"It's broken!" Halsey and McCain's hearts sank to the bottom. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Today's luck is really bad at home, it was originally arranged to evacuate as soon as 7 o'clock passed, so now the escort aircraft carriers, cruisers, and destroyers have all slowed down and are ready to respond, not only the evasion ability has been greatly reduced, but even the air defense array has not been set up, and the Japanese army is not fatal to launch an attack at this time?

He hurriedly ordered: "The actions of all ships are suspended, and the air defense ...... is fully exerted."

The telegram was sent, but to no avail, the Japanese attack had begun, the sea was full of flares, illuminating the entire night sky as if it were day, the warships of all sizes were in full view, and the excited Japanese pilots rushed down in groups to attack -- at last there were no annoying American fighters coming to entangle at night, and as long as they avoided the anti-aircraft fire, they could teach the American warships a good lesson.

"Dispersal, immediate dispersion......"

With hoarse shouts, 250 or 400 kg bombs were dropped: the former against escort carriers and other warships, the latter against the Essex and South Dakota classes.

At 18:57, the Alabama became the first victim, and four meteors found him instead, dropping eight 400-kilogram bombs -- although the ship spewed out unusually blazing anti-aircraft fire, but at night it had a guiding effect on the attack planes -- there must be a warship under the firelight, and within 18 seconds, the Alabama ate three bombs in a row, and although the heavy armor blocked the bomb's damage to the engine room, the superstructure and anti-aircraft gun emplacements were destroyed to the ground, Screams and severed arms flew everywhere, and even more heartbreakingly, the bombs caused a fire.

The blazing fire shone like a torch on the fleet, exposing not only the Alabama itself, but even the Indiana next to it, and soon more attack planes pounced on the attack, setting the Indiana on fire with a continuous stream of bombs.

Watching the pilots vigorously surround the two South Dakota-class, Jiang Cao, who was commanding in the air, was in a hurry, he just bombed the foredeck of the Wasp, although he blew the opponent out of a big hole and abolished the opponent's take-off and landing capabilities, but failed to detonate more planes and fuel, and the captain of the ship was very strange that he did not order the anti-aircraft guns to fire, because this would expose the position of the warship -- the Wasp, which had escaped in South Africa, really knew how to escape for its life, and saw the ship escape at a high speed of 32 knots. Jiang Cao Takashi watched the other party leave but there was nothing he could do, his bombs had been dropped, and no one paid attention to the attack of the group of flares twice in a row, so anxious that he scolded his group of red deer in the earphones......

Finally, someone soberly heard the captain's shout, and immediately swooped down to attack, after the third release of the flares, two more planes successfully dropped the bombs on the back deck of the Wasp, one of which was still a very rare 2 consecutive hits, under the continuous attack of 3 400 kg bombs, the Wasp was blown out of the big hole, and the hangar also exploded and burned quickly, and then burst into the old flames, because of the effect of aviation fuel, the fire was more fierce than the South Dakota class.

Seeing that the torch was burning again, more pilots rushed over as if they had just woken up from a dream -- before setting off, the commander repeatedly explained that the first target of attack was the fleet aircraft carrier, so why did he rush down as soon as he saw the battleship on fire?

After circling a few times, Jiang Cao, who was still angry just now, calmed down: it is human nature to look at light in the dark, if he hadn't been staring at this fleet aircraft carrier, maybe he would have been led by those two battleships, and now as soon as he caught fire, wouldn't the attacking crowd come? After thinking about it, he sent a telegram to remind the follow-up attack wave to pay attention to this matter, and suggested that some planes should be selected to bring a batch of incendiary bombs!

"What, the fleet is now under a night attack? The USS Alabama, USS Indiana, USS Wasp were all shot and on fire? ”

Hearing such shocking news from the front, Spruance and Nimitz only felt that the world was spinning, and they were at a loss for a while, Turner jumped to the side and shouted: "Dissolve the formation, dissolve the formation, disperse immediately, disperse immediately, and quickly extinguish the fire from the warship!" Fire suppression! Fire suppression! ”

He had been beaten in Cape Verde, so he naturally knew how terrible it was to catch fire in the dark of night -- many warships were targeted after they caught fire, and eventually became the victims of the S boats, and the situation is the same now, and the warships that caught fire must be the key targets of the Japanese army.

"Sir, the first attack wave has been hit, and the three capital ships of the US army are on fire, but the speed is not slow, and Egua Takashi reminds the follow-up pilots not to be too attracted by the fire and abandon other targets, and at the same time suggests that some aircraft carry incendiary bombs."

Tsukahara nodded with satisfaction: "Tell Fuchida and Murata Shigeharu the telegram and remind them to take warning!" Hand over the incendiary bombs to the third wave......"

