PS: Thanks to belone, tchh for tipping the monthly pass.

Eleven forty-five o'clock. The U.S. military again released four British-made water reconnaissance planes equipped with radars. It was supposed to be eight, but two were previously lost, and two were killed or wounded.

At the same moment, Rear Admiral Fletcher released all the warplanes on board the Yorktown, thirty-two. Of these, eight Wildcats, eight torpedo planes, twelve dive bombers, a total of twenty-eight. This is the second wave of air power preparing to attack the Yamaguchi Tawen fleet.

The remaining four Wildcat fighters are fighters that are on alert duty in the air.

This is strange, Major General Fletcher has always liked to attack from behind, why did he suddenly become active this time?

The reason is simple, the first wave of strike force on the Yorktown is now returning, and at this time the fleet is already more than a hundred kilometers away from the Yorktown. The radar screen was clear, and the officer in charge of the group had already contacted the Yorktown aircraft carrier on the radio to confirm it.

Major General Fletcher did not make the same mistake as Nagumo Tadaichi, and since Nimitz personally ordered the attack at twelve o'clock, if Fletcher had recovered the fighter plane and then released the fighter plane, I am afraid that it would have been at least one o'clock. Although Fletcher was a little calculus, he still wisely chose to fly the fighter first at this time.

Now that the Yorktown has made a sortie, the Liberty Dragon fighter has also begun to fly.

At the same time, the Enterprise also flew eight fighters. In a few hours, the first wave of fighters recovered by the Enterprise was really not much, only these eight. The others were either shot down by the Japanese or flew to Midway.

Ten minutes later, the Enterprise also received the news that the first wave of sorties on the Enterprise and the Hornet were also returning. In fact, whether it was the Enterprise or the Yorktown, the fighters that returned at this time were the same fighters that attacked the aircraft carrier Akagi.

The Hornet struck with even less force, just six fighters.

Four aircraft carriers, seemingly huge power. By this time, only fifty-eight fighters had been put together.

For the US-Tang coalition forces, it is already quite difficult to squeeze out so many fighters. You must know that after the release of fifty-eight fighters, the total number of fighters that served as fleet guards was only eighteen on the Enterprise and four on the Yorktown. A total of twenty-two.

At twelve o'clock, seven or eight models and forty-six warplanes took off from Midway. The models are just too varied, there are old-fashioned Buffalo fighters. There were torpedo planes, there were B17 bombers, there were Catalina seaplanes, and there were dreadnought bombers. (The first wave of naval resistance strikes at Yamaguchi Duowen has not yet landed.) ）

these aircraft. There are army aviation, there are naval aviation, there are carrier-based aircraft on aircraft carriers, and the command is chaotic. The level of pilots is uneven. There is no combat effectiveness. There is no way to calculate it. In fact, as the supreme commander, Admiral Nimitz was not so much worried about combat effectiveness, but about whether these planes could fly to the ground and find the carrier of Yamaguchi.

Nimitz was worried about another wave of air strikes, the eighteen B17 and twenty-four B25 bombers that took off from Pearl Harbor. These US bombers. Although the strength is strong, even if it is led by the most high-ranking pilot of the US military, after flying over 2,000 kilometers, it is not easy to find the aircraft carrier that Yamaguchi has heard a lot of.

In short, the US-Tang coalition seems to have a lot of troops. Nimitz knew very well that if he wanted to achieve results, he still had to look at the performance of dozens of fighters on the aircraft carrier.

After more than 100 fighters of various types in all directions of the US-Tang coalition took to the air. The form between the Allies and the Japanese was like two boxers, all of them poking out their fists.

The outcome will be reflected in the speed and power of the punches thrown by both sides. In terms of speed, the Japanese had the upper hand, and before eleven o'clock Yamaguchi released two waves of striking force. In terms of strength, it seems that the US-Tang coalition forces have an advantage, and the number of fighters is significantly greater than that of the Japanese army, but only God knows what the actual combat effectiveness is.

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Twelve o'clock.

The Yorktown was ready to receive the warplanes. Suddenly, the frightened voice of an American pilot was heard on the public channel: "Oh my God, the planes of the Japanese. ”

At this time, the radarman was also shouting: "There are too many planes, not all of them are ours." ”

On the bridge, Rear Admiral Fletcher was immediately stunned.

Major General Fletcher figured out why in a moment. In the first wave of strikes, thirty-six fighters were sent on board the Yorktown, and more than a dozen were lost in the battle, and only about twenty could be returned. But now the yellow dot flashes on the radar screen, and although it is difficult to count how many planes there are, it is definitely more than thirty.

In '42, the US military's air defense radar still used meter-wave radar. At long range, it is normal to have false negatives for slightly smaller fighters. Even if it is not missed, the radar often cannot distinguish between a flock of birds and a fighter at a long distance, and it is impossible to count the exact number.

