After the Battle of Midway kicked off, it was basically the same as the Battle of Midway in history. The U.S. military won because it was well prepared, and the Japanese won because the carrier-based pilots had rich combat experience. The two armies actually fought at the beginning.
They are evenly matched.
When the commander of the first wave of Japanese attack aircraft to attack Midway Island finished dropping bombs and was about to return, he had to report to Chuichi Nagumo that a second bombing was needed. It was 7 o'clock in the morning: just 5 minutes later, from Midway
The 10 U.S. torpedo bombers that took off from the island arrived over the Japanese mobile formation and began to attack, but also with no success. The 10 torpedo bombers were destroyed by the Japanese Zero fighter jets serving as air security for the mobile formation, and only 3 successfully escaped.
Captain Tomonagajoichi's report, coupled with the desperate attack by the US bombers flying from Midway Island, convinced Nagumo Chuichi that the US military still had strong combat effectiveness at Midway Island. Therefore, Nagumo Chuichi ordered the Akagi and Kaga aircraft carriers to be loaded on the deck.
The fighter planes, which were ready to attack the torpedoes of the US aircraft carrier formation, were pushed into the hangar, modified with high-explosive bombs, and prepared for the second wave of bombardment of Midway Island.
The Japanese troops on the decks of the Akagi and Kaga were busy!
In fact, at this time, the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier of the US Army’s 16th Task Force, which was 200 nautical miles away,
The 117 fighter planes launched from the Hornet aircraft carrier were already in the air and pounced on the Japanese mobile formation.
Unaware of what was going on, Tadayoshi Nagumo was still standing by the command podium of the flagship, staring in the direction of Midway Island, preparing to order the takeoff to attack the carrier-based aircraft on the Akagi and Kaga once the carrier-based aircraft completed the reloading of high-explosive bombs.
The second wave of attacks was carried out on Midway Island.
From the sneak attack on Vladivostok to the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and then on to the occupation of Southeast Asia, the Japanese naval combined fleet made a lot of money using sneak attack tactics. It was not until the Battle of the Coral Sea that the Japanese army began to taste the terrible bitter fruit of carrier-based aircraft attacks. South
Kumoichi, like Yamamoto Isoroku, is eager to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet's aircraft carrier formation. However, he has not yet received the report of the advance reconnaissance formation composed of submarines and reconnaissance aircraft discovering the U.S. aircraft carrier formation, so he can completely let go of Midway Island.
Implement the second wave of attacks, and after the first wave of attack formations led by Captain Tomo Nagajoichi returns to the mothership, they can immediately load torpedoes and carry out attack missions against possible US aircraft carrier formations.
At this time, Nagumo Chuichi thought he had a chance to win. He was extremely calm and had a stern look on his face, pretending to be a famous general who had conquered a thousand miles.
Only 24 minutes had passed since Chuichi Nagumo ordered the carrier-based aircraft on the decks of Akagi and Kaga to write torpedoes and modify high-explosive aerial bombs. At 7:30, the heavy cruiser Tone was delayed for half an hour.
A reconnaissance plane that took off at that time finally discovered 10 U.S. warships in the ocean 240 nautical miles away from Midway Island. Nagumo Chu was not disturbed when he heard about it, and immediately ordered the reconnaissance plane to continue to find out whether the enemy fleet had aircraft carriers, and at the same time ordered a suspension of the warships.
Reloading of torpedo aircraft.
The Japanese troops on the Akagi and Kaga were extremely busy due to Nagumo Chuichi's morning and evening changes. However, these Japanese officers and soldiers who were dedicated to making contributions to His Majesty the Emperor did not complain. Instead, they immediately carried out the commander's order and temporarily stopped changing the torpedo aircraft.
High explosive bomb work.
At this moment, no one can understand Nagumo Chuichi's mood. They don't know if he is anxious or if he is really as calm as he appears. Anyway, the mobile formation is waiting for his order!
The reconnaissance plane had not sent back an accurate report, but the air raid siren sounded again. The second wave of more than 40 US bombers taking off from Midway Island pounced on them, including the US Air Fortress B-port bombers. Nagumo Chuichi was decisive
Order the No. 0 fighter aircraft serving as air security to destroy the US bombers.
Bombs were exploding, the Japanese anti-aircraft firepower escorting the aircraft carrier was firing fiercely, and the Japanese aircraft carrier was making evasive maneuvers. The atmosphere on the battlefield suddenly became tense.
The U.S. bombers did not have fighter escorts, and the Flying Fortress B17 could not dive bomb. The Japanese Zero fighter was still advanced in the world at this time. The result of the fierce battle was that not a single torpedo or bomb hit any of the more than 40 U.S. bombers.
