This desperate charge achieved positive results. A Japanese heavy cruiser withdrew from the battle after being hit by several torpedoes, disrupting the Japanese fleet's formation and hindering its progress. The effect of this move is not small. However, the Japanese heavy cruiser did not give up. It still stretched out like a giant shrimp claw and rushed towards Leyte Gulf to threaten the Chinese aircraft carrier. A column of smoke rose from the sea, dazzling and ever-changing under the blazing fire. The aircraft carrier, like the destroyer in the previous series, sailed on the sea where cannonballs were flying and water and smoke columns were everywhere. The sailors gritted their teeth and restrained themselves. They did not listen, see or think about the gunfire and smoke in front of them, and carried out their respective tasks mechanically. The 127mm guns on each aircraft carrier fired back at the Japanese. However, the shells hitting the Japanese battleships only produced a puff of smoke; hitting the turrets of the Japanese ships only turned into a ball of flying catkins, which dispersed in the wind in the blink of an eye.
The Japanese fleet's artillery fire was terrible, but the hit rate was not high. The Japanese gunners used radar to observe the impact point of the artillery shells. They were using radar for the first time or in the early stages. The Japanese military's radar was far less advanced than the Chinese radar, so the shooting rhythm could only be slowed down. Slow, firing once a minute, and the Japanese army used armor-piercing projectiles. One shot could easily penetrate the thin hull of the Chinese warship. However, low efficiency is also relative. The scene of the destruction of several escort aircraft carriers such as the "Guiyang", "Guilin" and "Yueyang" is shocking enough. The "Liuzhou" was sinking. It was paralyzed on the sea, spitting out thick smoke and fire, and was bombarded by heavy artillery one after another. The "Liuzhou" slowly tilted to the port side. I saw groups of soldiers huddled on the tilted deck. Some were throwing rafts into the sea, while others were sliding toward the sea along the ladders and safety nets on the side of the boat. A Japanese cruiser drove to a distance of less than 2,000 meters and fired continuously at the wreckage of the "Liuzhou". The "Liuzhou" finally capsized into the sea and disappeared. Only a group of brave Chinese sailors were left struggling on the sea.
However, the Chinese military aircraft were soon in the air from the beginning, but they only carried depth charges. The plane that took off for Leyte Gulf at dawn returned to the carrier, and all the planes that stayed on the carrier took off. It took a total of half an hour. The planes bucked the wind blowing from the side, and the aircraft carrier bumped and undulated under gunfire. The planes were gliding on the left and right sloping decks, and some were hit by artillery fire before they even left the aircraft carrier. In this emergency situation, there was only one order conveyed to the Chinese pilots, that is, do not focus on a wounded Japanese ship and pursue it fiercely, and do not try to sink a ship with all your strength. On the contrary, we should break them into parts and attack separately, harassing the Japanese like mosquitoes. This is the only smart way to play. Therefore, it can be said that in this battle, there will be no impact of the fleet, but individual aircraft operations. The only small team operation was the attack by six dive bombers of the "Yueyang". Each of these six aircraft is equipped with two 500 kilogram bombs. As a result, 9 bombs hit a Japanese cruiser. The cruiser immediately exploded and sank. Other aircraft dropped 100 kilogram bombs at low altitudes to perform harassment missions. This 100-kilogram bomb is difficult to destroy a super battleship like the "Yamato". But it can kill Japanese troops on the deck. To hinder Japanese shooting and prompt the Japanese ship to change direction, the fighter jets were tasked with strafing the Japanese ship's bridge and the ship's anti-aircraft gun emplacements. Planes flying back from Leyte Gulf also used rockets to assist in the battle. In the blink of an eye, there were more Chinese planes in the sky. But despite this, the war situation on the sea continues to worsen. The shrimp claws on the left are still approaching relentlessly. Colonel Liu Yong, who commanded the two aircraft carriers of the North Group, came up with a quick idea. He used a wireless phone to direct the aircraft that dropped the bombs to conduct a torpedo feint attack in order to delay the action of the Japanese heavy cruisers. The pilots followed orders. They were seen flying horizontally against the Japanese warships, flying lower and lower despite Japanese artillery fire, and then pulled up with a feint. The Japanese cruiser was so frightened that she quickly turned to avoid it. At this time, the Japanese destroyers launched an attack.
