Hit by an air raid
At this time, Ozawa's fleet was sailing north-northwest. At 6 a.m. on the morning of the 25th, his team joined the Matsuda detachment at 18 degrees 39 minutes north latitude and 126 degrees 18 minutes east longitude. Ozawa sent the "Sugi" and "Kiri" to rescue the pilot who had fallen into the water, and due to the latter's lack of fuel, after completing the mission, the two ships left the mobile force sequence and headed for Kaohsiung Harbor. Subsequently, the fleet was divided into two groups, the front and rear, and Ozawa's main team included the aircraft carriers "Zuizuru" and "Zuiho", the aviation battleship "Ise", the light cruiser "Oyodo", and the destroyers "Akizuki", "Hatsuki", "Wakatsuki", and "San";The Matsuda detachment included the aircraft carriers "Chitose" and "Chiyoda", the aviation battleships "Hyuga", the light cruisers "Tama", "Isuzu", and the destroyers "Suzuki" and "Maki";Advance in an anti-aircraft alert formation.
At 6:13, in order to avoid unnecessary losses, Ozawa let the only remaining five fighter-bombers, three torpedo attack planes, and one dive bomber on the four aircraft carriers leave the aircraft carriers and fly to the air base on Luzon Island to take refuge. At 7:12, the "Hyuga" reported that three US carrier-based aircraft had been spotted in the southeast direction. Two more were found after 4 minutes. At 7:14, the two aviation warships accelerated to a maximum speed of 22 knots and prepared for air combat. At 7:29 a.m., the radar control officer on the "Zuihe" discovered that a large number of US planes were approaching in the 260-degree direction of the radar screen, and immediately reported to the bridge.
At 8 o'clock, the mobile unit dispatched the last 18 fighters to protect itself. Subsequently, the whole force accelerated to 24 knots and tried to flee as best they could. Eight minutes later, the American plane entered the horizon, and they divided into two teams, one to attack the Matsuda detachment and the other to attack the home team. The US planes adopted a standard attack mode -- SB2C dive bombers dropped 454 kg and 250 kg bombs on their heads, and then the fighters strafed and suppressed them with cannons, while the TBF torpedo planes spread out in formation, outflanked the wings, and dropped torpedoes.
The fighters that took off from the mobile fleet hardly hindered the US planes, almost most of them were shot down, and the entire airspace was completely controlled by the US planes. The numerous antiaircraft guns installed on the ships fired intensively with heavy firepower, posing a certain threat to the US organization. However, the US plane still managed to break through the fire net, and Ozawa's flagship "Zuizuru" was hit by three bombs on the port side first. The bomb that hit at 8:35 a.m. penetrated three decks in the boiler room**, damaged steam lines, and caused partial damage to Hangar No. 2 and extensive damage to the area around Defense Command Post No. 2, Internal Affairs Section, and Office. She was then hit by a torpedo in the 4th generator compartment aft port side, and the engine room was flooded in several places, with a total of about 2,000 tons, causing the hull to tilt to the left by 295 degrees, the rear sinks, and at the same time the servo is damaged, and it can only be steered by manpower, and the speed is only 18 knots. The damage management personnel immediately urgently filled the starboard compartment with water, and the tilt was gradually corrected by 95 degrees. But at 8:50 a.m., the ship lost its communication capability again (there was no difference between the long-range transmitter that was always broken at critical moments and not), which was a fatal blow to the flagship.
In this wave of attacks, there was also a close bomb dropped on the port side of the "Ruifeng", and the rear of the flight deck ** was directly hit by a bomb, and black smoke rose straight up. The destroyer "Autumn Moon" was hit by a bomb in the middle of its hull, and after that, the hull was actually broken into two pieces and sank at 8:56.
The losses of the Matsuda detachment were not light, the front of the port side and the flight deck of the "Chitose" aircraft carrier were hit by 7 bombs, some of which penetrated into the inside of the hull, in addition to a number of close bombs fell around the hull, in a very short period of time, a large number of water entered the hull, the engine stopped, and the horizontal tilt reached 30 degrees, and only manpower could be steered. At 9:37, the "Chitose" capsized, and 468 people under the captain of the ship, Yoshiyuki Kishiyoshi (the 47th Naval Academy), were killed.
