Akatsuki no Midway

23. Ending at Dusk

It was after 14:30 (17:30 Local Time) when the Zero squadron led by Lieutenant Yoshio Shiga returned to the Ryūjō and Jun'yō. The Second Fleet led by Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondō was still sailing in the northeast direction. However, the 1st Air Fleet had not been able to meet up with them because it had moved westward after turning northward. It had already been more than six hours since the Second Fleet started sailing in a northeasterly direction to support the 1st Air Fleet after recovering the Midway attack group. Considering the time and distance, it was about time to meet up with the ships of the 1st Air Fleet.

Four of the Zero fighters had not yet returned. Even those that returned safely had crew members injured or the plane damaged, reminding them of the fierce air combat that had taken place. Although there were still some B5Ns and D3As left in the 4th Carrier Division, the time taken to repair the planes made it impossible to finally send an attack group other than Irikiin's squadron to attack the American carrier.

Currently, the bombs that had been mounted for the attack on Midway have been removed and returned to the ammunition storage, and the planes have been de-fueled and stored in the hangar. If the battle was to drag on after tomorrow, they intended to continue Operation MI jointly with the three remaining carriers in the First Allied Fleet.

"Should we inquire at the 1st Air Fleet's command center as to their location?"

Currently, the three carriers of the 1st Air Fleet and the 4th Carrier Division were fighting independently of each other. The air groups have not been able to fully cooperate with each other. If the battle were to continue tomorrow, the 4th Carrier Division would have to compensate for the 1st Air Fleet's reduced strength. That was what Kakuta was thinking.

And then it happened.

"Light signal from Ise! Contacts on a heading of 140 degrees, distance 49.000 meters!" the lookout reported.

In terms of direction, it was in the direction of Midway Atoll.

"Hnggg..." Kakuta groaned.

The difficulty of dealing with an enemy fleet and an enemy land base at the same time. He thought they had dealt a reasonable blow to the Midway air base with their morning attack, but had they restored the airstrip and other facilities while they were busy destroying the American carriers, or was their attack inadequate?

The Ise's AA guns fired a couple of times. This was not to intercept enemy planes, but to tell the CAPs in the sky the direction of approach of enemy planes (and presumably, their reactions). Six Zero fighters of two flights, which had been slightly up, saw this and banked in the direction of the southeast. The sentries also pointed their binoculars in the direction Ise had reported.

The sentries were also very tired from the morning's fighting, and some of them occasionally took their eyes off the 12 cm telephoto binoculars and blinked a few times. The sun's rays were hurting their eyes and severely impairing their vision.

Kakuta felt a chill run down his spine as he wondered if he would have been in danger without the radar. The flagship Atago turned northwest, followed by all ships. This is a fleet maneuver, or fleet movement, which is aimed at extending the interception time of the CAPs as much as possible by steering in the opposite direction of the incoming enemy aircraft.

"...Ten enemies, Dauntless bombers! They're coming in!"

The lookout spotted the enemy planes at a distance of 20.000 meters. It seemed that the fatigue in their eyes had an effect on their ability to keep watch which cannot be ignored.

At this time, the Second Fleet was aimed at by 15 planes of the Hornet's VB-8 led by Lieutenant Edgar Stebbins, which had made an emergency landing on Midway Atoll before launching again. They had originally been flying toward the 1st Air Fleet, but on their way, they spotted the Ryūjō and the Jun'yō before moving in to attack.