Yu Jian and Zhang Heigou's suicide attack achieved fruitful results. Not only did they blow up two critical attack aircraft, they also paralyzed the entire flight deck, making other Japanese aircraft stranded on the deck or in the cabin unable to do so. Taking off, and more importantly, it set a tone for the "Sink It" air strike, which caused many student pilots who were originally worried about being unable to complete the bombing mission because they were shot down early to have such a firm idea: even if they are shot down early, So what if I get hit? As long as I'm not killed in one fell swoop, I can just like Yu Jian, fly the plane down and die together with the little devil.
One after another, fighter planes with the Xuebing Army logo painted on their fuselages appeared in front of the little devils almost close to the sea. When they were about one or two hundred meters away from the ship, they suddenly pulled up and then roared down. ,
"Get in front of the 'Akagi', we must protect the flagship." "Rush over at full speed, fire, fire."... On all the Japanese ships, after the shrill air defense sirens stopped, the loudspeakers of the ship came. The captains made angry voices. The importance of a flagship to a fleet is self-evident. However, the enemy chose to attack from behind, which actually made the "Akagi" almost face the attack of more than 200 enemy planes.
Under the command of Captain Tanaka Kikumatsu, the "Kumano" quickly reversed, then turned the hull horizontally, directly blocking the stern of the "Akagi" with its 200-meter-long hull.
The fierce anti-aircraft firepower of the enemy ship did have a blocking effect. The Hawker III piloted by Yu Jian was hit just as it broke into the anti-aircraft firepower network. Then he directed an earth-shattering scene, turning the flight deck of the "Akagi" into a sea of fire.
The heroic feat of the friendly aircraft inspired the bomber formation of the 2nd Air Force Division that followed closely. After all the fighters climbed to the predetermined altitude, they immediately dived towards the "Akagi" without hesitation.
Amidst the rumbling gunfire, bombers belonging to the Second Air Division were beaten and disintegrated in the air from time to time, but no one flinched. The remaining fighters still roared and pounced down, and even those who were hit and injured headed directly towards the nearest " The Kumano jumped at it, frightening the Japanese on board the Kumano to scream strangely.
The two flying groups under the Second Air Division are heavily equipped with outdated models such as Hawker II and I-5. These fighters are relatively backward in terms of protection capabilities and flight speed. Moreover, the Japanese warships have maintained a comparative advantage at this time. The dense formation caused the Second Air Division to suffer heavy losses in the first round of attacks. Less than half of the more than 60 fighter planes completed the bombing mission, and more than a dozen injured ones were directly transformed into giant bombs. It hit the "Kumano", "Nagato" and "Akagi" and other Japanese ships. Violent "rumbling" explosions sounded on several Japanese ships one after another. Yamamoto Fifty-sixth was on the "Akagi" ship. The bridge was first hit by several bombs, and the explosion ignited a fire. Then it was hit by an injured I-5 aircraft with bombs. The entire bridge was torn into two pieces after a series of explosions. Yamamoto Wu Shiliu was almost killed in the bombing,
Several junior officers on the "Akagi" protected Yamamoto and escaped from the fireworks. When they saw that Yamamoto's white uniform had turned into brownish gray, and his face was smoked like a coal digger who had just left the coal mine, they quickly asked : "Your Excellency, Deputy Minister, are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Yamamoto Isoroku broke away from their hands and stood a little stubbornly on the edge of the burning bridge, looking at the explosions on the second and third decks not far away, and the critical bombs parked there. The aircraft was being burned into scrap metal in the fierce fire. Some soldiers were shouting and organizing to put out the fire. However, such a violent fire could not be extinguished by water. "Akagi", this Imperial Japanese Navy ship Is my pride going to be buried here today?
Several junior officers looked at each other cautiously, and then a senior commander made a decision, stepped forward, bent down and said: "Your Excellency, please move quickly."
Yamamoto turned to look at him, his eyes were surprisingly calm, and he said calmly: "No, I am the captain of the Akagi now. The ship is alive and the people are there, but the ship is dead and everyone is dead. Why are you still standing here?" , is the battle already over?"
