Chapter 68 Damaged the Japanese aircraft carrier "Xianghe"

This is bound to be a sleepless night. Although they didn't get a long or short chance, both Fletcher and Takagi are accumulating strength for the decisive battle the next day, and they both know that whoever can find out the opponent's position first the next morning will be able to occupy opportunity. The intelligence station in Hawaii turned full power to help Fletcher find out the new location of the Takagi formation.But it is not easy to find the Takagi formation.The aircraft carrier of the Takagi formation sent a lot of telegrams, but because the Japanese ship was in a stormy area and was subject to high static interference, it was difficult to establish a reliable radio direction finding device.

In the early morning of May 8, 1942, the reconnaissance planes sent by the two armies locked the position of each other almost at the same time, with a difference of only 2 minutes. With a bang, the steam catapult on the U.S. aircraft carrier launched the carrier-based aircraft into the sky, and the 81 fighters that took off from "Yorktown" and "Lexington" rushed towards the enemy's formation like arrows leaving the string.Almost at the same time, the "Xianghe" and "Zuihe" of the Takagi formation also rushed out of 70 aircraft. This is the first aircraft carrier battle in the history of the world navy. The peculiarity of it is that the two fleets of the United States and Japan are about 175 nautical miles apart. You can’t see me and I can’t see you. Fire a shell, and the entire battle is the commander using the radio to direct the aircraft to attack and defend.

At 10:30, the dive bombers on the "York City" took the lead in flying over the Takagi formation.At this time, "Xianghe" and "Ruihe" had been evacuated, 8 to 10 nautical miles apart from each other, and were escorted by warning ships. After the bomber flew over, it did not conduct a combat dive immediately, but used the clouds as a cover to wait for the arrival of the torpedo plane. "Ruihe" is more cunning. Seeing the US plane attacking, it shrinks its neck and hides in the stormy sea.As a result, "Xianghe" became the only target of the US aircraft.

After the bombers and torpedo planes met, they stormed Xianghe under the cover of "Wildcat" fighter jets.The torpedo planes fired torpedoes at the "Xianghe" one after another. However, the quality of the American torpedoes was too poor. They were slow and had a long range. passed without causing any damage. In the end, only one torpedo hit the "Xianghe" directly, and it did not explode because the fuze failed. The pilots were so angry that they couldn't help yelling. The attack was not smooth, but it was the bravest and most resolute of the American pilots in the five-day battle of the Coral Sea.They don't talk short words in front of the dwarves, and when the torpedo plane misses, they get on the bomber plane, one after another, persistently, and keep an eye on it.

The bomber pilot, Captain Bowles, told his companions before taking off that he was going to drop his big bomb on the Japanese aircraft carrier and let the Japanese aircraft carrier go to see Hades or Dragon King. After his companions failed to drop bombs one after another, Bowers dived toward the "Xianghe" and dived until he was only 150 meters from the sea before dropping the bomb, and then escaped safely. 150 meters is the maximum limit for a dive bomber to dive.After dropping the bomb, the height of the bomber was less than 100 meters, which was extremely dangerous. Even Bowers' companions were astonished, saying that he only thought of hitting and was able to escape safely. He really should thank God for His blessing.

Powers' blockbuster hit the bow of the "Xianghe".The air wave caused by the bomb not only shook the entire aircraft carrier, but even Powers, who had not yet escaped from the explosion zone, felt the shock. Because the aircraft carrier has a huge tank full of fuel and high-grade gasoline, the tank caught fire after being shot, and the fire burned all the way to the flight deck. The "Lexington" attack aircraft group was dispatched late, and when it approached the Takagi formation, it was intercepted by a "zero" type. The fighter planes were separated from each other, and only a part of them finally reached the target sea area.

In this batch of fighter planes, the torpedo planes still hadn't collected any particles, but they contained and attracted the anti-aircraft guns on the aircraft carrier.It was still the bombers who made the contribution. Two heavy bombs directly penetrated the flight deck of the aircraft carrier, and after each hit, thick smoke and debris flew together. "Xianghe" was attacked repeatedly, and the loss was very serious.Although the fire on the ship was brought under control, the flight deck was damaged and it was no longer possible to accommodate the aircraft by itself, so "Ruihe" had to collect it.

In the hours after dawn on May 8, Pearl Harbor waited for the autumn water, but did not receive any news from the Coral Sea.At around 10:00 in the morning, MacArthur forwarded a telegram from Fletcher asking for help. Fletcher told the location of himself and the Takagi formation, and he hoped that MacArthur would send land-based bombers for support. The land-based bombers were busy bombing the Japanese amphibious forces and could not spare reinforcements. However, Nimitz deduced from this that the fleets of both sides had discovered each other, and the first aircraft carrier battle in history was imminent.

Everyone waited nervously for more than two hours.Near noon, I finally received a series of battle reports from Fletcher, reporting heavy damage to a Japanese aircraft carrier. The damaged Japanese aircraft carrier was confirmed to be "Xianghe". According to the pilot's observation, "Xianghe" was wobbly and might be sinking rapidly. A smile finally appeared on Nimitz's tense face. The result he expected should be better than this, but as the first battle of an aircraft carrier, it is not bad to be able to do so.You know, "Xianghe" is not a modified light aircraft carrier like "Xiangfeng", but a real large aircraft carrier.

Nimitz sent Fletcher a motivating telegram, and he wrote in his combat log in a relatively relaxed mood: "Today is a memorable day for our fleet in the Coral Sea battle. .In the past 36 hours, we have sunk the enemy's 'Xiangfeng' and severely damaged the 'Xianghe'." However, he didn't know at this time that there was another sad thing waiting for him.