Iron Cross

Seeing the Japanese bombers swooping down from the sky, McCain finally stopped being silent and ordered all the surrounding warships to fire full anti-aircraft fire. Halsey jumped to the side and shouted: "Hit! Hit! Hit me hard!"

The wish was very good, but the effect was really unsatisfactory - even if the visibility was good during the day, I didn't dare to say that I would be able to knock down the plane. The visibility at night was so bad that the sailors just fired blindly based on their feelings to embolden themselves. As the Japanese army continued to drop illumination bombs, the dazzling When the white light stimulated the sailors' pupils to shrink, Meteor Gai had already pounced down.

There were several loud "bangs", and the entire bridge felt violent vibrations. Halsey closed his eyes in pain - the Franklin was over!

"Hurry up and put out the fire!" McCain shouted, "There are not many enemy planes. As long as the speed does not slow down, we still have a chance to escape!"

During the emergency escape moment just now, McCain decisively ordered all aircraft and flammable objects on the deck to be pushed into the sea. He originally wanted to clean the hangar, but it was too late. Secondly, in case he escaped at night, Wouldn't it be embarrassing for the Franklin without aircraft protection tomorrow morning? In the end, I kept it with a sense of luck.

It is a pity that the Essex class is not an armored aircraft carrier like Taiho. The 400 kilogram bomb penetrated the deck without any hindrance and caused a fire. Fortunately, careful preparation and protection were carried out in advance. The fire was not too big, less than 3 It was extinguished within minutes. But these three minutes were deadly enough. 12 Meteors swooped down to attack the most eye-catching torch. Except for one that was shot down, all the other planes dropped bombs, despite the captain of the USS Franklin using his most skillful maneuvers. Technology, a total of 7 bombs were hit before and after.

The entire superstructure was blown to pieces, the elevators and hangars were all destroyed, and the fire that had just been extinguished instantly ignited again. In addition, officers and soldiers suffered numerous casualties from the flying shrapnel, which greatly affected the damage control effect. Even if efforts were made to put out the fire, These flames are still unavoidable.

"Very good! Mr. Murata, I will leave this big torch to you." Mizuo Fuchida is satisfied with the result. Many combat experiences have shown that a 400 kilogram bomb cannot destroy the Essex class, but setting it on fire is victory. , just leave the rest of the work to the lightning strike machine...

Murata Shigeharu did not take action directly, but observed first. The fire on the Franklin not only illuminated itself clearly, but also illuminated the outlines of surrounding warships. Murata Shigeharu judged that the opponent was a cruiser on the port side and a battleship on the starboard side. , and ordered to start from the port side first.

"Team 1! Attack!" The four Meteors flew to a distance of less than 1,800 meters and released torpedoes in a fan-shaped pattern. Now the U.S. military's anti-aircraft firepower is still calling the sky, and Mitsuo Fuchida is even leading the fighters. A flare was placed on the ground to attract sight, and successfully covered the lightning strike team's intrusion.

"Boom" and "Boom" two water columns rose into the sky. The Cleveland-class air defense cruiser was unable to withstand the power of the torpedoes and sank in less than 1 minute. Now the Franklin's left wing was completely exposed.

"Torpedoes! Torpedo planes! Torpedo planes!" U.S. officers and soldiers shouted as if they were waking up from a dream. Unfortunately, the USS Franklin's anti-aircraft firepower was almost destroyed. Even if it came back to its senses, it would be of no use. Only two Fletcher-class destroyers fought hard. They rushed over, trying to cover the flagship with their small bodies.

Witnessing this scene, Murata Shigeharu shook his head subconsciously: The commander is right, the American soldiers were actually quite brave when fighting, but the method was wrong. Don't they know that destroyers can't stop torpedoes at all? Even if the route happens to be blocked, the torpedo will pass under the destroyer due to the fixed depth. In order to hit the US battleship this time, the Japanese torpedoes generally have a fixed depth of more than 6 meters.

Although the aviation torpedoes of Japan and Germany are more powerful and reliable than those of the United States, they are not as good as those of the US military. The MK13 torpedo commonly used by the latter can adjust the fixed depth midway, while the Japanese and German torpedoes can only fix the depth when loaded. But then again, adjusting the depth is actually of little use. Nowadays, Japan and Germany are generally equipped with Meteor modifications that integrate dive bombing/thunder strike. The torpedoes are suitable for dealing with battleships of more than 25,000 tons. For other targets, 400kg bombs can basically be used. To ensure destruction, there is no need to use torpedoes with a very shallow depth to hit light warships. That is a waste - one torpedo is more expensive than 8 bombs!

Murata Shigeharu ordered six torpedo planes to attack, and he and another wingman stayed behind. He had other considerations about this - if the six planes could severely damage the Essex-class ship, he would be ready to attack the battleship on the starboard side. ——Alabama, if he couldn't, he was prepared to make the final shot himself.