"Yes, the battle is not over yet." The few assistant officers didn't know if they were affected by his calm expression. After hearing this, their eyes lit up and they became energetic. Only one of them was left alone. A soldier, and others rushed to various parts of the ship, organizing manpower to carry out fire fighting and air defense...
Not far away, the "Hiryu", "Soryu" and "Kaga" each quickly turned around and dispersed under the protection of several ships. The "Mogami" followed behind the "Kaga". All the weapons on board were firing desperately. From a port window on the third floor of the bridge covered by gunpowder smoke and firelight, he vaguely saw several people in white general uniforms staring at him.
Yamamoto glanced at it silently, turned around and looked up at the sky, silently muttering in his heart: "My lord, please rest assured that as long as I am here, the 'Akagi' will never sink."
After the fighter planes of the Second Air Division dropped bombs and escaped from the Japanese warship's anti-aircraft firepower network, they began to return under the leadership of division commander Xia Quanyong. Tielin Fei saw the entire battle between the two sides and had a certain idea in his mind. He calculated There was still enough time to turn back all the bombers that were bombing everywhere and start to re-form. Divide the remaining fighter planes into four teams. One team is responsible for intercepting the Japanese aircraft taking off, and the remaining three teams bypass the "Akagi" and pursue the other three aircraft carriers. ,
In the battle just now, except for the Second Air Division, which went all out to bomb the "Akagi", the other two divisions and the two squadrons directly under the Air Force Headquarters were only on the edge of the Japanese ship's air defense firepower, acting as a distraction for the Japanese ship's air defense. firepower mission, so the losses were not large. Among them, the LZ-I and LZ-19 driven by Tielinfei and others did not even participate in the battle.
The Xuebing Army's "Sink It" air raid was not fully prepared. The most obvious thing is that none of the fighter planes were equipped with torpedoes specifically designed to destroy large ships. Precisely because of inherent deficiencies in the weapons, After Ouyang Yun discussed with them, he had to adopt this tactic of ants biting elephants.
When the specific combat plan was first formulated, the original idea was that once the enemy fleet was discovered, all bombers would immediately be organized to violently bomb one of the aircraft carriers until it was sunk, and then test the ability to bomb other aircraft carriers.
The reason for formulating such a tactic is, on the one hand, Ouyang Yun's definition of the "Sink It" operation is: It is better to cut off one of his five fingers than to hurt him. Since he has beaten him, he must completely break through the little devil and give them one Another reason for the indelible lesson is that the Japs will definitely leave some attack planes behind just in case.
But I didn't expect that the Mi Nei Guangzheng Council would be so bold and radical, and would actually release all the attack aircraft.
Tielin Fei was a little worried when he saw fighter planes taking off from several aircraft carriers. He didn't know how many attack planes the Japs had left to protect them. But when he found out that the ones taking off were actually critical attack planes, he was in disbelief at first, and then he was ecstatic. Then, Yu Jian's suicide attack had such a huge effect that the Japanese ships reacted abnormally. Instead of tightly hugging each other, they began to alienate the entire fleet. This made him greedy. I felt that this battle might yield unexpected gains, so I was not in a hurry to sink the "Akagi" that had lost its combat effectiveness.
The military air force of the Academy was approaching with great force. Mitsumasa Yoneuchi and others were not aware of its strength, and were shocked by the momentum of Yu Jian's suicide attack. Therefore, Yamamoto Isoroku proposed to alienate the fleet in order to distract the enemy's attention and sacrifice a few A few ships to protect the majority of ships,
Yamamoto Isoroku did not expect that he had overestimated the strength of this incoming aircraft group. After the first round of fighting, he did not see any enemy aircraft carrying torpedoes, a lethal weapon for large ships, and he immediately realized that, My previous proposal was completely wrong.
