Chapter 474 Caribbean Sea (16)

The reconnaissance plane Hashimoto was on set a world record: a mere sea reconnaissance plane actually had 2 kills, which is unbelievable to tell others.

"We are running low on fuel. When will the second group of naval reconnaissance aircraft come up to take over?"

"It's estimated to be half an hour..."

"We can still hold out for half an hour. When will the attack aircraft come? Not too many, just a hundred, to send all these bastards to the sea to feed the fish."

"The commander must have made arrangements, so you don't have to worry about it."

The crew never expected that when they were sighing, Genda Minoru asked Tsukahara 243 in confusion: "Commander, since you are not going to attack the battleship formation first, why do you still let the naval reconnaissance aircraft hover above it? Isn't it easy to alert the enemy?"

"The effect of alerting the enemy is what we want." Tsukahara nodded, "The US military should launch another attack this afternoon. What target do you think they will choose?"

"Mobile fleet."

"Not necessarily." Tsukahara shook his head, "The US aircraft have been greatly weakened. If it were me, I might change the target to the artillery formation or the bait formation. But I can't give them enough now protection, so we must use water reconnaissance to remind the Americans: they will not be safe unless we destroy our aircraft carriers. "

"Huh?" Genda Minoru was surprised, "The decoy fleet will soon meet the mobile fleet, and the bombardment fleet will not be too far away. If the three go together, can't they protect us?"

"No!" The order issued by Kusaka Ryunosuke quickly revealed the answer, "Right 90 degrees, take a course of 345 degrees..."

"North... North?"

"Didn't you want to attack the enemy battleship unit just now?"

"But didn't you just send the attack group out to attack the enemy aircraft carrier?"

"Attack the enemy aircraft carrier first, and then decide whether to attack the enemy battleship depending on whether the situation allows it." Tsukahara smiled, "It turns out that we are in a hurry to withdraw because the enemy's land-based and carrier-based aircraft are numerous and threatening. What are we afraid of now?"

14:26, the US military completed the final preparations for the sixth attack wave in Puerto Rico, but the order to attack was delayed because Cohen did not receive the reconnaissance intelligence. Nearly 4 hours have passed since the disengagement in the morning, plus it will take at least 2 more hours for the attack group to fly over, which adds up to a 6-hour time difference, which is enough time for the Axis aircraft carrier group to run 300 kilometers. If the direction is wrong again, the problem will be even bigger, and it will make a bigger mistake than Fletcher - although Cohen thinks Fletcher is at most a mistake, and there is no responsibility. "Sir, B-25 found an aircraft carrier, which is sailing eastward accompanied by a Japanese destroyer. It seems to have suffered a lot of damage and its speed is only about 13 knots..."

"One?"

"This should be the Japanese aircraft carrier Hayabusa that was severely damaged by our army in the attack this morning. We thought it sank, but we didn't expect it to still be able to move."

"Send a squadron to attack first, and be sure to sink both the destroyer and the aircraft carrier."

"This way, we will have even less force to attack in other directions."

"This aircraft carrier is no longer of much significance to Japan, but the officers and pilots on it are still very important. If we can destroy them all, it will be beneficial to future operations - doesn't Japan have some advantages by relying on the quality of its personnel?" Cohen immediately issued an attack order. Three minutes later, 16 SBDs, escorted by 6 F4Fs, rushed towards Hayabusa and Yukikaze.

At 14:49, Mitsuo Fuchida led his fleet to the battlefield of the last round of air strikes, and saw the Yorktown, Boise and two other destroyers paralyzed on the sea and completely floating. The US military left in a hurry, and its main energy was used for personnel evacuation, and it did not sink them.

"The torpedo planes at the front of the formation deal with aircraft carriers and cruisers, and the bombers deal with destroyers..."

One minute later, the Yorktown was hit by two torpedoes, the Boise was hit by one torpedo, and the two destroyers were hit by one bomb each. The five planes completed the mission with a 100-percent hit rate. According to Mitsuo Fuchida's order, the attack aircraft that had completed the bombing increased the speed to search for targets 100 nautical miles on both sides of the surrounding area, while the latter still led the attack aircraft group to fly north at cruising speed.

Seven minutes later, the torpedo plane reported that it had found a US fleet in the northwest: "Two cruisers, four destroyers, no aircraft carrier."

"No aircraft carrier?" Fuchida Mitsuo was a little anxious, inferring that the US aircraft carrier and cruiser fleets had escaped separately. After thinking for a while, he ordered, "Send out four bombers and three torpedo planes to attack, and make sure to wipe out the enemy fleet. The remaining aircraft will turn to the northeast. The aircraft that have completed the attack will conduct a search on the spot if the fuel permits, to see if there are any fish that have escaped the net..."

15:00 , Cohen, who was stationed in Puerto Rico, received two pieces of news: the first was that the Japanese attack aircraft group was attacking the escort warships of the aircraft carrier formation. The heavy cruiser Houston, the light cruiser Montpelier (Cleveland class) and four destroyers were attacked fiercely and were close to sinking; the second news was that an enemy battleship formation and a light aircraft carrier formation were discovered west of Porlamar, Venezuela, more than 170 kilometers apart, with more than 20 escort fighters. The reconnaissance plane was shot down after sending a telegram back, but no report was made of the discovery of the enemy fleet's aircraft carrier.

The first message made Cohen's hands and feet cold. It seemed that the Axis fleet did not want to let go of the last remaining Glorious aircraft carrier, and still wanted to kill it all; the second message made him wonder, where did the enemy fleet's aircraft carrier go? Was it because the reconnaissance planes hiding near the other two fleets did not see it, or was it somewhere else on the battlefield? Then he thought of the information sent by Ingersoll, hoping that a fighter plane would kill the annoying fly above his head - the water reconnaissance, and he fell into confusion.

The sinking of the Houston was obviously more shocking to Admiral Jin, which meant that all 18 heavy cruisers of level 5 built by the United States before the war had been completely lost. In addition to the heavy cruiser Baltimore that was lost just after it was built, the United States now had no heavy cruisers available. Although, except for the Atlanta-class (including derivative) anti-aircraft cruisers, the tonnage of the other Cleveland-class and Brooklyn-class light cruisers is close to that of the treaty-class heavy cruisers, and there are many Baltimore-class heavy cruisers and a number of light cruisers on the slipway, it is obvious that distant water cannot quench the nearby fire.

What makes Admiral Jin even more headache is that the decision was just passed not long ago: including the cancellation of the subsequent construction plan of heavy cruisers, and the conversion of a batch of subsequent Cleveland-class ships into the Independence class. In this way, the United States will not only lack aircraft carriers, but also cruisers in the future - this is almost fatal.

He didn't know that there would be even worse news waiting for him in 15 minutes...