Iron Cross

Ps: This chapter is added by the leader "Yuebei Hanjiang". There are still two more chapters to go. Let me slowly make up for it. Thank you for your support.

Seeing the torpedo finally being dropped, all the pilots breathed a sigh of relief, but the next scene surprised them deeply: the plane that dropped the torpedo did not choose to climb higher with the momentum of the momentary ascent after dropping the bomb, but lowered its altitude again - this is an extremely difficult action. If it is pressed too hard, the plane will easily fall into the water. If it is pressed too lightly, it will not be able to effectively lower its altitude and will only crash into the bridge.

Shigeharu Murata had considered the tactical choice very clearly: the plane was very close to the bridge deck, and it might not be able to climb in time to get rid of the inclined cables above the bridge deck, so it had to pass under the bridge. However, the lower edge of the bridge was only more than 40 meters from the water surface, so he had to be very careful. The reason why he chose to drop bombs at an altitude of 20 meters was also based on this consideration. If the torpedo was dropped at more than 30 meters, the moment of floating up when the torpedo was dropped might directly cause the plane to crash into the bridge body. He was confident that he could control the distance from 20 meters to floating up again.

Watching the plane fly under the bridge deck, everyone held their breath. Several pilots simply turned their heads away and dared not look, but after a few seconds they could not help but turn their heads again: they saw that the plane successfully passed under the bridge hole, and the three members on the plane, including Shigeharu Murata himself, were sweating profusely: the moment of passing under the bridge hole was too thrilling. Although there was actually a distance of 2-3 meters, it felt as if they could touch the bridge body as long as they dared to stand up and reach out!

Less than 10 seconds after the plane successfully flew out, the torpedo hit the other side of the bridge pier fiercely, causing a huge explosion. The machine gunner in the back seat cheered: "It's done! It's done! It collapsed! It collapsed!"

Murata Shigeharu looked back and saw that the bridge pier finally collapsed under the combined effect of the explosive force of the five torpedoes and the water pressure. The entire bridge, including the bridge deck and the steel cable, fell down and broke into several pieces. Finally, they all fell heavily into the East River, and the waves stirred up were even more violent than when the torpedo exploded just now.

At 5:18, Fuchida Mitsuo received a telegram: "Fortunately, the mission has been fulfilled. The bridge has been destroyed. Everyone is returning home!"

He was deeply immersed in excitement and could not help himself: "It is worthy of being the king of lightning strikes!"

Looking down, the Rockefeller Center was caught in a raging fire and could not extricate itself.

Although the anti-aircraft guns fired in vain and the searchlights tried to lock on the flying bombers, in the eyes of Fuchida Mitsuo, New York's resistance was not even as fierce as that of Pearl Harbor. This was not his illusion: Pearl Harbor was the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet after all, and its anti-aircraft firepower was much stronger than that of New York. The personnel were also soldiers who had served for a long time, and their quality was not comparable to that of the temporarily recruited National Guard. Moreover, the bombing of Pearl Harbor was during the day, with good visibility, and the defenders could easily find the target and fight back on the spot, while the attack on New York was at night, and the characteristics of the several buildings that the aircraft were going to attack were very distinct, and there was no need to even consider the target dodging. Of course, it was not the same feeling when the two sides were increasing or decreasing.

Night air raids are a problem for the whole world. Except for Germany, which has established a complete night air defense system with multi-dimensional defense means such as night fighters, long-range radar stations, searchlight strips and anti-aircraft guns, all other countries can only rely on blind guessing. A country like the United States, which has been at peace for a long time, is almost defenseless. If it were not for the intimidation order issued by Hori Teikichi at the beginning, it would not even be able to keep up with the current defense strength.

What was more favorable to the Axis fleet was that Arnold had withdrawn all the combat-capable pilots on the East Coast to support the Panama campaign, and now he could not organize a strong fighter unit to fight back.

Faced with the futile anti-aircraft firepower, Richard, who was on the verge of collapse, called the Army Aviation Base in despair, hoping that they could send out fighters, but was told that all the personnel had not received night training and were completely in the dark. The only three instructors in the entire base who were capable of fighting were only three instructors.

"Then let them go!"

"They just took off!"

Listening to the rumbling explosions, alarms and red flames outside, Richard desperately hugged his head and shed bitter tears - there were hundreds of enemy planes, what was the use of just three fighters?

"How can I be worthy of the people of New York! How can I be worthy of General Marshall!" The staff only heard him mumbling to himself, and they were all very sad.

At 5:21, all Ju-98s dropped their bombs and returned. Their speed was the slowest among all aircraft types, and they had to return the earliest according to the plan to free up time and deck for the landing of the subsequent aircraft group. Two minutes later, Kusaka Ryunosuke excitedly trotted to Tsukahara Jishizo and reported: "Sir, the battle report from the front, the bombing was a great success."

"Very good!" Tsukahara opened his slightly closed eyes and asked with concern, "Where is the fleet now?"

"535 kilometers from New York, and it will be light in about half an hour."

"Take off the direct cover aircraft to prepare for the response, and free up the deck for the first batch of aircraft to land. After daybreak is our most dangerous moment."

Time passed by minute by minute, the US ground firepower has become more and more fierce, and the rest of the offensive targets have been basically completed at this time. Fuchida Mitsuo let the planes that completed the bombing return first, and he led the rest of the planes to the last target-the Manhattan Bridge.

Although the Manhattan Bridge is not as famous as the Brooklyn Bridge, it is no less complex than the latter. The bridge is designed with upper and lower floors. The upper level has two-way four lanes, and the lower level includes two-way convertible three-lanes, in addition to subway lines and sidewalks. He and Minoru Genda conducted a careful analysis in advance and concluded that the Manhattan Bridge's hydrological and structural characteristics could only be destroyed by dive bombing. Therefore, although the Manhattan Bridge was not far from the Brooklyn Bridge, he did not let Shigeharu Murata lead more aircraft to attack. Instead, he led the last nine He-218s to attack.

At 5:34, the bombing of the bridge started. Seeing the looming bridge deck, Mizuo Fuchida showed a cruel smile, pointed at the intercom and shouted: "Let the enemy see the death we practiced on Socotra Island." Let’s dance! Everyone has it, number 3!”

"Onboard!"

After a minute of formation adjustment, the nine aircraft formed a horizontal formation with a distance of 50 meters from each other and a flying altitude of 1,200 meters. They looked neat and tidy, as if they had been chopped with a knife and an axe.

"preparation!"

"attack!"

Following an order, nine planes aimed at the bridge and swooped down quickly. A few seconds later, they released bombs in unison: nine 500-kilogram high-explosive bombs rolled down from a height of about 500 meters, and hit them hard a moment later. There was an explosion on the bridge - even the explosion time was almost the same. Under the synergistic effect of several tons of explosives, the upper deck of the entire bridge broke into sections of about 50 meters, and then fell one after another, and together with the explosion shock wave, the lower deck was broken. Now, except for the piers and the bridge deck near both sides of the bridge, the entire bridge is still intact. The middle section seems to have been cut into several pieces by the hand of God with an epic sword and then thrown into the water.

The "Dance of Death" was originally trained to deal with an imaginary giant enemy - a super-armored aircraft carrier with a deck of more than 270 meters and heavy defenses (only the Midway-class on the drawing can reach this level), generally using No. 2 Indicator - 6 aircraft attack simultaneously, with a distance of 45 meters and a height of 1,500 meters. Using indicator No. 3 to deal with the bridge is unique, and it has proven to be very successful.

Looking at the surging river and the empty bridge, Mizuo Fuchida nodded with satisfaction: "The whole army is returning!"

At 5:38, the white fish belly appeared in the east, and the fleet that completed the attack quickly retreated.

At about 5:30, Roosevelt was woken up by a phone call while he was still sleeping. He had been sleeping very uneasily recently. On the one hand, he was anxious about the war situation on the front line, and on the other hand, he was worried about the future. Last night's update I fell asleep very late, and this was the time when I slept most soundly.

"Sorry, Mr. President, I came to disturb you before dawn." Marshall's voice came from the microphone, "We have encountered a very bad and difficult situation..."

Hearing Marshall's voice, Roosevelt suddenly became alert: "What's the bad news?"

"It's very bad." Marshall's words were full of exhaustion and helplessness. "I just received news that New York was hit by a violent air raid more than ten minutes ago."

"What?" Roosevelt exclaimed. "How big? What's the situation?"

"The radar station reported that there may be 200 aircraft. The situation is not good. The Empire State Building has been bombed."

"Damn, where did they come from? Aircraft carriers?"

"You guessed it right, they launched the attack from the sea."

"Let our planes and anti-aircraft guns destroy them." Roosevelt waved his fist excitedly.

"It may be useless. We don't have night-fighting aircraft, and we don't have enough anti-aircraft guns. What's more terrible is that the personnel lack training." Although Marshall himself was in a very low mood, he still comforted Roosevelt, "I will rush to New York after daybreak to take charge of the rescue. I I believe we can hold on.”

"Send planes to attack immediately after dawn, and we must sink all the damn aircraft carriers!"

"Understood, I just gave the order."

At 6:29, the sky cleared up and the first batch of returning aircraft landed safely on the aircraft carrier.

At the same time, the Changdao Radar Station is also making an emergency report: "Starting from 5:20, there are planes flying due east one after another. The monitoring distance of this station is limited, and the target will naturally disappear after 150 kilometers!"

When launching the bombing, they used a low-altitude approach, and when they returned, they returned directly at a high altitude. All aircraft had to pass through the monitoring range of the Changdao radar station, so they were clearly observed by the US military.

"Report cumulative number."

"More than 160 sorties."

Army Aviation Commander-in-Chief Arnold issued an order through gritted teeth in Washington: "Start a search immediately and not let go of an enemy plane or an enemy ship!"