At 4:45, the first attack wave formed a formation over Nagumo's troops, and after an elevation of 4,000 meters, it flew in a south-east direction.

When they were about 150 nautical miles away from their target, they were spotted by a Chinese reconnaissance plane. The reconnaissance plane was undetected by the Allies and tracked it to less than 30 nautical miles from the Mariana Islands, and then rose to the Allied plane and dropped a parachute flare to alert the Chinese fighters who were in the air to guard against the Allied planes.

When the Chinese fighters saw the flares, they immediately went to intercept the Allied fleet.

Then, from 6:45 to 7:10, the two sides engaged in a fierce air battle. In the eyes of the Japanese, the Gale showed its tactical "superiority", successfully "repelling" the challenge of the Chinese aircraft.

Thanks to the "powerful" cover of the fighters led by Captain Suga, 46 horizontal bombers and 46 dive bombers of the Allied forces all flew safely over the target. Yingbo successfully intercepted the Chinese fighters and kept the Allied bombers from being fired at by a single bullet, which was almost unparalleled in the Pacific War.

At this time, Captain Ogawa led a fleet of dive bombers to drop the 250 kilogram bombs they were carrying from an ultra-low altitude through the fierce fire of the Chinese anti-aircraft guns.

At the same time, 12 horizontal bombers bombed the runway of the East Island airfield with 800 kilograms of bombs at an altitude of 3,500 meters. The remaining bombers blew up hangars and other ground facilities on the East Island and in Saipan.

The effectiveness of the attack was greatly weakened by the failure to take China by surprise. China, which is fully prepared, has already sent all the planes on the island to the skies, and some of them are to intercept and attack. The rest are just for dodging.

Tomanaga's bomber fleet, noticing that there were no planes on the airfield, attacked the hangars and easily destroyed them. It also attacked the runway of the airport. However, there is little point in destroying empty hangars, and it is impossible for such a few aircraft to really destroy the runway.

If the Allies had ground-penetrating missiles at the moment, China would not be able to use this airfield for a short time. It's just that China has long known the level of weapons of the allies, and such an attack will not take half an hour for the engineer troops to recover as before.

Navy Chief Tomanaga was well aware that the main purpose of the attack was to annihilate the forces of the Chinese air force on the Mariana Islands. Since the first wave of attacks clearly did not achieve this purpose. Tomanaga believed that it was necessary to attack again in order to annihilate the Chinese planes when they returned to the Mariana Islands. Therefore, he made a radio announcement when the plane was returning home:

"A second attack is needed. The time is 7 o'clock. ”

In the first wave of attacks, the losses suffered by the Japanese aircraft were insignificant. Only thirteen horizontal bombers and twenty-one dive bombers were shot down by Chinese anti-aircraft fire, and twelve fighters did not return.

This was in previous engagements. is rare.

In fact, in all branches of the Allied forces. Nothing is more feared than the Air Force. China's fighter planes have been praised as the devil all the way. On every mission, there are always many people who can't come back. Many Allied pilots, both fighter pilots. Or the bomber crew, it can be said that it is only a change of color.

When I think of the scene of suddenly encountering the Chinese Air Force over the vast sea, it can really be said that it is chilling.

I don't know when the Air Force has become a branch of the military with the highest mortality rate. This is a change that has quietly taken place after China entered the war.

The Japanese army aviation has long been in decline, and the naval aviation is better, and many elite veteran pilots are still there, and their combat effectiveness is still there.

Although the United States is not yet facing the dilemma of a lack of pilots, its overall combat effectiveness is still in a state of gradual decline as those pilots who have been flying for a long time are gradually dying. Especially last time, after the sneak attack on the Chinese mainland, there was not one in ten pilots who could come back. Even those pilots who parachuted basically couldn't come back, and from the moment they fell, they were prisoners of China.

Today, this air encounter allowed those Allied pilots to see the Chinese Air Force, which was different from the rumors. Suddenly, it is not as perverted as it is rumored. The speed and maneuverability of the Chinese fighters are not impossible to catch up.

However, no one really paid attention to one point, more than 100 carrier-based aircraft, except for more than 30 on their own side, were shot down, in fact, there was a zero record.

Under the tension of the battle, under the pressure of death, the Allied pilots who survived basically ignored this.

