Nanyang Storm 1864

"Enemy aircraft group spotted, numbering about a hundred, approaching from west to southeast. They are about seventy kilometers from the battlefield and will arrive in about fifteen minutes."

The Chu reconnaissance aircraft, which carried out long-range surveillance missions at high altitudes, were equipped with expensive shortwave radio equipment, enabling them to send real-time telegrams to their own fleets at a distance of 500 to 800 kilometers.

The reconnaissance aircraft hid in the clouds, constantly informing the fleet of the direction and location of the approaching US aircraft, allowing the fleet to know both itself and its enemy.

on the battle field
The air commander, who was frantically attacking the main force of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, immediately received a shortwave order instructing the entire squadron to complete the attack mission within 10 minutes and then quickly retreat.

This is to create a time difference and avoid a direct confrontation with the US ground forces.

These aircraft, which took off from the U.S. land, traveled hundreds of kilometers away, but could not stay over the U.S. Atlantic Fleet for long; they had to leave after only ten or twenty minutes at most.

Otherwise, if they run out of aviation fuel, they'll all have to make an emergency landing at sea.

As for landing on the USS Ranger aircraft carrier, that possibility is out of the question.

For a pilot who has not received training in landing on an aircraft carrier, attempting to land on an aircraft carrier is like asking an ordinary driver to drive a race car—they simply cannot handle it!
Why are the Royal Navy's air wing considered to be composed of elites?
These pilots are outstanding pilots selected from among the best, with exceptional courage, skills, flying experience, and combat experience.

Even losing just one would be a painful blow to the fleet commander.

Timely avoidance of battle is not out of fear of war, but rather to better protect the elite of the Royal Navy Air Force of the Great Chu Empire, allowing them to be put to use in more critical combat situations.

When the American fighter jets arrived at the battlefield, they were shocked by what they saw.

On the vast, azure sea, dozens of American warships were burning and sinking, with black smoke rising hundreds of meters into the sky. Everywhere was a tragic scene of blood and fire.

The culprit behind all this, the Great Chu Empire's fighter jets, were nowhere to be seen.

The main warships of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet are still fleeing south at high speed, leaving behind a trail of warships stretching for dozens of kilometers. The word "tragic" is an understatement.

The ten-odd minutes passed in a flash. With no sign of the enemy aircraft, the American aircraft circled over the warship for a long time before heading back.

At this time, a message was received from the Atlantic Fleet.

About 60 kilometers to the northwest, a high-speed advancing heavy cruiser fleet of the Great Chu Empire was discovered, posing a deadly threat to the damaged American warships that were trailing behind.

These Chu heavy cruisers were fast and arrived at the battlefield first.

The damaged American ships that were struggling on the sea were mostly destroyers and light cruisers, and encountering the Chu heavy cruiser fleet was a devastating blow.

Even after receiving this news, the U.S. Air Force commander circling in the air was in a dilemma.

If they rushed there immediately, given the distance and the need for dive bombing operations, they would certainly not have enough fuel for the return trip.

But if we don't go, are we just going to stand by and watch the US warships get sunk one by one?
The horrific war scene before him spurred Colonel Herbert, the commander of the U.S. Air Force, to make a resolute decision and lead his U.S. fleet northwest.

The fighter jets were very fast, and the American aircraft arrived at the battlefield in just a few minutes.

From high above, Colonel Herbert could see that more than ten Chu heavy cruisers were spreading out, in pairs, to carry out close-range artillery fire against the outdated and damaged American warships.

Often, after a few shots hit, these American warships would be torn apart and sink amidst a huge explosion, with almost no ability to resist.

This is not war, but a one-sided bloody massacre.

Even when American aircraft attacked, these Chu heavy cruisers showed no intention of engaging in air combat.

Because in the air, a large number of fighter jets appeared, numbering in the hundreds.

Colonel Herbert had no choice at this point; his fighter squadron was fully equipped with air superiority gear and carried no bombs at all.

The only option is to dive and straf the enemy fleet, thereby disrupting the fully armored heavy cruisers and giving friendly warships a chance to escape.

Now that the Chu aircraft have arrived in time, the American fighter jets no longer have such an opportunity.

