Iron Cross

At 8:57, when the last carrier-based attack aircraft fired its torpedo, the first attack wave completed all the attack missions and returned home under the leadership of Fuchida Mitsuo. Although the results of this attack were quite significant, the losses were not small under the attack of the US military's covering fighters and the fleet's anti-aircraft firepower. Including the 4 Zero fighters lost during the interception, a total of 21 aircraft were lost, with a loss rate of nearly 18%, which greatly exceeded Fuchida's psychological expectation of 10%.

But for the fast column, this attack that lasted for more than 30 minutes was just the beginning of the suffering, because the second attack wave led by Lieutenant Commander Egusa Takashige, with a total of 110 aircraft, would soon come again.

While Fuchida Mitsuo completed the mission and returned, the attack wave launched by the USS Ranger also found the Japanese aircraft carrier formation and tried to attack. Unfortunately, they were intercepted by Japanese Zero fighters on the way. There were 18 F4Fs and 18 SBDs at the start, 7 and 9 were lost respectively, leaving only 20 aircraft, but these 20 aircraft still bravely rushed towards the Japanese aircraft carrier.

The 48 straight-line aircraft waiting in the sky above the Japanese fleet immediately separated 36 to meet the enemy. The poor American attack wave was beaten down by Zero fighter pilots one after another before it approached the core of the Japanese fleet. Among them, the most outstanding performance was the team led by Lieutenant Junichi Sasai (he was called the noble son of Rabaul and nicknamed the fighting cock because of his strong fighting power). The 4 aircraft won 9 victories in one breath, making the other pilots who did not get the results scream in the air.

The team was originally a member of the Rabaul Air Force. They not only participated in the Guadalcanal Air Strangulation War, but also fought fiercely with the US-Australia Joint Air Force stationed in Lae and Port Moresby. They all survived successfully, had rich combat experience, and were very familiar with US military tactics. When Hori Teikichi and Tsukahara Jishizo were searching for excellent base pilots to fill the vacancies of carrier-based aircraft pilots, the team was shortlisted because of their superb skills, but Sasai Junichi modestly stated that the most outstanding skill of the team was not him, but Lieutenant Sakai Saburo - but this guy is now injured and still recuperating.

To increase his persuasiveness, he gave an example: a few months ago, during the fierce battle with the US and Australian air forces, Saburo Sakai and his wingmen Hiroyoshi Nishizawa and Toshio Ota chased US bombers over the enemy airport. Not only did they shoot down the enemy planes, they also proudly performed a three-plane formation vertical rotation three times in front of the US military. The next day, when the US bombers bombed again, they humorously dropped a letter to the effect that "yesterday, your pilots came to perform superb flying skills. I was not polite enough to greet them. I hope you will come again. Our army will give you a grand welcome." The three were reprimanded by Junichi Sakai, but Saburo Sakai and others became famous.

Tsukahara Jishizo himself was a former air squadron commander and was very interested in Saburo Sakai's story. After reading his past achievements, he did not despise him for being blind in his right eye after being injured. Instead, he asked his staff to write a letter to encourage him to recover and invite him to fight on the ship. He also comforted him by saying, "What's the big deal about losing an eye? I can still be the fleet commander even though I lost a hand?" In the Japanese army with strict hierarchy, it was rare for a vice admiral to speak so kindly to a second lieutenant in a letter. Saburo Sakai immediately expressed his willingness to join the fleet and served as a reserve pilot before the combined fleet set off. Facts also proved his ability. Although he had never fought on an aircraft carrier and was blind in his right eye, he mastered the take-off and landing essentials in just half a day during training on the newly commissioned Ryuho. After 3 days, he could no longer be seen as a new carrier pilot.

After Sasai Jun's team shot down 9 enemy planes, the remaining 32 Zero fighters could only deal with the remaining 11. It can be said that there were too many wolves and too little meat. Soon, all the US aircraft sank in the turbulent Indian Ocean, and their gains were pitiful. The Shokaku was hit by a near miss, 2 anti-aircraft guns were damaged, 6 sailors operating at the gun positions were killed and 3 were injured. The Americans in the air battle were also defeated. They only shot down 1 Zero fighter - the pilot was successfully parachuted and was fished up by the destroyer.

When the first attack wave of Fuchida Mitsuo successfully returned to the ships and replenished oil and ammunition, the British strike force that took off from Socotra Island finally arrived over the aircraft carrier. They were all slowed down by the slow Swordfish. The Zero fighter group that had just been robbed of the limelight by the 4-man team saw that someone came to die again, and immediately rushed to attack. When they got closer, they found that there were even biplane torpedo planes mixed in the enemy planes. The pilots were simply happy.

