According to the previous practice, the fighters on Kuah Island would take off about half an hour before the arrival of enemy planes, and then climb to a higher altitude than enemy planes to gain an altitude advantage. Altitude is potential energy, which can be converted into kinetic energy, according to the energy air combat statement, to be at a higher altitude is to have more energy than the enemy, and you will have the advantage.

But this time the take-off time was greatly advanced. An hour before the arrival of the enemy aircraft, Ron took off with all the P-38s and F4Fs that could fly. The first to take off were the F4F, who needed more time to climb to a sufficient altitude, and then the P-38. The fighters took off and climbed to an altitude of 5,000 meters, and then flew in formation to the west.

At the same time, there was a lot of hustle and bustle on the ground. At the positions of anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, the soldiers were making the final inspection of their weapons and camouflaging them.

There were several anti-aircraft positions defending the airfield. In a small bush at the end of the runway, there was a Vulcan artillery position, where two Vulcan anti-aircraft guns and some anti-aircraft machine guns were arranged. On the left side of the runway, on a small mound covered with shrubs, about 20 meters high, two other Vulcan anti-aircraft guns were deployed. Then there were a number of anti-aircraft machine guns and a number of quadruple 20mm Erly anti-aircraft guns scattered elsewhere. The fighters covered these anti-aircraft guns with camouflage nets, which, when viewed from the air, looked like part of a bush, and were really difficult to spot without firing.

Luo (1) (Ben) [Read] The group of the novel YBDUEN is divided into several groups, and the distance between each group is quite large, because it is easy to be spotted by the opponent when they are gathered together. A few minutes earlier, through the radio from the tower, Ron knew that the first wave of Japanese attack planes had flown past his left. However, the distance between the two sides was very long, and the formation of planes on Ron's side was very sparse, so the Japanese did not notice them, and still flew headlong towards Kuah Island Airport. At this time, the news of the tower came from Ron's headphones again

"The tiger's den calls the tiger, keeps course, and is expected to make contact with the enemy's second attack wave in 5 minutes." This is a message from the radar installed on the island.

"All are ready for battle and intensify the search." The battle was about to begin, and Ron lifted the radio silence.

"Enemy aircraft spotted at ten o'clock!"

Ron looked in the direction of ten o'clock, and he saw a group of small black dots moving faintly about 4 kilometers away.

"All turned to the enemy group. The Tiger is responsible for attacking enemy bombers, and the Bobcat is responsible for pinning down enemy fighters. Ron began to assign tasks.

As a result, the 5 P-38 formations numbered Tiger 1 to Tiger 5 dispersed and outflanked the past from different angles, and the F4F, numbered Lynx, swaggered directly towards the Japanese aircraft group.

Now the Japanese army has also discovered American aircraft, at least the F4F group that has swooped directly in a large group. The Japanese fleet was configured in a double-height configuration, which was also the usual way of escorting in general. The altitude of the Japanese bomber is about 3900 meters, and the flight altitude of the fighter is about 4200 meters, which is a significant altitude difference compared to the F4F's current altitude of 5300 meters. Although the number of F4Fs is not as large as the number of escort fighters, they occupy a high advantage and are still not to be underestimated. Coupled with the fact that at this time the P-4, which flew higher and more dispersed behind the F38F, had not yet been found, so the Japanese made the wrong decision. They sent 20 of the 30 fighters to intercept 13 F4Fs, leaving only 10 aircraft in reserve. As a result, after the P-38 was added, the Japanese fighters were basically unable to effectively intercept the P-38. However, many people thought that Nakamura, the commander of the Japanese fighter at the time, did not make a big mistake in this decision.

"We were the first to spot about a dozen enemy planes, approaching us from ten o'clock ahead of us. They have radar and know when they can meet us, so they always fly at a higher altitude than us, and this time they are about 1,000 meters higher than us. So they swoop down very hard. So Chief Nakamura ordered all 20 fighters to intercept them. Only 10 were left as reserves. But even so, even though we sent a lot more interceptor planes than the enemy planes, to be honest, we still didn't have a complete guarantee that we would be able to stop them and prevent them from approaching the bombers. Because the enemy planes are diving down at such a fast speed that they may stagger past us in the blink of an eye. And for the sake of range and bomb load, our bombers are not very well defended. Alas, if only the bombers of our time could have been as strong as the American B-17s. Just like when we attacked the B-17 before, we never heard of anyone who could shoot it down with just one attack. This gives your fighters room to maneuver. However, Japanese planes and even bombers could be ignited with a single bullet. The Japanese militarists have never considered the life or death of our pilots, and they will always sacrifice the safety of our pilots without hesitation when it is necessary to improve performance and save costs. Maybe fighters can also rely on flexibility to avoid enemy attacks, but what about bombers? Do they still expect someone to be able to drive a Type 1 land attack to compete with the enemy's fighters? The fragility of the bomber made it necessary to ensure that not even a single enemy aircraft could approach it. Therefore, although many people later criticized Nakamura's order and thought that it was the fall of the Americans, I would like to say that under the circumstances at that time, there was nothing wrong with Chief Nakamura doing that. -- Excerpt from "Memoirs of Aces of the Sea and Air" by Japanese ace pilot Yuo Koga

At a time when most of the escorted Japanese Zeros and F4Fs were in a scuffle, the P-38 was divided into 5 groups of 4 aircraft and pounced on the Japanese bomber group from different angles. The Japanese left too few reserves to face such a situation. And since there is no radio, those who are entangled with F4F Zero War did not react to what happened here for a while.