Colonel Herbert decisively led the American fighter group to intercept them, but unexpectedly, the enemy Chu fighter group split up to the left and right and fled into the distance.

This infuriated Colonel Herbert. At this point, the American fighter jet only had one-third of its fuel left in its tank, making a safe return to base extremely difficult.

If we were to chase and fight these Chu fighter jets, our fuel would drop very quickly, and it's almost certain that none of us would be able to return.

Unless they land on a Ranger carrier, they will all have to make an emergency landing at sea.

The commander of the Chu aircraft group was too cunning. He was playing hide-and-seek with the American aircraft group by taking advantage of his fuel supply, instead of engaging in a head-on battle.

Fortunately, Colonel Herbert was not blinded by anger; he had to take responsibility for his more than 100 fellow pilots.

Despite his deep resentment, Colonel Herbert decisively ordered a return to base, deciding that they could no longer engage in combat with these Chu fighters.

The American aircraft immediately turned and flew towards the base in the northwest.

To Colonel Herbert's utter surprise, when they tried to leave, those detestable Chu fighter planes caught up with them again.

The two groups of aircraft engaged in a fierce dogfight, with the American fighters splitting off a portion of their forces to prepare for a bloody battle with the Chu fighters.

The Chu Kingdom's fighter jet group also dispatched more than ten fighter jets to engage in dogfights with the American fighter jets in the blue sky, while the rest continued to pursue them.

When the American aircraft turned to engage them, these Chu fighter jets dodged and flew away into the distance.

Colonel Herbert was furious, but there was nothing he could do about it.

The two sides remained locked in combat for over 200 kilometers before those annoying Chu fighter jets quietly departed.

However at this time

The US aircraft fleet was running low on fuel, and they were still 70 to 80 kilometers from the coastline. The fuel-intensive fighter jets were almost out of fuel.

Ultimately, of the American aircraft group led by Colonel Herbert, 64 made emergency landings at sea or on land, and 17 crashed in fields only ten kilometers from the airport.

Only 22 aircraft successfully returned to base. Among them, three aircraft ran out of fuel and were only able to glide to the airspace above the airport before crashing heavily.

More than 100 fighter jets were sortieed, but only 19 returned intact.

If we had been two minutes later, we probably would have been wiped out.

This is the biggest difference between land-based fighter jets and naval aviation. Naval aviation units aboard aircraft carriers can provide escort and protection, and they have ample time for both loitering and air strikes, making them fully capable of sustaining such operations.

US military aircraft are not so good. They have to fly hundreds of kilometers to get there and hundreds of kilometers back. The time they can spend protecting the US Atlantic Fleet is at most twenty or thirty minutes.

Sending too few fighter jets is useless, and sending too many will exhaust the pilots.

With a three-hour flight time, two and a half hours spent on the road, and then returning to refuel before taking off again, how many rounds of this mission can be carried out?

This enormous problem presented itself to the U.S. Army Air Corps, and they quickly made a decision.

Through coordination with U.S. Army headquarters, a total of more than 770 fighter jets will fly to Wilmington Air Force Base by this evening to participate in the escort operation.

Tomorrow, more than 520 fighter jets will be transferred from airports across the United States and arrive at Wilmington Airport to further strengthen the escort capabilities of the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet.

Top directive from the White House

The US Army Air Force was required to spare no effort to provide a reliable air umbrella for the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet and prevent its complete annihilation.

While converging on Wilmington Airport, the U.S. Army Air Forces will also dispatch a large number of reconnaissance and patrol aircraft to conduct a comprehensive reconnaissance of the waters near North Carolina, making sure to locate the main force of the enemy fleet.

The battle between enemy and friendly naval and air forces has reached a fever pitch.

At Wilmington military base
A group of aircraft, numbering approximately 60 to 80, would take off every 40 minutes or so, thus providing continuous protection over the US Atlantic Fleet.

This level of protection will be further strengthened. After noon, more U.S. Army Aviation aircraft will arrive, with each wave of takeoffs involving over a hundred aircraft. Around noon...

The main force of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, having changed course, is approaching the coastline at an average speed of 13 knots, its course shifting from due south to northwest, a turn of almost 100 degrees.