So it wasn't until the Yorktown was ready to recover the fighter that it realized that the plane in the sky was not exactly its own.

Major General Fletcher hurriedly called for Major General Spruance to send fighter planes to support. Keep in mind that there were only four Wildcat fighters in the skies over the Yorktown. And the returning fighter has been flying for more than four hours at the moment, it is already in a state of exhaustion of fuel, and more importantly, the fighter without bullets and shells is simply useless. Therefore, even in such a state of crisis, Major General Fletcher could only let the fighters fly south.

The Yorktown welcomed the first wave of fighters released by Yamaguchi Tawen, including five Zeros, eight torpedo planes, and eight dive bombers, for a total of twenty-one.

The devil was able to show this hand, which was indeed beyond the expectations of the US-Tang coalition. These devils actually flew hundreds of kilometers and followed the US fighter planes to find the Yorktown.

In the Battle of Ceylon, it was getting late, and Yamaguchi Tashi eagerly thought of a way to follow the British fighters to find the aircraft carrier, so he sank the British light aircraft carrier Athletic.

At the Battle of Midway, he became more adept at this tactic. The two officers led by the Japanese army, Captain Michio Kobayashi and Second Lieutenant Yamashita Tu, were also the elite of the Japanese air force, and they carried out Yamaguchi's tactics very well.

This group of Japanese fighters discovered the remnants of the US fighters on the Yorktown as soon as the US troops had finished bombing the aircraft carrier Akagi.

The US pilots finally completed the mission, and they fought their way out of the encirclement with heavy losses, and did not pay attention to the rear at all. Historically, the Japanese pilots followed the US fighters to find the Yorktown, and it was the first time that Michio Kobayashi and Toji Yamashita had done such a thing. The tracking technology is not very clever, and it is relatively far away from the US fighters. However, in the Battle of Ceylon, there was already experience, and Yamaguchi Tarumi deduced this tracking method many times in the past few months, which greatly improved the tracking level of Japanese pilots.

Without radar, you still have to keep up with your opponent and not be detected by your opponent. All this is extremely demanding for pilots, and Captain Michio Kobayashi is also a veteran pilot in the Japanese army, with more than 3,000 hours of flight time. Although the reputation of the First Air Fleet is not as good as that of Takashi Ecao and Shigeharu Murata, its combat experience is also first-class in Japan. Yamaguchi's brilliant tactics in the Battle of Ceylon. It was played very well by Michio Kobayashi. The Japanese planes have been following at an altitude of twenty or thirty kilometers behind the US fighters.

The US pilots did not expect that their return voyage would bring with them a group of disaster stars.

Fletcher had radar, but he was given too little time to react, when the U.S. military realized that something was wrong. Japanese fighters were less than twenty kilometers from the Yorktown.

The Japanese raid was significantly more successful than the historical one. At that time, Michio Kobayashi lost the American fighter plane in the final stage, and spent some time searching for the Yorktown aircraft carrier. The results were detected in advance by radar.

This time. The US radar hardly played its due early warning role, and the only four Wildcat fighters were not able to intercept the Japanese plane group at all, but were shot down by the Japanese Zero fighters one after another. In the process of breaking the defense, none of the Japanese army's 99 ship explosion and 97 ship attack were damaged.

Suddenly attacked, the American troops on the Yorktown were in disarray, and even the anti-aircraft gunners were not fully in position. Japanese fighters have already launched an attack.

At 12:15 p.m., the Yorktown was hit by the first bomb of a Japanese 99th ship, and although the power of the 250-kilogram bomb was not as powerful as the 1,000-pound bomb commonly used by the US military, the power should not be underestimated. A single bomb blew up an anti-aircraft gun emplacement on the side of the Yorktown. More than 30 people were killed or wounded. There were loopholes in anti-aircraft artillery air defense.

At 12:16, another bomb hit the Yorktown. The bomb not only pierced the flight deck, but also through the vice-captain's office, through the pilot's standby room, and finally exploded in the chimney of the Yorktown.

The bomb caused great damage to the Yorktown, and the violent shock wave not only killed and injured more than 10 American soldiers, but also caused all the boilers to be extinguished, and the exhaust flues of the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 boilers were all blown up.

At 12:18 a.m., another bomb hit the elevator, piercing three decks and exploding on the fourth deck below. The bomb did not injure anyone, but it was the most dangerous. A violent explosion caused a fire. It is important to know that the location of the explosion was right next to the gasoline depot and ammunition compartment. If the fire is allowed to spread, the Yorktown will be blown into the clouds by the gasoline and bombs it carries.

The Yorktown had the advantage of having not only skilled officers and men on board, but also hundreds of repairmen. The manpower is extremely sufficient, the fighting continues, and the U.S. military has begun to extinguish the fire and repair it.

