Unlike the US Navy Air Force's technology, the aircraft were divided into several small teams and launched an attack with fuel-added tactics. More than 120 fighter jets taken off the aircraft carriers Akagi and Kaga formed a huge fleet of aircraft in the sky and rushed towards the Sixteen Task Force commanded by Halsey.√∟,

Halsey was prepared for the arrival of the Japanese army fleet.

The Hornet and Hornet are the core, and the five heavy cruisers of the task force, a light cruiser and nine destroyers form a standard circular cordon.

More than 20 four-wildcat fighter jets also took off urgently, bravely facing the Japanese fleet with an absolute advantage in number.

Zero fighter jets accelerated to leave the formation and rushed towards the US fighter jet group, firing the first shot to raid the US fighter jet group.

The Wildcat fighter was divided into more than a dozen twin-aircraft formations and fought with the Zero fighter. In less than twenty minutes, it achieved an impressive record of 5 to 1, which surprised the Japanese fighter pilots.

The US military adopted the "Sachie scissors tactic" invented by John Sach.

During the battle, US fighter jets flew in pairs and pulled the distance apart. Once one's own plane attracted the enemy plane and was chased, two planes flying in parallel would tilt away from each other and then immediately turn toward each other, so that another one's own plane could attack the enemy plane.

With its debut in Sachs scissors tactics, it made up for the lack of aircraft performance and pilot experience. The Wildcat fighters and Zero fighters fought very well, but were still entangled by an advantageous number of enemy aircraft, unable to stop the Japanese bombers and torpedo crew from raiding the fleet on the sea.

With its speed advantage, the Type 99 dive bomber was the first to fly over the US fleet, then dive rapidly and drop piles of bombs.

Each Type 99 dive bomber can carry five bombs, and the belly of the machine is suspended by a 250 kilogram bomb. Two 60 kilogram bombs are suspended by two wings.

Unlike in the past, the dive of the Type 99 dive bomber created a different battlefield wonder.

Obstructed by US air defense artillery fire, the two Type 99 dive bombers initially failed to hit the target.

The powerful 250 kilogram bomb has raised water columns on the sea, which has exceeded the deck of the aircraft carrier.

However, the magnificent battlefield landscape did not attract the attention of US sailors and officers, and their attention was all focused on the dense butterfly-shaped floating objects in the sky.

Hal's straight face plate was also close to the bridge's window, staring at hundreds of strange objects falling from the sky.

What is this? A new type of bomb developed by the Japanese?

Halsey clearly saw that a Japanese dive bomber dropped five bombs, the largest one fell into the sea on the right side of the deck, raising a water column that soared into the sky.

Four smaller bombs disintegrated strangely in the air, and they sprinkled dense black dots like sowing. These black dots spread their wings in the air and fell one after another.

Almost one-third of the butterfly-shaped bombs fell to the right deck of the USS Hornet aircraft carrier, and were completely unavailable.

Halsey's eyes moved with the rapid landing bombs, and soon saw the insidiousness of these bombs.

Air explosion. It turned out to be air explosion.

When Halsey saw the gray-black smoke burst out from the air, his heart twitched violently.

Turning his head and looking at the anti-aircraft gun position on the right side of the deck, Halsey saw the 20mm anti-aircraft gun that had been fired violently. The gunners twitched in the gun position like electric shock, and the originally ferocious anti-aircraft gun instantly silenced.

There are also some butterfly bombs that did not explode at air, but only burst into flames when they hit the deck.

Before Halsey could curse the Japanese's insidious weapons, a greater crisis came from the sky and the sea at the same time.

Four Type 99 dive bombers launched dives one after another, and each aircraft dropped a deadly 250 kilogram aviation bomb and four bomb spreaders that would disintegrate in the air.

Two 250 kilogram bombs failed and landed on the sea on both sides of the Hornet. However, the butterfly bombs that fell together always caused a bloody storm on the anti-aircraft gun positions on both sides of the deck.

Two other 250 kilogram bombs accurately hit the Hornet's deck, one hit the middle of the flight deck, exploded under the deck, and the other penetrated into the ventilation duct behind the bridge exploded.

The loud explosion came from behind the bridge, causing Halsey's brain to buzz.

Before he could give a new order, he heard butterfly-shaped black shadows flashing outside the bulletproof glass of the bridge.

