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Tsukahara's worries were right, and just as he and Nagumo were discussing tactics, they returned to Guam in vain, and Halsey, who stayed on Wake Island, received reinforcements. The main force, led by Rear Admiral Aubrey Fitch, arrived outside the island and brought an order, and the two fleets were officially merged into the 7th Task Force of the United States Navy.

Two aircraft carriers: USS Lexington, USS Saratoga.

Six battleships: USS Pennsylvania, USS Arizona, USS Nevada, USS Oklahoma and the upcoming arrivals USS Maryland, USS Tennessee.

Seven heavy cruisers: USS Pensacola, USS Salt Lake City, USS Northampton, USS Chester, USS Louisville, USS New Orleans, USS Minneapolis.

Seven light cruisers: USS Brooklyn, USS Philadelphia, USS Phoenix, USS Honolulu, USS Helena, and USS Richmond and USS Detroit, which protected the USS Maryland.

There are also fifteen destroyers, seven large Coast Guard torpedo boats, two supply vessels, and two minesweepers, for a total of forty-eight ships. In terms of total tonnage, Task Force 7 has temporarily surpassed the Chinese Navy's XN21 battle group on Guam.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet finally showed its powerful muscles, and both Roosevelt and Kimmel regarded the Seventh Fleet as the most important force to intervene in the Southwest Pacific, but what made Roosevelt and Halsey depressed was that such a powerful fleet, before it showed its fangs, had to fight a naval battle that it had to fight and did not want to fight.

Wake Island instantly became the center of the entanglement between China and the United States. It was supposed to take half a year, the United States needed to hold on to hope, and China wanted to close the door to Pearl Harbor in and out of the Southwest Pacific. "This shit! Bastard! Yellow-skinned monkeys, bastards. "Halsey is extremely angry, why did you come to provoke us in the United States if you let go of your mortal enemy and didn't fight? It's too much to try to take Wake Island away from yourself!

After the fleet converged, Halsey was still angry, and in front of many officers, the market slang cursed constantly, causing several officers to frown. Of course, a soldier will be foul-mouthed, but there are not many high-ranking soldiers of his level who are still full of foul language. Fortunately, everyone is used to it, anyway, he ignores any etiquette and occasions when he talks about it. At one point, he even publicly said that his flagship had a large amount of whiskey and brandy. And it was still in front of Secretary of the Navy Tuckers to know that the United States has a prohibition law, and alcohol is prohibited on naval ships.

"Teucer, how long will the Maryland and Tennessee be?"

"Calvin, remember?! All reconnaissance planes must take off at five o'clock tomorrow morning, or I will personally stuff you into a urine! ”

"Harry, inform the radar on the island, it's on at four in the morning, the monkeys always like to bark in the early morning."

"Wait, let the reconnaissance plane be half an hour earlier, and the radar an hour earlier. Fighters and bombers are going to be overhauled tonight, and tomorrow I want them all to be in the air. "Halsey is energetic, never say die, and like an aggressive bull. But working under him is terrible. For he is forever giving indeterminate and contradictory commands, and is forever revoking the previous order that has already been given. Just like now, the reconnaissance plane and the radar on the island have just been deployed, and they are all overturned in less than ten minutes, which will always make people tired.

Wake Island must not be allowed to stay, because it is said that this carrier-based aircraft will come down from the sky at any time. So upon the arrival of Rear Admiral Fitch, Halsey immediately set off with the fleet. According to Kimmel's orders, Wake Island must not be lost, so Task Force 7 had to cruise around the island. Halsey chose to move north, as this position was likely to be the largest point for the fleet to move south, so that the fleet could be at the same angle as the air group on Wake Island. But his luck didn't seem to be good today, and at four o'clock in the morning, the Chester and New Orleans reported radar failures, respectively.

