"Sir, there's a telegram from the Second Air War, they've found the U.S. fleet and are ready to attack. "Minoru Genda, chief of staff of the First Air Battle, said excitedly, "There is mainly an Essex-class regular aircraft carrier and an Iowa-class battleship, and they are really going to Australia!"www.biquge.info ”

"The Pacific Fleet has no regular aircraft carriers, the Panama Canal is blocked, and the Falklands are controlled by the Germans. Fortunately, the light aircraft carriers were annihilated when they separated from them, otherwise they would still be in trouble if they were concentrated, and they would have moved at full speed and could not let the other side slip to Australia. Tsukahara sighed, "It's just that I don't understand why the Americans are stupid and stupid to crash into the Indian Ocean, and really think that they can go sideways casually after defeating the Indies and the Maldives?" ”

"You speculate that this fleet is going to India to escort troops and supplies?" Minoru Genda said strangely, "The situation in India is so obvious, the British are almost certain to lose this territory, why should they put their strength in a place that is destined to not win?" ”

Tsukahara shook his head: "India has a special meaning to the British Empire, it is a symbol of the status of a great power, and it will never let go easily." Don't you think that the British soldiers in India and the British soldiers in the South Seas are two different things? ”

Minoru Genda nodded, although the area controlled by the army is very large and beautiful, it can't hide the fact that the Indian dispatch army under Yamashita has increased three times, and the scale has risen to nearly 400,000 is still not enough, and the Indian army not only has the best weapons and equipment and material supplies in the army, but also has 4 German brigades to help lay the foundation at the beginning, so it is still inseparable from the British. It was also Yamashita Fengwen who led the team to attack, how could the British army in Nanyang be so difficult to fight at the beginning?

"Now that the British are in a new unit, there will be trouble for the army." Minoru Genda said with emotion, "Fortunately, Chief Hori was far-sighted and dispatched all the main forces to encircle and suppress it, if it was only a part of the troops, maybe it would be bitten back by the Americans." ”

"Don't underestimate the enemy at any time! Since the enemy dared to venture into the Indian Ocean, of course, he had something to rely on, and Tsunoda's battle was not necessarily easy to fight. ”

Genda Shidun was stunned: "Do you think he is in trouble?" How do I think he's dominant? There are more troops than the enemy, planes are better than the enemy, and even the sunrise is earlier than the enemy! ”

The Tsunoda fleet, further east, saw the sunrise earlier, so it sent reconnaissance planes earlier, which was a big advantage.

Tsukahara smiled: "The advantage is a point, but the enemy is not powerless, the American generals who can single-handedly attack the Indian Ocean are all amazing figures, not only increase the number of troops but also dare to go down to the Indies and the Maldives, scaring the grass deer on the island of Ceylon into a cold sweat, if this situation is a little lighter than the enemy, we will be passive." I'm willing to bet that the attack group of the Americans must have been released as well, and I even had a hunch that Tsunoda would suffer, and I just hoped that the loss would not be too big. ”

At 12 o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese carrier-based aircraft first arrived in the skies over the US military to launch an air attack, and in the past two hours, Spruance continued to maintain a 120-degree course, gritting his teeth and sprinting at a high speed of 31 knots (this is the maximum speed of the Iowa), and Tsunoda changed the fleet course to 215 degrees, maintaining a speed of 24 knots -- the two routes had a clear angle, and the distance between each other was closing at about 35 knots per hour, but by 4 o'clock in the afternoon, regardless of whether the Japanese changed course or not, The distance between the two sides will be widened again after the distance is reduced to about 400 kilometers.

It's just Spruance, it's not a big deal to reduce the distance, but in any case, you can't let the other side stop you, otherwise the opponent's 2 battleships (including 1 super battleship) will bomb this bit of your own strength into slag, even if you don't stop it, as long as you move a little slowly, you will be wiped out after the enemy fleet catches up.

Tsunoda had a total of 140 combat aircraft, and he kept 48 air defense fighters for himself, and then eliminated 18 Saiyun reconnaissance planes, making a total of 74 attack aircraft groups; Spruance had a total of 93 combat aircraft, and after the attack wave was launched, he put together 4 fighters, 3 SBDs, and 3 TBFs from the reserves, for a total of 103 aircraft, and he left 32 F6F fighters to cover, and sent 9 F6Fs, 27 SBDs, and 23 TBFs to attack 59 attack troops (the other 12 SBDs could only return separately and could not be put into attack due to reconnaissance missions).

At 12:04, the Japanese attack officially began, and the US F6Fs desperately intercepted it, and some of the returning SBDs also joined the battle and temporarily used as air defense aircraft. The first target of the Japanese was the Bunker Hill, and a large group of dive bombers pounced on it, and due to the delivery of German equipment, the Japanese were not yet generally equipped with the Ju-198, and were still partially a combination of the He-218 and Ju-98.

