The air defense fighters of the 51st task force took off at 6:20 a.m. At that time, the "Enterprise" carried a group of 36 F4U fighters, and the staff officer in charge of the operations of the fleet aviation sent only 12 fighters to carry out the minimum tasks of the fleet's air defense. No one expected that the Tang Empire's task force was already less than 200 nautical miles north of him, and that the Tang Empire's reconnaissance planes were flying in his direction.

The reconnaissance plane numbered 18, that is, the reconnaissance plane that discovered the 51st task force, was immediately discovered by the fleet's listening radio after sending out a radio signal. And the pilots of this reconnaissance plane were not stupid either, they sent the telegram only after flying in the northwest direction for five minutes, and not immediately. As a result, the radio listeners of Task Force 51 did not immediately determine that the radio signal about 20 nautical miles away from the fleet was sent by a reconnaissance plane of the Tang Empire, and it was not until 6:45 a.m. that the officer reacted when the defenders of Wake Island sent a new telegram confirming that no aircraft were moving in the vicinity of Task Force 51.

Fletcher was woken up at 6:50, he first severely reprimanded the radio listening officer, and then asked the air defense fighters if they had spotted the plane that gave the signal, and the result was a negative answer (the reconnaissance plane had already left the anti-aircraft patrol range of Task Force 51) This time, Fletcher did not hesitate any longer, he immediately ordered the fleet radar to turn on, and then ordered the reconnaissance plane to take off first, then the air defense fighters, and the rest of the bombers. Fletcher will never forget the defeat he suffered in the "First Battle of the Marianas", when the fleet of the Don Empire appeared in the most unimaginable places and launched a sharp attack, and he did not even have a chance to fight back. If this time it was the commander of the Tang Empire who was in command, he would definitely send a "surprise" again: The 12 reconnaissance planes (in fact, SBD bombers, in the US military, such bombers with more powerful radio stations are also called reconnaissance bombers) flew north. If the plane that emitted the radio signal was an aircraft carrier of the Tang Empire, then the only possible direction for the Tang Empire's task force was to the north! Fletcher was not wrong in this judgment, but it was an hour late, a fatal hour!

The fleet radar was activated at 7:10 (at that time the radar needed a warm-up engine before it could be activated, which took more than ten minutes), while the other 24 fighters all left the flight deck at 7:15. Then, the air defense alarm was sounded, and the radar on the cruiser, located in the northernmost part of the fleet, detected more than 50 nautical miles to the north. The group of planes that is approaching quickly, it is by no means a US military plane, because no US planes will fly from that direction, it must be the bomber group of the Tang Empire!

The shrill sound of air defense sirens made Fletcher completely speechless, he could only put the fleet into air defense, and the aircraft carrier "Enterprise" immediately turned around and returned to the core of the fleet, and those bombers who had not had time to take off were sent back to the hangar, and the last few were not even sent back to the hangar, and were ruthlessly pushed into the sea. These bombers were already filled with fuel. If the bomb falls near the plane. Then the leaked aviation gasoline will burn the aircraft carrier.

When the battleships in the 51st Task Force were still turning rapidly and heading to their respective air defense positions, Colonel Jiang Wenhan, who was flying on the strongest side, had already seen the nine battleships. He immediately greeted the fighters around him. Killed the American fighters who were moving in this direction. The more than 20 fighters that had just taken off from the "Enterprise" were still climbing, and they couldn't stop the Tang Empire fighters that were killing at all.

The difference is that the 12 "Falcons" led by Jiang Wenhan are concentrated in their activities, while the 12 "Corsairs" of the US military are divided into three parts, making it difficult to concentrate their actions. As a result, these three groups of fighters were quickly wiped out by the superior "Falcon", and at this time, the "pirates" who had just taken off were killed, but. This time, the US fighter pilots had to face not 12 "Falcons" but 36 "Falcons." The Tang Empire's bomber group escort fighters not only had numerical superiority, but also superiority in altitude and speed, and these 36 pilots were all the best pilots, and what awaited them would be the most painful result.

