Less than 3 minutes apart, two groups of torpedo planes appeared simultaneously on the left and right sides of the fleet. On one side were 15 Avenger torpedo planes from the USS Hornet aircraft carrier, and on the other side were 14 torpedo planes of the same type from the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier.

The two formations were different from the previous attacks that were separated due to separate attacks. Now they were successfully organized together to form a joint force. More importantly, at an altitude of about 400 meters above them, there were also

20 F4Fs provided cover. Zero Battle could no longer launch attacks on torpedo planes as unscrupulously as before.

But no matter what, Zero Fighters must do their best to prevent the US military from attacking the fleet. But now there are no more Zero Fighters in the air than the incoming enemy planes, or even more than the escorting F4Fs. Because some Zero Fighters have landed just now

Come on, others haven't had time to take off. Now in the air, American fighter planes actually have an advantage in overall numbers.

Now Ron saw that in front and above him, there were only 6 zero fighters rushing towards the torpedo planes behind them. The first one to attack was the formation on the Hornet aircraft carrier, so most of the zero fighters were

were attracted by them. The attention of the observation post was also diverted, so that they were unable to send a signal in time when Ron and the others appeared. As a result, only a few zero fighters still on alert at higher positions above the fleet were able to make it in time.

Jump down and intercept them.

The commander of this zero-fight team was Miyamoto Yuichi, an old pilot. He judged that it would be difficult for the opposing fighters to immediately climb to their altitude to intercept them. Therefore, they could have flown directly over the F4F fleet and then

Dive down and attack from the side and rear hemisphere of the torpedo fleet. However, because it was too late to discover this group of enemy planes, if you do this, the enemy will definitely have entered the attack route and dropped the torpedoes. If you let the enemy calmly

If the torpedo is dropped, if the mothership is hit, even if all the enemy planes can be shot down, it will still be a failure. Therefore, now we must dive head-on, directly break through the F4F interception, and get as many as possible before the enemy planes drop the torpedoes.

Shoot down the enemy plane. Even if you use collision, you must prevent the enemy plane from dropping torpedoes!

Therefore, these zero battles uncharacteristically charged directly towards her. (Under normal circumstances, zero battles will avoid a head-on confrontation with her.) Since the Japanese wanted to have a passionate head-on confrontation with her, the Americans certainly did not refuse.

The reason. (It’s not too late to welcome.) Ron pulled the nose of the plane and greeted it. The distance between the two sides quickly closed, and the American plane opened fire first. (There was no way, who made the plane farther away.) While the Japanese plane dodged,

While continuing to approach, a Zero Fighter appeared directly in front of Ron. Ron put it firmly into the firing halo, and then fired a long shot. Then he saw a lot of debris falling from the plane.

Then thick black smoke and orange flames emerged from the aircraft body. But the aircraft was not completely out of control. It continued to rush towards Ron, first with the 7.7mm machine gun, and then the two 20mm cannons also opened fire. Obviously,

The plane planned to fight with Ron and die together. But how could Ron let him get his wish? With a slight push of the stick, the nose of the F4F sank down, and all the shells fired from the opposite direction passed over Ron's head.

It roared past, and then the Zero War, trailing thick smoke and flames, also rushed past Ron's head. Ron turned around and saw it falling straight into the sea - this was Ron's seventh victory.

Just when Ron shot down a Zero Fighter, Miyamoto Yuichi also entered the confrontation with the F4F. When the two sides were still 700 meters apart, the F4F on the opposite side had already begun to fire violently. (U.S. military's

.50 machine gun bullets have high muzzle velocity and good bullet shape, so they have a large range. Even when chasing, they can effectively hit targets at a distance of 500 meters. When facing head-on, because the two sides move in opposite directions, they can hit targets at a longer distance.

From Miyamoto Yuichi's point of view, those .50 machine gun tracer bullets were like a swarm of angry wasps rushing towards him. Miyamoto Yuichi pushed hard, and the zero battle came easily.

A negative G movement, quickly sinking down. This movement is a commonly used evasive movement when being attacked head-on. In the eyes of the pilot on the opposite side, the Zero Fighter on the opposite side suddenly disappeared. Of course, the Zero Fighter did not disappear.

It just entered the blind spot of the F4F's line of sight - the F4F pilot's line of sight was currently blocked by his own nose.

