Before talking about the fatal blow of the US naval air force to Nagumo Tadaichi's First Fleet, it is necessary to retrace the decision of the Americans.

On the morning of June 4, when the first rays of light appeared on the horizon in the Pacific Ocean, Fletcher and Spruance were anxiously awaiting the reconnaissance report. Katarina, who took off from Midway, has no updated information other than discovering Nobutake Kondo to the west. However, neither of these rear admirals believed that the main force of the Japanese fleet was in the direction in which Nobutake Kondo appeared, so they could only continue to wait patiently.

Of course, as mentioned earlier, at that moment Fletcher made a decision to send ten SBDs to search northeast of Midway. The situation was that Fletcher's Task Force XVII was sailing 15 nautical miles northeast of Spruance's TASK Force XVII.

At around six o'clock, the Strawberry 5 on Midway Island finally sent the first crucial piece of information: "A large number of enemy planes have been discovered!" ”

Spruance later admitted: "I was relieved that since Strawberry 5 was able to spot a large number of enemy planes at that location, it means that the Japanese were in that direction!" ”

Yes, at this time, the Strawberry 5 had not yet discovered the specific number and exact location of Nagumo Tadaichi's fleet, but it said that the direction of the attacking enemy aircraft was 320 degrees and 150 nautical miles from Midway. At that time, Spruance immediately ordered the chief of staff, Max. Colonel Browning: "Send all the planes to attack the enemy aircraft carriers as soon as possible!" ”

At about the same time, Fletcher made a similar decision: "There is only one way to deal with the Japanese, and that is to attack them and fight them hard." We cannot afford to miss this opportunity. It is necessary to strike first. With lightning speed. Attack with the power of a thunderbolt! ”

Judging from the determination of the commanders on both sides, it is not at the same level, the Americans are playing with their lives, while Nagumo Tadaichi is still wasting time with his mother-in-law.

Not long after the two commanders of the U.S. Navy made up their minds, Midway returned the most important report of the Strawberry Five: "Two aircraft carriers, two battleships, 180 nautical miles at a bearing of 320 degrees, and a course of 135 degrees." Speed 25 knots! ”

Let's put it this way, Nagumo Tadaichi's fleet was about 200 nautical miles west-southwest of the U.S. fleet. Two hundred nautical miles is 370 kilometers, which may seem like a small distance today, but back then, it was a bit awkward.

Yes, a little embarrassing for the Americans. Specifically, it makes the TBD look very embarrassing, this terrible torpedo aircraft has a maximum speed of only 330 kilometers per hour, and the range when carrying a Mark 13 torpedo is only 700 kilometers, which means that unless the TBD flies at high altitude all the way, it can barely fly one round trip. If you want to attack immediately. Then it is likely that it will be impossible for these TBDs to return to the mothership, and it is not an easy decision to let the pilot drift on the surface.

Fletcher was quick to make a decision in an emergency. He signaled to Spruance: "Sail southwest, attack as soon as you find out the exact position of the enemy ships!" Spruance quickly followed through on this order, and although he was apprehensive, his chief of staff, Colonel Browning, helped him to resolve.

Speaking of this Colonel Browning, he is actually Halsey's chief of staff, and it is known that Halsey recommended Spruance to take over as commander of Task Force 17, so this chief of staff was also left to Spruance.

Brown is a great man in Halsey's eyes, but in the eyes of others, this girl is too fucked-up to be an old turtle. Later, Spruance quipped: "In the Pacific War, everyone hated him to the core!" Of course, at the same time the admiral also admitted: "Browning is quick-witted!" ”

Browning was a specialist in professional aviation, and Spruance, who was born as a cruiser commander, did not have. At that time, Browning estimated that the Japanese attack aircraft would probably be able to complete the attack mission and return to the mothership around 9 a.m. (the judgment was basically accurate), and it was unlikely that Nagumo Tadaichi would have changed course before that (otherwise Tomanaga's group would not have been able to find the mothership). He advises Spruance to attack before the enemy aircraft carrier completes its recovery operations, preferably immediately!

