It was already 9:40, and the incoming torpedo planes had just retreated. They paid a huge price, but only achieved the result of damaging one Japanese aircraft carrier. However, compared to the torpedo planes in history,

Compared with the situation where almost all the troops were wiped out but no targets were hit, it was still good. At least, most of the torpedo planes escaped unscathed. And the effect of the hit in history was unsound - attracting all the enemy fighter jets.

Low altitude allowed the dive bombers to launch an attack without any enemy aircraft blocking them - the same was achieved. And because the attack was better organized, the bombers appeared more timely. Just when the torpedo planes turned around, a bomb from the Enterprise

Thirty-two Dauntless dive bombers led by Major Clarence McCluskey have appeared over the Nagumo Fleet. Major Clarence McCluskey looked down from an altitude of 2,000 meters, a

The huge fleet was displayed in front of him without any obstruction. The huge array of warships on the ocean formed a huge circular formation. In this guarding circle, there were 4 large aircraft carriers. Even better, in the fleet

Above, there was not even a shadow of Japanese escort aircraft. A huge (15 meters in diameter) bright red sun was painted on the flight decks of the four aircraft carriers, like a huge bullseye. Clarence McCra

Major Ski selected one of them (the Kaga aircraft carrier) and swooped down with 16 dive bombers. The other 16 bombers, led by Lieutenant Commander William Gallagher, pounced on it.

An aircraft carrier next to it (Akagi aircraft carrier).

Now all zero battles are fighting F4F at an altitude of less than 400 meters. When the bomber group appears, no one can immediately climb up to intercept them. Only some small-caliber anti-aircraft guns reluctantly turn their muzzles in an attempt to intercept the US military.

Bombers. But these sparse artillery fire had almost no effect.

On the Akagi aircraft carrier at this time, Genda raised his head and looked up at the sky after hearing the alert from the guard post. He saw a group of bombers with eye-catching white five-pointed stars painted on their wings.

Then one dived down towards Akagi, getting closer and closer. Not only was the heavy semi-armor-piercing bomb hanging under the belly clearly visible, but even the dive flaps of the bomber were clearly visible. The air flow

Passing through the small hole in the dive flap at high speed, a frightening whistling sound was emitted. Not long ago, Genda had commanded the Japanese bomber force at Pearl Harbor, and with a similar whistling sound, the United States was

The main force of the Pacific Fleet was completely wiped out. Now, everything was reversed. As an experienced veteran pilot, Genda immediately judged that the Akagi must be hit.

But the first one to be beaten was not the Akagi, but the Kaga not far away.

Major McCluskey's fearless dive continued to an altitude of 500 meters. It was not until the huge red sun on the Kaga almost filled his front windshield that he dropped the bomb. As the bomb was dropped, the entire aircraft

Suddenly the light seemed to jump forward. Major McCluskey pulled the joystick fiercely, and blood began to rush to his legs. He felt that the light around him began to become darker and darker.

His field of vision also continued to shrink, leaving only a little bit directly ahead. At the same time, his ears began to buzz, and his face and tongue also felt a little numb. Fortunately, at this time, the nose of the aircraft gradually raised, and

At an altitude of about 80 meters, McCluskey leveled the plane. Then these symptoms gradually disappeared. Only then did his ears hear the back seat gunner's wild shout: "Hit, hit again!, haha,

Another one! Sir, including the guy we just had, the ship was hit by four bombs!"

McCluskey looked back, and he saw the aircraft carrier ablaze. The four bombs had no such power. Did they hit the ammunition depot or the fuel depot? But no matter what the reason was, it was obvious that the ship was doomed.

.

Similar to what McCluskey had guessed, the current situation of the Kaga was that the ammunition depot was indeed hit, but the ammunition depot was on the deck. In the farce of replacing bombs with torpedoes and torpedoes with bombs just now, in order to gain time,

Ri himself had no time to return the replaced bombs to the well-protected ammunition depot, but piled them directly on the deck. The fuses of some of the bombs were not even removed. When the bombs dropped by the Americans exploded on the deck

, these bombs were also detonated. So almost in an instant, this huge aircraft carrier, once the pride of the Japanese Navy, turned into a sea of ​​flames.

The Akagi suffered the same fate as the Kaga. Due to its good evasive maneuvers, only one of the bombs dropped by the 16 bombers hit, but this bomb happened to fall on the rear of the deck, where many were piled up.

The result - Kaga's tragedy happened again. The bombs piled on the deck were like the firecrackers set off by the Chinese during the New Year. They exploded one after another. In the blink of an eye, the ship became a sea of ​​flames.

Faced with this sudden disaster, Vice Admiral Nagumo on the bridge was stunned.

Tongues of flames were already licking the glass windows on the bridge. Kusaka shouted to Nagumo: "We have to evacuate!" But Nagumo refused to leave.

Thousands of gallons of burning gasoline flowed to the lower deck, and the torpedoes placed in the hangar also began to explode. Balls of fire shot out from both sides of the ship. Nagumo still refused to leave the bridge.

