PS: Today's two watches, a total of 8,000 words, ask for a monthly pass. The next shift is around seven o'clock in the evening.

At 8:30 a.m., the Toonagajo group of planes returning from the attack on Midway Island had already flown over the Japanese fleet.

Now, Nagumo Tadaichi is in a dilemma. He was not proficient in aviation operations, and when he encountered such a tricky situation, it was difficult for Nagumo Zhong to make a decision for a while.

The first group of air raid planes he sent to Midway had returned, and they needed to land on the mothership immediately; You must know that although the range of the Japanese Zero fighter is long enough, after three and a half hours of flying and fighting, the torpedo planes and bombers do not have much fuel in the tank at the moment. Nagumo Tadaichi knew this very well, because the sea area he chose for the fighter to take off was 400 kilometers away from Midway, which was actually the maximum combat radius of the Japanese bombers.

Bombers preparing for a second strike on an aircraft carrier are changing their ground-to-ground ammunition to ship-to-ship ammunition.

In addition, there is a part of the "Zero" fighters that protect aircraft carriers, and they are also running out of fuel, and they also have to land for refueling.

Nagumo Tadaichi's mind was a little insufficient at this time, and he couldn't figure out how to choose.

Do you want to send out attack aircraft on the hangar deck to attack enemy ships? These planes have not yet been reloaded with torpedoes, and can only use less lethal bombs mounted on bomb racks to carry out air strikes, and there are no fighter escorts. Bombers without fighter escort to attack heavily defended US aircraft carriers did not have much chance of winning, and this was not allowed in the Japanese army's combat regulations.

Just such a little problem actually stumped the famous Lieutenant General Nagumo Zhongyi. Nagumo Tadaichi was a rule-following soldier, and he was once again restrained by the Japanese army's combat procedures.

I couldn't figure it out, so Nagumo Zhong turned his gaze to the chief of staff, Major General Ryunosuke Kusaka.

Major General Ryunosuke Kusaka is a staff officer and thoughtful. He thought to himself that if he attacked immediately, the runway on the ship would be occupied by the planes taking off. Then the Toonaga aircraft group, with empty fuel tanks, will not be able to return to the mothership, and the Japanese Navy will lose dozens of fighters in vain. Ruyunosuke Kusaka, like all the Japanese generals, did not think that the loss was not only fighter planes, but also dozens or hundreds of pilots. For Japan, warplanes are extremely valuable weapons. You must know that Japan's aircraft production at this time is only 90 aircraft per month, and the production of carrier-based aircraft is even smaller, less than 30 aircraft. In this Japanese sortie at Midway, each aircraft carrier was not fully staffed, and the Kaga aircraft carrier, which carried the most aircraft, had only 63 aircraft. At this time, the Japanese fighters hovering in the air were actually more than seventy percent of the fighters of the Japanese aircraft carrier formation, and if they were lost. Then the Battle of Midway will not be able to continue.

Major General Ryunosuke Kusaka is not a qualified commander, and he can't do this kind of thing. Therefore, he was going to ask the former staff officer Minoru Genda for his thoughts. But at this moment, Minoru Genda dragged his sick body and was still on the deck, encouraging the Japanese ground crew to work hard to change ammunition.

Fortunately, there is no endless road, and the flight commander Fuchida Mitsu Yunakasa, who cut his appendix, gritted his teeth and endured the pain at this moment and entered the bridge.

Kusaka Ryunosuke immediately consulted Mitsuo Fuchida. This Mitsuo Fuchida was a veteran pilot, and his prestige among Japanese pilots was equivalent to that of Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle among American pilots. This is a master of flying technology and a master of tactics. He was also the teacher of many Japanese pilots.

Mitsuo Fuchida was very resolute, because among the pilots hovering in the air at the moment, there were not a few pilots with whom he had a good personal relationship. He couldn't watch these friends and comrades-in-arms die in vain. Therefore, he asked to land the fighter first.

That's it. After the triple jump, Nanyun Zhong must have made a plan to recover the fighter first.

Although Nagumo Tadaichi's command was somewhat compliant, not all of them were wrong, and at this point he gave an order, and the fleet immediately increased its speed and changed the direction of advance from southeast to northeast. Temporarily evacuate the direction in which the American fleet is located. In fact, this direction was the direction in which the 2nd Air Force, which was chasing Yamaguchi Tawen, was moving. From half past eight, the Nagumo fleet began to sail north at a speed of thirty knots.

