The first battleship that the mobile fleet sank was not the "Chichen" or the aircraft carrier, but the "Sanwei" light cruiser that had been accompanied by the "Jahe".

In fact, this light cruiser can be said to be in trouble.

After the battle started, the Typhoon fighters that took the lead first attacked the Jiahe, and seemed to think that this aircraft carrier had the greatest value.

Why?

On the flight deck of the "Jahe", more than a dozen Zero Warriors were parked neatly, and the damage at the front of the flight deck was covered by canvas.

In addition, all fighters are parked at the rear end of the flight deck.

Looking from a distance, it was like preparing to release a carrier-based fighter jet.

The result was that while attacking the Chicheng, the first dive bombers also besieged the Jiahe, which seemed to be the most threatening one.

It must be said that this is really unfair!

At that time, those who fell on the "Jahe" were actually injured zero wars, and they stopped on the flight deck because the hangar was severely damaged.

At this time, the cruiser "Sanwei" guarding the "Jahe" became the first to emerge.

The reason is that its powerful anti-aircraft firepower poses a serious threat to the dive bomber. As it approaches, at least two "Hornets" were shot down by the ship's anti-aircraft artillery.

After the third "Hornet" was beaten and exploded in the air, the "Hornets" of two squadrons rushed towards the "Sanwei".

Unfortunately, the "Sanwei" has no capital to succeed.

Although it was built according to the standards of heavy cruisers, and it was originally planned to return to the shipyard at the end of the year for renovation, and replace the five triple 155mm turrets with double 203mm turrets and upgrade them to heavy cruisers, the tense situation has delayed the modernization work of the Navy.

To this end, the four "fastest" classes still maintain the state of light cruisers.

It is precisely this that it was assigned to the mobile fleet to assist fast battleships and provide air defense cover for aircraft carriers.

Don’t forget that the elevation angle of the 155mm main guns of these four light cruisers reaches 75 degrees, making them high and flat, and can be used as anti-aircraft guns.

In fact, it is this point that makes the "Sanwei" the target of public criticism.

The main gun is an anti-aircraft gun, and it is so huge that it looks like a 10,000-ton giant ship. Isn’t that the legendary “air defense cruiser”?

Under the repeated bombing of more than a dozen "Hornets", the "Sanwei" was hit by four bombs within five minutes.

As a result, at 2:14, about one minute after the "Chichen" was shot for the first time, the "Sanwei" was interrupted in two parts in the explosion, and then disappeared from the sea in less than a minute. Only four of the more than 900 officers and soldiers of the ship survived.

However, the "Sanwei" battled and saved the "Jahe".

When the Sanwei was attacked, the officers and soldiers of the Jiahe suddenly realized that it was also possible that the canvas that covered the damaged part of the front end of the flight deck was blown away by the strong wind, revealing the unrecognizable hangar, which immediately made the dive bombers of the two squadrons lose their appetite.

According to the rumors afterwards, more than a dozen officers and soldiers of the "Jahe" received additional rewards for unbuttoning the ropes that fixed the canvas in time.

Subsequently, the officers and soldiers of the "Jahe" continued to work hard, sending some scrapped aircraft tires to the flight deck, ignited them and pretended to be severely damaged, and deceived several waves of attack aircraft groups that followed, and by the end of the battle, they were not attacked decently.

According to the battle report of the "Jahe", during this battle, the ship was fired by machine guns, and only a few service personnel working on the flight deck were injured.

The officers and soldiers of the "Jahe" certainly did not expect that their self-protection measures would send another aircraft carrier to the guillotine.

This is the "Canglong".

At that time, the Canglong was actually very far away. About 30 kilometers southeast of the Jiahe, there was basically no possibility of being hit first.

Not to mention anything else, after the attack aircraft group of the Special Mix Group arrives, it will definitely focus on attacking two 30,000-ton giant ships, and there is no reason to disperse precious troops. Besides, before launching the attack, the Special Mix Group's reconnaissance aircraft did not discover the two aircraft carriers of the Second Air Force.

To this end, when doing air defense deployment, the Second Air Force contributed two-thirds of the zero battle.

At that time, only two Zero fighters were hovering over the Canglong.

In addition, there were four emergency takeoffs of 99 ships.

The attack on the Canglong means that the "Jahe" has been severely damaged and is not worthy of continuing to attack, so it turns to the dive bombers of the two squadrons flying away.

To be precise, it was one of the squadrons and eight "Hornets".

It's just that, it's nothing.

The worst thing is that at this time, two of the three "typhoons" that were not shot down after completing the strafing were flying towards this side. And these two fighters were the first to discover the "Canglong", called the bomber behind, and then rushed forward without hesitation.

These two "typhoons" not only shot down two 99 ships that rushed over to block the gun hole in one fell swoop, but also led away the only two Zero Battles. Before turning and flying away, they also acted as anti-aircraft shell vacuum cleaners, causing the "Zhenming" fast battleship that covered the "Canglong" to waste a lot of shells.

The result was that before diving towards the Canglong, eight dive bombers were not intercepted by fighters or fired by anti-aircraft guns.

This is basically a textbook dive bombing!

The hit rate is also terrifyingly high.

Eight hits five shots!

Of course, this also shows from one aspect that the quality of the Imperial Navy pilots was very strong, and the hard training before the war was not in vain.

It was this attack that "Harp" won the nickname "Hellhound", because the whistling sound made during diving was like a vicious dog roaring in hell.

The key is that five bombs were hit in more than a minute!

If the interval between being shot is longer, such as after a few minutes, the aircraft carrier may be rescued, but if you get so many bombs in such a short time, it will definitely be helpless. Not to mention the others, it will be impossible to extinguish the fire caused by the explosion.

Don’t forget that what you lack the most on aircraft carriers is a variety of flammable and explosive items.

At 2:24, the Canglong was interrupted in two parts during the explosion.

The head of the ship, which accounts for about a quarter of the hull, soon sank, and the remaining part also sank under the sea before three o'clock.

Because the captain did not issue an order to abandon the ship, most of the officers and soldiers did not have time to evacuate.

In the end, only more than one hundred officers and soldiers of the ship survived.

Whether it is based on the time of the big explosion or the time of sinking, the "Canglong" is the first aircraft carrier for the mobile fleet to sink.

As for the reason why the Canglong exploded after it was shot, it has always been an insolvent mystery.

The Canglong quickly sank in the big explosion, saving its sister ship, namely the Feilong.

At that time, after observing the big explosion of the Canglong, the Feilong, more than ten kilometers away, discovered the rapidly approaching Hornets, the other of the two squadrons. Then, several nearby aircraft, Zero-Warriors, came to escort.
Chapter completed!