If he were an experienced veteran, he would immediately do a barrel roll or slide to defend himself when faced with such a situation. But Anand, who is in the cockpit now, is not a seasoned veteran.

, although he had excellent grades in flight school, he was just a rookie after all. At this moment, he was stunned. Although this period of time was very short, perhaps less than a second, this second could determine life or death.

After putting the stick, Miyamoto Yuichi immediately pulled the stick. As the nose of the aircraft rose, the oncoming F4F had been firmly trapped in the firing halo. Moreover, due to the head-on state, the distance between the two parties was shortened.

The speed was very fast, and now the opponent had entered the range of Zero War's 20mm cannon. Miyamoto pressed the fire button hard, and a string of orange fireballs roared out.

The power of the shells fired head-on was much greater than that of the rear chase. Even the sturdy F4F could never withstand it. This string of 20mm shells hit the Anand fighter plane head-on. The plane trembled violently under such a blow.

Then, in fact, a split second later, with a violent explosion, the entire plane disintegrated in the air and turned into a pile of falling debris. Anand, the top student of the flight school, was on the first flight in his life.

In a real air battle, he was hit by the first string of artillery shells fired by the enemy and died gloriously for his country. Maybe as long as he can survive the first few air battles, he can grow up and become a real old bird, even in

Among the ranks of these veteran birds, he also has the opportunity to become the best, to become an awesome, evil, and terrifying butcher bird. However, there is never a possibility on the battlefield, and the life of a rookie here can only be used.

Calculated in minutes.

But the situation of the winner Miyamoto was not necessarily good. A piece of debris flying from the exploding enemy aircraft hit his aircraft. The debris hit the aileron on one side, causing the aileron to almost completely fail. This flexible aircraft

The plane suddenly turned into a waddling duck. If it were normal times, Miyamoto would still be able to land it safely. But now, this is obviously impossible. Although all the enemy planes have

It passed by them, but as long as the enemy turned around, this Zero Fighter with its ailerons disabled would have been put on the chopping board. Any guy, even a rookie, could easily shoot it down.——

Sometimes it is not just technology that determines the outcome of an air battle, but also luck. (So giving up your seat to old nainai on the bus is an extremely important thing and should not be ignored.)

In this head-on confrontation, two aircraft on both sides were shot down. In addition, two aircraft on the American side were slightly damaged (hit by 7.7, but it had little impact on the battle), and on the Japanese side, Miyamoto was the leader.

The aircraft was seriously injured. Considering the range and numerical advantages of the F4F as well as the influence of luck, it has to be said that in this hit, the Japanese naval pilots showed a very high technical level.

Now the remaining 4 Zero Fighters (one of which was seriously damaged and could hardly fly) were able to directly face the torpedo plane formation. They had to shoot down as many torpedo planes as possible before the American fighters turned their heads.

Miyamoto was still piloting the nearly out-of-control fighter plane, swaying towards a torpedo plane. He began to fire at the plane, but because his fighter plane was always twisting uncontrollably, these shells

There was no hit. Looking back, the US fighter jets turned around in a semi-somersault and were about to come back. Moreover, the torpedo planes had also entered the attack route and were about to drop fatal torpedoes.

"There's no time." Miyamoto looked at the friendly aircraft next to him and said silently in his heart: "Gentlemen, I'll see you at the Yasukuni Shrine." Then he flew the plane towards the plane in front of him that had entered the attack route and was about to drop.

The torpedo "Avenger" rammed directly into it.

The Avenger avoided the collision of this clumsy fighter plane with a sharp turn. In reality, not every warrior who holds the belief that he will die with you can succeed. Miyamoto's plane hit hard

On the sea surface, a huge and beautiful snow-white water splash was stirred up. The splashed water foam was dancing in the sea breeze, just like the cherry blossoms floating in the wind in Ueno Park at dusk.

Miyamoto's sacrifice was not meaningless. In order to avoid his impact, the torpedo plane dropped the torpedo in a hurry and in advance. Judging from the skewed trajectory of the torpedo, it must have been deflected.

Before the US fighter jets turned back, the other three Zero Fighters were also spraying ammunition at the torpedo planes desperately. Three torpedo planes were already smoking, but these three planes did not drop their torpedoes and break away from the queue. In fact, as long as

If they do this, those zero-fighters will definitely give up attacking them and turn to other targets. These three planes are still trying hard to guard their attack routes and keep moving forward...

