The Saratoga began to take off bombers quickly, and since the departure of the first strike formation, Rear Admiral Fitch began to line up the fighters on the deck and began to start the warm-up engines. Reports returned by the forward* aircraft indicate the discovery of two large aircraft carriers, whose upper decks are emptied and appear to be about to carry out landing operations.

Fletcher estimated that the two Japanese aircraft carriers were waiting for the returning fighters, and he was still not very familiar with aircraft carrier operations, but he figured out the reason to take advantage of the chaos. Now is the perfect time to launch a series of attacks and not let the enemy slow down and counterattack. In terms of troops, the two sides are 2 against 2, and the Japanese aircraft carriers form a formation, and the two sides seem to be on equal footing, but the first opportunity is on their own side. This moment. He sent a telegram to the Enterprise demanding an immediate counterattack.

On the Enterprise, Halsey's radar came into play, and he could see the Japanese swarm swarming and brushing past the rear of the fleet. Apparently already missed from the north, and now enemy aircraft are forced to return.

He ordered the rudder to turn at high speed and prepare to return to the battlefield. He lost 9 fighters and 3 bombers, and he was far from broken. It seems that the Japanese used Wake Island as a bait to ambush the war, and now they can't hit a single blow, they will inevitably face the problem of aircraft recovery, he sees the advantage that Fletcher is not aware of from a more professional point of view, and must follow the enemy's returning fleet to launch an attack and increase the enemy's confusion.

The elevator constantly sent the * aircraft in the lower deck hangar up, and in order to give priority to the take-off * aircraft, even suspended the refueling and reloading work of the returning * aircraft, because the * aircraft needed a complete runway to take off, so it had to take back the bombers that had no time to load the bombs back into the hangar, which caused chaos in the operation on the deck, and a temporary breakdown, and did not have time to remove the ammunition of the bomber was pushed into the sea. This is the speed that Halsey demands.

As at the beginning of this war, the commanders of the aircraft carriers on both sides, Halsey believed that the * aircraft was the decisive weapon, and the dive bomber was a more dexterous supplementary force, which could be used as a reconnaissance and attack mission, but when the opponent's capital ship appeared, it should be replaced with a killer weapon - the Avenger * machine. It may take some time for the commanders of the United States and Japan to realize that it is difficult for the aircraft to achieve results in the face of a strong turn of the target.

Unbeknownst to Halsey, a seaplane taking off from the Ligon was passing the thick lines of CXAM radar (an early radar that sometimes spotted a single target at a distance similar to visual sight) and was about to converge on its own side.

This Type 96 is still searching in the general direction unhurriedly, and the pilots of seaplanes are always more confident than the pilots of carrier-based aircraft to challenge the limits of the range. Of course, even if the Enterprise's radar spotted the oncoming plane, Halsey would most likely have nothing to fear, and at the moment the advantage was on his side, there was no need to slow down because of a seaplane.

After the plane flew over a cloud cover, the scout saw a large fleet below, with an aircraft carrier in the middle taking off the plane. Immediately an explosion occurred several hundred meters below the reconnaissance aircraft, and the twin 127-mm naval guns of the American fleet began to fire shells. This kind of artillery uses the MK33 commander, which is controlled by a bunch of people in several posts, and at the same time the fuse is timed for the shell according to the height and direction of the elements, which is the target of this kind of artillery. Compared with the long-range anti-aircraft fire of the Japanese fleet, it was more reliable.

The seaplane immediately hid in the clouds and at the same time sent a telegram. Of course, the intention was to send back the flagship Wyvern, but at this time, Yamaguchi Tawen was in a state of emergency and could not carry out a counterattack. However, Rear Admiral Tadaichi Hara, who was hiding in the south and was advancing at high speed, also received a telegram from the seaplane telegrapher, using Wake Island as a reference point, the relative position of the demarcated target, and the direction of travel, and the pilot even identified from the deck that it was a Yorktown-class ship, which was probably the most reliable report of the various aerial reconnaissance on both sides in the whole morning.

Major General Hara roughly measured the compass on the chart, and he found that his formation had entered the range where it could intercept the opponent. He looked down to the deck, where the rumbling planes were warming up and ready to strike, and it seemed that the preparations had been done correctly.

Since Yamaguchi strictly ordered the 5th Air Battle to maintain radio silence, Rear Admiral Hara did not think it was necessary to send a telegram for instructions, as a member of the two most powerful aircraft carriers in the Pacific, this fleet was like an ugly duckling, living under the halo of the first and second air battles for a long time; In a sense, the two aircraft carriers, Feilong and Canglong, are at best aircraft carriers with a tonnage slightly larger than that of the American assaulters, and there is no reason to look down on Xianghe and Ruihe, who are superior in all aspects.

"Tell Captain Ichihara to take off as planned and launch an attack on the target."

The Major General calmly gave the order.

The warplanes on the deck took off one after another, and their target was the Enterprise. Major General Hara specially instructed Captain Ichihara, who was preparing to take off, to stay away from Wake Island and reduce the altitude to avoid being seen by the observation posts on the island, so as to expose the attack attempt in advance. However, this time, the outpost battle between the naval and air forces of the two sides started in a chaotic collision, and after that, the two sides will conduct further research on the feedback information and formulate new and reasonable tactics.

