out of the 6 dropped bombs, 3 hit their target, with only 2 detonating.

It must be said that the "Royal Ark" did not sink partly due to a rudimentary mistake by the Tiaoman Air Force.

Among those 2 bombs, one was actually a high-explosive bomb, which detonated before penetrating the flight deck. Shrapnel flew across the deck, killing hundreds of aviation personnel and high-altitude gun operators, but it did not cause serious damage to the carrier’s main structure.

If it had been an armor-piercing bullet, the "Royal Ark" would probably have already been sunk.

At this point, the intense naval air battle came to an end.

In fact, the Tiaoman Air Force had dispatched a total of three bomber squadrons, one of which flew in the wrong direction and by the time it received the message and turned to catch up, the weather had changed once again. The ships of the Land Heart Sea Fleet all hid beneath the clouds, missing the opportunities to attack.

Moreover, these 12 bombers were running out of fuel, and, after searching for a while, they returned to base.

It must be said that if these 12 bombers had found an opportunity, the "Royal Ark" wouldn’t have escaped either.

From this point of view, luck wasn’t entirely on the side of the Tiaoman Air Force.

Besides the three bomber squadrons assigned the attack mission, the Tiaoman Air Force also dispatched four pairs of aircraft ahead of the plane group to search for the Land Heart Sea Fleet.

In fact, it was one of these pairs that located the Land Heart Sea Fleet and called in the plane group to attack.

This was a common tactic employed by the Tiaoman Air Force when attacking the Bulan Fleet in the Land Heart Sea.

In saying that, this exactly reflects the Tiaoman Air Force’s predicament and helplessness.

Would they need bombers for reconnaissance missions if there were available forward airfields or even field airports to deploy the Tactical Air Force?

Even if bombers have a longer range, their efficiency in performing reconnaissance missions is far surpassed by tactical aircraft.

In this battle, the Tiaoman Air Force sent out more than 40 bombers, and without fighter cover, managed to complete their decisive strikes on the "Prince of Wales" and the "Reputation" with the minor cost of losing 14 bombers. They also paralyzed Bulan Royal Navy’s last fleet carrier in one fell swoop.

Furthermore, they shot down three "Sea Fire" fighters.

Their combat efficiency was unmatched in this large-scale war.

Of course, what was remarkable wasn’t the Tiaoman bombers but the radio-controlled bombs.

To be precise, these were actually guided missiles.

According to information disclosed later on, the bombs used by the Tiaoman Air Force in this battle were all equipped with rocket boosters, increasing their range to 15 kilometers.

This distance exceeded the effective range of almost all high-altitude guns, maximizing the bombers’ safety to a great extent.

However, the issue laid here as well.

Such a great throwing distance put high demands on the pilots and increased the difficulty of remote guidance.

The bombers executing the attack released their bombs from over 10 kilometers away, and the weather was particularly bad.

The crew members on the returning bombers saw the bombs hit the enemy ships and the resulting smoke from the explosions, but they were too far away and their view was soon obscured by clouds, so they couldn’t make an accurate assessment of the bombing results.

By the time the Tiaoman Air Force dispatched reconnaissance aircraft, the sky had already darkened.

As a result, following the conclusion of the battle, the Tiaoman Air Force only knew that they had hit three main battle ships but couldn’t confirm whether they had sunk them.

When it came to propaganda, they would certainly claim with certainty that they had sunk those three Bulan warships.

But by now, everyone knew that propaganda was exaggerated.

Propaganda was just propaganda; the military would absolutely not believe that stuff.

Precisely for this reason, the Tiaoman Empire had not reported this military operation to the Liangxia Empire until now.

Today, after the "Royal Ark" returned to Nara Fortress and a large number of wounded were transferred ashore, the Tiaoman intelligence agencies finally received accurate information.

Two main battle ships had been sunk, and the "Royal Ark" had been severely damaged, losing its combat capability.

Once the news was confirmed, it was shared by the Air Force General who had come to attend the banquet with Bai Zhizhan.