afterglow

Chapter 652: Sea Raid! Dive into Hell!

After a while, Ouyang Zhanghua said, "Collate the list and list the fighters that can still attack on each ship."

"As ordered."

The two sides had three duels during the day over two days. The format was more like an exchange of blows, with an unprecedented scale and a bloody massacre.

During this period, the Ming army did not deploy torpedo bombers, and the losses were concentrated in fighter and dive bomber units.

After inventory, the number of carrier-based aircraft that can still be put into combat has been greatly reduced.

What is more serious is that there are not many heavy bombs left in the aircraft carrier's ammunition depot. There are still many light bombs, but they do not pose a fatal threat.

The Taiwei Zuoyuan still had 20 fighters, 17 dive bombers and 18 torpedo planes available.

The Chang Gung still had 16 fighters, 12 dive bombers and 12 torpedo planes available.

The Qiming suffered moderate damage and is currently not capable of combat.

Tianshu still has 5 fighters available.

The Gou Chen still had 11 fighters, 9 dive bombers and 12 torpedo planes available.

The Ziwei Zuoyuan still had 18 fighters, 25 dive bombers and 11 torpedo planes available.

The Fomalhaut still had 19 fighters and 20 dive bombers available.

The Ziwei Zuoyuan and Beiluo Shimen, which served as baits in the previous two days, suffered less losses because they performed relatively conservative tasks during the feint attack on Hawaii.

The officers looked grim and were now faced with a very difficult decision.

The Chang Gung ship was speaking in a deep voice: "It's difficult. We shouldn't fight any more. We can only deal with one of the two, attack and defense. Otherwise, we will lose both the lady and the troops."

The more fighter jets we need to defend our fleet, the better. Based on yesterday's experience, fifty or sixty are the minimum requirement.

However, the attack formation must also be escorted by fighter jets, and the number cannot be small. Otherwise, facing the US fighter jets, it will be a situation of being outnumbered and it will be difficult to achieve results.

"It's not worth exchanging lives for lives. The most important thing is to protect the fleet." The Chang Gung's carrier-based aircraft detachment was proposing an idea. He said, "Everyone, I think most of the fleet will stay behind, and a small team will launch a surprise attack."

"Based on the battle examples of the past two days, it would take at least a hundred fighter planes to effectively penetrate and attack." A lieutenant colonel staff officer asked in surprise, "Wouldn't it be a waste of effort for the squad to go there?"

"There is a way." The captain stretched out his hands and gestured, "Flying at a low altitude very close to the sea, restricted by the curvature of the earth, it is difficult for enemy radar to detect us. This method... I have discussed it with Captain Fan of the Taizuo before, and it is feasible. It has come to this point, it is worth a try."

After careful consideration, Ouyang Zhanghua nodded slightly and said solemnly: "Win in danger, be careful and cautious."

He then issued a series of instructions:

First, the three fleets will converge and work together to maximize the air defense firepower and facilitate timely response by air patrol fighters.

Second, the battle cruiser Yongyuan and the heavy cruiser Qinling were sent out to patrol 20 nautical miles away from the fleet to guard against nighttime raids by the US battleship formation.

Third, make every effort to repair the Qiming so that it can resume its combat capability as soon as possible.

As his orders were issued, officers and soldiers on dozens of warships in the entire fleet became busy with their duties.

Artillery shells of different calibers were continuously transferred from the lower ammunition depot to the waiting position; the military doctors in the medical cabin performed operations non-stop; the canteen served hot meals all night long.

On the large flight deck of the Qiming, there were flickering spots of light. Those were the damage control team members performing simple welding repairs on the breach in the deck.

"Captain Han, please leave some seeds for our team. If we attack again, there will be none left!" A deputy captain of a detachment requested that the dive bomber unit of Chang Gung should not be assigned to attack again.

"No one left? There will always be one left."

It's past midnight and a new day has begun.

At 10:16 a.m. on October 4, the vacuum tube of Cormorant 15, which had run out of life, was replaced and the spacecraft was launched.

Not long after, Cormorant No. 24 received a large number of echo signals - a fleet was detected approaching from the east, less than 200 kilometers away from the fleet.

The Yongyuan and Yuanxing, which served as the outposts, were highly alert, immediately changed course, and launched two seaplanes for reconnaissance.

这支在暗夜中迫近的舰队正是第50特遣舰队第4大队，包括依阿华号在内的4艘战列舰、3艘巴尔的摩级重型巡洋舰、10艘驱逐舰。

William Halsey's decision-making style was very different from Raymond Spruance's, and was obviously much more radical and bold. After temporarily taking over the command, he immediately dispatched a high-speed battleship unit to close the distance under the cover of night, thereby exerting tremendous pressure on the Ming army's aircraft carrier fleet.

Before the naval battle broke out, the President and the Secretary of the Navy deliberately did not let Halsey be the commander, but chose Spruance instead.