A Japanese ship was repelled by a Zero fighter.
Seeing the bombs of the US bombers falling and exploding on the sea, Nagumo Chuichi occasionally frowned and did not say much. It was not until the US bomber group was repelled by the Zero fighter that a smile appeared on Nagumo Chuichi's face.
.
Happy events always come one after another. Just after repelling the U.S. shore-based bombers flying from Midway Island, at 8 o'clock, Nagumo Chuichi received a report from a reconnaissance plane that there was indeed an aircraft carrier in the U.S. fleet.
The most important purpose of attacking Midway Island was to find and annihilate the US aircraft carrier formation. Upon receiving the report of the discovery of the US aircraft carrier, Chuichi Nagumo immediately ordered all ships to stop installing high-explosive bombs on the carrier-based aircraft, and the aircraft were returned to the hangar to be refitted with torpedoes.
To be fair, Nagumo Chuichi's command up to this point has not made any mistakes. The problem is that he changed torpedoes and bombs at one time, which confused the Japanese troops on the aircraft carrier. In order to buy time, the little devils unloaded the bombs from the aircraft.
The bombs under the bombs were piled directly on the deck. Think about it, if the US bombers arrived at this time, as long as they could hit the deck, what would be the result?
If God wants to destroy it, he must first make it crazy! This sentence should be changed when used in the aircraft carrier duel, that is, if God wants to destroy it, he must first make it chaotic!
The chaos of the Japanese army continued. At this time, the first wave of aircraft that attacked Midway Island came back and urgently needed to land. The fighter jets serving as air security also needed to land immediately to refuel!
Nagumo Chuichi is in trouble. If he orders the second wave of attack formations to take off to bomb the US aircraft carrier, the airstrip will be occupied, and all the planes returning from the Midway Islands will fall into the water. This loss is too great, Japan
The navy can no longer afford it. They are too short of supplementary aircraft. Moreover, the second wave of attack formations has not yet completed the torpedo replacement operation, and even when it took off, there was no fighter escort.
Rear Admiral Yamaguchi, the commander of the Second Aircraft Carrier Group, was a ruthless man who did not care about the consequences for his goals. He suggested to Nagumo Chuichi to "immediately order the attack force to take off."
This was an obvious decision to give up the empty plane returning from Midway. Of course Nagumo Chuichi could not agree. He decided to postpone the attack. He first recovered the aircraft that attacked Midway and intercepted the US bombers, and then reorganized his troops to attack the US military.
Task Force.
The Japanese planes returning from Midway began to land one after another under the command of Chuichi Nagumo.
It was so busy that at 1:00 p.m., all the carrier-based aircraft of the Japanese mobile formation completed their operations, and the Zero fighter jets covering the fleet began to fly.
Before the Zero fighter planes could complete takeoff, the alarm sounded, and a group of "Destroyer" torpedo bombers launched from the USS Hornet rushed towards the Japanese mobile fleet. Unfortunately, they still had no fighter escorts and were
Japanese Zero fighter jets and naval gun fire interception.
The brave American boys shouted on the radio, flew their planes into the Japanese warships, and launched a tragic suicide attack. Balls of fireballs bloomed in the sky. The 30 American pilots and the 15 torpedo bombers they flew, except for one person.
In addition to escaping, they all melted their lives into the burning Pacific Ocean!
Immediately afterwards, 28 U.S. fighter planes taking off from the Enterprise and Yorktown also arrived and attacked the Soryu and Hiryu. This time, the U.S. fighter planes also did not get a favor. They dropped so many torpedoes but none of them hit.
The Japanese ship also shot down 20 torpedo bombers.
The Pacific is burning, and the lives of the brave U.S. Army and Navy airmen are burning!
From another perspective, this result is caused by the lack of actual combat experience of the U.S. Army and Navy aviation forces. If our bomber formation led by Feng Dafei can cross the ocean and fly over the Japanese aircraft carrier, with the technical and combat capabilities of Feng Dafei, David and others,
, it would fly close to the Japanese ship in an absolutely low-altitude skimming attitude, and could explode the bombs on the deck with only its onboard machine gun.
In any case, Nagumo Chuichi's mobile formation has been bitten by the US carrier-based aircraft group, and doom is coming. Sadly, the old devil Nagumo Chuichi did not realize this, and still stood in front of the command platform with an expressionless face.
, ordered the fleet to sail north at a speed of 30 knots to avoid U.S. bombers that might attack again, and prepare to attack the U.S. task force with all its strength.
As soon as the Japanese fleet sailed north, it turned to the windward direction, which was the perfect situation for the U.S. bomber group to attack downwind. Moreover, the four Japanese aircraft preparing the mother formation were all neatly arranged on the deck, waiting.