At this time, the U.S. Navy had not yet popularized radar, and only four heavy cruisers in the fleet, the USS Northampton, the USS Chester, the USS New Orleans, and the USS Minneapolis, were equipped with CXAM-type naval radars. The CXAM radar is the first generation of US naval radar with a range of 110 km to the air and 37 km to the sea. However, due to the interference of sea surface clutter, the sea observation is often less than 30 kilometers, which is actually the same distance as the naked eye can see during the day. However, Halsey didn't care about the sea, and the naval battles of the Ryukyus and the Marianas proved that the air was the greatest threat. Like China, the early radar failure rate was very high, and the Chinese Navy relied on a large number of aircraft, so it could turn on in batches to monitor the sky without interruption, while the Seventh Task Force now has half of the radar at once, and the air defense effect is much lower.

Halsey was not incompetent, and when he realized that there was a gap in the radar, he immediately sent the Northampton out to the north and acted as a pilot reconnaissance ship, keeping the Minneapolis at the carrier's side.

At five o'clock in the morning, Task Force 7 was ninety-seven nautical miles northeast of Wake Island, and Halsey still insisted that the fleet would emerge from the north. Therefore, in order not to expose the fleet, he also learned from the two sides in the Ryukyu naval battle, and first used land-based reconnaissance planes on Wake Island.

Although the United States entered the war late, it does not mean that it rests on its laurels; in fact, since the war began, the US military has continued to draw on the experience of Europe and Asia and conduct various exercises. As the two largest aircraft carrier battles in the world at present, the Ryukyus and Mariana have greatly benefited the U.S. Navy. The problem is that without direct involvement, this benefit is always specious, because China will not be kind enough to tell the US Navy about its specific tactics and experience, let alone the US Navy, so the US Navy will not be able to grasp the most core things.

Three PBYs and four B-17 bombers, which temporarily served as reconnaissance planes, left Wake Island and fanned northward to reconnoitre, while 42 Zero Fighters and 16 96 Land Attack planes transferred from Truk also took off from the Eniwetok Atoll in the south of the island. At the same time, Tsukahara ordered the carrier-based aircraft to prepare for an attack!

"This shit, is the intelligence wrong? Harry, turn left 45 degrees, full speed. The fact that he had not found the fleet made Halsey a little anxious, and ordered to turn at full speed, ready to change positions. But the captain of the Lexington, Colonel Frederick Sherman, immediately realized the problem and shouted: "General, the speed of the battleship is only twenty knots. ”

Before the North Carolina class, American battleships had a common problem, that is, the armor was thick but slow. Of course, the United States is not an important surname that does not know speed. But at this time, the two North Carolina-class ships were not yet in service, and the four South Dakota-class ones would not be in service until next year, so Rear Admiral Fitch was not on the aircraft carrier formation at all. This is also the most embarrassing thing for Britain and the United States at the moment, having to watch the battleship Bismarck and two Scharnhorst-class battle cruisers wreak havoc in the Atlantic.

The problem of battleships not being able to keep up with aircraft carrier formations has long been repeatedly exposed in the "Fleet Problem" exercise, so the US Navy likes to separate battleships and aircraft carriers in formation. Halsey also used this method, allowing Rear Admiral Fitch to move alone to the northeast with four battleships and two heavy cruisers and three light cruisers, towing to the right rear of the aircraft carrier, at a distance of forty nautical miles.

Halsey had a fiery temper, but was actually very cautious, and this distance was exactly within a ten-minute radius of carrier-based aircraft, and he could quickly retreat to Hawaii if something happened. But he didn't know at this time that the battleship Yamato, four Kongo-class battleships, and two Tone-class heavy cruisers led by Nagumo were crashing head-on with Rear Admiral Fitch at a speed of twenty-six knots!

Without waiting for its own reconnaissance planes to spot the enemy, the Wake Island radar station was the first to raise the alarm, and a large number of enemy planes appeared in the southwest of the island. It was the air group that came from the Eniwetok Atoll, led by Hiroyoshi Nishizawa and Toshio Ota. Later, it was learned that the information obtained by Shen Honglie was wrong, and in fact there were no P-40 fighters on Wake Island, but 36 F4F "Wildcat" fighters and 24 B-17 "Flying Fortress" bombers. As in the Battle of the Ryukyus, the U.S. Navy was riddled with mistakes when a B-17 crashed off the runway into the Wake Island lagoon during takeoff, and then Wake Island recalled four B-17s that were reconnoitring north to participate in bombing missions.

