Seeing that the offensive of the US army is weakening, it is necessary to withdraw. Now Nagumo is faced with a difficult choice, either take off the fighters of the remaining three aircraft carriers, follow the American fighters to the head of their carriers, and smash the enemy with a swift counterattack, just like in the morning. This was originally like the back and forth of you in the boxing ring, a normal transition between attack and defense. However, the time is really a bit reluctant now, and the own planes that return after the attack may not be able to catch the final sunset and return home.

As a front-line commander, Nagumo was a little helpless at the moment, Yamamoto would not give him instructions, and everything had to be decided by himself.

Not taking advantage is suffering a loss, which is the most distinctive character trait of his generation of Japanese soldiers, but the timing is very delicate. His first-air combat pilots have the ability to land in relatively dim conditions, but the pilots on the Ruihe Xianghe are lacking in this aspect.

"Commander, it's too late if you don't take off." The staff officers around him urged.

"Everyone is waiting to sink the two more of them, so that the whole war can be won." Another staff officer raised the significance of the sortie to the level of victory.

Nagumo couldn't resist the urging of the people around him, and ordered the only remaining fighters of the first and third air battles to take off and pursue the enemy formation. But he had reservations and took off only about 70 planes. He felt that it would be enough to deal with a few aircraft carriers on the other side.

The 419 UAV saw the enemy, three aircraft carriers began to take off fighters and bombers of various types. But the timing was a little late.

The U.S. planes, which had lost their load and reduced their fuel by about half, quickly fled, knowing that they could not let the Japanese catch up and discover the aircraft carrier. However, the eagerness to flee for their lives caused the last batch of US planes not to make an extra circle in the wrong direction, but to return directly to the aircraft carrier area.

The navigation technology of this era did not allow pilots to play too many tricks, especially in the vast sea where there was no ground reference. They themselves will have to find the aircraft carrier in a short time. Too many turns will inevitably lead to the accumulation of errors, and Halsey's aircraft carrier is still maneuvering, just agreeing where it will be at a certain time, and if the opportunity is missed, it will be over.

Fortunately, the Japanese fighters that had just taken off did not catch up in time, and they waited in formation in the air to watch the last US planes slip away. After the formation was completed, they pursued closely in the direction of the US plane's withdrawal.

After 90 minutes, the Japanese planes still found no trace of the US aircraft carrier. Nagumo has the intention to let his fighters return. He wasn't that keen on adventure, after all, the sun was setting. Once the fleet returns late, landing at night with the lights on is still a serious challenge for pilots. In fact, because of the great loss of training, the new pilots of the Japanese army rarely practiced night landing. Of course, he also has the consideration of guarding against submarines.

Before Nagumo could give the order to return home, the Zero fighter plane, which had already been dizzy in the air, was intercepted by American fighters in the air, and the US military relied on radar to find a relatively large group of planes outside the visual range. This technological advantage gave the Americans the ability to take off and intercept in advance. But this also exposed that the aircraft carrier was nearby.

The Japanese bombers who arrived later hid under the fierce battle of the fighter planes, sneaked over, and went straight to the US aircraft carrier.

The enterprise account is the first to be exposed. About 10 Japanese Type 97* attack aircraft, avoiding the wildcats, attacked the aircraft carrier from west to east. More than a dozen US warships fired at these enemy planes approaching the sea. The small-caliber rapid-fire guns of the American army were significantly superior to the Japanese, and they were also more numerous.

After occupying a favorable position, the Japanese planes launched an attack, and during the entire attack, their dense formation did not change. This gave the gunner time to aim adequately. They did not need precise ranging, but followed the tracer bullets to correct the direction, and before the Japanese aircraft dropped*, 5 had already been shot down.

However, the timing of the bombing of the Japanese aircraft was well controlled, and none of them dropped their bombs in advance because they were covered by fire nets. Most of the American pilots who had previously launched an attack on Chicheng would have thrown away in advance under pressure*.

5 pieces* in a fan shape, quickly towards the target. The firelight on the battlefield and the blinding sunset interfered with the ship's observation posts to spot the water in time*, but they clearly saw the timing of the Japanese bombing.

*Still 1.5 km away, when the track is unknown. The Enterprise, commanded by Colonel George Murray, began to make a sharp turn. It itself was taking off against the wind, maintaining a speed of 30 knots and making very powerful turns. The captain was very clear-sighted, turned ninety degrees, and met the attack with a relatively narrow frontal shot*. Of course, it still takes some luck.

The crew watched as white tracks grazed the sides of the ship, the closest of which was only about 60 meters away. The Japanese attacked with heavy losses and turned out to be fruitless. In the attack formation, only one aircraft eventually broke away, and the remaining nine aircraft were buried at the bottom of the sea along with 27 pilots.

This was followed by Japanese dive bombers, who did not have time to climb to a sufficient height and attacked. The Japanese were also in a hurry to drop bombs so that they could return home.

The large-caliber anti-aircraft guns equipped with various types of warships of the US military still use time fuzes, and the commander gives the binding time through the manually measured oblique distance, although it is still manually timed, but the efficiency is slightly better than that of the Japanese large-caliber anti-aircraft guns.

