Twelve twenty-five o'clock.

When the Naval Resistance Force had just begun to strike at the aircraft carrier Xiangfeng. The commander of the Japanese army, Major General Goto Cunchi, had also called the fighters to return home. Delusional desire to protect aircraft carriers with warplanes.

In the fast-paced battle, the Japanese command system was inevitably messy, and the aircraft group, which was originally made up of two aircraft carriers, cooperated with each other even worse.

As a result, after receiving the order, the Japanese aircraft group was divided into three groups of more than 20 fighters.

This is the third wave of the Japanese army's attack today, there are only 24 fighters in total, and the strength itself is not strong.

The first group, mainly the pilots on the aircraft carrier Zuihe, consisted of a total of thirteen fighters. The pilots simply ignored Goto's orders and continued to pounce on the Yorktown. The pilots on the Zuihe had already learned that the Lexington had exploded, but it was replaced by two torpedoes by the fighters on the Xiangfeng, and the battle was shamelessly divided by the Xiangfeng.

Although the Japanese pilots of the Zuihe aircraft carrier were crushed by the First and Second Air Forces within the Japanese army, they all regarded themselves as elite in front of the pilots of the Xiangfeng. Now the U.S. Yorktown was once again damaged by the fighters of the aircraft carrier Zuihe, so they all wanted to make up for the Yorktown one last shot. So he ignored Goto's order and continued to fly towards the American fleet.

The second group, dominated by the fighters of the Xiangfeng aircraft carrier, had only eight Type 96 carrier-based fighters, and these pilots wanted to rush back to protect the Xiangfeng aircraft carrier.

In the third group, there were three Type 97 torpedo planes and one Type 99 shipburst dive bomber on the Xiangfeng, and one Zero fighter and one Type 99 shipburst bomber on the Ruihe. These six fighters were the most confused, and they didn't know whether it was best to return home or continue to bomb the Yorktown. Moreover, the mere six fighters were divided into two groups. In fact, the two fighters on the Zuihe were also mixed in this group due to formation factors.

Major General Fletcher was also calling for the U.S. military fleet to return home. However, the U.S. fleet was more polarized than the Japanese one. The US military does not have command authority, nor does it have the problem of competing for merit. But the problem is that U.S. pilots are really rookies.

The US military has 64 fighter planes, which can be regarded as a huge group of aircraft, which is mighty and majestic. But at 12:25 a.m., they were already divided into groups of five or six, or even seven or eight.

The first group is the main force, with more than 30 fighters of various kinds. At this moment, the Japanese aircraft carrier Zuizuru was found. It should be said that the luck of the US military is still good, the vast sea, and the weather conditions in the sea area where the Zuzuru is located are even worse. Cloudy and sometimes rainy. And after a few hours, the Zuihe has retreated nearly 100 kilometers north. Such a situation can still be found by US fighters, and it cannot but be said that the Ruihe is suffering and the US military is lucky.

Looking at a group of ships on the surface of the Japanese army. Aircraft carriers, battleships (heavy cruisers. The pilot was mistaken. Cruisers. Destroyers, supply ships, so to speak, everything. Such fat will definitely not be let go by US pilots. Even Major General Fletcher would not have forced the fighter to return when he saw such a goal.

Needless to say, this Zuihe does not even have a single fighter at this time. Anti-aircraft artillery alone could not stop these more than 30 fighters at all. Moreover, the American pilots also knew that they would not have time to protect the Yorktown if they rushed back now, so they began to attack again in a chaotic formation.

In addition to this group of fighters of the US military. There were no big groups, all five or six, three or four, or even one or two fighters flying around. On the vast sea, a clear day, a cloudy cloud, a thunderstorm, and these US pilots have simply lost their way.

The fighters of the Naval Resistance Army were also divided into two groups. A group of 25 fighters led by Liu Gensheng is on their way. The other group is eight P40 fighters circling over the Liberty Dragon, which serves as the defense force of the aircraft carrier......

Twelve fifty a.m.

A group of Japanese warplanes flew over the Yorktown again. This time, the US radar also gave an early warning.

However, in the morning, the US aircraft carrier formation, which was still like a rich man, totaled more than 170 fighters, and now only 13 fighters of various types can take off. Among them are only four F4F Wildcat fighters. As a last resort, Rear Admiral Fletcher also ordered several water reconnaissance planes on several heavy cruisers to also take off to intercept them.

Poor US military, the water reconnaissance plane is still an old-fashioned biplane, and the latest "Kingfisher" or "Gray Bird" water reconnaissance plane has not yet been equipped. At this point, it is not even as good as the Naval Resistance Army.

In fact, there is another item in which the US military is inferior to the naval resistance army, that is, antiaircraft artillery. Whether it is the anti-aircraft guns on the Yorktown or the Lexington, the largest number of anti-aircraft guns is a 37mm twin anti-aircraft gun. INSTEAD OF THE MOST ADVANCED AMERICAN 40MM QUADRUPLE ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS.

It's not that the Americans are reluctant to equip their own navy, but it's that time is too late, these aircraft carriers have been fighting everywhere since the beginning of the war, and there is no time to reequip them.

