Iron Cross

Halsey held McCain's body and cried bitterly. Everyone was in tears and grief.

A total of 13 staff officers died with McCain - the fighter plane had no idea that the casual burst he fired just now had killed a quarter of the TF50 fleet command staff, and even almost killed Halsey.

Vice Admiral McCain was the most unfortunate among them - he was killed by 20mm shell fragments in the crowd. Before he was hit, this shell had taken the lives of 3 or 4 people in succession. If it weren't for this group of staff officers who blocked most of the explosion for him, he wouldn't even have the chance to tell Halsey his last words.

And if this burst was not fired by MG151, but by the more powerful MG213, I'm afraid even Halsey, who was farther away, would have to die here. As fate would have it, the TF50 fleet command staff encountered the most lethal attack at the worst time - if they were on the bridge, 20mm shells would be useless against the heavy defense, but exposed on the deck, let alone 20mm shells, even 12.7mm heirlooms could directly break a human body in two.

McCain's death is a microcosm of the tragic fate of the entire TF50 fleet! On this night, hundreds of people were mercilessly killed by fighter planes...

At 21:27, Fuchida Mitsuo, who led his team away from the battlefield, sent a battle report. The bridges of Taiho and Katsuragi were full of jubilation. Genda Minoru read aloud the battle report of the second attack wave, which aroused exclamations from the crowd:

Fleet aircraft carriers: one is confirmed to be sunk, another is severely damaged and paralyzed, and the enemy has abandoned the ship;

Battleships: one was hit by 3 torpedoes and is confirmed to be severely damaged; another was hit by a torpedo and then damaged, and the speed was reduced to about 14 knots;

Cruisers: 4 were sunk and severely damaged;

Escort aircraft carriers: more than 6 were sunk and severely damaged;

Destroyers: at least 5 were sunk...

"The second attack wave has all returned, some of the attack aircraft with insufficient fuel have returned to the fleet, and the aircraft with sufficient fuel will land at the Second Air Fleet." Genda Minoru added, "The commander's office has sent the third attack wave, and some aircraft carried fuel according to the suggestions of the first attack wave. Burn the bombs. "

Tsukahara nodded and smiled: "Operation Z2 is basically complete. What remains is to clean up the battlefield. After this battle, the US Pacific Fleet will be destroyed and there will be no room for struggle. Our army can attack Hawaii with all its strength and launch Operation Z3."

"Onboard!"

"Congratulations to the commander for such an extraordinary achievement!"

"It is mainly because of Commander Raibori's good planning and the brave fighting of the soldiers. Thank you for your cooperation." Admiral Tsukahara, who proposed the "cross-shuttle" tactic and laid the foundation for the final victory, did not show any self-conceit. Instead, he solemnly told everyone, "On the occasion of this great victory, remind all ships to be careful, especially pay attention to the sea surface, and do not let the US submarines attack, so as not to fail."

No one expected that not all the planes returned. There were still 4 planes that did not return, and of course they were not shot down. If they had to use one word to describe the situation they are facing now, it would be incredible!

In the second attack wave, members of the cleaning trio, Hiroyoshi Nishizawa and Toshio Ota, each took their wingmen to attack and provide cover for the attack group. They were given two tasks: first, to shoot down US aircraft and protect the safety of the attack group; second, to find valuable warship targets and provide attack directions for the attack aircraft.

Although the night clouds can indicate the targets of the clustered fleet, individual targets still rely on the pilots to visually search with flares. Fighters firing flares to help attack aircraft attack is a strategy collectively discussed by the pilots.

Hiroyoshi Nishizawa and his wingman drove the Shiden Kai, and Toshio Ota and his wingman drove the Liefeng Kai. After arriving over the target fleet, the expected possible US night fighters did not appear at all. After turning around a few times and finding that there was no need to cover the ship attack, the four fighters went to look for valuable targets separately. At this time, the sea had already become a mess, with attack groups flying up and down everywhere.

Toshio Ota didn't want to join in the fun with others, so he wanted to pull away to see if there were any fish that slipped through the net. At 21:02, after a long search, his wingman first discovered an escort aircraft carrier. The ship's heading was strange, heading straight south, and it was far away from the main formation.

He immediately called Toshio Ota to come over to confirm. The two planes circled and checked for a long time, and they were sure that it was an escort aircraft carrier. But the strange thing was that no matter how they fired flares or how they strafed the deck and the aircraft parked on it, the opponent had no reaction, let alone retaliating, as if it was asleep.

Toshio Ota was unsure of the Americans' idea, and he couldn't sink the enemy ship with fighter planes alone, so he desperately called the attack planes in the headset. After 3 minutes of calling, the attack planes either didn't come or apologized that they had dropped all their bombs and were ready to return. Instead, they called Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, who was not far away. He also swooped down with his wingman to take a closer look. Even at a very low altitude, he didn't find any movement from the opponent. Finally, he bravely flew back and forth over the aircraft carrier three times, but still didn't see any counterattack from the US military.

"Strange, everyone on this warship died?"

"Maybe the Americans escaped."

"But if they escaped, why is the ship still sailing?"

"Maybe there are still people hiding in the bottom warehouse..."

"They don't want to surrender, do they?"

