Chapter 720 Coral Sea-End

Before Nimitz's order reached the Lexington, Halsey had actually made a similar decision - he set a "stop loss point" for this maritime gamble. As long as one of the two carrier battle groups was severely damaged by the Japanese (for example, two carriers were lost or one was sunk, one was severely damaged or both were severely damaged), the other battle group would immediately withdraw. This would ensure that the US Pacific Fleet would still have two available large aircraft carriers after this battle.

After setting the "stop loss point", Vice Admiral Halsey decided to send the first attack wave of the 1st Air Fleet (Lexington and Saratoga) at 4:20 am on November 6.

"Sir, don't you need to conduct reconnaissance?" Rear Admiral Browning was a little hesitant when he heard Halsey's decision. "We don't know the composition of these six Japanese fleets now."

Now Halsey's fleet knows the approximate location of the six Japanese fleets, which was found by the Catalina seaplane using radar at night. But the current radar can't distinguish between aircraft carriers, battleships, heavy cruisers and large cargo ships.

So Halsey and Browning didn't know the composition of these six formations at all, and could only try their luck.

"Then try your luck!" Halsey said, "I've always had good luck, otherwise I wouldn't have become a vice admiral. And... I believe in God, those damn Japanese monkeys definitely don't, so God will definitely help."

Rear Admiral Browning frowned and asked, "Then where do we bet?"

"Bet on... bet on the Japanese fleet closest to us (that is the First Air Fleet commanded by Chuichi Nagumo himself)! Send out two attack waves! Let Rear Admiral Fletcher's 2nd Squadron also send out two attack waves to attack them."

...

Just when Halsey put all his bets on it, Chuichi Nagumo had just sent out search planes. Since the Japanese army did not have large seaplanes that could carry radar in the Coral Sea, they could not find Halsey and Fletcher's formation at night. They lost a move in search capability!

However, knowing that he had this weakness, Chuichi Nagumo also had a way to make up for it. After releasing 6 Comet dive bombers, he immediately sent out 24 Zero carrier-based fighters to serve as direct cover. At the same time, he also deployed 12 Zero carrier-based fighters on the decks of Akagi and Kaga, all of which were placed in a position where they could take off at any time to fight.

At the same time, he also set up an air defense formation early, as if waiting for the American planes to hit him - because he knew that his position was the southernmost, and if the American aircraft carrier was preparing to attack, the First Air Fleet would most likely be the first target!

Nanyun's wait did not last too long. At 6:35 in the morning of November 6 (now the autumnal equinox has passed, the nights in the northern hemisphere are long, and the days in the southern hemisphere are long), the radar officer of the Akagi suddenly shouted: "Enemy planes are found, the number is more than 10, suspected to be attack aircraft groups..."

"Finally here!" Chuichi Nagumo took a breath and quickly ordered, "Let the air superiority squadron on the deck take off immediately! We must show the Americans some power!"

"Hai!" Genda Minoru answered loudly.

Everyone in the Akagi command tower became nervous. There was no such thing as a foolproof battle between an aircraft carrier and an aircraft! If you are unlucky, an American dive bomber will break through and may severely damage an aircraft carrier.

But good news came a few minutes later.

"Commander, our Zeros are exchanging fire with enemy aircraft." Genda Minoru shouted excitedly, "They are F4F and SBD... They should be carrier-based aircraft!"

Because the performance of the F4F is not satisfactory, there are very few F4Fs among the shore-based aircraft in the South Pacific region of the United States, and the Americans have deployed P38s with performance far superior to F4Fs on the east coast of Australia. If an SBD dive bomber flies out from the east coast, it will definitely be escorted by P38s - according to the description of the Japanese frontline pilots, this twin-body monster is a very difficult aircraft to deal with, with fast speed, fierce firepower, strong dive ability, and good high-altitude performance. When confronting Zero aircraft, if the situation is not good, they often increase their altitude. If the Zero aircraft follows the increase, it will definitely suffer a great loss at a certain altitude. Therefore, the US military in the South Pacific battlefield likes to use P-38.

Now F4F and SBD are working together, so there is probably an American aircraft carrier nearby.

And everyone on the Akagi aircraft carrier firmly believes this. As long as the American aircraft carrier is nearby, there is no escape!

And most people in the Allied South Pacific Theater Command have the same idea.

Under MacArthur's order, the US, Australian and British fighters stationed near Brisbane also went out in full force, and all the attack aircraft and bombers that could be obtained were taken out.

