This is the third "Kawanishi" aircraft shot down in four days. At 11:15, the "Habakuk" was still accelerating, but it had not yet fully entered the formation of the fleet. There was only one cruiser on the port side, diagonally behind. Destroyers and other cruisers that were supposed to cover on the port side were still far ahead, behind or on the starboard side. It's better if they're in a covering position, not at both ends.

At 11:16, Vian was observing the cruiser when he suddenly saw it open fire, spewing tongues of fire and smoke. In less than a few seconds, after the thunderous whirring of the first row of shells, the small arms on the cruiser were also thrown into battle. Vian saw the flash of artillery fire on that cruiser.

At 11:10:30, the lookout post shouted, "Here they are!" Enemy torpedo machine on the port side! Captain Wei'an calmly glanced in that direction, and calmly said to the helmsman, "Right full rudder!" "This maneuver was carried out in order to throw the Habakuk over and let the narrower stern face the torpedo machine. But compared to the speed of the silver-gray planes that were rushing this way, which were now hiding low behind the cruiser, the huge "Habakuk" seemed to be unmoving. At the moment when Captain Wei An gave the rudder order, the enemy planes became larger and larger, and approached in a single horizontal formation. They were fast, and Vian estimated that they could reach 300 knots when they dive with increased throttle.

At this time, the guns of the "Habakuk" remained silent.

Now the gunners have seen nine planes in the first wave, two of which flew to the cruiser less than two thousand meters to the left rear. The two planes flew very low, and it took a slight pull of the nose to pass over the cruiser. At this moment, one of them suddenly blossomed in the air, as if it had been suddenly captured by a magician. It was apparently hit by the cruiser's shell that hit the torpedo it carried, causing it to explode. This plane was very beautiful when it exploded. People shouted: "Well done!" Guys! Good start! ”

At this time, more than a hundred guns on the "Habakuk", excluding the 406-mm main guns, all opened fire. The sound of firing from 5-inch caliber anti-aircraft guns "Knock Dong", the intermittent sound of 37-mm guns and the roar of 20-mm guns rang out in a ball. The loud sound and jolting of the explosion made the people standing on the bridge feel as if they were in a semi-vacuum. As soon as the guns under the bridge opened fire, the people standing in the open part of the bridge choked on the smell of gunpowder from the shells. When the small-caliber automatic cannon fired, a wall of tracer shells was erected on the port side of the warship, and red and white tracer ballistics flashed in the bright sunlight.

At 11:17 a.m., the "Habakuk" was still turning, and again and again turned its narrow stern at the plane. At this time, the enemy aircraft slightly corrected its course and, as soon as it was parallel to the aircraft carrier, suddenly turned to the port side. They were literally riding on a rain of small-caliber tracer bullets, but they were not afraid, and even the downing of the lead plane by the cruiser next to them did not affect his determination to attack.

Now they are very close to the "Habakuk". The first pair of twin aircraft was less than 800 meters from the iceberg aircraft carrier, and the last one was no more than 1000 meters. The crew of the "Habakuk" saw the black and slimy body of the mine dropped from the plane and the splash of the torpedo as it entered the water, as well as the blistering track of its two thrusters. Two torpedoes pounced under water at a speed of 50 knots at the "Habakuk".

Eighteen enemy planes also flew in under artillery fire and dropped torpedoes. They did not fly away, but continued to fly straight towards the aircraft carrier, and the leading twin planes were close to the sea, and because they flew too low, they had to raise their noses and brush over the front flight deck of the aircraft carrier.

Fletcher saw the fruits of the training of Allied guns and artillery. The 37-mm guns in front seized the first plane. He saw that their shells and red tracer shells pierced the wings and fuselage. The plane shook and slowly tilted to the left, just under the bow of the "Habakuk", and the tail dragged a tongue of fire into the sea less than 30 meters from the starboard bow.

The 5-inch guns on the port side of the gunners of the "Habakuk" concentrated their fire on the second plane. As the plane pulled up and flew over the gun emplacements, it was hit by a shell that shattered its bones, and the plane's engine fell into the sea in front of the gun emplacement, and fragments of the wings and tail fell like pieces of shredded paper on the flight deck.

The remaining dozen or so silver-gray planes attempted to fly away from the stern direction. The tail guns of the "Habakuk" also fired heavily at them with concentrated fire, but missed. The enemy planes flew over in an instant, made a steep turn to get away from the gunner's aiming, and then flew away at a low altitude.

As soon as the first wave of attacks by this plane ended, the second wave came. They also come from the left rear, but not at low altitudes, but at more than 300 meters or higher. Captain Vian could make out that they were descending at a 45-degree angle.

At 11:18:30, a torpedo hit the front of the port side of the "Habakuk", and the violent explosion caused a tongue of fire to erupt there, but the people on the bridge only felt a slight shock from the "Habakuk" under their feet. They saw that there were still a few torpedoes dragging their tracks towards this direction, and this was the first wave of torpedoes dropped by the planes, which had just arrived. Vian saw that some of the torpedoes had come out of the water (the head of the mine was exposed to the surface and then plunged into the water, probably because there was something wrong with the depth fixer). In his opinion, the heinous thunder head was simply the embodiment of death. He seemed to sense that they were alive, peeking out of the water to spy on them, and after making sure that they were right at them, he plunged down and rushed towards them.

