Iron Cross

At 8:29, just over ten minutes after the second attack wave of TF16\\17 broke contact with the Japanese bombardment fleet, the third attack wave was ready to take off. This attack was led by Captain James Foss. Although there were only 46 aircraft in this wave, not only were the number small but many pilots were exhausted, they were still inspired by the encounters of the TF64 formation and the previous two attack waves. Their morale reached a peak and they were ready to continue the attack in the style of hyenas against lions. Although the power of each attack was very limited, it was continuous, causing the opponent to bleed continuously. Now it was blowing northeast wind, but the wind speed was less than 5 knots. If the fleet wanted to release the aircraft, it had to go against the wind at a speed of at least 16 knots, which meant that the distance from the Japanese bombardment fleet was further reduced. However, Kinkaid had already hit the real fire at this time. He not only ordered the fleet to move quickly to the northeast to shorten the attack distance, but also prepared to take the risk of reducing the fleet escort fighters again to strengthen the attack force. When the third attack wave set off, the two aircraft carriers were ready to receive the return of the second attack wave and intended to use this as an opportunity to launch the fourth attack.

At the same time, the mobile fleet, which had launched all the attack aircraft, was heading west. Ryunosuke Kusaka, the chief of staff of the fleet, who was sitting in the command tower of the Shokaku and anxiously waiting for the results of the battle, suddenly received an emergency telegram from Hiyo. He was shocked when he read it.

"Hiyo..." He told Tsukahara 243 with a heavy breath, "Hiyo's engine has a problem again."

"What?" Tsukahara 243 was also shocked. Before the battle started, an aircraft carrier had a problem. This was really not a good sign. He asked anxiously, "Why? Can it be repaired?"

"It may be because the engine was damaged again when the carrier-based aircraft was launched against the wind just now." Ryunosuke Kusaka guessed the reason. "It had a problem before it came out. I thought he could at least barely deal with it after launching the carrier-based aircraft. I didn't expect it to be so disappointing. Now the speed of the whole ship is only 6 knots. There is no hope of repair. I am afraid it will be recovered. The fleet is a big trouble."

"Let the other four aircraft carriers be responsible for recovering his planes." Tsukahara looked at the sea chart, "Let Hiyo return to Truk immediately and send a destroyer to accompany him."

"Yes."

"Let's go now, turn directly north, and drive as fast as we can." Tsukahara Jishisan said, "The fleet will still hide in the direction of Rabaul as planned..."

"But..." Kusaka Ryunosuke instantly understood the other party's idea: this is to use Hiyo as bait to mislead possible American aircraft. Although reason told him that this approach was right, it was still difficult for him to accept this order rationally.

"The poisonous snake bites the wrist, the warrior cuts off the arm..." Tsukahara Jishisan smiled bitterly and patted the empty sleeve on his left side, "The Hiyo may be this arm." Kusaka Ryunosuke finally had no choice but to agree, sent a telegram to ask Hiyo to evacuate, and arranged for the nearest destroyer Yukikaze to escort it all the way.

At 8:49, TF16\\17 adjusted its route to receive the second attack wave during the flight of the mobile fleet carrier-based aircraft formation. At present, the entire fleet has not found the Americans, but other changes have occurred at this time.

"Oh my God... what is that?" Captain Locke was a member of the B-17 bomber group that received Halsey's order this morning to take off from Vanuatu to bomb the Japanese "landing fleet" and the "Japanese landing site" on Guadalcanal. Although he is an experienced pilot, he has just been transferred from China to the Pacific front and is not familiar with the terrain of Guadalcanal. Just now, due to the air flow and cumulonimbus clouds, he was separated from the fleet and flew a long way on a deviated route. He didn't realize it until he found that he had missed the target position long ago and flew more than 100 nautical miles beyond the scheduled target location. Just as he tried to correct the course, because the B-17 had a large turning radius and a slow speed, he suddenly caught a glimpse of the target on the sea in the distance - it was a large ship, and there was a small boat next to it, moving very slowly, but there was no sign of fire or damage. More importantly, the size and characteristics of the ship completely matched what the American reconnaissance plane had been looking for - an aircraft carrier!

"Aircraft carrier... That's an aircraft carrier... A Japanese aircraft carrier!" The co-pilot on the same plane had seen the huge Asahi Maru on the deck through a telescope.

"How could they be here? Didn't General Halsey ask us to deal with the landing fleet? How could there be an aircraft carrier? I remember there was no such item in the situation report..." Locke asked curiously.

"This..." The co-pilot spread his hands, "Who knows?"

"I don't know either, or should we ask first?" Locke adjusted the course and stared at the aircraft carrier below, while asking the communications officer to send a telegram to the captain to ask. The result of the inquiry shocked him. Not only did the captain attach great importance to it, but even Halsey, who was far behind, was alarmed.

