"Zero sixty-two, turn on the engines and get ready to take off." The bull duck on the Shinano tower shouted to him from the megaphone. He saw the ground mechanic hang the steel cable of the steam catapult on a hook under the belly of the machine. He raised a hand, and immediately, a signalman raised two yellow flags in a V-shape. In the dimness of dawn, he could barely make out. He pulled the canopy shut down and turned the throttle valve of the oil circuit wider and wider amid the roar of the engine. (There were no catapults in World War II, but there were catapults, and catapults were very simple things, completely different from catapults, so don't get confused.) ）

He saw the weather vane on the mainmast of the USS Shinano, its humanoid tail had swept back, the mothership was sailing in the wind, he pulled the joystick into his arms, and the 062 fighter cocked its ailerons.

The signalman replaced the yellow flag with a red flag. He immediately hit the throttle on the head. The steam catapult jerked, he felt a huge acceleration, and the thirty-meter runway was soon coming to an end. The plane sank, he pulled the lever again, and the plane had obediently rushed towards the clouds.

Although it was impossible to determine the weather for the whole day in the morning, Sugimoto had a hunch that the weather would be bad today, with thick clouds and low cloud bases, and tropical rainstorms falling in many seas. It's been eighteen days, and I haven't seen any warships. Admiral Mizusawa Sugimoto, along with the entire fast-strike fleet, has been going around in circles on a small ocean.

Since the landing of General Maruyama Masao's Sendai Division on Kuah Island, General Nagumo commanded the main aircraft carrier squadron of the Japan-US Combined Fleet to serve as a guard in the waters of the Santa Cruz Islands. The Santa Cruz Islands are three hundred nautical miles from Kuah Island, and any route for the Chinese army to reinforce Kuah Island is under Nagumo's control. Nagumo's mission is to wipe out all Kuah Island reinforcements. The commander of the Maruyama Division captured the airfield in one fell swoop.

Captain Sugimoto is full of revenge.

He wasn't the kind of young man with a strong blood anymore. When they first graduated from flight school, they had full illusions about the future. For him, the days of "chicks (young birds)" are gone. He's a rough guy and a capable professional air killer.

Sugimoto is short but quite lean. He has a strong jaw and a wide chest, and he often hits beautiful home runs in baseball games. His father, who was a petty trader, had a bad temper and had a bad business, and when he was drunk, he punched and kicked him. Sugimoto is like his father in terms of appearance and temperament. There are no samurai in Sugimoto's family tree. But he was often proud of his distant relative, an aristocratic samurai of the Edo period. His father sent him to flight maneuvering school. This is the only thing Sugimoto thanks to his father.

Shanmu is a graduate of the seventy-second batch. Just left school. He was ordered to be transferred to North Korea. During the Barbarossa Plan that year, the Kwantung Army launched a full-scale attack on Eastern Siberia, and Sugimoto's group violently attacked the Vladivostok airport. He flew all kinds of planes and fought against Russian and Chinese pilots. It also bombed towns in the Pacific islands.

He never hesitated to kill. He was like the vast majority of Japanese officers and enlisted men. It is considered natural to kill people for the sake of the emperor.

In the spring of the 17th year of Showa (1942), he was drawn from the blazing Siberian battlefield with Captain Tomonaga and flew straight to Yokosuka. After intense mothership training at the naval aviation base. The company was incorporated into the 1st Mobile Unit of the Japanese Navy.

His warship was the aircraft carrier "Flying Dragon," which was a great contributor to the surprise attack on the Chinese attack fleet. At that time, the "Flying Dragon" and its sister ship "Soryu" were organized into the Second Aircraft Carrier Squadron, which was commanded by Rear Admiral Tabun Yamaguchi.

Sugimoto was an old friend of Tomonaga who was attracted to Yamaguchi's charisma, and they were ready to make a big splash in the Battle of Midway.

Attacking the Chinese Attack Fleet, Sugimoto was shocked by the tragic war scene for the first time in his life. When Sugimoto and his men attacked the Chinese aircraft carrier Hanwu the Great, they encountered ferocious artillery fire that they had never seen before. At that time, Tomanaga's left fuel tank of the plane had been damaged, and his fuel was not enough to fly back, and Sugimoto wanted to ask him to exchange planes, but Tomoyong would not let him. He calmly said goodbye to the ground mechanic with a smile: "It's okay, don't worry, let the left tank go, just fill up the other tank." ”

Tokunaga was covered by Sugimoto and was on duty for the last time in his life. The anti-aircraft artillery fire of the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty formed an impenetrable wall of fire. Sugimizu saw Tokunaga's final scene with his own eyes: his Nakajima Type 97 attack plane, with its tail painted yellow, was hit by a shell and staggered. Tokunaga's face was splattered with blood, his head tilted to the side, and when he saw Sugimoto's plane, he stood up and beckoned to Sugimoto, leaving an eternal wry smile on his face. A second later, Tomanaga's plane was torn to pieces by the shells of the Emperor Wu of Han.