At 11:20, there was a loud "boom", the entire aircraft carrier shook slightly, and the "Habakuk" was hit by another torpedo. This time it was also in that position, in the port forward. This time, too, a tongue of fire spewed out with seawater. "Habakuk" is still sailing, and the torpedoes that hit do not seem to have any effect on the giant ship.

At this moment, the bow of the ship shouted to the empty lookout post (it was above the bridge): "Dive bomber!" ”

Fletcher looked towards the sun and saw that the first dive bomber had just dropped its bomb and was leveling it. The plane flew very low, less than 300 meters high. He looked up just in time to see the long black bomb falling from the plane. A 1,000-pound bomb landed right in the middle of the three 5-inch guns in the forward port emplacement, and with a terrible loud bang and a dazzling flash, all the guns here were dumbfounded, and most of the gunners on the emplacements were killed on the spot.

The second wave of torpedo planes began to drop mines, and all the fire aimed at them did not hit them. They descended to a distance of only 70 meters from the sea and 1000 meters from the "Habakuk". Wei An saw that they did not change to level flight, nor did they level the sea when they threw mines, but continued to dive rapidly.

Another group of planes flew straight towards the "Habakuk" and opened fire with machine guns, and they hit them accurately, killing and wounding some of the people in the rear gun position on the port side. The battle had developed to the point of white-hot heat, and it was no longer possible to see if any enemy planes had been shot down, and the surrounding area was full of water columns set off by close bombs of dive bombers, dozens of meters high. The planes flying towards the "Habakuk" were not much higher than the chimneys, and they all used machine guns to strafe the flight deck, the sides of the warship, and the lookout area. The flight deck was full of tracer ballistics for a while, and they were dazzling, and most of them were fired too high to hit the exposed gunner.

At 11:21, there was a "boom", and the "Habakuk" was hit by another torpedo, also on the port side, almost in the middle of the hull. More torpedoes were speeding towards the Habakuk, and the white trails of thunder were terrible signs of evil in the water. At this time, on the port side of the "Habakuk", it was almost entirely torpedoes.

More of these freshly dropped torpedoes came out of the water than in the first wave. Two torpedoes appeared to have undoubtedly hit the middle part of the aircraft carrier "Habakuk", and it can be seen from the track behind them that they were aimed at "Habakuk". Vian glanced at the black slimy thunderhead 100 meters away, and it seemed that it was definitely going to hit. He stared at the surface of the sea, waiting for it to explode, but there was no movement.

Vian looked to starboard in amazement, and two torpedoes emerged from the sea and galloped off into the distance. They must have sailed under the aircraft carrier. That is, there was a problem with their fixed depth, which exceeded the depth of the "Habakuk" with a full draft.

At this time, a small bomb hit the chimney of the "Habakuk", killing and injuring several people in the narrow aisle. In the blink of an eye, the machine guns of several dive bombers wounded several more people on the top, indicating that it was a very dangerous place in battle.

The anti-aircraft guns and machine guns of the "Habakuk" were fired incessantly. The dive bombers flew over the flight deck of the "Habakuk", and all the guns opened fire on them in unison. Fletcher saw that the tracer rounds were either too high or too low as the plane strafed, and did not hit the gunners on the flight deck, nor did they touch the men standing on the bridge.

Another thought flashed through Vian's mind: "These guys aren't swooping like we do. The angle of their dive is not large, only fifty degrees. Thinking so, he suddenly saw a black dot grazing two or three meters away from the railing in front of the starboard bridge, only as high as the bridge, and fell into the water and exploded - it was a bombshell (about 1,000 pounds). Frye instinctively ducked behind the railing of the bridge, and the others hid when they saw the bombs coming.

At 11:22, with a "boom", the "Habakuk" shook again and hit the fourth torpedo, in the middle of the port side. At 11:22:30, a fifth torpedo was hit, in the forward port side. These torpedoes, like those that were previously hit, did not seem to diminish the actions of the "Habakuk" in the slightest.

Captain Wei'an stared at the torpedoes and dive bombers, and the aircraft carrier "Habakuk" turned its huge body and constantly maneuvered, making serpentine movements to the left and then to the right, trying its best to avoid the torpedoes. He kept giving orders to the navigator and the helmsmen in the calm tone of his parlor.

That's when Fletcher happened to be passing by. The captain was standing in front of the steering wheel and looking forward, listening attentively to the reports given to him from all over the place. As Fletcher walked by, their eyes met, and Fletcher impulsively walked over to shake the captain's hand. He said, "I see everything is normal, Captain. Vian smiled, squeezed his hand hard, and said in a calm and slightly faster tone, "I hope so, I hope so." ”

Fletcher glanced to starboard to see what was going on with the other ships, and he saw five burning planes on the sea. When the plane dropped the torpedo or bomb and flew away, the tracer shells from the starboard guns of the "Habakuk" chased after them. At this time, a huge column of water rose next to the aircraft carrier "Tahiti", and the first thing Frywin felt was that it had been hit. Later, I learned that it was a bombshell dropped by the plane, and it didn't hit.