"I feel that it is important to pre-empt Nagumo Tadaichi before launching a second attack, so as to avoid further damage to Midway and ensure our own safety," Browning suggested. ”

This time Spruance did not drop the chain, and soon decided to let TBD risk his death, prioritizing the fight against the enemy with all his might. However, the American TBD pilots at that time did not feel that there was anything wrong with letting them risk their lives. For example, the captain of the VT-8 squadron of the Hornet, John Brown. Rear Admiral Waldron, he insisted on an immediate attack.

At that time, he gave his men his final pre-war instructions: "I do not believe that the Japanese will continue to attack Midway." As soon as the Japanese discovered our reconnaissance plane, they immediately turned around and turned against us. And our fleet is completely within the effective strike radius of the enemy. Guys, we have to strike first, our fleet will be safe only if we take out the Japanese, and it's all up to us! ”

When a pilot asked how to find the Japanese fleet, who did not know the exact location of the fleet. The squadron leader confidently replied: "Guys, trust my instincts and just fly with me!" ”

Instinctively, this may sound like nonsense, but it's a stalk, because Waldron has always told his men that he has one-eighth Indian ancestry, which gives him superior perception and can lead them to all their goals.

However, at this time, the Americans still have a lot of troubles, the first of which is that the escort fighters are really limited, each American aircraft carrier has only 25 to 27 fighters, the number of these fighters is too small, and the fleet air defense must be taken into account, so the number of escorts that can be sent out to escort the offensive forces is quite limited.

At that time, the VF-6 squadron of the Enterprise had only 10 Wildcats that could take off to escort them, and how many attack aircraft did they have to cover? 33 SBDs and 14 TBDs! And the cruising altitude of the dive bomber and the torpedo aircraft is not at all the same, the cruising altitude of the SBD is higher, and the TBD is much lower. How to juggle two different fleets at the same time becomes a big problem!

At that time, the VF-6 squadron leader James Brown. Captain Gray with VT-6 Combat Staff Officer Arthur Gray. Captain Erie jointly agreed on a method of contact. Captain Gray will strive to fly at an altitude that can provide protection for both types of attack aircraft. If the torpedo machine is attacked by a zero fight. The VT-6 squadron called out to Gray: "Jem come down!" ”

Such an arrangement seems reasonable, since it is much easier for Gray's F4F-4 fighter to dive to the combat altitude of a torpedo plane than to climb to the combat altitude of a dive bomber (the climb of the Wildcat is indeed so-so).

However, the situation was completely unexpected, and the torpedo planes of the US army actually attacked alone without protection, and naturally the whole army was annihilated. And from this point of view, the Red Navy was much stronger than the US Navy at that time, first of all, the Red Navy had more fighters, in addition to the fighters that parachuted the fleet. A considerable number of cover attack aircraft units can also be allocated. Secondly, the Red Navy had only one attack aircraft, there was no difference in flight performance, the only difference was whether to put a bomb or a torpedo in the magazine (of course, it is indeed a problem that the Ro-2 is not outstanding in all aspects, but it is basically enough. ）

At around 7 o'clock, both aircraft carriers of the 16th Task Force began to sail against the wind and began aviation operations, and by 7:55 a.m., the Hornet had completed its aviation operations and moved closer to the Enterprise. In about an hour, the two aircraft carriers flew 116 warplanes.

At this time, I am afraid that some comrades will have questions. Why is it just Task Force 16 doing its job, and what is Fletcher's Task Force 17 doing? Why not attack all together?

Fletcher's idea was actually quite interesting, and he ordered Spruance to attack immediately, but at the same time left the Yorktown as a reserve. The reason was that he believed that the previous reconnaissance report of the Strawberry 5 only mentioned the discovery of two Japanese aircraft carriers, but with the strength of the Japanese Navy at that time, it was impossible to send only two aircraft carriers to Midway Island to fight.

