Halsey impatiently walked around the command cabin, waiting for the exciting results ahead. For 20 years, the US Navy has been studying aircraft carrier tactics in exercises, and the most important conclusion it has come to is that it must seize the opportunity, and now they have seized the opportunity and forced the enemy to fall into passivity, falling into a vicious circle, unable to free up their hands to counterattack, and unable to land aircraft; But as if all the breath was missing, those Japanese aircraft carriers still flickered at sea, dodging at least 8 * and many * attacks, and still unscathed.

At least on the surface, the primary problem was that the Wildcat fighters were difficult to complete the cover mission, so that the * aircraft or dive bombers were constantly interfered with by Japanese fighters and were forced to attack at a long distance, which greatly reduced the attack efficiency. In addition, the poor coordination of the attack waves made the attack formations arrive one after another, and it was not an overwhelming advantage. This is also a reason why the enemy can always parry.

"Sir, intercept our submarine communications, and a suspected enemy aircraft carrier formation has been discovered southeast of Wake Island."

"What do you mean by suspicion? It must be those submarine captains talking nonsense. ”

Halsey pretended to be disdainful, and in his opinion, there is a have, and there is no is nothing. Of course, part of the blame lies with Captain Jacob, who did not see the aircraft carrier with his own eyes, so the telegram was ambiguously worded.

In the radar control room, an officer kept his head on the hood, looking intently at the frequency curtain, and he saw a point of light moving in a southeasterly direction.

He couldn't determine the height, but the distance was 100 kilometers away. In his experience, he could clearly see from such a large distance that this should be a large group of aircraft, and the altitude was very large, otherwise, it would be obscured by the curvature of the earth.

He waited for the alert radar to complete several search cycles and confirm that there was indeed a target moving in that direction, so he picked up the intercom and informed the commander of the situation.

Halsey received new information, and it seemed that the news of the existence of a second enemy formation was confirmed. Obviously, an hour earlier, the telegram sent back by the downed Japanese reconnaissance plane had a role, and the Enterprise intercepted the telegram in its entirety, but because of the superiority in hand, there was no fear; But in the blink of an eye, the balance of power changed dramatically. Maybe it's been 3 to 2 or 4 to 2? He was well aware of the theory of the concentrated use of forces by the Japanese Navy, and they were accustomed to organizing aircraft carriers in twos and twos.

Halsey ordered the fighters that had already taken off to return, go to intercept the new threat, immediately stop the take-off, vacate the foredeck, raise the last 9 fighters in the hangar and take off quickly.

The Japanese aircraft group still thought that they were in a covert engagement with the enemy, and thought that the sneak attack plan was seamless.

According to the plan of the former major general, the high-altitude dive bombers took the lead in the assault, taking advantage of the group of planes close to the clouds, so that the time left for the enemy to warn would be very short, and even if it was seen, it was not enough for the fighter to climb to the height of the emergency take-off, so his Aichi 99 bomber was 30 kilometers in front of the * plane, and only 9 fighters took cover. In fact, this is also the tactic in the early practice of aviation, when the Japanese side was skeptical about the attack capability of dive bombers, and the commander was more inclined to use the sudden attack and disturbance ability of dive bombers, after all, the 99 ship bomber could only carry one 250 kg*.

According to the assumption, the best way to use dive bombers is to blow up the flight deck of enemy ships by surprise, so that the aircraft carrier loses its ability to take off and land. Then the carriers and other ships will be dealt with by the slower, clumsier * machine. So, Captain Ichihara left most of the Zero behind to cover the * machine. In fact, it was the premature climb of the 99 that made the direction of the Japanese attack exposed on the radar of the US military.

The group of 99 drilled out of the clouds and immediately saw that the huge fleet was below, but at the same time, it was also seen that enemy fighters were coming from two directions, and the altitude was even slightly higher than their own.

However, the heroic Japanese pilots did not hesitate to do this, and still plunged headlong and launched a dive attack.