Moreover, because Li Guang has always had a certain modern thinking, he only buys expensive ones and does not buy the right ones, so he has a tendency to buy US arms as much as possible, and of course they are expensive.

In August last year, Haitang received the first batch of military aid from the United States, as well as the second batch of military aid. Li Guang's generosity did not even occur to the Americans, and the Naval Resistance Force did not buy any rifles and machine guns or other light weapons at all, but directly purchased antiaircraft artillery and fighter planes. This is a valuable thing, and you must know that Chairman Chiang was not willing to buy such expensive and frightening things at all with the military assistance he received.

Although these weapons are expensive, they have the advantages of being expensive, and of course their effectiveness is completely different; even with the same amount of anti-aircraft artillery fire, the air defense efficiency of the naval resistance forces is higher than that of the US military.

It is said that this batch of fighters of the Japanese army is actually the fighters on the Zuihe that took off from the aircraft carrier Xiangfeng. There were not many of them, only thirteen.

But the combat effectiveness of these thirteen fighters is quite amazing, and both armies are more than a dozen fighters. In the first round, the Japanese army was unharmed and shot down six American fighters of various kinds.

In the blink of an eye, a numerical advantage was achieved.

This is not counting, the Japanese torpedo planes and bombers did not entangle with the US fighters at all, and they found a gap and drilled out and went straight to the US aircraft carriers.

In addition to being slightly inferior in technology, US military pilots dare to work hard and can also use their brains. Seeing that the situation was not right, the only four F4F fighters no longer fought with the Japanese Zero fighters, but increased their horsepower to pursue the Japanese torpedo planes.

When the US water reconnaissance plane arrived, he joined the dogfight without hesitation. The US bomber pilots and reconnaissance plane pilots were like outlaws, knowing that they were invincible, but they did not retreat and fought to the death, and they desperately entangled the four Zero fighters of the Japanese army.

In the skies over this sea area, the strangulation of the two armies changed ways. Japanese Zero fighters striking American bombers. And the American fighter jets were chasing the Japanese bombers. In a short time, the two sides had already fought white-hot.

One fighter plane after another was beaten into a fireball in the air, and one after another fell into the sea from a high altitude. The two sides fought more and more desperately, and a US dreadnought bomber looked into the gap, and actually faced the machine gun bullets of the Japanese Zero fighter, and dived straight over.

The Japanese pilots were sure that the machine guns hit the opponent with at least dozens of bullets, but the sturdy American fighters were not blown up, but only pulled out a puff of black smoke.

The little devil is still amazed that the US fighter plane is so resistant. The two planes have already collided together.

As soon as the Japanese army's proud Zero fighter collided, one wing broke off in unison, and it spun and carried it to the sea. However, the US pilots were originally gambling for their lives, and at the moment of the collision of the fighters, they thought that their lives were not guaranteed.

After the collision, the US pilots were surprised to find that their fighter plane, except for the skin of the wings, was torn off, and it did not affect the control.

It was a real escape, and the excited American pilots immediately began to pass on their experience on public channels.

"Hit and kill little Japan."

In the white-hot battle, the US troops, whether they were fighters, bombers, or reconnaissance planes, crashed into Japanese fighters when they seized the opportunity.

This fierce air battle lasted for a short time, less than ten minutes in total. More than 20 US warplanes crashed, and most of the pilots parachuted to escape. The Japanese also had no advantage, and were able to rush to the vicinity of the Yorktown by only two planes.

One was immediately shot down by the Yorktown's powerful anti-aircraft fire.

However, the Yorktown was not lucky today. The only Japanese torpedo plane that had escaped the net was injured at the moment, and the plane was flying swaying, but it actually passed through the dense anti-aircraft artillery fire and dropped a torpedo less than 600 meters from the Yorktown.

Rear Admiral Fletcher was in the bridge like a deflated ball. Watching the torpedoes pounce on the Yorktown. He knew that the Yorktown would not be able to dodge the torpedo no matter how appropriate it was.

The Yorktown withstood one attack after another, killing most of the Japanese fighters at any cost, but just such a torpedo would decide the outcome of the battle. If this torpedo hits the Yorktown in the vital point, although it does not sink, the battleship will probably lose the ability to move.

You must know that in the morning, the Yorktown had already had a breakdown, and the power was missing for more than an hour, and it was only after emergency repairs that the power was restored.

Countless American officers and soldiers looked at the white track of this torpedo and prayed incessantly, but God slept at this moment and did not hear their prayers.

The Yorktown did not dodge the torpedo after all, and with an earth-shattering explosion, the Yorktown was hit on the side side, and the whole battleship trembled. This torpedo again caused the Yorktown to malfunction and the engine was suspended.

Later, the U.S. military discovered that the powerful torpedo not only broke through armor more than four inches thick, but also penetrated a watertight compartment. Unfortunately, it was the torpedo that hit the center of one of the watertight compartments and did not cause water to enter the other watertight compartments, so the Yorktown was badly damaged in appearance, but it did not affect its performance much. If the hit location is close to the watertight compartment, then at least three or four watertight compartments will be cracked, and even one compartment will be opened, and the performance of the battleship will be seriously impaired. (To be continued......)