Halsey actually agreed to Wake Island's request, and in order to make up for the loss of 4 reconnaissance planes, 12 more SBD reconnaissance/bomber planes were taken off to replace them. But in this way, the 7th Task Force lost a full twenty minutes! Later, it was learned that if one of the B-17s could continue to fly forward for ten minutes, they would be able to see Nagumo's battleship formation, and perhaps the naval battle of Wake Island would be completely changed.

But there are no ifs in war, and in the case of equal strength, whoever makes fewer mistakes will be the ultimate winner. Although he had lost a large number of excellent pilots, he had a lot of experience. Nagumo did not know that he had escaped a catastrophe, and after receiving the signal from the Eniwetok Air Force, he ordered two fake aircraft carriers to leave the formation and put on an offensive posture at high speed towards Wake Island due south, and also arranged 10 escort Zero Combat and 6 Zero water reconnaissance planes to disguise themselves as fighter formations patrolling over the aircraft carrier.

At this time, Tsukahara and Halsey were still standing still, because neither side's reconnaissance planes had yet to detect each other.

At 9:40 a.m., the air battle on Wake Island broke out.

42 Zero and 36 F4F Night Cats encountered forty kilometers southwest of Wake Island. The morale of the American pilots was high, but they soon gradually wore out, and seven were shot down in just ten minutes. In fact, in terms of fighter surname Neng, the Zero Combat is slightly better than the F4F "Wildcat", and the victory lies in the ability to circle, climb and maneuver, but the latter adheres to the typical American tradition of thick armor and strong protection, and if they are familiar with each other, they should be comparable. But the American pilots did not understand the Zero War at this time, and the Eniwetok Air Brigade was not simple! Hiroyoshi Nishizawa and Toshio Ota themselves are elite pilots trained by Yumoto and have thousands of flight hours. After the Battle of the Ryukyus, due to the loss of a large number of pilots, they were transferred back to the mainland to replenish the Akagi and Kaga, participated in the Battle of the Mariana with the two ships, and also shot down Lightning fighters. The aircraft carrier was sunk before it landed on Saipan and retreated to Truk before Chen Shiying's night attack.

The other pilots are also like them, all from the four aircraft carriers of the Battle of the Marianas, and in the four months since October, they have repeatedly fought against the Chinese Navy's lightning and air force Tianquan, not to mention rich experience, and have also learned a lot of combat experience in China's sea and air. Compared with Lightning and Tianquan, the F4F "Wildcat" is undoubtedly far behind, which is like an infantry facing artillery tanks every day, and suddenly encountering a guerrilla with only a few rifles.

On the contrary, although US pilots have trained hard and improved their tactics based on the experience of the Eurasian battlefield, they have not personally participated in them.

After Hiroshi Nishizawa shot down the fourth F4F Wildcat, there were only 13 enemy aircraft left in the sky still struggling. He looked at the fuel gauge, and at this point it was impossible for him to fly back, so he simply forgot to return to the ship completely, and pursued the B-17 bomber with a push. However, the B-17's durability was really helpless for the pilots, and they almost ran out of bullets before shooting down 5 planes.

The defeat of the F4F "Wildcat" caused the gate of Wake Island to be opened, and 16 96 land raiders immediately bombed the airfield and facilities on the island. However, the US military was still very well prepared, and in addition to not expecting the fighters to lose so quickly, the anti-aircraft fire on the island was very perfect, so 96 land attacks were constantly shot down. Hiroyoshi Nishizawa wanted to help, but at this time he received a signal from the flagship aircraft carrier Shozuru.

"Abandon Wake Island, and immediately join up with the Xianghe and Zuihe to refuel."

Although he was unwilling, after receiving the order, he still took the remaining 33 Zero Battles, gave up supporting the 96 Land Battle, dispersed a few lone F4F "Wildcats", and accelerated towards the aircraft carrier.

The reason Tsukahara asked them to retreat back to the aircraft carrier was simple, because Halsey was exposed!