The commander of the bombing formation, Masao Yamaguchi, sent back a telegram to see an aircraft carrier, as well as at least 4 heavy cruisers.

The Wildcats quickly launched an interception and attacked these arrogant Japanese planes. If you throw away the * in advance, the 99 shipburst still has a decent hovering ability and can get rid of it. But the Japanese pilots were definitely not going to give up the opportunity to annihilate the enemy fleet. They split into groups and began to attack.

On the outskirts of Halsey's fleet, the most majestic Heavy Cruiser Portland, was the first to be attacked, perhaps because the triple turret was too prominent. It was attacked to the aft deck by a *, and the explosion overshadowed the roar of all anti-aircraft weapons in the theater of operations, so much so that the entire fleet could hear it.

But at the same time, 6 Japanese planes, as well as 12 pilots with an average flight time of more than 800 hours, were shot down.

Shirai Feicao, who took off from Xianghe, was the first to break through to the enterprise and drop the bomb under the pressure of the tail of the two wildcats, but the bomb was thrown at a slightly higher height, and the wind of 250 kg * was larger, and it appeared to be light and fluttering, and * was lost on the side of the enterprise in the emergency turn.

Suzuki Erfei Cao in the back seat noticed that the American plane chasing after him suddenly left. Obviously, the American pilots had quite a brain, and they found that the bomber had dropped the bomb inaccurately and had come into contact with the threat, so they turned to attack other bombers.

Now is the time to decide, whether to withdraw from this battlefield in this way, or to strike a decisive blow and show the cowardly Americans the morale of the Imperial soldiers.

"Suzuki, make a choice."

Shirai Goro yelled to drown out the noisy engine noise. He turned his head slightly and saw the Heavy in the back seat, with his back to him and his thumbs out.

The bomber circled around the enemy ship, then turned back, and then swooped down towards the forward elevator on the deck of the Enterprise, carrying the fuel for the return journey, which could cause an ammunition explosion if it had burrowed into the hangar below.

The last net of fire formed by the .50 machine gun on one side successfully strafed the plane, but it still hit the position of the working elevator in front of Halsey's eyes. Fortunately, the major general dodged quickly, and when the oil and gas were detonated, he was already lying on the ground. The attack. This tricky attack achieved great tactical value, rendering the carrier ineffective; Of course, if Shirai had been more ambitious, he might have crashed into the island and killed Halsey.

The belated * plane, from a distance, saw from a distance that several of the enemy fleet were smoking. This makes it slightly more difficult to identify targets. Under Ichihara, the * aircraft group was disbanded into several three-machine squads, dispersed, and launched attacks on various targets.

One advantage of the formation is to strengthen the defensive firepower, and the other advantage is that it can form an attack fan, making it difficult for the opponent to dodge by maneuvering alone.

At the same time, on the other side of the battlefield, the attack on the Wyvern and the Canglong was finally weak. The two aircraft carriers withstood six rounds of attacks without a single shot.

When the U.S. pilots returned, they received even more dismal news that the Enterprise had been hit and could not land, and they now had two options, either to Saratoga or to Wake Island.

Yamaguchi, who finally escaped, learned that the 5th air battle there had already inflicted heavy damage on the enemy fleet. This was absolutely unacceptable to him, he ordered Canglong to open the deck to receive the planes that had run out of fuel, and the flying dragon continued to take off the attack aircraft, and he asked the take-off pilot, follow the enemy planes to catch up, and completely sink the aircraft carrier.

The situation on the battlefield has turned around in the blink of an eye.

The 419, which has just taken off the UAV and is approaching at high speed, can monitor the synchronous movement of the battlefield with the help of towed sonar (with a delay of about 1 minute), although it is difficult to measure the range, it can still help Cheng Dayang analyze the general situation.