A Zero-War tried to go around Ron's back, but Ron simply ignored this attempt at it, and he pounced directly on a bomber, as for the Zero-War behind? With his speed, it is impossible to catch up with the shooting distance if he follows behind, so what is he doing?

Aiming for a one-on-one land attack, Ron fired. He was pleased to hear a roar like an electric drill drilling a hole in the wall (when the rate of fire of an aerial gun or machine gun was so high that the human ear could not distinguish the sound of every bullet (shell) fired, and the sound became a continuous one. For example, World War II veterans in the United States always use the word "tearing tarpaulin" to describe the sound of the MG42 machine gun with a rate of fire of up to 1,200 rounds per minute. Then one side of the wing of the bomber in front of it was cut off from the root of the wing as if it had been sawed. With a short burst, one bomber was shot down. The Vulcan cannon is really powerful.

Ron pulls the plane up and sets out to find the next victim. His wingman, Billy, exclaimed on the radio, "Well done, sir, they're going to hell!" Oh my God, this cannon is so good! Be sure to change it for me when I go back! ”

Ron got on top of another bomber, and just as he was about to launch a surprise attack, another panicked shout came from the headset "Damn, I was hit, who will save me!" ”

Ron looked around and saw an F4F running with smoke on his left, and behind him, two Zeros were in hot pursuit, firing non-stop. In order to avoid bullets, the F4F constantly did barrel rolling, but this also made his dive speed not fast, so that the two Zeros could continue to bite him.

Rescuing his comrades is always more important than gaining a record, Ron did not hesitate to give up the food in his mouth, pushed the throttle valve to the end, and pounced on the two Zeros with the roar of the engine.

There was a distance of about 1.5 kilometers between Ron and them, which would have been a very close distance, and they could be reached in the blink of an eye. But the terrible thing is that the stunned pilot chose to flee in the same direction as Ron's flight. It turned out to be a situation where he ran in front, the two Zeros chased him behind, and Ron chased the two Zeros behind. The whole situation was like a large sandwich with an American plane on the outside and a Japanese plane on the inside.

Fortunately, Ron's plane was faster, and it didn't take long for him to catch up. Now the distance between Ron and the Japanese plane is about 700 meters, and the Japanese plane may have spotted him, but in the case of tail chase, this distance is beyond the range of ordinary aircraft, and even the Vulcan cannon is difficult to shoot at such a distance. So the Japanese continued to fire at F4F, trying to take out Ron before he could get closer. Although the distance was a little farther, Ron still decided to open fire, not to mention whether he could hit or not, and the goal was to scare away the enemy planes and make them give up and continue to attack. Ron then placed the crosshair a little above the Japanese plane, so that the shells would fly farther in the air in a parabola at a higher angle. Ron hit a long point shot, this random shot was completely to scare people, who knows, luck just can't stop it, and a Zero Fight that was biting tightly behind F4F suddenly exploded into a big fireball. The remaining one also immediately gave up the attack, made a sharp turn, and began to flee for its life.

But at this time, the F4F was almost dead, it was hit by several 20mm shells, and the operating surfaces on the wings and tail were basically damaged. He made an effortful and clumsy turn of direction and flew in the direction of the airport. God knows if he will be able to fly back.

"Thank you, brother! If I can go back, I will definitely invite you to drink. ”

Ron smiled, looked around, and suddenly realized that his wingman was missing.

"Damn it! Billy, where did you go! ”

"Sir, I don't know, it's chaotic in the air...... I hit a bomber! I hit him! He's on fire! Ha ha! ”

Ron furrowed his eyebrows, apparently Billy had chosen the former in his choice of attacking enemy planes or rescuing his teammates. Although Billy is a rookie, he has good skills, a particularly good sense of space, and has a lot of potential for development, and Ron has been training him, but ......

Billy was continuing to shoot the bomber that was already on fire, and he thought, "Finally one is going to be shot down, and if I had a cannon like Ron's, maybe one would have been shot down now." I'm going to be the ace, like Ron. Someday, I'll go back with medals full of medals on my chest, the Bronze Heart, the Silver Heart, the Cross of Merit for Service, and even the Congressional Medal of Honor. I'm going to make those people who look down on me, look down on my mother......"

Now there were not many bombers left in the sky, and only six of the 30 bombers sent by the Japanese fled after dropping their bombs in advance, and all the others were shot down. The Zero of the escort also lost 12 aircraft. But the U.S. military also paid the price, with six of the thirteen F4Fs shot down and four damaged. Two P-38s were also shot down and eight damaged—these may not be repaired when they return, at least for a short time there will be less than half of Ron's available P-38s. Fortunately, the loss of pilots was not too serious, at least compared to the Japanese.

Just a little before Ron's battle, there was an even more intense battle over the airport.