"For some unknown reason, some of the opponent's warships have slowed down..." the chief of staff said to Bernard: "It may be to deliberately cut off the rear, or it may be to save people."
"The other party is passing by the area where the battleship was sunk before. It may be because they are rescuing people." Bernard looked at the chart and said to the chief of staff.
"The satellite still has 17 minutes to pass through the sky, and we may receive photos from the satellite." An officer in charge of intelligence collection reported.
After so many years of development, the Tang Empire's satellites no longer need to return to the surface and feed back information in the form of film.
Now they can transmit images via signal, but the resolution is really impressive. If measured by today's standards, it is basically no different from a mosaic.
But even so, this is already a "super high technology" that commanders from other countries dare not even think about. At least the commanders of the Tang Empire could overlook the entire war zone from a God's perspective.
"The third batch of attack aircraft reported that there were several enemy destroyers at their feet retrieving people who fell into the water... No injured enemy aircraft carriers or battleships were found."
"Didn't you hit a high-value target?" Bernard was a little doubtful of his luck: he had already attacked two batches, but his results didn't seem to be very good.
It was impossible for him to know immediately that the two aircraft carriers had sunk rapidly. In his concept, aircraft carriers are relatively solid maritime fortresses that, under normal circumstances, will not be easily sunk.
In fact, he didn't know that the power of the Harpoon anti-ship missile was a little too cruel for opponents in this era. And the opponent's aircraft carrier design... is indeed a little bit unsatisfactory.
At the same moment, the commander of the Combined Fleet, John Cleeves, was counting his losses. He now had three aircraft carriers that could no longer continue fighting, and about three battleships were seriously damaged.
Under this situation, the combined fleet has basically lost the ability to fight. Unless he can now use the carrier-based aircraft in his hands to launch a successful counterattack and destroy the main force of the Tang Empire's naval fleet, he will lose this naval battle.
As time passed by, John Cleeves was able to confirm more and more news. At this moment, at least he was not in a state of not knowing what was going on.
The northwest and northeast of the combined fleet have obviously gradually become safer. The Tang Empire's fleet cannot be too close to the coastline of Shu.
The possibility of the Tang Empire fleet appearing in the southwest is the least likely, so for John Cleeves, the opponent's fleet should probably be in the southeast.
But now John Cleeves has no way to fight back. The previous hasty actions have caused the combined fleet to lose the ability to fight back.
The first batch of fighter jets to take off has landed. These pirate fighter jets have run out of fuel. They need to be refueled and the pilots need to rest before they can continue to participate in the battle.
The first batch of Stuka dive bombers had just been recovered, and these aircraft also needed to be refueled before they could take off again.
Based on previous experience and lessons, these Stukas with torpedoes cannot be easily brought to the hangar for refueling, because they will easily be hit and exploded by missiles, and the aircraft carrier will be destroyed together.
Therefore, the first batch of attack aircraft can only refuel and resupply on the deck, which obviously cannot be too fast.
The second batch of Stukas were almost out of fuel at this time, and they also needed to land. But in fact, there is not much space for them to land on the remaining seven aircraft carriers of the Combined Fleet.
There is no way, the first batch of Stukas are still on the deck, and if the second batch of Stukas wants to land... then they can only move the first batch of Stukas to the front deck. This is equivalent to asking all aircraft carriers to give up the ability to take off aircraft.
What's worse is that there are still three aircraft carriers that have no way to recover their own aircraft. Two aircraft carriers have now sunk, and the other one has a malfunctioning elevator, a big hole in the deck, and is still on fire, and there is no way to recover the aircraft.
Obviously, it was impossible to stop taking off new planes. John Cleeves would not dare to do this. The reason is simple, counterattack is his only chance to protect himself now.
Another problem plaguing the combined fleet is that there are no escort fighter jets in the sky above their fleet at this moment!
After the first batch of fighter jets returned, the fleet was busy recovering the Stukas that had run out of fuel, and there was no time to take off a sufficient number of fighter jets.
Coupled with poor communication, John Cleeves was very slow to recover and take off the aircraft, and the shortcomings of the temporary formation of the combined fleet were also exposed. The entire fleet is now becoming a little bit chaotic.
"Commander!" An officer came over, stood at attention and saluted with an ugly face, and then reported: "The Qin fleet in the rear was attacked, or it was a missile..."
Because the distance was close enough, the communication between the warships was somewhat restored. Intermittently, many telegrams were sent to John Cleeves.
The Qin fleet, which was slowing down to save people, was attacked by missiles from the Tang army. The entire fleet suffered heavy losses. All two battleships of Qin were hit and caught fire. They looked in a miserable state.
The cruisers and destroyers were even worse. They managed to salvage the friendly forces soaked in the water, but before they could escape, they were hit by missiles and began to break and sink.
Those unlucky soldiers who fell into the water were fished out of the sea. Their clothes were not wrung out, and they had to jump into the water again. Together with the friendly forces who had just rescued them, they floated on the water and couldn't laugh or cry.
Qin's fleet was almost finished at this point. Except for the two or three destroyers that followed the combined fleet and the three aircraft carriers they escorted, the rest of the warships incorporated into the combined fleet were basically lost.
Even if they are not sunk, these warships can only return to the port dock for overhaul and cannot continue to participate in the war.
And whether they can survive it and wait until they return to the port depends on the mood of the Tang Navy's carrier-based aircraft force.
"Catching up?" John Cleeves gritted his teeth and clenched his fists and asked back when he heard the news that the Qin fleet was attacked.
He did not expect that the Tang Army would have the courage to pursue him. As long as he determined the location of the Tang Army's fleet, he would be able to send carrier-based aircraft to counterattack... And this was the opportunity he had been waiting for today.
The fuel of the third batch of Stukas is definitely not enough, but he still has the fourth batch of Stukas that can take off and enter the battle!
