New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

It was already 9:40 at this time, and the incoming torpedo plane force had just retreated. They paid a huge price, but only achieved the result of damaging a Japanese aircraft carrier.However, compared to the historical situation where the torpedo plane troops were almost wiped out but did not hit any targets, it is still good. At least, most of the torpedo planes retreated completely.And the effect of hitting right and wrong in history-attracting all enemy fighter jets to low altitudes, so that no enemy planes blocked the dive bombers when they launched an assault-was also achieved.And because this assault was better organized, the bombers appeared in a more timely manner.Just when the torpedo plane turned its head, 32 dreadnought dive bombers led by Major Clarence McCluskey from the Enterprise had appeared over the Nanyun Fleet.Major Clarence McCluskey looked down from a height of 2000 meters, and a huge fleet was unobstructed in front of him.A huge lineup of warships on the ocean formed a huge circular formation, and in the middle of this escort circle were 4 large aircraft carriers.Even better, above the fleet, there is not even a shadow of the Japanese escort plane.The flight decks of the four aircraft carriers all have a huge (15 meters in diameter) bright red sun painted on it, like a giant bullseye.Major Clarence McCluskey selected one of them (the aircraft carrier Kaga) and swooped down with 16 dive bombers.The other 16 bombers were at Wilhelm.Under the leadership of Lieutenant Commander Gallagher, he rushed to a nearby aircraft carrier (Akagi aircraft carrier).

Now all zero battles are fighting f400f at altitudes below 4 meters.When the bomber fleet appeared, no one could immediately climb up to intercept them, only some small-caliber anti-aircraft guns barely turned their muzzles, trying to intercept the US bombers.But these sparse artillery fires were almost useless.

On the Akagi aircraft carrier at this time, Genda raised his head and looked towards the sky after hearing the alarm from the police sentry. He saw a group of bombers with eye-catching white five-pointed stars painted on their wings. Then one dived down towards Akagi, getting closer and closer.Now not only the heavy semi-armor-piercing bombs hanging under the belly of the aircraft are clearly visible, but even the opened dive flaps of the bomber can be clearly seen.The air flow passed through the small holes of the dive flap at high speed, making a terrifying whistling sound.Not long ago, Genda commanded the Japanese bomber force at Pearl Harbor, and in a similar roar, wiped out the main force of the US Pacific Fleet.Now, everything is reversed.As an experienced pilot, Genda immediately judged that the Akagi must be shot.

But the first one to be beaten was not the Akagi, but the Kaga not far away.

Major McCluskey's dreadnought dived to a height of 500 meters, and he did not drop the bomb until the huge red sun on the Kaga almost filled his front windshield.As the bomb was dropped, the entire plane seemed to jump forward with a sudden light.Major McCluskey pulled the joystick fiercely, blood began to rush to his legs, he felt that the surrounding light began to become darker and darker, and his field of vision continued to shrink, leaving only the people directly in front of him. a little bit.At the same time, his ears began to buzz, and his face and tongue felt a little numb.Fortunately, at this time, the nose of the aircraft was gradually raised, and at an altitude of about 80 meters, McCluskey leveled the aircraft.These symptoms gradually disappeared.Only then did his ears hear the screams of the machine gunner on the rear seat: "Hit, hit again! Haha, hit again! Sir, plus the guy we just had, that boat was hit by four bombs !"

McCluskey looked back, and he saw that the aircraft carrier was ablaze.The four bombs definitely don't have such power. Could it be that they hit the ammunition depot or the fuel depot?But whatever the reason, it was clear that the ship was doomed.

Similar to McCluskey's conjecture, the status quo of the Kaga is indeed that the ammunition depot was hit, but the ammunition depot is on the deck.In the bomb-for-torpedo and torpedo-for-bomb farce just now, in order to rush for time, Ri himself had no time to send the replaced bombs back to the well-protected ammunition depot, but piled them directly on the deck.Some of the bombs were not even defused.These bombs were also detonated after the bombs dropped by the Americans exploded on the deck.So almost in an instant, this huge aircraft carrier, once the pride of the Japanese Navy, became a sea of ​​flames.

The Akagi suffered the same fate as the Kaga. Due to the good evasive action, only one of the bombs dropped by the 16 bombers hit, but this bomb happened to land on the rear of the deck, where many bomb.The result—the tragedy of Kaga was repeated again. The bombs piled up on the deck were like firecrackers set off by the Chinese during the Chinese New Year. They exploded one after another. In a blink of an eye, the ship also became a sea of ​​flames.

Facing this sudden catastrophe, Lieutenant General Nagumo on the bridge was stunned.

Flames were already licking the glass windows of the bridge.Caolu shouted at Nanyun: "We have to evacuate!" But Nanyun refused to leave.

Thousands of gallons of burning gasoline flowed down the lower deck, and the torpedoes in the hangars began to explode.Groups of fireballs sprayed out from both sides of the ship.Nagumo still refused to leave the bridge.

