When the steel waterproof door up to 5 centimeters thick was pushed open, the two people standing behind the door immediately flashed to the side, Huang Xiaotian was the first to rush out, Yan Yulong followed closely behind him, and then, the other senior staff officers followed out of this small "cell" and squeezed between the two loaded marines.

As he walked through the narrow passage inside the ship's hull, Huang Xiaotian noticed that the damage management team members who were supposed to be on standby in several positions were no longer there, and some officers and soldiers who did not wear asbestos fireproof suits were also busy. When he reached the flight deck, he was stunned by what he saw.

When he was in the "cell", Huang Xiaotian heard a total of three explosions, and he judged that two of them were the explosions of bombs in the hull of the ship, and they were all coming from overhead, and the other was from the port side of the battleship, which should have been caused by a torpedo exploding under the sea surface, or a near-miss bomb.

This was also the case at hand, when an aerial bomb landed near the forward elevators placed behind the two catapults, then burrowed into the hangar and exploded after hitting the armor of the main deck. The monolithic steel plate weighing more than 20 tons on the elevator had been warped, and the force of the explosion was so great that even the four corners of the steel plate were blown up. The second bomb landed between the 9th and 8th blocking cables, also exploding after penetrating the flight deck and hitting the main deck. There was still armor covering, so the damage from the explosion was concentrated above the main deck, the second half of the hangar was basically completely blown up, an aircraft repair workshop located here was blown up without a trace, and a spare aero engine was blown up and landed on the flight deck, smashing the flight deck into a dozen centimeters!

The fire was under control, and the American bombers flew away. The officers and men on the battleship were trying their best to repair the aircraft carrier, dozens of medical officers were also busy, and a group of officers and men were helping the medical officers carry the wounded to the medical room. Huang Xiaotian quickly rushed to the port side of the aircraft carrier, and then leaned over to look under the aircraft carrier.

"The torpedo that hit did not explode, the detonator of the torpedo was just removed." Yan Yulong walked over, he had already found an officer to inquire about the situation. "What we heard should be the sound produced when a near-miss bomb exploded, and there was indeed a near-miss bomb that exploded outside the port side of the aircraft carrier, less than 15 meters away from the aircraft carrier, and several cracks were blown out of the hull, and now the loopholes have been plugged, and the water ingress is not very serious. The damage management team is inspecting the bilge, hoping that the main structure has not been damaged. ”

Huang Xiaotian breathed a sigh of relief, this can be regarded as good news. But he immediately thought of two other aircraft carriers.

"I've sent the communications staff officer to the command cabin, there's no damage there, and I hope the radio will still work, so we don't have to transfer it to the cruiser."

"Then let's hurry over, and in addition, give priority to rescuing the wounded, how fast can we maintain now?"

"27 knots at most, maybe not even 27 knots."

"Wait for the captain to come over and figure out the situation of the other two aircraft carriers as soon as possible. Also, have other warships been bombed? This will also be figured out as soon as possible! ”

When Huang Xiaotian returned to the command cabin. The staff officers of the fleet command were busy. He roughly counted the number of people and found that there were only two people missing, which was good news. Other than that. None of the officers at the command were flustered, and the radio was already working, and the communications staff was processing the telegrams that were being received one after another, which was also good news.

Within ten minutes, Huang Xiaotian received news from two other aircraft carrier battle groups. The "Chaohu" received three bombs, but dodged all the torpedoes, and only one destroyer was accidentally hit by a torpedo, which has now sunk, and about 50 officers and men on the destroyer have died, and the salvage work is underway. Other than that. The "Chaohu" aircraft carrier has three sets of power systems that can continue to work, and the aircraft carrier can sail at a speed of 24 knots, but it is unable to receive and release fighters, and has lost its aviation combat capability. The losses of the officers and men on the aircraft carrier have not yet been counted, but they certainly will not be less, especially the losses of the aviation service personnel concentrated on the upper decks must be very large, on the contrary, the pilots concentrated in the aviation operations center at that time did not suffer much threat, and only a few people were knocked out of their scalps during the explosion.