Perhaps, for many people, being able to safely return to the aircraft carrier is the biggest victory. It's not too surprising to ignore the rest.

The post-war reports on China proved that the garrison of the Mariana Islands had been on alert and were waiting to meet them.

According to later accounts, at about 5:20 a.m., a Chinese patrol bomber had spotted the Allied aircraft carrier fleet and radioed the situation to the Mariana Islands. Another patrol bomber spotted the Allied air convoy one hundred and fifty nautical miles from the Mariana Islands and followed it. The radar station in the Mariana Islands also spotted the air convoy and monitored its approach to the Mariana Islands.

Shortly after 6 o'clock, all the planes on the island had taken off, and the runway was empty. The Chinese fighters quickly rose in order to be condescending and attack the Allied aircraft. All anti-aircraft artillery groups on the island were on full alert.

When the Chinese patrol bomber dropped flares 30 nautical miles from the Mariana Islands to illuminate the incoming planes, the Chinese fighters of the single interception mission immediately dived and attacked from a vantage point of 5,000 feet.

As the Allies had assured, the damage to the ground facilities in the Mariana Islands was actually very insignificant. Japan's "stinginess" has never changed, and it still remains the same. The heavy cement runway, oil depot, and ammunition defense, those more than 200 kilograms of aerial bombs are of no use at all.

In addition, according to the standards set by the Chinese military, aerial bombs that do not have a certain ability to penetrate the ground are basically unable to shake the airport facilities in high-risk areas.

On board the Akagi, after the departure of the attack force of the air raid on the Mariana Islands, people anxiously awaited the news of the air raid on the Mariana Islands. At the same time, it is also waiting for the expected counterattack of the Chinese side. The Allies didn't have to wait long, and the latter thing happened.

First, there was an "air raid siren!"

Then the shrill roar of the interceptor as it took off was heard.

The sudden calm after the take-off of the fighter was broken by the sound of the fire of anti-aircraft guns.

When the sky was filled with flares, many people could faintly see the dark shadows streaked over the fleet. At this moment, except for the anti-aircraft fire on the two American heavy cruisers, which were still firing, the other anti-aircraft artillery fire had stopped except for the alert.

Because the Chinese planes in the sky did not dive down, the altitude made these old Japanese anti-aircraft guns useless. Except for the anti-aircraft guns on the American heavy cruisers. Anti-aircraft guns on those Japanese cruisers and destroyers. Not at all.

"This Chinese plane evaded our fighter in a very cunning way, and initially spotted it about four thousand meters to the south. The pilot flew straight over the fleet, as if to fly over and drop bombs, and by the time our fighter came up to make contact with it, it had already pierced eastward into the clouds. Initially thought it had given up on contact. But it's back. Because there are clouds. Our fighters failed to bite it. Now it seems. This Chinese plane will not come back. ”

Listening to the report of his subordinates, Nanyun Zhongyi frowned and asked, "What model of fighter is it?" ”

"It's too dark. Relying on flares, you can only see the basic outline of the other party, but there are only a few models of Chinese aircraft, and it is not difficult to conclude that it is a bomber flying over the fleet, the Chinese code name: Giant Spirit God. ”

At this time, the radio listener reported: "Report to the commander, there is a Chinese plane that is sending a long telegram. The telegraph signal was very strong, very close to us, and it was very clear. It can be determined that the bomber sent it just now, but we can't decipher the contents of the telegram, and Zhonghua has changed the code to a new cipher. ”

Apparently the Djinn God didn't go far, it was nearby. This must be the Djinn God reporting its location.

Thinking of this, Nanyun Zhong was very irritable.

It is foreseeable that if the Chinese side decides to destroy its own fleet, according to the speed of the Chinese Air Force, it will not take more than two hours, and a large number of Chinese fighters will inevitably gather here. The question is just what China will use to attack and how long it will take.

At 5:35 a.m., one of the search planes of the USS Alaska, which had taken off half an hour earlier, sent a telegram reporting that a Chinese seaplane had been spotted forty nautical miles away on its way to an Allied aircraft carrier. This Chinese plane may have been the same seaplane that had just spotted the Allied forces and had come back to make contact, or another Chinese plane that had flown for the same purpose.