I don't know how many butterfly bombs fell near the bridge. The bursts of the explosion hit the steel plates of the bridge, making a dense metal impact sound, and spider-web-like cracks of all sizes appeared on the bulletproof glass.

The aviation bomb that did not explode at air also landed into the open air defense gun position and the enclosure outside the bridge. Thinking of the strange butterfly-shaped bombs separated from him by only a layer of steel plate, Halsey's heart, who thought he was powerful, couldn't help but beat rapidly.

More butterfly bombs fell into the middle of the flight deck. Even holes exploded from 250 kg of aviation bombs drilled into the interior of the hull.

"Reported that the boiler bin is seriously damaged, only boiler No. 1 is still operating, and all other boilers are turned off."

Before Halsey could come up with a solution, a voice full of horror rang in his ears.

"The torpedo was found on the starboard side, and the torpedo was found on the starboard side, with a distance of about 600 meters."

Halsey hurriedly looked at the sea on the right and saw two white waves appearing on the blue sea. Two torpedoes rushed toward the starboard side of the Hornet.

The Bumblebee hurriedly turned around, but found that the boiler chamber was severely damaged and the huge and bulky hull lost its power, and the originally simple turning movement was almost impossible to complete.

"Long············" Two huge explosions sounded from the right side of the ship's head, and the white waves raised by the shock wave flew hundreds of meters high. The bow of the ship jumped violently, and the earthquake-like vibration spread throughout the ship.

Halsey grabbed the railing and tried to prevent his body from being thrown out.

It seemed to be the time to identify the Halsey aircraft carrier, where Halsey was located, and two more Type 99 dive bombers rushed to the Hornet's deck.

At this time, the Bumblebee, which had almost lost its speed, had no ability to dodge at all, and could only watch two enemy planes rush towards it.

An enemy plane exploded in the air without warning. At the critical moment, the surviving anti-aircraft artillery fire on Bumblebee took effect and destroyed the enemy plane in a dive state. However, before the anti-aircraft gunners cheered for their results, the wreckage of the bomber was wrapped in thick smoke and fire, and fell to the middle and rear of the flight deck like raindrops.

Following closely behind was a loud bang from the bow, and another bomb thrown by the Type 99 dive bomber hit the lower deck of the bow, making the injury from the bow even worse.

After Halsey stabilized his body, he keenly discovered that the Hornet had been seriously injured. The right-handed bow tilted towards the sea, causing the entire hull to lean towards the right, and the bow was even surrounded by thick smoke.

"General, you must transfer and can't stay here anymore. It's too dangerous here."

Scan the mess and filled with all kinds of broken copper and iron flight decks, Halsey shouted: "Contact Major General Fletcher immediately and let him take over and command the battle. Let's move."

Surrounded by the adjutant and the guard staff, Halsey hurriedly evacuated the bridge, pushed open the bottom-floor hatch, and ran to the aisle on the right side of the superstructure.

The staff members unloaded the escape boat hanging under the railing. Halsey held the railing and felt that the Hornet was still tilting to the right.

In a panic, no one noticed that a butterfly-shaped bomb was quietly lying on the ground four or five meters away in the aisle.

Two lifeboats were thrown to the sea one after another, and the officers fully utilized the tradition of "let the leader go first" and gave Halsey priority to board the ship.

The screams suddenly sounded dull explosions.

On the neglected butterfly bomb, the delayed fuse took effect and detonated the explosives.

The flying shrapnel rushed into the crowd, and the naval officers flew with blood.

Halsey rushed to the right neck and heard a severe pain, and his eyes were instantly covered by darkness. He fell softly to the deck.

When Halsey was carried by the surviving officers to a lifeboat and hurried away from the Hornet aircraft carrier, the Hornet's huge hull was already lying on the sea.

The left hull exposed on the sea surface was full of panicked sailors, and everyone was busy jumping into the sea to escape, trying to escape from the deadly vortex formed by the sinking of the battleship in time.

The lifeboat where Halsey was located was parked next to the heavy cruiser Portland. Halsey, who was unconscious, was on the deck on the stage and was then sent to the infirmary for emergency treatment.

Major General Fleet Fleet Fleet soon received the battle report.

The Sixteen Task Force was attacked by Japanese assault aircraft groups, the Hornet sank, the Hornet was hit by two aviation bombs, temporarily losing its combat capability, Halsey has handed over the command of the battle to him.

