Iron Cross

Although Fleet A was closer to the Japanese artillery formation that opened fire on the Tarawa beach, due to the toss and confusion during takeoff, the carrier-based aircraft took off and regrouped much slower than the Japanese. When the first wave of US attack aircraft arrived over the target, they were nowhere to be seen. How long will it take before the Japanese attack aircraft group will arrive?

Fleet A ran away as fast as possible after releasing the aircraft, trying desperately to extend the distance of the Japanese attack, but it only ran dozens of kilometers. For aircraft with a speed of more than 400 kilometers, it could only delay for a few minutes at most.

The US military attack wave flew from east to west, and the Japanese attack wave rushed toward the northeast. Although the two fleets did not meet in the middle, the US military flying team still flew sparsely, forcing the commander to temporarily form a team over the battlefield on the eve of approaching the target.

The commander of Fleet A is Rear Admiral Thomson. With his ruthless personality, he released 146 of the 178 aircraft in one breath, leaving only 32 to protect the fleet. He knew very well that this was only symbolic psychological comfort: once the aircraft carrier was attacked by the enemy, Attack, these air defense fighters are simply not enough, but he cannot leave too many. There will also be air defense fighters in the sky above the Japanese artillery fleet. If the number is too small, the attack fleet will not be able to penetrate.

But he overlooked one point. A large formation consisting of 146 aircraft was very difficult. To maintain the formation continuously exceeded the ability of his rookies. Even if it took 4 minutes to temporarily organize the formation, the first group to attack actually The plane was only over 100 years old, and the other planes came here and there - if Nimitz really carried out a 600-kilometer long-distance attack, I don't know where these rookies would fly to in the end.

"Sir, all Fleet A is out and about to reach the target."

Halsey did not look happy at all, but said irritably: "The enemy should have also attacked. Hasn't the reconnaissance plane discovered the enemy aircraft carrier formation yet?"

"Not yet."

"Intensify investigation efforts!"

At 8:29, the heavy cruiser Suzuya (Mogami), which was on guard at the periphery, used the radar detection results to issue an alert: "Enemy aircraft are incoming, heading 265 degrees, speed 240 knots, and the fleet size is estimated to be 100 aircraft."

The first wave of Japanese attack aircraft departing from a farther position is still 10 minutes away from Fleet A, and the leader Mizuo Fuchida is still searching for Fleet A.

"This should be the attack group of those light aircraft carriers. Sir, do you need to set up a wheel-shaped defensive formation?"

"No need, the bombardment fleet will continue the bombardment. The heavy warships will go round to the deep sea and keep maneuvering. After the enemy air strikes are over, the landing will begin immediately." Horikichi issued the order, "I believe the air defense fighters will not let us down."

"So early? Don't you plan to log in tomorrow?"

"The enemy situation has changed. I originally thought that Nimitz dared to dispatch battleships to compete with us. Now he only dares to use light aircraft carriers, which means that the main force of the enemy fleet does not dare to come. They at least still have an aircraft carrier formation, even if I don't know the exact number. I don’t know if he will join the battle, but we must force him out by landing..." Horikichi smiled, "It’s okay if he doesn’t come, otherwise we will take Tarawa."

Rear Admiral Giffen initially proposed an idea similar to Horikichi's when considering the battle plan: that is, an artillery battle formation composed of battleships and heavy cruisers in the Pacific Fleet would launch an attack first, and Fleet A would provide an air defense umbrella for the formation, but Tarawa defended After the corps reported the size of the enemy force, Nimitz vetoed the proposal.

The RB fleet near Tarawa has a total of 5 battleships, namely Musashi, Nagato and 3 Kongo class, and 6-8 heavy cruisers; while the US military has only 3 battleships in total, 2 South Dakota class and 1 New Mexico class, in Nimitz's eyes, the South Dakota is on par with the Nagato class, and the New Mexico class is on par with the Kongo class. However, the number of our battleships is too small and the Japanese army has a super battleship that no one can stand. He quite complained that the country was not early enough. If the Iowa and West Virginia are transferred over, and if these two battleships arrive together with the Langley aircraft carrier formation, they will also have 5 battleships available. The battle line duel may not be lost, and there will be more room for maneuver.

It's a pity that there are not that many. What if, a formation composed of two battleships and a bunch of destroyers has just arrived in Brazilian waters. They are about to go to Rio de Janeiro to enter the port for rest and replenishment, and then follow the South American coastline around Cape Horn to the Pacific Ocean, but This idea will soon be shattered - the main force of the Axis fleet executing the "Pearl of Peace" project is about to attack the Falklands, and this road is destined to be unworkable.

But no one except God knows this now: Nimitz does not know, Admiral King does not know, and Machar, who commands the German fleet, also has no idea.

At 8:34, 36 of the more than 50 fighter jets assigned to defense missions over Tarawa went to intercept. Two minutes later, Giffen reported the enemy situation to Halsey and Nimitz: "Our army has arrived at the target and plans to launch an attack on the enemy's artillery fleet..."