It was clear that the offensive of the American air forces had subsided, and now it was the turn of the superior forces of the Japanese to launch a counterattack. Judging from what we heard, at least one large ship of the US fleet suffered heavy damage, the main engine slowed down to 20% of the previous one, and the speed of the Enterprise also slowed down somewhat, and because the explosion above the surface could not be heard, it was not possible to determine whether the aircraft carrier suspected to be the Enterprise was hit by a bullet for the time being.

Cheng Dayang sat by the chart with his head propped up, waiting for further information. The Japanese fleet southeast of Wake Island was chasing the Enterprise at high speed, and the speed was faster than 419, so the distance between 419 and it was even larger.

"What to do, it looks like there's an American fleet that's going to be finished?" The commissar said.

"There will always be sacrifices in war, as you and I have known for a long time. Justice is not without a price. The captain said expressionlessly.

"But ......"

"Report, an explosion was heard under the waterline, and the US aircraft carrier was hit on the port side*."

"Is the host stopped?"

Cheng Dayang stood up with a brush, although he said some cold-blooded words just now, he was actually very worried about this aircraft carrier.

"The main engine slows down, and the estimated speed is halved."

"How's the water?"

"It's ...... violently"

"Are the drones enough for the Japanese fleet?" Lin Xiuxuan said on the side.

"The distance is sufficient, but the current defense is not ideal, and the signal may be intercepted by the American fleet or the antenna of Wake Island, thus exposing us. If you can wait another 40 minutes to go to the northern ......"

"Report, the latest situation, the water ingress of the US aircraft carrier has slowed down. The U.S. radio station was overheard asking the pilot to go to CV3 to land for communications. ”

"Wait another 40 minutes, the second wave will take off, and that aircraft carrier will most likely be sunk." Lin Xiuxuan turned to the captain and asked for his opinion. "We must save it."

"yes, after all, we're quasi-allies." The commissar chimed in. In fact, he was more worried about concealment than Cheng Dayang, but in this chaotic situation, there seems to be no problem with the interception of 419's deception communication by the US side, both the United States and Japan lack the means of analysis, and even the ship may not even have recording equipment.

Cheng Dayang pondered for a moment: "Immediately bully the enemy." ”

Rear Admiral Tadaichi Hara on the Shozuru proudly waited for his attack formation to return, and he achieved a major victory at the cost of 15 aircraft. Captain Ichihara, who was in front of the battle, reported that the Yorktown had at least one mine, and that it was now tilting to one side, and its speed was naturally greatly reduced, and that the elevator at the front of the deck was armored by a heroic fighter, and that the aircraft carrier had lost the ability to take off and land aircraft. In addition, 2 enemy heavy cruisers and 2 battleships were hit. In general, although they are all floating on the sea, they should not be able to escape.

Rear Admiral Hara is not an impatient and greedy person like Yamaguchi Tawen, he uses his troops to seek stability, and since the enemy's aircraft carrier has been exposed and has no speed, he wants to continue to get closer. The sortie just now was indeed a little reluctant in terms of distance, and some fighters were short of fuel when they returned home, so it was not appropriate to operate and take off at the same time.

"Commander, Commander Yamaguchi has sent a telegram asking our troops to attack immediately, and it is bound to wipe out the enemy's main fleet before dark." The communications staff officer ran in to report.

"Got it."

He raised his wrist and looked at his watch, it was still early in dark, and he didn't know what Yamaguchi was anxious about.

"Commander, didn't Commander Yamaguchi say an immediate attack?" Captain Shimajo said tentatively.

"No, you're misunderstood, the commander said before dark."

He once again deliberately misinterpreted Yamaguchi's order, in fact, Yamaguchi's meaning was very clear, it was for him to immediately dispatch, attack repeatedly, and annihilate them all before dark.

"Report, interception of target's distress call."

"Hehe, the other ship is also difficult to protect, who else can I ask for help?"

Another communications staff officer hurriedly broke into the bridge.

"The report found that the US fleet was intensively communicating. In the southeast direction. ”

"What?"