At this moment, Mikawa Gunichi and Momotake Harukichi, who were leading the 8th Fleet and the Army to retreat west of Guadalcanal, were pale. Due to the drag of a group of slow transport ships, they ran for most of the morning before running more than 50 nautical miles west. The first American dive bomber came, and the Fuso and Yamashiro were hit by several bombs. Although not fatal, the situation was very bad. The situation was even worse this time. More than 20 B-17s appeared in the air. In the previous attack, even though the fleet tried its best to resist, the bombs dropped by 7 B-17s still hit the Fuso mercilessly. This old ship, which had been built for nearly 30 years, finally came to the end of its life. It tilted to the left first and then slowly sank. It seemed that the B-17s meant to wipe out the entire fleet before giving up. Mikawa Gunichi did not dare to disband the formation and run separately, which meant that the transport ship the army was on was completely finished. Although the army and navy often had great contradictions, this matter could not be joked about. If it got out of hand, he might not be able to keep his position as the fleet commander.

But what surprised them inexplicably and was even stranger than fiction actually happened: the remaining B-17s that had not dropped their bombs suddenly flew north in a hurry. The two men were puzzled and finally agreed that it was the appearance of "Amaterasu". They ordered the destroyers to rescue the Fuso crew members who fell into the water and took advantage of the Americans' confusion to escape.

The B-17s were certainly not stupid. They received Halsey's order forwarded by the captain - search and destroy the Japanese aircraft carriers first, and then deal with the so-called landing fleet. They quickly found the Eagle according to the direction indicated by Locke. Because they did not believe that the Japanese only had such an aircraft carrier, they continued to search around, but found nothing, so they could only turn back to deal with the Eagle. The poor Eagle's power system was damaged, and the maximum speed was only 6 knots. It could not even make a decent evasive move. It was completely meat on the chopping board and was at the mercy of others. Under the rampage of more than 20 B-17s, the Eagle was soon hit by three bombs, and three large holes were blown into the flight deck, exposing the hangar below. Due to the efficient fire-fighting facilities and the desperate rescue of the damage control personnel, and the fact that the Eagle had released all its carrier-based aircraft, it did not follow the footsteps of its predecessors at Midway Island and exploded. It was still floating on the sea and moving forward tenaciously at a speed of nearly 5 knots. However, at this time, it had completely lost its ability to take off and land aircraft, and its radio communications were almost paralyzed, basically equivalent to a "living dead".

The nearby Yukikaze jumped around in the hail of bullets, and only received a near miss, without even a scratch on the oil skin. This situation was of course a perfect irony for the violent and aesthetic B-17s. They had originally wanted to keep some bombs to deal with the landing fleet just now, but now they had to throw them all down. In the next 5 minutes, the Eagle was hit by 5 bombs one after another. Under such a degree of destruction, the Eagle, which was originally a light aircraft carrier converted from a mail ship, finally couldn't stand it, and broke into two sections in the middle and began to sink. The lucky Yukikaze was still unscathed, and rescued the crew members who fell into the water after the B-17s withdrew, and then returned to Truk first according to Tsukahara Jishizo's order.

When Kinkaid received the news that the B-17s had found Japanese aircraft carriers in the northwest waters of Guadalcanal, he finally reacted to the entire battle. The Japanese aircraft carriers were not behind the bombardment fleet at all. The reconnaissance planes he sent out to search were all in vain. The bombardment fleet was advancing so frantically to attract his attention and lure him to put all his forces on them to create opportunities for the Japanese aircraft carriers. As for the Zero fighters covering the battleships, they were probably land-based aircraft from nearby islands. This is why the Japanese fleet desperately wanted to bomb the Guadalcanal airport - just to prevent the Americans from using land-based aircraft. He took all the factors into consideration and came to an astonishing conclusion: the Japanese target from beginning to end was not Guadalcanal, but their own aircraft carrier force. This conclusion is basically close to the fact, but unfortunately - it's too late!

At 9:00, 3 minutes short, 264 Japanese mobile fleet carrier-based aircraft that found their target fiercely rushed towards the US aircraft carrier force. Rear Admiral George Murray commanded TF17 to form an anti-aircraft wheel formation with the Hornet as the core, surrounded by 2 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 6 destroyers. TF16 was 10 nautical miles northwest of TF17. Kinkaid commanded the Enterprise to enter the rain area under the protection of the battleship South Dakota to avoid air raids. Although the 20 escort aircraft over the fleet tried their best to block it, and although the fleet displayed the most intense anti-aircraft firepower, it was obviously not enough to change the 1:13 aircraft number disadvantage.

Since the Enterprise hid in the rain area, the first target of the Japanese carrier-based aircraft was TF16 where the Hornet was located. At 9:00, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese First Attack Team, Shigeharu Murata, issued an order on the radio-"All-army assault!"