"I hope they can kill that super battleship." Halsey's attitude is more optimistic than Nimitz. He believes that more than 100 aircraft can kill at least 1-2 Japanese battleships. If this effect is achieved, the gap between Japanese and American battleships will be huge. If we narrow it down, we might still have a slight advantage in the end.

Three minutes later, Giffen's face turned very ugly: "Rear Admiral Thomson reported: The Japanese attack group has arrived above our fleet and is about to attack..."

As soon as the news came out, the tension in the bridge immediately rose, and everyone's hearts were in their throats. Nimitz forced out a stiff smile: "May God bless the United States." Everyone lowered their heads and prayed silently.

The effect of the temporary prayer was obviously not good: the two battles started almost at the same time, and the situation was one-sided - the Japanese army had the upper hand.

In the sky above Tarawa, 36 Japanese fighter jets, led by Sadaki Akamatsu, collectively threw away their auxiliary fuel tanks and made a strong appearance in a head-on interception. They killed 11 SB2C, 8 TBF and 6 F4F in the first encounter. He only lost 2 aircraft and scored an eye-popping 25:2. The excited Akamatsu Sadaki shouted on the radio: "Fight the enemy bomber, which one is the stupidest!"

SB2C is a new model launched by the US military to improve the SBD dive bomber. Although the speed is not as fast as the Comet, it is nearly 50 km/h faster than the SBD. When carrying a load of 1,000 pounds of bombs, the speed can be about 70 km/h. But as the speed increases, the shortcomings of the control are magnified, becoming very clumsy and difficult to maneuver - for veterans, this is a troublesome thing, but for novices, it is not easy to make mistakes, and it is not easy to fly the aircraft anyway. Will fly around.

The beautiful-looking SB2C showed its clumsiness upon meeting it - they could only fly straight forward, and even though the pilot tried his best, he could not be expected to make some agile evasive maneuvers, so the Japanese aircraft aimed at the SB2C one after another. They opened fire, and a Japanese sailor wrote in his diary: "These clumsy guys flew forward in a straight line to die, and then saw our fighter planes flying up and down, and the enemy planes falling one after another... …”

The F4Fs tried to provide cover for their companions, but they themselves could not protect themselves. Originally, the F4Fs were no match for Zero War Reform. Facing the Japanese fighter pilots, who were all elite and tempered with aces on Socotra Island, it was almost the whole process. Sparring.

Only the officers leading the TBF formation were smarter. Seeing the ferocity of the Japanese troops and the fact that our own dive bombers and fighter jets were fighting with the enemy, they secretly lowered their altitude and prepared to attack and drop torpedoes. However, they were happy too early. There were 18 Japanese troops in front of them. Fighters are waiting for them.

In the life-and-death battle, only four US military aircraft successfully released torpedoes. However, they were very lucky. One of them actually plunged into the middle of the Haruna battleship. After a loud noise, the Kongou-class battleship was blown open. A large hole, into which a large amount of seawater poured in.

"Sir, the Haruna was hit by a mine." Kusaka Renichi initially thought that the U.S. military was nothing to worry about, but he was still very nervous when he saw that the Haruna was hit by a mine. In the early Australia-New Zealand battle, the Haruna had already received two bombs and suffered scars. Tired, this time I was hit by a torpedo, which was really fatal.

Horikichi sighed: "It's all in the sky. The Haruna is really unlucky, so a few of them can catch up if they slip through the net..."

When the damage control sailors blocked the gap, the Haruna was tilted at 9 degrees and took in more than 2,000 tons of water. After emergency water injection, the tilt returned to about 5 degrees, and the speed was reduced to only 19 knots. The captain did not dare to inject too much water at one go for fear of This old ship will never float if it sinks.

This is one of the only two results of the first wave of US military attacks. The other result was that an SB2C that slipped through the net deflected its bomb when it tried to attack the Nagato and hit an LST landing craft next to it (a trophy of the Japanese army). The Japanese Army The team lost the two tanks above, but the aircraft was subsequently shot down by Nagato's anti-aircraft fire.

The U.S. military's attack was so bad that it was really hard to watch, and Fleet A's defense was also complaining endlessly.

After Mitsuo Fuchida arrived at the battlefield, he was not in a hurry to attack - he noticed that there were not many covering fighters on the US fleet, so he first let Nishizawa Hiroki lead the fighters to rush in, and then killed the opponent's air defense fighters with three strikes, five strikes and two strikes, and the entire A fleet Now she is like a woman who has taken off all her clothes and lets everyone have what they want.

He carefully checked the anti-aircraft firepower of the enemy ships, and then calmly directed Tianshan Kai to go down first to release torpedoes to disrupt the formation. Finally, Comet Kai and Zero War Kai cooperated to attack.

At 8:58, the battle report came to the Essex: Horikichi's tachi danced like a tiger, and Nimitz lost the first game. It was a complete defeat. All 6 escort carriers were sunk, and 7 of the 12 destroyers were sunk. , almost all 178 aircraft belonging to the fleet were lost, and the pilots of only 30 aircraft successfully made an emergency landing or parachute jump on Tarawa Island.

But Nimitz was not without a chance. A few minutes later, Major General Giffen shouted excitedly: "Sir, the reconnaissance plane discovered the Japanese aircraft carrier formation!"