The Japanese destroyers are not as aggressive as the Chinese destroyers. Instead, they circled left and right, selected the position to launch the torpedoes, and launched a series of torpedoes at a distance of 9,000 meters. Because a destroyer attack is unobtrusive, it is also very dangerous. The battlefield of the naval battle is vast, with unpredictable clouds and rain, and filled with gunpowder smoke. People's attention is often focused on large battleships, but they are not very wary of the low destroyers that shuttle back and forth on the sea as soon as the war begins. The torpedo mark was spotted by a Chinese pilot. He dived down and exploded a torpedo with a rocket. After the aircraft carrier became alert, it immediately turned to avoid the torpedoes. The Japanese torpedo attack failed.
Although the Chinese military planes tried their best to harass the Japanese warships, they were like mosquitoes entangled with the Japanese warships. However, the Japanese fleet continued to tighten the encirclement. In the center, Japanese battleships were bursting into Leyte Gulf. On the right wing of the Japanese fleet, several light cruisers and destroyers were closely watching to prevent any Chinese ships trying to escape north from slipping between the Japanese fleet and the coast. The left wing is a large Claw consisting of heavy cruisers. The battle situation in front of us is nothing from a tactical or strategic point of view.?Hopefully. At this time, Yang Chengwu, who had been warned, had received the emergency news and sent all planes to help. The fleet led by Wu Qianlong was also heading north at full speed.
However, China is not at all confused. 10 minutes later, the Chinese aircraft carrier group began to switch from defense to offense. Of course, they were still sailing south, hoping to escape the Japanese artillery fire as soon as possible. However, it is not wrong to say that an offensive mentality emerged on the aircraft carrier at 9:30. Each ship worked together to make up for the losses caused by the large-caliber shells, and the aircraft prepared to land, refuel, load ammunition, and take off. At 9:35, the first fleet was dispatched. At 10:13 and 10:20, two more assault echelons were dispatched. Zhang Qifan immediately ordered three squadrons of Fu Renxuan's task force to go to the rescue. He personally led two super battleships "Fuxi" and "Chiyou" to break away from the aircraft carrier fleet and rush to rescue. Dozens of Chinese fighter jets search over the choppy ocean. A fleet of the aircraft carrier Ryutani discovered the Japanese: "2 Yamato-type battleships, 12 cruisers and 28 destroyers." At this time, there were already 532 fighters, 170 dive bombers and 278 torpedoes The plane took off. The weather is gloomy. It is not good for flying. The cloud height is 1,000 meters, the visibility is 5,000 to 8,000 meters, and there is heavy rain. Less than half an hour into the flight, the plane spotted its target.
The huge battleship discovered by the Chinese pilots was the "Yamato", a super battleship with a displacement of 160,000 tons and 12 510 mm cannons on the ship. This huge sea fortress is speeding forward. The anti-aircraft guns on the ship are firing densely and dazzlingly, but there are no escort aircraft. past. Before launching torpedoes, the fragile Chinese torpedo aircraft must first deal with a group of cunning "Gale" aircraft, and the hope of escape is only one percent. Today, this one percent hope of escape has become the fate of Japanese warships, even the behemoth "Yamato" is no exception.
Soon, the radar on the "Yamato" discovered the large aircraft formation of the Chinese army that was rapidly attacking. The observation post exclaimed: "More than 300 enemy aircraft are attacking me!" After hearing the news, all personnel on the ship immediately took action. . After a while, the Chinese attack aircraft group was guided by the reconnaissance aircraft. Emerged from the clouds and launched a direct attack on the Japanese fleet centered on the "Yamato". "Fire!" Yuga Yuki, the captain of the Yamato, ordered. More than 120 artillery pieces opened fire in the air. I saw the gunners on the "Yamato" cleverly weaving several tight fire nets with tracer bullets to separate the US attack aircraft from the Japanese ships. For a while, the Chinese aircraft were unable to break through this rare dense artillery fire.
"However, if you have control of the air, you will have control of the sea. No matter how heavy the cannon is, it cannot do anything to this irrefutable truth.
