When the planes took off, the crews of the aircraft carriers "Habakuk" and "Xuanyuan" held a solemn ceremony for the pilots. Because for some of the new pilots, this was their first air raid in the war, and in fact everyone who could take a break from their tense jobs cheered for the pilots, anxiously waiting for their safe return.

When they returned, the crew counted the planes that had returned, and everyone couldn't believe that there would be such good luck. All the planes passed in front of the people in a neat formation, one by one. Many people burst into tears, because they couldn't feel that unless they saw their friends go out on a dangerous mission and saw them safely back on board.

That night, after dinner, the pilots and flight officers of the "Habakuk" held a large lecture together. One of the main conclusions made at the meeting was that the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery fire, even at close range, would not hinder them much and would not inflict heavy casualties. The second point is that everyone is satisfied to see that the conclusions reached after many years of peacetime drills have proved correct in actual combat.

Although the air raid succeeded in destroying his own convoys, the Japanese army still massed troops, equipment, transport ships, and naval forces in these areas. Everyone who has read the reconnaissance report knows very well that he is going to go on the offensive again. The outline of his plan began to be revealed, and the mobile force was from Hawaii, and both of these mobile forces were based on aircraft carriers, with at least four or five large new aircraft carriers and two super battleships, and one of the smaller mobile forces had two aircraft carriers, two battleships, five cruisers, and a dozen destroyers.

In order to solve the problem cleanly, he did not rely on this first sharp knife alone. They sent a second mobile force, a large force with three aircraft carriers, five battleships, several cruisers and more destroyers. These two sharp arrows were designed to clear the way for the attacking troops. They were grouped in two locations, one at Midway and the other at Pearl Harbor, and both were stationed with cruisers and destroyers, seaplane carriers, transports, troop carriers, supply ships, and fleet auxiliary vessels.

At this time, the command of this fleet, headed by the "Habakuk", was already under the command of Wilson? Lieutenant General Brown handed over to Frank? Vice Admiral Fletcher (this transfer caused quite a few displeasures). The force consisting of the "Habakuk" aircraft carrier, several cruisers, and destroyers has been merged with another fleet headed by the "Tahiti" aircraft carrier under the command of Vice Admiral Fletcher, with the veteran Vice Admiral Fletcher as the overall commander of the aircraft carrier attack force, and the Chinese aircraft carrier fleet also under the command of Fletcher.

On this day, two reconnaissance planes of the "Habakuk" attacked a floating submarine and dived and dropped three bombs. Although the pilots were convinced that the submarine had been sunk, they only reported that after the submarine was bombed and sunk, they saw large oil stains floating on the surface of the sea.

This was the first friction between the "Habakuk" and the underwater enemy in several weeks.

The people are full of confidence, waiting for the end, and the mood for war is very high. He said that he had figured out the details, they were not superhuman, and they were not at all as remarkable as they were when they won the battle in the East Indies. Now, the information obtained through regular air patrols tells all the crews that the battle is not far off. On an almost daily basis, they reported seeing reconnaissance planes flying over the area. Usually, their reconnaissance planes are seen 150 to 200 nautical miles from the "Habakuk" and its fleet, and their appearance indicates that the enemy is interested in the sea area they are going.

Vice Admiral Fletcher decided that the first attack was not satisfactory and that more should be achieved. He demanded another attack. Because he knew that when the fleet arrived, he would not be able to free up his hands to launch an attack on the army on the shore.

At this time, there was no land in sight, and the warships were speeding on the vast sea. After receiving the order, the crew began to warm up the plane, and some of the pilots prepared their equipment in the waiting room, and some had breakfast in the officers' conference room. At 6:15, the attacking force took off. The first batch was 58 Douglas SBD reconnaissance bombers, followed by twice as many Douglas BD dive bombers, each carrying a 1000-pound bomb. Less than a few minutes after the reconnaissance bombers took off, the last group of aircraft took off, and they were 122 "Douglas" TBD torpedo planes, which were three-seaters each carrying one 533-mm torpedo, almost 2000 pounds.

The reconnaissance convoy was dispersed in two planes and carried out a rapid 50-nautical-mile all-direction patrol of the sea around the island, in order to guard against the possibility of enemy aircraft carriers coming to this area at night, because the darkness of night would enable them to approach the enemy covertly and also protect the Japanese fleet approaching them.

The reconnaissance flotilla did not detect the enemy, and they turned back and joined the dive bomber flotilla at an altitude of 4,500 meters. Each reconnaissance plane carried a 500-pound bomb, and after completing the reconnaissance mission, they became light dive bombers, which in many ways were similar to their larger dive bombers.