In less than 2 minutes, 18 He-218s dropped bombs one after another, although the Bunker Hill tried its best to dodge, it still ate 3 bombs, one in the stern, one in the tail elevator, and 1 in the middle of the deck on the bridge, this bomb also exploded in the hangar after direct penetration, and the huge force destroyed half of the hangar, but fortunately, the hangar is currently empty, plus it did not cause fuel and ammunition explosions, the whole ship is still in good condition, and the top speed only drops to 26 knots.

The Japanese fought many times with the Essex class, knowing that the aircraft carrier of this class was relatively strong, and it was not enough to use bombs alone, and it was necessary to use torpedoes to be effective, so Tsunoda matched more than 30 torpedo planes in the sortie group, and as a result, the port side of the Bunker Hill ate a torpedo in the front part, and more than 1,000 tons of water entered the water, and finally plugged the gap under the concerted operation of the damage management, but the speed dropped to 25 knots. In order to cover the Bunker Hill, the Iowa took the initiative to share the burden for it, a total of 2 torpedoes, 3 bombs, a raging fire on the deck, and the hull rolled 6 degrees after entering the water, but the overall speed could still be maintained at about 23 knots.

However, the Japanese pilots who were successfully struck by lightning and were preparing to leave the battlefield never expected that an American SBD suddenly swooped down from the sky and crashed headfirst into the back half of the fuselage, and the powerful impact force not only broke the back half of the Ju-98, but also loaded directly into the sea; Inspired by this plane, several F6F fighters that were struggling with each other no longer dodged, but directly found the attack planes and crashed head-on and died together.

Spruance was knocked to the ground by the impact of the bomb on the nearby bridge, and even his forehead was injured by the chair that knocked over together and oozed blood, and when the staff officers came to help him and bandage him, he said anxiously: "Leave me alone, I'm fine, go and see the deck, can you still maintain the take-off and landing?" ”

When he heard that the deck had been destroyed and that he could no longer take off and land planes, his face was so unbearable that he could barely speak in pain.

But soon Chief of Staff Roddick's words gave him a glimmer of hope: "Sir, the captain said that the position of the bomb is relatively biased, and you can cut a piece from the rear deck and temporarily make up for it, and the attack aircraft may not be able to land, but the fighters still have room to land, and even take off with light load (no drop fuel tank, half of the fuel in the plane is retained)." ”

"Good!" Spruance couldn't help but shout, "Do it now!" We will do our best to keep this aircraft carrier! ”

"Look, sir!" A staff officer suddenly covered his mouth and pointed in horror into the air.

Spruance looked up and saw that an F6F was rushing towards a Japanese plane at the fastest speed, and in the blink of an eye, it collided with each other, the two planes turned into a fireball in the air, parts and wings were scattered, and the wreckage both fell into the sea and splashed a huge column of water, except for the pilot who parachuted.

His eyes moistened, his head lowered deeply, and he said in a choked voice: "It's all good, I'm sorry for them!" ”

All the sailors and staff officers who witnessed the scene were in tears......

As TF44 struggled to escape, Kakuharu Tsunoda was pounding angrily against the walls of the conning tower: the Zuiho had been hit by two 1,000-pound bombs, and smoke billowed and explosions rang out...... In particular, the second bomb made him even more angry, because it was clear that his own fighter had already hit the other side, but as a result, the US plane deliberately rushed to the deck with all the bombs at once, and it could not be stopped, and the explosion of the bombs and aircraft fuel made this light aircraft carrier, which had been fighting thousands of miles away, finally unable to save it.

Fortunately, the Zuihe only ate a near-miss bullet, cut off 2 anti-aircraft guns and took the lives of more than 10 sailors.

Arima Masawen advised him: "Our army has paralyzed the enemy's ability to take off and land and severely damaged the enemy's battleships, so let's recover the planes and launch a second round of attacks, and we can attack again before the sun goes down!" ”

"Good! Get on the standby, hang more torpedoes, I'm going to send all the Americans to the sea! Don't leave a single one! ”

"Sir, the Second Air War hit the enemy fleet hard, but the Ruifeng was not saved, sank, and ......" Minoru Genda was gloomy, "You are right, this group of Americans is very difficult to fight, Arima Jun sent a telegram to complain, the Americans are like crazy, not only drove the plane to the deck of the aircraft carrier, but also extremely brave in the air defense operation, those SBD, F6F could not beat our fighters, simply directly use the impact method to end up, the first round of attack wave lost 33 aircraft, the loss rate was nearly 50%, Chief Tsunoda was furious! ”

"How far are we from the enemy fleet?"

"More than 1,000 kilometers."

Tsukahara nodded: "Let Fuchida-kun pick the 50 pilots with the best skills to attack, bring enough fuel tanks, be sure to sink all the enemy troops, tell them not to return after the attack, and find a way to land in a flight battle!" If the first air battle can't accommodate so many pilots and makes a forced landing on the sea, the plane doesn't matter, return home and change the new meteor! If such an enemy can't be sunk this time, we will pay a bigger price next time! ”