Chapter 856: Meeting on a Narrow Road (Continued)

At 12:13, the San Jacinto was the first to be hit. Two 400-kilogram aerial bombs hit the center of the deck one after another, causing a violent explosion. In less than 10 seconds, two more bombs exploded near the location where they had just exploded. After all, this was just an independent-class light aircraft carrier. It could not withstand such destruction. The entire deck, hangar and power cabin were blown to pieces. It floated tenaciously for a few minutes and then began to sink, leaving precious valuables for thousands of officers and soldiers. Escape time.

The Unicorn's anti-sinkability is better, but it is not much better than the Independence class. The bow, stern, and deck area of ​​the ship were hit by 7 bombs in just 4 minutes. The violent explosions ignited the ship. fuel tank, and then triggered a big explosion in the ammunition depot, and the entire warship sank rapidly. Spruance, who was sitting on the Bunker Hill, watched the warship undergo an earth-shattering explosion in front of him. He even witnessed a 76mm anti-aircraft gun on the ship being lifted up by the air waves and hitting the main gun of the escorting destroyer next to it. The 127mm high-flat dual-purpose turret was scrapped on the spot. In the end, only more than 100 officers and soldiers on the ship escaped.

The Germans did not take action. They took down two aircraft carriers with one action. Everyone who watched took a breath of cold air. Spruance felt that his heart was bleeding and closed his eyes in pain, but the Germans' The killing continues.

Seeing their two aircraft carriers being sunk in succession, the red-eyed F6Fs rushed in and fought in a group, regardless of whether they would be accidentally damaged by anti-aircraft fire. Now they were at a low altitude, and the Ju-198s were already light after dropping their bombs. They fought a lot, but the air combat was obviously no match for their opponents. Although the Do-412s had fierce firepower and fast speed, they were not suitable for entanglement battles. They could only use BZ tactics to harvest the F6Fs. The battle situation was so fierce that aircraft kept coming from Falling down in the air.

**** still had 14 Ju-198s in hand. He ordered them all to attack the USS Wasp. Although he wanted to attack the USS Bunker Hill where the US flagship was located, he was worried that the latter had stronger anti-aircraft firepower and chose Another goal. But after all, he was experienced. He first called the attack group to rush towards the Bunker Hill. When the anti-aircraft firepower of the surrounding destroyers surrounded the Bunker Hill and the remaining F6Fs also tried their best to protect the escort, the attack group suddenly split into two. The Do-412s stayed to deal with the F6Fs, while the Ju-198s turned to look for trouble with the Wasp.

This action of feinting a gun made many officers and soldiers watching the battle below couldn't help but scream: "The Wasp is in danger!"

Spruance and Roddick sighed: Nowadays, it is easy to find US military pilots, but there is a shortage of elite pilots and excellent commanders than aircraft carriers. The Germans used many tricks today, and they all fell into the trap without exception. Now I can only pray that the Wasp will have better luck.

"Boom!"

Now the target under siege has become the Wasp. The ship first ate two bombs near the bridge, blowing up a circle of anti-aircraft guns. Then in less than half a minute, the third bomb exploded on the second elevator, directly destroying the ship. It was stuck and unable to move, but the deck barely remained intact. But this was just an illusion of the US military. After the fourth and fifth bombs were dropped one after another, the Wasp could no longer withstand it. The core section of the flight deck between the two elevators was blown open by the bombs, and the steel plates were raised in various shapes. It's such a grotesque shape, and the big hole in the middle looks like a giant beast that can swallow people.

But the German attack only ended when it hit the seventh bomb. Although the entire superstructure was blown into a mess, the Wasp luckily escaped the explosion of fuel and ammunition. The core cabin was also well preserved, and the entire warship remained intact. Not only did it shoot down three Ju-198s in air defense operations, but it was also able to maintain a maneuvering speed of more than 20 knots, which made people lament the solidity of the regular American aircraft carriers.

The commander who commanded the attack sighed. After all, there is a difference between 400kg aerial bombs and 500kg aerial bombs, and they are not the same weight as torpedoes. If the 7 torpedoes that just hit this aircraft carrier, what else can it do? Even though he was an Essex, even the Iowa class had to kneel down, but it happened that seven 400-kilogram bombs only severely damaged but could not destroy the Wasp. He could only lead the fleet away from the attack site with endless regrets.

The German attack fleet of 84 aircraft sank 2 aircraft carriers and severely damaged the Wasp at the cost of losing 15 Ju-1412s, a loss rate of nearly 30%. This result was worthy of everyone, and now the enemy must The formation pulls back - there is still at least 500 kilometers of arduous return route.

At 12:57, Krank on the Ise received two telegrams in succession. One was the battle result report from the Japanese. He heard that two ships were sunk and one ship was seriously damaged. He was obviously very worried. He was happy that his side now had a temporary advantage in the balance of power; but then the second telegram made his face ugly again. It was sent by the Savoy, "The US military fleet is about to launch an attack, and our army will Fight to the last breath, long live the Führer!”

