New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

But Tamon Yamaguchi has no time to worry about this now, because shortly after his first attack formation was released, the next round of attacks by the US military came one after another.This time, 18 dive bombers and 8 f4f fighters on the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier were on the scene, led by Lieutenant Commander Maxwell Leslie.At this time, Zero War, which was originally responsible for the air defense of the fleet, suffered another loss in the battle just now. Although they have climbed to a higher altitude, their number is only 6.However, the six Zero Fighters that had just taken off from the Flying Dragon were all sent to escort the dive bombers.Although they ignored f6f's obstruction.Desperately launched an attack on Leslie's bomber fleet and shot down two of them, but obviously, they could not stop the attack of the bomber fleet.

This time, the Flying Dragon was no longer as lucky as before.Compared with the Enterprise and the Hornet, the bombers on the aircraft carrier Yorktown, which has experience in attacking warships in the Coral Sea, performed better. 16 bombers dropped bombs, and 6 of them successfully hit.

The first bomb hit the flight deck, blowing a large hole in it, and the second hit a row of torpedo planes at the rear of the flight deck preparing to take off, setting off a fire.A third went through the deck, destroying a boiler (which slowed the ship down for a moment), then a fourth, fifth, and sixth.The entire mothership was completely paralyzed.

In "The Sunken Kingdom" wrote:

"The blow came and went quickly. When the first bomb went wide, I was thinking 'ah, they can't hit us.' But then, a bomb was not far from me. It exploded, and I was assisting the damage control personnel to put out the embers in the elevator. The huge shock wave from the explosion pushed me directly to the ground. My ears were buzzing, and I didn't understand it for a long time. After a while, I woke up and found a person pressing on me. I pushed him away and got up, feeling that my hands were full of sticky things. After a closer look, I saw that the person pressing on me was the damage control officer Xiaosong Ying, half of his head was sliced ​​off by shrapnel, and what stuck to my hand was his brain..."

But Yamaguchi and Kalai Shio still did not give up, and the damage control personnel of the whole ship were working hard to save the warship.In order to prevent the fire from spreading to the ammunition depot and the fuel depot, Kalai Zhinan ordered water to be poured into these two compartments.The ammunition depot was successfully flooded with seawater, but the pipeline leading to the fuel depot was damaged by bombs, so that it could not be filled with seawater.This became the greatest weakness of the ship. Three hours later, the heat from the fire sparked an explosion that blew up the carrier's interior. The "Flying Dragon" tilted more than 3 degrees, and the captain Kalai Zhinan was forced to order to abandon the ship.It is 15 o'clock in the afternoon.

In the blazing fire on the deck, Commander Yamaguchi Tamon said to the more than 800 people who were about to leave the destroyed "Hyryu" aircraft carrier: "I personally will fully bear the responsibility for the loss of the two aircraft carriers 'Hyryu' and 'Cangryu'. He told them: "I will stay on the boat until the end." Although the subordinates insisted that the leader go first, he calmly and firmly refused their request.He handed his black hat to the adjutant as a souvenir, and sent a telegram to the fleet commander, Admiral Nagumo, to apologize, and then raised a large glass of water to say goodbye to his colleagues.The sun flag flying high on the mast was lowered, carefully folded and taken away, and the bugle played "The Generation of the King".A portrait of the emperor was reverently transferred to a nearby destroyer.As the crew left the warship, Yamaguchi issued his last order to the escorting destroyer Nobu: "Launch torpedoes and sink Hiryu." As the flames gradually engulfed the bridge , the general turned to Captain Calaisin, and said calmly: "How beautiful this sea is, let us enjoy this beautiful sea together." There have been many speculations about the short-sighted behavior of the general of Yamamoto's 56th squad. Some people think that General Yamaguchi has understood that Japan's fate cannot be changed at this time, and he is unwilling to live to see that day with his own eyes.

The destroyer Nofen launched a powerful 93-acid torpedo to the Hiryu, sinking the aircraft carrier that persisted to the end.The destroyer Yefen would not have thought that in the days to come, it would become the warship with the highest tonnage sunk in the entire fleet, and most of the warships it sank were its own warships.

The bomber group that took off from the Hiryu failed to find the US formation at the location mentioned by the reconnaissance plane.So they started searching around.Before that, they had heard the news that the Flying Dragon had been severely damaged through the radio, and they knew that there would be no deck to land on even if they went back.

Time passed, and soon it was 12 noon. If the bomber fleet did not return, they would have no fuel to go back.Yamaguchi was giving them orders to go back and parachute over the fleet.But this order was rejected by Captain Kobayashi, the commander of the bomber fleet.He informed the formation that if he needed to go back, he would go back on his own, and he was determined to avenge the Flying Dragon no matter what.

At 12:13 noon, the Kobayashi fleet found the track left by the ship on the sea, followed the track, and soon after, they found the US aircraft carrier Yorktown.

