The entire attack lasted 20 minutes. At least 103 planes flew over the "Habakuk." The gunners set an unprecedented record, shooting down 39 planes. It is not known how many of these planes crashed in the distance after being seriously injured.

Ten minutes passed, and the fingers of the gunners were still shaking when they pulled the trigger. At this time, a reconnaissance plane returned, the flight was a little abnormal, and at once it entered the landing course, and the landing gear and hook were also lowered (this is the signal to land). As the plane slid down, the gunners of the port rear guns fired several shots at it, and the model and insignia were recognized and stopped by others.

The plane flew to the stern, but it was too high and too fast, and the landing commander waved vigorously to prevent it from landing, but the pilot turned off the engine anyway. The plane slid all the way to the wet sloping deck, bounced, and the left wing tip grazed the deck and rushed out of the port side. The plane, piloted by Admiral Ensign MacDonald and Melson's rear gunner, was one of the cover fleets that carried out anti-torpedo missions. Fierce air battles were fought at a distance. MacDonald was badly wounded in the shoulder during the battle, and he tried to land before he lost consciousness. He was wounded in the right shoulder and broke his right arm during the forced landing. Both of them were rescued by the containment ship behind us. MacDonald was taken to a Navy hospital to recuperate from his injuries, and Melson was uninjured.

At this point, the fighters and reconnaissance planes began to return home, refueling and reloading, and then sorted, because Fletcher and the officers were not sure that there was no other wave of planes coming.

Just after noon, Rear Admiral Brett's squadron of torpedo planes returned home. When they flew to starboard and were about to enter the landing course, a destroyer fired several shots at them. Fortunately, the shells were missed, and the gunner, who was in a hurry, calmed down.

Ten of Brett's 21 planes landed safely on the "Habakuk" after attacking the enemy ship. Three other planes were lost on their return voyage, ran out of gasoline and made a forced landing at sea 30 nautical miles away, and the crew was rescued by a destroyer.

Fletcher learned about the air battles they had in defense of the "Habakuk" from the reports sent to the bridge by combat patrol pilots. These circumstances show that air cover is much more important than anti-aircraft guns in the defense of aircraft carriers.

The fighter pilots told the generals that they had tried to intercept the first two groups of Dive Bombers, but without success. The reason was that he was in front of the fighter group before he was discovered, and then the escort fighters of the dive bomber team were all mixed up.

One fighter pilot said that in the ensuing scuffle, he found himself in a favorable position to open fire next to a Gale fighter jet. He rushed over, almost using all the bullets, and the plane fell in a circle. "That guy was covered in red and yellow, and it was as beautiful as a Christmas tree, and I couldn't bear to hit it, but I thought it would be better to knock it off. It didn't catch fire, it was very beaten. If we can survive a fight like this plane, we will be able to pack it up. ”

Since Allied fighters failed to block enemy dive bombers, the main air defense tasks were carried out by reconnaissance aircraft. In the defense, the Allied reconnaissance planes suffered heavy losses, and it is impossible to know how they were shot down in a bloody battle. However, from the reports of the survivors, their heroic and fearless deeds can be seen.

Captain Hall, the pilot of the reconnaissance plane that was the first to intercept the torpedo plane, shot down two of the first nine Torpedo planes encountered. When he came into close contact with these enemy planes, five "Gale" fighters, presumably escorting the Torpedo planes ("Tien Shan" carrier-based attack planes), bit him. With a flick of the nose, Hall knocked out two more Gale. At the end of his battle report, he said regretfully: "The other three fled into the clouds. In the second half of the battle, Hall was hit by the Gale and broke both legs, but he was not injured at all.

Admiral Lypra and gunner Liscar also bravely charged in this battle. The two lads bombed a destroyer and shot down four planes, and this time they were also on a defensive duty against torpedo planes. They shot down one enemy plane while intercepting the attack plane, but they were immediately surrounded by "Gale" fighters, and in the fierce battle they shot down another "Gale" plane, damaging the rest of the enemy planes and driving them away. They wrote in their report; "The right front gun was broken, and the left front gun ran out of shells, so we had to withdraw from the battle." (There were only two forward guns on the reconnaissance aircraft).

On their way back to the Habakuk, they were attacked by two more enemy aircraft. They drove the enemy away with the only rear gun, and one of the enemy plane's engines caught fire, apparently wounded.

During the battle, Second Lieutenant Volcker intercepted a Ben attack aircraft and shot it down. Second Lieutenant Nite rushed into the middle of another formation of torpedo planes and shot down two enemy aircraft. But they all died in the ensuing battle.

