However, Yamaguchi had no time to worry about this now, because shortly after his first attack formation was released, the next round of American attacks followed. This time it was 18 dive bombers and 8 F4F fighters on the aircraft carrier Yorktown, led by Maxwell?? Rear Admiral Leslie. And at this time, the Zero Battles, who were originally responsible for the air defense of the fleet, suffered another loss in the battle just now, and now although they have climbed to a higher height, their number is only 6. And the 6 Zeros that had just taken off from the Wyvern were all sent to escort the dive bombers. Although they ignored F4F's obstruction. Sacrificing their lives, they attacked Leslie's bomber group and shot down two of them, but apparently, they could not stop the bomber group's attack.

This time, the Wyvern didn't have the same good luck as before. Compared to the USS Enterprise and HMS Hornet, the bombers on the USS Yorktown, which had experience in attacking warships in the Coral Sea, performed better, dropping bombs from 16 bombers and successfully hitting 6 of them.

The first bomb hit the flight deck, blowing a large hole in it, and the second hit the torpedo planes platoon at the back of the flight deck, which were preparing to take off, and caused a fire. The third went through the deck and destroyed a boiler (which slowed down the warship all at once), then the fourth, fifth, sixth. The entire mothership was completely paralyzed.

In "The Sunken Imperial Kingdom" it is written: "One" book reads "novel" ybdu

"This blow came and went quickly. When the first bomb deflected, I was still thinking, 'Ah, they won't hit us.'" But then a bomb exploded not far from me, and I was helping the damage management crew to extinguish the embers at the elevator. The huge shock wave from the explosion pushed me straight to the ground. My ears were ringing, and I didn't understand it for a long time. After a while, I came to my senses and found a man pressed against me. I pushed him away and got up, feeling that my hands were full of slimy things, and when I looked closely, I saw that the person who was pressing on me was the damage management officer Komatsu Ying, half of his head was cut off by shrapnel, and it was his brain that stuck to my hand......"

But Yamaguchi and Calais still did not give up, and the entire ship's damage management personnel were trying to save the warship. In order to prevent the fire from spreading to the ammunition depot and fuel depot, Calais ordered to release water into the two cabins. The ammunition depot was successfully flooded by seawater, but the line to the fuel depot was damaged by bombs and could not be filled with seawater. This became the ship's biggest weakness. Three hours later, the heat of the fire caused an explosion that blew up the interior of the aircraft carrier. The Wyvern tilted more than 15 degrees, and Captain Calais was forced to give the order to abandon ship. It was 14 p.m.

Amid the blazing fire on the deck, Commander Tabun Yamaguchi said to the more than 800 people who were about to leave the destroyed "Flying Dragon" aircraft carrier: "I personally will bear all the responsibility for the loss of the two aircraft carriers, the 'Flying Dragon' and the 'Soryu'. He told them: "I will stay on the ship until the end." Although his subordinates insisted that the leader go first, he calmly and firmly refused their request. He handed his black hat to his lieutenant as a souvenir, sent a telegram of apology to the commander of the fleet, Admiral Nagumo, and then raised a large glass of water to say goodbye to his comrades. The sun flag fluttering high on the mast was lowered, carefully folded and taken away, and the military horn played "Jun's Generation". The portrait of the emperor was reverently transferred to a nearby destroyer. As the crew left the ship, Yamaguchi Tabun issued his last order to the escorting Nodo-nebo destroyer: "Launch a torpedo to sink the Wyvern." As the flames gradually surrounded the bridge, the general turned to Captain Calais and said calmly: "How beautiful this sea is, let us enjoy this beautiful sea together." "There has been much speculation in hindsight about the short-sighted behavior of the admiral who was considered to be the most talented of the combined fleet, and who was most likely to take over Yamamoto's fifty-six squad, and it was believed that Admiral Yamaguchi had understood by this time that the fate of Japan was irreversible, and that he did not want to live to see that day with his own eyes.

The destroyer Nobu fired a powerful 93 acid torpedo at the Wyvern, sinking the carrier that had held out to the end. The Nobu destroyer would not have imagined that in the days to come, it would become the warship with the highest tonnage sunk in the entire fleet, and the vast majority of the warships it sank were its own warships.

The group of bombers that took off from the Wyvern failed to locate the American formation at the location mentioned by the reconnaissance aircraft. So they started searching the neighborhood. Previously, they had already learned the news of the heavy damage of the Wyvern through the radio, and they knew that they would not have a deck to land on when they returned.

Time passed, and soon it was 12 noon, and if the bomber group did not return, they would have no fuel to go back to. Yamaguchi was giving them the order to go back and parachute over the fleet. But this order was rejected by the commander of the bomber group, Captain Kobayashi. He informed the formation that if they needed to go back, they would do it themselves, and he was determined to avenge the Wyvern no matter what.

At 12:13 p.m., Kobayashi's group found the tracks left by the ships on the sea, followed the tracks, and soon after, they found the US aircraft carrier Yorktown.