Although the skills of these British pilots were better than those of the Americans, the performance of their aircraft was too poor. Whether it was the Fulmar, Sea Hurricane or Swordfish, they were all outdated. It was the Italians who made them famous for their surprise attack on Taranto. They were destined to be a dish for Zero fighters in the Battle of Ceylon. Now, with such a small number of them, it was even easier to deal with them. Five minutes later, these old British aircraft were shot down one after another by Zero fighters. Only one Swordfish dropped a torpedo out of range, but it hit no one. The pilot fell into the Indian Ocean with a head full of reluctance.

At 9:16, Jiangcao Longshige led the second attack wave to the battlefield. The sea was in chaos. The British and American destroyers were busy retrieving people from the sea. The entire fast fleet suffered heavy losses in the first round of attacks, and the complete wheel-shaped air defense array was not deployed in time, resulting in a large air defense gap. Cunningham and Peters were so anxious that they jumped up and down. However, Jiangcao Longshige did not rush to attack, but first led a large fleet to circle around the entire fast column. The remaining F4F fighters were confused by the actions of the Japanese fleet and mistakenly thought that they were going to attack the transport fleet that was desperately fleeing to the shore in the west, and immediately rushed up to intercept them without hesitation.

Jiang Cao Longfan responded with a contemptuous smile, first luring this batch of F4Fs out of the fleet's air defense firepower network, and then commanding the Zero fighters that were responsible for the cover mission to rush over. More than 30 Zero fighters rushed forward and wiped out the remaining more than ten air defense fighters outside the fleet's air defense firepower network. Cunningham and Peters, who were watching the battle below, changed their faces again and again. Now they finally knew how terrible their opponents were - they were like wolves secretly spying on their own side, waiting for their side to reveal a flaw before rushing up! The target of this batch of aircraft was not the transport echelon at all, but still themselves!

Fierce anti-aircraft fire began to fly all over the sky again, but because the opponent's F4Fs had all been shot down, the Zero fighters that were covering could free up their hands. They calmly rushed down and suppressed the anti-aircraft guns of each ship with machine gun firepower, and then the ship bombing and ship attack were divided into the left and right wings to launch attacks simultaneously. Jiang Gua Longshige himself locked his target firmly on the Massachusetts, which was the largest, most powerful and emitting black smoke. However, there was a heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa (New Orleans class) guarding the Massachusetts. If he attacked the Massachusetts directly, it would be easy to be attacked by crossfire, so he decided to attack the heavy cruiser first.

He saw black smoke coming out of the middle of the starboard side of the ship and saw that the ship was tilting to the right, so he concluded that the ship had a major gap on the starboard side, so he personally led three aircraft to swoop down. The three aircraft had cooperated many times before and were very skilled. They followed the route and dropped bombs at almost the same height and pulled up. Three bombs hit the middle of the starboard side in succession. The explosion centers were no more than 4 meters apart, and three large holes were immediately opened on the starboard side. The three large holes formed a 7-meter-long and 2-meter-high hole. There was no way to stop the leak. He could only watch the seawater rushing in. In less than 3 minutes, this 10,000-ton treaty-type heavy cruiser capsized due to excessive water inflow.

In the command tower of the Warspite, Peters ignored the rest of the battle situation and hurried to report the latest intelligence to Cunningham: "Sir, the slow column sent a telegram, they are about 1,100 nautical miles away from us, all fighters have been arranged, but even after mounting auxiliary fuel tanks, these fighters can't fly that far. They proposed a suggestion, whether to fly to Kenya first for fuel supply, and then fly over to cover the fleet?" "It's hard for them to be so thoughtful, forget it..." Cunningham smiled bitterly and pointed to the outside where the crazy attack was still going on "When they arrive, they will probably just collect our bodies. Let's keep them to cover the slow column. Hand over the command to Rear Admiral Hewitt of the US Navy and ask him to take full command. The current reinforcement mission is suspended. Please contact South Africa or London directly for follow-up combat orders. Be sure to save the slow fleet."

"Yes."

"Has the Kenyan cover aircraft been dispatched?"

"The Coast Guard Command in Mombasa reported half an hour ago that the aircraft were ready, but the number was small, only 6 B-25, 9 8 handsome fighters and 8 tunas are available, and they are estimated to have taken off from Mogadishu. "

Cunningham was angry: "What use are they? Attack planes and bombers without fighter cover are all sitting ducks for the Japanese. What about the Hurricane? What about the Spitfire?"

"But the distance is too far. Both the Spitfire and the Hurricane have the problem of short legs. Even if they hang the auxiliary fuel tanks and take off from the nearest Mogadishu, they can only stay above the fleet for 10-15 minutes. If they go to attack the Japanese fleet, they can't reach it at all and have to fall from mid-air - this is already too far. Consider the return trip and directly make the plane land on the sea. If the return trip is considered, there is no need to send it. The only thing that can fly far without considering the return trip is the seaplane - but they are okay for anti-submarine, not anti-ship. There were some Tomahawks, but they were transferred from the Desert Air Force to support Egypt two days ago..." "Alas..." Cunningham punched the wall with a fist and sighed helplessly, "The operation is canceled. Let them keep the pilots and planes and don't give the Japanese any more results."