In the first round of fighting between the two sides, it seemed that the aircraft carrier "Akagi" and the heavy cruiser "Kumano" escorting it, the battleship "Nagato" and other ships suffered heavy losses. In fact, the expert Isoroku Yamamoto However, they know that these attacks have not damaged the fundamentals of these ships. As long as they can survive the subsequent bombing and can safely return to the homeland, these ships will be repaired one by one in a few months or longer. return to service,
This was also the reason why he was able to act so calm and composed in front of his men. But what he didn't know was that this time, his judgment was completely wrong.
The incoming enemy planes did not carry attack torpedoes, a weapon designed to destroy large ships, but they did carry a large number of heavy bombs. If these bombs are used properly, they can definitely sink the "Akagi". Moreover, the Second Air Division Although the number of bombers under its jurisdiction accounted for more than half of the entire cluster, they were not the main force in this air strike.
The real main force hasn’t come on stage yet,
The combined fleet has a total of nearly a hundred large and small ships. This time, only some main battleships are dispatched. If all the fleets are dispatched, then the Xuebing Army will have twice as many bombers, and it may not be a disgrace. The reason why the combined fleet is This common sense mistake is made because after the Battle of Songhu, the Chinese Navy has been completely defeated. Except for a very small number of ships that have hid in the Yangtze River, the remaining small gunboats and torpedo boats pose no threat to it at all. , Moreover, in offshore operations, it is difficult for ships with too small tonnage to even go to sea. Where can these giants threaten the combined fleet? It is precisely because of the existence of this objective fact that Mitsumasa Yoneuchi ignored them in order to pursue speed. Those slower and older ships simply led the main fleet into battle, but unexpectedly, a single oversight that was not considered negligent almost ruined the future of the combined fleet.
This battle of spears and shields reached its climax when the three flight decks of the "Akagi" were blown out of shape and turned into a burning graveyard of blasters.
Each of the remaining three aircraft carriers was visited by more than ten bombers, including at least one L-19 or LZ-I. The bomb load of one L-19 reached an astonishing ten tons. The destructive power it causes can be imagined.
Since the four LZ-I and two L-19 fuselages were too large and could easily become targets for the combined fleet gunboats, Tielin Fei did not let them fly close to the sea, but approached the enemy ship group. Climb to an altitude of more than 10,000 meters, and then descend to an altitude of 3,000 meters after the air raid begins, waiting for an opportunity to carry out a bombing mission.
When these six long-range bombers passed through the clouds and slowly lowered to a visible height, Isoroku Yamamoto, Mitsumasa Yonai, Narumi Inoue and other Japanese soldiers who spotted their huge figures were immediately dumbfounded.
This is not the first time that L-19 has appeared in front of the Japanese Navy. In the Battle of Nanjing just a few months ago, the Japanese Navy's Third Fleet was destroyed by two L-19s and nearly a hundred small ships were destroyed. Therefore, including Senior officials of the Navy Ministry, including Mitsumasa Yoneuchi, were deeply impressed by it, and even some nefarious Japanese privately gave it an evil nickname: Big Sea Monster.
These six "big sea monsters" were hidden too deeply. They didn't appear until now, and there were six of them when they appeared. How could this not arouse the fear of the little devils?
Yamamoto Isoroku jumped to his feet with regret: "Ba Ge, I regret that I should have dispersed the fleet. If all the frigates were gathered together, with the size of the sea monster, they would not dare to carry out dive bombing."
Tielin Fei still did not participate in this air raid. He steadily controlled the fighter planes and hovered over the combined fleet under the escort of a Baiji Dolphin and an I-6. He saw through the Japanese ship's defensive formation from a high position and commanded the three A formation of fighter planes bombed the "Sangryu", "Hiryu" and "Kaga" respectively. "Sink it." He cursed fiercely. The next moment, three newly formed fighter formations came from behind him. He dived down a few kilometers away and flew close to the water toward the three escaping aircraft carrier formations.
Tielin Fei pulled up the fighter plane and flew over the four aircraft carrier formations one by one. Then he turned and issued specific combat orders through the walkie-talkie: "We have plenty of time. Don't rush to succeed in one go. Let's test it out first and find a breakthrough." "
"Zuo Anzhao, if it doesn't work that way, try another direction."