The damage to the aircraft carrier "Honghu" was much more serious, the aircraft carrier was hit by three bombs and two torpedoes. The right compartment was already heavily flooded, and the captain had just ordered water to be poured into the left compartment to ensure the lateral balance of the carrier and the aircraft. The main power system has lost two sets, the aircraft carrier can only maintain a speed of 18 knots to sail up, and the propellers that can rotate are on the left side, so the aircraft carrier must jam a rudder surface, which will definitely affect the speed of the aircraft carrier, and it is quite good to be able to reach 15 knots. Fortunately, the landlord's power compartment on the aircraft carrier was not completely blown up, and half of the generators were able to operate, in addition, there were three sets of backup generators on the escorting cruiser, and now they are supplying power to the aircraft carrier with cables, so that at least the pumping machines on the aircraft carrier can be operated at full power, the speed of water intake can be controlled, and even the water intake can be gradually reduced after plugging several major loopholes, unless something unexpected happens, the aircraft carrier should not sink. And the losses of the officers and men on the aircraft carrier have not been counted, but they are definitely above the "Chaohu".

The captain of the "Taihu" aircraft carrier also rushed over and reported to Huang Xiaotian the damage to the aircraft carrier. The "Taihu" was the least damaged of the three aircraft carriers, the power system was not seriously damaged, there was no serious flooding, and about 200 officers and men were killed. In addition, there were no major problems with the flagship equipment, and the aircraft carrier was probably able to maintain a speed of 27 knots. The only serious damage was a burst of heavy oil tanks showing signs of a serious oil leak, which could not be repaired at sea and had to be returned to port and all the heavy oil had been pumped out before repairs.

In other words, all three aircraft carriers were heavily damaged, and even if they were not in danger of sinking, they all lost their combat effectiveness. In this battle, only three destroyers were sunk, and this loss was relatively small. When Huang Xiaotian later learned that there were more than 120 US bombers attacking the Fourth Task Force, he had to admit that the loss was negligible. If these American bombers had arrived at the same time and attacked at the same time, maybe all three aircraft carriers would have been finished by now!

"After the return of our bomber group, the fleet returns to Midway!" Huang Xiaotian did not decide to withdraw from the battle, but in the current situation, he had to avoid danger as much as possible, because Zhang Zhiyun's battle report had not yet been returned. He does not yet know whether the Fifth Fleet has aviation strike capabilities.

Ten minutes later, less than five minutes after Zhang Zhiyun completed the bombing operation against the Fifth Fleet, Huang Xiaotian received Zhang Zhiyun's combat report. The other three aircraft carriers were all hit and definitely lost their aviation combat capability. In addition, the Fifth Fleet is still sailing eastward, and four of the six aircraft carriers will certainly not sink immediately, and the fires on the other two aircraft carriers have not yet been extinguished, and US officers and men are doing their best to repair them. At the end of the report. Zhang Zhiyun asked for supplementary bombing, which was the end of the routine, and Zhang Zhiyun did not know at the time that the Fourth Task Force had also been hit.

After reading the telegram, Huang Xiaotian breathed a sigh of relief, but he was not happy at all, he didn't sink an aircraft carrier! But he did not regret it, if he concentrated on attacking three aircraft carriers, then it was very likely that all three aircraft carriers would be killed, but in the same way, the other three aircraft carriers of the Fifth Fleet would take back the returning bombers. Then bomb Task Force 4 again. And the Fourth Task Force is doomed. In other words, Huang Xiaotian did not sink the US aircraft carrier, but he also ensured that the Fourth Task Force would not be attacked again. His three aircraft carriers will not sink easily either! What makes Huang Xiaotian unhappy is that now that the Fourth Task Force has also lost its aviation strike capability, should he retreat, or find another way to kill the Fifth Fleet?

He didn't bother with this problem, because there were still many things waiting for him to deal with, the distance between the two sides was more than 300 nautical miles, and the aircraft carrier of the Fifth Fleet had not lost its ability to sail, and he would not be able to catch up with the Fifth Fleet in a day or two, so it was better to deal with the matter at hand first.

