Iron Cross

Seeing that there were not many fighter jets in the sky above the US military and they had already flown over to intercept, he immediately ordered: "Akamatsu Sadaki, you are responsible for clearing out the enemy fighter jets..."

"Hai!"

The poor US F4F carrier-based aircraft pilots are brave but actually unwise - the best way they should take is to hover over the fleet and rely on anti-aircraft firepower to deal with the Axis forces, rather than rushing over to intercept them without overestimating their capabilities. In order to achieve the best offensive effect, Fletcher has sent out all the most skilled fighters and pilots to cover. There is no F6F among the direct cover aircraft, and there are only less than 5 experienced pilots left. Their skills are obviously at a low level. At a low level, they rushed forward bravely, right into Akamatsu Sadaki's arms, and then fell as fast as possible.

In just 5 minutes, all 32 anti-aircraft fighters were shot down. Akamatsu Sadaki shot down 3 alone, while the attacking Bf-219 only lost 4. At first, the officers and soldiers on the U.S. warships cheered for the falling planes in the sky. When they discovered that all the falling planes were American planes painted with white stars, they were all speechless. Seeing such a disparity in the score, Fletcher and Cox took a deep breath. They finally understood why the enemy still had such a strong force even though the Army Air Forces had spent hundreds of aircraft and the Axis Fleet: the technology of both sides. The gap is really too big.

Taking advantage of the fighter group sweeping through the enemy's air defense group, Mizuo Fuchida quickly made up his mind: the enemy's existing tight formation must be broken, otherwise it will be very difficult to force an attack. He passed the order to Shigeharu Murata and asked the Lightning Strike Team to launch the attack first. He himself led the He-218 to break into the sky above the fleet without diving to drop bombs, firmly attracting the US air defense firepower.

The first batch of 36 torpedo planes immediately lowered their altitude and dropped torpedoes as required when the U.S. military's firepower was attracted to the high altitude. This uncharacteristic attack routine caused chaos in the U.S. aircraft carrier formation. Each ship began to turn freely to avoid the torpedoes. A gap immediately appeared in the wheel-shaped air defense array.

Taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, three groups of He-218s immediately pounced to drop bombs. Their targets were the light cruiser USS Boise, the light cruiser USS Denver (Cleveland-class), and the light aircraft carrier USS Princeton on the right wing of the fleet. The two light cruisers each One 500-kilogram bomb was hit, and the Princeton was hit by two. As a result, the second ship of the Independence class immediately struggled and sank. This was not over yet. Half a minute later, the light cruiser USS Boise was hit by a torpedo due to its greatly reduced speed after being hit. This light cruiser with a displacement of more than 9,700 tons could no longer hold up and had to sink.

After the USS Boise and the USS Princeton sank, a large gap suddenly appeared on the right wing of the entire aircraft carrier formation. The heavy cruiser USS Houston (Northampton class) rushed up to fill the gap. All the US military's anti-aircraft firepower was transferred here. But Genda did not continue to focus on this. He set his sights on the American warships on the left. In the torpedo attack just now, the heavy cruiser Astoria (New Orleans class) was covering the flagship Lexington. , was hit by two torpedoes. How could this poor treaty-type heavy cruiser withstand such a heavy blow? It quickly capsized and then began to sink slowly.

In order to continue to protect the flagship, the light cruiser Columbia desperately took the position of the Astoria, but the chaos on the left wing could not be resolved for a while. This was enough for the He-218 to launch an attack, with a total of 2 groups of 6 He-218s. 218 dived down from a high altitude. Although the anti-aircraft gunner shot down one of them very effectively, three bombs penetrated the deck and exploded. The light cruiser was immediately paralyzed and dying on the water, looking like it might capsize at any time.

After the two cruisers were sunk or paralyzed, the Belleau Forest on the left wing was immediately exposed. Mizuo Fuchida immediately commanded three formations to pounce down. Nine planes bombed at the same time and quickly pulled up. A total of four bombs fell, which made the cruiser more vulnerable. What makes people feel numb is that these four bombs are less than 25 meters apart from each other, and they exploded almost within a short time interval. The violent and continuous explosion blew the Independence-class No. 3 ship into two pieces, with only 11 A naval officer narrowly escaped with his life.

Cox's eyelids jumped when he saw the Axis Army's air attack: The opponent was not a swarm of swarms rushing up to attack blindly. They wanted to throw all the bombs or torpedoes at the first time to count - that is what our carrier-based guys often do. , but repeatedly hovered in the air, accurately calculating and analyzing various possibilities. Once the target was determined, it launched an attack with a fast, accurate and ruthless strategy, and the offensive routines were very rich - there were fighter jets in the air strafing the sea, desperately suppressing the air defense Firepower, dive bombers repeatedly circled over the warships to attract attention, and then lightning strike aircraft took advantage of various unprepared conditions to launch attacks.

He witnessed with his own eyes a group of four torpedo planes lowering their height to only 25 meters above the sea, approaching the warship and secretly dropping torpedoes. He couldn't help shouting "Be careful!" in the command tower, but in On the ever-changing and complex battlefield, no one could hear this reminder. He could only watch helplessly as the newly commissioned heavy cruiser USS Baltimore (the first ship of the Baltimore class), which had not even been completely dry with paint in many parts It was hit by 3 torpedoes and then sank. Although this newly commissioned heavy cruiser got rid of the shackles of the treaty and had a displacement of nearly 15,000 tons, it was only a heavy cruiser no matter how awesome it was. How could it withstand a single-side ship? What are the consequences of eating three torpedoes?

After the periphery was almost cleared, Fuchida Mitsuo could finally launch a fierce attack boldly and confidently. The second Cleveland-class ship, the light cruiser Columbia, immediately attracted two teams of dive bombers. Under the "care" of three 500-kilogram bombs, he followed the footsteps of other warships and slowly sank in the Caribbean Sea.

After both wings of the US military formation suffered heavy damage, the second round of torpedoes and dive bombings were launched almost simultaneously, and the primary target of this round was the largest and most prominent target-the flagship Lexington. Seven torpedo planes and nine He-218s rushed to attack. In order to cover the smooth deployment of the attack aircraft group, 12 Bf-219s quickly poured fire on the deck and anti-aircraft gun positions, causing ghosts and wolves to howl on the deck.

A moment later, the captain described the situation of the entire ship to Fletcher with a pale face: a bomb hit the bow and a bomb hit the rear elevator - although these destroyed the warship's take-off and landing capabilities, they were not fatal to the nearly 30,000-ton Lexington. The real damage was the 500-kilogram bomb on the rear deck, which penetrated several decks and fell into the hangar and exploded, not only blowing the internal structure to pieces, but also igniting the aviation fuel. The two muffled sounds from the warship were not caused by the torpedo, but by the continuous explosion of the leaked oil and gas after encountering open flames.

Now the speed of the whole ship dropped from 30 knots to only 17 knots. Fletcher was heartbroken by the captain's sad face, but he still asked: "Can this ship be saved? Do we need to abandon the ship?"

"Not abandoning the ship yet, but it's better to transfer your command to other warships."

Fletcher pointed to the enemy planes flying up and down in the sky and smiled bitterly: "Please tell me, which ship is safe?"

While talking, there was a sudden cry of "Torpedo!"

Cox saw clearly that two white lines were flying over on the port side. Although the Lexington tried its best to turn, the warship with a greatly reduced speed was clumsy and finally failed to avoid it. A torpedo was hit in the middle and rear of the ship. The seawater rushed in crazily. Fletcher only felt that the warship tilted rapidly to the left.

The captain's voice had become terrified: "Sir, the damage control can't be stopped, please retreat immediately, I'm going to issue an abandon ship order."

At 11:17, Fletcher and a group of staff officers from the headquarters witnessed the Lexington slowly sinking in the kayak, and everyone's eyes were filled with tears - this was the second Lexington to sink since the war began.

The kayak paddled desperately, trying to get close to another Essex aircraft carrier, the Yorktown, but Fletcher soon found that it was useless. More than a dozen He-218s were rushing down to attack in the air. Although the fierce anti-aircraft fire shot down two of them, the rest of the bombers successfully dropped bombs. The bow, stern, bridge, main deck, etc. were all hit by bombs. There were also three near misses. One of the bombs that was farther away caused a water column to soar into the sky, soaking Fletcher, Cox and others in the kayak.

Looking at the firepower gushing out like a volcanic eruption and the fragments of the warships splashing everywhere, Fletcher knew that the warship was doomed. Even if it didn't sink, it would lose the qualification to continue to serve as an aircraft carrier. Moreover, he dared to conclude that the damage to the Yorktown was so serious that it would be useless even if it was towed back - the time for repairs could completely build a new ship.

When the bombing was coming to an end, Fuchida Mitsuo suddenly found the Illuminati aircraft carrier hiding in the smoke - except for the pilots, all the officers and soldiers on this ship were British officers and soldiers, who were much more experienced than their American counterparts. After discovering that the Axis attack aircraft group was huge and the number of their own anti-aircraft fighters was insufficient, the captain immediately ordered the release of smoke. That was not all, and people also burned abandoned aircraft tires and other combustibles on the deck, and also lit a fire near the bridge. It looked like the flames were soaring into the sky, as if it was seriously injured, but in fact, there was nothing wrong.

This cunning response strategy successfully fooled the Axis fleet. They thought the ship had been bombed almost to the point of being destroyed, so they stopped wasting ammunition on it. However, when evaluating the results of the battle, Fuchida Mitsuo found something wrong: his orders to attack aircraft carriers were traceable, but the Glorious did not seem to have ordered an attack, so how could there be gunpowder everywhere? After lowering the altitude and taking a closer look, he discovered the problem.