Mitsuo Fuchida did not know that he had successfully activated the hidden talent of the British—camouflage first, and the British used this trick many times in the Great War: the Queen Elizabeth and the Warrior, which were anchored in Alexandria and successfully paralyzed by the Italians with frogmen, were disguised by the British as intact, and their clever acting skills deceived the Italians, making them mistakenly believe that the operation had failed and gave up similar actions in the future; Some time later, due to the sinking of warships such as the Ark Royal and the Barham in the Mediterranean Sea, Cunningham transformed the Centurion, which had been turned into a target ship, and disguised itself as the George V-class battleship Anson to deceive the Axis Navy and Air Force; As for the various camouflage and deception of German bombers on the home soil during the Battle of Britain, there was even more endless. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

However, Fuchida Mitsuo could not do anything even if he sensed that something was wrong, he only had 3 He-218s left in his hand, and the lightning planes had also dropped all the torpedoes, and now he could only reluctantly let the last formation continue to attack, and the bombs dropped were deftly avoided by the Radiance, only forming a close miss, and destroying part of the anti-aircraft guns.

"It's a pity!" He sighed secretly and led the group back without hesitation. In his opinion, these US aircraft carriers and the remaining cruisers and destroyers could not escape, and when they continued to launch another attack, they could all be sent to the bottom of the sea.

However, he never expected that at the same time as he was attacking the US aircraft carrier formation, the mobile fleet was being attacked to the death by the second attack wave of US carrier-based aircraft.

Wallace's second attack wave continued to search westward following Fletcher's instructions, while the Axis fighter group led by Worrall behind him rushed back, but just as he caught up with the American fleet, Wallace also spotted a mobile fleet speeding westward on the sea. So he decisively let the fighters behind, and he led SBD and TBF to attack, Worrall was in a hurry, and could only divide the fighters in his hands into two again, dividing the remaining 61 fighters into two formations, 28 and 33, 28 bypassing to contain the US attack aircraft group, and 33 to solve the US fighters in front of him.

The mobile fleet also spotted the group of American attacking planes that pounced on it, and Tsukahara did not hesitate to let the 16 direct cover planes over the fleet pounce and intercept them. The two sides engaged in a fierce battle over the sea area less than 50 kilometers away from the mobile fleet, and under the joint interception of the Axis fighters with a total of 77 planes in front of and behind the pursuit, the US second attack wave paid a great price, with a total of 54 SBDs losing 38 planes, a total of 36 TBFs losing 29 planes, and finally Wallace could only lead the remaining 16 SBDs and 7 TBFs to launch an attack under the anti-aircraft fire in the sky.

Seven torpedo planes aimed at the Hayabusa on the right flank to drop torpedoes, and none of them hit, but one of the 16 bombs dropped by SBD hit the Hayabusa, and the 1,000-pound bomb penetrated the main deck of the aircraft carrier, and after a violent bang, there was a violent explosion inside it, the Hayabusa was transformed from the Kashihara Maru passenger liner, and its structural strength could not be compared with special aircraft carriers such as Shozuru and Zuizuru, nor could it be compared with the Independence-class light aircraft carrier rebuilt from the hull of a heavy cruiser, and this bomb was almost fatal to it.

Seeing the Hayabusa rising a cloud of flames and a large cloud of gunsmoke, the axis group behind him was red-eyed, fighting for his life, and was selected to deal with enemy fighters, one of the members of the cleaning trio, Hiroyoshi Nishizawa did not know how many waves of enemy planes he had encountered, it seemed that he had been fighting since the Battle of Panama, and he couldn't even remember how many planes he shot down, but he was still fearless, and continued to fight with vigor, killing 3 enemy planes in less than 5 minutes.

Of the 130 US attack planes, only 4 F6F, 2 F4F, and 5 SBDs escaped the battlefield alive, and the TBF was completely wiped out, and Lieutenant Colonel Wallace, who led the team, died under anti-aircraft fire after the bomb was dropped. With little fuel left, the Bf-219s abandoned the pursuit, instead returning to the mothership as soon as possible to prepare for supplies.

A few minutes later, Kusaka Ryunosuke Tetsutsu reported the damage to the Hayabusa: the hangar and power compartment were severely damaged, the speed dropped to 12 knots, and the take-off and landing function was lost......

Tsukahara's face did not change: "This is an indispensable sacrifice, Mitsuo Fuchida reported sinking and heavily damaging 1 enemy fleet aircraft carrier, sinking 2 light air carriers, sinking or seriously damaging 4-5 enemy cruisers, the enemy only has one fleet aircraft carrier is intact, and he hopes to launch a second attack." ”

Kusaka Ryunosuke breathed a sigh of relief, judging from the comparison of results, this side undoubtedly took advantage of it greatly.

"Report the results of the battle to Commander Horikichi and ask him to retreat with the decoy fleet, and as for Hayabusa, let the remaining pilots of the ship hit the ...... Shozuru" Tsukahara hesitated for a moment, "and then let Yukikaze accompany him to turn around now and retreat directly." ”

Kusaka Ryunosuke knew that the Hayabusa Eagle might be difficult to keep, the speed was too slow, Puerto Rican planes could launch air strikes today and tomorrow, and they would be sunk if they were found, and it was impossible for the mobile fleet to drag a burden away - that was to die together.

"Is it difficult to get the ships ready to receive the planes now?"

Kusaka Ryunosuke calculated: the fighters and the direct cover aircraft unit lost another 14 planes in the air battle just now, and the remaining 63 planes; Mitsuo Fuchita's attacking formation ended up losing 6 Bf-219s, 9 He-218s, and 7 Ju-98s, so that the remaining number of aircraft in the mobile fleet was 221, and the remaining 3 aircraft carriers could accommodate a total of 192 aircraft if they were not decked.

He replied, "With deck mooring and scheduling, barely yes." ”

"Let the fighters complete the supply as soon as possible, and then prepare to receive the attack aircraft formation, and strive to launch a second attack as soon as possible, and we must also knock out the remaining fleet aircraft carrier of the US army, it is estimated that the distance between the two sides is only 500 kilometers now, and whoever moves fast will take advantage!" After Tsukahara finished speaking, he added: "Try to rescue all the pilots who fell into the water, including the American pilots, especially to explain that even if there are enemy pilots who have severely damaged the Hayabusa, they must not be rude, they are all warriors, and each is just a country." ”

"Hello!"

Kusaka Ryunosuke's heart was heavy: the pilots of the attack formation basically couldn't be saved, but it is estimated that half of the losses in the air defense operation could be recovered.

"Sir......" a voice suddenly broke the silence, "No. 6 water reconnaissance report, 240 kilometers south-west of Port-au-Prince found an enemy battleship formation, with 5 battleships, 6-8 cruisers, more than 20 destroyers, and a course of about 105 degrees. (To be continued.) )