Unlike the surprised and angry Japanese, Rear Admiral Fletcher, who was commanding the heavy cruiser Astoria, was overjoyed when he saw that the Chinese fighter planes had so quickly defeated the rampant Japanese planes and fled in all directions.
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"Great, kill those sons of bitches! Liaison officer, contact the Chinese pilots in the sky immediately and ask them to kill the Japanese bombers quickly!"
"Max... Max!"
Fletcher, who had not heard a reply for a while, turned around and found that the liaison officer, Major Mask, was saying with some embarrassment: "Sir, there is no one on our ship who can speak Chinese."
"Shet!"
Fletcher felt very angry for a moment, and he almost roared: "Then go find it, I don't believe it. There is not a single person who can speak Chinese among the tens of thousands of people in the entire task force.
Go quickly...immediately...immediately!"
The liaison officer almost rolled out of the command room.
Just when Huang Kebiao led two panda squadrons to kill everyone, the fleet of aircraft taking off from Henderson Airport was barely able to fly to the battlefield.
Looking at the few Japanese planes left in the sky, Captain Jamie felt a little confused for a moment. I was only ten minutes late and you finished the work, leaving us only some leftovers. Are you polite?
Although there were ten thousand grass-mud horses whizzing by in his heart, Jamie couldn't complain and could only vent his anger on Riji, who was still struggling.
Soon, more than eighty Hellcats overwhelmed the only twenty or so Type 96 bombers and Type Zeros left in the air...
There is a proverb in the military circles of later generations, whoever controls the sky controls victory.
This theory was not yet popular during World War II, but it is an indisputable fact that air power is increasingly valued by countries around the world.
Lieutenant General Mikawa, who was commanding the fierce battle between the Eighth Fleet and the Seventeenth US Task Force, was stunned for a moment when he heard that his fleet was almost completely wiped out, with less than ten aircraft escaping back.
An order was given for the entire army to retreat.
"What...retreat?"
"Yes, the entire fleet will form an air defense formation and retreat immediately!"
"But...but this way our strategic purpose this time will not be achieved!" A staff officer was really unwilling to do so and boldly raised his objection.
Seeing someone objecting, Mikawa Army immediately changed his face: "Baga, we no longer have air cover, and there is no way to continue fighting. Don't you understand such a simple truth?"
"Hi!"
Seeing that the Mikawa Army was determined, the staff officer had no choice but to give the order to retreat.
It has to be said that Mikawa Junichi's order was very decisive and timely. By the time Major General Fletcher reacted, the Eighth Fleet had already retreated several nautical miles.
"Sir, the Japanese have escaped!"
"Follow me!"
Fletcher, who had just gained air superiority, naturally would not let the Japanese run away so easily, and immediately commanded Task Force 17 to pursue them. At the forefront were the destroyer USS Patterson and the heavyweight USS Chicago.
cruiser.
The Eighth Fleet retreated while fighting. At the end were the three cruisers of the Sixth Fleet, "Aoba", Kako, and Kinugasa.
It has to be said that the overall quality of the Japanese navy during World War II was indeed world-class. Although the Japanese navy was in a retreating posture, the three cruisers did not panic. Instead, they retreated while firing fiercely at the US military without showing any signs of weakness.
At 14:23 noon, Aoba, Kako, and Kinugasa opened fire on the "Chicago" and launched torpedoes at the same time.
The bow of the "Chicago" was hit by a torpedo and the mast was also hit by a 203mm cannon shell. The captain of the "Chicago" immediately ordered a counterattack.
The cruiser USS Chicago braved the fierce Japanese artillery fire and fired 25 rounds at the destroyer "Yuzhi" of the Japanese fleet. Unfortunately, it did not hit the target. Instead, the enemy released smoke and quickly disappeared from sight.
At this time, the fire on the Chicago was getting bigger and bigger. In order to prevent the night from getting too long, Major General Fletcher could only order the Chicago to retreat westward.
At this time, some people may ask, didn't the Americans win the air battle? Why didn't they let their planes attack the Japanese fleet?
Sorry, both the Panda fighter piloted by Huang Kebiao and the Hellcat fighter piloted by Captain Jamie are both fighter jets competing for air supremacy. They do not carry bombs themselves, nor can they carry torpedoes.
Trying to attack the thick-skinned Japanese cruisers and battleships with the airborne 12.7mm machine gun alone was tantamount to tickling them, so more than a hundred aircraft appeared on the battlefield and circled around the Japanese fleet but were unable to attack. In the end
A scene where I can only leave in frustration.
Seeing that his own aircraft had no choice but to leave, the cruiser USS Chicago was injured, and the cruisers USS Australia and USS Canberra were sunk, Rear Admiral Fletcher was afraid of suffering greater losses, so he ordered the task force to stop the pursuit and let the Eighth Fleet leave.
In this way, the first large-scale naval battle between the United States and Japan ended in an anticlimactic manner, and after the results of the victory were reported back to China, it also caused a silence within the navy.
There is no other reason than that Fletcher's luck is really bad.
During the Battle of the Coral Sea, Fletcher was not only responsible for commanding the Seventeenth Task Force, but also the Sixteenth Task Force, and his opponent was the Japanese Navy's Fifth Fleet.
As a result of the Battle of the Coral Sea, one Japanese aircraft carrier was sunk, but the USS Lexington was extremely damaged and had to be sunk by the US military with torpedoes.
The reason was that the USS Lexington's boiler was damaged in a previous battle, but no damage control team member discovered the oil and gas leakage, which eventually led to the oil and gas being ignited and exploded by an electric spark.
During the Battle of Midway, the Yorktown, the only aircraft carrier in the fleet commanded by Fletcher, was injured. Just as he was about to leave the battlefield, a Japanese submarine jumped out of nowhere and directly destroyed the Yorktown.
The number was hit by water and it sank.
That's all, but in this naval battle, the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier of Task Force 17 was damaged again, two cruisers were sunk, and one cruiser was injured. After such a series of results, the top brass of the U.S. Navy were almost
Fletcher was scared to death.
In their opinion, Fletcher's luck was so weird that he couldn't get along with an aircraft carrier.
You must know that the current national navy is still relatively weak. There are only a few aircraft carriers in the Pacific Fleet. How can it withstand Fletcher's continuous harm?
As a result, the commander of the U.S. Navy, Admiral Ernest King, issued a transfer order, and Major General Fletcher was transferred back to the country, and Spruance took over his post. This distinguished general could only embark on the journey sadly.