When the U.S. fighter jets turned back, two of the three torpedo planes had been shot down, and another one was severely damaged and obviously could not fly back. But all three planes completed the task of dropping torpedoes. Now,

A large net spun by the tracks of the torpedoes dropped by these 14 torpedo planes has tightly entangled the aircraft carriers Soryu and Hiryu. No matter how these two big fish struggle, there will always be at least two to three

torpedoes can hit.

Just when Ron was eyeing a Zero Fighter and was about to take his wingman to kill it, the Zero Fighter rushed straight towards the sea and hit a torpedo that was shooting towards the mothership.

past.

A beautiful cherry blossom bloomed on the sea again, but he failed to hit the torpedo. The torpedo was too small and was several meters underwater. The white tracks on the water were actually just the gas left by the torpedo.

Down. Therefore, the top of the track is not the torpedo, but the torpedo is a little further ahead. The success rate of hitting the torpedo with a fighter is actually very small.

But inspired, the remaining two Zero Fighters struck the torpedo without hesitation. However, they also failed. Looking at the dissipated cherry blossoms on the sea, although Ron hated the Japanese deeply, he still raised his head

He raised his hand and silently performed a military salute in the direction where the Zero Fighters fell.

Although the Soryu tried his best to avoid it, two torpedoes still hit him. The continuous explosions of the torpedoes stirred up huge water columns, and the huge Soryu trembled in the explosion. The Hiryu's performance was particularly eye-catching, she

The huge hull made an extremely precise turn, and the two torpedoes passed by each other, leaving the aircraft carrier unscathed.

At the same time, on the other side of the fleet, the fighter and torpedo plane formations taking off from the Hornet were locked in a bitter battle. Let us go back to a few minutes ago. Due to being discovered by the Japanese army very early, these aircraft were attacked

When the Japanese army concentrated their attack, they were first greeted by more than 25 Zero Fighters. This time, the Zero Fighters no longer had to choose to confront the escorting F4Fs head-on, because they now had enough time - the torpedo planes still needed at least 4 minutes

Only then can they enter the attack route and drop torpedoes.

Zero Fighter passed over the F4F flying a little in front of the torpedo plane from a higher altitude, and then dived directly towards the torpedo plane group. The escorting F4F also immediately turned around with a semi-somersault and rushed towards Zero Fighter. A melee began.

.

F4F pilot Lawrence was bitten by a Zero Fighter, and the 7.7mm machine gun of the Zero Fighter behind him had hit his fighter plane more than once. Fortunately, the F4F is relatively strong, and it is worthy of being a product of Grumman Steel Works (

The fighters produced by Grumman are quite strong and durable, so Grumman Aircraft Company got the nickname Grumman Steel Works.) This injury has not had a big impact on this aircraft now. But if it takes a few

It was hard to say when firing 20mm shells. Fortunately, a Wildcat rushing over from the 9 o'clock direction rescued him at this time. Although the plane's fire did not hit the Zero Fighter behind him, the plane

The bullet also forced it to abandon the attack on Lawrence.

Just when Lawrence was relieved to have escaped, a Zero Fighter unexpectedly appeared in front of him. The Zero Fighter was chasing a torpedo plane, but inadvertently ran in front of Lawrence.

So much so that Lawrence effortlessly occupied a favorable position in its rear hemisphere. And it is possible that the pilots of the Zero War did not realize that just when he was about to attack the torpedo plane, someone was also preparing to attack him. If it were changed to

Normally, Lawrence would touch it quietly, and when he was most confident, he would give him a long shot and send him to the sea to feed the fish. But the situation is different now, and the Zero Fighter is about to come.

Fired at the torpedo plane. Protecting comrades is always a priority before shooting down the enemy. This is the basic professional ethics of pilots. So Lawrence opened fire at a distance of 450 meters. It was difficult to hit accurately at this distance. Lawrence's

The intersection point of the machine gun is set at 250 meters (the intersection point is set closer so that it can be fatal with one hit when more confident). In other words, the density of bullets is the highest at this distance. Beyond this distance, the bullets will

They began to scatter. However, Lawrence's purpose was not to shoot down the enemy planes. He was to alert the enemy and prevent the enemy from attacking the torpedo planes.

The tracer bullets flying past startled the Zero Fighter. It immediately gave up the attack on the torpedo plane, made a sharp turn, and got rid of Lawrence. At this time, Lawrence could not even care about chasing it.

