Eight minutes after the enterprise aircraft carrier attack group retreated, the Japanese sea attack wave that poured out of the nest from Munda Island rushed to the sky over the battlefield, and a total of 24 attack aircraft composed of a land attack and a 97 ship attack flew to the top of the remnants of the TF64 formation cruiser to drop bombs, without fighter planes to cover in the air, without a tight wheel-shaped defensive array, the three US ships naturally would not have such good luck, even if the three ships had brought the anti-aircraft guns to the strongest, they still could not stop the attack of the aircraft, Their fate was much more tragic than that of the Japanese artillery fleet: the Salt Lake City was hit by 3 bombs and 2 torpedoes, and after struggling for 2 minutes, it sank, the San Francisco was hit by 4 bombs and 1 torpedo, although it did not sink, but it could only survive at a speed of 7 knots, and only the Atlanta had the best luck, and after being hit by a close miss, the speed was not lost, and it quickly escaped. At 6:25, the Japanese heavy cruiser group, which arrived at the scene, sent the San Francisco to the bottom of the sea with a salvo.

At this point, only one Atlanta light cruiser in the entire TF64 formation successfully broke away, and he was originally going to face the pursuit of the Japanese fleet, but it was a telegram sent by a Japanese reconnaissance plane that saved him.

"Sir, reconnaissance plane No. 7 has discovered the enemy's aircraft carrier formation!" "Just about 210 nautical miles southwest of us, there are 2 large aircraft carriers, 1 battleship, 4 cruisers, and 8 destroyers, and the center of the enemy fleet is located at 11 degrees 80 minutes south latitude and 158 degrees 62 minutes east longitude, heading southeast, and the speed is 24 knots......"

"Good!" Horikichi rose up and was overjoyed, "Inform the location." Let the mobile fleet dispatch carrier-based aircraft to attack, and our artillery fleet will assault the entire army ......"

"Sir! ……”

"Sir!" Kondo Nobutake and Kusaka both spoke out against the shelling of the fleet and continued its advance, for the obvious reason: although the enemy aircraft carrier formation had been discovered. However, discovery is not the same as destruction, and now the US fleet is still a man-eating tiger, and the position of the shelling fleet has been exposed, and it is easy to be attacked by the enemy again if it is forcibly pursued.

Horikichi pointed to Zero Battle above his head: "There are planes to protect us, don't be afraid!" As you saw from the battle just now, the Yamato is not as fragile as you think. ”

"But then you're in danger."

"If we are in danger, then the mobile fleet is completely out of danger. I am the bait, to understand my own situation and value. ”

"But...... Now the Americans may be preparing for a second attack wave. ”

"From the day I joined the Navy, I was not afraid of danger." Horikichi comforted the two, "200 nautical miles is less than 10 hours away. If we get there early, we might have a chance to send all the wounded American warships to the bottom of the sea......"

"This ......" The two really didn't understand why Horikichi was so stubborn to shell the fleet and continue to advance.

"The speed at which American man-made warships are terrible, but the Americans are by no means so fast at training qualified sailors that it is much more urgent to sink and capture them than to wound them." Horikichi's voice was not loud. But it is no less than a thunderclap in the ears of everyone.

In the middle of the dispute. The lookout post reported the arrival of another group, and it was observed that it was a group of Zero fighters flying from Rabaul - a total of 45 aircraft, plus the remaining 27 fighters just now, and now there was a group of 72 fighters covering the head of the shelling fleet.

Horikichi smiled: "You see, our patronus is here, don't be afraid...... I order, the whole army to advance to the southwest! ”

"Yes! Direction 220°, speed 23 knots......"

Inside the Commander Tower of the Shozuru, the flagship of the Mobile Fleet. Kusaka Ryunosuke said to Tsukahara 243 with a dance in his hand: "The artillery fleet has found traces of the enemy aircraft carrier formation, and the center is about 300 nautical miles due south and west of our fleet......"

"Good!" Tsukahara 243, who had been waiting for a long time, slammed the wall of the command tower. "Finally found these guys! When will the cover fleet in Bougainville arrive? ”

"They were told to go, and in 20 minutes they arrived over the fleet, and there were about 40 fighters - they sent everything they could."

"This fleet left 16 direct cover aircraft, and the rest of the army assaulted."

"But then there are too few fleet cover planes, what if the enemy aircraft carrier attack group rushes to us?"

"No, the U.S. aircraft carrier group has launched an attack wave against our artillery fleet, and if it wants to attack us, it will be another aircraft carrier's attack wave, with 56 fighters enough to cover; In addition, the first thing they found out was that I was shelling the fleet, and I think they would give priority to striking the Yamato......" Tsukahara 243 thought for a while, "In case it comes at us, the current distance from the American plane will be nearly an hour and a half, plus the waste of half the way, maybe 2 hours, after the plane takes off, the whole fleet will move westward to reduce the distance with Rabaul." ”

At 6:17 a.m., when the Japanese mobile fleet was in full swing arranging for its aircraft carriers to release aircraft groups, Mikawa Junichi led the 8th Fleet to retreat westward with the army units withdrawn from Kuah Island, he thought that he was the most unobtrusive small role in the whole battle, but he did not expect that the Americans still took a fancy to him, according to Kincaid's changed instructions, the 16 SBDs released by the Hornet in the early morning gave up asking for the enemy and resolutely attacked the Japanese "landing fleet". The targets they pinpointed, without exception, were the Fuso and Yamashiro, which Horikichi had temporarily assigned to the Eighth Fleet in the early hours of this morning, and as a result, Fuso ate three bombs and Yamashiro ate two bombs, and the transport ships full of army officers and men were ignored by the American planes -- they thought that these were air transport ships that had returned after landing.

