While the Federal Air Force's fighter jets were fighting with the U.S. bomber group, all 12 Federal Air Force AB-2 level bombers on Oahu were also ready to take off. They will compete with 30 Federal Navy SBT-4s.
The attack planes took off together and followed the radar
According to the guidance, you need to find the U.S. Navy aircraft carriers in the direction from which the U.S. aircraft came. Before them, four federal air force reconnaissance planes have flown to that sea area in advance. They are 70 kilometers apart and lined up, ready to seize
The American fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor.
At this time, Lieutenant General Mitchell was still on the bridge, but he was no longer on the bridge of the battleship "Washington", but on the bridge of the aircraft carrier "Essex", and there was no
Instead of sitting and drinking coffee, he stood in front of the porthole on the left, with a very serious expression, and the ravines on his already thin old face became more obvious.
A few minutes after the bomber group was attacked, the fleet received a message from one of the dive bombers. The old pilot only hesitated for less than a minute before issuing a message that all captains and pilots did not dare to
Believing the order, the fleet retreated in 2 batches!
Several captains expressed their objections, because as a result, the more than 200 U.S. Navy pilots and their planes would never be able to return to the deck. Although they were intercepted by the other side, some of the planes had already received warnings.
After starting the flight, as long as you wait for them for a few dozen minutes, you can rescue some of the pilots.
But Lieutenant General Mitchell is the commander of the fleet, and the orders he personally issued cannot be changed. Even if you are not satisfied, you can only comply with it. Of course, you can react to the top brass of the U.S. Navy afterwards or file a lawsuit directly with a military court.
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According to the lieutenant general's order, all escorting destroyers were divided into two waves, and each followed four aircraft carriers and two battleships to evacuate due south at high speed. All aircraft carriers must run at a speed of more than 27 knots, and the two battleships must also use
The top speed is 23 knots.
Lieutenant General Mitchell had his own reasons for this arrangement. According to the message sent by the bombers, they did not encounter federal fighter jets, but were ambushed by federal fighter jets. And more federal fighter jets were coming one after another. So this
This illustrates a problem. The fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor was discovered by the federal navy stationed in Hawaii.
As for how it was discovered, there are basically only two possibilities. One is that it was discovered by a federal submarine wandering nearby and reported to the federal army on the island in advance; the other is that the federal army installed equipment similar to that of the British and American troops on the island.
It is the same equipment as radar. And its performance is much higher than that of the radars currently equipped by the United Kingdom and the United States. Because it takes at least 30 minutes from the discovery of the bomber group to the fighter jets taking off to intercept, plus flying to the interception location. That is,
It is said that the other party's radar can see almost 150 kilometers away or even further.
Most captains believed that a federal submarine discovered the sneak attack fleet, but Lieutenant General Mitchell believed that it was because the federal army was equipped with more advanced radar. The general's reason was that only three people knew the fleet's route and date.
: Admiral Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral William Veitch Pratt, chief of command of the U.S. Navy, and himself, there is no possibility of leaking secrets.
The probability of discovering a fleet in the vast sea, and it is not near a regular route, is very low. What's more, the fleet has more than 10 destroyers equipped with submarine detectors, and there are multiple reconnaissance aircraft over the fleet at all times.
While circling, the fleet also maintained radio silence. Even if the federal submarine discovered the U.S. fleet, it could not notify the defenders of Hawaii Harbor because as long as it sent a message, the U.S. fleet's radio would find the approximate location of the message.
After ruling out the possibility of the fleet being discovered by a federal submarine, all that remains is the federal radar. Since this kind of radar can detect aircraft at such a long distance, the South China Sea Federation’s air force can easily determine the approximate take-off position of the American aircraft.
Therefore, Lieutenant General Mitchell believed that the federal aircraft might have already taken off and was approaching the US fleet.
Therefore, the U.S. fleet must retreat quickly to get out of the attack radius of federal shore-based aircraft, and then find a way to safely bring these four aircraft carriers back to the United States, because currently there are only these four mobile defense forces on the west coast of the United States.
