PS: Due to the G20 summit in Hangzhou, I will take my eldest daughter out for a walk today until September 7......

At 6:15, 60 of the 72 air defense fighters accelerated to the northwest, and the remaining 12 took cover over the fleet to deal with unexpected situations. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Horikichi narrowed his eyes and looked at the change in the number of planes in the sky, and asked, "Is Tsukahara-kun planning to intercept first?" ”

With the radar in place, interception is no longer particularly difficult, and it is very convenient to follow the radar guidance to stop the enemy planes. This was also a good way to delay the launch of enemy planes into air strikes, but when he heard the radar report that more than 120 enemy planes were attacking, his face became very solemn again.

A total of 124 U.S. aircraft were launched in the air raid, still under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Pfister, and the formation included 14 F4U, 32 P-47, 24 SBD, 20 TBF, 18 A-20 light bombers and 16 B-25 medium bombers. Summing up yesterday's battles, Major General Cohen concluded that the key to the success of an air raid is to allow fighter units to entangle the enemy and then open a channel for the attack aircraft group. But when he saw that there were many more enemy fighters coming to intercept than yesterday, Pfister couldn't help frowning, and instinctively felt that today's battle would be equally difficult to fight.

Tactics are progressing day by day, of course, the US military will not remain the same, in the face of the Axis fighters who came to intercept, the large formation of 124 hula was suddenly divided into two, divided into two camps of little difference in size, and spread out to the left and right wings respectively, the left wing is a combination of P-47, TBF and A-20, the right wing is F4U, a combination of SBD and B-25. The strategy was put forward by Pfister, he believes that the speed of his own aircraft is different, if all gather together to fly, the slow is easy to drag the fast one, the result is that everyone can not get up, after adjusting the collocation, the relatively fast TBF and A-20 together, the relatively slow SBD and B-25 together, the grouping is more reasonable; Another point is that the number of aircraft on this side is relatively large, and it is easier to break through with small formations after dispersion than with a group.

This tactical assumption was accepted by Rear Admiral Cohen and endorsed by most pilots, and was carried out in the face of interception by enemy aircraft. But what he didn't expect was that the Axis group was quickly split into two, turning to the left and right flanks to intercept the volleys, but the other side was not evenly distributed: the left flank was divided into 40 BF-219s, while the right flank was only divided into 20.

Pfister didn't know at all that the 40 fighters on the left flank were all Japanese pilots, and the 20 on the right flank were all German pilots, and the Americans' division of troops made it easier for the Japanese and German fighters to deal with the enemy separately and reduced the pressure on coordination, and the reason why there were only 20 on the right flank was entirely because Major Worrall of the German Navy, who was the commander of the formation, had already seen that the enemy planes on the right flank were mainly twin-engine bombers and fighters, and he was too lazy to devote more strength to deal with them except for the SBD -- he was no longer a hairy boy. It's past the age of blood boiling, and when he sees that the enemy fighter has to pounce on it and shoot it down to prove himself, all he has to do is shoot down the SBDs.

Pfister's right-wing group quickly broke through the German interception while fighting, but the left-wing group complained bitterly - they had 70 planes, but they had to face 40 Japanese fighters to intercept them, and the breakthrough was more difficult than yesterday, and the two sides quickly collided viciously.

The destroyers below, maneuvering at top speed and always waiting to salvage people, could clearly see that the two sides of the air battle were fighting each other, and planes were falling one after another, and sometimes pilots were parachuting; because these destroyers were bothering to catch the pilots of both the enemy and us, and the US fighters in the air did not want to attack them -- it was better for their comrades to be taken prisoner than to drown in the sea.

Although the P-47 on the left flank was fast, it had to bother to cover the A-20 and TBF, and the advantage could not be brought into play, and after paying the price of 14 P-47s, 7 A-20s, and 9 TBFs being shot down, the left flank cluster broke through the Japanese interception and advanced forward, but the BF-219s who turned back continued to catch up and fight. Ffister, who was gradually moving away, thought in a trance that at least 10 Japanese planes had also been shot down, but this was completely his delusion, just now the US troops on the left flank had lost a total of 30 planes, and the Japanese army had lost only 5 planes, and he saw that the planes that were "falling" were actually just Japanese pilots who took advantage of the situation to dive after completing the attack, and they did not really crash.

The battle was relatively difficult due to the slightly smaller number of German fighter groups on the right flank, but they were quickly picked up by the remaining 12 fighters covering the fleet, and the scene was suddenly reversed, with a total of 4 aircraft lost in front and behind, and 6 P-47s, 8 SBDs and 2 B-25s were shot down. The exchange ratio between the two sides in the peripheral volley battle was 46:9, and considering that the difference in numbers between the two sides was slightly lower than yesterday, the US military actually made a slight improvement compared to the 50:8 result.