The torpedo machine struggled to fly over the high peaks off the coast of California at a speed of 160 knots. When the first rays of sunlight shone on the wings of the torpedo machines, they were flying over forested gorges and stony plateaus. After that, press the nose and rush to the sea with a scream, getting into position before firing the torpedo. When they skimmed the 14-nautical-mile-wide strait and reached the skies over the enemy, the dive bomber fleet had just arrived.

At the beginning of the attack, the leader of the dive bombers, Admiral Rich, said to the torpedo planes on the command radio: "You fight from a low altitude, we fight from a high altitude." ”

It seems that he expected this attack, and there were all people in the anti-aircraft gun positions. When the muffled sound of motors and the piercing screams of the first dive bombers came from the sea, the anti-aircraft guns of the first dive bomber began to fire.

"We found out that I have more transport ships." A dive bomber pilot returned to the aircraft carrier an hour and a half after takeoff, he reported. "There's everything from cruisers to rafts. Barges are transporting troops and equipment from troop carriers to shore. One troop carrier has at least 20,000 tons, others 6,000 to 8,000 tons. ”

Before starting the dive from an altitude of more than 5,000 meters, the squadron leaders assigned specific targets to their pilots. Six large transports, three cruisers (one of which was a heavy cruiser), six destroyers and two seaplane carriers next to it, as well as a separate moored cruiser, were the main targets.

"We began to dive," said one American pilot, "and the heavy fire from my anti-aircraft guns made a big obstacle to our grasp of the target." And the annoying thing is that I got a layer of fog on my scope as I passed through a layer of heating, and even then, we'd hit the target. We dived until we were only 300 meters above the sea before dropping our bombs, and before our anti-aircraft guns could hit us, we broke away. ”

In the radio room of the aircraft carrier "Habakuk", the fighter pilots who were not accompanied by the first wave were not with the officers on board, and the squadron leaders listened to the conversation between the squadron leader and the pilots on the walkie-talkie, and the tone of their conversation with the pilots was calm when they were selecting targets and carrying out the attack. The noise of the motors coming from the radio of the combat aircraft, coupled with the severe interference of the celestial electricity, made it impossible to tell when they had finished their dive. The pilots who were the first to return to the ship recounted what they had seen.

"We've made a mess of it." One of them said. "There were huge puffs of smoke, water and debris everywhere, and the sound of our engines was drowned out by the huge explosion. As I was leaving, torpedo planes flew from low altitude and spread out in fanfares. White trails of thunder can be seen all over the sea. I saw that one of the ships had been hit by two torpedoes, and the powerful explosion and the rising sea water completely covered the ship. Two more torpedoes missed the target and exploded on the beach. The entire landing site became a hell, and he was scattered to find a place to hide. ”

"At least two bombshells landed on the deck of that heavy cruiser." The pilot of the last dive bomber said, "The column of fire flew into the air, seventy meters high, and the warship was shaken and immediately began to sink." Bombs exploded in the middle of a group of small boats, barges were thrown into the air, crews were thrown overboard, and wooden-hulled boats were shattered. The torpedo hit the seaplane carrier and the three destroyers that were clustered together. As soon as the smoke cleared, one destroyer had sunk to the bottom of the sea, the other had capsized, and the situation of the seaplane carrier did not seem to be good. ”

After a reconnaissance pilot on guard dropped his 500-pound small bomb, he saw several Timon fighters taking off from one end of the harbor. He dived down on the plane and opened fire, firing more than 100 rounds. The plane crashed headlong. Later, the pilot saw five other enemy fighters flying next to each other on the shore, and he rushed up to strafe them, but was hit by the enemy planes and exploded.

When the planes set off for battle, the Allied aircraft carriers continued to approach the coast, and the pilots returned only a distance of just over 80 nautical miles, or about half an hour. When the plane returned, it was the same as when it left, and the lineup was tight. The pilots entered the circling landing area and landed out of formation in turn, although hot and thirsty, but they were all very happy.

However, the first people to return demanded that their planes be refueled and reloaded as quickly as possible. They said that although they had inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, they said that the fleet was approaching. They wanted to go back, and in the words of one squadron leader, "beat them again."

Twenty minutes after the second wave took off, the squadron leader of the dive bomber called out to the aircraft carrier: "It would be nice if you saw this port." Some of the ships injured in the first attack are now sinking, some have grabbed the beach, and they are still burning. The seaplane carrier and those destroyers were gone, sunk. The enemy's aircraft carriers are coming, let's go and pack them. ”

They seized two more enemy ships at the exit from the harbor - a cruiser and a transport. More than a dozen pilots saw with their own eyes that the transport ship was hit, and some of the bombs exploded in the water next to it, and it sank in the blink of an eye. The cruiser was shot in the tail, stopped, and also sank.