The waters off Midway on June 4 were not sunny, but they were not cloudy either. It was cloudy. What's more, there was almost no wind on the sea at the moment, so the Japanese fleet could smoothly take off and land fighters no matter which direction it sailed.

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At half past seven, Spruance immediately adjusted the course of the aircraft carrier formation after releasing the fighters.

Before dawn, the U.S. aircraft carrier group was located 20 degrees east-northerly on Midway. After an hour's westward journey, the aircraft carrier formation was actually almost due north of Midway, only about ten degrees east.

This time Spruance turned the fleet due south, that is, roughly in the direction of Midway.

The closer you get to Midway, the more you can use the air power of Midway, and the safer it will be for an aircraft carrier group with weak self-defense forces.

Thus, in the hours after seven o'clock, Rear Admiral Fletcher's aircraft carrier USS Yorktown was in the rear of the fleet.

Major General Fletcher had actually wanted to put his Yorktown at the rear of Task Force 16, and he had actually been doing this from yesterday until this morning.

But Spruance turned a corner, and Rear Admiral Fletcher's Yorktown became the closest to the Japanese fleet.

Therefore, the Yorktown was a little unlucky, and was first discovered by Japanese reconnaissance planes, which was 8:20 at that time, when the fighters on the Yorktown had not yet fully taken off.

It was not unforeseen that it was discovered by a Japanese reconnaissance plane. The generals of the US military have long expected this and have countermeasures. For example, Spruance left thirty-six fighters as a force to escort the aircraft carrier.

It's just that the US military is busy taking off fighters at the moment, and the radar can't tell whether the planes in the air are Japanese or American. Therefore, the Japanese reconnaissance plane was close to the left, but Fletcher did not know that his flagship was discovered by the Yorktown.

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Half past eight to nine o'clock.

U.S. fighters continued to attack the Japanese aircraft carrier formation. However, at this moment, the fighter formations of the aircraft carriers Akagi, Kaga, and Shozuru had already returned home, and the Zero fighters hovering around these three aircraft carriers were like swarms, and the US fighters were shot down and damaged one after another. However, it was difficult to break through the inner circle of the annular formation of the Japanese aircraft carriers, and it was impossible to attack the Japanese aircraft carriers.

During this half hour, the five Japanese aircraft carriers were all busy recovering the fighters. Among them, Yamaguchi's No. 2 Air Force recovered the least fighters. Because Yamaguchi ran far away, many fighters could hardly support that distance with fuel, and landed on the deck of the nearby aircraft carriers Akagi or Kaga.

Due to the long distance, the Second Air Force needed to fly for more than 10 minutes, and by the time the recovery of the fighters was completed, it had already exceeded 9.20. Moreover, the combined number of fighters of the two aircraft carriers is less than 70, which is only half of the normal number.

After recovering the fighters, the Second Air Force immediately began to refuel the fighters.

And the Akagi. The three aircraft carriers Kaga and Shozuru recovered most of the fighters, and the speed was much slower.

The Akagi, in particular, was even slower. This is not because the Akagi recovered many fighters, but because an extremely bold submarine of the US military actually appeared near the Akagi. It poses a great threat to the Akagi.

The most courageous submarine of the U.S. military in the entire World War II - the Nautilus. The captain of the Nautilus was a little more daring and quietly infiltrated the middle of the Japanese ring formation. Two torpedoes were fired at the Akagi. As a result, both torpedoes did not explode. However, it also poses a great threat to Nagumo Tadaichi. What's even more infuriating is that this Nautilus submarine was pursued by more than a dozen Japanese destroyers, unscathed, and escaped safely.

Why, both torpedoes didn't blow up? Didn't Haitang sell torpedoes to the US military? Could it be that the quality of the torpedoes in the Haitang Kingdom has deteriorated?

No. The reason is that the submarine force of the US military is now mainly divided into two groups. A submarine force based in Australia, which was originally in the Philippines. They used torpedoes produced by the Haitang Kingdom. The other was based at Pearl Harbor, and the torpedoes in Pearl Harbor's stockpile were not blown up by the Japanese. In stock. Moreover, the production capacity of the United States has increased rapidly, and now it is fully capable of supplying the submarine force at the Pearl Harbor base.

