Seeing the Japanese bombers falling in the air, McCain finally stopped being silent and ordered all the surrounding warships to open full anti-aircraft fire, Halsey jumped next to him and shouted: "Fight! Beat! Hit me hard! ”

The wish was very good, but the effect was really unsatisfactory - during the day, they did not dare to say that they would be able to knock the plane down if they had good vision, and at night the vision was so bad that the sailors only blindly fired on their senses to embolden themselves, and as the Japanese continued to drop flares, the dazzling white light stimulated the sailors' pupils to contract, and the meteor had already pounced. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

There were a few loud "booms", the entire bridge felt a violent tremor, and Halsey closed his eyes in pain - the Franklin was finished!

"Hurry up and put out the fire!" McCain roared, "There are not many enemy planes, as long as the speed does not decrease, we still have a chance to escape back!" ”

At the moment of emergency escape just now, McCain decisively ordered all the planes and flammable materials on the deck to be pushed into the sea, and originally wanted to clean up the hangar, but first, it was too late, and second, if it escaped at night, wouldn't it be embarrassing for the Franklin, which would not be protected by planes tomorrow morning? In the end, I kept it with a fluke mentality.

It's a pity that the Essex class is not an armored aircraft carrier like the Dafeng after all, and the 400 kg bomb pierced the deck without hindrance and caused a fire, but fortunately, the fire was not too big and was extinguished in less than 3 minutes. But these 3 minutes were deadly enough, and 12 meteors pounced on the most striking torch, and all but one was shot down, and all the planes dropped bombs, allowing Captain Franklin to use the most clever maneuvering skills, and a total of 7 bombs were hit.

The entire superstructure was blown to pieces, the elevators and hangars were all destroyed, and the fire that had just been extinguished burned again in an instant, and the officers and men were killed and wounded in the flying shrapnel, which greatly affected the effect of damage management, and even if it was difficult to extinguish it, these flames still could not be avoided.

"Excellent! Murata-kun, I'll leave this big torch to you to deal with. Fuchida Mitsuo is satisfied with this result, and many combat experiences have shown that 400 kg of bombs cannot destroy the Essex class, but setting it on fire is a victory, and the rest of the work is left to the lightning striker......

Murata Shigeharu did not attack directly, but first observed, the fire on the Franklin not only illuminated itself clearly, but also illuminated the outline of the surrounding warships, Murata Shigeji judged that the opponent's port side was a cruiser, and the starboard side was a battleship, so he ordered to start from the port side first.

"First Squad! Attack! "The four Meteors flew to a distance of less than 1,800 meters and released torpedoes in a fan-shaped plane, and now the US anti-aircraft fire is still beckoning to the sky, and Mitsuo Fuchida even led the fighters to shoot flares to attract the line of sight, and successfully covered the lightning strike team's breakthrough.

"Boom" and "Boom" two water columns rose into the sky, and the Cleveland-class air defense cruiser could not stop the power of the torpedo at all, and sank in less than 1 minute, and now the left flank of the Franklin is completely exposed.

"Torpedo! Torpedo machine! Torpedo machine! The American officers and men shouted as if they had just woken up from a dream, but unfortunately the Franklin's anti-aircraft fire was almost destroyed, and even if they came to their senses, it would not be useless, only two Fletcher-class destroyers rushed over desperately, trying to cover the flagship with their small bodies.

Shigeharu Murata, who witnessed this scene, subconsciously shook his head: The commander is right, the American soldiers are actually quite brave when they fight, but the method is not right, don't they know that the destroyer can't stop the torpedo at all? Even if the route was blocked, the torpedoes would pass under the destroyers because of the fixed depth -- this time, in order to hit the US capital ships, the Japanese torpedoes were generally set to a depth of more than 6 meters.

Although the Japanese and German aviation torpedoes are more powerful and reliable than those of the United States, they are not as good as the American military, and the MK13 torpedoes commonly used by the latter can be adjusted to the fixed depth in the middle of the process, while the Japanese and German torpedoes can only be loaded with a fixed depth. But then again, adjusting the depth is actually useless, now Japan and Germany are generally equipped with a combination of dive bombing/lightning strikes, hanging torpedoes is to deal with capital ships of more than 25,000 tons, other targets with 400 kg bombs can basically ensure destruction, it is not possible to use a torpedo with a very shallow depth to hit a light warship, that is a pure waste - a torpedo is more expensive than 8 bombs!

Shigeharu Murata ordered six torpedo planes to assault, and he and the other wingman stayed, and he had other considerations for this - if the six planes could seriously damage the Essex-class, he was ready to attack the starboard battleship, the Alabama, and if not, he was ready to make up his guns for the last time.