All eyes on the bridge of the Akagi were looking at the water antenna; However, after several minutes there was no plane in sight.

At 5:42, the bridge lookout suddenly shouted: "A Chinese bomber, starboard 90 degrees, high and low angles 50 degrees." On the clouds, sometimes you can see it!" Everyone stared in this direction. flight

Shouted: "It's right there!" Very high, more than 4,000 meters. ”

There was no need for an order, and the pilots who had been in the fighter planes at all times set off immediately, and several Gale carrier-based planes immediately took off from the Akagi to pursue the invaders.

In the following hour, it was reported that individual Chinese planes and small groups of Chinese aircraft of unknown type had come into contact with the Allied forces.

At 5:55 a.m., a search plane of the USS Alaska reported that fifteen Chinese planes were flying towards the fleet, and all of them were jet fighters.

Nagumo's troops immediately ordered the entire fleet to sail at an extremely high speed, increasing the speed to twenty-eight knots.

At 6:43 a.m., the USS Alaska spotted three planes and began to use smoke screens to cover them in case of an attack.

However, many people soon discovered the abnormality, because during this period of time, there were no Chinese planes to attack, so some reports of discovering the Chinese enemy situation must have been wrong, or mistook the fighters of the Allied forces patrolling the sky for Chinese planes.

However, it is true that the Chinese bombers were undoubtedly following the Allies inseparably and skillfully coming and going in the clouds in order to avoid the pursuit of the Allies. As for the flight range of the Chinese bombers, many people found it very uncomfortable to find that the other side could follow them for an hour or two without the slightest problem.

These stubborn Chinese planes appeared one moment on the starboard side, and the next on the port side. Each time it appeared, the commander on the Akagi, who was in charge of directing the air combat patrols, was busy, constantly ordering the Allied combat patrol planes to pursue. Several times. The American Katerina seaplane went to drive it away, but it was of no use in the slightest.

The Chinese pilots skillfully scurried through the clouds, and the Allied fighters were exhausted and helpless.

While China continued to monitor and report on the actions of the Allied forces, the Allied search planes had not yet raised any alarm about the Chinese Pacific Fleet.

At 7 o'clock, the flagship bridge of the Akagi received a telegram from Admiral Tomanaga proposing to carry out a second air raid on the Mariana Islands. Nagumo's forces had not been attacked by Chinese aircraft up to this point, but a series of air strikes by Chinese shore-based aircraft almost immediately afterwards reinforced the significance of Tomanaga's suggestion, as these air strikes to Nagumo Tadaichi fully demonstrated that the Chinese air forces on the Mariana Islands had not been annihilated.

7:05. The trumpet sounded again: "Air raid siren!"

Eyes in the flight command post were looking at the southeast sky. The Allies also stood up and looked around, and saw that the weather was very good. There are fairly thick clouds about six thousand feet overhead, but the air is clear and visibility is good.

In the circular formation of the Allied forces. One of the destroyers of the avant-garde detachment suddenly raised its flag: "Spotted Zhonghua!"

The destroyer immediately set off a smoke screen to warn. And fired at the Chinese aircraft with anti-aircraft guns.

Soon. Nagumo Tadaichi saw with his own eyes, at a 20-degree angle on the port side of the Akagi. There were four Chinese jet fighters, closing in on the fleet.

It seems to be a navy-type jet fighter with a torpedo. Nagumo Zhongyi didn't see it very clearly and couldn't make a judgment. Before they could get close enough for Nagumo to discern clearly, four vigilant Gale fighters had already swooped down on the Chinese fighters.

Disappointingly, however, the four Chinese fighters shot down three of the Gale, and then, probably sensing that the fighters had disappeared, turned around and left. There is still a short distance from the Nagumo fleet.

Lesson to survive another gale, hurried back to their own carrier carrier. When the pilot's trembling hands opened the cockpit, his face turned pale, and his heart seemed to jump out, and the color of fear was very obvious, as if he had come back from a circle of hell.

It was a brief encounter, so short that it didn't even take a minute. His three comrades-in-arms died one after another in his eyes. If he hadn't slowed down a beat, I'm afraid he wouldn't have been able to come back.

No one laughed at him, because everyone was still immersed in the brief engagement. Although it is not clear to see, the time and results speak for themselves.