Four reconnaissance planes of the USS Tahiti were shot down by a group of "Gale" planes while attacking the intruding torpedo planes. At this time, four "Corsair" fighters arrived and bit the "Gale" aircraft. American pilots, who flew to avenge their comrades, shot down 5 Gale fighters in two attacks. While participating in an assault on a fleet of Honmoto, Captain Taylor shot down two Gale fighters in a protracted duel before heading home. On his way back to the "Habakuk," he shot down two more planes. They were attack planes that were returning home, and when Taylor saw them, he turned and chased them, knocking down the two enemy planes with a last line of shells. The pilot shot down 4 enemy planes in one battle, increasing his record to 8, all fighters. But in the battle to defend the "Habakuk", he was also shot down and seriously wounded.

Captain Morgan's fighter plane, which was escorting the Habakuk dive bomber, and two other fighters lost contact with their escort targets. As soon as they returned to the skies over the "Habakuk", they caught up to take part in a battle. Morgan intercepted a dive bomber, but he himself was attacked by escorting Gale fighters. He hit a Gale plane and caught fire and watched it crash into the sea. But he was also hit by an enemy plane and fell. Fortunately, he was saved. He reported that in order to increase the endurance, in addition to the regular fuel tank, the plane also added a auxiliary fuel tank under the belly.

During the day's air battles, including the Allied forces flying more than 200 nautical miles over and along the flotilla, and finally the air battle around the "Habakuk", the Allied pilots and gunners shot down a total of 83 planes, of which 22 were shot down by the "Habakuk" anti-aircraft artillery fire and 61 were shot down by the planes. The Allies lost 36 aircraft: 18 aircraft carriers "Habakuk", 12 aircraft carriers "Tahiti" and 6 aircraft carriers "Xuanyuan".

While the ground crews were busy retrieving the "Habakuk" air defense aircraft, from about 11:45 a.m., Captain Wei'an began to receive the first reports from the lower deck. The reports came from the engine room, the battery compartment, the hospital, the various compartments, and all the departments necessary to make the warship work, where the people were at their posts during the battle.

Even before the end of the battle, these officers and men had been busy making up for the damage they had inflicted on the "Habakuk." Their work began when the first bombs fell nearby and hit the first torpedoes. First of all, all departments were inspected to separate the flooded compartments from the other compartments. They often had to prepare ice at depths below the waterline, stuff it on bulkheads, and pour water to withstand the impact and pressure of the seawater.

The first batch of torpedoes hit the protective ice shell in the bow of the ship on the port side. But it did not break it, the ice shell of the "Habakuk" was very thick, such a thick layer of ice was able to completely absorb the explosive energy of the torpedo. Although a large hole was blown open in the ice, it had little effect on such a large ship as the "Habakuk". If it were not ice, but an ordinary aircraft carrier, the hull would have been blasted with a large hole of 3-7 meters. Because the lightning protection shell is a non-pressure-resistant shell built below the waterline of the warship, located outside the main hull, it is a watertight compartment attached to the outside of the main hull for waterproof mines and torpedoes, which forms the real buoyancy of the warship. These compartments are usually filled with very lightweight, non-flammable fillers, sometimes filled with water, and their function is to provide a protective wall for the warship, keeping the point of explosion away from the real hull in the event of a mine (torpedo) or mine strike (mine) in the warship. Naturally, such a compartment cannot completely absorb the explosive energy of the torpedo. When a large hole is blown open in the compartment, there is usually only a small opening in the main hull that blows the steel plate open, the rivet blows off, or the nearby weld is torn open.

Speaking of torpedoes, it should be borne in mind that it does not penetrate the main hull of a warship with a mine shield shell until it explodes, as does armor-piercing shells and bombs. The torpedo with a highly sensitive detonator in the thunder head was speeding at a speed of 50 knots, and the explosives in the thunder head exploded the moment it touched the hull of the ship, and the explosion energy was mainly consumed on the outer protective layer.

This time, the "Habakuk" hit 5 torpedoes in 4 minutes, all in front of the central port side. Two came close together, and the second seriously damaged the ice of the hull. Lieutenant Commander Healy led several hundred men in his damage control service to carry out damage control operations. They were carrying out emergency repairs while the "Habakuk" was still in operation, and those initial conditions below deck were now reported to the captain (about noon). Lieutenant Commander Healy reported that the bombshell that had landed on the port 5-inch forward gun emplacement had caused a chain explosion of 5-inch shells there, and the general's cabin caught fire, but the fire was contained and quickly extinguished. In general, the structural damage to the "Habakuk" is insignificant.

Healy was also optimistic about the damage caused by torpedoes to the hull and the "mine-touching" effect of the bombshells that fell on the sides of the hull. He said that all the bulkheads had been held up and all the bulkheads had been reinforced. His subordinates were busy "restoring the warship to its original appearance" in the compartment near the hole. He assured Captain Vian that the slight damage would be healed quickly. There was no effect on the navigation and flight operations of the "Habakuk".

"I have a suggestion, Captain." He concluded, "If you have to get torpedoed again, let them hit the starboard side." ”

The damage control personnel did an excellent job, and when the first planes of the air attack force returned from 200 nautical miles away, the pilots could not see from the air that the aircraft carrier had been attacked. After landing, many people were surprised to hear that the "Habakuk" had been bombed and torpedoed by a naval aviation unit with all its might, and that it had been hit several times.

