As soon as the sky dawned, the US and Japanese search and reconnaissance planes were dispatched as soon as possible.

As the name suggests, a search and reconnaissance aircraft is search plus reconnaissance.

The reconnaissance plane sent by the US military was an "Avenger" torpedo bomber...... This seems to be a bit of an anomaly, and the fighter used for reconnaissance should be said to be a fighter, because it often encounters enemy fighter patrol aircraft in the air and engages in air combat.

In fact, the US military had no choice but to do this, because the range of the "Wildcat" fighter was too short, only more than 1,000 kilometers.

A short range means a short stay in the air, and it also means that the "Wildcat" cannot reconnoiter longer distances. This could not meet the reconnaissance needs of the US military, especially since the combat radius of the Japanese army reached 1,000 kilometers. In other words, if the "Wildcat" is allowed to serve as a reconnaissance mission, I am afraid that before the enemy aircraft carrier can be detected, it will have to return due to lack of fuel.

The range of the "Avenger" bomber reached more than 2,000 kilometers, so that it could search on the sea surface for a long time without the need to frequently return to the aircraft carrier for refueling.

There is no doubt that the reconnaissance plane sent by the Japanese army is the Zero fighter...... The Zero fighter has the advantages of long range and fast flight speed, and is very suitable for reconnaissance missions. Among them, Yamamoto 56 also sent the only "comet" bomber on the "Shozuru."

The "Comet" bomber is a new type of bomber of the Japanese army, although it is a bomber, but the speed of this thing is faster than the speed of the Japanese Zero War, the maximum speed has reached 580 kilometers per hour, and the endurance is not inferior to the Zero War, so it is more commonly used as a reconnaissance aircraft than a bomber on the Japanese aircraft carrier at this time.

Perhaps, the "Comet" should be used as a bomber in a large number of carrier-based aviation, after all, this is a bomber with a speed exceeding that of a fighter...... Just imagine, if the top speed of a bomber is faster than the enemy's fighter (the maximum speed of the US Wildcat fighter is 515 kilometers per hour), it means that the bomber basically does not have to worry about the interception of the enemy fighter, because they can easily leave the enemy fighter behind with their speed advantage, and this can also greatly enhance the suddenness of the aircraft carrier's attack on the enemy...... At the same distance, with the "Comet" bomber was much shorter in time than the "Ninety-Nine" bomber (the maximum speed of the Ninety-Nine bomber was 432 kilometers per hour). This reduces the reaction time of the enemy to reach the suddenness of the battle.

Moreover, the Japanese army has been mass-producing such carrier-based bombers since 40 years, and now there are a certain number enough to equip aircraft carriers.

The reason why it is not equipped with aircraft carriers is that the "comet" is too fast, and its landing speed is too fast, and the pilots who are not experienced enough to fly it will often have accidents one after another, so this "comet" is called a "pilot killer" during training.

On the other hand, the Japanese army was very short of experienced pilots, so for a while, the "Comet" could not be equipped with an aircraft carrier to become a carrier-based aircraft, and could only be used as a land-based bomber temporarily.

This is why this phenomenon has emerged: The Japanese aircraft carriers have a new type of bomber, the "Comet," but they are still using the "99" bomber, and only a few "Comets" are used as reconnaissance planes in the hands of skilled pilots.

6:58 a.m.

"Huisung" really lived up to Yamamoto's expectations. It spotted the location of the U.S. aircraft carrier just 210 miles to the southeast.

Yamamoto did not hesitate to react when he received the report of the appearance of the American aircraft carrier, and he ordered the first wave of the attack immediately.

Soon, the Japanese aircraft group, which had long been on the deck ready to take off, rose into the air and flew in the direction of the American aircraft carrier...... In this attack, the Japanese sent a total of 21 fighters, 21 carrier-based bombers equipped with 550-pound bombs, and 22 carrier-based torpedo planes (including 1 explosive and 20 mine-loaded...... Explosive finger-mounted bombs, mine-mounted torpedoes).

Immediately after the first wave of the attack, the Japanese began to move the second wave of fighters from the deck of the flight hangar to the flight deck.

That's when an accident happened......

Two "Avenger" torpedo planes on reconnaissance missions discovered the Japanese aircraft carrier "Zuifeng". At this time, the Japanese troops on the aircraft carrier "Zuifeng" were busy attacking the American aircraft carrier, so they did not notice the appearance of these two American torpedo planes in the sky at all.

The US torpedo planes seized this opportunity and dived down and dropped the four 500-pound bombs they were carrying...... and the "Avenger" torpedo planes could be exploded or mine-loaded, but because of the unreliability of the US torpedoes. Torpedo planes are more likely to carry bombs when they are on reconnaissance missions.

Perhaps the pilots of the US torpedo planes were more suitable for firing torpedoes, or perhaps the US pilots were a little anxious in such a lonely situation, so only one of the eight bombs hit the "Zuifeng."

But this is also a terrible thing, because at this time there are several bombers full of fuel and bombs parked on the flight deck of the "Ruifeng". As a result, the bomb soon caused an explosion and fire, which tilted the hull of the "Ruifeng" and could not receive the aircraft, so it had to withdraw from the battle.

This should be a windfall for the US military.

After the war, many people judged that if it had not been for this unexpected gain that caused the Japanese to withdraw from an aircraft carrier in the first place. Then it is very likely that both US aircraft carriers will be completely destroyed.

At the same time, these two torpedo planes reported the position of the Japanese aircraft carrier to the American aircraft carrier.

Kincaid did not dare to slack off after receiving the news, and immediately sent a group of aircraft on standby on the flight deck to fly to the Japanese aircraft carrier.

Under normal circumstances, attack aircraft groups take off in batches, assemble in the air, and then fly to the target in formation...... The advantage of this is that a strong fleet can more effectively break through the enemy's defenses, after all, the enemy's defenses are unchanged, and having more fighters and bombers attacking at the same time means that the enemy is more difficult to intercept.

But this was another mistake made by Kincaid, who believed that time was more important at this time, that is, the first enemy strike, so he ordered the group to set off without waiting for the fighters to assemble.

So the few attack aircraft groups were divided into two waves:

The first wave of 8 fighters, 15 dive bombers of the "Dreadnought", 6 torpedo aircraft.

The second wave consisted of 8 fighters, and later one could not take off due to a malfunction, so there were only 7 fighters, 9 Dreadnought bombers and 10 Avenger torpedo planes.

Kincaid's focus on attacking the enemy before it did play a role, because the U.S. and Japanese forces discovered the location of each other's aircraft carriers almost simultaneously, but the U.S. attack aircraft group reached the skies over the Japanese aircraft carriers before the Japanese and launched an attack.

But the problem is that when the attack aircraft groups of both sides are flying into the air, in fact, the little time that is grabbed is not of much significance, because at this time, it is no longer possible to stop the attack on the opponent's aircraft carrier by attacking the opponent's aircraft carrier. (To be continued.) )