"Rudolph, this knife is for you" On the afternoon of 17 March, in the hangar of the USS Akagi, Shigeru Itaya, who was about to fly a Comet carrier-based bomber, suddenly handed the katana in his hand to Little Hesman, who had come to see him off.
Little Hersman took Itaya's katana, a long knife with a beautiful scabbard, and I don't know how it got into the cockpit of an airplane "What's the matter, you didn't bring a broadsword on the plane," asked Hersman Jr., a little strangely.
"It's a very stupid thing to get on a plane with a big knife haha."
Itaya Shigeru laughed, "Rudolph, you're right, as soon as I flew the plane, what did I want to do with a knife, so when I saw you today, I gave you this knife, and I won't bring a knife to the sky anymore." ” "Can you bring a parachute," said Hirschman Jr., "and it's normal to be shot down, I've been shot down five times by the enemy." ” In other words, Hirschmann's piloting skills are really not good, he crashed three times in the European theater, and when he went to the Pacific theater to play the crash, he dropped two more Fs.
However, his life is relatively large, and every crash is thrilling.
"Baga" Itaya Shigeru glared at the little Hersman who was talking nonsense, "Isn't this cursing me, I'm about to attack, let's say a few nice words." ” "Bring a parachute, and then the military luck will last for a long time, but it's okay, Itaya, now the Americans are really powerful with several new planes, be careful."
Hersman Jr. still mentioned the parachute, because he was very worried about his Japanese friend, who had fought with the American F4U and F6F in the North Pacific, and had read many reports about the 51, and knew that these three types of aircraft were not easy to deal with, and his two crashes in the Pacific Ocean were caused by F4U and F6F.
After listening to Little Hersmann's words, Itaya Shigeru didn't take it too seriously, he had been with the German pilots like Little Hesmann for a long time, and knew that the Germans were not good at talking, and they were all guys who had one thing to say and two things to say.
"Okay."
Itaya nodded, took the parachute from one of the deck crew members beside him, carried it on his back, and said with a smile, "Rudolph, wait to hear our good news" After speaking, he strode towards the Comet carrier-based crit plane he was piloting.
This is a dive bomber that can fly up to 580 kilometers per hour, and its speed even exceeds that of the Zero, and it can easily break through the interception of US fighters from an altitude of 6,000 meters.
However, this high speed also has a side effect, that is, the speed of the dive is faster, and the accuracy of the bomb is reduced.
In the Japanese naval aviation, only such an experienced "old driver" as Shigeru Itaya could fly such an aircraft.
Itaya Shigeru also changed from a Zero Pilot to a Comet Pilot because of this reason.
In the attack plan drawn up by Mitsuo Fuchida based on the instructions of Jizaburo Ozawa, among the 180 fighters that formed the first attack wave, there were 120 comet ship critique aircraft carrying 500 kg of armor-piercing bombs.
Three hours later, they will wreak havoc on the U.S.
Task Force 19 "Hasn't the radar found it yet?"
Rear Admiral Smith of the U.S.
Navy aboard the heavy cruiser Wichita seemed to be waiting a little impatiently, and once again turned back to ask his chief of staff.
Admiral Stannaplin looked at the blue sky outside the bridge and the F6F fighters hovering in the sky, then shook his head and said, "Sir, maybe the Japanese don't plan to attack us anymore" Before he could finish his words, the phone rang, and the staff officer picked up the phone and answered first, and then his face changed rapidly.
"What's wrong," Colonel Lin asked immediately after noticing the anomaly.
"They came and the radar detected enemy aircraft, more than 100 in number, 6000 at an altitude of 100 miles, equivalent to 160 kilometers."
"Just in time to order all the fighters to take off and intercept them" Rear Admiral Smith immediately jumped to his feet when he heard the news, and immediately ordered all the fighters on the three Borgs to take off to meet them.
Since the German JU288 and remote-controlled gliding bombs replaced submarines as the main threat to American ships.
Therefore, the main task of US escort aircraft carriers is now air defense rather than anti-submarine, so the types of equipment equipped are also different from those in history.
Each Borg-class escort carrier has a squadron of F6F and a squadron of F4U, a total of 24 fighters, plus 4 reserve aircraft.
In addition, although these Borg-class aircraft carriers are small, slow and unbeaten, they have not cut corners in the catapult, and all have installed flywheel catapults The current catapult has just developed to a hydraulic catapult, and the United States and Britain have this technology, but it has not yet been popularized, and the Japanese aircraft carrier is taking the path of gunpowder catapult, so there is no available catapult that can catapult 18 carrier-based aircraft into the sky in a very short period of time, and the flywheel is an energy storage catapult, and the energy storage is exhausted, and it cannot be used for the time being, Together with the 18 F6Fs that are now in the sky, 72 F6Fs and F4U are soon circling back and forth around the perimeter of the 19th US Task Force formation.