At 10:30, an SBD reconnaissance/bomber that replaced the B-17 reported the discovery of two "aircraft carriers" with obvious "through deck" characteristics under the protection of the destroyer. But this SBD failed to reduce its altitude, and it was surrounded and suppressed by four Zeros and lost contact. With fighter escort or "through to the deck," Halsey judged that this must be an "aircraft carrier," so he immediately ordered the group of attack planes that had long been ready to set off.

The Lexington class, like the Benkaga, was converted from the hull of a battle cruiser before the "naval holiday", with a standard displacement of 38,746 tons and a full load displacement of 43,400 tons. This time, 39 F4F Wildcats, 40 SBD Dreadnought dive bombers and 21 TBD Ravager torpedo aircraft were carried on board.

Aside from the 12 reconnaissance SBDs, Halsey still has 110 attack aircraft in his hands. So while recalling the reconnaissance SBD, he simultaneously sent two waves of attack aircraft with a total of 88 aircraft (28 F4F Wildcats, 42 SBDs, 18 TBDs). He did not release all the attack planes because the surviving F4F "Wildcat" and B-17 on Wake Island reported that the fighter did not fly to the location where the aircraft carrier was found. He realized that there were still two aircraft carriers to the west! Therefore, after the two waves of attack aircraft left, all the remaining 36 attack planes and 16 F4F "Wildcats" were organized into the third attack wave to attack the two aircraft carriers in the west, and it was also decided to wait for the recovery of 11 reconnaissance SBDs before they were also put into the west.

After the three waves of attack aircraft left, there were only 16 escorts and 18 F4Fs on the deck waiting to take off and intercept over the aircraft carrier, so he ordered the fleet to prepare for air defense, and also let the battleship formation accelerate and approach. But ten minutes later, for some unknown reason, he canceled the order to let the battleship formation come over, and actually asked Rear Admiral Fitch to lead the fleet to the northwest to prepare for battle. Later, according to his own words, he thought that the battleship should be in the middle of the two aircraft carriers, that is, in the northwest corner, because he was worried that the Kongo-class battleship would use the high speed to approach the aircraft carrier, so he ordered it like this. Moreover, at that time, the Maryland and Tennessee were already fifty nautical miles to the east, which could fully protect the right flank of Rear Admiral Fitch.

But in any case, the decision was wrong! Because judging from the trajectory of the battleships on both sides, after Rear Admiral Fitch moved to the northwest, he happened to expose the right flank to the guns of Nagumo, who had not yet been discovered. Although the Maryland and Tennessee were protected on the right flank from the course, the battleships were faster, and even the Yamato could run 26 knots, so a large gap was formed between the two formations.

Less than fifteen minutes after Halsey's attack plane group left, the Yamato reconnaissance plane also discovered two Lexingtons and four battleships moving northwest, and after Nagumo got the news, he first asked Tsukahara to send Zero to protect it, and then asked the four King Kong to speed up to intercept the American battleships, and he led the Yamato and two Tone-class heavy cruisers to follow behind, but the Yamato reconnaissance plane also did not find the approaching Maryland and Tennessee.

In view of the disadvantage that the fighters exposed in the last two naval battles were inferior to the other side and the number was insufficient, this time it came out, and Tsukahara readjusted the configuration of carrier-based aircraft. Each Canglong-class ship carries 26 Zero Battles, 24 99 Ship Explosions, and 18 97 Ship Attackers. The two Xianghe-class ships are 30 Zero Combat aircraft, 30 99 Naval Explosion Aircraft, and 28 97 Naval Attack Aircraft, with emphasis on strengthening fighter planes, maintaining naval explosive aircraft, and appropriately reducing naval torpedo aircraft. Although this will reduce the aircraft carrier's attack capability, it will greatly improve its ability to defend itself and fight for air supremacy. And he also took advantage of the four-month adjustment period to add a large number of 25-mm anti-aircraft guns to the four aircraft carriers, although this modification is only an emergency and not thorough, and the layout is even more disorganized, but it does increase the density of firepower a little.

"Follow us and sink them!"