Six torpedoes flew towards the Franklin in the night. The chief engineer used his best ability and only avoided 4 of them. The other two were in the rear half. They could not be avoided no matter what. The violent explosion knocked the Franklin to its knees. A large opening of more than 5 meters wide was torn open on the port side, and turbulent seawater continued to pour in. The damage control personnel tried their best to control it, but the damage was too great, and the ship's hull tilted at a speed visible to the naked eye. In the violent explosion of the torpedo just now, everyone on the bridge was shaken to pieces.

Two minutes later, the uncontrollable captain told the bridge: "There is no way to save it, prepare to abandon the ship."

"William, let's go."

"I won't go, I won't go..." Halsey also fell down just now, and now she got up from the ground like a furious lion, "You go, let me stay, I have no shame to go back."

"No!" McCain raised his voice an octave, "You have to go! Ships can be built, but they will be gone if people die..."

"You take them away, I'll stay... I'll stay..."

"Okay, let's go." McCain called everyone to leave. The adjutant and the staff stared at Halsey, who refused to leave, and then looked at McCain, as if asking: "Are you really going to leave him here?"

At this time, the warship had tilted at a large angle, and everyone inevitably slid to the left. McCain was no exception. He rolled and crawled to Halsey and shouted: "Old man, look over there! It seems that there are our planes!"

Halsey was stunned when he heard this, and immediately looked in the direction he pointed. It was pitch black outside, where were the planes?

Before he turned his head in confusion, McCain had raised his right hand high and slashed Halsey's neck fiercely with a hand blade. The latter felt dizzy and fainted.

"What are you still standing there for? Why don't you drag him away?"

The adjutants and staff officers woke up as if from a dream, and hurriedly carried Halsey out of the bridge. Alas, only General McCain could deal with Halsey, who was as fierce as a bull.

McCain roared and told the others: "If he wakes up and dares to die, you can knock him out... If something happens, it's my fault!"

Everyone nodded repeatedly - what if the commander died, how would they explain themselves when they returned?

Just as the officers and soldiers of the Franklin retreated in a panic, Shigeharu Murata judged that the ship could no longer escape, so he pulled the plane to the starboard again and prepared to attack the Alabama.

At this time, everyone on the Alabama was focused on the port side. They watched the flagship Franklin being severely damaged and helpless. Suddenly, two torpedoes came from the starboard side. They were not discovered until about 400 meters away by several sailors operating anti-aircraft guns. They shouted "Starboard torpedo!" in horror, and quickly picked up the 20mm Oerlikon in their hands and shot desperately into the water!

With a "boom", they were lucky and hit one of them and detonated it, but Murata Shigeharu's torpedo could not avoid it anyway.

With a "boom", the starboard side of the Alabama was hit by a torpedo.

"What a pity!" Murata Shigeharu felt sorry that the wingman torpedo was detonated in advance. He knew that one torpedo could not sink the South Dakota class.

Fuchida Mitsuo was observing the battlefield dynamics. Seeing the Alabama rising up again, he cheered loudly. It was obvious that the ship was hit by a torpedo. Even if it couldn't sink the ship, it could at least severely damage the opponent and slow it down. At this time today, there were still the third, fourth, and fifth waves waiting to attack. The difference between damaging and slowing down and sinking was only a matter of time.

Besides, we had to leave some meat for the back. What would the back waves eat if we destroyed all the enemies?

While he was sighing, a fighter pilot suddenly asked through the headset: "Sir, this aircraft carrier seems to be the flagship of the US military. The escaped personnel are probably more important. Can we go down and strafe it?"

"Of course, you can do whatever you want..." Thinking of the fact that he was beaten by the US military and his two legs were broken when he was escaping from Midway Island, Fuchida Mitsuo gritted his teeth fiercely, "Fight to death, if they don't surrender, they are still enemies, don't pity them!"

Four fighters immediately swooped down happily and began to strafe the sea fiercely. A large number of US officers, soldiers, pilots, and staff who abandoned the ship to escape were ruthlessly killed, and the cold North Pacific water was instantly dyed red with blood. At this time, Halsey had woken up from his temporary coma. Seeing the Japanese planes wantonly strafing and killing the officers and soldiers who had no power to fight back, he was furious, his eyes were bloodshot, and he kept cursing. A fighter plane also saw Halsey and a group of people. Although he didn't know what was here, he subconsciously pulled the trigger, and two MG151 flints burst out. The machine gun didn't care how angry you were, and it would still shoot. After the "bang bang bang" sound, there were screams everywhere.

The scream of "Ah" was made by McCain. He was shot in the back and staggered into Halsey's arms. He struggled with his last breath and said to Halsey, "William... take... take the people back... and avenge... for me in the future!"

"John!" Everyone present heard Halsey's earth-shaking shout, but the shout could not save McCain's life.

At 20:58 on October 31, 1944, the commander of the TF50 fleet aircraft carrier, US Navy Vice Admiral John McCain, was unfortunately killed...