The Mingmei showdown is a clash between two strong forces, and they cannot afford to lose, so they have to be cautious - it is better to turn a big victory into a small victory than a small defeat into a big defeat.

Now that the conservative Spruance had withdrawn from the fight, the radical Halsey came in.

He instructed: "I don't want to hear about failure. As long as there is still one plane that can take off, we have not lost. Throw all the heavy bombs over, throw them on the largest ship, blow it up! Sink it!"

The Yorktown was beyond redemption and was abandoned, with the destroyers using torpedoes to punish it.

Two years ago, in the Battle of Tarawa, the first ship of the Yorktown class, the Yorktown (CV-5), was sunk by the Ming army. Now, the reincarnated Essex-class Yorktown (CV-10) has also been killed in battle.

During the two daytime battles, she was hit by a total of five 500 kg armor-piercing bombs, one of which was a dud. Even good damage control could not save the aircraft carrier, and she sank at 10:16 am on October 5 in the Pacific Ocean west of the Murry Fracture Zone.

The day has dawned, the sun has risen, and another worrying and frightening day has arrived.

Zhou Changfeng once published a short article in the Ming Navy's internal newspaper "Navy Semi-Monthly Talk", describing the limitations of terrain on radar and several feasible tactics derived from it.

Due to the curvature of the earth, the detection distance of electromagnetic waves for ultra-low-altitude aircraft will be greatly shortened. Moreover, because the radar will be negatively affected by the side lobes hitting the ground, it is more difficult to distinguish between direct signals and clutter, which will also increase the difficulty of judging the target.

In order to make the final attack effective, the Ming army sent out an elite small-scale attack formation, consisting of only 23 Saker Falcons and 12 Type carrier-based bombers.

As the Cormorant No. 30 searched for the main fleet of the US military, the fleet took off and completed formation within a quarter of an hour, shooting into the distance like a sharp arrow.

7：50，攻击编队距美军舰队280㎞时一分为二，23架战斗机保持在5000m高度平飞，12架俯冲轰炸机下降至海平面高度20m掠海飞行。

Ultra-low altitude flight encounters great air resistance, the cruising speed is much slower than normal, and consumes more fuel.

More than half an hour later, the US fleet was clearly visible. Looking around, the sea was full of warships of various sizes. Dozens of Hellcats were heading to intercept the more than 20 Saker Falcons.

After the air battle started, the radar soldiers of the Constellation were the first to discover a suspicious target approaching rapidly on the sea in the southwest.

“Is this clutter?”

"No, it's not clutter!"

"Sir, IFF is not responding."

"They suddenly appear like ghosts!"

8：41，双方相距仅剩13㎞的时候，11架俯冲轰炸机突然开始爬升。8：43，总调度官保罗上尉命令6架地狱猫前往拦截突然出现的明军飞机。

The communication frequency band was filled with noisy shouts and cheers, which greatly hindered normal communication.

"Constellation, please repeat your instructions. I don't see any enemy aircraft."

"The enemy is at your ten o'clock position, low, maybe 150 or 100 feet..."

"I see, they are climbing!"

The reaction time left for US fighter jets is very short and the window period is fleeting.

As soon as the Ming army's dive bomber formation broke through the blockade, more than a dozen US warships opened fire one after another.

The pilots flew through the shaking sky with flying debris, and the flight of dozens of seconds seemed as long as several hours.

The plane disintegrated in mid-air and turned into debris of varying sizes, which fell into the sea with a splash, splashing hundreds of tiny water columns.

Five dive bombers attacked the Intrepid, and the aircraft carrier, which had only been in service for a few months, was hit by two bombs, one 500kg anti-killing bomb and one 500kg armor-piercing bomb.

Due to the insufficient number of remaining armor-piercing bombs, some aircraft were equipped with ordinary aerial fragmentation bombs with their fuses set to short delay.

The anti-explosive bomb blew a terrifying hole with a diameter of more than 20 meters in the front flight deck of the Intrepid. Many steel trusses were broken and twisted, and the hangar below was also affected. Several Hellcats and Avengers that were ready for attack were destroyed on the spot, and the leaked aviation gasoline caused a rapidly spreading fire.

The armor-piercing bomb hit the left rear of the bridge, penetrated through two decks and exploded. The shock wave and hot steel fragments made a mess of the lower cabin and caused the aviation gasoline pipeline to rupture.

Although the crew quickly shut down the oil pipeline supply, the remaining gasoline and volatile oil vapor in the pipeline still spread out and ignited a raging fire. Part of the power supply was cut off. The situation was very bad from the beginning.

Of the 23 fighters that sortied, 15 returned, and 12 of the 5 dive bombers returned.

Less than an hour later than here, the Ming army fleet over there was also attacked.

Having learned from previous lessons, this time the American pilots focused on the attack. They followed the orders of Acting Commander Halsey and focused on dealing with the Enlightenment.

More than 60 carrier-based aircraft participated in the attack. Due to the heavy losses in the previous two days, even the Indomitable's Barracuda carrier-based bombers joined the battle this time.