After taking off, bombs and torpedoes were piled on the deck.
If the follow-up carrier-based aircraft group of the US military does not appear at this time, after the Japanese carrier-based attack aircraft formation is released, the US aircraft carrier will be the unlucky one waiting. The technical and combat level of the Japanese pilots is obviously much higher than that of the US military. Once they fly over
In the sky above the US aircraft carrier formation, the consequences can be imagined.
However, the US military staged a calculated ambush, and the Japanese army's good luck came to an end.
Three Dauntless dive bombers that took off from the USS Enterprise led by Major Clarence McCluskey appeared. At this time, it was just when the first fully fueled Japanese fighter jet took off from the aircraft carrier. Clarence McCluskey
Major Sky immediately shouted "God protects the United States" into the throat microphone and ordered to divide into two squadrons to attack the aircraft carriers Akagi and Kaga respectively. Following Clarence, Major McCluskey formed a formation
After that, a formation of 17 "Dreadnought" dive bombers took off from the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier, and they pounced on the USS Soryu aircraft carrier.
Bombers swooped down one after another, the Japanese mobile formation's air defense sirens wailed harshly, and the escorting cruisers and destroyers opened fire.
It was too late, it was too late, everything was ruined by Nagumo Chuichi's order to first recover the aircraft returning from Midway, and then organize a formation to attack the US aircraft carrier formation.
The bombs fell on the decks of the Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu. When the explosions sounded, the Japanese aircraft on the deck fell straight into the sea like kites with broken strings.
If it were just US bombs, the three Japanese aircraft carriers might still be saved. The problem is that there are Japanese bombs and torpedoes everywhere on the deck, and they are all equipped with fuzes. When attacked by US bombs, they are like falling in love.
Like lovers, they embraced each other and had a great tragedy.
In just 5 minutes, the three main aircraft carriers of the Japanese Navy, Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu, turned into three large fireballs, and the firelight illuminated the sky red.
People know that these three aircraft carriers were destroyed!
This time, the Pacific Ocean was really burning. The raging fire devoured the lives of the Japanese carrier-based aircraft and officers and soldiers, completely burying these invading guys in the Pacific Ocean!
At this point in the battle, the victory was decided, and the U.S. military had achieved great results. However, the Japanese army was notoriously tough and tough. The bombing formation that took off from the Hiryu aircraft carrier, the only surviving mobile formation, followed the U.S. bombers and successfully
They found the aircraft carrier Yorktown of the U.S. No. 1 Task Force and launched an attack. The Yorktown was immediately hit by three bombs. Then, 10 Japanese planes taking off from the Hiryu arrived again, and the Yorktown was hit by two bombs.
The torpedo was hit hard and the commander of Task Force No. 1, Rear Admiral Fletcher, was forced to transfer to the cruiser and handed over command to Rear Admiral Spruance.
In the afternoon, U.S. bombers taking off from the aircraft carriers Enterprise and Hornet found and hit the Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu, causing bombs on the Hiryu's deck and torpedoes to explode, enveloping the Hiryu in a sea of flames.
The fierce battle at Midway has basically come to an end. Without the aircraft carrier, the Japanese army went to bomb the bombers of the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier. Even if the fighter jets came back, they had nowhere to land and had to fall into the Pacific Ocean.
In this battle, the U.S. military sank four Japanese aircraft carriers: Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu at the cost of losing one Yorktown. Japanese Combined Fleet Commander Yamamoto Isoroku
They had to announce the cancellation of the operation to capture Midway Island and ordered the combined fleet to withdraw from the battlefield.
It should be noted that after the USS Yorktown was hit for the first time, it resumed sailing after emergency rescue by the crew. After being hit by two torpedoes for the second time, the USS Yorktown was forced to abandon the ship, but the Yorktown did not
It did not sink. The U.S. military returned to the ship again and tried to tow the Yorktown back to Pearl Harbor for repairs. However, it was discovered by a Japanese submarine and completely sunk the Yorktown with a torpedo. This is g
It happened on September 9th, which was the afternoon of the next day after the US military destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers.
Another thing that needs to be added is that after the Battle of Midway, the Japanese Navy concealed it and failed to report it.
Even Prime Minister Hideki Tojo was kept in the dark.
When the Japanese formation returned to the military port in despair, what greeted them was not the military police who came to arrest Yamamoto Isoroku and Nagumo Chuichi, but Japanese people waving paper sun flags and shouting slogans, as if Yamamoto Isoroku
6. They are really the heroes of the empire who won great battles.
Of course, this is a story for a few days later.
Dear book friends: Because this book is a long one and has strict logic requirements, I have to quote a lot of information in this chapter. This is not intentionally misleading, so please forgive me.!!!