The lookout post reported that a burning plane had been planted a few nautical miles from the port side of the aircraft carrier. The plane was seen as if it had been planted slowly from a high altitude and had taken a long time before falling into the sea, leaving a vertical ribbon of smoke like a comet. People watched it fall into the sea. As he entered the water, a fire was set up as usual, followed by smoke. But at that time the aircraft carrier was still moving forward, and soon, a wisp of black smoke remained far behind.

"Anyway, we hit them first, haha." A ground crew member said.

At about 8 o'clock, a long-range reconnaissance plane of the aircraft carrier "Tahiti" called the carrier: "Found this fleet." 2 aircraft carriers, 1 battleship, 6 heavy cruisers, 12 destroyers. The distance is 180 nautical miles, the course is 120 °, the speed is 20 knots, due west. ”

Fletcher glanced at the charts, and the reconnaissance plane's report told him that the enemy was 180 nautical miles away and was heading 120 degrees at 20 knots.

It is clear from the reports of reconnaissance aircraft that the enemy fleet has separated. The reconnaissance aircraft of the "Habakuk" also saw that fleet had 4 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 10 cruisers and more than 20 destroyers in that fleet. Probably, in the night it was divided into two strands, each with 2 aircraft carriers.

On the "Habakuk", all the pilots were ready to go out while the sailing officers accurately determined the position of the enemy fleet on the charts. The navigator had to spend a few minutes planning the routes that the various flight squadrons were going to fly and write them and the latest weather forecasts on the blackboard in the waiting room with chalk. Captain Allen, the meteorological officer, constantly forecasts the latest weather conditions, with an unusual level of comprehensiveness. That morning, he predicted the wind direction and speed from 300 meters to the highest altitude that American planes could climb. He also predicted that the clouds would dissipate throughout the region as they flew over there, and that they would be able to spot him in a clear sky under excellent flying conditions.

The blackboard also gave the pilot instructions on the course and speed of the "Habakuk" in the next three hours. This is what they need when they return home. Captain Wei'an meticulously instructed the pilots on the speed and compass course of the warship before takeoff. This is very important for those who go out to fight, because in 3 hours the aircraft carrier has to move 60 nautical miles from the take-off position of the aircraft.

To bring all the cases to the pilots until they board the plane, it takes only 20 minutes, and to the last plane of the attacking force takes off no more than 30 minutes. This time the "Habakuk" took off a total of 276 aircraft (including 94 torpedo planes, 106 reconnaissance aircraft and dive bombers), most of which carried one 1000-pound bomb, and several reconnaissance aircraft carried one 500-pound bomb and two 100-pound bombs. They are covered by nearly 100 fighters who will be responsible for countering the defense fighters of the Zoben.

As soon as the attack formation left the flight deck, reconnaissance planes sent earlier appeared, which lowered their landing gear and hitches. It's a wordless signal that they're going to land. The crew that landed first reported that they had fought over the flotilla. They were forced to meet them, losing one reconnaissance plane, but shooting down two "Zero" planes that intercepted them. They said there was no indication that the aircraft carrier had dispatched Gale-type monoplane fighters.

Bombers, torpedo planes and fighter planes climbed to cruising altitude and flew through a dark cloud in a clear sky. It took a few minutes to fly out of that cloud, and from there, just as Admiral Allen had predicted, the entire voyage was in a cloudless blue sky with visibility of 60 nautical miles.

The leader of the dive bomber squadron, Navy Major Hamilton, flew in front of his formation, climbed to an altitude of four and a half thousand meters, and was located above the front of the reconnaissance flotilla flying at an altitude of 4000 meters. Underneath these two fleets was the torpedo fleet. The fighters were divided into two groups, one followed the high-altitude group and flew above Hamilton's rear, and the rest of the fighters followed the torpedo formation.

"We flew 60 nautical miles along the prescribed route." Hamilton later recalled. "Looking down through the clear sky, the view below is really worth watching, the waves crashing against the coral reefs and the little islands like cream; The blue sea, turquoise islands, silvery waves and golden sandy beaches make the view truly spectacular. ”

"After that, we flew north and from the east. Until then, it was safe. However, we are now in the sea, which may be only thirty nautical miles away from the enemy. A few minutes later, we arrived at the sea where the enemy was expected to be found, and I began to search the distant water antenna with a high-powered telescope. ”

"The visibility was quite good, the sky was cloudless, and I noticed that about forty nautical miles to the east, there were white trails on the blue sea at right angles to our course, and when I looked closely, it turned out that this was the track of the fleet we were looking for. I called the other squadron leaders and told them about the situation. We turned and flew towards the enemy fleet. ”

