In this duel between the fighters of the two sides, the actions of the F4F can be described as "moths to the fire". In the case that the quality of the pilots and the performance of the fighters are not as good as the opponent, even if the F4F has a short-term numerical advantage, with the other two squads of "Falcon" joining the battle, the situation on this air battlefield 2o nautical miles away from the 17th Task Force begins to fall one-sided. In the end, the "Wild Cats" all forgot their duties, and the "Falcons" frantically pursued and killed the fleeing "Wild Cats" American pilots, all of whom only cared about fleeing for their lives, and forgot their most important duties, and none of the American pilots thought of intercepting the bombers of the Tang Empire!

At this time, the radar in the American fleet had been turned on, and the American warships used the first-generation radar, and its performance was similar to that of the first-generation radar equipped by the Tang Imperial Navy. The detection range of 2o nautical miles is certainly there, but the biggest problem is that the radars are very well received (this is the most criticized aspect of the radar when it appeared, and even because of this, many fleet commanders trust the eyes of the lookouts) and there are only three heavy cruisers in the American fleet equipped with radars, only one of which is on the left side of the fleet, and the other two are in the front and rear of the fleet.

At this distance, it makes no difference whether there is a radar or not. At that time, the command system (which had not changed qualitatively until the end of World War II) simply could not fully unleash the performance of the radar. In fact, in addition to long-range targets, another extremely important role of radar is to guide air defense operations. Because of the backwardness of the entire command system, this role of radar has basically not been unleashed. It was not until the end of the war that the Tang Imperial Navy began to try in this regard, and it was more than ten years after the war that the radar and the command system were truly combined.

The bomber group was about ten minutes behind the forward escort fighter group. It was also when Ellsler led the escort fighters to chase down the "Wildcats" that the "Kingfisher" group led by Lieutenant Colonel Qiu Gengbo first saw the 17th Task Force Fleet, which was sailing northward at the fastest speed. The two aircraft carriers in the fleet are indeed very easy to identify. The "Lexington" is tall and mighty, similar to the "Akagi", a large fleet aircraft carrier converted from a capital ship, with a displacement of nearly 50,000 tons, the largest fleet aircraft carrier in the world at that time, and this record will be maintained until the later stage of the war. Opposite. The "Wasp" is much smaller, only 35 meters shorter than the "Lexington".

The Wasp was not actually a new first-class aircraft carrier for the U.S. fleet (the intelligence services of both the Tang and German empires made serious mistakes here), but a separate first-class aircraft carrier built to replace the aging Langley with all the tonnage limited by the Songjiang Treaty. In design, the Wasp resembles the Yorktown-class aircraft carriers, which are proportionally scaled down, but the performance is not satisfactory, the worst of which is that its underwater protection is even weaker than that of the Yorktown-class aircraft carriers (after the Yorktown-class aircraft carriers entered service). The full load displacement of the aircraft carrier is only more than 175oo tons, the length is 23.44 meters, and the maximum degree is just over 29 knots. And with 86 fighters in such a small hull (in fact, this is much better than the "Emperor" class) and 2ooo officers and men of the fleet (including aviation units), as a result, there were very few anti-aircraft guns arranged on the surface of the aircraft carrier.

The U.S. Navy did not initially use the Wasp as a fleet carrier, but kept it in the Atlantic, both for training missions (like the Raider) and for escort fleets. Limited combat patrol missions in the Atlantic Ocean (mainly by aircraft). In the middle of the Atlantic, the destroyers of Britain and France helped to find German submarines, which also became the theoretical basis for the later use of escort carriers) On the eve of the outbreak of the Great War, the US Navy realized that the number of aircraft carriers deployed in the Pacific Ocean was less than that of the Tang Imperial Navy. That is why it was decided to urgently transfer the "Wasp" into the Pacific Ocean. As a result, the Wasp did not make it to the first naval battle, and upon arrival at Pearl Harbor it took the place of the injured Yorktown as Fletcher's flagship.