Fletcher believed that the enemy still had aircraft carriers undetected, and that the role of the Yorktown was to attack Yorktown once the enemy's remaining aircraft carriers were discovered. In fact, Fletcher was frightened by the Battle of the Coral Sea, when he preemptively sent all the attack aircraft to attack the Xiangfeng, and as a result, his fleet was completely exposed to the attack of the Shohe and Zuihe. As a smart person, he believes that he must eat a trench and grow wise.

It's just that from the perspective of latecomers, Fletcher's way of growing up and being wise is a bit of something, because this time his deliberate reservation has caused a big disaster! In fact, Nagumo Tadaichi's four aircraft carriers were grouped together and concentrated a wave of all-out attacks, and they might not let go of the Tenryu. If four aircraft carriers were taken out in one wave, Yorktown would naturally not be damaged twice in a row and finally let the submarine sneak attack succeed.

However, Fletcher chose to hold back, which led to the momentum of the first wave of attacks being weakened, giving Yamaguchi a chance. Of course, this can't be entirely blamed on Fletcher, it's understandable to be cautious from his point of view, and his aircraft carrier has also released ten SBDs for reconnaissance before, waiting for these planes to return and then attack in waves.

Of course, in all fairness, the decision was problematic, and Fletcher was so badly lucky. How so? The future admiral was the enemy of the American aircraft carriers, losing the USS Lexington and seriously damaging Yorktown in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway, the USS Enterprise in the Battle of the East Solomon, and then Saratoga being wounded by a submarine during the Guadalcanal cruise.

In the words of Admiral Kim: "This man is too unlucky to go to the front line to command the battle!" ”

To get back to the point, at about 8:15, Spruance, who had just finished his aviation operations, received bad news, and the heavy patrol of the Northampton reported to him: "An enemy plane has been spotted, with an azimuth of 185 degrees and a distance of 30 nautical miles, and the aircraft is a single-engine twin-pontoon seaplane!" ”

It was clear that this was the Type 95 scout that the Japanese Tone had taken off, which made Spruance realize that the position of his fleet had been exposed, and he was very worried that the advantage of surprise victory had been lost. It's just that it's too late to think about it, the attack cluster has set sail, and the only thing he can do is pray that his boys will have a little luck.

Spruance envisioned a way of fighting in which fighters covered torpedo planes and dive bombers in tandem, so he sent a huge swarm of 116 aircraft. Unified by Captain Stein Earp. Led by Lieutenant Commander Lin. It's just that at this time, Nagumo Tadaichi also began to change the course of the fleet. 9:17 a.m. The Akagi turned 70 degrees to sail. Turning to the US task force, it was very funny that the US reconnaissance planes had been observing the movements of the Japanese fleet, but they had not informed their own fleet of this important information!

After the war, Admiral J.G. Forts, Jr., the aviation operations staff officer of the Hornet, complained with resentment: "We have not been able to get sufficient intelligence support from our own land-based forces, which has caused quite undeserved losses!" ”

So when the Hornet's dive bombers and fighters arrived in the intended airspace, Nagumo Tadaichi's fleet was not found at all. And this day is not beautiful, in the middle of the flight, because suddenly overcast. Waldren's TBD and Lieutenant Colonel Lin's SBD soon lost contact.

In order to search for friendly planes and the enemy's fleet, Lieutenant Colonel Hayashi, who was in the middle of the command, formed the planes into a reconnaissance formation, which was understandable at the time, but there were problems. Because to maintain a reciting formation in a row, it is necessary to constantly adjust the throttle, and each adjustment of the throttle inevitably consumes more gasoline. To make matters worse, Lieutenant Colonel Hayashi was also unlucky, and he didn't find Nagumo Tadaichi's fleet after making a big circle around the sea, so he had no choice but to return to the Hornet with his boys.