"We rarely talk in the air. The enemy ship was twenty nautical miles north of our current position. I estimated the actual distance less. At that time, I could only see the white track on the bright blue sea in the distance. Bob & Brett (Torpedo Machine Squadron Leader Jimmy?) Rear Admiral Brett) called: 'Did you hear that, Jimmy? Jimmy replied yes, but he couldn't see it, and Bob said, 'I'll take you in, man.' As soon as he found the enemy, he did so. Remember that Bob flew at a lower altitude than me and didn't have a telescope yet. ”

"I identified the warship, the sunlight shining on the light-colored flight deck and reflecting off it, and I recognized it as an aircraft carrier. That's when I shouted: 'I saw a rabbit carrier. Bob saw it, too. As I recall, we didn't say anything more until the attack was over. The fighters talked about the fighter jets among themselves, but I didn't pay attention to their conversation. ”

The assault formation began the attack. The pilots swooped down downwind from the sunny direction. By the time the British and Americans began to attack, he had already turned to the left. While waiting for the torpedo planes to enter the position to coordinate with the dive bombers, he made a second turn. When the aircraft carrier made its third turn, the dive bombers rushed down, and the torpedo squadron also began to attack at the same time.

The Americans entered from a height of 5000 meters, and the dive was at 4000 meters. At this time, it was said that the aircraft carrier was sailing downwind, so that the attack maneuver of the Americans was greatly simplified, and a dive bomber was the first to drop a 1,000-pound bomb, which landed right in the middle of the flight deck near the stern. The entire stern flight deck of the aircraft carrier was on fire and smoking smoke.

The rest of the planes dropped bombs in a much worse way, and many of the bombs did not hit their aircraft carrier at all. Someone shouted over the radio: "Harness the wind!" Buddy! Harness the power of the wind! "Because it was a tailwind, they dropped their bombs over their heads.

"My backseat gunner later told me that there was a fighter following me during the dive, and after I pulled up, attacked my plane three times. But, apparently, his machine gun malfunctioned, and my gunner did not see him fire at all. At that time, I was a live target, because I didn't know where he was, but I was busy watching the aircraft carrier get shot and explode. My radio soldier was sure he had damaged the plane, but he didn't see it go down. ”

Some Allied planes reached the sky above the enemy ships at an altitude of 4,000 meters, and their fighters patrolled in the air, but before they could intercept them, they began to dive almost vertically. A fighter can only be effective if it intercepts before the dive bomber starts diving. Because fighter jets generally don't get along with dive bombers in dives, because dive bombers can use airbrakes to keep their speed at 250 knots, while streamlined fighters rush ahead of them as soon as they press the nose - fighters can reach speeds of up to 400 knots at that time.

His fighters began a fierce attack. The pilots were piloting the "Zero" fighters (the fierce naval and air battles between China and the two countries caused serious losses to the military planes, and when the number of large "Gale" fighters was insufficient, he said that he had restored production of the obsolete "Zero" fighters). Their pilots lowered their flaps and landing gear and slowed down as best they could. However, they continued to rush in front of the Allied dive bombers. Despite overheading, they still clinged to the Allied planes. They pulled up, made a sharp leap, and turned back to fire at the next Allied plane that dived down.

The result is a terrible scuffle.

The Zero fighter jets followed the Allied planes in pursuit until they approached the surface. Some of the Allied planes were heading for the aircraft carrier, while the rest of the planes attacked the surrounding frigates. The Allied planes suffered considerable losses under the all-out interception of the fighters and the antiaircraft fire of the surrounding ships. During the dive, many Allied pilots saw planes preparing to take off on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier, and planes were being lifted up from the hangar deck with elevators. They tried to attack the planes, but they were all shot down.

The aircraft carrier, which was sailing downwind, suddenly made a full right rudder and tried to turn to the headwind to allow the plane to take off. The Allied planes roared and dived down, and they formed a column over their own fleet, that is, they went down one after the other, and then separated, and each pilot followed the long plane or found his own target, from the beginning of the dive until he dropped his bomb only 300 meters above the surface of the sea and then disengaged, with an interval of 40 seconds. The scene is like a 5,000-meter-high waterfall, and every few seconds a "big salmon" rushes straight down. Allied dive bomber pilots descended the waterfall like salmon.

It is said that the fighters tried to fight to the death with the Allied planes, and even during the 40-second dive of the Allied planes, they fought very tenaciously. But there were simply too many Allied aircraft, so they could only interfere with Allied pilots at this aiming stage. It was not uncommon for a string of dive planes to be followed by an Allied dive bomber with a Zero fighter on top of it, a second dive bomber behind the tail of the Zero, and a Zero fighter on top of the second dive bomber, and on top of them a similar twisted Yakben fighter and Allied aircraft.

The anti-aircraft guns on the warships around the aircraft carrier formed a dense barrage. All the planes flying down from an altitude of 5,000 meters – Allied reconnaissance bombers, Zero fighters, and Allied dive bombers – passed through the barrage, and in most cases had no time to evade it. The Allied pilots kept an eye on the sights, and the recoiler gunners of the reconnaissance bombers and dive bombers opened heavy fire on the Zeros. They were equally nervous, seizing every opportunity to fire at Allied aircraft with 20-mm cannons and machine guns in an instant.