The US attack formation first discovered the decoy formation of the Savoy. Although it was strange that another German aircraft carrier was missing, the commander did not think much about it and still ordered the formation to kill the aircraft carrier in front of him first and then look for the other one. He Believe that the other party cannot escape.

At 13:08, the 16 Do-412s escorting the Savoy began to climb and occupied a favorable altitude position. The leader, Lieutenant Jurgen, looked at the dark enemy formation with a heavy heart - the Savoy was probably not saved. , my biggest responsibility today is to shoot down more planes and try my best to protect the safety of the flagship Ise. Therefore, these 16 anti-aircraft fighters did not stick to the front of the fleet. Instead, they seized every favorable opportunity and used BZ tactics to harass the enemy aircraft groups. The priority targets were the slow TBFs carrying torpedoes.

The U.S. commander, Lieutenant Colonel Kent, was surprised that the German anti-aircraft fighters actually dispersed on their own initiative, so he ordered the escort fighters to cover the SBD to attack the Savoy, while letting other fighters cover the TBF. In his opinion, there was no need for him to use all his strength to attack the small number of enemy ships in front of him. He still had to reserve his attack power to deal with another German aircraft carrier. In order to find the enemy ships as soon as possible, he also dispatched 8 SBDs to disperse them. Find another part of the German ship.

He thought he would be able to complete the mission soon, but the next scene surprised him. Accompanied by 16 F6Fs, 24 SBDs launched a rapid dive attack on the Savoy, but the surrounding destroyers suddenly burst out with extremely powerful With fierce anti-aircraft firepower, the Phalanx used airtight ammunition to build a steel storm in the air, causing the SBDs that tried to dive and attack to crash. In less than a minute, 9 SBDs and 4 F6Fs were shot down or shot down. It has to explode in the air.

"This... what kind of anti-aircraft firepower is this?" Everyone felt frightened.

The remaining SBDs that were not shot down were frightened by the terrifying interception firepower and hurriedly dropped their bombs at an altitude of about 2,000 meters. Although the safety of the aircraft was preserved, the bombing accuracy was much worse, with only one near-miss being hit. bomb, and another bomb hit the destroyer Z29, which sank on the spot.

Kent frowned at such a bad hit effect, but he also knew that the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower was fierce and difficult to deal with, and the mission must first disrupt the formation, so he asked the TBFs to release torpedoes. He had been paying attention to the German aircraft carrier just now, but he did not realize that in a short period of time, 1412 had already eaten 10 TBFs and 4 F6Fs, and he only lost 2 of them.

The 24 TBFs that received the order immediately lowered their altitude and started firing torpedoes. Since the performance of the US military's torpedoes was far inferior to that of the Japanese and Germans, the TBFs had to approach within 1,000 meters to effectively hit, which happened to be the effective fire interception position of the Hedgehog-class Phalanx. So the TBFs started to break through like moths swooping into a fire. If they were lucky, they could pass through the fire net and drop torpedoes. If they were unlucky, they would only end up falling into the sea. 17 TBFs successfully dropped torpedoes, and 7 They were destroyed before the mines were dropped, and the other four were shot down because they could not avoid them after the mines were dropped.

Facing the torpedoes coming in a fan shape, the Savoy formation was forced to turn and start to evade. The originally airtight air defense formation began to disintegrate. Seeing an opportunity, Kent immediately let the second wave of SBD attack. This time the US military The attack finally achieved results. A bomb penetrated the deck and exploded in the cabin. However, it was now empty. There were no extra aircraft and fuel, nor the army officers, soldiers and equipment carried. At best, the structure was blown to pieces. , the second and third bombs hit the Savoy again, penetrated two decks, fell into the power compartment and exploded. The ship lost 4 boilers and its speed suddenly dropped to only 18 knots.

At 13:24, the Savoy, which had slowed down, was hit by a third torpedo after evading two torpedoes in a row. A huge gap opened up on the starboard side. The officers and soldiers tried their best to plug the leak, but the continuous influx of seawater made the ship unable to move. It became even more staggering. 2 minutes later, the ship hit another torpedo. The captain believed that the warship could not be saved, and immediately issued an "abandon ship" order. In less than 5 minutes, this comprehensive aircraft carrier converted from Italy's most luxurious cruise ship was on the first He died in one battle, and the entire ship lost nearly one-third of its officers and soldiers.

The accompanying destroyers and the heavy cruiser Seydlitz all escaped the torpedoes, and except for the Seydlitz, which was hit by a bomb, the rest were undamaged.

Kent did not want to let go of this large warship, and asked 16 SBDs to attack. But now the two Hedgehog-class ships around the Seydlitz formed regional air defense firepower. While the ship received two bombs, they also shot them down. 4 SBDs. Thanks to the good anti-sinkability of German warships, although the speed of the Seydlitz was reduced to 23 knots and the overall tilt was 5 degrees, it was not in danger of sinking. Seeing that the opponent was swaying and smoke was billowing, it did not sink. Kent He also became anxious and ordered 12 TBFs to attack with torpedoes again.