It was already 9:40 a.m., and the attacking torpedo units had just retreated, and they had paid a huge price, but only succeeded in damaging one Japanese aircraft carrier. However, compared to the historical situation where the torpedo machine unit was almost wiped out but did not hit any target, it is still good, at least, most of the torpedo planes have retreated. And the effect of the historical crooked strike - attracting all enemy fighters to low altitudes and allowing the dive bombers to launch a surprise attack without any enemy aircraft stopping them - was also achieved. And due to the better organization of this assault, the bombers appeared in a more timely manner. Just as the torpedo machine was turning, from the Enterprise by Clarence ?? Thirty-two dreadnought dive bombers led by Major McCluskey have appeared over the Nagumo fleet. Clarence?? Major McCluskey looked down from a height of 2,000 meters, and a huge fleet unfolded in front of him. On the ocean surface, a huge array of warships formed a huge circular formation, and in this escort circle, there were 4 large aircraft carriers. Even better, above the fleet, there was not even a shadow of Japanese escort aircraft. The flight decks of all four aircraft carriers are painted with a huge (15 meters in diameter) bright red sun, like a giant bull's-eye. Clarence?? Major McCluskey selected one of them (the aircraft carrier USS Kaga) and dived down with 16 dive bombers. Another 16 bombers were deployed in Wilhelm. Led by Rear Admiral Gallach (1) (Ben) [Read] Novel YBDU pounced on an aircraft carrier (USS Akagi) next to him.

Now all the Zeros are fighting F4F at an altitude of less than 400 meters. When the bomber group appeared, no one could immediately climb up to intercept them, only some small-caliber anti-aircraft guns reluctantly turned their muzzles and tried to intercept the American bombers. But these sparse artillery fire was almost useless.

On the aircraft carrier Akagi at this time, Genda was looking up at the sky after hearing the alarm of the guard post, and he saw that a group of bombers with striking white five-pointed stars painted on their wings were diving down towards the Akagi one after another, getting closer and closer. Now not only the heavy semi-armor-piercing bomb hanging under the belly of the aircraft is clearly visible, but even the bomber's open dive flaps are clearly visible. The air flow passed through the small holes in the swooping flaps at high speed, making a frightening whistling sound. Once upon a time, Genda had commanded the Japanese bomber force at Pearl Harbor, and in a similar whistling, the main force of the U.S. Pacific Fleet was wiped out. Now, it's all reversed. As an experienced veteran pilot, Genda immediately judged that the Akagi was definitely going to be shot.

But the first to be beaten was not the Akagi, but the Kaga, which was not far away.

Major McCluskey's dreadnought swooped down to an altitude of 500 meters, and he dropped the bomb until the huge red sun on the Kaga almost occupied his front windshield. As the bomb was dropped, the entire plane suddenly seemed to jump forward. Major McCluskey pulled the joystick so hard that blood began to rush down his legs, and he felt the light around him begin to get darker and darker, and his vision narrowed until there was only a little bit in front of him. At the same time, his ears began to buzz, and his face and tongue felt a little numb. But fortunately, at this time, the nose of the plane was gradually raised, and at an altitude of about 80 meters, McCluskey leveled the plane. As a result, these symptoms gradually disappeared. That's when his ears heard the wild screams of the backseat heavy: "Hit, hit again!" , haha, again! Sir, plus the guy we just had, that ship got four bombs! ”

McCluskey looked back, and he saw that the aircraft carrier was in flames. The four bombs were never so powerful, did they hit the ammunition depot or the fuel depot? Whatever the reason, though, apparently, the ship is finished.

Similar to McCluskey's suspicion, the Kaga's current situation was that the ammunition depot had been hit, but it was on deck. In the farce of swapping bombs for torpedoes and torpedoes for bombs, in order to gain time, the Japanese did not have time to return the replaced bombs to the well-protected ammunition depot, but piled them directly on the deck. The fuses of some of these bombs were not even dismantled. The bombs were also detonated after the bombs dropped by the Americans exploded on the deck. So almost instantly, this huge aircraft carrier, the once proud of the Japanese Navy, became a sea of fire.

The same fate arose for the Kaga, where only one of the 16 bombers dropped hit the Akagi, but this bomb landed right at the back of the deck, where a lot of bombs were piled up. As a result, the tragedy of Kaga was once again unfolded, and the bombs stacked on the deck exploded one after another, like firecrackers set off by the Chinese for the New Year, and in the blink of an eye, the ship also became a sea of fire.

In the face of this sudden catastrophe, Vice Admiral Nagumo on the bridge was stunned.

Tongues of fire were already licking the glass windows on the bridge. Caolu shouted at Nanyun, "We have to evacuate!" But Nagumo refused to leave.

Thousands of gallons of burning gasoline flowed down the deck, and torpedoes placed in the hangar began to explode. Balls of fire erupted from the sides of the ship. Nagumo still refuses to leave the bridge.

