"Hold on! Here we are! Rear Admiral Mitchell, squadron leader of the Wildcat squadron aboard the USS Hornet, shouted loudly.

The American Wildcats, who were on standby in the rear to prepare for a surprise attack on the Japanese aircraft carriers, finally arrived.

The frequent fallings of US fighters here made Vice Admiral Calsi, the commander-in-chief of the aircraft carrier sitting in the rear, a little breathless.

Now is not the time to seek results, but first of all to ensure that there will not be too many losses.

During this period of hesitation in the rear, the Destroyer torpedo planes were shot down by 2 more, and even the Avengers and Dreadnought bombers began to fall with damage. The Wildcats have already fallen 13 planes, with quite a few heavy damage, while the Japanese have lost only 3 aircraft in the Zero Battle. The most important thing is that in order to consolidate this upcoming achievement, the Japanese took the risk of sending another 12 Zero fighters to join the battle group here.

The wildcats couldn't take it anymore. Even self-preservation is difficult, let alone banishing the flies around the Iowa.

There was a problem with the Iowa transmission system, and it was bombed frequently at sea. Turret 2 was hit by the Hyuga again, nearly causing a martyrdom. But turret No. 2 and several anti-aircraft guns around it were scrapped, and the return fire became less powerful. So that other warships of the Japanese also dared to come over and release torpedoes.

Japanese torpedo planes and bombers in the air tore through the increasingly fragile air defense nets, and attacks became more and more frequent.

Seeing that this bait was really about to be swallowed by the Japanese, Major General Fletcher could only helplessly ask for help.

Nimitz didn't think about it for long, knowing that at this time, the Japanese aircraft carriers would be more vulnerable after more Zero Battles joined the battle group, but he still couldn't sit idly by and watch the Iowa, numerous cargo ships and supplies, and support landing personnel, as well as those proud men in the sky, and immediately ordered air support.

Now that the detailed coordinates were known, soon 36 Wildcats and 24 F2A-3 Buffalo fighters broke through the clouds and rushed down.

Knowing the threat of the Japanese Zero, Calsi did not dare to be careless, and while ordering six aircraft carriers from two directions to pay attention to hiding their positions, more fighters were dispatched to support.

Although the performance of the Buffaloes was disappointing the last time the Enterprise was sunk, after the export of some of them, the American aircraft carrier still retains some of the Big Buffalo fighters. After all, they have not yet gone through a series of practices such as Midway and the Coral Sea, and the Americans have not yet made large-scale contact with the Japanese Zero War, and the Big Buffalo fighter is still one of the two main forces of the Americans' carrier-based fighters, and the number of equipment at most is less.

With their support, the balance of power on the field changed again. It turned out that the Americans had 54 Wildcats, and the Wildcats could at least entangle with Zero, but at the beginning, the Americans were too careless, and they were accidentally beaten down by 24 Japanese Zero-Wars and 13 Wildcats, and their confidence was lost. Coupled with the arrival of 12 more Zero War reinforcements from the Japanese, the Americans could no longer muster the courage to continue fighting. All that remains is self-preservation and escape.

However, with the addition of 60 new reinforcements, the ratio of the number of fighters on the field has reached more than 3 to 1, and the Americans are far ahead, which injects enough confidence into them to immediately organize their formation and fight back against the Japanese.

The Japanese were not willing to escape with the fatty, nor did they take this group of American rookies in their eyes, and immediately greeted them without hesitation.

Together with torpedo planes and bombers from both sides, about 200 warplanes engaged in the largest battle between the two sides in the skies over the Fiji Sea.

Although the airspace of the battle continued to expand, too many fighters were helplessly crowded into the place where the ships of both sides exchanged fire. Injuries on both sides continued to mount, especially among the Americans.

The accuracy of American anti-aircraft artillery is really not flattering, with enough ammunition, as long as it sees an active target, it will sweep a few times. The nimble Zero has become accustomed to this kind of firepower, often dodging attacks with poor accuracy, but the unsuspecting wildcats and large buffaloes often have no time to dodge and directly crash into the barrage, which has become a record that the American anti-aircraft artillery cannot take.

At this time, the American pilots had not experienced much of the fire of war, and there was not much tacit tactical coordination, and such a melee was actually not too stressful for the flexible Zero War.

On the contrary, those big buffaloes were once again reduced to negative supporting roles, and they fell rapidly one after another.

This undoubtedly deflated the confidence of the American boys who had just been impulsed again.

However, after all, the Americans had a numerical advantage, and the war situation was mainly concentrated on the side of the American fleet, and the broken air defense network also played a lot of roles. The two sides are at a stalemate.

But soon after, the deadlock was broken by reinforcements of 24 Wildcats that reappeared from the Americans.

Calsi, who had listened to the battle report from the front, did not hesitate at all and immediately sent new reinforcements, which finally overwhelmed the ambitions of the Japanese.

The Zero Combat was also damaged in the increasingly dense rain of bullets, and the personal skills of the American pilots were not weak, and after they had the confidence to dare to attack, they also hit the Zero fighters one after another.