Some Allied fighters protected the last group of dive bombers at an altitude of 5,000 meters, and they were at their weakest seconds before the dive. The pilots of the fighters worked hard to protect them from attack, and the bombers' dives were excellent. They saw that the first 500-pound bomb dropped by the bomber hit the middle of the aircraft carrier, damaging the flight deck and preventing any aircraft on board from taking off.

The 500-pound bomb dropped by a dive bomber immediately behind landed very close to the port side of the aircraft carrier, and although it missed, the bomb's air wave washed the two burning planes on the aircraft carrier's flight deck into the sea.

An Allied bomber's bomb hit the starboard anti-aircraft gun emplacement, dumbing out all the anti-aircraft guns there and destroying three planes. Another bomber was about to dive when it was attacked by the Zero fighters, and the tail gunner fired with a double-barreled 7.62 mm machine gun, repelling his continued attack. At this time, two "Zero" fighters chased after and opened fire on the bomber with machine guns at close range, and the gunner hit the plane, and the enemy plane's fuel tank burst into flames, and the two Zero fighters and the bomber were planted into the sea together.

Navy Ensign Pratt was also nervous during the dive. He saw a Zero fighter rush ahead of him and shoot at the plane of his comrade-in-arms, Second Lieutenant Schmidt. He corrected the dive slightly, aimed at the Zero fighter, and shot it down. By this time, the aircraft carrier had turned, and Pratt's attack was affected, and he did his best to drop the 500-pound bomb next to the aircraft carrier, but it did not hit. Not satisfied, however, he jumped up to 1,300 meters and used his two 100-pound bombs to dive and bombard one of the escorting cruisers, one of which hit the stern of the cruiser. The cruiser undoubtedly became a target for dive bombers.

The next attack was Chinese Navy Second Lieutenant Ding Zonglei. One of his bombs hit the aircraft carrier, but as he exited the dive, he was attacked by four Zero fighters. The tail gunner opened fire desperately and shot down one of the planes, and his heavy fire caused several other enemy planes to turn around and dodge, thus crushing the enemy's attack. The plane returned to the aircraft carrier "Xuanyuan" with 32 bullet holes in the fuselage, while the pilot and tail gunner were unharmed.

The Allied reconnaissance plane's dive also disrupted the fighters' defenses, so it was much easier for the dive bombers to attack again, with a 1,000-pound bomb hanging from their belly hangers. However, within two or three minutes of the reconnaissance plane's attack, the fleet was evacuated, each ship had enough water to maneuver, and the heavy anti-aircraft guns began to exert their might.

The squadron of torpedo planes carried out a coordinated attack with the dive bombers. The Allied fighters who had escaped from the engagement were still at sea and were coming to intercept the torpedo planes that were approaching.

When the "Zero" fighters plunged horizontally into the torpedo group of attack formations, some pilots radioed to the pilots covering the fighters: "Hey, the fighters are coming!" Get rid of Ben Yan's fighters! ”

When the fighters heard the call, they flew over - by that time they had already made a great contribution to the battle, shooting down more than 30 fighters, they attacked fiercely, and shot down a number of "Zero" fighters, and the rest of the "Zero" fighters were also driven aside by them, and they relieved the torpedo fleet in time.

The first dive bomber to start diving again was piloted by Naval Rear Admiral Hamilton. While he was making a dive on a destroyer, the bomb was blown over his head by the wind.

"My lifelong wish is to have my big bomb penetrate the flight deck and burrow into the heart of the largest aircraft carrier I've ever discovered." He spoke to everyone in the officers' boardroom.

"Hamilton did what he wanted." An American pilot said later. "I saw him dive, his bomb hit the center of the aft flight deck, only to hear a violent explosion, and the fire flew into the air, more than a hundred meters high."

Another fighter pilot, Rear Admiral Vlar, commander of the fighter squadron of the USS Tahiti, said, "I watched them dive down from a height of 1,800 meters. The bombshell exploded every three or four seconds, and each explosion caused thick smoke and flames and water columns to rise more than 100 meters high. A thousand pounds of bombs rained down, four times as destructive as a 500-pound bomb. ”

"The sight of those bombshells destroying aircraft carriers was so horrific that I felt a little miserable. Every second a bomb falls on the ship and explodes. These violent explosions literally shattered the ship, and there was a raging fire from the bow to the stern. In my opinion, no one on board can get out. ”

During this assault battle, Rear Admiral Brett got rid of the "Zero" fighter and dropped a torpedo. He's a smart guy. He had his squadron take advantage of the smoke from the wounded warship to get into the target, approach downwind, and make an S-turn when they got close to the target, so that their torpedoes all hit the starboard side of the victim.

(To be continued)