The captain of the aircraft carrier "Akagi" Aoki Daijiro Osa shouted at Nagumo: "I am in charge of this ship, it is useless for you and your personnel to stay here, please transfer to another ship!" Kusaka also persuaded Nagumo that he was the commander of the entire assault fleet, not the captain of a certain ship. Under everyone's persuasion, Nagumo finally said that he was willing to lead everyone to leave considering the overall situation. However, by this time the entire bridge was almost surrounded by fire. The corridor was also sealed with smoke and fire.

"Break the glass!" The grass deer shouted. Someone picked up a chair and slammed it off the glass. The glass shattered in response.

They hung down two ropes, and the grass deer shouted: "Don't panic, let the leader go first!" While pushing Nagumo out first, the diminutive general slid down and landed on the flight deck, 14 meters lower than the bridge, with Kusaka following closely behind.

In just 6 minutes, the Kaga and Akagi were completely blown up. Of course, the U.S. military was not without losses, 13 of the 32 bombers were either shot down by the Japanese ship's anti-aircraft fire, or were shot down by the Zero after the bombs were dropped, and one failed to pull up because it dived too hard. But compared to the losses of the Japanese army, this battle was undoubtedly a complete victory. Not to mention that this is not the end.

Historically, dive bombers that took off from the Hornet failed to find their targets after getting separated from other aircraft, and became completely soy sauce. But this time, the bombers did not lose their way due to the compression of the distance between the groups, and the soy sauce party finally came.

Just as Nagumo and the others were moving towards the Nagara light cruiser in a motorboat, the mournful sirens sounded again. Nagumo looked up and saw two more groups of bombers swooping down towards his fleet.

This time it was the unlucky Canglong who was already injured. At this time, due to the thunder, the deck tilt of the Canglong has reached 13 degrees, and the speed has dropped to below 20 knots, which is really an easy target to hit. Nineteen dive bombers attacked it, and as a result, eight bombs were hit in one go, a hit rate of more than 40 percent. One of the bombs hit the fuel depot after penetrating the deck, igniting a large amount of aviation gasoline and burning the entire ship red.

Another group of 18 bombers attacked the only surviving Japanese aircraft carrier, the Flying Dragon. But the Wyvern behaved like a god and a demon. Under the command of Captain Calais, the ship writhed wildly, and the bombs rained down on the side of the aircraft carrier, but only one bomb hit a lift near the port side, but the entire aircraft carrier still had the ability to take off and land aircraft. And the aircraft carrier's own defensive firepower also shot down 4 bombers.

Yanagi, nicknamed the Bandit Skull, had just landed on the aircraft carrier Flying Dragon not long ago. At this time, he witnessed this thrilling process on the ship. Later, the famous ace pilot of the Japanese Navy described this experience in his memoir "The Sunken Imperial Kingdom":

“…… In just a few minutes, the pride of the Imperial Navy, the carriers Kaga and Akagi, were finished, and I saw that the two ships were on fire and constantly exploding, and there was no doubt that they could not be saved. I've seen this scene a few times later, but this time it shook me much more than the ones that came after. For the first time, I realized that the warships of the Reich would burn like this. I turned my head to look at Ishihara, and I saw that Ishihara was also turning his head to look at me. His mouth was wide open as if he were about to cry out, but he could not utter anything, and his face was now completely distorted by fear, and was as white as a dead man. So much so that later on, when I had nightmares, I always dreamed of that face. (Ishihara later told me that my face was horrible.) ）

But this nightmare was far from waking up, when the crew of the Kaga and Akagi carried the flames burning on their bodies, (fortunately, as far as I know, the clothes burned with internal flames, and the temperature was low, and they could not burn people)1 When they jumped directly into the sea one after another from the high deck, the terrible air defense sirens sounded once. This time it's for us......

The warship made a sharp turn to the left, and the whole warship tilted over, causing me to almost fall off my defense. At this moment, a bomb landed on the sea not far from starboard, and exploded a column of water almost dozens of meters high. If it hadn't been for that sharp turn just now, it would have smashed straight into the deck......

One bomb after another fell, and they stirred up huge columns of water, and often, before one column of water had fallen, several columns of water rose next to the warship. The warship writhed sharply, like a wounded beast running wildly in the forest of water columns. Finally a bomb hit, but fortunately it was not a critical location, and I saw the damage management personnel running over with the water pipe in tow...... The whole airstrike passed in a few minutes, but I felt that the time was so long and unbearable. Fortunately, the losses on the mothership are not large, and we can still take off and land aircraft, as well as combat effectiveness. Just as the enemy plane had just left, and the damage management personnel were still busy extinguishing the fire, according to General Yamaguchi's order, the aircraft carrier turned to the upwind direction. Our counterattack is about to begin......"

At 10:15 a.m., six Zero fighters and 18 dive bombers took off from the Wyvern, and they were going to attack the American fleet, which had been spotted for various reasons, but had not been able to strike it immediately. But now, two hours have passed since the discovery of the American fleet, can they still find the Americans in that position?