Chapter 4 no accident

Yamamoto has a full day's schedule, when will the interception start? According to the itinerary, Yamamoto will stop at a small island in the south of Bougainville first, and then transfer to Shortland Island by hunting submarine.Changing to a submarine hunter is the closest to Guadalcanal, so at first everyone tended to attack during this time. It was close, but there was more than one submarine hunter near Shortland, and it was impossible to determine which one it was.Taking a step back, even if the ship Yamamoto was on was sunk, there is still a high possibility that he will be rescued at sea.

Only by destroying the plane in the air can the survival rate of Yamamoto be minimized!Therefore, the air interception plan won the unanimous approval of everyone. The battle plan was reported to Nimitz, and Nimitz called back to officially issue the execution order.He ended the telegram by personally wishing Halsey "good luck and victory." On April 18, Henderson Airport on Guadalcanal Island was busy, and 18 P-38s were ready to go.On the same day a year ago, the U.S. military fleet also carried out a long-distance raid mission, the "air strike on Tokyo."Compared with the last time, the difficulty this time can be said to be unabated: In order to avoid being discovered by the Japanese army, the fighter jets not only need to fly at low altitudes, but also have to make detours. It takes a total of two hours to fly, which exceeds the normal situation of fighter jets. voyage.

Each fighter jet is equipped with a large-capacity belly fuel tank to increase range, which makes the aircraft almost overloaded. The pilot must use the flaps to increase lift, and the aircraft taxis to the end of the runway before it can lift off the ground. This morning, accompanied by Chief of Staff Ugaki and others, Yamamoto boarded the landline at Rabaul Airport. Yamamoto took the No. 1 plane and Ugaki took the No. 2 plane.Both planes are bombers, and there are six "Zero" type escorts on both sides. After unsuccessful dissuasion, Ozawa, commander of the Third Fleet, approached Kameto Kuroshima, Yamamoto's chief aide, to persuade him: "If the commander must go, the strength is too weak to use six fighter jets as escorts. If necessary, you can send them from I call fighter jets there, as many as you want."

Ozawa asked Kuroshima to tell Ugaki, but Ugaki was ill and bedridden for a few days and was unable to act as a director, so Ozawa's opinion was not conveyed in time. It is strange enough to say that Yamamoto usually appears in a white military uniform, but this day the adjutant persuaded him to change into a grass green military uniform on the grounds that the white color was too conspicuous. At 6 am, the plane took off from Rabaul Airport on time.The weather was clear and the vision was clear that day, making it the best flying weather.Ugaki’s No. 2 plane is just above the left side of No. 1 plane. The wings of the two planes are almost touching. Ugaki can clearly see the commander’s seat of No. 1 plane. are clearly visible.

It was a comfortable and calm flight, and after an hour and a half, the flight formation approached Bougainville.At this moment, the No. 2 machine suddenly descended sharply with the No. 1 machine, dropping from seven to eight hundred meters to fifty meters.Yu Yuan felt strange, and asked the person next to him what was going on, and the answer he got was: "There may be an operation accident." There is not an accident, but a story.Before this, the Michelle fleet that was performing the interception mission happened to fly past the formation of Japanese planes. After realizing that the Japanese plane above was the target of the ambush, Major John Michelle shouted to the receivers: " Unidentified planes are flying over your heads!"

The fleet immediately turned back, then dropped the auxiliary fuel tank, and assumed an air combat posture.After the Japanese plane discovered this situation, all "Zero" types climbed rapidly and swooped towards the American plane, and the sound of wind and machine guns immediately mingled together. The "Zero" was fooled. Michel had already divided the fleet into two groups in advance, and the cover team under his personal command was responsible for entangling the "Zero".At the same time, the attack team commanded by Lieutenant Lanfell made a detour and stared at the No. 1 and No. 2 machines to death.Michele called out to Lanfell from above: "Don't worry about the 'Zero', keep an eye on the bomber, hit the bomber! Fuck it, the bomber!"

The sharp decline of the No. 1 aircraft was precisely to avoid pursuit, and the No. 2 aircraft also responded in the same way.When they almost touched the treetops in the dense forest on the coast, the two planes made a sharp turn with a large angle. The No. 1 aircraft turned to the right, and the No. 2 aircraft turned to the left. The two aircraft opened up the distance. Before departure, the U.S. military received information that there was only one landline, but now there are two, and it is not known which one contains the largest "prey".Regardless of him, come one to kill one, come one pair to kill another pair.Lanfair turned the fuselage and shot at one of them fiercely. A puff of black smoke spewed out from the rear cabin of the Japanese plane, and the right engine and right wing caught fire one after another.

The bomber is afraid of fire, and if there is a fire, there is no rescue, and it is flying at an ultra-low altitude, and it is impossible to open a parachute to escape.The plane trembled, and finally touched the treetops of the dense forest. The wings fell off, and the fuselage went into the dense forest like a red fireball. What Lanfair hit was the No. 1 plane that Yamamoto was on. When Ugaki saw this scene through the porthole, he couldn't help screaming: "Everything is over!"