【Broadcast】Pay attention to "Reading at the starting point", get the first-hand news of 515 red envelopes, and students who have not grabbed red envelopes after the Chinese New Year can show their skills this time.

It should be said that the US Navy was already in a bit of a hurry at this time.

The main reason for this was that the "Hornet" lost its ability to sail and receive fighters, so all the fighters needed to land on the aircraft carrier "Enterprise", and at the same time, the aircraft carrier "Enterprise" had to be careful to guard against the possible attack of the Japanese at any time......

This is not only a complex task, but it is also dangerous.

It is complicated by the fact that there are as many as 73 warplanes waiting to land in the air at this time: 28 Wildcat fighters, 24 Dreadnought dive bombers, and 21 Avenger torpedo planes.

It is said that it is dangerous because once the work of recovering the fighters is not handled well, it will cause the flight deck to be blocked, and if the Japanese aircraft group attacks the "Enterprise" again at this time...... That would be a nightmare for the "Enterprise".

So after thinking about it again, Kincaid made the decision to retreat.

This decision was of course the right one, because no one could handle both at the same time, arranging for the recovery of so many fighters and resisting the Japanese attack.

However, this decision almost meant that the death sentence of the "Hornet" was pronounced...... the "Hornet" lost its ability to sail, and it had only a chance of surviving under the cover of warplanes and warships, and now that the "Enterprise" was going to retreat, then the "Hornet" had to wait for the Japanese to sink it.

However, of course, the US Navy will not easily give up an aircraft carrier, especially the USS "Hornet" is an aircraft carrier with a full load displacement of more than 20,000 tons and has repeatedly performed feats in war, so the US Navy sent a heavy cruiser "Northampton" to try to tow the "Hornet" in the hope of towing it back.

However, this is clearly in vain.

The U.S. aircraft carrier battle group left Espírito Santo Island at least 700 nautical miles, and the "Hornet" was towed at a speed of only 6 knots. This means that it will take more than a hundred hours to tow it to the naval base.

There are too many variables in this, so the US Navy is actually ready to wait for that moment to come.

At the same time, Kincaid concentrated all his efforts on directing the fleet to retreat and receiving fighters.

The first stage of recovery was to have 23 "Wildcat" fighters and 24 "Dreadnought" bombers land on the "Enterprise" first, because these two fighters had a range of only more than 1,000 kilometers, and they had almost run out of fuel when they returned from attacking the Japanese aircraft carriers. Landing is urgent.

But in the end, the Enterprise could not fit so many fighters, and five "dreadnought" bombers had to make a forced landing at sea.

And at this time there were still 21 Avenger torpedo planes in the air...... However, they can slow down, because the range of the torpedo planes reaches more than 2,000 kilometers, and they can stay in the sky for a while.

Taking advantage of this time, the Enterprise relocated the planes on deck, moved some of the fighters to the hangar, and filled up the 25 Wildcat fighters with fuel before taking them into the air...... So this freed up space for the torpedo planes to land.

The final step in coordination was to fill up some of the torpedo engines with fuel and fly them to Espiritu Santo, 700 nautical miles away...... The torpedo machine has a long range and high speed. It was easier for them to complete the task of returning to the base on the island of Espírito Santo.

In this way, the problem of "overcrowding" on the aircraft carrier "Enterprise" was finally solved.

At this time, the aircraft carrier "Enterprise" had 84 more fighters, including 41 fighters, 33 dive bombers and 10 torpedo aircraft.

At this point, the catastrophic situation of the possibility of losing most of the fighters of the two air groups has been averted.

It should be said that this was a mistake by Yamamoto Isoroku...... This is because when the US "Enterprise" is in the process of dispatching, if the Japanese Navy adds a little trouble to the "Enterprise," it will easily cause confusion and deal a fatal blow to the "Enterprise."

But Yamamoto didn't do so because of his lack of faith.

The reason for the lack of confidence was that the Japanese navy had won to some extent. But it was a pyrrhic victory...... The Japanese "Zuiho" was the first to leave the battlefield after being hit, and the "Xianghe" was still capable of fighting although it was wounded. It's just that only 10 warships, 8 shipblowers, and 1 shipattack were left of more than 70 fighters, and as many as 53 fighters of one aircraft carrier were lost.

The situation with the other aircraft carrier, the Hayabusa, is even worse...... It had only 2 ships left, 4 bombs, and 1 attacker.

In other words, at this time, although Yamamoto 56 still had two aircraft carriers with combat effectiveness, the combined carrier-based aircraft of these two aircraft carriers were only 26.

This was obviously caused by the fact that the Japanese fighters were basically unarmored and their combat methods blindly emphasized the spirit of "bushido."

At the end of the war, the US Navy had fewer aircraft carriers and more aircraft, while the Japanese Navy had more aircraft carriers and fewer aircraft.

Yamamoto Fifty-six was thinking: if we attack again. Then it is very likely that their own carrier-based aircraft will be finished, and then the two aircraft carriers in their hands will face the embarrassing situation of not having carrier-based aircraft, and if the US Navy counterattacks, it will ...... Isn't your own aircraft carrier just sitting back and waiting to die?!

Thinking of this, Yamamoto did not dare to launch another attack on the US Navy, but urgently rushed the "Flying Eagle" aircraft carrier, which was fighting in the waters off Kuah Island, to the nearby waters to participate in the battle.

Yamamoto's approach makes sense. Because if he didn't do this, he was afraid that the safety of the two Japanese aircraft carriers would be difficult to guarantee, but his practice gave the US Navy's "Enterprise" time to breathe and retreat.

As the "Enterprise" became farther and farther away from the "Hornet", the fighters that could have served as air cover on the "Hornet" had to be withdrawn with it, so the last moment of the "Hornet" finally arrived.

3:13 p.m.

The radar of the heavy cruiser "Northampton" detected two groups of enemy aircraft at the same time swooping down on the position of the "Hornet...... It was the strike group from the Japanese aircraft carriers "Flying Eagle" and "Shohe" taking off.

The target of these two Japanese aircraft groups was not originally the "Hornet", they were both searching for the "Enterprise", which was not seriously injured.

But of course, they couldn't find the "Enterprise" that had retreated, so they invariably turned their target to the "Hornet......

A fierce battle ensued, and the warships covering the "Hornet" tried their best to protect the aircraft carrier with anti-aircraft fire, and soon another torpedo hit the "Hornet", and the torpedo tore through the hole that caused the "Hornet" to flood a large number of water, and the hull tilt finally reached 20 degrees.

In the end, Captain Mason gave the order to abandon ship and ordered the destroyer "Mastin" to sink the "Hornet".

Ps. chasing more children's shoes, are there any free appreciation tickets and starting coins~ The countdown to the 515 red envelope list is over, I'll pull a ticket, ask for an increase and appreciation vote, and finally rush a handful! (To be continued.) )