The flight deck of the "Habakuk" was almost undamaged during the attack, except for a bombshell on the edge of the flight deck near the 5-inch gun emplacement on the port side, which blew a small hole. Before the pilots returned, the planes on the flight deck had been pushed to the bow of the ship and the wings were used to cover the small amount of damage. This slight injury on the flight deck near the gun emplacement did not prevent the aircraft from taking off.

The cruising speed of the "Habakuk" did not decrease either, and it maintained a relative position with the fleet at a speed of 25 knots. Lieutenant Commander Fox, the chief of electrical engineering, thought that the speed could be even faster. He reported that a bomb that landed very close to the stern of the ship (he thought it had hit a torpedo because the air wave shook the entire stern) temporarily halted the operation of the three boiler compartments, which were repaired after an hour of emergency repairs, and all the main boilers were now in working order.

The following report was reassuring, and the whole ship was working properly, which greatly increased the optimism on the bridge. One of the officers said that the designers of the "Habakuk" once asserted that it would not sink even if it hit 10 torpedoes at the same time. It seems that they are right. Even now, the condition of the world's largest aircraft carrier does not look serious in the slightest. Those close bombs exploded on both sides, a dozen in total, causing the hull to be subjected to strong vibrations, which completely played the role of a mine explosion, but had no effect on the "Habakuk".

The medical department of the "Habakuk" looked after the casualties of the entire ship. The bomb that hit the 5-inch front gun emplacements killed many people, and the rest were burned or stunned. The medical staff carried them away from the firing gun emplacements, treated them, first aid was carried out in the aisle, and then sent to the hospital in the bow of the ship.

The plane's bomb fragments and machine-gun fire caused many casualties, some of which were gunners of the 5-inch rear left guns. Personnel on gun emplacements on both sides of the flight deck were killed by shrapnel from close ammunition. There were several casualties at the stern lookout post on the chimney, also due to strafing and shrapnel. There were also some people in the telegraph room and the quartermaster service who were stunned or stunned by the smoke. It took a great deal of effort for the medical staff to remove the wounded from the chimney aisle. They tied ropes to the chimney aisle, hoisted the box aircraft wire stretcher, and tied the injured who had undergone first aid to the stretcher and hoisted it onto the flight deck 20 metres below. These stretchers were also used to hoist casualties from the winding spiral staircase to the flight deck below.

The first of them to be shot was Lieutenant Commander Walter, whose surname was lively. By the time the warship hit the first torpedo, he had already come down. He was found lying on the floor of the cabin next to the translation room. The cabin was less than 20 meters from where a 1,000-pound bomb hit. Waves of blasts rushed across the deck, destroying the bulkhead of the cabin.

The bulkhead of Walter's quarters was impacted, knocking him out with the scorching heat of the explosion. Walter's close friend, Rev. Markle, immediately gave him artificial respiration, hoping that he would only be knocked unconscious by the air wave. It wasn't until Dr. White arrived from the hospital and told him that Walter was no longer saved, and the pastor stopped resuscitating. In the same cabin, the orderly found the body of the ship's dentist, Lieutenant Commander Todjakotsky, a few minutes earlier. They were pressed together when the bomb exploded.

Hundreds of 5-inch shells, which had been piled up close to the gun emplacements before the battle began, had now been scattered due to air strikes. Relatively only a few of these shells exploded, but the endless fire and heat caused the propellant in the cartridge case to expand until it finally knocked off the bullet stuck in the cartridge bayonet, and then the tongue of fire licked the propellant, causing it to burst into flames, spewing a scorching flame from the shell. Fletcher's general quarters were also damaged. After the attack, it was discovered that it was a rubble, still on fire, and soaked in chemical fire extinguishing agents. Duke was General Fletcher's orderly, he had no combat duty other than to serve the general, and he always sat in that small pantry playing the accordion when the warship was in combat readiness. When people found him here, they found that he had been killed by the first bomb.

Reverend Markle made it to the main deck (the first level below the flight deck) and saw smoke coming in from behind through the aisle. In the aisle in the middle of the warship, there were four people who were almost naked [***] calling for help, all of them badly burned. A Filipino cook helped him carry them to the bunk in the aisle, took off the rest of their clothes, and gave them a glass of water and morphine. A paramedic ran to give them tannic acid ointment and took over the care of them. From the five-inch gun position, the wounded were constantly withdrawn, some by one person's own efforts, and some by their companions. There were twelve men lying on the bunks, and while he was catching his breath, Reverend Markle went to the gun emplacement to take a look. There were several zombies there, some of them burned to a strange shape. A few surviving Marines were there tending to the No. 2 gun, which was still firing.

At this time, the Allied fleet continued to move south, approaching the enemy, preparing for another attack in the afternoon.

(To be continued)