At a distance of 30 miles from Yorktown, the bomber formation was attacked by 12 "Wildcat" fighter jets patrolling over the "Yorktown". .Under the guidance of the radar, when the wild cats occupying an altitude advantage rushed towards the bomber, the lack of firepower of the escort zero battle was fully exposed.The Wildcats lost just one aircraft in their head-on hedging against Zero Fight's intercepts.And once they pass the first round of interception, with the high speed brought by the dive, they can even safely and boldly let Zero War occupy the deadliest 6 o'clock direction - anyway, Zero War can't catch up - and focus on the opponent Attack of Japanese bombers.It wasn't until they finished the first round of attack and pulled up again that the escorting zero battle caught up again, trying hard to entangle with the wild cats.But in the first round of raids, as many as four of those dive bombers, clumsy as ducks because they were full of bombs, were shot down, and many more bombers were injured in the attack.Of course, the achievement of such a battle result is also related to the fact that the Japanese bombers would rather die than enhance their flight maneuverability by dropping bombs.

"Don't get entangled with enemy fighter jets, attack the bombers with all your strength!" The US formation commander issued such an order.Under the zero-battle artillery fire, the wild cats wholeheartedly launched round after round of attacks on the Japanese bombers.The Wildcat of Captain Sith, the formation commander, was hit, and his fuel tank began to leak fuel. The leaked fuel was atomized in the air and dragged a long flight path.Under normal circumstances, he should have withdrawn from the fight.Moreover, he chose to retreat at this time, and Japan himself would never pursue it, because they wanted to stay to protect the bomber.But Captain Sith did not choose to retreat.He drove the wounded fighter plane and continued to attack the Japanese bombers.Fighter planes began to catch fire, burn, and fall.Some are American fighter jets and some are Japanese bombers.Sometimes a fireball suddenly appeared in the sky. Some of those fireballs were caused by a certain fighter plane exploding in the air after being hit, and some were caused by Japanese fighter jets actively colliding to defend the bomber plane.

When the last Wildcat withdrew from the battle with thick smoke, 12 bombers of the Japanese Army had been shot down, and two of the zero fighters escorting them were also damaged (all the zero fighters lost were due to active collisions).Captain Kobayashi and his comrades, driving the remaining 6 bombers, were attacked by the intensive anti-aircraft artillery fire on the US fleet formation. In the process of rushing towards the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, the formation lost two more bombers. Now there are only 4 bombers left in the formation.Without a special attack method, it is absolutely impossible to deal a fatal blow to the enemy.

"Everyone, see you again at Kuduanzaka!" Kobayashi said the last words to his loyal subordinates through the radio, and then he drove the bomber straight down and dived to a height of less than 200 meters before dropping the bomb. At the same time that the deck of the Yorktown exploded, his plane also slammed straight into the flight deck of the Yorktown, damaging several planes parked on it.The Japanese planes behind (including those bombless zero battles) also imitated their commanders and launched a suicidal attack on the Yorktown.Although the fleet's anti-aircraft firepower desperately intercepted.But still another plane with a bomb hit the Yorktown.The warship ignited the fire all over the sky.

At 1 o'clock, Fletcher transferred his flag to the cruiser "Astoria" and sent a wireless telegram to General Nimitz, requesting that Task Force No. 17 be stopped for protection. "Yorktown" aircraft carrier, and give up the tactical reinforcements to Spruance.

After General Fletcher left, the fire on York City was gradually brought under control.The damage control department performed very well, the fuel depot and ammunition depot were well protected, and the warship still had the power to sail by itself, although the top speed was only a pitiful 12 knots.Protected by the other ships of Task Force No. 17, she began to turn toward Pearl Harbor.

In history, the Yorktown was attacked by a Japanese submarine and sank on the way to retreat.But this time, York City was lucky enough to escape the catastrophe. She eventually returned to Pearl Harbor, but was diagnosed as too severely damaged, and repairs would take at least a year and a half.And a year and a half later, with the continuous addition of cutting-edge fleet aircraft carriers, this meritorious battleship began to retreat to the second line, until after the war, it was converted into a naval memorial.

After learning the bad news of the loss of all four aircraft carriers, Yamamoto remained silent.After painful thinking, he decided to admit defeat.Order: "Cancel the order to occupy Midway Island." Leading his fleet began to return.

General Spruance commanded the USS Enterprise and the Hornet to conduct a limited pursuit, sank the cruiser Mogami of the Nagumo fleet, and then retreated west before nightfall.In this way, a decisive battle is over.

Compared with the original history, the results of the battle do not seem to be much different at first glance. Japan also lost 4 aircraft carriers.Although the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier was not sunk as in history, the result is not much different from being sunk.But when the loss of the pilot is taken into account, it is very different. The losses of the Japanese military pilots are slightly greater than the original history, while the losses of the US military are much smaller than the original history. More pilots who have experienced the war survived and grew up.The consequences of this distinction will become more apparent as the war continues.