A Super-Zero with thicker armor is better, but a thin-skinned Zero can be easily detonated. Although the American fighters suffered heavy losses, the Japanese Zero also lost 11 units. Especially in the face of a large number of wild cats entangled, which made their protection against torpedo planes and bombers gradually inadequate, and the fragile 97 ship attack and 99 ship explosion were shot down from time to time, and it was difficult to attack the Iowa smoothly.

The two sea steel giants were free from the interference of the air, and each fought with his own muscles. Both sides lacked one turret each, and the same triple of 6 guns against the enemy. The Yamato-class Hyuga had the advantage of 460mm heavy punches, while the Iowa fought hard, exerting a maximum rate of fire of 2 rounds per minute, crushing the Yamato-class head with only 1.8 rounds per minute.

The battle between steel and steel at sea has once again become the protagonist of the sea, and the two steel giants are covered in bruises. The Iowa, in particular, looked like it was dying.

In fact, each battleship was a small powerhouse, with thick steel bones and thick armor and numerous sealed cabins that allowed them to hold on as long as they had a breath left. At this time, after the Americans gradually regained their air inferiority, they took advantage of the entanglement of the wildcats, and the Avenger and Destroyer torpedo planes and dreadnought bombers also began to attack the Japanese fleet frequently, which gave the Iowa the confidence to survive.

Especially the Avengers with excellent performance, when fighting against the Zero, the Avengers of the formation only lost one, and at this time the firepower was at full power, which could not only drop the Mark 13 aviation torpedo, but also throw another 900 kg or 4 225 kg bombs, and use the thick body to withstand the fragile air defense net of the Japanese, and rampage in the Japanese fleet.

Although the torpedoes of the Americans performed poorly, they could not stop the numerical superiority.

When a Yangyan-class destroyer, the Hatsukaze, struggled to block the hole of the gun, blocking a torpedo that rushed towards the Hyuga and was sunk by a blast, the Japanese also began to be afraid of this. But even with 1 heavy cruiser, the Japanese, who had 2 destroyers in hand, were still unwilling to give up

"Aunt Amaterasu bless me!" A shout was heard over the airborne radio that often had problems with the Japanese.

"Takano-kun!" The captain of the 97 ship attack, Kojima Akikawa, only snorted, but did not say anything, just watched the 97 ship attack with a blow to the wild cat's claw and dragged up the black smoke at full power, just like a 99 ship explosion, swooping down from a height of about 3,000 meters and rushing straight towards the Iowa.

The Americans had already noticed the unusual aircraft, and the 40-mm Bofors and 20-mm Erlikon anti-aircraft guns immediately intertwined to form several fire whips and pumped up, and even the 127-mm high-level dual-purpose guns began to aim there.

"Cover him!" Kojima Mingchuan burst out and rushed forward first.

As if stabbing a hornet's nest, the Japanese 97 torpedo planes and 99 dive bombers, which were still swimming out just now and evading the attacks of the American wildcats and buffaloes, rushed straight to the Iowa like a swarm of bees at this time.

The two 97 carrier-based torpedo planes in the air were directly blasted by the anti-aircraft artillery and the intercepted wildcats, but although the 97 ship-based attack in the air was shattered by the anti-aircraft artillery on both sides, it could not stop the huge inertia of the dive-down, and took advantage of the weakness of the anti-aircraft fire around the No. 2 turret to directly hit the bow of Iowa.

The 800-kilogram torpedo it was carrying was detonated and exploded inside the Iowa, which had pierced two decks.

The explosion caused the ammunition of the No. 1 turret to detonate, and a continuous blast wave of the explosion tore through the deck of the Iowa, sending flames into the air.

Everyone didn't have time to be surprised, a 97 ship attacked under the sacrifice of a 99 ship's explosion, and also threw a torpedo at close range.

The long-range attack effect of the five 95 torpedoes thrown by the Japanese did not play a role, but the torpedo of this close-range attack hit the target directly, and the port side of the Iowa was scarred again, and in a series of internal explosions, the body had begun to tilt to about 10 degrees.

The screams of the sailors on the Iowa who were covered in fire made the Americans also go crazy and attack desperately.

As long as they are not afraid of sacrifice, the numerical superiority of the Americans gradually emerges.

Under the 2-to-1 exchange of Wildcats and Big Buffaloes, Zero suffered more and more injuries. And the American torpedo planes and bombers added another destroyer to the record, and the Frost Moon of the Akizuki class was sunk by three 225-kilogram bombs.

The Kumano was also hit by an American torpedo and was seriously wounded.

But it finally made it to the point where the Iowa began to sink after being hit by a salvo from the Hyuga.

When more Avengers and Dreadnoughts pounced in the sky again, the Japanese saw that the plunder was hopeless and the Hyuga was easily sunk by the Americans' retaliation, so they destroyed 7 more cargo ships with naval guns and bombs one after another, and only then withdrew from the battlefield with some regret.