However, the heavy losses of the Japanese bombers were not only because of this, the commander of the Japanese bomber formation gritted his teeth and scolded, "Damn the Germans, they actually only sent 9 planes to fly over the enemy fleet to make a show, and the rest are hiding in the distance, and now all the planes and artillery fire of the Mi army are coming at us."

There were as many as 200 enemy planes attacking at low altitudes, and only nine enemy planes were at high altitudes, and they were divided into three teams, so it was natural for the US military to concentrate its planes and firepower to deal with the enemy at low altitudes, which was obviously a much greater threat; as for the nine enemy planes at high altitudes, as long as they did not enter an altitude that could pose a great threat to their own warships, the US military did not have the energy to take care of them for the time being. But to the surprise of the US military, the three groups of German planes each rushed towards a US aircraft carrier, and their dive was so resolute that it was as if they were really going to drop bombs

"As soon as the altitude drops below 1500 meters, artillery fire is fired." , the gunner of every 20mm anti-aircraft gun of the US army on the aircraft carrier, as well as on the nearby air defense cruiser, received this order. Even if they are experienced veterans among the dive bomber pilots of the US Navy Airlines, they must dive to an altitude below 500 meters before dropping bombs, otherwise the accuracy cannot be guaranteed, considering the excellent performance of the German pilots in the previous battles, the US air defense forces calculated a little more, plus the advance of the aircraft dive, it is already very cautious to close the distance to 1500 meters before opening artillery fire, after all, the speed at which small-caliber anti-aircraft guns consume shells is very terrifying, even if it is the United States. If it's too wasteful, it will quickly run out of reserves.

However, to the surprise of the US troops, as soon as the muzzles of their antiaircraft guns erupted flames, the enemy planes had already dropped their bombs and pulled them up again, so that all the US anti-aircraft artillery fire that had misjudged them was lost, and the nine German planes flew safely away from the effective range of the US small-caliber antiaircraft guns

"Bombing from such a high position? It's impossible to hit at all, is it just a feint? A U.S. air defense commander was puzzled, but before he finished speaking, his face changed dramatically, because a terrible scream told him. The bomb was not as far away as he thought.

A few seconds later. A 1.4-ton (Note 1) semi-armor-piercing bomb penetrated the horizontal deck of the USS Lexington at a speed of more than 600 kilometers per hour. Soon the fire on the ship detonated the oil depot again. This makes the fire more difficult to control. Half an hour later, Nimitz reluctantly ordered the destroyer to fire a torpedo to sink it so as not to fall into the hands of the Japanese, and most of the 2,363 officers and men on board were killed

At the same time that the USS Lexington was shot. Another US aircraft carrier, the Yorktown, was also hit by a bomb dropped by the Germans, and this aircraft carrier could not be compared with the Lexington-class aircraft carriers in terms of tonnage or armor protection, and the 1.4-ton semi-armor-piercing bombs dropped by the German aircraft almost unhindered all the way to the bottom of the hull and exploded, causing the Yorktown to sink quickly in just a few minutes, and less than 150 of the 1,990 officers and men on board were spared

Nimitz had previously considered that the enemy's fighter planes had obvious performance advantages, so he decided to adopt defensive counterattack tactics, using the combined force of the fleet's anti-aircraft artillery fire and carrier-based fighter groups to destroy the incoming enemy carrier-based aircraft, and then send bomber groups to attack the enemy's six aircraft carriers with weak defenses. It didn't take much time to shoot down seventy or eighty Japanese carrier-based aircraft that penetrated the defense at low altitude, which is enough to show that Nimitz's strategy was successful, but the inconspicuous 9 German planes, strictly speaking, only 3 German bombers, were abolished at once (at this time the Lexington was still struggling) his two aircraft carriers, completely disrupting Nimitz's wishful thinking, with the strength of the fleet's anti-aircraft firepower today, relying only on the bombers carried on the two aircraft carriers, even if it is the low-altitude penetration tactics that the US military has just learned from the enemy, It is not an easy task to sink a Japanese or German aircraft carrier

Nimitz, who was in a state of fire in his heart, did not care whether he was wasting it or not, and immediately ordered that except for those anti-aircraft guns that were shelling low-altitude enemy planes, the rest of the anti-aircraft artillery should all fire at the nine German planes that had not yet flown far away, and they must not let these culprits leave alive. However, the loose formation of the German planes still greatly affected the barrage attack effect of the US large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, and in the end, three of them managed to escape, which made Nimitz's chest tight.

Speaking of which, thanks to Nimitz's lack of knowing who the pilots of the three planes were, he would have been even more depressed, because those three people were Erich. Hartmann, Gerhard. Buckhorn and Hans, who later became known as the "King of Stuka". Ulrich. Rudel, these three people used their lives to explain a truth to future generations, "The ace pilot may not necessarily be the most haode Jishu, but it must be the most fatal." ”

Although no one called Rudel the "King of Stuka" at this time, he was already recognized as the best dive bomber pilot on the USS Zeppelin, and even that "one" could be removed after this battle. So far, Rudel has sunk 4 US ships successively, and the bomb hit rate is as high as 100%, well, the hit rate of dive bombers is generally very high, on average it can exceed 60%, and the Japanese Navy is more than 80%, while the bomb hit rate of the carrier-based Stuka bombers of the German Far East Fleet is not less than 90%, so all 4 cases were hit, maybe just because the sample is too small, plus the luck is also better.

Note 1: In fact, this is the standard type that is mass-produced, although the load capacity of the heavy Stuka reaches 1.6 tons, but that kind of bomb is not mass-produced in Germany, and it has to be customized when needed. Since the size of the German aircraft carrier is not too large, it was already a headache for the safe take-off and landing of the heavy Stuka, In addition, the power of 1.4 tons of semi-armor-piercing shells is more than enough, so the German Far East Fleet finally gave up the plan to equip the ship-based Stuka with 1.6 tons of super-heavy bombs, and unless necessary, even 1.4 tons of bombs are not used, generally 1 ton is the most common, but Japan because of the Yamato-class giant aircraft carrier, specially equipped their copycat version of Stuka with a large bomb weighing 1.6 tons, even against the battleship, only one or two can make it completely ineffective, as for the sinking of the bomb, it takes a little luck, in fact, it is the most economical and efficient to use a torpedo to complete a zuihou blow(To be continued......)