It was not only this Lieutenant Colonel Lin who had bad luck, but also another Robert Lam. The 13 SBDs led by Major Johnson had even worse luck. They also failed to find the Japanese fleet, and flew around and flew over Midway. Due to the lack of understanding of the correct identification of friend or foe signals. To show that it was his own, he ordered the bomb to be thrown into the sea. However, at this time, the artillerymen on Midway Island had been nervous by the Japanese planes, misjudged this friendly signal, and immediately launched a fierce attack on their formation.

The pilots of the Hornet were indeed unlucky, except for the dive bombers who did not find the Japanese fleet, the fighter units were even more miserable, and the long search and escort ran out of their fuel, and then all of them made a forced landing on the sea. Squadron Leader Mitchell, his operations staff and another lieutenant were able to share two life rafts and an emergency ration before they were rescued by a PBY after four days and 20 hours of drifting at sea (during which they also encountered sharks).

Remember that Major Waldron, who had one-eighth Indian ancestry? I have to say that sometimes this talent bonus is really incredible, when the other comrades on the Hornet were all blind, only this one relied on his talent and intuition to find the correct position of Nagumo Zhongyi's fleet!

"We swooped down on the Japanese fleet as if Waldron had a rope tied to the enemy ship!" George. Admiral Guy recalled the scene.

The members of the VT-8 squadron are not experienced in combat at all, such as the captain Guy above, who was a student at the Agricultural Mechanics Academy before going to Pensacola for training at the Naval Flight Academy. Takeoff from the Hornet that morning was the first time in his life that he had taken off from an aircraft carrier with a torpedo, and according to his own recollections: "I have never seen anyone else do this." It can be seen that there were still problems in the training of carrier-based aircraft pilots in the US Navy at that time.

At 9:18 a.m., the Tsukuma spotted the torpedo planes, and it was at this time that Captain Tomanaga's last plane landed on the deck. At that time, the Tsukuma immediately released two plumes of smoke as a barrier, and immediately began firing into the air. Immediately afterwards, the Akagi also spotted the torpedo planes and began to evade them, in Minoru Genda's words: "The enemy planes are like a flock of water birds flying from the lake in the distance." ”

Captain Guy was anxious to attack quickly, while Waldron did what he thought was more important, and in a limited time he quickly telegraphed Spruance the location and formation of the enemy fleet. It is a pity that this important telegram Spruance did not receive due to the distance and the fact that the TBD flew too low.

Then Waldron began to attack, he originally wanted to attack the Akagi, but under the siege and interception of Zero Battle, he couldn't do it at all, so he had no choice but to attack the one in the middle of the three aircraft carriers. According to Guy's estimates, there were about 35 Zero battles attacking them, and the anti-aircraft guns of the Japanese ships also opened heavy fire.

Although the Japanese claimed that an American plane had been shot down, Guy certainly did not have any TBDs hit by anti-aircraft guns, and his plane was the only one that approached the target and came within range of enemy anti-aircraft artillery, and most of the remaining TBDs were shot down by intensive zero battles before they could drop torpedoes (including Squadron Leader Waldren).

A torpedo plane pounced on the Akagi, seemingly trying to hit the bridge with a bomb. Ryunosuke Kusaka recalled, "At the time, I thought it was over, but luckily he didn't hit the bridge, but plunged headlong into the sea!" ”

Obviously, the torpedo plane that Ryunosuke Kusaka saw was the one piloted by the only surviving Captain Guy in history. Guy later recalled: "The squadron leader's plane left fuel tank caught fire, and he stood up, desperately trying to break free from the blazing cockpit......"

Waldren's squadron just disappeared and seemed like nothing to do, but history will tell us that he and his lads made a great attack that could change history! (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you to the book friend 140816075816119, the parasite Schistosoma and Comrade Juventus!