A heavy bomb exploded on the deck of the "Yamato". The Chinese fighter jets were flying at lightning speed, using machine guns to sweep the ship's anti-aircraft guns. The torpedo planes took advantage of the situation and fired consecutive torpedoes. Attack the hull. About 200 meters away from the "Yamato", two destroyers sank, and a cruiser was soon wrapped in smoke and stagnated at sea dying. The four destroyers circled around the "Yamato". The "Yamato", which had been arrogant just now, began to turn left and right on the sea, and the anti-aircraft guns on the ship were still firing. The Japanese sailors on the ship seemed to be on an iron island, and the roar of the guns made them feel as if they were plunged into deathly silence. The most horrific torture was strafing by Chinese fighter jets. The gleaming silver fighter jets were like fireballs, passing over the head, which made people feel scared. The Japanese gunners who persisted in shooting blindly performed mechanical movements learned in military training.
In the sky, Chinese aircraft circled around their prey calmly. The combat command clearly assigned attack tasks. The second echelon of fighters and dive bombers dived down, and the torpedo planes entered low altitude and advanced under the protection of the fighter group. The Japanese cruiser stranded at sea bore the brunt of the attack and was hit by 12 bombs and 8 torpedoes. It was blown to pieces. The crew was torn into pieces and scattered into the sky. They disappeared after falling. The Japanese destroyers were severely hit at the same time. Two of them sank immediately, and the other one was also blazing with fire. Looking down from the air, it looked like a candlestick set on the turbulent sea.
The Chinese Army¡¯s air flight commander, Naval Captain Shi Jiechen, immediately adopted the attack tactics of pretending and coordinating the attack. He sent a sneak attack group composed of more than 180 "Javelin" torpedo attack aircraft to the right rear direction of the "Yamato", and instructed to focus on using torpedoes to attack the ammunition magazine in the rear half of the Japanese ship. Then he ordered a fleet of nearly 100 "Javelin" and "Amazon" dive bombers to fly southward facing the sun, and then used the refraction of sunlight to dive and attack the Japanese fleet. The remaining 200 or so aircraft remained on the front to attract firepower from the Japanese warships, and waited for opportunities to attack the Japanese warships.
The Japanese special attack fleet, which had lost its air cover, could not stop the attacks of more than 500 Chinese aircraft with anti-aircraft fire alone. The time of Yamato's demise is not far away. More than 180 torpedo attack aircraft suddenly appeared behind the starboard side of the Japanese ship, and began to carry out torpedo attacks in turns in a formation of 10 aircraft.The generally shaped torpedo track made it impossible for the "Yamato" to escape the fate of being hit by several lightning strikes at the same time, no matter whether it moved forward, backward or stopped. The "Yamato" giant ship's starboard hull below the waterline was first hit by six torpedoes, and at the same time, five more torpedoes hit the starboard stern. With a loud bang, the ship was filled with tragedy and there were many casualties. According to the memory of Major Yoshimura who later survived, "I was ordered to go to the rear radar room to check the damage. When I ran to the rear deck in the diffuse white smoke, I saw the extremely hard and thick armor of the radar room. It was blown in half, and even the shadow of the upper half was gone. The inside was bloody and bloody, and there were corpses everywhere, some with intestines leaking out, and some with broken arms and legs. It was really horrible"
At the same time, dive bombers appeared one after another from the sunlight, and the anti-aircraft gunners on the Japanese ships were blinded by the sunlight. At this moment. One after another, heavy bombs fell like a violent storm. The front main turret of the "Yamato" was hit by dozens of bombs one after another, and the thick gun barrel was thrown into the sky. Soon, multiple bombs directly hit the "Yamato", and a fire suddenly ignited into the sky.
Just when the super battleship "Yamato" was attacked by Chinese aircraft in turn, more than 200 Chinese aircraft, which attracted the Japanese warship's firepower from the front, took the opportunity to break through the Japanese warship's fire net and attacked the "Yamato" directly from the front. Multiple bombs blew off the main mast at once, four torpedoes hit the port side of the giant battleship, and two other torpedoes hit its starboard side. I saw bombs dropped by Chinese military aircraft volleying down from the sky. This forced the huge battleship to circle in the sea. But the giant ship "Yamato" is big and fat, and the hull is bulky. It is simply difficult to withstand such an attack.