After the large-scale group of planes intercepted and dispersed, they began to fight individually, and the US planes gave priority to the beachhead in accordance with the pre-agreed target, and a large number of aerial bombs were poured down, and the beachhead was suddenly plunged into a sea of fire, and there were flying shrapnel everywhere wantonly harvesting the lives of the officers and men of the Marine Brigade, but Pfister quickly noticed the problem: it seemed that the bombing scene was very violent, but in fact, the soft sandy soil had a buffering effect on the bombs, and many bombs were dropped without exploding, and even those that exploded were also absorbed a lot of impact force. In addition, the German officers and men had consciously dispersed and fallen on the spot during the interception of the aircraft group just now, and the bombing effect was not as good as expected.

In a sense, the eight 12.7mm aviation machine guns of the P-47 swept the ground with blazing fire that might be more effective than bombs, although the scene was chaotic, he still thought very clearly, the bombs at hand were not enough to deal with the enemy battleships, so he asked the attack planes to bomb the landing craft and transport ships - destroying these would also deter the enemy's follow-up landing force.

Just before the U.S. troops broke into the landing field, Tsukahara aboard the Shozuru also received accurate information: "Enemy planes have arrived in the Panama Canal Zone ......"

"All of them attacked, rushed to the skies over the battlefield as quickly as possible, and started the battle according to the plan agreed upon last night."

As soon as he gave the order, the 34 BF-219s that were originally on standby quickly rushed to the landing site -- he grasped the timing very well, in case the enemy planes rushed towards the mobile fleet, these 34 reserves could play a role in intercepting and deterring, and only when he was sure that the enemy attack plane group was all staying over the landing field, he could beat this last force out.

Although other planes were asked to bomb the landing ship as much as possible, the experienced Pfister himself did not want to waste the 1,000-pound bomb on the landing craft with only a few hundred tons, and he wanted to find a big target, so the pilot chose the nearest Mutsu and quickly dived down. The attack was so sudden that no fighter jets interfered with his movements, and in the end, the SBD managed to break through the warship's anti-aircraft fire interception, dropping the bomb and hitting the rear deck of the Mutsu.

In fact, he didn't have to watch carefully, Pfister knew that he must have won the lottery, he waved his fist happily, and wanted to say loudly to the pilot, "Return to the ......", what caught him off guard was that just when the SBD was just leveled and ready to break away, the Mutsu Ao, which had dodged the bomb many times and was known as the king of near-misses, suddenly broke out violently, and the impact from the warship blew the SBD in the air to sway, and its violent power made everyone unbelievable.

And that's not all, Pfister was stunned to see that the ship's No. 3 turret actually flew up in the blast - it was a big guy weighing 360 tons, and then the turret quickly smashed down again, smashing the bow of a Japanese destroyer next to it that could not dodge, and the unlucky destroyer Hula sank into the sea, and the panicked sailors jumped into the sea like dumplings. Looking down from the sky, a large gap appeared on the back deck of the Mutsu, and thick smoke billowed out.

"Hahahaha!" Pfister and the pilot laughed wildly, happier than if they had won the jackpot.

What's going on? Not only did he not understand it, but everyone who witnessed the scene did not understand it.

Cao Lu scolded loudly: According to the defense capability and armor thickness of the Mutsu, this should not happen at all, not to mention 1,000 pounds of ordinary bombs, even 1,000 pounds of armor-piercing shells can't penetrate the main horizontal armor belt, but the reality is so cruel, the most impossible thing actually happened like this.

A few minutes later, Horikichi received an accurate report on the situation: the bomb penetrated the armor belt and caused the ammunition depot of the No. 3 turret to explode, and the bomb and the shells and ammunition exploded violently, and the blast wave not only swept away all the facilities, equipment, and personnel near the No. 3 turret, but also damaged the boiler in the power compartment below, and the Mutsu, which was originally maneuvering at a high speed of 25 knots, suddenly fell to only 17 knots. As for why a mere 1,000-pound bomb can penetrate the armor belt, no one can say.

What happened to the Mutsu was much stronger than it was in real history - the explosion of the No. 3 turret in the harbor that sank the entire warship!

Since yesterday until this morning, the Mutsu has carried out several shellings, and nearly 50% of the ammunition has been used, so the power of the explosion has been greatly reduced compared to the real history, and even so, the quality hidden dangers left over from the rush of work have always existed and finally been exposed on the battlefield, and the scene is extremely ugly. A few SBDs and TBFs saw that Mutsu was seriously injured and wanted to get some cheap, and they threw their bombs down, and the Mutsu with a great drop in speed and panic suddenly became the target of public criticism, and as a result, they ate 1000 pounds and 500 pounds of bombs respectively within 2 minutes, but the American bombers who dropped the bombs were not very lucky, and they were shot down by the fighters who arrived later after dropping the bombs, but the bombs also fell into the big hole caused by the explosion just now, causing a violent explosion again, The speed dropped further to only 15 knots. (To be continued.) )