At the beginning of the air raid, Ozawa sent a telegram from the "Zuizuru" to Vice Admiral Kurita, "The enemy mobile fleet has been successfully lured by us, and is now attacking our department with all its might." Of course, Kurita still did not receive this telegram, and this incident was a decisive turning point in the entire Leyte Gulf naval battle -- if Kurita received this telegram, he would inevitably go south with confidence, smoothly destroy the US landing fleet, and achieve the predetermined goal of the "Jet-1" combat plan.
The second wave of air strikes
After the attack by the US planes, Ozawa dispatched the destroyer "Frost Moon" to rescue the sailors of the "Chitose". At 8:53 a.m., Ozawa ordered a flag to notify the "Oyodo" Light Patrol Temporary Flagship to conduct radio communications to Tokyo. At 9:44, Ozawa ordered the flagship to be changed to the "Oyodo", and the "Oyodo", which had already fled north, approached the "Zuizuru". At the same time, the rescue of the "Zuihe" continued, and at 9:50, the ammunition from the aft ammunition depot was transferred to starboard to balance the left lean. However, the "Frost Moon" abandoned the officers and men of the "Chitose" who had fallen overboard because they discovered the approaching US surface fleet at 9:42 (in fact, this was a false alarm, which also shows how nervous the Japanese army was at that time).
However, the second wave of the US attack also arrived quickly, and at 9:53 the only remaining fighter jets in the air engaged in an air battle with the US planes, and five minutes later anti-aircraft fire also began to fire. This batch of US planes was an attack group consisting of 14 fighters, 6 dive bombers, and 16 torpedo attack planes sent by Vice Admiral Mitchell from the 1st Aircraft Carrier Group at 8:30 a.m. They concentrated on attacking the Chiyoda aircraft carrier of the Matsuda team, and one bomb hit its port side stern directly, and several close bombs were missed. The bomb that hit it directly caused a fire on the "Chiyoda", the hull tilted 13 degrees to the right, and by 11:15 it was completely incapacitated. The "Hyuga" air battleship and the destroyer "Maki" approached and escorted him. The sailors of the "Chiyoda" fought hard to put out the fire and finally extinguished the fire on the ship at 11:55, but due to damage to the power equipment, ** was still unable to move. At 12 o'clock, the "Chiyoda" sent a signal to inform the "Isuzu" that it could not sail, so Rear Admiral Matsuda planned to have the "Isuzu" light cruiser tow it back to Nakajo Bay, with the destroyer "Maki" acting as cover. However, at 12:48, just 3 minutes after the order was issued, US planes appeared in the air again, so this plan was temporarily canceled, and the two ** ships retreated to the north.
The "Isuzu," which was rescuing the officers and men of the "Chitose," was also harassed by US planes, and it voluntarily participated in the rescue because it passed by the sinking site of the "Chitose." As soon as it picked up more than 300 people, it had to temporarily suspend the rescue at 11:20 a.m., retreat to avoid the US plane, and return 20 minutes later to carry out the rescue again. In order to evade the planes, it is necessary to sail at high speeds, while rescue activities require low or even slight speeds, so under the interference of the US planes, many officers and men are floating on the surface and waiting. They sang "Morning Prayer" together, which left a deep impression on many people on the rescue**. In the first wave of air raids, the light cruiser "Tama", which was hit by mines, was rescued by the ship's damage management personnel, and its speed was restored to 13 knots. Since the injuries were not minor and it was difficult to follow the fleet, at 11:50 a.m., Ozawa reluctantly let it break away from the mobile fleet sequence and return to Nakajo Bay alone.
At 9:54 a.m. after the attack by the US plane, Ozawa on the "Zuizuru" ordered the "Oyodo" to be informed in the language of the flag that the plan to take the "Oyodo" would be postponed for the time being, and that it would be implemented after the US plane's air raid had passed. At 10:26, the "Ruihe" completely lost momentum and played the banner of "temporary floating". Since the aircraft was no longer able to be taken into account, the remnants of the fighters in the air made a forced landing directly on the sea surface, and the pilot was rescued by the "Oyodo" that rushed in. At 10:51, Ozawa officially changed the flagship to the "Oyodo", and he and his staff were transferred in a communication boat. Like General Fletcher of the U.S. Army in the Battle of Midway, they took advantage of the U.S. air raids to accomplish this move with trepidation.
The Great Rout
At 1 p.m., US planes launched two more waves of attacks, making more than 200 sorties. Because the interval between the US attack wave was only one hour, and the mobile troops had already stretched out and scattered because of the first two attacks.
