Seeing that the number of fighter planes over the US military was small and that they had flown over to intercept the attack, he immediately ordered: "Akamatsu Sadaaki, you are responsible for clearing the enemy fighters ......"

"Hello!"

The poor pilots of the US F4F carrier-based planes are brave and courageous, but in fact they are unwise -- the most suitable method for them to adopt is to hover over the fleet and rely on anti-aircraft fire to maneuver with the Axis forces, instead of rushing over and intercepting them without self-determination. In order to achieve the best offensive effect www.biquge.info Fletcher has sent the most skilled fighters and pilots out to cover, and there is not a single F6F in the direct cover aircraft, and there are less than 5 experienced pilots left, and the technology is obviously at a low level.

In just 5 minutes, all 32 air defense fighters were shot down, and Akamatsu Sadaaki alone shot down 3, while the attacking Bf-219 lost only 4. At first, the officers and men on the US warship applauded the planes falling from the sky, but when they found that all the US planes that had fallen were painted with white stars, they were speechless. Seeing such a disparity in the score, Fletcher and Cox gasped, they finally knew why the army aviation had to pay hundreds of planes and the Axis fleet to fight for consumption, and the enemy still had such a strong force: the technical gap between the two sides was too great.

Taking advantage of the fact that the fighter group swept through the enemy's air defense group, Mitsuo Fuchida quickly made up his mind: the enemy's existing tight formation must be broken, otherwise it will be very difficult to force the attack. He passed the order to Shigeharu Murata to let the lightning strike team attack first, and he himself led the He-218 to break into the sky above the fleet without diving and dropping bombs, firmly attracting American anti-aircraft fire.

The first batch of 36 torpedo planes immediately lowered their altitude and dropped torpedoes as required when the US firepower was attracted to high altitudes; this abnormal offensive routine caused the US aircraft carrier formation to be in great confusion, and the ships began to turn freely in order to avoid torpedoes, and a gap immediately appeared in the tight wheel-shaped air defense array.

Taking advantage of this golden opportunity, 3 groups of He-218s immediately pounced and dropped bombs, and their targets were the light cruiser USS Boise, the light cruiser USS Denver (Cleveland-class) and the USS Princeton light carrier on the periphery of the right flank of the fleet, the two light cruisers each hit a 500-kilogram bomb, and the Princeton hit two, as a result of which the second ship of the Independence class immediately struggled to sink. And that's not all, half a minute later, the light cruiser Boise was hit by a torpedo due to the significant reduction in speed after being shot. This light cruiser with a displacement of more than 9700 tons could no longer support it and could only sink.

After the sinking of the USS Boise and the USS Princeton, a big gap suddenly appeared on the right flank of the entire aircraft carrier formation, and the heavy cruiser USS Houston (Northampton-class) rushed up to fill the position, and all the anti-aircraft firepower of the US army was transferred here, but Genda did not continue to focus on this, he set his sights on the American warship on the left flank, and in the torpedo attack just now, the heavy cruiser Astoria (New Orleans class) was covered by the flagship Lexington, and hit 2 torpedoes, How could this poor Pact-type heavy cruiser withstand such a heavy blow, quickly capsized and began to sink slowly.

In order to continue to protect the flagship, the light cruiser Columbia desperately took the position of the Astoria, but the confusion on the left flank could not be resolved for a while, which was enough for the He-218 to attack, a total of 2 groups of 6 He-218s swooped down from the sky, although the anti-aircraft gunners shot down one of them very well, but the 3 bombs exploded after penetrating the deck. The light cruiser was suddenly paralyzed on the surface of the water and dying, looking like it could capsize at any moment.

After the two cruisers sank or were paralyzed, the Berau Forest on the left flank was immediately exposed, Fuchida Mitsuo immediately commanded 3 formations to pounce, 9 planes bombed at the same time and quickly pulled up, a total of 4 bombs fell, what makes people feel more numb is that these 4 bombs are less than 25 meters apart from each other, and they explode almost at short intervals, the violent and continuous explosion blew the Independence-class No. 3 ship into two, and only 11 naval officers and sailors escaped.

Cox's eyelids jumped during the Axis Army's air raids: The other side did not at all rush up and attack blindly, eager to drop all the bombs or torpedoes at the first time, and counted -- that was something that the young men of the carrier-based aircraft on this side often did, but repeatedly circled in the air, accurately calculated and analyzed all kinds of possibilities, and once the target was determined, it launched an attack with a fast, accurate, and ruthless strategy, and the offensive routines were very rich -- there were fighter planes in the air strafing the sea, desperately suppressing the anti-aircraft firepower. Dive bombers repeatedly circled over the warship to attract attention, and then the lightning planes attacked in various unprepared conditions.

