There are now 64 commonly used aircraft and 8 spare aircraft on this aircraft carrier, of which 20 BDs and 12 F4Fs have been arranged on the flight deck - this is the "full deck assault" tactic commonly used by US and Japanese aircraft carriers. All aircraft in combat are placed on the deck in advance, so that the carrier-based aircraft can be released in the shortest time.

Now, as long as Fletcher gives the order, all 50 planes can be launched at most 10 minutes.

"Just now, send the first attack wave!" Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher suddenly issued an order to attack the carrier-based aircraft.

"Major General," Lieutenant Colonel Henry, the captain of the Assaulter, was stunned when he heard this and quickly reminded, "We have not found the location of the Japanese aircraft carrier yet."

"No, we don't need to know the location of the Japanese aircraft carrier now. We just need to let the carrier-based aircraft return with the Japanese carrier-based aircraft." Frank Fletcher said. "The Germans adopted such tactics in the Battle of the Eastern Mediterranean, which caused the British to lose many excellent carrier-based aircraft pilots. Now we have to use the same method to deal with the Japanese."

He thought for a while and said, "When the carrier-based aircraft is released, we will immediately move south away from the battlefield."

"Stay away from the battlefield?"

"Yes," Frank Fletcher nodded, "The Japanese have at least 6 aircraft carriers, and we only have one... so we can't fight head-on."

"So how do you return the carrier-based aircraft?"

"Let them go to Pearl Harbor after bombing the Japanese," Frank Fletcher said in thought. "Departure from Pearl Harbor early tomorrow morning and return to the aircraft carrier, so that we can continue to deal with the Japanese tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Are these Japanese still not leaving until tomorrow?"

Frank Fletcher shook his head, "This is hard to say! Maybe the Japanese want to occupy Hawaii!"

"Occupy Hawaii!?" Lieutenant Colonel Henry was surprised. "Will they drag a transportation line of more than 3,200 nautical miles to occupy the Hawaiian Islands? What's the point?"

Frank Fletcher frowned, "This will make us very uncomfortable, very, very uncomfortable... This reason is enough!"

...

"Enemy plane! Discover enemy planes, 500 meters above 11 o'clock!"

Mizuo Furida heard the bomber/monitor Yasuda sitting behind him shouting loudly. He quickly looked in the direction Yasuda pointed out and saw forty or fifty small black dots approaching him at an extremely fast speed!

"Akagi, Kaga, and Ruizhu fighter squadrons, fight against enemy planes!" Mizuo Fuchida immediately assigned three fighter squadrons (not full, with only 40 Zero planes in the three squadrons) to fight against the oncoming enemy planes. Then he ordered: "Each dive bomber and torpedo bomber squadrons, advance to the designated target immediately, wishing the long-term military movement!"

According to Minoto Genda's arrangement, the Type 97 torpedo bombers, 99 dive bombers and "Comet" dive bombers, all of which carried high-explosive bombs used to destroy the airport runway and 250 kilos of armor-piercing bombs used to attack oil tanks. They did not carry torpedoes against battleships and 500 kilos of armor-piercing bombs. Therefore, the targets of the third attack wave bombing were Pearl Harbor's oil depots and airports.

The first bombed oil depot area, when Japanese planes arrived, the fires were still burning.

Although the Pacific Fleet Command and the Hawaii Army Command have done their best to mobilize the fire brigade, there are too many ignited oil tanks, and the central control pump of the Pearl Harbor depot has no time to pull the fuel out of the blown oil tank, and the leaked fuel burns around the oil tank.

What firefighters can do now is to spray water to cool down the oil tanks that have not yet been blown up, and to strengthen the pile of soil to prevent the burning heavy oil from leaking out and affecting other oil tanks. At this time, the two divisions of the Hawaiian Army also sent engineers with mechanized engineering equipment to help pile the soil, but temporarily controlled the fire.

But at this moment, the damn Japanese bomb fell down again, exploded seven or eight intact oil tanks, and killed many firefighters and engineers who were extinguishing fires. As a result, the fire became more and more prosperous.

The airport in Pearl Harbor was later affected. Although the smoke from the oil depot fire blocked the airport to a certain extent, the Japanese pilots took the risk of lowering their flight altitude and risked being shot down by fierce ground fire. They still found three of the four major airports, and then dropped more than a hundred bombs, destroyed some hangars, and blew up some runways into potholes.

The runway bombing is not a problem for the Americans. The Pearl Harbor base has been under construction for the past few decades, so there are many engineering teams and many engineering machinery on Oahu Island, which has enough construction power to repair the bomb craters bombed by the Japanese in just one night.

However, there are many damaged aircraft in the bombed hangars, but there are still potential repairs! Now there are no shortage of pilots in Pearl Harbor, because many pilots' planes were blown up in the first and second waves of air raids by the Japanese army. The United States is more than 3,000 kilometers away from Oahu. Except for long-range bombers such as the B-17 and B-24, most American aircraft and especially fighters do not have such a large range, and it is impossible to fly to Oahu by themselves. Even the range of the US military transport aircraft C-47 is not enough.

So how to replenish aircraft to Oahu has become a key factor in Hawaii's combat operations. After General Kimmel saw the report on the losses caused by the third and fourth wave of air strikes in the Japanese army, he immediately made a request to replenish aircraft to the Admiralty - the number of fighter jets on Oahu is now less than 30, and even if there are fewer than 40 fighter jets that may be repaired, if Japan launches a few more waves of attacks, there will be no fighter jets available on Oahu.

And Takaichi Nagayun, who had just had a nap for a while, just woke up and heard a message that made him nervous.

"What!? Dozens of American planes are following behind the fourth assault wave fighter that is returning?" Naga Takaichi Naga immediately became nervous, "Baga, the Americans are so cunning that they actually want to rely on the follower to find our location."

"Commander," Aviation Staff of the First Mass Fleet Gendashi thought Natsumoto Tadaichi would learn from the British's actions in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Battle and gave up the fourth assault wave that was returning. He quickly reported: "All the direct cover planes are ready for battle, and there is no problem with air defense... Moreover, in the four waves of assault, we lost at least 69 aircraft, and more than 100 imperial pilots have already sprinkled blood on the battlefield!"
Chapter completed!