In the air, the other Allied planes on alert had no intention of catching up at all.

However, before everyone could fully react from their stunned thoughts, the bridge lookout shouted again: "Six Chinese fighters are coming." On the water antenna, 20 degrees to starboard. ”

Nagumo Tadaichi's eyes turned to the starboard sky, and sure enough, he saw six Chinese fighters lined up in a single column.

It seems that the Chinese planes originally planned to attack from both sides, but it seems that they were lucky that they did not cooperate well.

There was no need to give an order, first the outermost destroyers, and the cruisers followed the destroyers in the vanguard and opened fire.

Subsequently, to the right of the Akagi, even the battleship Kirishima fired at the Chinese aircraft with its main guns. But the Chinese fighters flew very low and continued to approach. At this time, basically everyone saw very clearly that these six fighters were China's famous Warhawk-3 land-based fighters.

Black smoke from anti-aircraft shells was everywhere around the Chinese fighters, but not a single Chinese fighter was shot down.

"Your Majesty the Emperor, onboard!" In the radio channel of the Allied carrier-based aircraft, there was a roar of rage, and when the anti-aircraft guns of the Akagi began to fire, three Gale planes braved their own anti-aircraft artillery fire and dived down to the Chinese fighters.

At this time, six Chinese fighters also counterattacked, with two 25-mm guns in the bow firing at the same time. However, instead of suppressing the anti-aircraft fire of the fleet below, they attacked the three Gale fighters that pounced.

The dense barrage of gunpowder smoke poured down in the direction of the three gales. Suddenly, three gales were hit at the same time and caught fire, planted into the sea, and a tall column of smoke rose from the sea.

Then the six Chinese fighters continued to reduce their altitude and continued to approach bravely, and when they were less than 60 meters away from the sea, the six fighters fired torpedoes at the same time.

After the Chinese fighter dropped the mine, it suddenly turned to the right and flew away, and only the long plane swept over the head of the Akagi from right to left, and almost hit the bridge. It flew very low, an aircraft with a full-body steel structure, a massive fuselage, nearly twice as strong as a gale. The wake rolled up at high speed and swept the lookout post directly from above. The body smashed directly on the deck, and was instantly thrown to death.

Around this time, several torpedoes, each dragging a line of white mines, passed not far from the port bow of the Akagi. The Akagi skillfully dodged and did not hit the mines. Everyone on board breathed a sigh of relief.

When the six Warhawk-3s passed through the Nagumo task force, only three of them were hit by shrapnel, but fortunately the most basic flight control was not affected.

Seeing the departing Chinese fighters, Nagumo Tadaichi was completely sure that he should attack the Mariana Islands again. He felt that since he had not reported the presence of Chinese surface forces nearby, he could move with confidence, so, at 7:15. That is, just after the attack of the Chinese torpedo planes. Nagumo Tadaichi ordered the second wave of planes, which had already prepared to attack the Chinese ships, to immediately prepare for another air attack on the Mariana Islands.

This means that in the task force, no matter which aircraft carrier has torpedoes, horizontal bombers must remove all torpedoes and replace them with bombs. The horizontal bombers that were already on the flight deck were all returned to the hangar one by one. Reload the bomb again. Flight personnel. Ground crews and ordnance crews are struggling to do this strenuous work.

Just took a break for a while. Nagumo's forces were attacked again. Towards 8 o'clock, the lookout post of the Akagi reported that the Wyvern had been attacked by Chinese bombers. Black columns of water rose around the Wyvern. Then a column of water rose around the Dragon. But no black smoke was seen. None of them were shot.

Nan Yunzhong took a look at the identification map of the Chinese fighter and found that the uncrowned king of the Chinese bomber family that attacked the "Canglong" -- the Global Overlord. This is the largest bomber in China, on the Mariana Islands, there are fourteen of them.

Originally, the fourteen Globemaster bombers took off from the Mariana Islands before dawn to attack the Allied transport ship group, but changed their plans halfway through and attacked the Allied aircraft carriers. Each aircraft carried more than 20 tons of bombs, dropped them at an altitude of 20,000 meters, and returned safely to their bases.

