Battering Ram of the Sea

Chapter 28 - Dauntless Onslaught

During the time when the first and second attack groups were attacking the US mobile task force, the 1st Air Fleet was also under air raids by American carrier-based aircraft. In preparation for the enemy's approach, each of the four carriers in the 1st Air Fleet had two squadrons of Zeros, for a total of 72 planes, assigned to provide close air support.

Originally, the 1st Air Fleet command had no intention of leaving so many Zeros for close air support. However, due to the inability to replenish the lost D3A dive bombers and B5N carrier attack bombers from the Naval Battle of the Marshall Islands, they ended up loading as many Zeros as possible for Operation MO to make up for the shortage.

Each carrier had one squadron of Zeros assigned to deal with dive bombers and another squadron assigned to deal with torpedo bombers. During the Naval Battle of the Marshall Islands, many Zero pilots were distracted by enemy torpedo bombers and gathered at low altitudes, leaving themselves vulnerable to enemy dive bombers. As a result, the Akagi, Kaga, and Ryūjō were all sunk by the SBD Dauntless dive bombers. To avoid repeating the same mistake, they allocated specific targets for each squadron of Zeros to ensure a balanced defense. Additionally, they were not allowed to engage the enemy's fighter escorts unless it was absolutely necessary.

The first to engage the squadron of Zeros were the twenty-seven F4F Wildcat fighter planes that accompanied the dive and torpedo bomber squadrons as their escorts. Although the highly skilled and single-minded F4Fs managed to keep a substantial number of Zeros engaged, their success was limited. The remaining fifty or so Zeros split as planned, with some patrolling high altitudes and others patrolling low altitudes, targeting SBD and TBD Devastator torpedo bombers.

The TBDs had a particularly miserable fate. Out of 36 TBDs, 23 were pursued and shot down by Zero fighters. They were hit by 20 mm and 7,7 mm rounds and couldn't evade effectively due to their sluggish nature, especially while carrying heavy torpedoes. Apart from those that abandoned their torpedoes and fled, all TBDs were shot down by Zeros.

On the other hand, the SBDs, numbering 81 and being more numerous, couldn't be completely stopped by the Zeros. The Zeros did manage to successfully down some fifty SBDs, but over thirty managed to escape. The carriers Yorktown and Hornet, along with the surviving planes from the Enterprise bomber squadron, targeted the carriers one by one and initiated dive-bombing attacks.

The Shōkaku was targeted by a single Yorktown air group, comprising 11 planes. Deploying her AA guns, the Shōkaku attempted to evade the SBDs, which were closing in at a speed of 34 knots. However, she couldn't avoid all the bombs and was hit by three of them.

At the same time, the Sōryū, targeted by the Hornet air group, and Zuikaku, targeted by the Enterprise air group, were also releasing black smoke. Sōryū managed to evade all of the bombs dropped by the Hornet air group, but just as it seemed they would escape unscathed, the last SBD dropped a bomb that hit the machine gun nest at the bow of the ship. A 1.000-pound bomb exploded on the bow, blowing away the machine gun nest and raising the flight deck's leading edge. The Zuikaku, which was targeted by the 11 planes of the Enterprise, was hit by one bomb in the front and one in the rear of the flight deck. Like Shōkaku, it became impossible for aircraft to take off or land.

As three out of the four carriers were hit, Vice Admiral Nagumo decided that it was too risky to get closer to Port Moresby and ordered the fleet to turn back. On the other hand, Rear Admiral Yamaguchi, commander of the 2nd Carrier Division, proposed that they use the undamaged Hiryū to sink one of the remaining American carriers, but this plan was not accepted. This decision was due to the significant losses in D3A dive bombers and B5N carrier attack bombers, which left too few operational aircraft in undamaged or lightly damaged condition.

The American task force, with two out of its three carriers sunk, also retreated south, fearing pursuit by the Japanese. Thus, the battle later known as the Battle of the Coral Sea came to a close.