"Contact the surviving pilots of Bumblebee and Hornet immediately and let them land on York City. All ships are ready to turn around and we are going to evacuate the battlefield."

In the western sky, sparse black dots emerged from the clouds. It was the American pilot who attacked the Japanese fleet and returned successfully.

First, the carrier-based aircraft of York City, followed by the carrier-based aircraft of the Sixteen Special Mixed Fleet that hurriedly turned around. As the only aircraft carrier that could accept these carrier-based aircraft, the deck of York City was full of aircraft.

"Apart from fighter jets, all fighter jets will be immediately recycled into the hull. We will retreat and inform the Sixteen Task Force to retreat."

Major General Fletcher decisively issued a retreat order, sinking an opponent's aircraft carrier, severely hurting two, sinking one by himself and slightly injuring one.

Fletcher was already quite satisfied with the ability to achieve such a battle when the enemy had the advantage. All he had to do now was to lead the fleet out of the battle as soon as possible and escape from the attack range of Japanese fighter jets.

However, things went against my wishes, and Fletcher soon heard a report from the radar room.

"The organic group was found close to the north, about forty nautical miles away, and the number was more than one hundred."

Fletcher frowned, his eyebrows almost connected, and he asked with his eyes wide open, "Are you sure the enemy is from the north? Not the West?"

After receiving a positive response, the area of ​​the shadow in Major General Fletcher's heart instantly became larger than that of the Pacific Ocean.

According to the direction of the fleets on both sides, the enemy's attack aircraft group will not appear in the north anyway, but can only be in the west or northwest direction.

The most important point is that the Sixteen Special Mixed Fleet has reported that the enemy's attack aircraft group has just left, and it is less than half an hour to calculate. In such a short time, it is impossible for the enemy to complete the return, supplement and second attack.

So where did this group come from?

In the nearby waters, are there any aircraft carriers that have been discovered by themselves?

And there are more than one ship.

Major General Fletcher was immediately frightened by his inference.

"Quick, let fighters attack, let fighters attack." Major General Fletcher issued an emergency order.

"The enemy's fleet stopped advancing, and the enemy's fleet stopped advancing, about twenty nautical miles away from us."

When Fletcher heard the report from the radar room, he was not happy. He immediately guessed what the Japanese fighter was doing at this time.

"Damn, they must be attacking Task Force 16, let fighters attack and protect Task Force 16."

On the deck of York City, a fighter jet that was quickly filled with fuel took off urgently, flew to the north and was immediately involved in a strangle battle.

Fletcher's guess was very accurate. The second wave of attacks was the fleet from the USS Shohe and Ruihe aircraft carriers.

When the attack aircraft fleet arrived over the Sixteen Task Force, it instantly locked the only remaining aircraft carrier, the Hornet.

Losing the attention of the Hornet to share the Japanese fighter jets with him and losing most of the fighter jets and air defense firepower, the Hornet could only place hope on the warships escorted around them.

Releasing the smoke screen and taking a serpentine route, the Hornet desperately tried to get rid of the attacks of Japanese bombers and torpedoes, but was trapped in the siege of wolves.

The fighter jets of York City arrived in time, but could not stop the Japanese fighter jets from siegeing the Hornets. Instead, they were deeply trapped in fighting against the Zero fighter jets and could not escape.

The 250 kilogram aviation bomb and the butterfly bomb fell like raindrops. Three bombs were hit by the middle and rear of the Hornet deck. The huge hull slowly slowed down, no longer as fast as before.

The Type 97 torpedo aircraft from the left and right sides seized a precious opportunity to throw out the deadly torpedo.

In less than half an hour, five torpedoes were hit on the left and right sides of the Hornet, completely paralyzed on the ocean, becoming a living target for Japanese fighter jets.

The loss of the pipe failed, and the order to abandon the ship was quickly transmitted to every corner of every Wasp.

The crew members rushed out of their respective posts to strive for the last chance.

Major General Fletcher soon received news that the Hornet was sinking.

"Order the escort fleet to salvage the crew and evacuate the battlefield at full speed. We must bring the York City back to Pearl Harbor, which is our only hope."

Fletcher just issued a new order and received a new warning from the radar room.

"The organic group was found close to the northwest, with a number of about fifteen, with a distance of about fifty nautical miles." (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!