At 7:25, the first wave of attack teams led by Mitsuo Fuchida (38 97 ships, 42 99 bombers, and 40 Zero fighters) with a total of 120 planes took off from five aircraft carriers. Pearl Harbor hero Fuchida suffered from appendicitis in the Battle of Midway so he could not take to the skies, only stranded on the Akagi to recuperate, but witnessed an unprecedented defeat, 4 aircraft carriers were sunk by American planes, he escaped from Akagi with a broken foot, fortunately he was rescued to survive, after returning to China has been hiding in the Navy Hospital to recuperate, until the German envoy Kohl stabbed the defeat in the Battle of Midway before re-emergence, and it took 5 months to heal from his injuries.

Tsukahara 243 valued him very much, and let him be responsible for coordinating the carrier-based aircraft of all mobile fleets, because now the First Air War and the Fifth Air War are actually merged, so he has much more authority than when Nagumo Tadaichi was in power, and in his opinion, Vice Admiral Tsukahara, who graduated from the 36th phase of the Navy with Nagumo, is much more clever than Nagumo's indecisive character in commanding aircraft carrier operations. For example, in the last battle, Tsukahara decisively abandoned the Flying Eagle, which had suffered heavy engine damage -- although he lost one aircraft carrier for this reason, he kept the other aircraft carriers of the mobile fleet.

On the one hand, Mitsuo Fuchida was grateful for Tsukahara's trust, and on the other hand, he wanted to avenge Midway's death--although a large part of the ships were British, at least the aircraft carriers were American, and he not only personally took the lead but also asked to lead the first attack wave to attack.

The USS Raider is a small multi-functional verification aircraft carrier originally developed by the United States, with a displacement of only 15,000 tons. Although the number of carrier aircraft is as high as 81 (72 common + 9 in reserve), it is slow and has a small hangar. Most of the combat planes can only be tethered to the deck, so in fact they have taken a back seat, and are more responsible for training and aircraft transportation, and there are only a group of rookie pilots on the ship, and there are very few veterans, and they are not mentally prepared for war.

After Cunningham's operational order was given. The whole warship was in disarray, and the reaction speed was terrible, and it took a full 25 minutes to take off the first plane. Then, the follow-up fleet was released at a rate of 1 aircraft in 2 minutes, and it was not until the 45th minute that the release speed reached 3 aircraft in 4 minutes. The early warning time that the Socotra patrol aircraft had given them was wasted.

Seeing this heart-wrenching scene, Cunningham and Peters both shook their heads again and again, but fortunately, the Japanese plane had not yet appeared. They still have a little time. However, the Raider's technology and reflexes are a little worse. However, the courage was not insignificant, and when only 54 F4F fighters and 18 SBD dive bombers could be put into battle immediately (the spare planes needed to be assembled), the commander, according to the intelligence of Socotra Island and considering the needs of the fleet's air defense, gritted his teeth and first divided 18 F4F and 18 SBDs to form an attack team to pounce on the Japanese fleet, and the rest of the fighters took off one after another to provide air defense cover for the fleet.

Almost at the same time, the Royal Naval Air Force on Socotra Island dispatched all the planes of the base to attack, but they had too few cards, with only 6 Sea Hurricanes and 8 Pipenose Swallows in total. There were also 8 old-fashioned Swordfish attack planes, and finally let the Swordfish hang up the torpedo and sway out to attack.

8：05。 The Japanese and American attack planes met in the air not far from the fast column, and the American pilots gasped when they saw the huge Japanese planes, and Fuchida Mitsuo saw that the American planes were also quite large, so he ordered Sakatani Shigeru to command 16 Zeros to intercept the Americans. The two sides quickly fought in the air, the experience and level of the American carrier-based aircraft pilots were not as good as their Japanese counterparts, and the performance of the F4F fighters was slightly weaker than that of the Zero Battle, so in the air battle that lasted 6 minutes, 16 Zero fought down 9 SBDs, 7 F4Fs, and only 3 of their own. Shigeru Sakatani thought that the remaining enemy planes were enough to cover the fleet behind him, so he quickly broke away and continued to pursue Mitsuo Fuchida's group.

At 8:24, Mitsuo Fuchida effortlessly found the fast column that had been divided into two teams, the east and the west, he ignored the transport ships that were scattered and fleeing, and only fixed his eyes firmly on the aircraft carrier Raider in the center of the team.

More than 30 Zero Fighters immediately fought with 36 F4F fighters, 99 ships burst and seized the opportunity to attack, the Raider first became the target of the fire, within 3 minutes of eating 2 500 kg bombs in a row, the elevator was blown up on the spot, and the other penetrated the deck and exploded inside, which immediately caused the leakage and explosion of aviation fuel in the inventory, and the entire warship quickly rose up a cloud of black smoke and fire, and the damage management team members tried their best to prepare to extinguish the fire on the deck, but the fire was too big and the Raider did not fightAfter 8 minutes, the captain reluctantly announced the abandonment of the ship.