Of course, these 14 bombers dropped bombs at an altitude of 20,000 meters, and their hit rate can be imagined. Therefore, Nagumo Tadaichi's fleet was not damaged.

However, the Allies also had no problem with these bombers, and unless they were American Sabre fighters, it was basically impossible for the 20mm guns of other fighters to take them down. At an altitude of 20,000 meters, among the dozens of fighters of the entire Allied Forces, only the American Sabre has such a combat altitude.

On the sea, tens of thousands of people in the task force could only watch the Chinese bombers drop bombs and swagger away. Because they don't have a carrier-based aircraft like Sabre, at least not in the Nagumo Special Complex.

At about this time, all the Gale of the second attack wave took off to strengthen the Allied air combat patrols.

At 8 o'clock, the newly ascended lookout post reported that a small group of Chinese fighters had flown from the direction of the Mariana Islands. The avant-garde destroyers, which were on alert, immediately set off smoke screens and at the same time opened fire on Chinese fighters.

This time, the Chinese fighters attacked in an inexplicable way: they flew too high for a torpedo attack and too low for a dive bombing. The Chinese fighter swooped down at a small angle and flew towards the Wyvern. There were sixteen planes in total, spread out widely.

They were fiercely attacked by more than a dozen gales, one after the other turning around and moving away from the fleet's air defense circle. Even if half of the Chinese fighters left the attack queue, the rest of the Chinese fighters continued to approach and finally dropped bombs, and many people were already convinced that the Flying Dragon would be doomed.

But when the smoke of the bomb cleared, the Wyvern was still safe and sound, and continued to sail majestically. In this attack, the Chinese aircraft did not use the highly efficient ultra-low-altitude dive-ricocheting bombing technology.

Up to this point, the Allies had been attacked by Chinese shore-based aircraft in various ways (torpedoes, horizontal bombing, and dive bombing), but the Allies still suffered no losses.

Many people believe that the Chinese pilots' anti-ship attack techniques are not very skillful, and Nagumo Tadaichi and his staff also commented in this way.

The top brass of the task force generally believes that the Chinese attack warships are not technically afraid.

This battle report was quickly reported to the desks of Nagano Shusei and Nimitz, leading to some errors in the judgment of the top brass of the Japanese-American Combined Fleet. Some of the precautions that are clearly necessary are neglected. If these measures had been taken, the fiasco, which would have been avoided a few hours later. The Chinese shore-based aircraft seemed to be doing futile and did not end up in vain.

In fact, this is not surprising, perhaps in the eyes of the Allies, the Chinese army, which seems to have no weaknesses, is the most unlikely. Perhaps, this is a shortcoming of the Chinese army, a very fatal shortcoming.

Because there had not been a high-intensity naval engagement to judge whether this view was wrong, they preferred to trust their own commanders' judgments.

No sooner had the bombing of the Chinese fighters ended, and a destroyer farther away in the Allied ring formed a smoke screen signal, reporting the discovery of more Chinese fighters. I counted almost a hundred. The destroyer immediately opened fire on them, but after a few shots suddenly stopped. It turned out that these planes were the first attack wave returning after the air raid on the Mariana Islands. The time is 8:30.

Because each ship carried out evasive activities during the attack of the Chinese fighters, and the aircraft carriers frequently moved during the take-off and return of fighters, the original well-organized navigation formation of the Allied forces was greatly dispersed, so it was very necessary to take advantage of the gap between battles to gather troops.

But now it is more urgent to recover the aircraft that attacked the first wave. The Allies had a number of experienced pilots at this time, and even in a tense battle situation, it was easy to quickly recover from the mothership. It only takes fifteen minutes to turn from an aircraft carrier to a headwind, and the entire ship is equipped with aircraft that can land on deck with great skill.

The work of recovering the aircraft began without delay. The aircraft carriers ordered: "Clear the flight deck and prepare to take back the planes!"

The aircraft carriers began intensive operations. Encouraged by the slogan "Come on, do it", the ground crew, who did not complain, began to clean the flight deck with great vigour. A few minutes later, all the aircraft carrier flight decks had been cleared, and at 8:37 a.m., a signal flag was raised on the signal mast: "Start landing!"

The returning planes quickly landed on the flight deck. Shortly after 9 o'clock, all six aircraft carriers recovered their planes. (To be continued......)