In Brisbane, at 6:40, 24 B-25 bombers, 18 B-24 bombers and 18 Beaufort torpedo bombers attacked under the escort of 36 P-38s.

10 minutes later, the Bundaberg base sent out another 10 B-25, 22 Beaufort and 12 P-38.

Before these 128 shore-based aircraft were dispatched, the two squadrons commanded by Halsey and Fletcher successively dispatched a total of 122 SBD dive bombers and 108 TBF torpedo bombers, under the protection of 72 F4F fighters, and attacked Chuichi Nagumo's First Air Fleet in four batches.

In this way, the total number of aircraft dispatched by the Allied forces reached 442!

However, so many planes did not fly over Chuichi Nanyun at the same time, otherwise his Zero fighter would not be able to resist even if he had three heads and six arms. Just when the first wave of dozens of American planes were beaten by Zero planes, Japanese reconnaissance planes also discovered the location of American aircraft carriers.

"Commander, there are at least two American aircraft carriers!" Minoru Genda reported loudly, "about 180 nautical miles southwest of the 1st Squadron!"

"Great!"

"This is victory!"

The command tower of the Akagi was full of jubilation, completely ignoring the American bombers circling overhead.

"Commander, you can order the 2nd Air Fleet and the 5th Air Fleet to send out attack aircraft groups."

Chief of Staff Ryunosuke Kusaka immediately made a suggestion, and Aviation Staff Minoru Genda echoed: "Because this squadron is encountering an enemy air raid, it must respond with all its strength."

Chudaichi Nanyun looked up at the chase in the sky. His own Zero fighters had won a great victory, and the American planes were fleeing.

But this was only the first wave of attacks!

"Okay, let's do it."

At this time, Chuichi Nagumo, Ryunosuke Kusaka, and Minoru Genda had already anticipated that the 1st Air Fleet might suffer an overwhelming saturation attack from the Americans. However, the outstanding performance of the Zero fighter for a long time made them think that the 1st Air Fleet was enough to resist such an attack. Moreover, they also firmly believed that relying on the strength of the 2nd Air Fleet and the 5th Air Fleet would be enough to sink the exposed American aircraft carrier.

But something unexpected happened. The anti-aircraft firepower on the American warships today seemed to be particularly fierce, and it was also particularly accurate!

When Lieutenant Commander Takashige Egusa, the captain of the flight team of the Soryu aircraft carrier and the commander-in-chief of the second attack wave of the Japanese Navy's 2nd Air Fleet, led the fleet to find Halsey's aircraft carrier formation, a fierce battle was taking place over the aircraft carrier formation.

Takashige Egusa did not lead the plane to charge immediately, but slowly circled in the air, as if trying to find the opponent's weakness. But a little observation surprised him.

He found that although there were not many American ships on the sea, the anti-aircraft firepower was extremely fierce, and the area below 4,000 meters was almost covered by a string of tracer bullets!

"It can reach 4,000 meters! This is the Bofors anti-aircraft gun..." Major Jiangcao immediately realized that he might face a bloody battle. The firing height can cover the attack position of dive bombers, and the powerful Bofors anti-aircraft gun has long been a standard for surface ships on the European battlefield, but it seems to be the first time it has appeared in the Pacific!

"Major, please look ahead, 11 o'clock... One of our planes was hit, above 4,000 meters!"

The bombardier Asano behind Jiangcao Takashige suddenly shouted at this time, and Jiangcao hurriedly looked over and found that a plane that looked like a comet dive bomber was falling rapidly.

"Is it really above 4,000 meters?" Jiang Cao Longfan asked. After getting a positive answer, he thought: The plane that was shot down was so unlucky that it was shot down by a 127mm anti-aircraft gun.

"I am Lieutenant Colonel Jiang Cao Longfan, the commander-in-chief of the attack." Jiang Cao did not think much and began to give orders, "The enemy's firepower is a bit fierce today. You should be more careful. I wish you a long military luck! Now, the attack begins! Execute Plan 1."

The formation and sequence of the attack were planned long ago. The 2nd Air Fleet is a place where veterans gather, and the cooperation between them has reached a seamless level.

Jiang Cao Longfan found that the American aircraft carrier on the water was still twisting happily, with no signs of injury, so he knew that the first wave of attacks had failed. So he ordered the execution of Plan 1, which is the standard attack process. First, the dive bombers began to dive from an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, and at the same time, the Type 97 torpedo bombers circled and descended to the height of the torpedo attack.