Reports of personnel losses in various aircraft carrier battle groups have been sent one after another, and this is only a preliminary investigation report. The "Chaohu" aircraft carrier battle group lost about 600 officers and men. More than 320 of them were officers and men on the aircraft carrier. The "Honghu" aircraft carrier battle group lost nearly 700 officers and men, and except for the five gunners of the cruiser who died because of the explosion of the anti-aircraft guns, the others were all officers and men of the aircraft carrier, which accounted for almost one-third of the officers and men of the aircraft carrier, and many of them were suffocated to death in the closed cabin by the thick smoke! However, only more than 200 officers and men on the two destroyers sent out by the "Taihu" aircraft carrier battle group to carry out the vigilance mission escaped, and most of the officers and men died in the sea with the warships. In other words, in the battle, the 4th Task Force lost a total of nearly 1,900 officers and men, because the loss of pilots has not yet been counted. The collection plane has not yet returned, so the exact number of losses cannot be counted at this time.

The seaplanes that had departed before the bombing of the fleet brought back more than 30 pilots, who had almost run out of fuel before returning to the fleet. And in order to bring back as many pilots as possible, both crew members of the seaplane climbed on the wings and gave up their seats to the injured pilot.

Huang Xiaotian had already sent the second batch of seaplanes at that time, and all the seaplanes on the cruiser that could take off had departed. These seaplanes will follow the coordinates provided by the bomber pilots through the radio to find the pilots who have parachuted. And what Huang Xiaotian is most concerned about is the three leading pilots who fell into the water, these three people are the most valuable wealth of the Fourth Fleet.

"Wang Zhihua and Chai Zhizhong have both been found, the two of them were slightly injured, there is no major problem, and the other ......" Yan Yulong is also concerned about the search and rescue work, "Changsun Hong has also been found, he is seriously injured, I don't know if he can survive." ”

"Let the medical officer on the 'Suzaku' immediately make rescue preparations and vacate the emergency room."

"But what about the other wounded?" Yan Yulong knew that the cruiser "Suzaku" had the most complete medical equipment, but now many wounded people had been sent to this cruiser.

Huang Xiaotian hesitated for a moment, he knew that he could not deprive other officers and soldiers of the right to live. "Rescue the other wounded first, and after Changsun Hong is rescued, immediately rescue him, and tell the medical officer that no matter what method is used, as long as Changsun Hong comes back alive, then he must be allowed to live, and he must not be let die before being sent to the hospital in the war zone!"

Huang Xiaotian's words were a bit absolute, but his meaning was very clear, Yan Yulong didn't care about Huang Xiaotian's words and tone, at this time, Huang Xiaotian was already very polite if he didn't scold.

Nagabetsu Hiroshi was sent back at around twelve o'clock, and he was immediately taken to the operating room of the Suzaku, where two medical officers who were proficient in trauma surgery decided to operate on him after a brief examination. Changsun Hong's biggest wounds were on the two calves, which must have been broken by the plane when it hit the sea, because after soaking in the sea water for a while, the wound had expanded, and no matter how good the medical equipment on the battleship was, it could not be compared with the hospital on the shore, and the doctor came to the conclusion that the limb had to be amputated!

For the pilot, this is certainly a cruel decision, maybe in the hospital in the rear, the doctor will ask the opinion of the patient, or the patient's family, but on the battlefield, the medical officer will not ask anyone's opinion, their main purpose is to save the life of the wounded, and not the two legs of the wounded!

The other pilots were also rescued one after another, most of the pilots were only slightly injured, and there were only a few seriously injured, and only Changsun Hong was the only one who was so serious that he would completely leave the aviation unit. That's good news for the entire Task Force 4.

By about half past one in the afternoon, the water ingress on the "Honghu" had been controlled, and the damage management team had repeatedly checked the battleship three times to confirm that there was no fire hazard on the battleship. The emergency rescue work of the "Chaohu" was completed an hour ahead of schedule, and the speed of the aircraft carrier was increased to 24 knots. And the rescue of the "Taihu" ended at 12 o'clock, and in addition to the inability to use aviation, the aircraft carrier has no other big problems!

While repairing three aircraft carriers, both groups of bombers returned to the fleet. Yuwen Cui Lei, Hao Lingheng, Zhang Zhiyun, and several other highly skilled pilots all tried to land on the "Taihu" aircraft carrier, which had relatively little damage, but their attempts failed. In the end, all the bombers had to make a forced landing on the sea, and the destroyers salvaged the pilots. Fortunately, during the thrilling forced landing, not a single pilot was innocently injured.

By this time, Huang Xiaotian had time to think about what to do next!