Knowing that the opponent had only three aircraft carriers, and that all of them were light aircraft carriers converted from non-combat ships, the American commander, Admiral Harry-Yanel, who had repeatedly fought with the Japanese fleet, did not rashly assume that his opponent was not a good one. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 While sending a second wave of carrier-based attack aircraft to attack the Japanese fleet, he sent all the seaplanes carried by the fleet to conduct a large-scale search in the waters south of the Marshall Islands.

If Japan's main aircraft carrier had followed the battle fleet under the command of Mitsumasa Mine, it would not have taken long for the US reconnaissance planes to detect the true intentions of the opponent, but Mine had deployed the aircraft carrier squadron in the waters of Nauru Island, which was completely beyond the radius of the US carrier-based aircraft.

Ruling out the threat from the south, Yanel decided to go all out, and on this terrible morning, the Japanese Combined Fleet was attacked by American carrier-based aircraft four times, and except for the third enemy group, which was smaller and did not suffer serious losses, the first two and the last were attrition. Despite the difficult situation, the Japanese fleet still tried its best to launch two waves of counterattacks, the first wave of carrier-based aircraft was forcefully intercepted before the American fleet could get close, and two American aircraft carriers were damaged at the cost of losing most of the aircraft. The second batch of Japanese carrier-based planes made a total of 30 sorties, which was all the fighters that the two light aircraft carriers could dispatch, and as a result, only four 95 warships, 1 94 warship, and 3 92 warships were able to return home.

After a morning of fierce fighting, the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet, which had five battleships and three battlecruisers, had been beaten beyond recognition by the opponent. The acting flagship "Suruga" was hit by two aerial bombs, and an oil tank near the stern of the ship was leaking oil; Although the injuries were effectively controlled, the hundreds of tons of seawater pouring into the bottom compartment not only lowered the top speed, but also left a lot of hidden dangers for the subsequent battle. The imposing Amagi-class battle cruiser Amagi avoided enemy fighter attacks again and again with its excellent mobility, but no one could guarantee that it would remain safe and sound in the afternoon......

Enemy planes could attack at any time, and it was no longer possible to have a normal meal, so the officers and men of the ships had to take turns eating dumplings at their combat posts to deal with them simply, and in this way they were approached until 1 p.m., and many sailors had just received their lunch. The American pilots seemed to have calculated the time, and appeared in sight exactly at 1:05. Many Japanese sailors had no choice but to force the leftover rice balls into their mouths and then hurried back to their anti-aircraft gun positions. The fleet's only few ships were already embarrassed to fight, and this time the fleet basically had to rely on naval fire to deal with US air raids.

As the battle alarm sounded, the various warframes of the Combined Fleet accelerated, but depending on the age of construction and the different combat uses, some warships had a top speed of just over 20 knots, while others could reach more than 34 knots. As a result, the huge fleet soon lost its original neat formation, the three battle patrol and escort ships accelerated to a speed of 26 knots, the five battleships maneuvered on their own at a speed of more than 20 knots, and the remaining two aircraft carriers formed an anti-aircraft formation surrounded by more than a dozen light ships.

What was somewhat surprising was that the US carrier-based planes that attacked this time no longer went straight to the two remaining Japanese aircraft carriers, but vigorously attacked the "Suruga," the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and not only did the dive bombers and torpedo bombers take turns to fight, but even the fighters frequently dived down to strafe the battleships.

The dense firepower rising from the Japanese ships formed a seemingly invulnerable net of fire in some areas of the middle and near airspace, but the American pilots were always able to find gaps in the net of fire through which the planes could pass safely. Soon, the bombs dropped from the dreadnought dive bomber hit the amidships of the Suruga. Although the medium-weight aerial bomb caused limited damage to the Japanese ships, the blazing flames and billowing smoke still stunned many Japanese naval officers and men.

With the first, second, and third dropping in a matter of minutes, the aerial bombs seemed to be only able to stain the superbattleship's neat appearance, and after each explosion, it was still able to maneuver at a high speed on the surface, and the smoke from the fire on the ship was quickly brought under control by the efforts of the sailors. At the same time, because the surrounding ships were concentrating their anti-aircraft fire, the US air force had lost six carrier-based planes for the three bombs. Watching one after another fighter planes painted with US military logos explode in the air or fall into the sea in tow, some Japanese sailors on nearby warships actually cheered excitedly.

While the vast majority of the officers and men of the Combined Fleet were engrossed in the naval and air battles with the more than 70 US carrier-based aircraft, 20 silver-gray painted planes, with stout landing gear, and heavy bombs on their bellies, flew into battle at an altitude of more than 14,000 feet. Their fuselages and wings are painted with the logo of the U.S. Naval Air Force, but the gull-like silhouette is typical of the German style - in the summer of 1933, when the main fleet of the Central Powers relied on the island of San Miguel to fight against the water, it was the Ju-17 dive bombers developed by the German Junkers Company that turned the tide, sinking and damaging many large ships of the U.S. and British navies one after another, giving the Allied main fleet a chance to make a big comeback, and then in Bermuda, the Bahamas, Cuba and Florida. These dive bombers continued to crush the confidence of their opponents under the cover of their own fighters. In March 1936, the first carrier-based Ju-17T arrived in the United States in the form of spare parts, and just seven weeks later, this successful carrier-based dive bomber appeared in the Pacific theater. Compared with the American-made Walter SB2U "Guardian", the Ju-17T has advantages and disadvantages, and their addition on the one hand links the current predicament of the US military in the production of weapons and equipment, and on the other hand, it improves the confidence and morale of US officers and soldiers.

