The raid on the U.S. fleet this time was the Eighth Fleet of the Japanese Navy commanded by Lieutenant General Mikawa Junichi.
The reason was simple. The Japanese Army could no longer stand it. Hideki Tojo, who was far away in Tokyo, issued an order to the Navy in the name of the base camp. The Japanese Navy dispatched the Eighth Fleet to support the Japanese army on Guadalcanal at all costs.
At the beginning, Tojo Hideki's order was unanimously opposed by the Japanese naval generals. Their reasons were simple.
First of all, the Eighth Fleet was formed less than three weeks ago and has never conducted coordination training. Can it go to war? Furthermore, the Eighth Fleet does not have an aircraft carrier.
Although the Japanese army also has an air base in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, it is still too far from Guadalcanal to effectively support such a long distance.
Once the Eighth Fleet is attacked by a US aircraft carrier, it will be very dangerous.
The last reason is very surprising, because until now the Japanese base camp's combat intentions against the Americans are still unclear.
They didn't understand whether the Americans had started an attack or were just interfering with Japan's airport construction. The general at the base camp still thought that it would not be too late to think of countermeasures after figuring out the intentions of the United States.
So it stands to reason that this quarrel should have ended with Tojo Hideki's defeat, but the unexpected addition of a character in the middle made this order a reality.
This person is Yamamoto Isoroku. As the soul of the Japanese Navy, Yamamoto Isoroku gave the Mikawa Army a combat permission order, leaving Mikawa Army to decide everything freely.
Mikawa Junichi was also a stubborn man. After getting Yamamoto Isoroku's tacit approval, he immediately led the Eighth Fleet to kill Guadalcanal.
However, although Mikawa Junichi was stubborn, he was not a fool. At least he asked for help from the base camp and asked Rabaul Base to dispatch thirty-six Type 96 bombers and use eighty-four Type Zero bombers to escort them.
More than a hundred fighter planes attacked the Seventh Task Force in such a mighty manner.
The Seventh Task Force was not to be outdone. Captain Arthur C. Davis, the captain of the USS Enterprise, immediately ordered all carrier-based aircraft to be dispatched while reporting to Rear Admiral Fletcher.
However, after several months of fighting, the Enterprise had suffered relatively heavy losses in aircraft and pilots. At this time, there were only sixteen F6F Hellcats and eighteen F4F Wildcats on the aircraft carrier that could take off to meet the enemy.
These fighters immediately seemed to be a little inadequate when facing the eighty-four Japanese Zeros. The Hellcat fighters were better, but as an old Wildcat fighter, they obviously lagged behind in performance.
In less than five minutes after the battle began, eleven of the eighteen Wildcat fighter planes were shot down by the Japanese, and the only remaining aircraft could only parry but not be able to fight back.
The most terrible thing is that the Eighth Fleet led by Mikawa Junichi also arrived at almost the same time.
For a time, the sky above the fleet was filled with the roar of aircraft and the roar of naval guns. Artillery shells with a caliber of more than 200 or even 300 millimeters fell on the sea from time to time, setting off waves tens of meters high.
In this way, a rare fleet artillery battle began.
It has to be said that the quality of the Japanese navy in this era is indeed world-class. At the beginning of the battle, the cruiser "Canberra" of the 17th Task Force was hit by two torpedoes on the starboard side, and was hit by 24 shells one after another.
It loses its combat effectiveness within five minutes.
Seeing the losses so quickly, Fleet Commander Fletcher became anxious. In addition to ordering the fleet to strengthen its firepower, he also urged aircraft from Guadalcanal to come to support immediately.
But what he didn't expect was that the first one to come for support was actually a Chinese aircraft.
The person responsible for the air escort of the dispatch team this time was none other than Huang Kebiao, the famous ace pilot of the Liantai Flying Column.
Looking at the constant bombardment of the fleet below and the hundreds of aircraft fighting bloody battles in the sky, Huang Kebiao felt his blood begin to boil.
I saw him shouting, "Brothers, follow me and go down to kill the Japanese!"
In full view of everyone, forty-eight F8F Panda fighter jets pounced from high altitude on a group of more than a dozen Hellcat Zero aircraft.
It must be mentioned here that although the Panda fighter jets have been equipped with a brigade of the Flying Corps, the pilots have been busy getting familiar with the equipment during this period and have not officially fought against the Japanese army. No one expected that this latest fighter jet would
The first actual battle was not in Shanxi, but on Guadalcanal, thousands of miles away.
As the last piston fighter of the US military in another time and space, there is no doubt about the performance of the Panda fighter.
The engine it used was also the most powerful engine in the world at the time - Pratt & Whitney's R-2800 "Double Wasp" series engine.
The Panda fighter also broke the customary "bigger is better" new fighter design rule at the time. It was lighter than the 4.152-ton weight of the Hellcat, now known as the most powerful carrier-based aircraft, and the entire fighter weighed only 3.2 tons.
Ton.
Therefore, the Panda fighter has ample power and excellent maneuverability. Its climb rate is 30% higher than that of the Hellcat, and its maximum flight speed reaches 680 kilometers per hour, which is almost the ceiling of piston fighters.
Because the Panda fighter jets were so fast, when they rushed over the Zero fleet, the pilots of the entire Zero fleet did not even react.
"Dong dong dong dong..."
As bursts of dazzling orange light flashed by, Huang Kebiao took the lead and opened fire.
The four 12.7mm Browning machine guns arranged on the wings simultaneously sprayed tongues of flame, turning a Zero more than 300 meters away into a ball of fire and igniting the fuel in the fuel tank.
In just a few seconds, the Zero fighter shattered and disintegrated in mid-air, and the flying fragments almost hit the Panda fighter piloted by Huang Kebiao.
Seeing that their parents had made a good start, the other Panda fighters were not to be outdone. With tongues of flame flashing in the air, the Zero fleet that had been so impressive just now became a mess.
As the last American piston fighter in another time and space, the Panda is more than a step ahead of the Zero in terms of maneuverability, firepower, and flexibility.
The Japanese radio channels were filled with the exclamations of Japanese pilots.
"No...these fighter planes are too fast. I can't catch up with them at all."
"Baga, these are not American planes, they are Chinese, they are Chinese!"
"It's a China plane. These are a China plane."
Soon, some Japanese pilots noticed that the aircraft that had just come to support were not painted with the American flying eagle logo, but the blue sky and white sun insignia that many Japanese naval aviation pilots had never seen.
But some Japanese pilots who had fought in China recognized them immediately. The Japanese pilots were shocked and angry for a while. When could Chinese people actually join the Pacific battlefield?