Before the US fighters could assemble, the opposite Axis group, under the leadership of Worrall, adopted the "dip and go" tactic, and quickly ate 10 US SBDs, 6 TBFs and 1 F4F by surprise attack and then quickly fled, losing only 1 of them. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

This situation made Henry angry enough, and he roared so angrily that a large number of expletives unconsciously erupted, and while directing the scattered group of attack planes to concentrate again, he repeatedly demanded that the fighters quickly pounce on them.

In terms of speed, the Bf-219 was inferior to the F6F or P-47, but because it slipped relatively fast, it waited for the US fighter to fly at full speed for 6 or 7 minutes before catching up. Looking at the US planes chasing after him, a smile appeared on the corner of Worrall's mouth -- now he had successfully taken the US plane group more than 60 kilometers away from the east, and when the US fighter planes approached his eyes and widened the distance from the escort planes, he suddenly split his own plane group into two, with 24 fighters on one side and 45 fighters on the other. I saw that 45 fighters were tightly entangled with the American fighters, while the other 24 turned their noses and pounced on Henry's main team like a tiger descending from a mountain.

The F6F and P-47 who rushed forward had to deal with the Axis fighters in front of them, and the remaining F4F performance and technology in the attack formation were far from being the opponents of the Japanese and German fighters, although they resisted desperately and tried to put on the Saatchi scissors tactic, but this thing had already been taught by the Bf-219 with a small radius inward cut tactic, and now it was completely a matter of looking for death, in just 3 minutes, the F4F lost 9 planes, the SBD and TBF each lost 6 planes, and the Bf-219 only lost 2 planes.

Today's SBD is a big bad luck, because Kusaka Ryunosuke believes that dive bombers pose the greatest threat to aircraft carriers, so when assigning fighter targets, it is clearly stipulated that SBD will be hit first, then TBF, then A20 or other bombers, and finally fighters.

45 Bf-219 and 16 F6F and 36 P-47 fought each other, the P-47 was slightly better than the Bf-219, and the F6F was slightly inferior to the Bf-219. The key point is that the level of Japanese and German pilots is much higher than that of American pilots, and the exchange ratio between the two sides is 6:17, and the US military is completely defeated.

In just a few minutes, the Axis fleet achieved a 9:55 result, which is quite impressive considering that there are 17 high-performance fighters in between. After getting off to a good start, Worrall did not fall in love with the battle, but once again led the group to escape, and he firmly remembered Ozawa's request - to bring the enemy to the east, as far as possible.

The time was close to 10:30, and Lieutenant Colonel Henry finally realized that something was wrong: the enemy reported that the Axis group would generally intercept at 120-150 kilometers, and it had been nearly 150 kilometers since the enemy began to volley, and the aircraft carrier formation below did not even see a shadow, and he couldn't help but feel anxious. At this time, the members of the formation also warned him one after another: due to the continuous flight of more than 1,000 kilometers and the waste of time halfway, coupled with the full-speed maneuver just now to get rid of the entanglement of the axis group, the fuel loss is very large, and the TBF fuel is generally only 20%-25%, while the SBD's fuel is only about 30%. It is hoped that he will come up with a solution as soon as possible.

What's worse is that he didn't dare to scatter the formation to search, there were dozens of fighters staring at him on the opposite side, and he dared to guarantee that as soon as the group dispersed, it would be torn to pieces by the enemy immediately. Thinking of this, he finally panicked, and while adjusting the course from due east to due south, he sent a report to the mothership, reporting that no enemy aircraft carrier had been found, and asking for a solution.

"What?" Fletcher and Cox were taken aback by the report that no enemy aircraft carrier formation had been found and that they had suffered heavy losses from fighter interception.

At this moment, the second urgent telegram came: the second attack wave that took off at 8 o'clock had also arrived in the Z sea area and launched a search, but also found nothing, only reported that a few Japanese destroyers were salvaging the overboard pilots, considering that these destroyers were being rescued by both the enemy and us, the attack planes did not attack.

"Where are the enemy aircraft carriers hiding?" Looking at the chart, Cox couldn't help but ponder.

Fletcher knew that he could not hesitate at this time, and if he hesitated for a few more minutes, many pilots in the first attack wave would probably jump directly into the sea. He immediately gave the order: "Aircraft that do not have enough fuel to parachute to Venezuela, and those who have enough fuel to return to Puerto Rico will return to the island - whether carrier-based aircraft or land flights." ”

With the same plane, the same distance, it was easier and more fuel-efficient to go back to Puerto Rico than to go back to the aircraft carrier, and Fletcher's decision was still enough to make a quick decision.

