Chapter 46 Uncertainty Factors

At 8:35, the second round of attacks of the US military ended.

According to the task force's combat report, the key role played in this round of air defense interception were the four large comprehensive warships in the battle group of the aircraft carrier "Hengshan" and "Songshan", especially the Hebei and "Henan" that cooperated with the Hengshan operation. These two warships alone shot down 77 US fighters, and the Shandong and "Shanxi" that cooperated with the Songshan operation down 54 US fighters. Because they withdrew from combat in advance, the air defense fighters only shot down 18 US fighters.

During the entire battle, no US fighter jet broke through the fleet's air defense network.

In addition to the twenty-two shot down in the peripheral air defense battle, the U.S. Third Fleet lost a total of 173 fighter jets in this battle. Because there were 11 fighter jets seriously injured in the battle and failed to return to the Australian air base, the actual loss of the U.S. military was 184, while the third Fleet had only 216 fighter jets in total.

It can be said that in just one battle, the Third Fleet became a decoration.

At 8:40, Mu Haoyang ordered the fleet to turn west, and after sending a telegram to Zhou Yusheng, he ordered the fleet to enter a radio silent state again.

Of course, Mu Haoyang did not relax his vigilance. Before nine o'clock, he let the Hengshan and Songshan each dispatch twenty-four air defense fighters. Because the Taishan and Huashan had dispatched a large number of fighters in the previous battles, and now they need to recover these fighters, they did not dispatch air defense fighters again. In Mu Haoyang's view, even if the Fourth Fleet is near the battlefield, forty-eight fighters are enough to cope with a round of attacks. When necessary, the Taishan and Huashan can still dispatch fighters.

The telegram sent by Mu Haoyang to Zhou Yusheng was mainly to ask Zhou Yusheng to supplement fighter jets for the fleet.

In this battle, the task force lost twenty-seven fighter jets, of which eighteen j-32 and nine j-33. Although twenty-one is nothing compared to the total number of fighter jets in the fleet, only five percent, twenty-one fighter jets are very important in the battles that may be launched in the following days. Several previous naval battles have shown that at critical moments, several fighter jets are crucial.

However, this is not the first issue that Mu Haoyang considered.

After these two high-intensity air defense operations, the task force's air defense combat effectiveness was almost ineffective. The four large comprehensive warships almost used up all air defense missiles, and the other four also consumed two-thirds. If they conduct air defense operations again, they may have to rely on the final interception system.

That is to say, the fleet must replenish ammunition.

Although the Heilongjiang class has greatly improved compared with the Taiwan class in design, especially the weapon system is all modularly configured to replenish ammunition at sea, there are relatively harsh conditions, that is, the sea conditions must not exceed the three poles, and the navigation speed of the warship must not be higher than twenty-four knots. Only when this condition is met can the hull have sufficient stability and can the ammunition loading operation be carried out by the fast combat support ship.

At that time, there were four fast combat support ships in the task force.

What Mu Haoyang had to do was find a safer sea area, slow down the fleet, and then spend four hours completing ammunition replenishment.

As a result, after the war, many people accused Mu Haoyang of this, believing that he missed the excellent opportunity to annihilate the Third Fleet.

You should know that the Fourth Fleet had not arrived at this time, the Third Fleet was alone, and had already lost almost all carrier-based fighter jets in the battle, and was in a state of no defense ability. As long as the task force seized this opportunity, it could defeat it in one fell swoop, or even annihilate the Third Fleet.

Obviously, these people who accuse Mu Haoyang ignored many key factors.

The most critical factor among them is that Mu Haoyang did not know where the Third Fleet was, and there were signs that the Third Fleet was outside the strike range of the carrier-based aviation force.

The most obvious sign is that the US fighter jets that escaped by chance did not withdraw from the entry direction, that is, the south, but flew southeast to Australia.

According to the combat records of the task force, Major General Gong Jifei raised objections at that time, believing that the US fighter jets did not return directly to the south in order to avoid exposing the whereabouts of the fleet, but went to the southeast to Australia, and then returned to the fleet after getting rid of the pursuit of Chinese fighters.

From this, a clearer inference can be made: the Third Fleet is not too far from the task force.

It can be said that this inference is very convincing.

However, after careful consideration, Mu Haoyang proposed a reason that even Gong Jifei could not refute, that is, the Third Fleet did not dispatch carrier-based early warning aircraft to support the attack aircraft group's operations. That is to say, if the Third Fleet was nearby, then there was no reason not to dispatch carrier-based early warning aircraft. This situation would only occur if the Third Fleet was far enough away and the timeliness of the attack operation were very important.

How far is it?

According to the return route of US fighter jets, Mu Haoyang had enough reason to believe that the Third Fleet should be two thousand kilometers south.

Of course, Gong Jifei still felt that this was unlikely.