Fifty or sixty nautical miles above the sea, so in the eyes of the Japanese there was basically no interval between the two attacks. At this time, there was no fighter cover over the mobile fleet, and there was only one side to organize anti-aircraft fire, and the other side tried to escape.
The focus of these two waves of surprise attacks by US planes was on aircraft carriers, and they swooped down completely ignoring the other ships that were injured. The "Zuihe" bore the brunt of the attack, and its first boiler room in the forward part of the port side, the forward motor room on the port side, the main steering engine room, the starboard torpedo adjustment station, and the first boiler room were hit one torpedo each, and four 250-kilogram bombs were hit in the rear of the flight deck. The crew members, who were still cheering for the downing of the American plane by the machine gun on the starboard rear just now, saw that the position of the machine gun was empty, and near the breach in the flight deck was a bloody corpse. The "Zuihe", which was overwounded, gradually tilted, and heavy oil gushed out of the damaged compartment, and soon the power of the whole ship was cut off. At 13:27, the inclination had reached 21 degrees, and the captain of the ship, Rear Admiral Takeo Bei Jiawu (46th Naval Academy), ordered all the crew to assemble on the deck. Three minutes later, the Emperor's "Imperial Countenance" was also transferred to the bridge. At 13:58, the tilt reached 23 degrees, and Kaizuka led the officers and men to hold a flag-lowering ceremony to officially announce the abandonment of the ship. At 14:14, the Japanese aircraft carrier, which had participated in all naval and air battles except the Battle of Midway, finally sank 260 nautical miles northeast of Cape Incano (sinking point 19 degrees 57 minutes north latitude, 126 degrees 34 minutes east longitude), and 843 people below the captain were killed.
Next was the light aircraft carrier "Zuifeng", which narrowly escaped the Battle of Santa Cruz and the Battle of the Marianas, and this time his luck also came to an end. He was torpedoed in the fore and aft parts of the starboard side, and four 60-kilogram bombs were hit on the flight deck and port side, which leaned 13 degrees to the right. Although the damage management personnel tried their best to save the people, the situation continued to deteriorate. At 13:50, there were only 6 knots left. At 15:10, the flag was lowered, and 16 minutes later, it disappeared into the sea.
In the face of the loss of the aircraft carrier, Ozawa was helpless, so he had to leave three destroyers, "Wakatsuki", "Hatsuki", and "San", to contain the personnel on the aircraft carrier, and he himself took one aviation warship and one light cruiser to retreat northward with all his might. The US planes, on the other hand, expanded their attack area, and the "Isuzu," which was covering the "Chiyoda," became a light patrol target. She had previously consulted Rear Admiral Matsuda, but due to the lack of fuel, she could not even be satisfied with driving back to Midtown Bay by herself, and if she still had to tow the "Chiyoda", she had to replenish fuel halfway. Now, however, the attack of the US aircraft has caused the front machine gun to be blown up, and the hydraulic system and electrical system to be damaged, the latter directly causing the rudder to malfunction, and it can only be steered by manpower. The destroyer Maki, which was intended to come directly to Chiyoda, was also damaged, the first boiler room, torpedo tube room, and one turret were damaged, and a fire broke out, killing 31 people and wounding 36 others. At 15 o'clock, the "Isuzu" reported to Matsuda that it was unable to complete the towing operation and that the US planes were attacking frequently, so it planned to retreat for the time being and come back to the rescue of the "Chiyoda" crew at night.
At 16 o'clock and 17 o'clock, two more waves of attacks by the US military flew in, concentrating on attacking two air warships. Due to the long period of fierce fighting, for example, the "Oyodo" had run out of grenades, so it had to use armor-piercing shells to design against the air. During the attack, one bomb was hit at the position of the catapult on the rear flight deck of the "Ise", killing and wounding about 50 people, and another 34 close shells caused minor damage. In addition, the "Hyuga" and "Oyodo" were fired at close range. The port side of the destroyer "Frost Moon" was hit by a fragment of a close projectile, causing a hole, a fuel leak, and the speed was reduced to 31 knots. The US plane even attacked "Shan" and "Tong", which had already returned to Kaohsiung further north. "Tong" was hit by two close bullets, and several people were killed by fragments. However, because the US pilots who made the sortie were already in their second or even third sortie that day, they were physically and mentally exhausted, so they were unable to expand the results of the battle.
At 4:47 p.m., Ozawa sent a telegram from the "Oyodo", informing the Combined Fleet and other friendly forces at sea that the battle to lure the enemy had ended. This telegram makes people feel that they have overturned the five-flavor bottle, and for such a broken fleet that has gone through hardships and has a bit of comedy, I don't know whether this ending should be happy or sad.
Sporadic resistance
Although the mission was over, whether the operation was over or not was not decided by a single telegram, and the bloodshed of Ozawa's fleet did not come to an end. Although Halsey led TG38 at noon2 and TG34 leave the battlefield and head south to rescue Kimkit, leaving only TG383 and tg384 is responsible for pursuing Ozawa, but the advantage of the US military is undoubtedly obvious. Ironically, this time it was Kurita who attracted the main force of the American army so that Ozawa could escape.
Mitchell sent Rear Admiral Dubose to lead 2 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, and 10 destroyers early in the day to form the TG303 pursued to the north. From a tactical point of view, Mitchell's decision was a bit risky, because although Ozawa's fleet suffered heavy losses, after all, there were still 2 aviation warships with 16 14-inch guns, and the 18 8-inch and 24 6-inch guns of the American cruisers were undoubtedly inferior in firepower.
At 16:10, the Dubos detachment first caught up with the light aircraft carrier "Chiyoda", which had lost power and was floating on the sea. At this time, the light cruiser "Isuzu" left behind by Rear Admiral Matsuda had not yet returned to look for the "Chiyoda," but the US ** team found it with the help of reconnaissance planes (the "Isuzu" actually went south alone at 17:47, and the "Maki" withdrew north due to lack of fuel). The officers and men of the "Chiyoda" had been waiting for the light ships to come to the rescue after nightfall, but they did not expect that what was waiting for them was American artillery and torpedoes. At 16:28, the US cruisers **, and 2 minutes later, the "Chiyoda" used only a few 127-mm high-level guns to counterattack sporadically, but this counterattack did not achieve any effect in front of the powerful US ** team, and these shells fell into the water at a distance of less than the US ** team**. At 4:31 p.m., the U.S. shells with corrected trajectories began to hit, and nine minutes later, the hull of the "Chiyoda" burst into flames again, and black smoke shot into the sky. At this time, in order to save ammunition and deal with possible future battles, the US troops stopped shelling and switched to torpedo attacks from destroyers. She then suffered several torpedoes fired by the 99th Destroyer Detachment of the U.S. Army, and capsized on the port side at 16:47, and one of the officers and men on the ship, including Eiichiro Osashi Oshiki (47th Naval Academy), were killed in battle, and the rest of the crew were crammed on the starboard side of the hull and captured by the U.S. destroyer.
At 18:11, the red sun disappeared from the sea, and night fell, and the Japanese search and rescue operation continued. At 6:50 p.m., the "Isuzu" light cruiser, which was rescuing the abandoned sailors of the "Zuizuru" and "Zuiho" aircraft carriers, and two destroyers, the "Hatsuki" and the "Wakatsuki," were discovered by the Dubos detachment, which was searching for the advancing ships. In the face of the powerful American ** team, the "Isuzu" and "Wakatsuki" hurriedly dispersed and accelerated to escape. The flagship of the 61st Destroyer Group, the "Hatsuki", released smoke to cover the evacuation of friendly ships. At 19:05, the "Hatsuki" sent an emergency telegram to Ozawa on the "Oyodo", reporting that he was exchanging fire with the American ** team. Two minutes later, the "Isuzu" supplemented the report, judging that the US military was a cruiser, and the radar detection showed that the distance was about 24,500 meters, and it was shelled by the US army. At that time, the main guns on the "Isuzu" were all 127-mm anti-aircraft guns, and the lack of fuel made it impossible to launch a torpedo attack. After 25 minutes, the "Isuzu" finally decided to retreat, taking the maximum speed to the north, and joined the "Wakatsuki" at 19:40.
In fact, the "First Moon" that remained was surrounded by the Dubos detachment. The ship, under the command of Amano Daisa, commander of the 61st Destroyer Group, tried its best to maneuver with the US troops. It first fired torpedoes and later returned fire. The U.S. destroyer approached to 7,300 meters at 20:12 and fired a torpedo, and seven minutes later, the U.S. cruiser fired a short shot for one minute, and only continued to attack after discovering that the torpedo had hit the "Hatsuki." It was not until 20:59 that the American army, which had 4 cruisers and 10 destroyers, managed to sink him with great effort, and Amano Daisa and his men were all killed in battle, and at this moment the "Isuzu" and "Wakatsuki" had long since disappeared.
To be continued.