The escorting Zero aircraft was responsible for covering the Type 97 torpedo bombers. The dive bombers used by the Japanese Combined Fleet were Comets with air-cooled engines (same as the Fokker 100). Because they were very fast and difficult to intercept, the Zero cover was not needed according to the current combat mode of the Japanese naval aviation.

After Jiang Cao Longfu gave the order, he took the lead and rushed to a large American aircraft carrier covered by the fire net.

Boom...

As soon as he rushed into the fire net, Jiang Cao Longfu found something wrong. An anti-aircraft shell exploded very close to his plane. Under the impact of the heat wave, his plane shook violently several times.

Jiang Cao was an old driver and knew that heavy anti-aircraft guns were a matter of luck. Because the heavy anti-aircraft gun had a slow firing rate, the probability of directly hitting the aircraft was very low. At the same time, the fixed height fuse used by the heavy anti-aircraft gun was very unreliable. It was difficult to accurately measure the height and set the high fuse on the battlefield. Therefore, even the strictly trained Japanese anti-aircraft gunners found it difficult to hit the enemy aircraft with heavy anti-aircraft guns.

The shells that exploded near Jiang Cao's plane just now were not only accurate, but also had the correct setting of the altitude fuse - this must be a coincidence!

Jiang Cao quickly lowered the joystick to reduce the altitude.

Boom...

Two more 127mm anti-aircraft shells exploded near his plane! The fuselage shook again and began to tremble. It must have been hit somewhere.

Baga! Did he meet a god gunner?

Jiang Cao quickly evaded the plane, but after a few dodges, he heard another boom.

The plane shook even more violently now!

Did he encounter a group of god gunners? Was he going to become a god? Jiang Cao Longfan's forehead was immediately covered with beads of sweat. He knew that his plane had been hit three times, and he didn't know how long it could last? When he boarded the plane, he only brought a big knife and no parachute...

Just then, he found that his plane had reached the top of an American aircraft carrier!

"Go!" He collected his thoughts, ordered loudly, and then pushed the joystick hard, pressed down the nose, and dived down at almost a right angle, trying to complete the bombing before the plane disintegrated.

But his plane soon seemed to crash into the rain of bullets. First, the fuselage shook violently, and then thick smoke came out from the place where the engine was located in the nose!

This time he was going to become a god! Jiang Cao knew that he was dead, but his long-term Bushido education told him that even if he died, he had to drag a boat of people with him.

"Onboard!" He shouted, holding the joystick tightly with both hands, and drove the plane to slam into the American aircraft carrier below.

A few dozen seconds later, the plane carrying the bomb hit the rear deck of the Lexington aircraft carrier squarely, and it immediately turned into a ball of fire, and also ignited several F4F carrier-based fighters on the deck that were refueling and loading ammunition...

The fire and thick smoke enveloped the Lexington aircraft carrier. Although it did not cause serious damage, it temporarily blocked the sight of the anti-aircraft gunners, and the anti-aircraft firepower of the aircraft carrier suddenly weakened, which created an opportunity for the Comet dive bomber following behind Jiang Cao.

In just two or three minutes, 6 heavy bombs hit the Lexington, causing the aircraft carrier to fall into a sea of ​​fire!

I don’t know if it was encouraged by the "God of War" Jiang Cao. 10 minutes later, another Comet dive bomber also hit the Saratoga. Although it did not cause a fire, it also caused chaos, allowing the subsequent aircraft to successfully drop 3 bombs.

…

“Commander, two American aircraft carriers have been severely damaged and may soon sink!”

When Kusaka Ryunosuke’s voice came, Nagumo Chuichi was sweating profusely as he watched the densely packed planes fighting in the sky.

The American planes came in waves, as if there was no end. Although the Zero fighters on the Akagi and Kaga ships performed excellently and almost blocked all the enemy planes. But losses still inevitably occurred!

There are fewer and fewer Zeros in the sky. The American P38 is obviously an aircraft that can fight against the Zero fighter! Moreover, the Americans also understand the performance of the Zero and have found some tactics that can effectively fight against it. The exchange ratio is not overwhelming...

Nanyun put down the telescope, frowned and ordered: "Order the 5th Carrier to continue the attack until the two American aircraft carriers are sunk. Then let the 2nd Carrier send half of the Zero to support us after retrieving the fighters. We...I am afraid we will have to fight hard for a few more hours!"