These artillery fires could force the Japanese fighter formations to disband and enter a state of separate operations. The 99 Shipburst is a fighter that is far more agile than the * aircraft, and they quickly seize the opportunity of the Enterprise to start slowing down after turning and swarm. The real threat to them comes from the various types of small-caliber anti-aircraft fire that line the sides of the carrier, from 40-mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns to 12,7-mm machine guns, forming a dense network of fire over the carrier. No one can evade these interceptive fires with complete skill while aiming, the closer you get to the deck.

In fact, the pilot's skill is mainly reflected in whether he can aim at the deck, and whether he can cross the fire is completely up to luck.

The attack was not covered by clouds and the height was insufficient. The bomber rushed to the target at an angle of about 60 degrees of dive, and could not use the anti-aircraft guns above the aircraft carrier to shoot at the dead end, and the projection area exposed under artillery fire was relatively large.

The bombers that were the first to attack were all caught in fire and crashed into the sea. Only the last two finished dropping. One of them, 250 kg *, hit the rear rear of the enterprise. The U.S. military was very effective in managing the damage, and quickly pushed the plane with bombs that caught fire into the sea, and the explosion lost part of the deck and a lift. After a brief reduction in speed to 10 knots, the aircraft carrier quickly regained power.

The Japanese aircraft group completed the attack and did not dare to wait for the results to be confirmed, so they turned to return home. Now it's Qin Xiaosu's turn on 419 to give them eye medicine.

Qin Xiaosu had already intercepted the voice communication of a command plane taking off from the Kaga, which came from Captain Koga, who had died in battle.

Koga flew on a 97 ship attack modified command plane, but this so-called command plane still carried a * (I don't know what to think). He was supposed to stay at a distance from the battlefield to observe and command, but after the Enterprise was shot, the smoke rose into the sky and the speed dropped, and it seemed that all the anti-aircraft guns in the flanks and rear were destroyed. Koga was a little greedy, and he ordered the pilot to sneak in from the smoke-obscured side, throw it away*, and then escape from the war zone.

His actions were detected by the USS Walden, not far from the Enterprise, which fired continuously at the aircraft with 127-mm guns. The pilot did not evade it, but kept the bomb dropping course, and the ninth shell directly hit the enemy plane, breaking the command plane that was about to drop the bomb in two. Most of the Japanese planes on the battlefield did not know that the command plane had been killed.

Qin Xiaosu simulated Koga Daisa and gave the group a return order in the wrong direction. He watched as the Japanese group turned, and then blocked the Japanese communications to prevent them from receiving radio signals from Nagumo's command ship again, as the fighters could still rely on the radio to find them laterally.

At the same time, Qin Xiaosu intercepted the telegram sent by the Wyvern, which was still struggling, to the command ship of the Ligen, and he asked the fleet to ignore the Wyvern, leave first, and leave a few destroyers, and he would lead the last hundred people to hold on, strive to recover the momentum, and return to Labaoer on his own.

Once Nagumo recovers that power cannot be restored, in order to prevent the aircraft carrier from falling into the hands of the enemy, the destroyer will sink the Wyvern.

Yamaguchi replied in agreement.

Qin Xiaosu couldn't do it for the time being, he had to wait for the main fleet to leave and go to the rendezvous area with the returning fighters, and then think of a way.

The Japanese always use radio communication as little as possible, so he found a way to get a maggot, he can't directly forge Nagumo's order and give the destroyer an order to sink the Wyvern, and in the future the destroyer checks the content of the communication, which will expose the existence of 419, but since there is an agreement between them. He can push the boat down the river, forge the Flying Dragon communication, and give Nagumo a little misunderstanding, so that once the people left on the Flying Dragon are killed by his own people, there will naturally be no proof of death.

About 40 Japanese planes flew over the vast sea, and they could not find the fleet in the agreed area. Since updating the rendezvous area requires the use of a password, only the command function can receive this kind of information, so the rest of the fighters do not know that the information is wrong.

In fact, it was impossible for Nanyun to temporarily change the confluence area, what he was most worried about was that the plane would not be able to come back in time due to information confusion, so his fleet was still waiting in the agreed area, so that he and the group of planes that were led by Qin Xiaosu's nose were separated by 80 kilometers.

As the sun sets below sea level, Nagumo realizes that the situation is not good, and he gives up the radio silence and starts calling his plane. But I found that it didn't work. None of the 6 channels agreed upon by the formation could communicate.

The Japanese fighter formation is communicating smoothly, and it is constantly receiving communications from the "Nagumo flagship", we have seen you, please lower the altitude. The Japanese machine began to lower its altitude and kept circling, but could not see anything. This is the effect that Qin Xiaosu wants, and now it is useless for the Nanyun fleet to venture to turn on the lights on the deck in time. The two sides are already separated by 90 kilometers.

Qin Xiaosu's principle is that the party that receives the fake communication must be completely destroyed, so that no one will expose his tricks. He was sure that the 80 or so pilots on these forty planes would soon be swallowed up once they fell into the water.

The members of the First and Third Air Battles were all veterans who had participated in the bombing of China and the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, so they had to calculate carefully, and none of them should be missing.