At this time, several large warships with thick smoke and flames were very conspicuous in the US Atlantic Fleet.

After enduring five rounds of fierce attacks from the Royal Navy of Chu, the United States Atlantic Fleet lost all 27 light cruisers, more than 40 destroyers, and a similar number of torpedo boats, just like an onion that has been peeled off.

Only the core nine battleships, one aircraft carrier, and 15 heavy cruisers remain, rapidly approaching the US East Coast in search of protection from the Army Air Corps.

Almost every one of these core warships bore varying degrees of damage, with countless bullet holes from heavy machine gun fire on their decks, as well as twisted steel plates and charred, pitted areas from bombing.

The secondary gun positions on both sides of the port and starboard sides, having endured heavy machine gun fire and repeated bomb attacks, were littered with severed limbs and large splatters of dark blood.

The USS Ranger, the aircraft carrier that suffered the most damage, now has its wooden deck ablaze, with as many as six or seven fires burning fiercely, and thick smoke billowing into the sky.

American sailors on the aircraft carrier were desperately trying to put out fires by holding onto water hoses, while the warship continued to sail at high speed, looking utterly disheveled.

The other heavy cruisers and main battleships were in better condition, but the lightly armored secondary guns on each ship suffered significant losses, reducing their anti-aircraft firepower by more than 60%.

This emboldened the Chu Royal Navy's attack aircraft to approach within tens of meters, frantically strafing and bombing the surface of the warships, targeting all exposed American officers and soldiers, especially the high-pressure steam pipes at the rear of the warships.

In the sky

The warplanes of Chu and the United States roared back and forth, fighting from high altitude to mid-altitude, and then from mid-altitude to low altitude, staging a fierce air and sea battle.

Against the American aircraft, the Royal Naval Air Force of the Great Chu Empire adopted a new strategy: "magnetic tactics".

When a group of American aircraft arrived, the attacking Chu aircraft had often already retreated.

After ten or twenty minutes, wave after wave of Chu warplanes would attack, often in formations of thirty or forty aircraft, each time taking away a number of American warplanes.

If you run, he will chase; if you don't chase, he will turn around and entangle you. They roar back and forth between the sea and the sky, staging a fierce chase and fight.

In this situation, fuel consumption is often the highest.

Fuel that would normally last 10 minutes is often used up in just two or three minutes due to intense tactical maneuvers, such as rolling, circling, rising, and chasing.

In such a chase and close-quarters combat, the superior performance of Chu's fighter jets becomes apparent.

Nothing more than his immense strength, which allowed him to throw bricks.

The Chu Kingdom's fighter jets were equipped with powerful, high-performance, and high-horsepower seven-cylinder radial engines, which often gave them an advantage in circling maneuvers, making American pilots extremely envious.

It can run fast and chase fast.

After just ten minutes of intense exertion, the U.S. Army Air Forces' fighter jets would have to leave, or they wouldn't be able to hold out.

This inadvertently gave the Chu torpedo bomber group a window of opportunity of more than twenty minutes, enough time to launch a new round of attacks.

“Here we go again…” U.S. Navy Admiral Hughes muttered, his eyes filled with despair.

As the American air force rapidly withdrew from the air, a dense patch of black dots appeared in the distance—the Royal Naval Air Force of the Great Chu Empire, about to launch a torpedo attack.

At this point, the American fighter jets dared not turn back, nor did they dare to continue fighting with the Chu fighter jets. Instead, they blindfolded themselves and hurried back.

In response to the harassment from Chu's naval fighter jets, the general strategy was to send out a few fighter jets to drive them away, or rather, to send them to their doom, since those American fighter jets were unlikely to return.

The Chu fighter jets would circle around a few times, lingering in the airspace near the battlefield for a few more minutes, before running out of fuel to return to base.

The earlier American aircraft attempted to attack the approaching Chu torpedo bomber group, but the Chu torpedo bomber group quickly turned to evade and flew into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Chu fighter jets that appeared out of nowhere then engaged the American aircraft, forcing the American squadron to respond.

As a result, half of that wave of American aircraft failed to return to base, running out of fuel and making an emergency landing at sea.