If they have another problem, the west coast of the United States will really have no naval power at all.
Since Mitchell was a U.S. Navy pilot and participated in the test flights of many types of aircraft carriers, he was very familiar with the offense and defense of carrier-based aircraft. The main reason why he divided the fleet into two waves was to allow more
The warship can break away from the aircraft pursuit from Hawaii Island.
Generally speaking, when the first wave of fleets is discovered, offensive aircraft will definitely launch an attack, and other reconnaissance aircrafts will most likely search in directions where no trace of the fleet has been found, and the aircraft carrier formation running in front of the battleships will have
May not be discovered.
Although this puts the battleship in a very dangerous situation, after all, the battleship is thick-skinned and equipped with a large number of anti-aircraft guns, plus the protection of the surrounding destroyers. If there is not a sufficient number of bombs or torpedoes to hit its key parts, ordinary
The attack would at best cause some damage to the ship's superstructure, but would not affect its speed.
When Lieutenant General Mitchell's fleet was running due south at a speed of 30 knots for 33 minutes, the battleship formation, which was about 10 nautical miles behind the aircraft carrier formation, discovered a federal reconnaissance aircraft emerging from the clouds.
"I have been discovered!!!" The battleship formation immediately sent a telegram to the aircraft carrier formation, and changed the original staggered formation into a parallel air defense formation. More than 10 destroyers were behind them.
An air defense net was built around it.
Less than 10 minutes later, more than 10 SBT-4 attack aircraft were the first to arrive over the battleship. They were divided into two waves. One wave began to climb and prepared to dive for bombing, while the other wave lowered its altitude and prepared to use jumping bombs.
This way, attacking from two directions, one high and one low, can disperse the battle fleet's anti-aircraft firepower to the greatest extent.
At this time, the wind was blowing on the sea, and the sky was gradually getting darker. The sun that should have been hanging high in the southeast had only a white halo left. Two battleships on the sea were twisting their thick bodies and running.
Following a zigzag maneuvering course, the nearby American destroyers desperately released the smoke, trying to interfere with the sight of federal pilots.
With a heart-wrenching sound of motors, six SBT-4 attack aircraft dived from the sky toward the battleship "Washington" on the left side of the fleet, while the remaining seven attack aircraft braved American destroyers and destroyers from an altitude of more than 200 meters.
The battleship's gunfire fell on the "Mississippi" on the right side.
In the first round of attacks, federal aircraft achieved results. A 300-kilogram aerial bomb landed in the middle of the hull of the "Washington" and exploded. Some superstructures were blown up, and two lifeboats were thrown into the sea. It may also have caused damage.
There were some casualties, but no greater damage was caused.
The "Mississippi" was also attacked broadside by an aerial bomb, but the 500-kilogram aerial bomb only hit hard above the waterline of the battleship. Although the explosion was very violent, it even blew up the deck.
There are two secondary guns on it, but for a battleship with thick skin and thick armor, the damage is not fatal.
Two of the seven federal attack aircraft that took the risk to drop bombs at low altitude were hit by anti-aircraft fire and fell into the sea before they could complete the bomb drop. The remaining five all completed the bomb drop, but only one aerial bomb hit the target. The others
All the aerial bombs missed. As it passed over the battleship, another attack aircraft was hit by a cannonball and was directly broken into two pieces and carried into the sea water.
The dive attack aircraft all ran back into the air, waiting for the remaining four attack aircraft to climb to a high altitude together, and then turned around and returned to Hawaii.
The reason why low-flying attack aircraft receive greater damage is because these low-flying bombers are usually torpedo attack aircraft. A battleship would rather be hit by three aerial bombs on the deck than be hit by a torpedo on the side, because
Torpedoes all explode underwater. If they explode below the waterline where the armor is relatively weak, the battleship may be severely damaged. Especially once the speed slows down, it will really become a big target ship floating on the water.