The busy American troops in the cabin could not be seen, but the superstructure of the aircraft carrier and the anti-aircraft gunners could see it clearly.

Only four Japanese dive bombers broke through the anti-aircraft fire, and three bombs were hit. How accurate the bombing did not make the US officers and men frightened.

In the early days of the Pacific War, of the three main fighters of the Japanese Navy, only the 99 Shipbomber (dive bomber) was inferior in performance to the US dreadnought bombers, and the power of its 250-kilogram bomb was far inferior to that of the US 1,000-pound bomb. Therefore, although the three 250-kilogram bombs caused a lot of damage to the Yorktown, they did not hurt the bones.

The Japanese army's 97 ship attack (torpedo machine) was completely different, as long as one hit the upper one, the Yorktown, which was already injured, would hurt its muscles and bones.

Hundreds of anti-aircraft guns on the Yorktown were constantly erupting shells, and the two escorting heavy cruisers "Astoria" and "Portland" were also trying to tilt their ammunition.

In the sky and on the sea, the explosion of artillery shells is continuous, more dense than the sound of firecrackers in the Chinese New Year.

Locust-like tracer shells shuttled through the sky, the black smoke from the explosion of the cannonballs was like black clouds in the sky, and the water columns on the sea surface were like jungles.

The Japanese pilots were not fighting, but desperately. Michio Kobayashi and his pilots all saw the tragic situation of the Akagi, Kaga, and Shozuru on the sea. In the Japanese Navy, not only the generals did not value the lives of the pilots, but even the pilots themselves did not value their own lives.

For Japan, the cost of an aircraft carrier is enough for the annual salary of millions of Japanese, and if it is replaced with army equipment, it can equip five to six field divisions.

In a poor country like Japan, the people eat poor food, work hard, live in low-slung wooden houses, and accumulate technology and materials bit by bit. Even the emperor squeezed limited funds out of his teeth to build warships one after another.

Now that the three aircraft carriers have been blown up, the Japanese pilots are like dead mothers, and they have launched attacks on the Yorktown one after another, regardless of casualties.

It was only in the Battle of the Coral Sea that the Naval Resistance Force figured out the tactical requirement of "not dodging". And the tactical requirement of "no dodging" in the Japanese army has been in place for many years. The skill of the Japanese pilots was breathtaking, and their courage chilled their opponents.

The devils drove the 97 ships to attack, grazing the sea and rushing straight to the Yorktown. A 97-ship attack was hit by anti-aircraft guns, and the torpedo exploded in the air. There was only a flash of light on the sea, the smoke cleared, and there was no sign of any warplanes in sight.

Another torpedo plane appeared in the field of vision of the American gunners again, only to see that the Japanese 97 ship was attacking, already wounded, dragging a long black smoke, but the pilot still did not drop the bomb.

The fighter flew crookedly, and shells and bullets constantly exploded around it.

The 97 ship attack still did not drop bombs.

When the 97 ship attacked less than 1,000 meters away from the Yorktown, the US antiaircraft artillery finally made a success, and a single shell directly blew off one wing of the 97 ship's attack.

Under the watchful eye of the US troops, the Japanese 97 ship threw a torpedo the moment it was hit. Immediately, the fighter plane was planted in the sea, and after a few ups and downs, a pile of foam appeared, and then disappeared into the sea.

Almost all of the eight Japanese torpedo planes were so desperate that there was not a single dodge before they were hit by artillery fire. Even if they were hit, they struggled to get to the best distance for the torpedo to release the bomb.

In the Battle of the Coral Sea, the tragic situation of the Lexington reappeared in front of the eyes of the American officers and soldiers, and Rear Admiral Fletcher turned pale in the bridge. He was well aware of the cause of the explosion of the USS Lexington aircraft carrier - oil mist. A day earlier, he had just filled up his fuel, and Fletcher had a little bit of a calculus. But at this moment, this move became a life-threatening ghost. His main fear was not to be hit, because the huge battleship would not actually sink because of one or two torpedoes. His biggest concern was the explosion and combustion of fuel.

Under the frenzied attack of the devils, the Yorktown was hit by two torpedoes in quick succession at 12:20. The huge battleship, at the moment of being shot, immediately began to tilt. Smoke began to billowing from the battleship, and the fire began to burn in all directions.

This was the first result of the Japanese army in the Battle of Midway.

The Japanese paid the price of five dive bombers, seven torpedo planes, and one Zero fighter to inflict heavy damage on the Yorktown. Not only did the Yorktown lose its function as an aircraft carrier, the power system completely failed, and the hull was flooded in many places.

A few minutes later, the Yorktown had tilted twenty-six degrees, Major General Fletcher withdrew from the Yorktown, and the command of the American-Tang forces was transferred to Major General Spruance.

(Readers, I asked for a commuter pass.) (To be continued......)