Chapter 64 turkey hunt

The severance of contact with Guam gave Ozawa an ominous premonition, but he was already on the verge of riding a tiger, not to mention that his "peripheral annihilation" tactics did not rely solely on an unreliable Kakuda unit. That morning, the sky was cloudy and the wind was strong, which made it difficult for the reconnaissance plane to search the sea. After sunrise, Ozawa finally received a report: the 58th Task Force was found. The discovered 58th Task Force was 300 nautical miles away from the third battle of Obayashi, and 380 nautical miles from the first battle led by Ozawa and the second battle of Jojima. Requirements, belong to the extremely ideal attack distance.To Ozawa's satisfaction, he was the first to discover Mitchell and his fleet, while the other side did not seem to have discovered his troops.

From 7:30 in the morning, Ozawa successively dispatched 246 carrier-based aircraft to attack.Before the attack, the captains of the attacking teams deliberately ran to Ozawa and assured him with confidence: "This time, we must avenge Midway Island!" At first, I was afraid that the new aircraft would have problems when taking off. Fortunately, a strong southeast wind blew up in the morning, with a wind speed of more than ten meters per second. The Japanese bomber was also very up-to-date this time, and did not repeat the embarrassing scene of Tawei Tawei training. 246 carrier-based aircraft greatly exceeded the number of the first attack wave during the attack on Pearl Harbor.Such a large number of troops is unprecedented in the history of Japanese aircraft carrier warfare.Seeing the densely packed planes go away, Ozawa and his staff on the flagship "Taifeng" aircraft carrier all looked happy.

Like the Pearl Harbor incident, this was also a fleet decisive battle that bet on Japan's fate. Ozawa and others were sure that the "peripheral annihilation" would be successful, and the "toast to congratulations" that had not been carried out for a long time ushered in an opportunity. After receiving Ozawa's telegram, the United Fleet Headquarters was filled with joy, and the staff believed that Ozawa was 80% to 90% sure of winning.Infected by the surrounding atmosphere, Cao Lu asked the attendants to take out wine glasses, preparing to celebrate after the first batch of planes launched an attack on the US aircraft carrier.

But in his heart, Caolu is not as confident as Ozawa. The attack distance of at least 300 nautical miles is too long. Even if the pilot of the carrier-based aircraft flies an average of 150 nautical miles per hour, it will take two hours to fly to the target location. Will the momentum of the attack be weakened?It's like a boxer who overstretches his hand and lacks strength. Okumiya on the "Falcon Eagle" aircraft carrier also has a lot of doubts about the long attack distance.He understands the training situation and level of the pilots under his command. For example, the "comet" type pilot basically never left the aircraft carrier when he was parked in Tawi Tawi, and he had very little time for flight training.

The plane and the pilot must be well matched. Before the Solomon Sea Battle in the South Pacific, it was no problem for the pilot to fly 300 nautical miles. Now it is hard to say. Whether the attack is powerful or not, whether they can fly to the target point without incident You have to put a question mark first. Okumiya's worries were quickly fulfilled.Akira Akira, the commander of the First Air Fighter Group, is a young officer who originally lacked experience in commanding large formations. He was too busy with the navigation and communications on the plane, and made a mistake in his busy schedule. Formation formation.

This is a very dangerous position.All the peripheral troops moved in a serpentine shape, and the course was constantly changing. It was difficult for the officers and soldiers on board to distinguish the direction of the fighter planes. A large group of planes suddenly appeared in the sky, and everyone was terrified. The anti-aircraft guns of some ships instinctively started firing salvos, and the other part already considered that it might be their own aircraft, but after being induced by this, they also fired, and they couldn't stop it even if they wanted to stop it. There was chaos in the air. The plane was doing gymnastics, doing yoga, and doing somersaults. It was not to fight the US military in the air, but to avoid its own artillery fire on the ground.Seeing that the situation was not good, Tarui hurriedly sent out an identification signal, but it was too late. In addition to the two planes being shot down, many planes were damaged and had to return to the aircraft carrier.

Ozawa was frustrated by this unreliable atmosphere.But until now, he still thought that his opponent was just a deadly target for him to attack, and there was a way to make up for the time wasted. In fact, Mitchell was very vigilant and knew of the existence and intentions of Ozawa's troops long ago. At 10 a.m. on June 19, the U.S. military radar spotted the first batch of Japanese planes flying from the west at a distance of 150 nautical miles.The 58th Task Force immediately sailed towards the Japanese ship for 20 minutes. During the sailing process, all the fighters, dive bombers and torpedo planes on the aircraft carrier flew into the sky without leaving a trace.

After flying 70 nautical miles, the American plane saw the Japanese plane.The sky was covered with dense clouds, which played a very good role in covering the American plane. The American plane was equipped with radar, so it could accurately locate the Japanese plane without relying on the naked eye. However, the Japanese plane without radar did not know that the opponent was close at hand. . "You can't see me, but I can see you." The U.S. military fleet immediately launched a surprise attack from a high place, catching the Japanese aircraft formation by surprise, and air hand-to-hand combat began.