At a distance of 30 miles from Yorktown, the bomber formation was attacked by 12 "Wildcat" fighters patrolling over the "Yorktown". When the wildcats, who had the advantage of altitude under the guidance of the radar, swooped down on the bombers, the lack of firepower of the escort was exposed. The Wildcats lost only one plane when they broke through the interception of the Zero in the form of a head-on hedge. And once they had passed the first round of interceptions, with the high speed of the dive, they could even safely and boldly allow Zero to occupy the deadliest 6 o'clock direction - Zero could not catch up anyway - and focus on attacking the Japanese bombers. It wasn't until they had completed their first round of attacks and pulled up again that the escort Zero had caught up again, trying to entangle themselves with the wildcats. But in the first round of raids, as many as four dive bombers were shot down because they were clumsy like ducks because they were full of bombs, and many more were injured in the attack. Of course, the achievement of such a result was also related to the fact that the Japanese bombers would rather die than enhance their flight maneuverability by dropping bombs.

"Don't get entangled with enemy fighters, attack the bombers with all your might!" Such an order was given by the commander of the American formation. The wildcats withstood the artillery fire of the Zero Battle, and single-mindedly launched round after round of attacks on the Japanese bombers. The Formation Commander, Captain Sith, was hit by a wildcat and his fuel tank began to leak, and the leaked fuel atomized in the air and dragged a long trail. In general, he was supposed to withdraw from the battle. And he chose to retreat at this time, and the Japanese would never pursue, because they were going to stay and protect the bombers. But Captain Sith did not choose to retreat. He piloted the wounded fighter plane and continued to attack the Japanese bombers. One fighter plane after another began to catch fire, burn, and fall. Some were American fighters, some were Japanese bombers. Occasionally, a fireball would suddenly appear in the sky, either caused by a volley explosion after a fighter plane was hit, or by a Japanese fighter jet initiating an active ram to defend the bomber.

By the time the last Wildcat withdrew from the battle with thick smoke, 12 Japanese bombers had been shot down, and the escort Zero had lost two (all of the Zero losses were due to active ramming). Captain Kobayashi and his comrades-in-arms, piloting the remaining six bombers, were attacked by dense anti-aircraft fire on the American ship formation, and in the process of rushing towards the aircraft carrier Yorktown, the formation lost two more bombers, and now there were only four bombers left in the formation. If you don't use a special attack, you will never be able to deal a fatal blow to the enemy.

"Gentlemen, see you again in Kudanzaka!" Kobayashi said these last words to his loyal subordinates over the radio and flew down with the bomber, diving to a height of less than 200 meters before dropping the bomb, and at the same time as the bomb landed on the deck of the Yorktown and exploded, his plane also crashed straight into the flight deck of the Yorktown, damaging several planes parked on it. The Japanese planes in the back (including the bomb-free Zeros) also followed their lead and launched a suicide attack on the Yorktown. Although the anti-aircraft fire of the fleet desperately intercepted. But still 1 more plane crashed into the Yorktown with a bomb. A fire broke out on the warship.

At 1 o'clock, Fletcher transferred his flag to the cruiser "Astoria" and sent a wireless telegram to General Nimitz, demanding that Task Force XVII be halted to protect the aircraft carrier "Yorktown" and that tactical reinforcements to Spruance be abandoned.

After General Fletcher left, the fire in York City was gradually brought under control. The damage management department did an excellent job, the fuel and ammunition depots were well protected, and the warship had the power to sail on its own, although the top speed was only a pitiful 12 knots. Protected by other ships of the Task Force XVII, she began to move towards Pearl Harbor.

Historically, the Yorktown was attacked by a Japanese submarine and sank on the way back. This time, however, Yorktown was lucky enough to survive and eventually returned to Pearl Harbor, only to be diagnosed as too badly damaged to take at least a year and a half to repair. A year and a half later, with the continuous addition of new fleet aircraft carriers, this meritorious battleship began to take a back seat, until after the war, it was converted into a naval memorial.

Yamamoto was speechless when he learned the bad news of the loss of all four aircraft carriers. After painful reflection, he decided to admit defeat. Ordered: "Cancel the order to occupy Midway." He led his fleet and began to sail back.

General Spruance commanded the Enterprise and the Hornet in another limited pursuit, sinking the cruiser Mogami of the Nagumo fleet, before retreating west before nightfall. And just like that, a decisive battle ended.

Compared with the previous history, the results of the battle did not seem much different at first glance, and the Japanese also lost 4 aircraft carriers. And although the US aircraft carrier USS Yorktown was not sunk as in history, the result was not much different from being sunk. But if you take into account the loss of pilots, it's very different. The losses of Japanese pilots were slightly larger than the original history, while the losses of the American army were much smaller than the original history, and more pilots who had survived the war survived and were able to grow. The consequences of this distinction will become more and more evident as the war continues.