Earlier, Halsey, who received a series of unfavorable news such as the heavy casualties of the 1st Marine Division on Kuah Island, the annihilation of the TF64 formation, the Japanese "landing" on Kuah Island, and the unprecedented strength of the Japanese artillery fleet with super battleships, could not sit still, and according to Kincaid's request, he ordered the American B-17 bomber group deployed on the island of Vanuatu to go out to bomb the Japanese "landing fleet" and the Japanese "landing field" on Kuah Island, which were 1,000 kilometers away, and at the same time sent a telegram to Kincaid, It is required to find the enemy's aircraft carrier formation as soon as possible, and if it cannot find it, it should launch an attack on the enemy's artillery fleet as much as possible.

In the face of Halsey's order, which caused great controversy in later generations, Kincaid made a mistake: the first wave of attack aircraft of the Enterprise had completed the attack and was on the way back, and the pilots reported that the air attack was very poor, and the enemy fleet was very heavy and covered by a group of fighters. Now he was faced with a new choice - first, wait for all the planes of the Enterprise and all the 16 SBDs sent out by the Hornet to return before launching a second wave of attacks; Second, immediately release the remaining missionable fleet of the Hornet for a second wave of attack, and all other unreturned aircraft as a third wave. There are pros and cons to the two methods, recovering all the aircraft and then attacking can maximize the striking power, and the disadvantage is that you have to wait for a long time; The Hornet strike group reacted quickly, but because of its own small strength, it could easily become a refueling tactic. After thinking about it for five minutes, he decided to choose the second option in view of the fact that the Japanese aircraft carrier had not yet been found, leaving some forces to deal with the emergency.

At 6:32, after anxiously waiting for nearly 2 hours, the USS Hornet finally received the order to attack - the priority target was the enemy's bombardment of the super battleships in the fleet. Originally, Kincaid had a chance to change the order, but after receiving the report that 16 SBDs of the Hornet had successfully attacked the landing fleet (losing 1 of its own) and had returned, he quickly made up his mind.

At 6:39, according to Kincaid's order, the 12 SBD dive bombers that were separated from the first attack wave of the Enterprise and took on the task of searching for the enemy in depth alone reached the limit of fuel for their return, and they still did not find the Japanese aircraft carrier (of course, they could not find it, their search focus was in the northeast, but the Japanese mobile fleet was in the northwest at this time), according to the original order, they returned to the mothership and completed the attack on the Japanese artillery fleet by the way.

Only 8 SBDs managed to find their targets, and the other 4 flew straight back to the Enterprise because they didn't find the Japanese fleet, and as a result, the 8 SBDs that attacked by the way were torn apart by the 72 Zeros that were covering the sky above the bombardment fleet, and they shot down an unlucky Zero fighter in addition to hitting a near-miss shot (Mutsu: please call me the king of near-misses), and then all 8 planes were shot down in the rough Solomon Sea.

At 6:43, all the aircraft carriers of the mobile fleet went against the wind with all their strength to release carrier-based aircraft, and for this attack, Tsukahara 243 took out 264 planes (the two large, three, small and five aircraft carriers of the mobile fleet had a total of 280 carrier-based aircraft, leaving 16 direct cover aircraft), and Xianghe, Zuihe, Feiying, Hayabusa, and Ruifeng lined up in a row, and the scene was magnificent, which can be called the third large-scale assembly of carrier-based aircraft on a par with Pearl Harbor and Midway.

Considering the large number of aircraft, the entire fleet is divided into three waves, the first wave includes 36 97 ship attack (carrying torpedoes), 29 ship explosions (bombs), 33 zero fighters escorting them, a total of 95 fighters form the first attack team, the supreme commander is the captain of the Xianghe torpedo flight team, an excellent pilot who participated in the Pearl Harbor and Midway operations, and Murata Shigeji Shaosa, who is known as the "lightning strike king"; The bomber commander was Captain Takahashi Ding, captain of the Shozuru bomber flight team, and the fighter commander was Captain Shiranefeff, an ace pilot; At 7 o'clock, the 89 planes of the Second Attack Group then set off, with a total of 27 97 ships attacking and 33 99 ships exploding, escorting them with 29 Zero fighters, the commander-in-chief was the captain of the Xianghe bomber Captain Seki Wei Shaozuo, the commander of the torpedo plane was Captain Imashi Ichiro of the Zuizuru torpedo plane, and the commander of the fighter was Captain Shingo Yingcheng Shaozo; At a quarter past 7 o'clock, the remaining 80 planes formed the third attack wave, with Captain Hidaka Moriyasu, the commander of the Mizukaze fighter detachment, as the commander-in-chief, and the bomber flight captain was Captain Masao Yamaguchi of the Hayabusa.

The group of attack planes that obscured the sky flew south to attack the American TF16\17 formation 300 nautical miles away. Now, no one but God can save Kincaid...... (To be continued.) )