"If they want to surrender, why don't they stand up and wave the white flag."

"Maybe they are afraid that we will sink it without asking."

"Wouldn't it be faster to hide in the bottom warehouse?"

The four people talked for a long time in the headset, but in the end they still couldn't come to a clear conclusion.

Toshio Ota made up his mind and said, "I'll go down and take a look."

Nishizawa Guangyi said in surprise: "Didn't you go down there?"

"I mean, I landed up there, and if the Americans wanted to surrender, I convinced them to do it!"

Others were shocked: "This is too risky!"

"You guys, please make the flares brighter. I'll have no problem landing. If Americans can take off and land, so can I!" After saying that, he didn't care about anything and just jumped down. Nishizawa Hiroyuki had no time to stop him, so he had to give way. The other two people used flares to illuminate the area while flying the aircraft to monitor the situation below, ready to open fire if anything went wrong.

Toshio Ohta's Gale Kai successfully hooked the blocking rope on the empty deck and safely parked the aircraft on the runway - the Gale Kai was more than one ton lighter than the F6F, and the distance required to stop was shorter than the F6F. It did not hit the several broken F6Fs at the rear of the deck.

After landing, Toshio Ohta did not dare to make any mistakes at first. He hid in the cockpit for half a minute, keeping his fingers pressed on the machine gun, ready to fire if the situation was unfavorable. As a result, no American soldiers ambush came out. He finally took the courage and raised the gun. He jumped out of the cockpit with a pistol and looked around. The more he looked, the more surprised he became. There was no one on the whole ship, and the F6Fs were also empty, as if they were ghost ships. The other three people above the head didn't know what was going on, they just felt it was even weirder, and a chill shot up their backs.

However, there were a lot of things discarded on the deck. He grabbed a carbine from them and rushed down to the bottom warehouse with courage. The other pilots did not even dare to take a breath, and while flying around the aircraft carrier, they paid close attention to his performance.

After reaching the bottom warehouse, an even more shocking scene appeared in front of Toshio Ohta: there was no trace of enemy troops inside either. He shouted several times in English, opened his carbine and fired a few rounds, but there was no response for a long time. When he rushed to the engine room and took a look, he almost laughed - the huge steering wheel was tightly stuck by two iron rods, and he just aimed at the 180-degree course and headed south.

"Are the Americans abandoning the ship?" He really couldn't figure out the specific situation, so he returned to the deck while mumbling to himself, and at the same time vigorously waved the planes above to come down.

Nishizawa Hiroyuki only saw him waving, but didn't know what he was shouting. He was so anxious that he scratched his head and head. Finally, after the other party shouted a few times, he realized something was wrong. He returned to the car and used his headphones: "You two, please get off, there is no one on this boat!"

"No one?" Everyone was shocked and expressed disbelief, "How is it possible?"

"There's just no one. Why am I lying to you? Oh, I'm going to turn on the lights to make it easier for you to land."

He fumbled around for several minutes, and finally found the deck light switch of the Bismarck Sea escort aircraft carrier by understanding some English. He instantly lit up the deck, then pushed away his gale force and kicked away the debris on the deck. , making room for others - he believed that it would not be difficult to land on this escort aircraft carrier with the skills of his comrades.

Everyone did not doubt that he was there, and they landed one after another with Nishizawa Hiroki as the leader. As soon as they stopped, they jumped out of the cockpit impatiently and surrounded Ota Toshio with questions.

"The people below want to surrender?"

"No! I mean, there's no one down there!"

"What? Then who's driving the boat?"

"The ship is sailing by itself...oh...the steering wheel was jammed intentionally." Toshio Ohta led everyone to take a look at the situation, and everyone could not hide their shock.

"What on earth is going on? We captured an empty ship?" Several people whispered to each other, all with expressions of disbelief.

"Which of you can sail a boat?"

"This? I don't know how to..." Nishizawa Hiroshi touched the back of his head awkwardly, "I am in the pre-training course and have never touched a boat."

"Neither can we!"

Only pilots who graduated from the Naval War School have the opportunity to receive systematic navigation education. These pilots are all pilots who graduated from the aviation school. Even if they have some theoretical impressions of navigation, they don't know where they are now.

"Okay, I have been a sailor for a few days and have seen how the chief engineer operates. Let me do it." Ota Toshio bravely pulled out the iron rod and turned it to the right in a decent manner, saying something serious He muttered something like, "Right rudder 30 degrees."

Everyone felt that the huge hull under their feet began to slowly turn. Although it was unclear whether it was 30 degrees, it was definitely turning to the right.

Nishizawa Hiroyuki complimented him: "It would be a pity if you don't go to the Naval War School to become a captain..."

"I'll take care of you captain first. You go outside to see if there are any fish that have slipped through the net or time bombs. Then quickly send a telegram to the superiors and ask them to find a way to send someone to receive it. I can't drive back..." Toshio Ota laughed. He said, "Americans are really prodigal. Why don't they just want to abandon such a good ship?"

During the subsequent inspection, everyone discovered that there were several steel cables on the deck dragging on the railing on the left side of the hull, and the other end was dragging long in the sea water - this was not clearly seen during the circling inspection just now. Thinking of these things and then thinking of some of the debris on the deck, everyone seemed to understand something...