Returning to the battlefield of the naval battle of the Marshall Islands, 20 Ju-17Ts in a small group aimed at the Japanese aircraft carrier from a height of more than 4,000 meters and dived down. These Ju-17Ts, which set off in the same batch as the US-made carrier-based aircraft but were pulled behind the large formation due to speed, maintained a rather sudden nature from the time they flew to the battlefield to the time they launched the attack. By the time the Japanese sailors panicked and turned their anti-aircraft weapons to shoot, the silver-gray Roc had already gained an extremely astonishing dive speed, and was adjusting its direction in small and medium increments in a large-angle dive. Two heavy aviation armor-piercing shells hit the "Fengxiang" one after another, and the "Falcon Eagle" was also hit by a heavy aviation armor-piercing bomb, which directly penetrated the three-story deck and fell to the lowest level, directly blowing up the keel of the ship, causing it to break seriously and disappear from the vast sea in a blink of an eye......

At the end of the fifth wave of air raids, the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet led by Mitsumasa Yonechi was already crumbling, and the psychology of the soldiers could hardly bear more losses. Tiger! Tiger!

At the time of receiving the secret command from the acting flagship, the Japanese Combined Fleet Air Force under the command of Vice Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto had already moved forward to attack positions northeast of Nauru Island. On the wide flight decks of aircraft carriers, the service crew quickly pushed the fighters from the elevator position to the take-off area, and spread their folded wings one by one.

"The rise and fall of the imperial kingdom is fighting here, and everyone works hard together!" Yamamoto 56 and Heihachiro Togo inspired his soldiers with orders before the Battle of Tsushima. The signal flags of the air sortie were raised high, and carrier-based aircraft flew off the deck of the mothership one after another. The dive bombers were the first to assemble in a large formation of 52 planes over the fleet, 34 torpedo planes then took off and flew in formation to the northwest, and finally 46 Type 95 carrier-based fighters with auxiliary fuel tanks mounted on the aircraft carriers took off from the aircraft carriers -- in addition to providing full air cover for the attack aircraft group, they would also try their best to interfere with the enemy's fleet's anti-aircraft fire when the attack was launched, so as to gain the best possible opportunity for their own bombers to attack.

Seeing these more than 100 carrier-based planes flying in three distinct air formations toward the main force of the US Fleet nearly 500 kilometers away, the Japanese officers and men were all dissatisfied and looked forward to it: If they could win this victory and defeat the main force of the US Navy in one fell swoop, then the war in the Pacific would no longer be a boulder that weighed on the hearts of every Japanese and made them feel deeply panicked.

About an hour later, Yanel, who was commanding operations on the flagship "Ohio," was calmly waiting for the air force to receive good news from the front, when he suddenly received a report from a staff officer that surprised him very much -- a reconnaissance plane on alert had spotted a large group of Japanese planes about 150 kilometers to the southeast.

"Dispatch fighter planes that can be dispatched to intercept them, and give orders to all detachments to be prepared to deal with air attacks by enemy aircraft."

Yanel's words were sonorous and powerful, the order was quickly conveyed, several aircraft carriers turned back to the direction of the headwind, the clear sky provided the best conditions for the sortie of the air forces, and the roar of aircraft engines soon resounded on the sea. Within half an hour, three squadrons of "Eagle Falcons" and one squadron of ME-50Ts took off from the US aircraft carrier formation, and nearly 50 carrier-based fighters were organized into four horizontal formations, which rushed towards the Japanese aircraft group flying in a mighty manner without hesitation.

In order to avoid inflicting a devastating blow on the aircraft carrier itself during an enemy air attack, all the carrier-based bombers on the US aircraft carriers that had already carried bombs immediately took off, and when the Japanese carrier-based planes came to the skies over the fleet, 90 percent of the planes left the deck, and only the "Belo Forest" and "Capote" and the last few fighters used to escort the aircraft were still waiting to take off. The anti-aircraft guns of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers roared furiously, and dense shells flew in the air, but such an anti-aircraft fire network was far from reaching the level of "negligence but not leakage." Taking advantage of the fierce battle between US fighters and their own ships and unable to separate, two teams of 94 ships and one group of 92 ships attacked each to find the weak point of anti-aircraft firepower and launch an attack.

This time, the "Princeton", which had experienced many naval battles, could not continue its lucky journey, it was targeted by more than a dozen Japanese bombers from the beginning, in order to cast the last few carrier-based aircraft, although it had increased its speed, but did not maneuver to a large scale attack, after the escort ships barely interfered with the bombs dropped by the previous Japanese planes, two 250-kilogram aerial bombs hit its wide deck impartially, and the bridge suffered serious damage in an instant. The large crater left by an explosion in the middle of the flight deck made it impossible for carrier-based aircraft that had not yet taken off to leave the deck......

In less than 10 minutes, the medium-sized aircraft carrier "Cobens" and the light aircraft carrier "Bataan" were also attacked by Japanese carrier-based planes one after another. Maneuvering at full speed, the former only received two near-misses, while the latter was blown up by three bombs......

(End of chapter)