When the "pirates" began to evade the pursuit of the "falcon" and fled for their lives, two bomber squadrons commanded by Zhang Naiding and Yang Shihong also arrived. Because the attack on the 51st Task Force was the focus of the mission, Chang Jianxin arranged all three group leaders in the first batch of bombers. Only Deng Zichao was left alone to deal with the US military airfield on Wake Island. Zhang Naiding commanded a squadron of "water birds" while Yang Shihong commanded a squadron of "sea eagles", in terms of diving performance, the difference between "water birds" and "kingfishers" is not big, and its main performance improvement is speed. The maximum level flight speed of the "Shooting Waterfowl" reached 270 knots (without any external ammunition, if the bomb was attached, it could only reach 240 knots), which almost exceeded the "Sparrowhawk" fighters equipped with the Tang Imperial Navy at the beginning of the war. Its ultimate dive speed reached 285 knots (260 knots when the bomb was hung), which was also much faster than any dive bomber at that time. Perhaps, high speed does not necessarily improve the accuracy of bombing (during dive bombing, many pilots will lower the speed brake in advance to reduce the speed of the dive to improve the accuracy of bombing), but it will certainly improve the bomber's chances of survival when breaking through the enemy's air defense network.

Zhang Naiding has been flying this new bomber for nearly three months, and has also participated in combat operations in Japan, although he keeps saying that the "Kingfisher" can better meet the requirements, but in fact, he has already liked this new bomber, at least, this can make him break through the enemy's air defense network, take dozens of seconds less, and this means that he has less time to dance on the line of death dozens of seconds.

"Lao Yang, I'll catch up with the top, you from below, kill that aircraft carrier first, and then deal with other warships!"

"No problem, I'll follow!"

Yang Shihong immediately replied, although he was born as a reconnaissance pilot, but after so many years of fighting, he is also an extremely good bomber pilot.

A squad of "sea eagles" immediately began to reduce the altitude. Yang Shihong's landline flew at the front. He is not as impulsive and reckless as Deng Zichao, but he is just as brave. The "Sea Eagle" and the "Shooting Bird" use the same engine, and the output power is the same, but in order to adapt to ultra-low-altitude flight, the fuselage is much firmer, and it is much heavier, and its ultimate speed is much slower than that of the "Shooting Bird", at the height of the sea level. The maximum flight speed of the "Sea Eagle" is only 250 knots (after hanging an 800-kilogram aviation torpedo, its maximum speed is only 220 knots), which is much faster than that of the "Osprey", but in terms of penetration speed, it is still unsatisfactory.

The "Shooting Waterbird" group also immediately began to accelerate, and Zhang Naiding left the other two squads outside, and he only brought one squad. According to the previous calculation of the hit rate of bombs, 12 bombs were able to hit at least 4, and 18 torpedoes were able to hit at least 8. That's enough to take out that Yorktown-class aircraft carrier, of course. If not enough to sink that aircraft carrier. The hit rate of carrying out supplementary bombing will be much higher.

The four "waterbirds" led by Zhang Naiding were the first to reach the sky above the "Enterprise" aircraft carrier, and then the four dive bombers successively lowered the nose. Swooped down towards the aircraft carrier on the surface of the sea. The shrill whistling sound made the American officers and soldiers on the battleship tremble, they were already familiar with the sound of the Tang Empire's dive bombers, this time the sound was a little different, but it was also the call of death!

After Zhang Naiding and the others dropped their bombs, the four "water birds" of the second group also began to dive. At this time, the "Sea Eagle" group led by Yang Shihong bypassed the light cruiser north of the "Enterprise," and only one "Sea Eagle" was hit by artillery fire, and after the plane made a forced landing on the sea, the pilot and navigator climbed out of the cabin, and the surrounding sea water was immediately dyed yellow. The other 11 "Sea Eagles" did not slow down at all. When there were still about 1,500 meters away from the aircraft carrier, the bomber was raised on the ground speed brake, Yang Shihong dropped a torpedo about 750 meters away from the target, and then first turned to the right, and the other 16 bombers also dropped torpedoes one after another, and began to turn with the captain.

