Towards noon, the bright sun shone through the diffuse smoke of gunpowder, and the warships flying the Star-Spangled Banner, whether intact or in disarray, were actively gathering their formations and regrouping in anticipation of the next wave of enemy attacks. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

The command ship of this US aircraft carrier battle formation is the "Belle Forest", which is an improved Yorktown-class aircraft carrier with a displacement of 34,000 tons, and on the basis of the old Yorktown-class, the deck protection has been enhanced, the bow has been simplified, the deck has been lengthened, and the power system layout has been improved, and the maximum aircraft carrying capacity is still 96. Vice Admiral James Richardson, who served as commander of the U.S. Navy's 4th Task Force, concurrently served as commander of the aircraft carrier battle formation in the Marshall Islands naval battle.

Less than 20 minutes after the departure of the Japanese carrier-based aircraft group, the deck take-off areas of the four major US aircraft carriers were already filled with carrier-based aircraft engaged in counterattacks. On the "Capote" of the same class as the "Belle Forest", the warhawk with the number K-307 was the first to fly off the deck, and those with a little insight know that this is a Ju-17T dive bomber that shocks Britain and dominates the Atlantic, but few people know what kind of fierce person flew this "Thunder Hammer" - Lieutenant Colonel Josef Schcherram, a retired pilot of the German Navy, a recipient of the Iron Cross of the First Class, the Order of the Red Eagle of the Third Class and the Gold Order of Merit. An excellent naval bomber pilot and tactical commander, with a personal record of 14th among all German pilots, the battleships he sank were able to form a combat detachment at sea. The German naval ace went to the Pacific theater for more than just the high salary of 1,200 marks per week and the additional attendance bonus offered by the US Navy. At best, it's about helping white nations fight against an over-inflated evil empire, and at worst, it's about embodying personal worth and scaling new heights in their careers.

Like Lieutenant Colonel Shcherram, there are more than 400 German pilots who retired early and joined the US Naval Air Force as mercenaries, which is on a par with the Irish volunteer fighters, but compared with the Irish pilots, the Germans have certain barriers in language communication and cultural exchanges, and once they are captured on the battlefield, they are also easier to be identified by the Japanese, so the US military commanders conventionally list the German pilots as the ultimate reserve, and they are usually not sent into battle unless absolutely necessary. Now the presence of Lieutenant Colonel Scherram and the 222nd Carrier-based Dive Bomber Squadron, mainly German pilots, shows the importance of this battle!

After liftoff, Lieutenant Colonel Scherram circled his Ju-17T around the perimeter of the U.S. fleet for several laps, and the squadron's 11 "Thunder Hammers" arrived one after another. They formed a neat V-shaped formation, and then flew south at a cruising speed of 220 kilometers per hour - this speed is not only inferior to the regular cruising speed of the American-made SB2U "Guardian", but even slower than the "Sailfish" torpedo bomber jointly developed and produced by the United States and Britain, and this is the key reason why the aviation commander arranged for the Ju-17T formation to take the lead in departing.

The Ju-17T does not fly slowly in the unloaded state, and if the range is not considered at all, they can soar at a speed of nearly 400 kilometers per hour, but these "Thunder Hammers" that take off from the US aircraft carrier are equipped with the most lethal weapons - 1000 pounds, that is, 450 kilograms of heavy aviation armor-piercing shells, and carry an additional 200 liters of auxiliary fuel tanks, in order to increase the combat radius to the sea area where the Japanese aircraft carrier team is located.

The Yorktown-class, Yorktown-class modifications, and the Confederate class, which were secretly loaned from Ireland, were equipped with three lifts, which were capable of taking off carrier-based aircraft at very high speeds. In less than 45 minutes, 42 dive bombers, 34 torpedo planes and 58 fighters were launched in the counterattack.

At this time, in the waters northeast of Nauru Island, the six aircraft carriers belonging to the Japanese Air Force -- "Xianghe," "Zuihe," "Daiho," "Xiangfeng," "Zuifeng," and "Longfeng" -- were divided into two columns and marched north under the strict escort of light ships. The mid- and high-ranking officers had learned of the success of the first wave of air strikes from the wireless telegram sent back by the sortie aviation unit, and after the second wave of attack planes had been dispatched, everyone was waiting with joy for the triumph of the pioneers, unaware that the American submarines deployed in the waters off Nauru Island were following their tracks......