That is to say, but in fact, there is only one reason--- US arms dealers will absolutely not allow Haitang to take a piece of the torpedo business. Recently, the American torpedo manufacturers have made great efforts in public relations, not only wanting to continue supplying torpedoes to the US submarine force at Pearl Harbor, but also planning to recapture the torpedo supply of the Australian submarine force from the hands of the Naval Resistance Force. As for how the Nautilus protested with his boss after the war, and how the Haitang Kingdom added fuel to the fire, this is a later story.

In short, although the Nautilus did not achieve results, it also affected the Japanese army's recovery of fighters.

At nine o'clock, the Akagi was still recovering the fighters, and Nagumo Tadaichi was reported by the reconnaissance plane---- and found an aircraft carrier again.

Nagumo Tadaichi forgot how much he did not attach importance to reconnaissance, but he was scolding the pilots of the reconnaissance planes for their poor quality. But at this moment, he has no tricks at all, all he can do is to speed up the recovery of the fighter plane and refuel the fighter. He could only wait for the planes on the ship to be re-equipped, and then use his huge sea and air forces to deal a fatal blow to the American aircraft carriers.

All the Japanese commanders understood one thing, that is, a large number of American fighters would soon pounce. And it was a group of planes that pounced on US aircraft carriers. The Japanese army and the US army have been fighting for half a year, and neither the army nor the navy have looked down on the US army's air force, but they still have some clue about the difference -- the quality of the US army's air force is far inferior to that of the naval air.

As a result, the Japanese increased their vigilance, and although the Zero fighters hovering in the air at this time did not have much fuel, Nagumo Tadaichi still ordered the Japanese to fly and hold on.

All the ground crews on the Japanese aircraft carriers were desperately preparing for the final preparations for the attack on the dive bombers, torpedo attack planes, and the fighters escorting them. At the moment, whether it is on the hangar deck or on the flight deck, the busy ground crew is constantly shuttling.

But the process is not so simple and takes time.

Depending on the efficiency of the Japanese army, this preparation would have lasted an hour, even with all skilled ground crews. The operation of the aircraft carrier after recovering the fighter is not so simple, and it is definitely not that the aircraft can do all the work on the flight deck.

For example, the Japanese army's 99 ship explosion plane had the shortest range and needed to land first. But when it was released, it needed to be placed behind the Zero. Torpedo planes, on the other hand, need to be placed at the back of the flight deck. Otherwise, the take-off distance is not enough, and the fighter plane will have to fall into the sea. If only half or less of the fighters landed on the flight deck, it would be possible to reduce the working hours and not have to send some of the fighters to the hangar.

But when all the fighters are recovered, at least half of the fighters will be unloaded into the hangar. If the fighters are all on the flight deck to complete the work of refueling and hanging bombs, when it is time to take off, they will not be able to miss the wrong body at all. The deck of an aircraft carrier is not an airfield, all the space is calculated.

Nagumo Tadaichi was still very clear about such a basic process, and he knew that even if the Japanese army moved quickly, it would take at least forty-five minutes to re-release the fighters, and it was not all.

Time was pressing, and the little devil didn't have time to send the unloaded bombs to the ammunition depot below, but hurriedly piled them aside.

The command of a general is like playing chess, and a clever chess player looks at the next three moves. If you play a bad move, although you may not lose all the games, but the passive three moves are inevitable.

Since Nagumo Tadaichi chose to recover the fighters first, all the commands of the Japanese aircraft carrier formation have been determined and cannot be changed. When Nagumo Tadaichi made this decision at half past eight o'clock, he had already decided that before ten o'clock, the Japanese would not be able to fly fighter planes to attack the US aircraft carriers.

If at half past eight o'clock, Nagumo Tadaichi asked the fighters who were stuck in the air to wait for more than ten minutes, and would rather crash dozens of fighters, and at about 8:40 a.m., his second wave of strike planes would have already taken off to pack up the aircraft carrier Yorktown.

If you are wrong, you can only go on wrong. Whether or not it can carry past ten points is a matter of life and death for Nagumo Tadaichi's First Air Fleet.

Whether or not the Japanese aircraft carrier can be killed before 10 o'clock is also the key to victory or defeat for the US military. (To be continued......)