"Gao Jian, opportunity, investment,."
…
The China fighter planes left the "Akagi" aside and began to bombard the other three aircraft carriers wildly. Yamamoto Isoroku ordered to approach the nearest "Hiryu", and at the same time asked the signalmen to use semaphores frantically to send the "Kumano" and other ships The ship followed him to support the "Flying Dragon". The "Akagi" was dragging thick smoke and moving at high speed. Yamamoto carefully recalled this strange attack and couldn't help but be filled with questions: "Ba Ge, how did the Chinese discover us? There is no sign of enemy ships in the nearby waters. Could it be that there are actually their spies in our combined fleet? No, even if there are spies sneaking in, there is no chance to inform the Chinese people. So, how can the Chinese people accurately judge the situation? Our military position, and then carry out targeted air strikes, could it be that its hidden airport is on the coast of Fujian? Oh my God, if so, we really underestimated the enemy."
Half an hour later, the "Akagi" finally reunited with the scarred "Hiryu", and the combined fleet finally suffered real losses, including a Kaohsiung-class heavy cruiser "Atago" and a Tianlong-class light cruiser The "Tyuta" was bombed and sunk. In addition, a sister ship of the "Kumano", the heavy cruiser "Mikuma", lost its maneuverability because its engine room was blown up.
Although this round of air strikes and counter-air strikes took a long time, the losses to the student army were very slight. Only thirteen fighter planes were destroyed. It is worth mentioning that among these thirteen fighter planes, except for eight They were directly beaten to the point of disintegration in the air, and the five other fighter jets that were hit all chose to use their residual heat to launch suicide attacks. Although only three of them hit the target as expected, it was precisely because one of the Hawk IIIs crashed into the target. The engine room of the "Mikuma" caused a violent explosion, causing the Mogami-class heavy cruiser to lose its ability to move.
As the bombers that had dropped their bombs gradually left in formation under the escort of fighter jets, the number of fighter jets in the sky above the combined fleet gradually became less and less. In the end, there were only less than thirty fighter jets left, including one A Type 96 blaster,
I don’t know if it was inspired by Yu Jian. Among the Japanese aircraft that were lucky enough to take off, apart from some of them flying to unknown destinations and most of them being shot down, there were also about ten Type 90, Type 95, and Type 96 aircraft. The crit attack planes chose suicide attacks, and what was a wonder was that two of the Japanese planes were hit by their own anti-aircraft fire because they forced the Xuebingjun fighter planes to rush too fast. One of them even lost control completely. It hit the bridge of the "Flying Dragon" with one head and almost took away the captain of the ship, completing a super "own goal".
The reason why Tielin Fei maintained a large fighter formation even after blowing up the "Akagi" to almost everything was to bring a successful conclusion to the "Sink It" operation.
The fact that the "Akagi" is the flagship of the Japanese Navy Combined Fleet is not a secret among the senior circles of the Xuebing Army. Since the first wave of air strikes found it and destroyed it into a ship shape, Tielin Fei naturally wanted to Do a good deed until it disappears from the Japanese navy's roster.
Watching the last batch of fighter planes dropping light bombs leave, Tie Linfei took a deep breath, exhaled suddenly, and shouted: "Brothers, let the 'Akagi' sink forever, attack."
"Woo,." The roar of the aircraft engine suddenly increased. Tielin Fei took the lead to increase the power, pushed the lever, and controlled the fighter plane to pounce towards the "Akagi". The nose of the aircraft had just been lowered, and suddenly, he found that there was more water coming from the northeast. There were nearly twenty small black dots, and the outline of the fighter plane was instantly displayed. I was shocked and immediately realized that this was the first wave of fighters sent out by the combined fleet this morning.
This wave of fighters successfully lured out the Xuebing Army Air Force and lost more than half of them. Now they are returning. As for how they appeared in the northwest, it is because the combined fleet has moved its position, and they just guessed wrongly that the fleet has moved. The flight actually lasted for more than an hour. It was not until we encountered a Type 90 blaster that successfully escaped from the "Canglong" that we realized what happened.