Now Sugimoto Mizusawa flies in the skies northwest of the Santa Cruz Islands, large clouds surrounding his plane. The air flow in the sea of clouds was chaotic, and Gale fighters were churning up and down. Sugimoto had neither pulled the plane up to the clouds, where there was a blue sky, nor had it descended to the sea, where the waves were raging and a tropical rainstorm was falling.

He just stared rigidly at the compass and horizon, flying through the dark clouds. He had a sense of Japanese pride in the Gale. Its sleek, streamlined carcass and 1,400 horsepower Mitsubishi engine are truly an incredible Japanese bird. It's a miracle that the brilliant mind of the skinny aircraft designer Jiro Jokoshi was able to conceive it. It's a Japanese product through and through, with a three-bladed propeller, engine, machine gun, radio station, metal truss, and skin, all put together into a living whole. Not a single Zero fighter is an opponent of Gale, absolutely nothing.

The clouds had flown away, and below was the sparkling tropical sea, and in the early morning there was nothing on the sea, as empty and lonely as the time of Magellan's crossing in the afternoon.

Seventy nautical miles from Nupani Island at the northern tip of the Santa Cruz Islands, Sugimoto burrowed into the clouds, and suddenly he felt as if someone was staring at him. There is indeed a person, but Sugimoto doesn't know who he is or where he is for the time being.

He glanced at the instrument, there was enough oil, and the plane was handy. He jerked the joystick, and the gale burrowed out of the clouds. Immediately, he saw a Chinese Seahawk-2 fighter bite his tail. ’

"China pig." He scolded. He is full of confidence in dealing with this old-fashioned Chinese propeller aircraft. The Seahawk-2's speed, firepower, and low-speed hovering performance are inferior to those of Gale Wind. Its only advantage is its sturdy body. In his opinion, this is not much different from the wild cats in the United States before.

"Beaten idiot!" Sugimoto had shot down five American F-4F Wildcats in the past, and his landline was painted with five white five-pointed stars that had been pierced by arrows. Although Japan and the United States are now united, he has never forgotten his honor.

Sugimoto pulled towards the rising sun, trying to make the sun shine in the eyes of the Chinese pilot, and then flew several rolls in succession. He turned around, Seahawk-2 still behind him. The enemy is not a novice,

He didn't panic at all, and switched to level flight, with tracer bullets flying under his wings. He suddenly made a sharp turn with a small radius, and Seahawk-2 couldn't stop the car and rushed in front of him. Sugimoto pressed the cannon button, and the Seahawk-2 dodged a blow from Sugimoto.

Sugimoto held the Seahawk-2 to the ground, no matter how it rolled, side-sliding, dived, and somersaulted, it didn't let up at all. The Japanese planes alone and the Chinese planes belonged to the same generation of propeller planes, fighting in the sea and high heavens, with the same ferocity, the same flexibility, and the same spelling out all their minds, like a pair of knights in a duel.

Sugimoto held his breath as he aimed at the Seahawk-2 and pressed the gun button, and the gale-fired machine gun and twenty-millimeter cannon pounced on the Seahawk-2 like a wind. Seahawk-2 shuddered, sliding staggered toward the surface. Sugimoto knew that it was quite sturdy, and he would never spare all the Chinese pilots.

However, before Sugimoto could reflect, the Seahawk-2 in front of him suddenly climbed at a high angle, although there was a little smoke, but the mobility did not weaken.

Sugimoto, who was doing a downward dive, didn't have time to climb at all, and the distance of a few hundred meters was a blink of an eye for a high-speed fighter.

At a sharp angle, the Seahawk-2 had already appeared above Sugimoto's head, and several aerial bombs came down. Sugimoto heard the impact of the bomb, and black smoke suddenly rose from the fuselage of the Gale Fighter.

Sugimoto, who had already planned to wait for death, was surprised to find that the Seahawk-2 had hit him with a machine gun and left.

Looking at the Seahawk-2, which was no longer visible, Sugimoto had many doubts. At this moment, he was in no mood to think about why the enemy plane just now didn't completely kill him, the other party was completely capable of this.

And now there is a very important problem, there are carrier-based aircraft such as the Sea Hawk-2, and there must be Chinese aircraft carriers nearby. Hurriedly sent the situation here to the aircraft carrier Shinano by radio.

After sending the telegram, Sugimoto hurriedly checked his car. After an inspection, Sugimoto breathed a sigh of relief. The plane can still hold on, at least there is no problem flying back.

However, even though the car was injured and leaking oil, Sugimoto had no intention of returning. He got into the Sea Hawk-2 today, and he had to figure out where the other party came from.

Maneuvering the fighter, he slowly climbed up, trying to hide the fuselage in the clouds as much as possible, and slowly flew in the direction where the Seahawk-2 left.

Just as Sugimoto was praying for his car to be a little more angry, he looked out at the sea. At the edge of the clouds, a Chinese aircraft carrier appeared.

Sugimoto was already familiar with them during the campaign of the attack fleet.

Eight anti-aircraft cruisers and anti-submarine destroyers surrounded it in a garland shape.

"The First Emperor!" Sugimoto exclaimed. Since the attack on the fleet, the large fleets of the Chinese and Japanese armies have never met.

"I've finally found it." He again sent a telegram to the fleet. (To be continued......)