Toru Iwamoto, who had participated in the Battle of the Ryukyus and the Battle of the Marianas, and shot down a total of four lightning bolts, walked past each attack aircraft with a white belt, and walked past each attack aircraft with an extremely grim face, and after shaking his fist and encouraging his partners in the cockpit, he got into his own zero battle and closed the cockpit fiercely. "Take off!" With a loud shout, 146 attack planes formed three formations, and under the protection of 44 Zeros, all rushed towards the two Lexington-class aircraft carriers! Subsequently, the fourth batch of 38 Zero Fighters also rushed towards the American battleship formation with 42 attack aircraft.

Some people want to ask, the four aircraft carriers in this book only have a total of 112 zero battles, 82 are sent at once, and 12 are still protecting the Nagumo formation, and the remaining 18 are not enough to protect the four aircraft carriers. Here Tsukahara used a small trick, and the back hand was the 33 Zero Battles of Hiroyoshi Nishizawa and others who were returning. As mentioned earlier, Hiroshi Nishizawa and they all participated in the Battle of the Mariana Sea and had experience in landing on aircraft carriers, so Tsukahara planned to use them to strengthen air defense capabilities from the beginning. And he didn't expect that the American F4F "Wildcat" was much worse than the Chinese Lightning, and there were 33 left. The only thing to worry about is that Nishizawa has been flying for two hours, and their physical strength has seriously decreased, and it is difficult to say whether they can play the heavy responsibility of protecting the four aircraft carriers.

Tsukahara's excellent aircraft carrier tactics and carrier-based aircraft distribution capabilities are fully displayed at this moment, and his deep understanding of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft, and the speed at which he can learn from failures, are by no means worse than any aircraft carrier commander in the world. And after he took over the First Air Fleet, he also reused Takeo Shibata and Tabun Yamaguchi, who were originally marginalized. If it weren't for the rapid surprise attack of the Chinese Navy, which resulted in the loss of six aircraft carriers in less than a month, I am afraid that there would have been many twists and turns in the Chinese Navy's death.

At 11:05, Hiroyoshi Nishizawa led 33 Zeros to shake off the pursuers and landed on four aircraft carriers. It took only half an hour for the naval aircrew to refill the plane, load the bullets, and the pilot, who was munching on chocolate and cod liver oil, did not get off the plane at all, and was pushed back to the take-off line to wait for orders.

Ten minutes later, the 10 Zeros protecting the two "aircraft carriers" encountered the first group of attack planes in Halsey, and in the face of 28 escort F4F wildcats, in order to attract the American attack planes, the pilots gave up their own safety and braved the fierce fire of the F4F to attack the attack planes with all their might. In their outfall, 9 American attack aircraft were shot down before entering the air defense circle of the fleet. But their number was too small after all, so the remaining 51 US attack planes rushed to the two "aircraft carriers".

The sbd's whizzing as it dived was sharp and piercing, and bombs continued to explode around the two maneuvering "aircraft carriers" and escort ships. As in the Battle of the Ryukyus, the US pilots who participated in the war for the first time did not show their strength at all, and a dozen bombs and torpedoes did not damage the two "aircraft carriers" until the first bomb hit the bow of the target ship 10 minutes later, allowing the two "aircraft carriers" to instantly reveal their true colors. The rapid spread from the bow to the surface of the stern of the ship made the American pilots stunned.

"Damn! We were fooled! Get out of here, get out of here! Lieutenant Colonel Oult, who commanded the attack group, immediately realized that something was wrong, but by this time 25 attack aircraft had already dropped bombs and torpedoes.

At this time, the Lexington sent a message that the reconnaissance planes had discovered the battleship formation in the north, so he decisively gave up the attack, let the planes without bombs go back first, and he led the remaining 23 F4F Wildcats and 35 attack planes to fly to Nangumo. But the problem is, the Lexington did not tell him that Rear Admiral Fitch's four battleships were also to the north. So when they spotted Rear Admiral Fitch's battleship formation, they almost dropped the bomb! When it was confirmed that it was his own people, the third attack wave of Tsukahara 243 also rushed to the sky above the fleet because of the close distance!