Suddenly, Fletcher saw a Corsair tail chasing a plane that was diving towards the USS Tahiti. They were completely obscured by the smoke from the heavy anti-aircraft guns fired, and he saw them appear in the network of machine gun fire on the flight deck. The plane dropped its bomb and began to flatten, when its fuel tank was hit by Allied fighters and caught fire, and then dragged a tongue of fire into the sea. The Corsair fighter pulled up again and returned to the fight.

The attack was fierce and frenzied, and every second or two a dive bomber rushed down. Most of the bombs fell behind the aircraft carrier, albeit very close to the warship, but did not hit. Fletcher saw the planes overhead swooping down in a row, and if you looked closely, you could see the bombs leaving the plane. The plane swooped down, then gradually leveled out, firing incessantly with machine guns and machine guns on the wings. Each enemy aircraft swept over the flight deck of the "Habakuk", turned into a small dot and quickly disappeared.

At 11:25, the lookout whistle shouted: "Port side!" 7 torpedo machines! "The Allied anti-aircraft artillery fire was so heavy that the pilot of the plane had to hurriedly drop the torpedo and fly away. Like the first batch of planes, the attack by this group of enemy planes was ineffective. They all threw their torpedoes as soon as they began to slide at 45 degrees, and they were still seventy or eighty meters above the sea surface, and they turned and flew away without approaching, and they were at least 1,500 meters away from the "Habakuk."

"Habakuk" again began to maneuver, evading torpedoes. This time it's a turn to the right. All the torpedoes came straight at the "Habakuk".

"Set the course, Captain, set the course!" Lieutenant Commander Alexander suddenly shouted. He danced on the bridge, frightened, and spread his arms as if he could push the torpedo away. "There were three torpedoes on both sides. Two on the port side and one on the starboard side, both parallel to us. ”

Alexander continued to shout: "If we deviate a little, we will run into a torpedo." "Captain Vian gave the order to set the course, and the torpedo brushed it aside." The speed of the "Habakuk" reached 25 knots at this time, while the torpedo was 50 knots, so it seems that the torpedo speed is not fast.

At 11:26 a.m., a signalman reported to Captain Wei'an that in the middle of the high-speed fleet there was a pilot of his own (he was forced to parachute during the battle) floating on a small yellow raft, 100 meters away from the starboard bow of the "Habakuk", and when the "Habakuk" passed by him, he saw him kneeling and waving to us desperately for help. The anti-aircraft shells fired from the planes and warships of the entire fleet whizzed past him, as if he had not noticed it at all.

Captain Vian glanced at him, immediately understood what was going on, and he raised his arm and instructed a signal man to tell a destroyer (the rearmost in the fleet) to pick up the young man. The destroyer carried out the order, drove up to him, made a sharp turn as it was about to approach, made a sharp turn, then slammed into a reversing halt, threw down a rope and dragged him to the ship.

At 11:27, five more torpedo planes suddenly appeared. They braved the cannon fire until they reached the center of the fleet, and the gunners found out. But the anti-aircraft guns were already firing. These new enemy planes flew almost close to the surface of the sea and rushed toward the "Habakuk," and after spreading their fans, they dived toward the starboard side, and this was the first time that their planes attacked from the right today.

The entire fleet opened fire on them in unison. Enemy planes had no choice but to drop mines at a great distance. The already wounded "Habakuk" turned the rudder again and dodged all the torpedoes, which rushed in front of the bow of the ship, leaving several tracks on the surface of the sea.

Two more torpedo planes penetrated the fire net of the Allied fleet and swooped down, but they flew behind the stern of the "Habakuk" anti-aircraft fire and attacked a cruiser in the left rear with torpedoes. The nimble cruiser caught up and avoided two torpedoes with a sharp turn. The gunners on the cruiser fired shells at both aircraft. One plane was hit directly by a shell, and with a loud "boom", the plane turned into a ball of fire and disappeared.

Admiral Patterson stared intently at the swooping plane, when suddenly, a Marine came running, saluted him, and handed him a note. The lieutenant colonel helplessly took his eyes off the attacking enemy fuselage and hurriedly looked at it: "At this time, you still bother me with this kind of thing, as if I have nothing to do." He crumpled the note and said impatiently.

Someone asked, "What bothers you?" Sir? ”

His eyes were still fixed on the bomber, and he replied, "It's annoying, there's a measles guy on board." ”

At 11:32 a.m., the last of the Dive Bombers roared over and fired incessantly with their machine guns. Its bomb landed very close, but missed. The ship's anti-aircraft guns chased and fired until it was out of sight. The attack of enemy aircraft was over, and suddenly there was silence. Although the "Habakuk" was wounded, it was still floating at sea, and the main engine continued to provide the required speed of the captain of the security ship, and the navigation was normal.

(To be continued)