Chapter 563: Coral Sea Aircraft Carrier Battle VII
Although Li Ningyu criticized Li Donghua after the first day of battle, he still gave high praise to the excellent results achieved by the Far East Army, and the Japanese and American joint navies would not just do that.
Reluctant to give up, that night, a night attack was launched on the Hawaii Naval Base of the Far East Army.
However, the Japanese military's communication code had been cracked, so at 11:11, when a large bomber group composed of 136 US B-92 bombers bombed the Hawaii Air Force Base, almost all the fighter planes in the airport at that time had moved
In order to paralyze the Japanese and American coalition forces, the Far East Army placed a large number of unusable fighter planes at the airport. In the end, the Japanese and American coalition forces thought that their counterattack and sneak bombing were successful, and destroyed more than 50 fighter planes at the Far East Army's Hawaii base.
It was precisely because of the US military's participation in the battle that the Far East Army finally launched a comprehensive counterattack against the Japanese and American coalition forces from the next day. After all, only the Far East and Little Japan had declared war on both sides before. As for the United States, they had already declared war without declaration, so the Far East
The Legion will no longer be polite to them.
Early in the morning on September 29, 1907, the air battle between the two sides went on as scheduled. Among them, the Far East aircraft carrier's torpedo attack aircraft entered the attack formation for the first time. The first wave of attacks began at 6:15. The torpedo attack aircraft were a kind of dive.
Bombers can also be regarded as the secret weapons of the Far East Legion. After all, this special type of aircraft is currently unique to the Far East Legion.
Beginning in 1904, the Far East Naval Aviation Department began to propose to the major aviation and aircraft manufacturing companies under the Far East Group the need to develop a new type of maritime bomber based on the particularity of aircraft carrier operations, which could replace the traditional bombers at the time. Therefore, there was
A monoplane torpedo bomber like the Z-2.
As a torpedo bomber, as the name suggests, it naturally carries torpedoes for attack, not conventional bombs. Although after several years of repeated improvements, the Far East Army successfully produced a batch of z-2 monoplane torpedo bombers, but in fact, the z-2
The monoplane torpedo bomber is an extremely unsafe fighter aircraft. First of all, its flight speed is low, so its self-defense capability is poor. Because it does not drop bombs at high altitude, the loss rate in a war is relatively high. It can be said that it is a fearless dive.
Bombers dropping bombs.
But today, the Z-2 monoplane torpedo bomber is the most advanced bomber aircraft for attacking sea ships and can meet the requirements of all missions of the Far East Navy. However, coupled with the flight skills of Far East pilots, the overall development is at a fast pace.
However, other countries can catch up quickly, but Li Ningyu knows that although there are only more than forty aircraft, they can definitely show unique performance in the early stages of the Coral Sea War, and maybe they can also fight against the Japanese and American combined fleets.
, in the process of launching the attack, it created the image of a destroyer and completely wiped out the main battleships of the Japanese and American coalition navies at once. However, to achieve such a result, it requires countless outstanding pilots of the Far East Legion to use their own lives.
Go fight, go fight.
So in the first wave of counterattacks, from the Jiangxi aircraft carrier, thirty-three Z-2 monoplane torpedo bombers began to attack the assembled Japan-US joint aircraft carrier battle group under the cover of the large fleet.
, launched the attack reluctantly.
Why are you so reluctant?
This is because many Z-2 monoplane torpedo bomber pilots feel that this mission is for them to deal with the battleships and cruisers of the Japanese and American coalition forces, rather than aircraft carriers, so they feel that it is a bit like killing a chicken with a knife, but as the Battle of the Coral Sea,
Supreme Commander Li Donghua does not think so. In many aspects, the previous naval battle layout was due to the fact that the Far East Navy's East China aircraft carrier battle group was unable to compete with the Japanese and American escort fleets in the escort formation, so it needed to launch attacks hundreds of miles away.
This greatly shortens the combat time of the fighter planes. Sometimes it is clear that they can continue to attack, but in the end the fighter planes can only return early due to fuel problems.
The target of the Z-2 monoplane torpedo bomber mission this time was three US heavy cruisers. With the help of the cover of the large fleet, good news soon came. As the USS Sims heavy cruiser was hit,
Three torpedoes launched from two angles, carrying 250 kilograms of explosives, two of which exploded in the engine room of the battleship Sims. In less than 60 seconds, the 8,000-ton heavy cruiser was hit
Shen.
Then the USS Neosho heavy cruiser was also hit by 7 torpedoes, but because the vital points were not hit, the USS Neosho heavy cruiser was filled with fire and floated at sea for several days before sinking little by little in the Coral Sea.
The war also entered a climax stage from this point on.
After successive bad news came, US Army Commander Fletcher was extremely disappointed, but he firmly believed that according to the current maritime power of both sides, the main force of the US aircraft carrier battle group was still there, so everything had to be turned over. Therefore, after the US military broke up with the logistics supply ship,
, they headed west mainly because they wanted to find the Far East Navy aircraft carrier battle group, but they made a mistake, that is, the Far East Navy aircraft carrier battle group would not stay quietly in a certain place, waiting for the US military to attack, so
After repeated attacks, the US aircraft carrier failed to detect the Far East aircraft carrier.
In the last two hours before dawn on September 29, more than 200 carrier-based aircraft of the Far East Corps aircraft carrier battle group and the Japanese and American joint aircraft carrier-based aircraft began an unprecedented large-scale air battle at sea.
More than 500 fighter planes were engaged. Due to the large number of the opponent's fighter planes and the weak strength of the Far East carrier-based aircraft, a roundabout strategy was adopted during the battle. However, the losses of both sides' fighter planes were not serious.
There are two reasons for this. First, the Far East Air Force carrier-based aircraft group, which is divided into five echelons, the J-11 aircraft group, mainly provides cover for the Z-2 monoplane torpedo bombers, while the J-13 aircraft group forms a formation of two bombers.
Provide feint cover. Although the Far East Air Force really wants to eat up the Japanese and American aircraft carrier battle groups in one fell swoop, they understand that the current full force is not suitable for scattered attacks, and should mainly nibble away step by step. Once the strength of the two sides is balanced, a full-scale attack will inevitably occur.
Sexual tactical offense.
Finally, around ten o'clock in the morning, as the Far East fleet returned, a patrol reconnaissance aircraft on the Lexington finally sent back a piece of information that excited the Japanese and American coalition forces. The report found two aircraft carriers of the Far East Navy.
, two heavy cruisers and three destroyers. Now the US commander Fletcher decided to launch an all-out attack.
As a result, the USS Lexington immediately dispatched 128 bombers and 60 fighter jets, and the USS Yorktown dispatched 25 bombers and 18 fighter jets. A total of 231 carrier-based aircraft flew to the targets discovered by the Japanese and US coalition forces. But this time, they
They failed again, because what they found were two large Japanese transport ships and the troops covering the landing.