The anti-aircraft fire on the shore was fierce, and a cruiser and a destroyer rushed out to sea, driving side by side at intervals of about three nautical miles, and their fire was also fierce. The squadrons carried out a coordinated attack of torpedo and dive bombing. The two warships were constantly evasive, making serpentine movements (which the pilots called the "snake dance").

Six TBD torpedo machines threw mines, but the cruiser made a sharp turn and avoided it, and all six torpedoes missed. It had just set course after dodging the row of torpedoes fired parallel to it when the dive bomber screamed and lunged at it. The seven bombshells, some of which were hit or some exploded on the side, played the role of mines buried in the hull. It cocked up on its stern and never moved again.

Part of the reason for the failure of the torpedo attack was the attack of the fighters. They rushed into the torpedo group and fired in all directions, pinning down the torpedo machines. Several reconnaissance planes pounced on the fighters, but the planes were very nimble and it was difficult to shoot them down.

After the second wave returned to the aircraft carrier, the pilots decided that their mission was not yet complete. While they were having lunch, the plane was ready for the third operation of the day. At 3:30 p.m., 118 dive bombers took off and finally completed the attack. This time, for the first time, two groups of fighters consisting of two aircraft each were used, acting as escorts, and no torpedo aircraft were sent.

American dive bombers caught a wounded cruiser not far from the harbor and sank it. Another British dive bomber attacked three apparently wounded ships, but not all pilots felt the need to use all the bombs here. They searched the coast, flew around the coast at an altitude of less than twenty meters above the surface of the sea, looking for targets for their bombs, because now there were more bombs than targets.

American fighter pilots discovered that there were several Yuben fighters in the air. They easily shot it down, and then also began to look for targets for the bullets they carried. They flew out to sea and found a destroyer desperately trying to escape. A group of fighters in front of the unit used 12.7mm machine guns to dive and strafe the destroyer's anti-aircraft gun shooters, knocking out those who tried to hide. The second pair of fighters strafed the bridge. After two attacks, not a single officer or soldier could be seen on the deck of the destroyer, and those who were not killed should have taken refuge below deck. The fighters then fired at the destroyer's torpedo launcher at close range, attempting to render the destroyer incapacitated. Believing that they had achieved their goal, the pilots approached and opened fire on the hull. They saw that high-intensity armor-piercing bullets apparently penetrated the thin hull and deck like cream; Then methodically strafing the warship's boilers and main engines in an attempt to destroy them completely. This attack can be said to have an immediate effect. The jolting destroyer slowed down, steam and smoke continued to rise from the hatches, and bullets pierced the hull through many small holes through which fuel flowed.

The planes returned to the aircraft carrier, but not all back. More than two dozen planes were shot down by the fighters, and some were injured and crashed at sea on their way back.

After learning the details of the battle report, Fletcher knew that the attack on the other side was the last, and he would face an attack by the main force of the Navy.

The real battle has just begun.

The next day, a full hour before dawn, the entire crew woke up. The fleet had been moving south at high speed throughout the night, and it was clear to everyone that they had come within range of the fire of an enemy as strong as they were. They had no way of knowing if the enemy had spotted them the previous afternoon, but they preferred to estimate it that way, as the enemy might also be orchestrating a dawn attack like theirs.

However, all plans of the Allies for early morning take-off of dive bombers and torpedo planes fell through. Their reconnaissance planes searched the surrounding sea in the half-bright and half-dark sky before the dawn, but found no trace of the person himself. They searched carefully, but by 7 o'clock there was no result. They flew to the end of the combat radius, which was also the end of the combat range of their various flying squadrons.

"I must have found us, and now we may have run away." One officer speculated, "We are within their range of attack, and if possible, they will strike first." They probably didn't notice us at all and drove out of the area we were searching for at night. ”

His friends thought he might be right, but they were wrong.

At 7:30, one of the fighters of the aircraft carrier "Tahiti" reported by radio: "There are gangsters in the vicinity of the fleet." A few seconds later, it was reported: "It's a 'Kawanishi' seaplane." ”

It was already obvious that since they could see the seaplane, it could see them. There can be no doubt that its radio crews had reported their arrival to the fleet and possibly to the land-based base of the long-range aircraft.

"We're not in a good place." Someone said worriedly, "I know where we are, and we haven't noticed them yet." If they had been prepared, they would have taken off now to attack us. ”

After spotting the "Kawanishi" plane, the fighters talked to each other non-stop. On the "Habakuk", people listened attentively to the progress of the battle. After a while, one of the pilots said, "We're heading there." ”

Such battles are often fought at altitudes above 3,000 meters and are rarely seen by people on board. But this time a lot of people saw it.

(To be continued)