However, the Japanese bombers suffered heavy losses not just because of this. The commander of the Japanese bomber formation gritted his teeth and cursed, "Damn Germans, they only sent 9 planes to fly over the enemy fleet to show off, and the rest
They all hid far away, and now all the planes and artillery fire of the American army are coming towards us."
There were more than 200 enemy planes attacking at low altitude, while there were only nine high-altitude aircraft, divided into three groups. The US military naturally concentrated its aircraft and firepower to deal with the low-altitude enemy aircraft that were obviously a much greater threat first. As for the high-altitude aircraft,
Those nine enemy planes, as long as they do not enter, they can attack
At such a height that our own warships posed a great threat, the US military did not have the energy to deal with them for the time being. But what the US military did not expect was that the three groups of German aircraft actually rushed towards a US aircraft carrier. Their dives were so determined that they
It's like a real bombing
"Open fire and bombard as soon as the altitude drops below 1,500 meters." Every gunner of the US 20mm anti-aircraft gun on the aircraft carrier and nearby anti-aircraft cruisers received this order. Even among the dive bomber pilots of the US Navy, even experienced veterans
You have to fly the aircraft to a height of less than 500 meters before shooting, otherwise the accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
, taking into account the outstanding performance of the German pilots in previous battles, the US air defense force overcalculated, and coupled with the advance of the aircraft's dive, it was already very cautious to open fire and shelling as close as 1,500 meters. After all, it was a small-caliber anti-aircraft gun.
The speed at which cannons are consumed is terrifying. Even the United States will use up its reserves very quickly if it is wasted too much.
But to the surprise of the US military, just as their anti-aircraft guns erupted with flames, the enemy planes had already dropped the bombs and pulled them up again. As a result, all the mispredicted US anti-aircraft fires failed, and nine German aircraft safely flew away from the US military's small-caliber guns.
Effective range of anti-aircraft guns
"Shooting from such a high position? It's impossible to hit. Is it just a feint attack?" A US air defense commander asked puzzledly, but before he finished speaking, his expression changed drastically because the shrill scream told him.
The explosion was not as big as he thought.
A few seconds later, a semi-armor-piercing aircraft weighing 14 tons (Note 1) penetrated the horizontal deck of the USS Lexington aircraft carrier at a speed of more than 600 kilometers per hour, exploded inside the hull, and the fire continued to spread.
Soon the displacement of this ship exceeded 40,000
The heavy-duty aircraft carrier lost its combat capability. Soon the fire on the ship detonated the oil depot, making the fire increasingly difficult to control. Half an hour later, Nimitz ordered the destroyer to launch torpedoes to sink it to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Japanese.
Most of the 2,363 officers and soldiers on board were killed.
At the same time that the USS Lexington was in the aircraft carrier, another US aircraft carrier, the USS Yorktown, was also hit by a bomb dropped by the Germans. This aircraft carrier could not be compared with the Lexington-class aircraft carrier in terms of tonnage or armor protection. The German aircraft
The 14-ton semi-armor-piercing aircraft that was dropped penetrated into the bottom of the ship with little hindrance and exploded, causing the Yorktown to sink rapidly in just a few minutes. Less than 150 of the 1,990 officers and soldiers on the ship survived.
Nimitz had previously considered that the enemy's fighter jets had obvious performance advantages, so he decided to adopt defensive counterattack tactics, using fleet anti-aircraft artillery and carrier-based fighter groups to work together to first destroy the incoming enemy carrier-based aircraft, and then send a bomber group to attack the enemy.
The six aircraft carriers with weak military defenses did not take much time to shoot down seventy or eighty Japanese carrier-based aircraft that penetrated the defense at low altitude. This is enough to show that Nimitz's strategy was successful, but it was not noticeable.
A mere 9 German aircraft, strictly speaking only 3 German bombers, suddenly destroyed his two aircraft carriers (the Lexington was still struggling at this time), completely disrupting Nimitz's wishful thinking, and now
The fleet's air defense firepower is so powerful that it is not easy to sink Japanese or German aircraft carriers only with the bombers carried on the two aircraft carriers, even if they use the low-altitude penetration tactics that the US military has just learned from the enemy.
Nimitz, who was furious, no longer cared about waste or not, and immediately ordered all the anti-aircraft guns within reach, except those anti-aircraft guns that were bombarding low-altitude enemy planes, to use all their strength against the nine German planes that had not yet flown far.
Open fire, these culprits must not be allowed to escape alive. However, the loose formation of the German aircraft still greatly affected the effectiveness of the U.S. large-caliber anti-aircraft gun's curtain attack. In the end, three of them managed to escape, which made Nimitz feel uncomfortable.
Endless.[
Speaking of which, it’s a good thing that Nimitz didn’t know who the pilots of those three planes were, otherwise he would have been even more depressed, because those three people were Erich Hartmann, Gerhard Buckhorn and what was later called
Hans-Ulrich Rudel, the "King of Stukas", these three people used their own survival to explain the truth to future generations, "Ace pilots may not necessarily be the most skilled, but they must be the most fatal."
.”
Although no one called Rudel the "King of the Stukas" at this time, he was already recognized as the best dive bomber pilot on the Zeppelin aircraft carrier. After this battle, he could even be removed as "one".
So far, Rudel has sunk 4 US warships, with a hit rate of 100%.
Well, the hit rate of dive bombers is generally very high, with an average of more than 60%. The Japanese Navy's hit rate is more than 80%, while the hit rate of the carrier-based Stuka bombers of the German Far East Fleet is no less than 90%, so it is only 4
All the shots in the second battle were successful, perhaps just because the samples were too small and luck was better.
Note 1: In fact, this type is the standard type for mass production. Although the heavy-duty Stuka has a load capacity of 16 tons, that type of bomb is not mass-produced in Germany and must be customized when needed. Since the size of the German aircraft carrier is not too large
Large, it was already a headache for the safe takeoff and landing of the heavy-duty Stuka, and the 14-ton semi-armor-piercing power was more than enough, so the German Far East Fleet finally gave up on the plan to equip the carrier-based Stuka with a 16-ton super-heavy bomb.
and
Unless necessary, even 14-ton bombs are rarely used. Generally, 1-ton bombs are the most common. On the contrary, because Japan has the Yamato-class giant aircraft carrier, it specially equipped its copycat version of the Stuka with a 16-ton bomb.
Exploding, even against a battleship, it only takes one or two to completely lose its combat effectiveness. As for blowing up and sinking, it requires a bit of luck. In fact, using torpedoes to complete the final blow is the most cost-effective and efficient (to be continued)