"Boom!"

With a loud bang, in the center of the air defense array of the US fleet, a fireball rose from the aircraft carrier "Yorktown", which was being defended by battleships and cruisers!

"Oh my God, a plane crashed into the Yorktown!" Someone in the bridge of the Hornet witnessed the impact and immediately shouted. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The commander of the 58th Broken Fleet, Mark Brown. Rear Admiral Mitchell's face changed dramatically when he heard the man's words, and it turned out that he had encountered something similar in the first Battle of Hawaii - he was the captain of the USS Hornet (Yorktown-class), and the aircraft carrier he commanded was hit by a suicide plane with a propeller mounted on the tail of the ship, and a large hole was blown out in the bottom of the ship, and finally he had to abandon the aircraft carrier.

At this moment, another "Meteor" dive bomber pierced through the fire net composed of antiaircraft gun ammunition and crashed into the deck of the "Hornet" amidship with a "boom." The explosion of the distance sounded, the aircraft carrier of more than 30,000 tons shook violently, and the glass windows of the bridge were all shattered by the loud explosion and air waves, and all the people in the bridge grabbed the handrails so that they did not fall to the ground.

"Damn! It's a suicidal impact! Major General Mitchell shouted: "Report the damage immediately!" ”

"Sir," the captain of the Hornet did not call the damage management captain, but ran directly to the window to step on the broken glass to watch the deck, "There is no big problem, the flight deck has not been knocked through, and it will not affect the take-off and landing of the aircraft." ”

At present, US aircraft carriers do not have armored flight decks, and even the "Essex" class, which has a full load displacement of more than 36,000 tons, does not have an armored flight deck, so it is possible that suicide planes will knock out a big hole in the deck.

However, after all, the plane is not a bomb, and it is not easy to control the angle at which it lands, and there is no such thing as a warhead, so whether it can smash through the unarmored deck depends on the ship. The Essex-class Hornet was lucky not to be smashed through the deck, but the Yorktown on the side was not so lucky.

"Sir, the bow lift platform of the USS Yorktown was blown up, and it also caused a fire, and the Yorktown will probably not be able to take off and land planes normally."

"Damn it!" Major General Mitchell cursed, and a sense of foreboding had risen in his heart.

This is the western Pacific, and once the aircraft carrier suffers heavy damage, it can only be disposed of! In the previous battle, 6 escort aircraft carriers had been lost, the USS Franklin had suffered heavy damage, and it would have to be repaired for at least a few months, and now the Yorktown was in trouble again, and if it was also lost, it would be 7 aircraft carriers sunk, 1 aircraft carrier was heavily damaged, and another battleship was sunk...... The loss is not light!

The crash of the bow lift platform by a Comet dive bomber carrying 500 kg of bombs was only the beginning of the Yorktown's bad luck. As the explosion of the 500-kilogram bomb did not know what was ignited, blue-black smoke rose from the aircraft carrier Yorktown. This made it a target for Japanese firepower - a damaged aircraft carrier would certainly be easier to deal with than an intact one!

However, the suicide plane crash did not happen again, which shows that the brains of most Japanese naval pilots are still relatively normal. But the attacks of dive bombers (including Meteor torpedo bombers) continued to come in waves.

At 8:45 a.m., a "Comet" dive bomber finally broke through the anti-aircraft fire network of the American fleet, rushed to the top of the Yorktown and dropped a 500-kilogram bomb, which hit the flight deck of the aircraft carrier amidships, and the bomb exploded below the deck, violently shaking and cracking several important pipes, one of which was a steam pipe. The aircraft carrier Yorktown suddenly lost more than half of its power.

A few minutes later, another bomb hit the slowed Yorktown, this time igniting aviation gasoline that had leaked from the two previous explosions, causing an even bigger fire.

By this time, the duel between the F6F and the Zero Type 52 had already been decided, with most of the Zero Type 52 fighters shot down (42 out of 55 Zeros were shot down and 13 escaped), and the F6F lost 19 (9 pilots killed). The remaining F6Fs began to join the strangulation of Japanese torpedo planes and bombers, which put the already dangerous Japanese torpedo planes and bombers in danger of total annihilation. Some of the planes that had not yet finished dropping bombs launched a decisive assault and slammed into the US anti-aircraft fire network, and more than a dozen of them were shot down on the spot, and only nine of them completed the bombing, but only one hit (the Yorktown was hit again). The other part dropped their bombs and began to flee in all directions.

"Don't let go of any Japanese plane, shoot down as much as you can!" Mitchell saw that the Japanese planes began to retreat, and immediately gave the order to pursue them.