The captain of the "Akagi" aircraft carrier Daijiro Aoki shouted to Nagumo: "I am in charge of this ship. It is useless for you and your personnel to stay here. Please transfer to another ship!" Kusuka also advised!

Nanyun said: He is the commander of the entire assault fleet, not the captain of a certain ship. After everyone's persuasion, Nanyun finally said that considering the overall situation, he was willing to lead everyone to leave. However, at this time, almost the entire bridge was empty.

It was surrounded by fire. The corridor was also blocked by thick smoke and fire.

"Break the glass!" Caolu shouted. Someone picked up a chair and plucked it off the glass. The glass shattered with the sound.

They hung two ropes, and Kusaka shouted: "Don't panic, everyone, let the leader go first!" while pushing Nagumo out first. The short general slipped and fell 14 meters lower than the bridge.

On the flight deck, Caolu followed closely behind.

In just 6 minutes, the Kaga and Akagi were completely destroyed. Of course, the U.S. military was not without losses. 13 of the 32 bombers were either shot down by the Japanese ship's anti-aircraft fire or were pulled up after dropping the bombs.

Zero battles were shot down, and another one failed to pull up because it dived too hard. But compared to the losses of the Japanese army, this battle was undoubtedly a complete victory. What's more, this is not the end.

Historically, dive bombers taking off from the Hornet failed to find their targets after being separated from other aircraft, and they were completely fooled. But this time, because the distance between the fleet was compressed, these bombers did not lose their way.

, the soy sauce gangsters are finally here.

Just as Nagumo and the others were transferring to the light cruiser Nagara in a motorboat, the shrill alarm sounded again. Nagumo raised his head and saw two more groups of bombers swooping down towards his fleet.

The unlucky one this time was the injured Soryu. At this time, the Soryu was hit by a mine, and the deck tilt had reached 13 degrees, and the speed had dropped to less than 20 knots. This was really an easy target. 19 dive bombers launched an attack on it.

The attack was carried out, and eight bombs were hit in one go, with a hit rate of over 40%. One of the bombs penetrated the deck and hit the oil depot. A large amount of aviation gasoline was ignited, and the entire ship was burned.

Got to be red.

Another group of 18 bombers launched an attack on the only surviving Japanese aircraft carrier, the Hiryu. However, the Hiryu behaved like a god and demon protecting the body. Under the command of Captain Kaku Shizuo, this aircraft carrier

The ship twisted wildly, and bombs rained down next to the aircraft carrier. However, only one bomb hit an elevator near the port side, but the entire aircraft carrier was still capable of taking off and landing aircraft. Moreover, the aircraft carrier's own defensive firepower was still weak.

Shot down 4 bombers.

Yagyu, nicknamed Bandit Skua, had just landed on the Hiryu aircraft carrier not long ago. At this time, he witnessed this thrilling process on the ship. Later, this famous Japanese naval aviation ace pilot wrote in his memoirs "The Sinking Empire"

"This is how this experience is described:

"... In just a few minutes, the pride of the Imperial Navy, the aircraft carriers Kaga and Akagi, were finished. I saw the two ships were on fire and making constant explosions. There is no doubt that they were unable to

Saved. I saw such a scene several times later, but this time it shocked me much more than the others later. For the first time, I realized that the imperial warships would also burn like this. I turned my head and looked at Ishihara

, I saw Ishihara turning his head to look at me. His mouth was opened wide, as if he wanted to shout, but nothing came out, and his face was completely distorted by fear at this time.

And it was as pale as a dead person. So when I had nightmares later, I would always dream about that face. (Ishihara later told me that my face at that time was also very scary.)

But this nightmare was far from waking up. The crew members on the Kaga and Akagi were carrying flames burning on their bodies. (Fortunately, as far as I know, the fire burning on their clothes was all internal flames.

The temperature is low and it will not burn anyone.) 1 When we jumped directly into the sea one by one from the high deck, a shrill air raid warning sounded once. This time it was directed at us...

The warship turned sharply to the left, and the entire warship tilted over, causing me to almost fall down because I was unprepared. At this moment, a bomb fell on the sea not far from the starboard side, and blew up a tornado of about dozens of meters.

The high water column. If it hadn't turned sharply just now, it would have hit the deck directly...

Bombs fell one after another, and they stirred up huge water columns. Often, before a water column fell, several water columns rose up next to the warship. The warship twisted sharply, as if in a forest of water columns.

The injured beast running wildly. Finally, a bomb hit. Fortunately, it was not at a critical location. I saw the damage control personnel running over dragging the water pipe... The entire air raid passed in a few minutes, but I felt that the time was so long and long.

It's hard to bear. Fortunately, the damage to the mothership was not great, and we were still able to take off and land aircraft, and we still had combat effectiveness. Just when the enemy planes had just left and the damage control personnel were still busy putting out the fire, according to General Yamaguchi's order,

The aircraft carrier turned to headwind. Our counterattack is about to begin..."

At 10:15, 6 Zero fighters and 18 dive bombers took off from the Hiryu. They were going to attack the US fleet that had been discovered long ago but had not been able to attack it immediately due to various reasons. However,
Chapter completed!