The battleship Massachusetts was the largest and newest battleship in the fleet, surrounded by a circle of destroyers, and the anti-aircraft fire was also the most intensive, attracting a large number of planes to pounce on the attack, and within 2 minutes, two batches of Type 99 ships attacked it, and the bomb dropped by the first shipburst exploded between the No. 1 and No. 2 turrets, penetrating the first deck, killing more than 30 sailors on the spot; Another bomb exploded near the bridge, and the heavy defensive armor protected the officers and soldiers in the command tower, but a circle of anti-aircraft guns around it was damaged, and the third bomb was ready to pounce along the successful path of the two people in front, but it was fired violently by the 20mm anti-aircraft gun group that had reacted and adjusted in place, and was directly exploded in the air, and the fourth plane saw that the situation was not right, and immediately changed the angle and pounced, and the anti-aircraft gunners who had no time to adjust the angle watched the plane throw the bomb on the stern of the ship, causing a huge explosion.

Although the second group of attacking ships had two more bombs than the first one, they were slightly less fortunate than the previous one - the Massachusetts ate three more bombs, two of which were near-misses, and did not cause significant damage to the warship, but the flying shrapnel swept across the aft deck, and it was a mess on it, full of severed limbs and screams of sailors. The 6th hit the starboard front and went through to the power compartment before exploding, and a moment later the 4 boilers were damaged, and the top speed dropped by 3 knots at once, and the other core parts were not significantly affected.

But behind him the heavy cruiser Augusta (Northampton class) could not withstand it, and was besieged by 6 ships in 2 minutes, and continued to hit 3 500-kilogram bombs, the ship's defense has had great problems since the day it was built, and it can only withstand the destroyer-level attack, the bomb penetrated the deck and exploded a big hole on the starboard side, and countless seawater rushed wildly, 5 minutes later, the 9000-ton treaty-type heavy cruiser finally couldn't withstand it, and began to **** side, and then the water speed accelerated, It capsized completely just over a minute later, and only 38 of the ship's 671 officers and men survived.

At the same time as the dive bombers attacked, the torpedo plane attack under the personal command of Mitsuo Fuchida also began, and the 97 ship attackers braved the blazing artillery fire to drop dozens of torpedoes on the left and right flanks of the fast column.

The Sovereign-class old ship, the battleship Determination, which has been built for nearly 30 years, was shot first, and the port side ate two torpedoes, and after two loud bangs, two huge holes were blown up, and more than 4,000 tons of seawater entered in less than 2 minutes, and the overall roll of the whole ship exceeded 15 degrees, and the captain could only reluctantly order to abandon the ship, and under his order, the surviving officers and men jumped into the water to escape, but fortunately this order was given early, saving half of the officers and men -- a few minutes later, the ship began to sink rapidly, and caused a huge whirlpool.

At the same time as the Resolve sank, the Revenge, a ship of the same class, could not withstand it, and the old ship was broken into two on the spot and sank quickly after eating 3 bombs and 2 torpedoes, and the sailors did not even have much chance to escape. Speaking of which, these two escort battleships have been really unlucky lately: some time ago they escorted a large number of transport convoys to Alexandria for supplies, and as a result, these convoys all became trophies of the German and Italian fleets; After returning, he was summoned by Cunningham to fight for a few days before he could rest and sink together in the Horn of Africa.

The Massachusetts is worthy of being a cutting-edge South Dakota-class battleship, under the siege of more than 30 aircraft, a total of 7 bombs, 3 torpedoes, but only more than 5,000 tons of water, tilted 9 degrees to the right, after the captain ordered the water injection again, some balance was restored, the maximum speed was still maintained at 20 knots, the ship dodged bombs and torpedoes from everywhere, while fighting back, a total of 5 enemy planes were shot down, accounting for more than a quarter of the overall record of the fast column, The 36 F4Fs that remained in the skies over the fleet for cover only shot down a mere 7 aircraft, and their own losses reached a staggering 24.

The two battleships of the Elizabeth class were very lucky, Cunningham's war-weariness only suffered 2 near-misses, except for the loss of 4 anti-aircraft guns and more than 50 sailors, there was no particularly large loss, and the bow of the Malayan ship ate a bomb, poured more than 2,000 tons of seawater, and flooded 3 boilers, but was controlled by the damage crew, and the top speed was only 2 knots. Originally, there were 2 torpedoes aimed at the Malaya, but the light cruiser USS Philadelphia (Brooklyn class, said to be a light cruiser, but with a displacement of more than 12,000 tons) not far away blocked all for him, the Malaya was safe and sound, but the Philadelphia was heavily damaged, although it was still barely floating on the surface of the sea like a dead dog, but it had lost all power, and all the officers and men of the ship were forced to abandon the ship. (To be continued.) )