Having learned their lesson, the US air force became more cautious, turning a blind eye to the menacing formation of Chu torpedo bombers and resolutely returning when necessary, rather than making unnecessary sacrifices.

While this saved the aircraft, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet below was in dire straits.

Having suffered from the "peeling the onion" tactic, these heavy capital warships were completely exposed to the serious threat of aerial torpedoes and were left with no cover.

In addition, the secondary guns suffered heavy losses, and the density of anti-aircraft firepower was severely insufficient. The sparse artillery fire was simply unable to stop the Chu torpedo bombers from penetrating deeper into the territory.

These audacious Chu torpedo bombers swooped down on the fleet from all angles, sometimes closing the distance to within two or three kilometers before dropping their aerial torpedoes.

With an aerial torpedo traveling at over 900 meters per minute, it would only take three or four minutes. For a large and cumbersome battleship, there would be no time to change course and evade it.

With a pained expression on Admiral Hughes's face, more than seventy torpedo bombers were divided into three waves and continuously dove down to attack, dropping more than 70 torpedoes.

Immediately, a series of violent explosions followed, and several capital warships were hit. The USS Arizona, which was at the forefront, was hit by four torpedoes, and its speed dropped sharply as it exploded violently.

亚利桑那号战列舰长185.3米、舷宽32.4米、吃水9.4米、标准排水量32600吨、装备6座燃油锅炉和4台蒸汽轮机、总功率32000马力、航速21节。

舰上装356毫米主炮12门、127毫米高射炮8门、舰员共计1385人，如今变成了步履蹒跚的海上巨人，浑身被浓烟和爆炸笼罩。

The second-ranking ship of the same class, the USS Oklahoma, was hit by five torpedoes. The entire ship veered to the southwest amidst a loud explosion, as the stern rudder wheel had been damaged.

In addition, the aircraft carrier HMS Ranger was hit by two torpedoes, the heavy cruiser HMS Yasen was hit by one torpedo, and the medium cruiser HMS Abraham was hit by two torpedoes, all of which have suffered serious damage.

suddenly

After burning for more than an hour, the ammunition depot of the USS Ranger exploded. The enormous force of the explosion lifted the aircraft carrier more than ten meters off the sea surface, where it burst apart in mid-air.

Immediately after the front half of the ship crashed into the sea, it quickly sank into the water within minutes.

Only the rear half of the ship remained stubbornly afloat on the sea, the raging flames illuminating the surrounding area. American soldiers jumped into the sea like dumplings being dropped into boiling water, a truly horrific scene.

There weren't even any light warships nearby that could help, so they could only let it burn into a giant torch.

After this round of attacks, nine of the more than 70 torpedo bombers were lost. The remaining ones immediately moved away from the battlefield, regrouped after reaching high altitudes, and flew towards the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

Before long, these torpedo bombers will return to continue rubbing salt into the wounds of the US Atlantic Fleet and perpetuate this painful torment.

U.S. Navy Admiral Hughes knew

The Royal Navy of the Great Chu Empire has not yet shown its true strength. Of its total of 10 aircraft carriers, the seven 32,000-ton "Wrath" class aircraft carriers built later can each carry about 110 to 120 aircraft.

This includes two fighter squadrons, one torpedo bomber squadron, and one reconnaissance squadron. With each squadron consisting of 32 aircraft, the total number should be 108.

Including some service aircraft, airborne command aircraft, and backup aircraft, the total number will not exceed 120.

Its early three aircraft carriers, USS Justice, USS Freedom and USS Just, each carried approximately 78 to 80 aircraft.

In total, the number slightly exceeds one thousand fighter jets.

Among them are approximately 660 fighter jets, over 340 torpedo attack aircraft, and approximately 30 to 40 reconnaissance aircraft.

After six rounds of fierce fighting, the most important torpedo attack aircraft have been lost by about 100, but at least 220 to 230 remain, which can be divided into three waves of attacks.

At the latest, the seventh round of torpedo attacks on the US Atlantic Fleet will arrive as scheduled in half an hour.

Whether this now weakened fleet can hold out remains to be seen.
At this critical moment, he could only ask the Army Air Corps to make sacrifices.

(End of this chapter)