In terms of aviation strike capabilities alone, the "Wasp" is not under the "Lexington" (standard carrier aircraft 8o). Qiu Gengbo didn't know this, and he wouldn't care about it, the only thing he fancied was the huge body of the "Lexington", 27o meters in length! For any bomber pilot, a larger battleship is certainly more attractive. As a result, Qiu Gengbo did not wait for the arrival of the slower "Osprey" torpedo group. After Xun assigned the task, he immediately led a small team of "Kingfishers" to rush towards the "Lexington".

The anti-aircraft guns on the American battleship immediately rang out, and both Fletcher and Fitch must have resented the fact that there were too few anti-aircraft guns on the battleship. In particular, Rear Admiral Fletcher, in the "Battle of the Philippines", the "Yorktown" has already exposed the shortcomings of insufficient anti-aircraft firepower, and Fletcher also mentioned this in the battle report, calling for a comprehensive strengthening of the anti-aircraft fire of the battleship. The U.S. Admiralty even secretly invited several Japanese aircraft carrier designers (some of Japan's high-ranking talents had already fled to the United States at that time) and, based on the opinions of these Japanese, came up with a plan for strengthening anti-aircraft firepower. But it was too late. By the time the two task forces left Pearl Harbor, the four aircraft carriers and other escort ships had only temporarily added a batch of .5o (inch, the same hereafter, no longer specified) heavy machine guns, which were of little use in actual combat.

Qiu Gengbo was also surprised by the anti-aircraft fire of the American warships, and he was surprised that the anti-aircraft firepower of the American fleet was even worse than that of the Japanese warships at the beginning of the war. It may have been his delusion, and after so many brutal battles, veteran bomber pilots like Cho Gengbo had become accustomed to passing through dense nets of fire before starting to dive. And now, they reached the sky above the aircraft carrier without much threat, and none of the eleven "Kingfishers" following behind Qiu Gengbo's plane were hit.

The twelve Kingfishers quickly divided into three squads, and then 6 began to dive and drop bombs. Qiu Gengbo did not have the first dive, now he is the captain of the group, he must command the other bombers to drop bombs first, take this opportunity to let more pilots get the opportunity to fight, his first task is to command, not attack.

The screech of the Kingfisher during the dive is very special, and it is the prelude to the funeral of the USS Lexington. The first four Kingfishers began to dive at an altitude of 25oo meters, and then dropped bombs at an altitude of about 7oo meters. When these pilots were all "novices" fighting in the South Seas, they mostly dealt with Japanese ground fortifications, or transport ships that had little defense, and this was their first bombing of an aircraft carrier. Therefore, they were all a little nervous, and as a result, they did not reach the maximum dive altitude, but hurriedly dropped the bomb.

"Damn, a bunch of cowards. Four bombs were wasted! ”

Qiu Gengbo saw that the four bombs had been missed, and he was also excited, "The third group will follow me, and the second group will stay behind, see how I dropped the bombs!" ”

The four "Kingfishers" that had been scheduled to drop bombs in the second batch all withdrew from the bombing route, and by the time the pilots changed their bombers to level flight, Qiu Gengbo's plane had already dived down first.

"Follow me, you can only drop the bomb after I drop the bomb!"

Qiu Gengbo skillfully controlled the bomber that had already begun to dive, and he was so familiar with the performance of the "Kingfisher" that the bomber was like a part of his body. He can even use a bomber to perform some super-actor-like moves.

The pilots on the other three bombers were a little nervous. But they all swooped up, led by the captain, which gave them a lot of confidence. It's not that they don't know the extreme performance of the bomber. It's just never been possible to wave this extreme performance. All of them had undergone extremely rigorous training, and they had all fought in battle. That's all they lack.

Before entering the final vertical dive stage, Qiu Gengbo also operated the bomber to skillfully avoid several batches of shells, and then the bomber fuselage began to slowly rotate into the vertical dive channel. At this time, Qiu Gengbo also felt the pressure, as if a lead ball was tied to the lever, and he used all his strength to control the bomber that was about to "get off the leash". The other three pilots who followed him were probably on the verge of collapse.