There were only a few AN-Mk1 1600-pound armor-piercing bombs left in stock. Even after they were all collected, only 17 were left. They could only be distributed by drawing lots. Those who did not win the lottery would be equipped with 1000-pound semi-armor-piercing bombs or regular bombs.

The three fighter planes, the Saker Falcon, the Hellcat and the Sea Spitfire, were engaged in a melee in the air, with strings of tracer bullets flying up, down, left and right.

Helldivers and Barracudas continued to rush out despite being blocked, and rushed towards the Qiming despite all kinds of fire from the Ming fleet.

"Sight angle 66 degrees, 3,000 meters, eight enemy planes!"

"Enemy planes are diving rapidly in the sky directly in front of us!"

"Unified control of fire! All the A2 turrets focus their fire on the leading enemy aircraft!!!"

"Ding-deng-deng-"

Amid the shouts and roars of anti-aircraft guns, the captain of the Qiming ship, Dai Zhengjun, ordered the ship to turn left.

The giant armored aircraft carrier with a high center of gravity and poor stability tilted to an alarming degree.

“Swoosh—plop—”

I saw an enemy plane opening its air brake flaps and diving at a constant speed, but after dropping the bomb, it did not change its posture and continued to dive and crashed into the sea, splashing a large ball of white waves!
The Ming army sailors were shocked by this scene. They were stunned for a moment, and the continuous artillery fire was paused for half a second.

Just half a minute later, another dive bomber failed to recover after dropping its bombs. It was obvious that the American pilot tried to turn the plane and pull up. However, the plane's movements were extremely slow, and it finally hit the side edge of the flight deck on the left side of the Qiming.

The blue Helldiver was shattered in an instant, and a large amount of aluminum alloy fragments wrapped in burning aviation gasoline rushed into the hangar. The middle section of the hangar turned into a purgatory-like sea of ​​fire in the blink of an eye!

A total of five SB2C Helldivers and one Barracuda MkII carried out the attack, hitting the Qiming with two 1600-pound armor-piercing bombs, a 1000-pound semi-armor-piercing bomb that was a near miss, and a Helldiver that had a direct impact.

The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver was so bad that Otto Coben, a professor of aeronautical engineering at MIT, said, "If they (the Navy) were going to build it, they would be crazy."

As expected, the Helldiver underwent more than 800 major design modifications before it even went into production, but the accident rate of early mass-produced models was still very high, and various problems emerged one after another.

The U.S. Navy had no choice but to equip this thing because the threat posed by the Ming army's armored aircraft carriers was too great. Only it could carry 1600-pound bombs without sacrificing range, while the SBD Dreadnought could only carry 1000-pound bombs.

【Picture】

"Close the fire shutters!"

"Shua-"

The fire sprinklers on top of the hangar were automatically connected one after another, spraying mist droplets downwards.

"Sir! The power is out!"

"Hurry up and connect the emergency engine!"

"Get that burning plane out of the way! Push it into the sea!"

"Don't just stand there, turn on the fire extinguisher."

"Are you trying to kill yourself?! Put on your gas mask!"

The heavy armor-piercing bombs that penetrated into the lower compartment and exploded caused serious damage to the Qiming, causing power outages.

Fortunately, the emergency diesel generator intervened in time, and the semi-automatic fire extinguishing device was put into operation. The aromatic but highly toxic halon fire extinguishing agent gushed out. It and the fire sprinklers worked together to immediately put out the fire in the middle section of the hangar.

While things are good up there, the situation down there is deteriorating rapidly.

Captain Dai Zhengjun, the ship's commander, ordered the filling of water into all the ammunition depots at risk, but in the blink of an eye, a muffled "boom" and a violent vibration were heard, and the officers and soldiers felt as if they were thrown into the air, and then fell down.

The attack by the Barracuda bomber was the most deadly. The 1600-pound armor-piercing bomb smashed through the armored flight deck and then penetrated three decks in succession before detonating. The explosion point was only one compartment away from the No. 128 ammunition depot where mm conventional anti-aircraft bombs were stored.

The possibility of a fire causing a secondary explosion is very small. The cause of the secondary explosion in the No. 4 ammunition depot was that the propellant bags were burned first, and then quickly exploded, triggering the secondary explosion.

On this day, the sea north of the Hawaiian Islands and west of the Maury Fracture Zone was a tragic scene.

Countless debris and pools of oil were scattered around the A-120 Special Forces Fleet, and many life rafts of American pilots were floating, covering an area of ​​several nautical miles.

Dozens of kilometers away, murderous American battleships and heavy cruisers were speeding towards them.

Further away, several destroyers were docked next to the slightly tilted Essex-class ship HMS Intrepid. Wisps of black smoke gathered into a large column that shot straight into the sky. It was as thick as the black smoke that came out of her boiler failure two days ago.

Crowds of people gathered on the deck, and dozens of Cali life rafts had been put into the sea...

(End of this chapter)