As the commander-in-chief of the first attack wave, it was Shosa Takahashi from the aircraft carrier Shozuru, who was an "old man" who graduated from the 56th phase of the Navy, two years earlier than Shigeru Itaya, so he was naturally an experienced elite.
In the past year or so of war, he has led a fleet of aircraft to battle more than once.
However, I have never encountered the F6F and F4U, I have only seen their photos, and I have heard about these two difficult American aircraft from the pilots of several light aircraft carriers on escort missions.
After discovering that the fighters circling in the air to cover the US aircraft carrier were F4U and F6F, Takahashi knew that there would be a bitter fight today.
He first gave an order to the squadron leaders of the six fighter squadrons under his command: "Sasai-kun, Shiga-kun, Shinto-kun, Fujita-kun, Tsukamoto-kun, Okajima-kun, the Americans' fighter planes are handed over to you, please."
"Hail" "Onboard" A cheering echo was heard from the airborne radio imported from Germany.
Apparently, the leaders of the 6 fighter squadrons are full of confidence.
Then Takahashi began to give orders to the leaders of the 6 crit squadrons, and Takahashi himself was also a crit pilot, and assigned 3 escort carriers, 1 heavy cruiser and 2 large light cruisers in the sea below to the 6 crit squadrons.
"Ekusa-kun, Itaya-kun, Kobayashi-kun, Murata-kun, Ema-kun, and Sanfuku-kun, follow the official charge, onboard" Takahashi shouted at the end, and then maneuvered his comet ship's crit plane to dive at full speed towards the American ship formation below.
At the same time, the 60 escorted Zero Type 52 fighters were already one step ahead of the US fighters in the sky.
Although the pilots who flew these Zero 52s were all elite, and they had all learned a lot about the F4U and F6F before, everyone was still taken aback.
I don't know if it's because of the two nicknames of "Richthofen of Japan", Lieutenant Sasai Koichi Sasai, who has the nicknames of "Richthofen of Japan", was a shore-based pilot of the "Tainan Air Force" at the time of the war, and shot down many F2A, 40 and F4F in the Philippine and South Pacific theaters, and also shot down the B17 of the US army, and was the ace of the Japanese naval aviation.
However, today is the first time I have participated in the battle as a carrier-based aircraft pilot.
And it's likely to be a disadvantage Because he encountered an American carrier-based aircraft that would turn in circles almost like the Zero Type 52, but he was not afraid of the Circle Sasai Alcohol, he was a veteran trump card, although the speed of the American F6F was faster than that of the Zero Type 52, but Sasai relied on his clever air mobility skills to quickly bite the other party's tail.
However, before Sasai could finish aiming, the American plane, which was supposed to be characterized by its agility and maneuverability, suddenly began to dive at a high angle, as if it were an F.
Sasai followed behind its ass for more than ten seconds, and knew it couldn't catch up.
The dive performance of that plane was better than that of the Zero Type 52, not a little bit, and it ran away in the blink of an eye.
Just as Sasai was trying to find another American plane to shoot down, he suddenly noticed two strings of fire flashing from the right side of his plane, and one plane was condescendingly firing at his plane.
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Sasai knew that something was wrong, and hurriedly piloted the plane to do an S-shaped maneuver, trying to avoid the opponent who was diving down from a high altitude.
The cannon shells swept across the wing of the Zero 52 he was piloting, and the wing was instantly split in two, and the plane could not keep its balance and tumbled downward.
"I'm going to become a god now" Sasai was unwilling, but he didn't bring a parachute, he only had a big knife by his side, and it seemed that there was nothing he could do but wait for death.
However, just as the plane was rapidly falling, he saw a ball of fire rising on the surface of the sea, apparently the work of the comet critter Just when Sasai Junichi, who was piloting the fighter, was shot down by an F4U that was diving from a high altitude, Shigeru Itaya excitedly shouted hooray.
Because the crit squadron he led had just established a meritorious service, sinking an American aircraft carrier Although the Zero fighter now meets the two sworn enemies of the F4U and F6F, it is no longer as sharp as it was when it started the war.
However, the "Comet" ship's critique plane, which Shigeru Itaya is now piloting, is very difficult to deal with.
Because the speed of the "Comet" is too fast, if it strikes from an altitude of 6,000 meters, it will easily break through the enemy planes and rush into the fleet's anti-aircraft fire network.
Although because of the high speed of the dive, the accuracy of the bomb delivery was reduced by more than half compared with the 99 ship explosion.
But the hit rate of about 30 was still enough to inflict the heaviest blow on the American fleet on the surface t1706231537: