That Time When I Was Suddenly Reincarnated in a Fleet Battle

Chapter 79 - A6M Model 54

The figure of the enemy mobile fleet located furthest south appeared in the eyes of Lieutenant Commander Murata, the commander of the second attack group which launched from the aircraft carrier Akagi. Their objective was the destruction of the three enemy carrier fleets. The allocation of the attack squads had already been completed. The carrier group located furthest north is attacked by Force A, the central group is jointly attacked by Forces B and C, and their own Force D attacks the one located furthest south. Force A consists of 24 Zero fighters equipped with 250 kg bombs and 72 Tenzan equipped with aerial torpedoes. Combining Forces B and C, there are 72 Zero fighters and 102 Tenzan. Their own Force D has 36 Zero fighters and 60 Tenzan.

Among these, the central carrier group is undoubtedly expected to be annihilated by Forces B and C. More than 100 torpedo bombers against four large carriers are a sufficient number. The problem lies with Forces A and D. Both groups are launching attacks on mobile fleets, each consisting of two Essex-class and Independence-class carriers. Whether they can sink all four at once is questionable. Their own group with fewer Tenzan torpedo bombers is particularly challenging. Perhaps they should focus their attack on the Essex-class carriers. Murata's hesitation was only for a brief moment.

"Fighter squadrons, target cruisers and destroyers by sections. Target selection is delegated to the fighter squadron leader, but be careful not to overlap targets among each squadron. Regarding the torpedo bomber squadrons, Hiryū squadron, target the large carrier on the left front, Sōryū squadron, target the same type of large carrier on the right front. Akagi first and second squadrons, target small carriers on the left rear, and the third and fourth squadrons target small carriers on the right rear. All units, attack!"

As soon as Murata spoke, 36 Zeros split into four groups of four and attacked the cruisers and destroyers guarding the outer perimeter of the circular formation. Unlike the D3As and D4Ys, the Zero fighters, without dive bombing capabilities, smoothly passed over the enemy ships at a gentle angle, releasing the 250 kg bomb they carried on their bellies. Compared to dive bombing, which requires pulling up after the attack, the high-speed overflight of the target in shallow dive-bombing allows minimal reaction time for anti-aircraft fire from the targeted enemy ship, making it difficult to shoot down.

On the other hand, the 250 kg bomb dropped by the Zero fighters is insufficient against large ships such as battleships and carriers, but it proves highly effective against lightly armored cruisers and almost defenseless destroyers. Especially for thinly armored destroyers, even near misses can be fatal. Out of the 36 bombs dropped by the planes, excluding the two shot down before the drop, only six hit directly. The less than 20% accuracy rate is a dismal result compared to the accuracy of dive bombing by the D3As in the past. However, on the flip side, only three aircraft were ultimately shot down, and the less than 10% shoot-down rate was considerably better compared to the loss rate of the D3As.

The fact that the damage was limited to this extent, even with the use of VT fuzes by the Americans, was largely due to the bulletproof equipment of the Zero Model 54. In reality, many planes were hit, even though they were not shot down. If this had been the same Zero but with a weaker defense like the Model 21 or Model 32 that conducted the shallow dive bombing, the damage would have been much worse. Despite the fact that only six direct hits were achieved, the underwater explosion power of the 250 kg bomb is not small. Thanks to that power, and perhaps due to the thinness of the ship's hull, there should be quite a few cases where it became an effective near miss.

In the end, the three cruisers and four destroyers that were hit directly by the shells erupted in thick smoke, and three destroyers that suffered cracks and holes below the waterline from the near misses of the 250 kg bombs lost their ability to maneuver. The supposedly solid circular formation, however, easily crumbled under the gentle dive-bombing of the Zero squadron. Amidst the smoke-emitting cruisers and destroyers, the 60 Tenzan torpedo bombers approached urgently, transitioning to an assault formation, ready to deliver the decisive torpedoes to the four carriers.