38 Zeros instantly spotted the F4F "Wildcat" and attack aircraft swarm hovering over the American battleship, so they rushed to each other without hesitation! The F4F "Wildcat" also found the Zero War, but the problem is that there are still 42 99 ship explosions and 97 ship attacks behind the Zero War. Considering the safety of the battleships, the American pilots had to attack the attack group first. Similarly, the Zero War pilots also knew that the Yamato, which symbolizes their nation, was not far away, so they also gave up competing with the F4F and went all out to hunt and kill the US attack planes. The 138 warplanes of both sides strangled fiercely over the four American battleships, and the tragic battle scene made many sailors on the American battleships unbearable to look at it anymore.

At the same time as the plane appeared, Rear Admiral Fitch secretly guessed that this battle might be dangerous, so he ordered to evade it immediately, but there were still quite a few attack planes that broke through the blockade of the F4F "Wildcat" and rushed into the air defense circle of the fleet.

Compared with the Chinese fleet, which has extremely dense firepower, the anti-aircraft firepower of the current US fleet can only be said to be slightly higher than that of the original one, and it has not reached the level that the Ryukyus and the Mariana can deal with forty or fifty attack planes in one go. For those elite pilots who had participated in the Battle of the Ryukyus and had seen the perverted anti-aircraft fire of the Chinese fleet, there was actually a feeling of walking in the garden at this moment. In less than five minutes of engagement, the battleship Pennsylvania was the first to eat an 800-kilogram aerial bomb.

In order to ensure that one blow is fatal, Tsukahara really racked his brains this time and brought all the 800 kg armor-piercing shells that were not in the country to the fleet. As an old battleship, the Pennsylvania's horizontal armor could not stop 800 kilograms of bombs, and after the bombs hit the amidships, they burrowed into the power equipment compartment, resulting in the loss of 70 percent of the power. Seeing that their battleship was hit, the American pilots were even more anxious, especially the attack aircraft group led by Lieutenant Colonel Oult, who saw that the other side was not far to the northwest, but was chased by 38 Zeros, and planes were constantly shot down. The tension of the first battle, which was exactly the same as the Battle of the Ryukyus, was a disastrous blow to the American army, and the more experienced fighters continued to break through the interception of the F4F "Wildcats" and fired bombs and torpedoes one after another at Rear Admiral Fitch's fleet.

At the same time that the Pennsylvania ate the bomb, Halsey, who learned that he had been fooled, had no time to adjust and was also attacked. The attack came from a land attack by 11 planes that had bombed Wake Island. In the face of the bulky and poor self-defense firepower, the F4F "Wildcat" was quite relaxed, but they didn't know that in fact, these bombers didn't even have a bomb, and it was completely Tsukahara throwing the bait to drag Halsey. A scene that surprised the US military appeared, in order to drag down the US escort fighters, two bombers who knew that they were lifeless actually dived at high speed and rushed straight to the aircraft carrier! Although it did not hit the aircraft carrier in the end, it did crash into the heavy cruiser USS Salt Lake City to the left of the Saratoga. More than a ton of gasoline and the impact of the impact buried the Salt Lake City, and within a few minutes the entire deck was filled with smoke, and the captain and sailors struggled to extinguish the fire, but they could not save it, and finally had to give the order to abandon the ship.

The madness of the pilots made the American sailors feel cold, and then they knew that the war was not as easy as they imagined! After two tragic sea and air battles and heavy losses, Yuben did not break the wall with a push, but through the tempering of war, he became a bloodthirsty and terrible beast. At this time, the Seventh Task Force was like a young master who wore gold and silver, learned a little kung fu, and had a lot of thugs. And Tsukahara is simply the bandit who has been beaten to the point that there is only one rotten life left, racking his brains to get a black hand, what tripping horses, golden soup triangular nails, iron finger sleeves, etc.

To make matters worse, the black smoke provided the coordinates for Tetsuzo Iwamoto, who had been searching for an aircraft carrier. At the same time that the Minneapolis heavy patrol radar issued a warning, the first attack aircraft group, consisting of 30 Zero fighters and 66 attack aircraft, was already rushing towards it with murderous vigour.

In the face of the mistake, Halsey ordered 34 F4F "Wildcats" to intercept them with all their might, and at the same time took back the reconnaissance, and the last 11 SBDs that had completed the replenishment of the bombs were sent to the west to attack Tsukahara's aircraft carrier.