However, another 3 minutes passed for this order to reach Henry, during which time his attack aircraft were shot down 7 more SBDs, 4 F4Fs and 2 TBFs, and only 2 Axis fighters were lost. After receiving the order to allow the retreat, the American aircraft group began to retreat in two groups, one to the north and the other to the south. At the moment when the US military fleet was separated and desperate to flee for his life, Worrall commanded his men to knock out 3 more F6Fs, 4 SBDs and 5 TBFs, and they were unscathed. Seeing that his men were still in pursuit, he immediately stopped them and explained: "The destroyer reports that another group of enemy planes has arrived, and the formation will immediately return with me to help......

After thinking for a long time, Cox suddenly said to Fletcher: "Sir, do you think that the enemy aircraft carrier will become sailing west?" ”

"To the west?" Fletcher was shocked, and in an instant he came to his senses.

"Judging from what Henry has just reported, the enemy has not adopted the previous tactics of decisive interception, but has instead resorted to guerrilla attacks and harassment, fighting and retreating while fighting -- there is only one reason that can be explained, that is, there are no enemy aircraft carriers in the east at all, so the enemy planes can retreat without any scruples." Cox pointed to the chart and said, "Assuming that the enemy fleet changes to sail west immediately after the position is exposed, then the distance from us will be wider and larger, so Henry has searched nearly 200 kilometers of sea area and has not found anything, he has more than 200 planes under his command, and the search area is very large, such a large aircraft carrier formation will basically not be missed if it is really below, the only explanation is that the enemy is not there at all." ”

"This is the only plausible and plausible explanation for Lieutenant Colonel Wallace to lead the second attack wave to turn west and search."

At 10:39, Wallace's second attack wave continued to search westward from the T+100 position, and even the Haguro with an obvious target below did not bother to attack, and before 3 minutes, Worrall's fighter formation headed west. At this time, Mitsuo Fuchida's attack formation had been in the air for almost 75 minutes.

Since Tsukahara ordered a U-turn at 7 o'clock, the mobile fleet has been galloping westward for more than 200 minutes, running out for 200 kilometers, and the second attack wave of the US army is still a full 300 kilometers away from the mobile fleet, and the search has achieved nothing at all, but since Fletcher ordered to continue the search to the west, he can only go west again, he does not know that there is a large group of Axis fighters coming at a rapid speed more than 100 kilometers behind him, and he does not know that before he found the Axis aircraft carrier formation, Mitsuo Fuchida found the US aircraft carrier formation earlier than him.

At 10:47, the staff officer hurriedly handed over the telegram, and Cox's face changed dramatically when he saw it, and his hands began to tremble.

Seeing this, Fletcher asked, "What's wrong?" ”

"The USS Boise (Brooklyn-class light cruiser) reported the discovery of a large group of enemy aircraft, numbering no less than 160 aircraft, at a distance of 150 kilometers, not slow!"

"So much? Is it an enemy carrier-based aircraft? Fletcher was stunned for a moment, then reacted, "Damn, they did sail west instead......"

Initially, according to Cox's calculations, the distance between the two sides was more than 790 kilometers, and it could be shortened to less than 700 kilometers after 4 hours, given that the range of Japanese aircraft was not as good as that of the United States - the same dive bomber, the range of He-218 was not as good as that of SBD, and the same lightning strike aircraft, the range of Ju-98 was not as good as TBF, and even the range of Bf-219 was not as good as that of F6F, which is almost all open data, and the common advantage of Axis aircraft is that they generally fly relatively fast, and fighters do not need to be too accommodating to speed when escorting attack aircraft, Relatively easy to escort. And flying fast means being fast when you run away, which often determines the success or failure of an attack.

In addition to the conservative aerodynamic structure, the slow flight of US planes also has a great deal to do with the generally heavy weight of the airframe, which also makes US planes relatively stronger -- Japanese and German ace pilots can fight American rookies with Bf-219s and achieve results of 1:5 and 1:6; if the planes piloted by the two sides are changed, I am afraid that the exchange ratio can soar to 1:9 or 1:10, and this is determined by different operational ideas and concepts.

However, it is useless to say anything now, and the entire aircraft carrier formation, in addition to the anti-aircraft firepower of warships, has only 32 direct cover aircraft.

Fletcher turned into a bitter melon face: "Prepare for air defense......"

"Enemy aircraft carriers spotted!" Mitsuo Fuchida in the air soon saw the huge US aircraft carrier formation, and after exclaiming, he couldn't help but start counting, "1, 2, 3...... 5 "If you look closely, you will find that there are also 8 light and heavy cruisers and 12 destroyers.

It was the first time he had seen an Essex-class aircraft carrier, and at first sight there were two, and he could not help but be impressed by these two huge ships, and even more worried about the production capacity of the United States, which had obviously been produced only recently -- the commander was so right, Japan walked on the tightrope every day, and the United States had many opportunities to start over, and the only thing he could do was to destroy the enemy at the least cost.

Fletcher's capital is still strong enough, seeing the escort warship that tightly protects the aircraft carrier in the middle and continues to spray anti-aircraft firepower, Mitsuo Fuchida couldn't help frowning a little, and rushed over directly It's not a small trouble, he has to find a good way...... (To be continued.) )