The captain of the "Akagi" aircraft carrier, Aoki Daijiro, shouted to Nanyun: "I am in charge of this ship. It is useless for you and your personnel to stay here. Please transfer to another ship!" Nagumo said: He is the commander of the entire assault fleet, not the captain of a certain ship.After everyone's persuasion, Nanyun finally expressed that he was willing to lead everyone to leave in consideration of the overall situation.But at this time the entire bridge was almost surrounded by fire.The corridor was also blocked by thick smoke and flames.

"Break the glass!" Grass Deer shouted.Someone picked up a chair and violently knocked off the glass.The glass shattered.

They hung down two ropes, and the grass deer shouted: "Everyone, don't panic, let the leader go first!" Pushing Nagumo out first, the short general slid down and fell 14 meters lower than the bridge. On the flight deck, the grass deer followed closely behind.

In just 6 minutes, the Kaga and Akagi were completely destroyed.Of course, the U.S. military was not without losses. Thirteen of the 32 bombers were either shot down by the anti-aircraft artillery fire of the Japanese ship, or were shot down by zero combat after the bomb was pulled up, and one was not pulled up because it dived too hard.But compared to the losses of the Japanese army, this battle was undoubtedly a complete victory.Besides, it's not the end yet.

Historically, the dive bombers that took off from the Hornet failed to find the target after being separated from other aircraft, and became completely soy sauce.But this time, because the distance between the fleets was compressed, these bombers did not lose their way, and the soy sauce party finally came.

Just as Nagumo and the others were transferring to the light cruiser Nagara in a motorboat, the shrill siren sounded again.Nagumo looked up and saw two more bombers swooping down on his fleet.

The unlucky one this time was the injured Canglong.At this time, the deck of the Canglong was tilted to 13 degrees due to a thunderstorm, and its speed dropped below 20 knots. It was really an easy target to hit. 19 dive bombers launched an attack on it, and as a result, they hit 8 bombs in one breath, and the hit rate exceeded 40.00%.One of the bombs penetrated the deck and hit the fuel depot. A large amount of aviation gasoline was ignited, and the whole ship was burned red.

Another team of 18 bombers launched an attack on the only surviving Japanese aircraft carrier, the Flying Dragon.But the Flying Dragon behaved like a god and demon body protector.Under the command of Captain Kalai Shio, the ship twisted crazily, and bombs rained down beside the aircraft carrier, but only one bomb hit an elevator near the port side, but the entire aircraft carrier was still alive. Ability to land aircraft.Moreover, the aircraft carrier's own defensive firepower also shot down 4 bombers.

Yagyu, nicknamed Bandit Skua, just landed on the Flying Dragon aircraft carrier not long ago.At this time, he witnessed this thrilling process on the ship.Later, the famous Japanese ace pilot of Hainan Airlines described this experience in his memoir "The Sunken Empire":

"...In just a few minutes, the pride of the Imperial Navy, the Kaga and Akagi aircraft carriers were finished. I saw that the two ships were on fire and continued to explode. There is no doubt that they can no longer It was saved. I have seen such a scene several times later, but this time it shocked me much more than the later ones. For the first time, I realized that the warships of the Empire would also burn like this. I turned my head and looked at Ishihara , I saw that Shi Yuan was also turning his head to look at me. His mouth was wide open, as if he was about to shout, but nothing came out, and his face was completely distorted by fear at this moment, And it was as pale as a dead person. So that I always dreamed of that face when I had nightmares later. (Ishihara later told me that my face at that time was also very scary.)

But this nightmare was far from waking up, and the crew members on the Kaga and Akagi carried the flames burning on their bodies, (fortunately, as far as I know, the burning clothes are all internal flames, The temperature is low, it won't burn people to death) 1. When jumping directly into the sea one by one from the high deck, a bleak air defense siren sounded once.This time it's for us...

The warship made a sharp turn to the left, and the whole warship tilted over, which made me almost fall when I was unprepared.At this moment, a bomb landed on the sea surface not far from the starboard side, and a jet of water nearly tens of meters high exploded.If it wasn't for the sharp turn just now, it would have hit the deck directly...

Bombs fell one after another, and they stirred up huge water jets. Often, before one water jet fell, several water jets rose next to the warship.The warship twisted violently, like a wounded beast running wild in the forest of water jets.Finally a bomb hit, but fortunately it was not a critical location. I saw the damage control personnel dragging the water pipe and ran over... The entire air raid passed in a few minutes, but I felt that the time was so long and unbearable.Fortunately, the damage to the mothership was not large, we can still take off and land aircraft, and we still have combat effectiveness.Just when the enemy plane had just left and the damage control personnel were still busy putting out the fire, according to General Yamaguchi's order, the aircraft carrier turned to the direction against the wind.Our counterattack is about to begin..."

At 10:15, 6 Zero fighters and 18 dive bombers took off from the Hiryu. They will attack the US fleet that has been discovered long ago but has not been able to attack immediately for various reasons.But now, two hours have passed since the discovery of the U.S. fleet. Can they still find the Americans at that location?