When the altimeter reading changed to 5oo, Qiu Gengbo released the bomb dropping button he was holding tightly (the bomb dropping mechanism has been improved once, pressing it is to release the insurance, and loosening it is to drop the bomb, if you press it continuously for ten seconds, it will not be released. The safety will be restored, and the bomb will not be dropped after being released) After feeling a huge force coming from the soles of his feet (the reaction force of the explosive bolt pushing the bomb out), Qiu Gengbo immediately pulled the joystick back desperately. After continuing to dive for dozens of meters, the bomber finally pulled up, and then changed to level flight at an altitude of less than 100 meters above the sea surface, and then began to climb rapidly.

Qiu Gengbo secretly breathed a sigh of relief at this time, every dive and bomb throwing was a game of death. After wiping away the sweat that flowed from the edge of his flight cap, Qiu Gengbo glanced back. The bomb he dropped hit the front elevator of the aircraft carrier (the "Lexington" has three elevators. And not like the aircraft carriers of the Tang Empire, where there were only two elevators with greater power that could transport two fighters at the same time). Three other Kingfishers also managed to drop bombs, one of which landed in the anti-aircraft artillery group on the left behind the aircraft carrier's flight deck.

"Lao Qiu, No. 7 was shot!"

Hearing the call of the navigator in the back seat, Qiu Gengbo immediately looked to the left, and the "Kingfisher", which had been hit by a shell in normal times, shook in the air a few times, and then "dived" into the sea again.

"Pull it up, damn it, pull it up-"

At the shouts of Qiu Gengbo, the "kingfisher" suddenly miraculously began to rise when it was almost about to fall into the sea. Although gray smoke was already rising from behind the belly of the plane (the battery on the plane was supposed to have been hit by a shell), the degree of the plane was increasing, and the altitude was also increasing.

"Fuck it!"

Qiu Geng sighed, "Second group, now drop bombs in my way and take out the 'Lexington'." ”

The four pilots and the four navigators who "watched" the bombing "performance" of the captain, which can almost be described as "wonderful," were all excited. The "Lexington" has already received two bombs, and a huge column of fire has already appeared on its foredeck (the hit part should not be far from the ammunition bay), and the aircraft carrier is decreasing. Bombs are now easier to hit!

When the four "Kingfishers" of the second group quickly entered the dive channel and were about to send a few more bombs to the "Lexington," Qiu Gengbo was also busy beckoning the "Kingfishers" who had not yet dropped bombs to come and besiege the "Lexington." At this time, the squad that attacked the "Wasp" aircraft carrier had also succeeded, allowing the "Wasp" to eat at least three bombs, and two more bombs were close to the aircraft carrier.

When the Kingfisher flew over Task Force 17, the Osprey, which had been reduced to an altitude of 5oo meters, was also killed. Lieutenant Colonel Zhang Zhitao (who, like Qiu Gengbo, stayed in the First Air Wing and was promoted to lieutenant colonel) was supposed to command the "Osprey" group, but he took part in the reconnaissance operation, so he was not able to catch up with the bombing. However, the pilots of these "Ospreys" are not inferior. When the "Kingfisher" attracted the anti-aircraft fire of the American fleet, they had already quietly touched it, ready to deal a fatal blow to the aircraft carrier with a torpedo hanging from the belly of the aircraft.

The second round of bombing (the second round of concentrated bombing of the first bomber groups) was carried by the "Kingfisher" together with the "Osprey". Although the gunners on the American battleships had already noticed the torpedo bombers approaching at low altitude, the anti-aircraft fire of the fleet at this time was difficult to deal with even those dive bombers, and how could they still deal with the torpedo bombers that had already been killed. What is even worse is that Major Ellsler has already led the escort fighters to seize air supremacy over the 17th Task Force, and these "falcons" who have lost their prey have also been killed, using machine guns to strafe the anti-aircraft gun positions on the American battleships that have no armored defense. And most of the gunners on the American battleships could not accurately distinguish between bombers and fighters (in fact, in the fierce battle, the gunners of the Tang Imperial fleet were similar) The end of the 17th task force has come, and when the two American rear admirals, Fletcher and Fitch, saw the swarming Tang Empire bombers, I am afraid they will not even have the idea of luck!