The second attack wave sent by Tsukahara was the most elite and elite carrier-based aircraft pilot team of the Combined Fleet, and because it was related to the total annihilation of the US Pacific Fleet, even Mitsuo Fuchida, who was no longer easy to attack, personally went into battle to command, and Murata Shigeji Osa brought a mine-strike aircraft formation to prepare to mend several US capital ships.

The American warships were too sturdy to sink without torpedoes, and Tsukahara was determined to rely on his reputation as the king of lightning strikes to kill a wave of people who could blow up even the piers of the Brooklyn Bridge.

As for why the interval of more than one hour was not arranged for the first attack wave to be put into the battlefield immediately after, it was also the plan decided by Tsukahara and his staff officers after deliberation: After the US troops were caught off guard and encountered an attack, their instinctive reaction was to disband the formation and flee for their lives, although this increased the difficulty of the search, but once found, it was relatively easy to deal with it with torpedoes, so it was necessary to "leave" an evacuation time for the opponent.

As for setting an hour and a half, it was also the result of full consideration of the actual situation and consideration of tactics - the time was too short, and the enemy fleet had not yet completely dispersed; It's too long, and the search is too hard. An hour and a half is not long or short, just right!

Due to the shortage of fuel for the Japanese army, the first round of attacks ended at 19:17, and although the American army was very passive, the actual losses were not too great:

Both the Alabama and the Indiana were medium-hitting, losing some anti-aircraft guns, but the other effects were not great, and the speed was not reduced, still maintaining 27.5 knots, and the deadly fire was finally extinguished after the Japanese left, with the efforts of hundreds of damage control crews.

The Wasp was a heavy hit, not only was the deck completely destroyed and lost the ability to take off and land, but the hangar was also blown to pieces, but the power compartment had little impact, only 4 knots of speed was lost, and it was still maintained at more than 28 knots.

Halsey and McCain's Franklin had the best luck, unscathed except for two near misses! However, the two night fighters that took off from the ship were not very lucky, one was shot down by Sugida Sho, and the other collided with a Japanese plane, and both crashed into the sea, barely achieving a result.

The first attack wave of the Japanese army dispatched a total of 112 planes, except for 32 fighters, the rest were all Meteors carrying bombs, the overall loss of 14 planes, the battle loss rate was smaller than estimated, and now Ekusa Takashi took them to Tsukahara to land in the first air battle.

In addition to the results of the capital ship battle, the first attack wave also sank 2 Casablanca-class escort aircraft carriers and severely damaged 1 Cleveland-class light cruiser.

At 20:24, Mitsuo Fuchida successfully found the TF50 fleet under the guidance of the night clouds, and now the entire fleet is completely chaotic, the escape of the escape, the evacuation of the evacuation, the transfer of the transfer, the sea is in a commotion, because compared to the first attack wave The fuel is much more abundant, Fuchida Mitsuo did not rush to attack, but went to search carefully, carefully checked, and at the same time let everyone pay attention to the lone US warship, which was sunk at the first opportunity.

In less than 3 minutes, the Japanese found the three escort aircraft carriers that had fled in a panic, and the latter simply sank three of them with only 22 planes.

At 20:29, the first unlucky South Dakota-class battleship Indiana was found, Fuchida Mitsuo fired a series of flares down, so that the entire warship was shrouded in white light, and then ordered the bombardment team and the lightning strike team to cooperate, 400 kg bombs could not destroy the battleship, but they could attract American firepower and cause the superstructure to burn, by this moment, 12 torpedo planes had lowered the altitude, slowed down, and pounced on the Indiana against the sea.

Now all the firepower of the ship is pouring into the air, and it has indeed shot down 2 planes, but it has not paid any attention to the surprise attack on the sea, and within 5 minutes, all 12 torpedo planes have successfully dropped mines, showing a 120-degree fan and facing the warship 2,500 meters away. The Indiana twisted its body to avoid the bombs that rained into the sky, but it could not avoid the torpedoes that pounced from all angles, and by the time several sailors shouted "torpedoes" in horror, the big guys had already pounced on the ship just over 400 meters.

"Boom boom", in less than 20 seconds, the starboard side of the ship three violent explosions in succession, each time rushed up a column of rushing water, everyone was blown up to the ground, fell into the sea, although the South Dakota class for the North Carolina class to improve the defense, is the US military second only to the Iowa class capital ship, but after all, it is only a 35,000-ton treaty type battleship, under the hit of three torpedoes in a row, the starboard side tore a huge gap, the sea water rushed in, and there was a roll of more than 15 degrees in a few minutes.

Although the opponent has not yet sunk, Fuchida is sure that the opponent is not saved, and even if he is saved, he will not have a chance to drive back - such a slow speed, it is quite good to use it after dawn to target the new pilot with live ammunition. When American taxpayers learn this kind of news, they are estimated to be furious: the cutting-edge battleships worth tens of millions and less than five years old are now just target ships in Fuchida's mouth!

ps: It's late, if you have a monthly pass, hurry up and support it......