More than 100 Chinese bombers taking off from the escort aircraft carrier launched another attack on the "Yamato". The Chinese aircraft that passed through the ferocious anti-aircraft fire dropped bombs on the "Yamato". 14 of the bombs landed near the starboard side, raising water columns hundreds of feet high. Black smoke enveloped the super battleship, and the bow of the ship was damaged by shrapnel. Below the line is submerged in sea water. Another four bombs weighing 60 kilograms hit the top of the No. 2 main turret, but were bounced back by the 500 mm thick armor on the turret. These bombs did not cause any damage to the "Yamato", but less than 2 minutes after the bomber flew over, the torpedoes dropped by the 10 "Amako" torpedo planes that flew in immediately trailed towards the starboard side of the "Yamato" , and all collided with this super battleship that had no time to evade. Huge explosions occurred one after another. The vibration caused by the explosion caused the main azimuth plate in front of the main gun to malfunction and fail to rotate. The failure of this aiming device prevented the "Yamato"'s 12 510mm main guns from using the powerful Type 3 anti-aircraft shells to fire simultaneously at the incoming Chinese aircraft. More importantly, it hit Captain Ariga's world The largest naval gun in the world bombarded Chinese ships with confidence. The captain whose pride was hurt did not forget to ask the shipbuilding department in his suicide note to improve the protection of the main gun main azimuth plate until his death.
But when the torpedo hit, Ariga, who was standing at the air defense command post, obviously did not have that much time to consider this issue, because 16 more torpedo planes and 16 bombers launched attacks almost simultaneously. Six torpedoes hit the port side, and four bombs dropped by Chinese bombers hit the front deck and port engine room area. The first bomb penetrated the front deck and penetrated the port side hull. The second bomb penetrated from the left front of the No. 4 anti-aircraft gun on the port side to the 10th crew room on the middle deck before exploding, causing a fire that spread to the second machine room. The port engine room filled with steam, forcing the crew to leave, and six of the battleship's 24 axes stalled. Although the Japanese ship's anti-aircraft gunners fired wildly. However, their inaccurate shooting has little effect on the well-protected Chinese carrier-based aircraft, let alone effectively prevents their attacks. After finally getting through the American planes that had dropped their bombs, they flew away from the fleet. Ariga hurriedly learned about the damage to his warships.
After being hit by multiple aerial torpedoes, the battleship "Yamato" tilted 5 degrees to the left, and the second hydraulic chamber was flooded. Although the trim was not obvious, the bow of the ship had also been flooded with 1 meter of water - this was mainly caused by those who penetrated the ship. Caused by a bomb that broke out of the hull of the ship's bow.
After using the reverse injection method in accordance with Ariga's order to flood some of the starboard compartments with seawater, the battleship "Yamato" was righted to a left tilt of 1 degree. At the same time, due to the increase in the rotation speed of other main shafts, the speed of the severely damaged "Yamato" was actually maintained at 22 knots. It seems that the title of "unsinkable" is not entirely in vain. But the good times did not last long. Because the bow steel plate penetrated by the bomb rolled outwards, increasing the resistance, the battleship "Yamato" gradually fell behind the fleet. This made the ship the primary target in the second round of attacks by the Chinese army.
The second round of attacks began at approximately 12:07. No less than 200 Chinese fighter jets and bombers pounced on the "Yamato". Near-miss shrapnel killed and wounded the gunners on the deck. Four torpedoes hit the No. 60 rib on the starboard side, flooding some cabins and increasing the trim of the ship's bow to 1.8 meters. Hundreds of anti-aircraft guns poured a large number of shells into the sky, but still did not shoot down many Chinese aircraft. Some desperate gunners even shouted, many of them did notAfter breakfast, the fierce battle forced them to lose lunch time, and their physical strength was exhausted very quickly. However, the fierce anti-aircraft fire seemed to have had a certain impact on the 120 Chinese torpedo planes and dive bombers that launched the attack at 12:23.
ps: But it is said that Zhang Xun, the commander-in-chief, invaded Nanjing and appointed himself governor of the capital. After hearing the news about the people's demonstration in Jinling, they claimed that the military and political affairs should be separated and the governor of Beijing should be elected by the people. The commander-in-chief said angrily: "Talking about democracy, trampling on national laws, marching without approval, and seeking death for the people!" He personally led his troops to suppress them. But when he saw banners all over the street saying "Denouncing the traitors and traitors", the commander-in-chief twisted his braid and said with a smile: "The Republic of China was founded at the beginning of the Republic. Freedom of parade is enshrined in the constitution, and it is a true democratic atmosphere." Then he stopped and ignored them.