By the end of the Pacific War, most of the carrier-based aircraft pilots of the Japanese aircraft carrier lacked flying and combat experience, and there were many people who could only take off from the aircraft carrier but did not know how to land on the aircraft carrier.On the contrary, under the high-level instructors and systematic training and teaching procedures, the US Navy has an endless stream of first-class pilots. The U.S. military not only has many pilots, but also attaches great importance to protecting the lives of pilots.Submarines, seaplanes, and surface ships, often at great risk, serve as "sentinel" missions for flying teams.Starting from the attack on the Gilbert Islands, the U.S. military even formed a "rescue team" to use submarines to rescue pilots who escaped by parachuting.By the end of the Pacific War, the "Rescue Corps" had rescued 504 American pilots.

At the same time, the Japanese commander was eager for quick success and quick profit, just like Tsunoda, he only knew how to use up what little power he had in his hand.Not only old pilots, but also new pilots who have just become more proficient in operations are often thrown into some combat missions of little significance by them.A Japanese flight instructor said: "The navy desperately needs pilots. Those who never even dreamed of being close to fighter jets before the war are now sent to fight." Less, the overall level is getting better and better. This polarized situation culminated in the Battle of the Marianas, where one side was no match for the other at all.Major Brewer, who led the first batch of fighter jets to attack, took the lead. Without losing a drop of blood, he first hit a Japanese bomber until it exploded, and then he interrupted the wing of another Japanese bomber.

The "Zero" style used to be so rampant, but now it has become docile in front of the "Hellcat".Brewer just flicked a Zero behind him, and in the process, the Zero was shot and caught fire at the same time.Moments later, the second Zero was shot down... The "Hellcat" fighter has six 12.7mm machine guns. The pilots aimed at the enemy plane with a scope, held the shooting handle tightly, and kept swooping down and firing towards the sparse Japanese planes below.Under the slamming of machine guns, the Japanese planes fell like leaves, and in an instant, 25 Japanese planes tumbled into the sea. There are only a handful of Japanese planes that can break through the interception line of the US planes. They encountered anti-aircraft guns in the sky over the 58th Task Force.The U.S. anti-aircraft artillery shells are equipped with a new variable-range induction fuze, which is also called a proximity fuze, which allows the shells to automatically explode when they are more than 20 meters away from the target.Japanese planes were often blown up in the air before they even touched the sides of the US ships. In fact, what the Japanese aircraft achieved was that a bomb dropped by a bomber hit the battleship "South Dakota".However, in addition to killing some crew members, the warship itself did not suffer much damage, and its combat effectiveness did not decrease. In the first round of attacks launched by Ozawa, only 27 aircraft were able to return to the aircraft carrier, while the US military only lost one aircraft, and all the rest returned safely.In the radio system of the U.S. military pilots, there was a riot of shouting, cursing, and cheering for teammates. One pilot shouted ecstatically: "Hey, this is really like hunting turkeys in ancient times!" The first air battle became known as the "Mariana Turkey Hunt". After the fiasco of the first round of attack, Ozawa took 128 planes from his main force and launched a second round of attack, but this was only an effort to keep the number of "Mariana turkeys" climbing: a group of Japanese planes surrounded the One American plane, each with a foil sword, could not shed a few drops of blood for a long time. When the American plane got angry, these Japanese planes rolled their saddles and fell off their horses one after another. Under the sharp counterattack of the American planes, some Japanese planes began to disperse like frightened bison, but before they rushed out of the queue, the "Hellcat" drove them back to the queue like a shepherd boy, which made the Japanese planes Not even a chance to disperse and escape. Within a few minutes, the "Hellcat" shot down nearly 70 Japanese planes, and in the end only 11 Japanese planes survived.Lieutenant Colonel McCampbell, the captain of the U.S. flight squadron, shot down 4 Comets by himself until the ammunition ran out.He also shot down three other planes that evening.By the end of the Pacific War, McCampbell shot down a total of 34 Japanese planes and was awarded the Medal of Honor as the Navy's super ace pilot. Fighting is real kung fu, and no matter how good Ozawa is at it, he can only show his prospects, but not his achievements.From the beginning of the third round of attack, Ozawa was obviously in a desperate situation. In the third round, the Japanese aircraft group got the wrong coordinates. Only 12 of the 47 aircraft rushed to the battle airspace, and 7 of them were beaten down by the battleship. In the fourth round, the Japanese fleet was also dizzy and confused. After the main force searched for the US aircraft carrier to no avail, they dropped their bombs and flew to Guam.When they were about to approach Guam Airport, 27 "Hellcats" that had been lurking in the sky swooped in. The autumn wind swept down 30 Japanese planes like fallen leaves, and the Japanese planes that finally landed were also seriously injured. Make repairs. The completely one-sided "turkey hunting battle" made the U.S. pilots very happy, but as the commander-in-chief, Spruance has not yet felt this excitement.He paced back and forth on the flagship USS Indianapolis, frowning. What worries Spruance is that the ships of Ozawa's troops are still outside the combat radius of the US aircraft. torpedo. Only later did he know that someone had quietly taken over the shotgun.