Because another Zero Fighter was eyeing him.

In a dogfight in the air, an enemy plane may appear in your rear hemisphere at any moment, or an enemy plane may expose the 6 o'clock to you. Everyone's chance of firing will be greatly increased, and sometimes the situation in the air will be

Like a large sandwich, at the front is an American torpedo plane, behind it is a Japanese Zero Fighter, then another F4F, and then...

In just a few minutes, there was firing everywhere, Ono was aiming at the torpedo planes and firing, Sam was aiming at Ono and firing, Oshima was aiming at Sam and firing, and then...then, well, 15 torpedo planes were shot down.

6, and two more were seriously injured, and they probably won't be able to fly back. The remaining 7 were not unscathed. Of the 20 F4Fs, 6 were shot down, and 3 were seriously injured and withdrew from the battle. Of course, ri

I was not unscathed. Although their superb technology, the excellent flight performance of the aircraft and even their numerical advantage gave them the upper hand in the melee, the F4F also relied on a solid body, more effective firepower, and radio advantages to give them the upper hand.

Ri himself paid a heavy price - a total of 10 Zero Fighters were shot down in the air battle, but the rest of the aircraft were not injured. (Because the structure of the Zero Fighter was too fragile, it was basically finished if it was hit, so it was injured.

The probability of not being shot down is indeed not high) Although the losses were heavy, the US military fleet was still approaching the enemy fleet resolutely, and if it advanced a little further, it would be within the range of the torpedoes!

Now the Japanese warships' large-caliber anti-aircraft guns began to fire at them. Although the projectiles of these large-caliber anti-aircraft guns were very powerful, their firing speed was limited, and the radio proximity fuze had not yet been invented at this time.

The projectiles still use time fuzes, so if the enemy aircraft evades, their threat to the aircraft is actually very limited. The purpose of firing them may not be to use them to shoot down the enemy aircraft, but to use them to disrupt the enemy's formation.

Interfering enemy planes from launching torpedoes. As the Japanese warships emitted flashes of fire, around the fleet, and even in the gaps between the formations, they continued to fire missiles composed of flames and thick smoke.

Flower of Death. However, the US torpedo fleet still firmly maintained its formation and advanced forward. While the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns opened fire, according to the law, the intercepting fighter jets should have withdrawn from the battle to avoid being shot by the high-caliber guns.

Artillery fire accidental damage. But at this time, not even a single Japanese pilot retreated. They braved their own artillery fire and still clung to the torpedo plane, while the American F4F also ignored the threat of anti-aircraft fire.

, still trying their best to prevent Zero War from attacking the torpedo planes. In the sea of ​​flowers of death formed by the constantly exploding anti-aircraft shells, the fighter jets from both sides were flying like elves.

At this distance, two more torpedo planes and an F4F were shot down. (One of the torpedo planes was already seriously injured.) Two Zero Fighters on the Japanese side were affected by anti-aircraft fire and crashed. But the remaining torpedoes

The aircraft finally rushed into the torpedo range. Now there were only 7 torpedoes, but due to the interception in front, the formation of the torpedo aircraft was not ideal, but no matter what, the torpedoes were finally dropped, and they pulled long snow-white lines.

The trajectory was like a sharp sword, shooting towards the Japanese aircraft carriers Kaga and Akagi.

After throwing the torpedoes, the "Avengers" pulled up urgently and prepared to withdraw from the battle, but at this time they had already entered the range of the ship's small-caliber anti-aircraft guns. These guys were fast and posed a greater threat to the aircraft.

The large-caliber anti-aircraft gun was much larger. During the turn, three more torpedo planes were shot down. Now, after a few minutes of fierce fighting, only 4 of the 15 torpedo planes left during the attack!

Due to too much interference when the mines were dropped, the torpedoes dropped by these torpedo planes failed to hit any aircraft carrier. Nagumo's aircraft carrier experienced this large-scale attack, and only Soryu lost its high speed due to being hit by a mine.

The ability to sail, coupled with the tilt of about 8 degrees, temporarily lost the ability to take off and land aircraft. Both it and the mothership were intact. Nanyun believed that as long as the fighters above them took off, they would be able to completely destroy the U.S. fleet.

.Now maybe it's Ri's turn to attack.
Chapter completed!