Chapter 89 gold reserve

During the air-to-sea battle, all the Japanese pilots on the "Akagi" who had not yet taken off gathered on the deck to watch the battle. Even Fuchita, who was just able to get out of bed after the operation, struggled to come out, leaning on a parachute beside the bridge. to watch on. At that time, all the anti-aircraft guns on the aircraft carrier were firing at the air, but there was still an American plane roaring towards the aircraft carrier. The pilots and crew were very panicked. Call: "It's about to hit the bridge!" Fuchita could already clearly see the shining five-pointed star on the dark blue fuselage, and the ace pilot could easily recognize that it was the B-26 Predator.

After all, the plane failed to hit the bridge. It hit the port side of the aircraft carrier, then plummeted, and plunged into the sea. Seeing this scene, all the people on "Akagi" danced happily, but for a while, the "Bodhisattva" Murata, who was also an ace pilot, couldn't laugh. He stared gravely at the place where the bomber crashed, where a high column of water rose and then fell again. Murata didn't know the name of the enemy pilot in front of him, but the performance of the other party already explained everything: this is a warrior, he is willing to sacrifice his life for the country, even on a ruthless battlefield, this behavior is enough Make people awe-inspiring.

If in the same situation, Murata believes that he will make the same choice, which is the best destination for pilots. After a period of solemnity, Murata returned to normal. After all, it is a war, and the enemy loses and we win, which is always something to be happy about.Seeing Murata laughing out loud, the ship burst into jubilation, and Fuchita said, "It's so funny." The two attacks by the U.S. planes did not cause much damage to the maneuvering troops, and basically there was no danger. However, Nan Yun and others were still greatly shocked. Like Fuchida, Genda also got up from the hospital bed and barely stood beside Nagumo to assist in commanding.Just now, the staff member raised his head, squinted his eyes, and carefully observed the incoming U.S. plane, and concluded: "Their level of torpedo attack is too poor. This attack is a complete failure."

However, neither Genda nor Nagumo himself could deny that if these American planes were not dealing with fast and highly maneuverable mobile troops, but were attacking relatively clumsy transport fleets, the effect might be completely different. Before Tomonaga's telegram was warmed up in his hands, the U.S. torpedo planes and bombers rushed to the scene one after another. This seemed to further illustrate that it was indeed necessary to launch a second attack on Midway Island. Nagumo decided to adopt Tomoyong's suggestion and use the second wave of attack aircraft in advance. The original mission of the second wave of attack aircraft was mainly to deal with surface forces that the reconnaissance aircraft might find.When fighting in the Indian Ocean, after the attack aircraft took off from the aircraft carrier, British surface forces suddenly appeared and threatened the aircraft carrier.

Although Nagumo thought that the Pacific Fleet was still on the surface of Hawaii, but in view of these lessons, he had to keep a hand for himself. The second wave of attack aircraft can also be said to be Nagumo's golden reserve team. The elite main force of the mobile air force is concentrated here. Just look at the names of the leaders of each team to know: Murata Shigeharu of the torpedo aircraft, nicknamed "" "Lightning King"; Takashige Egusa of the dive bomber, nicknamed "God of Ship Explosion"; "Zero" Shigeru Itaya, the flight captain who served in "Akagi" with Fuchita and Murata... No wonder Fuchita couldn't go into battle in person After seeing the list of the reserve team, the sadness on his face disappeared. In the current Japanese navy, there is no aviation unit that can surpass this combination, regardless of actual combat experience or combat capability.

Fuchida believes that the US ships will either not appear, or if they do appear, the reserve team will be able to completely control the battle situation and annihilate them. The seven reconnaissance planes sent by Nagumo have taken off together with the first wave of attack planes.The reconnaissance operation is like a Japanese sandalwood fan on the sea chart. It radiates outward from the mobile unit as the center, thus forming 7 independent search areas. At this time, Nagumo estimated that the reconnaissance planes sent by Nagumo had reached the end of the search fan, but none of the reconnaissance planes had reported the discovery of US ships.

Since there are no enemy ships in the nearby sea, it would be too wasteful to leave such an excellent reserve team unused.Under Genda's suggestion, Nagumo issued a "bomb replacement order", that is, to reload the ammunition for the second wave of attack aircraft, and replace the torpedo aircraft that originally attacked the ship with the bombers that attacked Midway Island. After receiving the order, the elevator quickly returned the torpedo plane to the hangar below the deck, unloaded the torpedo, refitted the high-explosive bomb, and then hoisted it to the plane deck.This was not an easy job, and the aircraft carrier was in a hurry.

Nanyun issued an order at 7:15, and at 7:28, a water reconnaissance plane sent a shocking report: "10 surface ships were found, suspected to be enemy ships." This report was like a bolt from the blue, almost knocking down the bridge of "Akagi".