"Hull called the fleet. A large number of enemy planes appeared in the right front of the fleet. The number is about 300 and the distance is 50!" In the command tower of Admiral Halsey's flagship "Enterprise", the commanding officer came from the loudspeaker.
Based on the news sent back by Jie's reconnaissance plane, everyone in the war room knew that they would inevitably have to fight a fierce air battle with the Republic Navy.
The direction in which the Republican fighter plane came was the same as what Rear Admirals Spruance and Rear Admiral McCain had judged before entering. It was located at the 1 o'clock position of the fleet. The battlefield intuition of the two Rear Admirals was quite accurate.
The battleships in Halsey's hands were divided into five battle groups. Task Force 16, composed of the "Enterprise" and two "Exess-class" aircraft ships, was personally commanded by Admiral Halsey, Robert?
Vice Admiral Lee Gormley served as the commander of Task Force 18, which consisted of two other "Essex-class" aircraft ships. The "Yorktown" and "Yorktown" commanded by Rear Admiral Fletcher
Task Force 17, composed of the USS Saratoga, is affiliated with the South Pacific Fleet.
The other is Japan's fifth mobile fleet, commanded by Takeo Takagi and composed of "Shokaku" and "Zuikaku".
The 16th and 18th Task Forces are about fifteen nautical miles apart from the Japanese mobile fleet, while Fletcher's Seventeenth Fleet is far away from Halsey's main force, about thirty-five miles to the east of the fleet.
location in the sea.
The Republic Navy's aircraft fleet was obviously heading for Halsey's main fleet.
There were currently about two squadrons of fighter jets performing aerial vigilance missions above the fleet. After receiving news of the enemy's incoming attack from the south, Halsey ordered all remaining fighter jets on each ship to take off to meet the enemy.
The entire task force began to turn left into the wind to allow all the fighter jets staying on the deck to take off more smoothly. When the fighter formation commanded by Li Danyang arrived near the Halsey fleet, about 150 US and Japanese fighter jets from eight squadrons faced it.
The fleet under his command flew over.
"Very good, almost all the enemy's incoming fighter jets have been dispatched. Each squadron is scattered to meet the enemy! If you lose a thousand of them, there will not be many escort fighter jets left for the enemy to enter!" As the aviation commander of the second attack wave, Li Danyang's fighter jets were at 6000
While cruising at an altitude of meters, he issued combat orders and sent back the telegram "Snakes are out!" to the fleet.
A fierce air battle was going on over the sea and air about 10 nautical miles away to the right of the U.S. fleet. Even with a high-power telescope, it was difficult to see clearly the air battle taking place more than ten kilometers away, but from time to time you could see a glimpse of the air battle.
The black-smoked fighter plane crashed into the sea from mid-air.
About ten minutes later, Halsey felt a little strange. No matter how strict the interception was, there would always be bombers that could break through the defenses of the fighter jets and enter the sky above the fleet. However, the enemy aircraft group always kept the fleet's anti-aircraft artillery fire at bay.
Outside the range, there were even several times when an apparently enemy attack aircraft formation turned back when it entered the edge of the fleet's air defense circle of about five nautical miles.
"Get Colonel Herman for me. Where are the enemy bombers?" Halsey asked Spruance.
"Colonel Hermann's plane has been shot down. Enemy attack planes have been participating in air battles. They are not loaded with bombs. When empty, Chinese bombers can carry out air battles. They have nothing to do with us.
The performance of Grumman fighter jets is comparable." Major General McCain suddenly said: "I found a problem. The enemy seems to be coming towards our fighter jets and has no intention of bombing the warships!"
"How many fighter planes do we have left now?" Halsay asked, "Including Japanese troops, we have lost half of our fighter planes so far. There are still about seventy to eighty fighter planes fighting the enemy in the air. The enemy
The revenue loss is slightly less than ours," McCain said.
"No, the enemy wants to consume our fighter jets first, and then start bombing!" Halsey said, "order the fleet to turn around, we must retreat immediately!"
It was not an easy task for the entire fleet to make a collective turn. After more than ten minutes, the entire fleet completed the maneuver and began to retreat towards the south of Woodlark Island.
At this time, the first wave of attack fighters sent by the general team had begun to return. Only half of the 320 fighters that participated in the first wave of attacks returned, and many fighters were damaged.
At this time, the voice of Lieutenant Colonel Seliman, the commander of the first attack wave, suddenly came back from the loudspeaker in the "Enterprise" war room: "Seliman called the flagship and found that the enemy had entered the attack group, about six squadrons, two
A team of attack planes and two teams of torpedo planes, distance 30, we are intercepting, but the fuel can only support half an hour!"
Almost at the same time, the ship heard another reconnaissance plane calling from the same direction: "I am at an altitude of 4,500 meters and have found a large number of enemy planes 15 nautical miles northeast of you. I am climbing higher. The enemy planes are flying very fast, and I am afraid they cannot be intercepted.
Live."
About five minutes later, about 30 Republican Navy attack aircraft swooped down towards the fleet from an altitude of 5,000 meters. The fleet's anti-aircraft fire finally began to fire, and clouds of fire exploded between the clouds, like clouds in the dark sky.
It was like fireworks. Several enemy planes were shot down in front of anti-aircraft artillery. The planes trailed a trail of black smoke from their tails and fell into the sea.
More enemy planes still braved artillery fire and dropped bombs on the warships at an altitude of about 500 meters. The enemy's attacks were concentrated on the two aircraft ships of the 18th Task Force, and several warships were hit by the bombs dropped.
The bomb hit, and black smoke rose from the hull. In this round of strikes, both the "Raider" and the "Valiant" were hit by two 450-kilogram aerial bombs, and the deck suddenly ignited.
The fire broke out and more than a dozen planes that had just landed were also destroyed.
Then eight torpedo planes came out from the right rear of the fleet and dropped torpedoes on the sea. The planes flew very low, almost touching the sea, and then scraped above the front deck of the "Pensacola"
In the past, two Chinese torpedo planes were hit by the anti-aircraft artillery on the battleship, and they staggered to the sea less than fifty meters away from the warship.
There were less than sixty fighter planes left in the entire fleet, still fighting tenaciously, but they could no longer stop the Republican Navy's attack. As soon as this wave of attacks ended, a second wave of enemy planes rushed down again. This time they came from the left side of the fleet.
Flying from behind, more than thirty "Sea Harrier" attack aircraft and twenty-six torpedo aircraft launched simultaneous attacks from high altitudes and low altitudes, which caused great confusion in the air defense firepower of the entire fleet.
At 2:38 p.m., a torpedo hit the front port side of the USS Lexington. The violent explosion caused a tongue of fire mixed with seawater to erupt from there, making the crew on the warship feel as if the giant warship was experiencing an earthquake.
It suddenly started shaking. Nearly twenty torpedo planes successfully dropped torpedoes on the sea.
The entire sub-formation of the task force suddenly became chaotic. Every warship was trying its best to avoid the flying torpedoes. The small-caliber guns on the warships were also firing at these torpedoes. Three torpedoes were hit by
The shell hit and detonated successfully, causing several jets of water to explode on the surface.
At this moment, the ship's bow air lookout suddenly shouted: "Dive bomber!"