Then he took another look at the "Yorktown", which was about to burn to the fire, and then his chief of staff, Arlie. Burke shouted to him, "We've got to get rid of it!" This is the western Pacific, and it is impossible for us to escape the pursuit of the Japanese devils with a burning aircraft carrier......"

Although the Yorktown burned quite vigorously, the damage to this aircraft carrier was not fatal, and if it was close to the eastern Pacific Ocean, it could have extinguished the fire and returned to its home port for overhaul.

"That's all there is to it," Mitchell nodded a little depressed, "but we still have a chance to get revenge...... The key now is to confirm the location of the main forces of the Japanese Combined Fleet! ”

The location of the Japanese Combined Fleet was not easy to confirm, but Jizaburo Ozawa's 1st Mobile Fleet was quickly found by American seaplanes.

"Your Excellency Commander, the teleprobe found an unidentified aircraft, one in number, at a distance of 80, at an altitude of 3000, and at an azimuth of 350."

At 10:02 a.m. on October 9 (Tokyo time), Jizaburo Ozawa, who was anxiously waiting for the plane to return, heard a report from the fleet staff.

"Is our plane back?" Ozawa asked.

"It is impossible to confirm," replied the staff officer, "it is quite possible that it is an enemy aircraft!" ”

"It's an American reconnaissance plane!" "The Americans' fleet is not far from us, and their planes should be able to spot us," Furumura said. ”

"Will they attack with carrier-based aircraft?" Jizaburo Ozawa asked with some concern.

"Probably not," Furumura said, "the report I just received said that the Americans have only 2 large aircraft carriers in their broken fleet, one of which was destroyed by us, so the Americans only have 1 aircraft carrier left, and the number of carrier-based aircraft that can be sent is limited, so they should not take risks." ”

Ozawa frowned, "But they still have 3 battleships!" All are powerful new battleships...... Now we are the prey! ”

Furumura was stunned, Admiral Ozawa was right, it was the First Mobile Fleet that chased and killed the U.S. Diplomatic Fleet. And now...... Although the three aircraft carriers of the First Mobile Fleet are all there, the loss of carrier-based aircraft is certainly not light, and the loss of more than 100 aircraft is a minimum, and the remaining planes are no longer enough to deal a major blow to the US fleet that broke diplomatic relations.

On the contrary, the U.S. Diplomatic Fleet relies on 3 battleships, and once it catches up with the First Mobile Fleet, it will be a one-sided slaughter!

"Or ...... Disbandment of formations? "Furumura made a suggestion.

"No, no." Ozawa shook his head, "Once the three aircraft carriers are dispersed, there will be too few carrier-based aircraft, and if they are attacked by American aircraft, they will lose the aircraft carrier...... These aircraft carriers are now impossible to lose. ”

Ozawa Jizaburo's words are full of bitterness, and the aircraft carrier that can never be lost has actually become an ornament. Since the start of the war on September 24, the loss of Japan's first-line fighters (most of them flown by elite pilots) has approached 700 (including the losses on Guam and Saipan)...... And that's not counting the losses of the 1st Mobile Fleet today!

Ozawa estimated that when the American fleet was really annihilated, the loss of Japanese first-line fighters would not exceed 1,000. Coupled with the attrition of previous campaigns, I am afraid that there is not much left of the elite who joined the naval aviation before the war.

Without these people, the combat effectiveness of Japanese aircraft carriers would have been greatly reduced.

"We still have the Yamato class!" Ozawa took a breath, "After the carrier-based aircraft are recovered, let's move closer to the main force of the Combined Fleet and see if we can lead the American fleet over." ”

……

"Sir......

Ali. Colonel Burke walked up to Rear Admiral Mitchell, who was watching the slowly sinking USS Yorktown...... A light cruiser just fired 4 torpedoes at it.

"Say it." Mitchell didn't look back, still staring at the carrier that was sinking into the Pacific Ocean.

"The Japanese fleet was discovered, there were 10-20 ships, and 3 of them were huge." Ali. Burke said.

The seaplanes sent by the 58th Breaking Fleet did not dare to get too close to the Japanese fleet and could only search with radar, so the information obtained was not very accurate.

"How far away from us?"

"It's about 300 nautical miles."

"Chase!" Mitchell said, "Chase for a couple of hours before turning." ”

"Understood." Ali. Burke didn't turn to deliver the order, but then asked, "Sir, Task Force 70 is ready to join us."

In addition, Admiral Nimitz wants us to return to the North Pacific as much as possible. In this way, Task Force 70 will be able to operate in the direction of the North Pacific. ”

"Going to the North Pacific?" Mitchell thought for a moment, "Try your best...... Let's see where the Japanese aircraft carrier formation is going? If it's not in the direction of the North Pacific, we'll go there and return. ”