The "Enterprise," which had already received two bombs, was evading the other four bombs that had been dropped from the sky, and when the officers and men on the battleship spotted the torpedoes under the surface of the sea, the aircraft carrier had no time to evade them. At least three of the eleven torpedoes hit the aircraft carrier, and one of them hit near the engine room of the aircraft carrier's amidships. The biggest design flaw of the Yorktown-class aircraft carriers is the weak underwater armor defense. The aircraft carrier simply could not withstand a torpedo attack, and both the "Yorktown" and the "Hornet" were heavily damaged by torpedoes and lost their ability to move and were sunk, and the "Enterprise" could not avoid this tragic fate.

When the three torpedoes hit the aircraft carrier, the last four "waterbirds" of the first batch also swooped down. Only one of the bombs dropped by the second group of four "waterbirds" hit the aircraft carrier, and now the aircraft carrier is out of control, spinning on the surface of the sea (a torpedo hit the right side of the aircraft carrier's ground, blowing up two propellers on this side) and the speed is decreasing dramatically, which is simply an ideal target. As a result, three of the four bombs this time fell directly on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier, one of them was very close to the island, and the other also fell within 50 meters of the starboard side of the aircraft carrier, and after exploding under the sea, it must have caused great damage to the underwater part of the aircraft carrier.

Looking at the "Enterprise" aircraft carrier that had been paralyzed on the sea, Zhang Naiding and Yang Shihong both laughed, and the two immediately ordered other bombers to disperse and bomb those escort warships, of course, Zhang Naiding and Yang Shihong did not forget to call another batch of bombers to send this aircraft carrier on its last journey.

At this time, Jiang Wenhan led the ground escort fighter group had also seized air supremacy over the US fleet, and those "pirates" were either eliminated or driven away. In the absence of an air opponent, Jiang Wenhan also began to command fighter planes to strafe the anti-aircraft gun positions on US warships that were not protected by armor to cover the bombers to drop bombs. With the assistance of fighter planes, the bombing accuracy of other bombers has improved a lot, while the gunners on US warships cannot quickly distinguish between fighters and bombers, and can only blindly intercept all fighters that dive towards them.

The group of bombers arrived over the U.S. fleet at about 7:23 a.m., the sinking time of the "Enterprise" was 7:45 a.m., and the sinking time of the last American battleship was 7:48 a.m. From the time the US fleet sounded the air defense alarm to the end of the bombing, it took only 33 minutes. As a result, all nine warships of Task Force 51 from the aircraft carrier "Enterprise" were spared, and 28 fighters were shot down in the air battle. The Tang Empire's bomber group counted the losses when it returned home, and in order to take out the 51st Task Force, it lost only 8 escort fighters (3 of which were shot down by the anti-aircraft fire of American warships while covering the bombers) and 13 bombers (5 dive bombers and 8 torpedo bombers).

"Lao Yang, your torpedo doesn't seem to have a focused target!"

The victory came too quickly, and Zhang Naiding, who usually doesn't like to laugh, also made jokes.

"No way, I saw with my own eyes that torpedo hit the aircraft carrier!"

Yang Shihong immediately shouted.

"Yes, we also saw that the torpedo dropped by the captain hit the aircraft carrier!"

Other torpedo bomber pilots also immediately began to defend their group captains.

"No, we can see it very clearly from above, that torpedo must have missed!"

"The bomb you dropped didn't hit the target, don't talk to me!"

"Lao Yang, don't worry, let's talk about things, we all know your skills, but this time we all saw it."

Zhang Naiding immediately laughed, "Lao Jiang, did the camera gun on your plane take pictures of the situation at that time?" ”

"I don't know anything, don't drag me in!"

Jiang Wenhan immediately cleared up the relationship, he knew that Zhang Naiding was joking with Yang Shihong. "Come on, don't argue, Lao Zhang, send the news back, so that the commander can also breathe a sigh of relief!"

Zhang Naiding was no longer verbose, and immediately sent back the news of the destruction of the US fleet, but Lei Shaoqing did not feel much relaxed after receiving the news.