Tielinfei didn't know that several of these Japanese attack planes did not have much fuel at this time, and their engines might shut down at any time due to lack of fuel. What he thought was that once these Japanese planes came back, then what would happen again? It would be difficult to blow up and sink the "Akagi", so I took it for granted and issued the order for a quick victory.
Yamamoto Isoroku was facing the incoming enemy planes at this time, and did not notice the strange phenomenon in the sky far behind him. When he saw the remaining China fighter planes rushing down menacingly, he immediately understood that the future of the "Akagi" was crucial. The important test finally came. As expected, the Chinese were not satisfied with just severely damaging the "Akagi". They wanted to blow it up and sink it. The survival of the "Akagi" was at stake. He could no longer maintain his previous calmness and calmness, and took out his pistol to shoot at the "Akagi". Shoot when the air is empty, and at the same time shout: "Shoot, shoot, don't let that guy come over."
Not long after Tielin Fei issued the order for a quick victory, the other pilots of the student army all saw the cluster of Japanese aircraft approaching rapidly. After watching the battle for an hour, they had already understood that by now So far, the key reason why this "sink it" operation has been executed so smoothly is that the Japs do not have attack aircraft to carry out sniping. If all those Japanese aircraft are attack aircraft, then even if they dare to learn from Yu Jian, If you are brave enough to launch a suicide attack, you have to do it before these fighters arrive on the battlefield. You must know that although the "Akagi" was bombed into a ship-like shape, it still has a lot of anti-aircraft weapons on it, and there are many ships around it. guarding,
Sometimes, once some beliefs are generated, they will generate a kind of power. This kind of power will support people to complete a certain task or do something tenaciously and stubbornly.
For example, at this moment, Zhang Zhiyuan, who was driving the L-19 numbered 005, was thinking that no matter what, he must blow up the "Akagi" before the enemy planes arrived, even if he was shattered to pieces.
Zhang Zhiyuan's decision was unfair to the other four crew members on board 002. Perhaps it was because of this that Ouyang Yun later promulgated a decree to eliminate suicide attacks.
Twenty-nine fighter planes, including two L-19 series and three Belugas, all had a 150-pound bomb hanging under their belly. The twenty-nine fighter planes ignored the fierce attack. Anti-aircraft fire swooped down on the "Akagi" without hesitation. In the end, only fifteen of them returned successfully. Of the remaining fourteen, three were directly hit and disintegrated in the air before dropping the bomb; one was shot before dropping the bomb. The left wing of the aircraft was broken off, spinning and falling into the sea; two more were hit during the bombing process, because the ammunition was detonated and the pilots lost the opportunity to carry out suicide attacks; of the remaining eight, three were After being wounded, he rushed towards the Japanese ship with his crew, aircraft and bombs. One of them hit the bridge of the "Kumano", causing a sudden explosion that directly killed the captain of the ship, Tanaka Kikumatsu, and five more. The pilots of three of them had made up their minds to learn from Yu Jian from the beginning, so they pounced on the left side of the "Akagi" with a very clear purpose, and successfully exploded on the hull of the "Akagi" The three large holes became the main reason for the sinking of the "Akagi"; the reason why the other two, including the L-19 piloted by Zhang Zhiyuan, carried out suicide attacks was purely accidental, and the two people jumped on it. It was so violent that it could not even pull up the fighter plane. One of the Hawker IIIs crashed directly into the stern of the "Akagi", where a fire broke out again. Zhang Zhiyuan, with the help of his comrades, flew the plane After successfully throwing the bomb over the "Akagi", which had three big holes and started to tilt, he found that the fighter plane might plunge into the sea. He simply applied force to the end, pulled up the lever, and took advantage of the situation to directly ram the fighter plane into the sea. Not far away, a huge hole was blown out of the left hull of the "Flying Dragon", which directly led to the sinking of the "Flying Dragon".