After the fighters completed the formation, Captain Ichihara assumed command of the entire attack. In this attack, 48 fighters consisting of 24 fighters, 12 dive bombers, and 12 * aircraft took off.

At noon, Captain Best was still floating on the sea, and as far as it had been 2 hours since he was shot down, he could not see Wake Island now, but fortunately, the compass was still valid and could find the north, south, south, and north, and he remembered that he should have fallen less than 30 kilometers south of Wake Island. The sea temperature is not high during this month, so if you can't swim to the island during the day, you may not be able to survive the night.

He heard the rumbling of the horizon, and as a pilot, he certainly knew what it was. He craned his neck and saw a dense patch of warplanes flying overhead, at a very low altitude. Some of the planes had peeling paint, leaking alloys glistening in the sun, and bright red plaster flags were vividly visible. There is a black * hanging under the fighters in the back of the line, this group of planes is not going to bomb Wake Island, but only to find the big E.

The Enterprise was still far west of Wake Island, and if the enemy was sure to be able to reach it, the planes should have taken off and not long after.

It is not known that the location of the Enterprise number 2 hours ago. Now he was the first of all the American troops in the war zone to realize the existence of another Japanese aircraft carrier group, but nothing could be done.

The plane had just flown over when he noticed something floating on the sea in front of him. He thought it was a shark's dorsal fin, but he quickly determined that it wasn't some* dorsal fin, but a periscope. He hurriedly waved his hand over there, regardless of whether it was his own or a Japanese submarine.

Captain Jacob, who was in the periscope, did a 360° search to make sure there were no ships nearby, and then surfaced and drove over to the captain's side.

The Guyu, commanded by the captain, missed a major fighter plane in the morning, and then was chased around by the destroyer Chasing the Wind, which threw deep bombs all the way, and was killed by sitting on the bottom before getting mixed up. After two hours, the crew had recovered from their fright, and their desire for war began to stir again, so they made a detour to the south of the island. After raising the periscope, the enemy ship was not spotted, but a blonde pilot, apparently his own, was spotted. The captain was also going to float up to recharge, so he saved people by the way.

Best was fished up by his own submarine, and the crew asked about the battle situation, but Best did not have time to say this, and he asked the captain to immediately send a report to the headquarters to report the discovery of the second enemy aircraft carrier formation. At the same time, he assured the captain that if he went in the direction indicated to him, he would be able to ram a passing enemy fleet.

It is difficult for every navy who sets out from the wreckage of Pearl Harbor to patrol the enemy not to resist such temptation.

SS188 submarine, deciding to trust the captain, tried his luck again; As for the abominable ones that slipped through the keel without detonating*, Captain Jacob decided to reduce the depth and detonate them by the traditional method of direct impact.

At the same time, the Wyvern lookout saw a group of enemy planes emerging from the west again, much larger than the first, and in this year, the sight of planes meant that they had to fly for a while.

Yamaguchi also had no choice but to suspend the recovery of the planes, and immediately took off one or two squadrons of fighters from the two aircraft carriers, while the fighters who remained in the air and waited for landing also joined the counterattack sequence and launched an attack on the US planes. The Zero battle that lifted off immediately split into two groups, one wave rushed towards the low-altitude sneak attack* planes, and the other wave rushed towards the vulnerable wildcats in the clouds. Stop them from attacking their own bombers that are about to land. Since these planes basically rely on their hands to communicate, once they enter the melee, they are basically fighting on their own. It is necessary to constantly take off in order to realize the latest intentions of the commander.

The air encounter immediately presented one-sided, and no * aircraft could really break through to the range of effective bomb dropping, although a few * planes dropped *, but the distance was too reluctant, and it was easy to be dodged by the aircraft carrier that dodged at high speed.

Yamaguchi still didn't allow the deck to be opened for his fighters to land, and he had to keep taking off the fighters, and he was well aware that the enemy would seize the opportunity to attack continuously, because if it were him, he would do it.

At present, the Zero Battle has the advantage, but the more it fights, the more scattered it is, most of the pursuing enemies reach low altitudes, and the high-altitude defenses are weak. He must complete his defenses before he can proceed to recover the plane.

The U.S. dive bombers arrived belatedly from an altitude of 4,000 meters, and 30 minutes earlier, the commander lost his leader's wildcat in the clouds, so he sailed for a while. The third wave of Zero fighters that took off on the Wyvern seized the window of a few minutes and climbed high into the air.

The dive bombers, without escort, tried to force a breakthrough, and the Japanese planes clung from 4000 meters to 1000 meters, not giving in. Two bombers managed to break through, but all of them lost their accuracy when they dropped bombs under fighter interference.

Subsequently, the 4th and 5th attack waves that arrived from the Enterprise were also intercepted by the Zero fighters. Although the two Japanese aircraft carriers appeared to be stormy and dangerous, the real losses were all on the side of the United States. Already, more than 50 aircraft of various models have been shot down. Some Japanese planes ran out of fuel and made a forced landing on the sea, but the pilots were basically rescued by their own destroyers.