Six torpedoes flew towards the Franklin in the night, the chief engineer used his best ability, only 4 of them were avoided, the other 2 were in the back half, no matter how evasive, the violent explosion tore the port side of the Franklin more than 5 meters wide large hole, the turbulent sea water continued to pour in, the damage management did their best to control it, but the damage was too great, the hull tilted at a speed visible to the naked eye. In the violent explosion of the torpedo just now, the entire crew of the bridge was shaken to pieces

Two minutes later, the uncontrollable captain told the bridge: "There is no way to save it, prepare to abandon the ship." ”

"William, let's go."

"I'm not leaving, I'm not leaving......," Halsey had fallen just now, and now he had risen from the ground like an angry lion, "You guys, let me stay, I don't have the face to go back." ”

"No way!" McCain raised his voice an octave, "You have to go!" Ships can be built, but when people die, there are really no ......"

"Take them away, I'll stay...... I stay......"

"Alright, let's go." McCain beckoned everyone to leave, and the adjutant and staff officer looked at Halsey, who refused to leave, in amazement, and then turned their eyes to McCain, as if asking, "Really throw him here?" ”

At this time, the warship had rolled at a large angle, and everyone inevitably slid to the left, and McCain was no exception, rolling and crawling to Halsey's side, shouting: "Look over there, old man! It seems that there are our planes! ”

Halsey was stunned when he heard this, and immediately looked in the direction he pointed, it was pitch black outside, where was there any plane?

Before he could turn his head in confusion, McCain raised his right hand and slashed at Halsey's neck with a sharp blow, who fainted after a whirlwind.

"What are you doing in a daze, why don't you drag him away quickly?"

The adjutants and staff officers woke up from a dream and carried Halsey out of the bridge with all their hands and feet, alas, that is, General McCain had a way to deal with Halsey, who was like a brute bull.

McCain screamed and told the others: "If he wakes up and dares to seek death, you will knock him unconscious...... Anything happens to me! ”

Everyone nodded again and again - if the chief hangs up, how can he explain when he goes back?

As the officers and men of the Franklin retreated in a hurry, Shigeharu Murata judged that it was impossible for the ship to escape, so he pulled the plane back to starboard and prepared to attack the Alabama.

At this time, all the attention of everyone on the Alabama was attracted to the port side, and everyone watched as the flagship Franklin fell into a heavy blow and could not do anything, and two more torpedoes pounced on the starboard side in a cold manner, and it was not until about 400 meters that it was discovered by several sailors operating anti-aircraft guns, while shouting in horror "Starboard torpedo!" While reacting quickly, he picked up the 20mm Erlikon in his hand and shot desperately into the water!

With a "boom", they were lucky enough to hit one of them and detonate it, but Murata Shigeharu's torpedo couldn't dodge it anyway.

With a "boom", the starboard side of the Alabama was hit by a mine.

"It's a pity!" Shigeharu Murata felt sorry for the wingman torpedo to be detonated early, he knew that a torpedo could not sink the South Dakota class.

Mitsuo Fuchida was observing the dynamics of the battlefield, and saw another column of water rushing up from the Alabama, and applauded loudly, it was obvious that the ship had been hit by a torpedo, even if it could not be sunk, at least it could inflict heavy damage on the opponent and slow it down, at a time like today, there was a third, fourth, and fifth wave waiting for it, and the difference between damage and sinking was only time.

Besides, you also have to leave some meat for the back, what will you eat in the next few waves after you have eaten up?

In the middle of his emotion, a fighter pilot asked through a headset: "Sir, this aircraft carrier seems to be the flagship of the US military, and it is estimated that the escape personnel are more important, can we go down and strafe it?" ”

"Of course, whatever you do...... As soon as he remembered that he was beaten by the U.S. military and broke his legs when he was fleeing for his life at Midway, Mitsuo Fuchida gritted his teeth viciously, "Fight me to the death, if you don't surrender, you're still an enemy, don't have pity on them!" ”

The four fighters immediately pounced happily and began to fire fiercely at the sea, and a large number of US officers and men, pilots, and staff officers who abandoned their ships and escaped were mercilessly killed, and the icy waters of the North Pacific Ocean were instantly stained red with blood. At this time, Halsey had woken up from the temporary coma just now, and saw that the Japanese planes were recklessly strafing and killing and wounding the officers and soldiers of their own side who had no power to fight back, and they were so angry that their eyes were cracked, their eyes were bloodshot, and they cursed more than once, and a fighter plane also saw Halsey and a bunch of other people, although they didn't know what was here, but they still subconsciously pulled the trigger, and two MG151 fire sickles erupted out, and the machine guns didn't matter how angry you were, they were not mistaken, and after the sound of "Tututu" sounded, there were screams one after another.

......A scream of "Ahh Honest...... Handful...... Bring people back...... Future...... For...... Avenge me! ”

"John!" Everyone present heard Halsey's earth-shattering shouts, but they couldn't save McCain's life.

At 20:58 on October 31, 1944, Vice Admiral John McCain, commander of the TF50 fleet aircraft carrier, was tragically killed......