The first to issue the anti-submarine alarm was the escort destroyer, which was on guard on the right flank of the Japanese aircraft carrier squadron, and the lookout officer on the ship saw the four torpedoes speeding under the surface of the sea and hurriedly notified the bridge to urgently evade it. The Japanese destroyer dodged this group of hidden arrows with its dexterous maneuverability, but the crisis was not over, and the four torpedoes continued to speed forward at a speed of about 40 knots, and in front of their course, the most valuable aircraft carriers of the Japanese Combined Fleet showed their long wall-like sides without exception - from the Japanese destroyer that had avoided the torpedoes, the more than 20 ships in the aircraft carrier formation formed a huge "cross-section", as long as the four torpedoes continued to maintain the current speed and course, The probability of hitting a ship is very high!

In desperation, the officers and men on the destroyer hurriedly used their naval guns to block the torpedoes, and from a distance, the scene was that the destroyers were attacking their own aircraft carrier formation, but the large and small water columns were densely packed, but none of them could detonate the torpedoes.

In order to urgently contact the aircraft carrier formation to avoid torpedoes, the Japanese destroyer did not care about radio silence at this time, and the commander directly informed the other escort ships of the torpedo movement through the clear code channel. After all, the speed of this torpedo at 100 meters is less than 5 seconds, and it only takes 3 minutes to cross the distance of 1000 yards.

Influenced by geography, ship design concepts, and construction backgrounds, the Japanese Navy's aircraft carriers generally have the characteristics of fast speed and good maneuverability, among which the design speed of the Zuizuru class reaches 34 knots, and the "Taiho" is 33 knots. Different from other Japanese Navy aircraft carriers, the 30,000-ton "Taiho" has been given the role of an aircraft carrier command ship from the design stage, and its communication command capability and protection and anti-sinking performance are better than the number of aircraft and absolute speed, because of the use of a series of advanced technologies such as lightning protection walls, lightning protection compartments, and double ship bottoms, it was named "Immortal Daho" after it was completed and put into service, and it was claimed that "it can persist in not sinking even if it is hit by an ordinary torpedo."

"Torpedoes are coming from the starboard side! Dodge! Emergency evacuation! ”

"Hurry up and fill the rudder! Left full rudder! ”

On the bridge of the "Immortal Great Phoenix", the captain of the ship, Tashi Yamaguchi, was tearing his throat desperately, the rudder wheel was rotating rapidly in the hands of the first mate, and the rapid turn of the battleship also made the deck begin to tilt slightly. The guns on the ship were evacuated, and the shells that flew out quickly stirred up large and small columns of water on the nearby sea, but in the hurry, the impact point of the light and heavy guns was still a long distance from the torpedoes in the water, and the waves raised by the shells did not help to change their course. Even so, the most feared thing of the sailors did not happen, perhaps because the captain gave the right order to turn in time, or maybe the torpedoes fired by the other side were not aimed at them in the first place, and those torpedoes passed in front of the bow of the ship. Seeing the white track formed by the bubbles so close, the nerve-fragile men on the bridge almost collapsed in shock.

Amid the shouts of the officers, the sailors who controlled the ship's guns quickly locked their guns on the white water marks that were "rowing" forward one after another, and the entire fleet was already sounding alarms at this time, and the guns and cannons were bursting one after another. Everywhere the torpedo went, there were battleships desperately turning, whether they were destroyers, cruisers, or larger ones, and none of them were willing to withstand the devastating power of a torpedo attack. As a result of the efforts of the officers and men, two of the four torpedoes that were eventually discovered were detonated by the ship's gunfire, and the other two flew away through the entire group.

The crisis was resolved, and then, a considerable part of the destroyers in the air force were sent to search for the attackers, and the remaining warships escaped the disaster, but had to worry about collisions between friendly ships, which happened too much in modern naval history.

After a while, a dull roar sounded in the distance, and it was the Japanese destroyers dropping strings of depth charges after strings. The splash caused by the explosion of these bombs is like a white mushroom growing on the surface of the sea, and the momentum seems to be inferior to that of large-caliber naval guns, but it is a deadly threat to those submarines sailing underwater, but this time the Japanese do not seem to have accurately found the target, and after dropping dozens of depth charges one after another, there is not a single star of oil on the sea. Several Japanese destroyers searched the nearby sea for a long time, but they really did not find any valuable targets, and then turned around and pursued the large force.

After a chaotic regrouping, the Japanese air force battleship group finally got back on the road, but after the "frightening" just now, where did they dare to continue to swagger in a straight line, and the flagship quickly issued an order to take the "Z" anti-submarine route, but in this way, the fleet's mobility and efficiency in dealing with air attacks were correspondingly reduced.

Soon after getting rid of the crisis caused by the cold firing torpedoes of enemy submarines, groups of black spots appeared in the northern sky, which was the first wave of air attack aircraft sent by the Japanese air force, and the aircraft carriers immediately adjusted their course under the escort of light ships to welcome the return of carrier-based aircraft. It was this cautious and calm attitude that made him one of the few bright spots of the Japanese Navy in this naval battle.

(End of chapter)