At this time, Tsukahara's two Shozuru-class aircraft carriers had also been attacked by the third wave of the remaining B-17s and Halsey on Wake Island. Hiroshi Nishizawa and others, who took off from Eniwetok Atoll and landed on four aircraft carriers, became the saviors of this sea battle. Originally, the number of Halsey's third attack wave was insufficient, with only 16 F4F and 36 attack aircraft, and the quality of experience did not prevail, so it had to face a desperate interception of 51 Zeros at once, and the result can be imagined.

In the end, only 12 U.S. attack planes completed the bomb drop, but the bomb still hit the bow of the Mizuzuru. Luckily, the bomb only penetrated the open bow before exploding, blowing up the bow flight deck with only minor injuries inside. Tsukahara immediately sent eight Zero Battles and destroyers to protect the Mizuru and retreat north alone, but this order buried the Mizuzuru.

Compared to Tsukahara, Halsey is really miserable!

Although the F4F "Wildcat" was very heroic, and the American pilots were also full of anger from the tragedy of the Salt Lake City, their opponents were also red-eyed, knowing that they could not win the battle and the country would perish, and they had no way out to be forced into a corner!

When Tetsuzo Iwamoto led 30 Zeros to do his best to block the F4F Wildcats rushing towards the attack aircraft group, the pilots of the attack planes also showed the accurate hit rate at the beginning of the war. In less than twenty minutes, the Lexington had four bombs and two torpedoes, and the Saratoga was also hit by three bombs and one torpedo. Without waiting for Halsey to recover his strength, the next two waves of 14 Zeros reappeared over the aircraft carrier with 86 ship explosions and ship attacks.

At 1:35 p.m., Tsukahara's first three waves of attack aircraft completely buried the Lexington and Saratoga at the cost of losing 37 aircraft! In total, seventeen bombs and nine torpedoes hit two ships. Even if the battlecruiser is refitted, even if the American [***] ship has always attached importance to protection, it is impossible to withstand such huge damage. Ten minutes later, the Lexington leaned first, and then the Saratoga stalled bow and sank rapidly. In addition to the two aircraft carriers and the Salt Lake City, which had been abandoned by bomber ramming, five light and heavy cruisers, the USS Pensacola, the USS Minneapolis, the USS Phoenix, the USS Honolulu, and the USS Helena, were also damaged to varying degrees. Four of them, the Pensacola, the Minneapolis, the Honolulu, and the Helena, sank or caught fire one after another, and in the face of the tragic situation of the fleet, Halsey and the officers of the Seventh Fleet had no choice but to order the ship to abandon and let their destroyers fire torpedoes at the carriers and cruisers, which could no longer be saved.

At 10:00 p.m., there was not a single fighter plane in sight on Major General Fitch's side. The US attack aircraft were almost completely annihilated, and only 17 F4F "Wildcats" survived. Knowing that the two aircraft carriers could not be saved, the "Wildcat", which had run out of fuel, had to retreat to Wake Island. And after relying on the heroism and thick armor of the pilots, who barely blocked the attack wave, Rear Admiral Fitch also knew that if he did not flee immediately, he was afraid that the entire fleet would be explained here. So he ruthlessly abandoned the Pennsylvania, which was badly damaged and was already less than 15 knots, and let it break through on its own, and led the remaining three battleships and five cruisers to the east at full speed, trying to join the Maryland and the Tennessee, and then retreat to Pearl Harbor together.

But before the Maryland could be seen, four Kong-class ships had already appeared on the retreating channel.

"Fire!"

At the same time that the captain of the Kongo, Yorizo Tanaka, ordered to open fire, the USS Maryland and the USS Tennessee were already quietly approaching his right flank. But the battleship Yamato also narrowed the distance with the Kongo class at 26 knots.

At the same time, the last 11 SBD dive bombers sent by Halsey learned of the sinking of the aircraft carrier, and faced with the threat that if the attack continued, it would not be possible to ensure a return to Wake Island, Captain Presey and all the pilots decided to find the enemy and continue to drop bombs! Their bravery has been rewarded.

At 2:30, retreating alone, only eight Zero and several destroyers escorted the aircraft carrier Zuizuru, appeared under their wings