In his opinion, the Third Fleet did not dispatch a carrier-based early warning aircraft, which was not only the reasons mentioned by Mu Haoyang, but also very likely related to the participation of the US Air Force in combat operations. Although Gong Jifei did not deny Mu Haoyang's judgment, he felt that the Third Fleet should be within the attack range in the south.

Affected by this, after recovering the fighter jets that had been launched before at about 9:30, Mu Haoyang asked Gong Jifei to arrange a reconnaissance operation. However, in order to avoid exposing his whereabouts, Mu Haoyang asked Gong Jifei to make special arrangements, that is, all reconnaissance aircraft did not search in a straight line, but searched along a counterclockwise spiral line, setting the southward search range to 2,000 kilometers, and a group of fighter jets carrying partner refueling pods were arranged to standby in the southeast of the fleet, and assisting the fighter jets that completed the reconnaissance mission to return to the fleet.

According to Mu Haoyang's deployment, if the third fleet is found, an attack will be launched before replenishing ammunition.

In terms of time, this is exactly in line with Mu Haoyang's arrangement.

At that time, Mu Haoyang selected the waters of supply operations south of the Mingtawei Islands, that is, southwest of Sumatra Island. It is less than 1,500 kilometers away from Haoyang Port, and within 1,000 kilometers nearby, there are six air bases located in Indonesia and Malaysia respectively. In other words, when the fleet is carrying out supply operations, it can be covered by air force fighters without worrying about being attacked suddenly.

At the speed of the fleet, it will arrive at around 1:00 a.m. on the 19th.

From a time point of view, the reconnaissance operation launched before 10 o'clock will end at around 0:30 a.m., that is, all reconnaissance aircraft can return before the fleet performs supply operations. In this way, Mu Haoyang can let a group of fighter jets take off to patrol before arranging the reconnaissance aircraft to ensure that there are enough air defense fighters over the fleet within the next four hours, rather than placing all hope on the Air Force.

Obviously, Mu Haoyang believed in carrier-based aviation more, rather than air force fighters coming from all the way.

In fact, Mu Haoyang must do this.

The reason is simple. As long as the US military judges that the task force must provide ammunition supply, it will realize that the task force is likely to ask for help from the Air Force, so it will closely monitor Chinese air bases in Southeast Asia and South Asia, or arrange early warning aircraft to expand the scope of air surveillance.

In this way, fighter jets that come to provide cover for the task force will expose their whereabouts.

It was precisely based on this consideration that at around 10 o'clock in the night, after all the reconnaissance planes were launched, Mu Haoyang sent a carrier-based transport plane to Haoyang Port, and ordered nearby air force bases to send fighter jets to the Java Sea north of the Sunda Strait through the port command to create an illusion for the US military.

Afterwards, Mu Haoyang's deployment was very meaningful.

In the early morning of the 19th, the US military dispatched six large early warning aircraft to the south of Java Island, and dispatched a large number of fighter jets to the Java Sea to search for the task force that was not here at all. It was not until dawn that the US commander realized that he had fallen into the trap of the task force commander. Of course, at this time, the US intelligence agency also obtained news and learned that Mu Haoyang had left Beijing in the early morning of the 18th, and it was judged that it was likely that Mu Haoyang himself, who was commanding the task force, was not Major General Gong Jifei who had predicted earlier.

The result was that Brigadier General Nixon turned the Third Fleet south on the morning of the 19th.

Before this, the Fourth Fleet commanded by Major General Reagan also adjusted its course and did not sail straight to Australia, but deflected slightly southward to meet with the Third Fleet in the southwest of Australia.

The result was that when the Fourth Fleet passed from the south of the task force, the distance was more than 2,500 kilometers.

If the Fourth Fleet's route did not deflect south, but sailed straight west as before, then on the afternoon of the 19th..., the distance with the task force would be shortened to less than 2,000 kilometers. More importantly, Mu Haoyang had expected that the Fourth Fleet was rushing to Australia, and on the morning of the 19th, he strengthened the search for the south of the fleet, which would have a great possibility of capturing the Fourth Fleet.

You know, at this time, the Fourth Fleet did not have combat capabilities either.

According to the arrangement of the US military, the Fourth Fleet will not report its whereabouts until the night of the 19th, when it reaches about 1,500 kilometers from Australia, and then obtain additional fighter jets. In other words, if it encounters on the afternoon of the 19th, the Fourth Fleet will be hit by a fatal blow by the task force without any resistance. In this way, even if the Third Fleet can escape the disaster, it will be hard to beat.

According to the information disclosed after the war, especially the combat report submitted by Mu Haoyang after this war, the main purpose of his fleet sailing west was to seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to catch the Fourth Fleet, rather than entangling with the Third Fleet near Australia.

According to the circumstances at that time, the key to seizing the Indian Ocean's sea control was to eliminate the Fourth Fleet, rather than the Third Fleet.

Chapter 46 Uncertainty Factors

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