He saw a team of four torpedo planes drop their altitude to a height of only 25 meters above the sea, approach the warship and secretly drop torpedoes, and he couldn't help but shout "Be careful!" in the command tower. But on the ever-changing and intricate battlefield, no one could hear this reminder at all, and he could only watch as the heavy cruiser USS Baltimore (the lead ship of the Baltimore class), which had not been in service for a long time, and even had not completely dried the paint in many parts, was hit by three torpedoes one after another and then fluttered and sank -- although this newly commissioned heavy cruiser got rid of the shackles of the treaty and had a displacement of nearly 15,000 tons, no matter how much it was a heavy cruiser, how could it withstand the consequences of eating three torpedoes on a single side?

Mitsuo Fuchida, whose perimeter was almost cleared, can now finally launch a fierce attack with confidence and boldness. I saw that the second Cleveland-class ship and the light cruiser Columbia immediately recruited two teams of dive bombers, and under the "care" of three 500-kilogram bombs, he also followed in the footsteps of other warships and slowly sank in the Caribbean Sea.

After both flanks of the American formation had suffered heavy damage, the second round of lightning strikes and dive bombardment were carried out almost simultaneously, and the primary target of this round was the largest and most conspicuous target, the flagship Lexington. Seven lightning planes and nine He-218s pounced on the attack, and in order to cover the smooth deployment of the attack aircraft group, 12 Bf-219s quickly poured fire on the deck and anti-aircraft gun positions, causing the deck to cry wolf.

Moments later, the captain described the whole ship to Fletcher with a grim face: a bomb in the bow and a bomb in the rear elevator - although these destroyed the warship's take-off and landing capabilities, they were not fatal to the nearly 30,000-ton Lexington, and the real damage was the 500-kilogram bomb on the aft deck, which penetrated several decks and fell into the hangar and exploded, not only blowing up the internal structure to a mess, but also igniting the explosion of aviation fuel. The two muffled noises that followed inside the warship were not due to a mid-mine, but to the continuous explosion of the leaked oil and gas after encountering an open flame.

Now that the speed of the whole ship has dropped from 30 knots to only 17 knots, the captain's crying face makes Fletcher's heart twist, but he still asks: "Is this ship still saved?" Do you need to abandon ship? ”

"It's not enough to abandon ship, but your command would better move to another warship."

Fletcher pointed to the enemy planes flying up and down in the sky, and said with a wry smile: "Please tell me, which other ship is safe?" ”

As he was talking, he suddenly exclaimed: "Torpedo!" ”

Cox could see very clearly, there were two white lines flying on the port side, although the Lexington turned desperately, but the warship with greatly reduced speed was clumsy, and finally could not avoid it, and the midship, the rear of the ship was hit by a torpedo, and the sea water rushed in frantically, and Fletcher only felt that the warship was rapidly tilting to the left.

The captain's voice had become terrified: "Sir, the damage can't be stopped, please retreat immediately, I will issue an order to abandon the ship." ”

At 11:17, Fletcher and a group of staff officers from the headquarters watched the Lexington slowly sink in a kayak, and everyone had tears in their eyes - it was the second Lexington to sink since the war began.

The kayak rowed desperately, trying to get close to another aircraft carrier, the USS Yorktown, but Fletcher soon found that there was no need for it, and more than a dozen He-218s in the air were continuing to rush down to attack, although the heavy anti-aircraft fire shot down 2 of them, but the rest of the bombers successfully completed the bombing, the bow, stern, bridge, main deck, etc. all ate the bombs, and there were 3 near-misses, and a bomb that was far away stirred up a column of water, drenching Fletcher, Cox and others on the kayak.

Looking at the eruption-like firepower and the splattering fragments of the warship, Fletcher knew that the warship was not saved, if it did not sink, and that it was no longer eligible to serve as an aircraft carrier, and he dared to conclude that the Yorktown was so badly damaged that it would be useless to drag it back - the repair time could have been sufficient to build a new ship.

Towards the end of the bombing, Mitsuo Fuchida suddenly spotted the aircraft carrier Radiance hiding in smoke -- this ship was full of British officers and soldiers except for the pilots, and was much more experienced than its American counterparts.

This cunning response strategy succeeded in deceiving the Axis group, and everyone thought that the ship had been blown up almost completely, so they did not continue to "waste" ammunition on it, but when the results of the battle were finally evaluated, Mitsuo Fuchida found that something was wrong: his command of the attack aircraft carrier was traceable, and the Radiance did not seem to have ordered the attack, so how could it be full of gunsmoke? After lowering the height, you can only see the problem when you look closely. (To be continued.) )