The aircraft carrier Wasp entered the war.

When Vespa Vespa arrived in Majuro, all the other aircraft carriers of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet had not returned, so it needed time to rest. In order to make good use of time, Vespa, Essex and San jacinto temporarily formed the sixth detachment (Task Force 58.6), which was commanded by Major General Alfred E Montgomery of the second detachment and went to air strike South Bird Island and wake island. On June 19/20, Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus attacked Nanniao Island, then attacked wake island on June 26th, then returned to Majuro, and arrived on June 1 day.

The US military is planning to attack the Philippines at this time; Army aviation attacked Palau, Wolai and Yap Island on June 3 and 9, respectively. On the 6th, the 58th Task Force went to attack the Mariana Islands to weaken the Japanese air power. Wasp belongs to Montgomery's second unit, corresponding to the flagship Bunker Hill, Monterey and cabot. On June 5438+0 1, four teams attacked Guam, Tianning Island and Saipan Island; By 12, Clark's first unit turned to air strike Guam, and Hornet and other three units continued to bomb Tianning Island and Saipan Island. On June 5438+03, various teams continued to bomb the island to clear the field for the upcoming US troops. /kloc-on the night of 0/4, the first and fourth teams temporarily moved northward to attack the Ogasawara Islands; On the other hand, the US Marine Corps began to land in Saipan on June 5438+05, and two teams including Vespa continued to support it. When the American troops landed in Saipan, Ichiro Ozawa was carrying out Fukuda's A-No battle plan, trying to fight a decisive battle with the American fleet to reverse the disadvantage. Raymond spruance has been searching for Ozawa's fleet. 18, spruance found that the Japanese fleet had left the Philippines to support Mariana, and immediately prepared to meet the Japanese fleet, and recalled two teams to the northern Ogasawara Islands. The four teams met in the waters west of Saipan at noon that day and began to search for the Japanese First Mobile Fleet. On the afternoon of June 18, a Japanese reconnaissance plane spotted the 58th US military task force. Saburo Ozawa wanted to take advantage of the long cruising range of Japanese aircraft and ordered the fleet to avoid the attack range of the US military and let it attack Japanese aircraft in Guam in June 5438+09. And spruance still doesn't know the exact location of the Japanese fleet. Mitchell suggested that the fleet move westward in the middle of the night, let the aircraft carrier enter the operational radius in the morning of 19, and send planes to attack the Japanese fleet. However, spruance took the cover of Saipan landing troops as the first priority, and ordered the fleet to continue to retreat eastward at night, and then move westward after sunrise to avoid being ambushed by the Japanese army. Before sunrise, the Japanese reconnaissance plane found the American fleet many times, but the American army still did not grasp the Japanese movement. The next day, a naval battle broke out in the Philippine Sea.

At 5: 30 am on June 5438+09, an F6F fighter plane taking off from Monterrey found two Japanese planes and shot down one, and the naval battle officially started. At half past six, Bellow Forest found a Japanese plane in Guam. Later, the fleet sent planes to attack the area and wiped out Japanese planes at Guam airport. At 7: 30, the Japanese reconnaissance plane found some ships of the fourth detachment, but the subsequent reconnaissance plane was shot down by Essex and Langley. Ozawa later launched four waves of attacks at 8: 30, 56, 10 and10, with 69 sorties each time, and 128, 47 and 82 sorties each time (Dafeng and Xianghe were attacked by submarines in the morning and sank in the afternoon).

The first attack was against the American fleet from the west and was discovered by Li's warship radar at 10. At 2300 hours, the fleet began to send fighters to intercept. At this time, the Japanese plane was only 72 miles (1 16 kilometers) away from the fleet, but it wasted too much time to reorganize the formation, so that the American plane could climb and intercept in time. [13] In the end, most Japanese planes were shot down by fighters such as Essex, Enterprise, Lexington, Bunker Hill, Cobain and Princeton. Only one Japanese bomber managed to break through and hit South Dakota in 49 minutes. This is also the only direct hit of the Japanese army in the whole naval battle; However, only 27 Japanese planes successfully returned from the first wave of attacks.

The second wave of Japanese attack was discovered by US military radar at 1 1: 07. Half an hour later, the F6F of Essex took the lead, followed by the F6F of other aircraft carriers such as Vespa. At noon, six Japanese comet bombers successfully broke through the interception network and launched attacks on Fortification Hill and Wasp successively. The bomb exploded not far above the wasp, killing 1 person and injuring 12 person, but it did not affect the take-off and landing of the plane. Finally, the US military shot down at least 70 planes. However, only 3 1 Japanese plane successfully returned.

The third wave attacked from the north, and was discovered by American troops around 1 in the afternoon. American warplanes failed to intercept effectively and only shot down seven planes; Several Japanese bombers broke through the defense line and dropped bombs on Essex, but none of them hit.

The fourth wave attacked from the south at 2 pm, 33 attacked American ships in the north, and the other 49 stayed in the southwest of Guam to find the enemy. At this time, American warplanes were landing to refuel, and the interception failed again, and some Japanese bombers were able to cut into the American fleet. Twenty-three minutes later, the wasp was bombed by two Japanese planes, but it escaped in time and was not damaged. Bunker Hill was also attacked by two Japanese planes and was not damaged. At the same time, planes from Essex, coburn and Bumblebee went to attack Guam, pursued Japanese planes that landed there, and shot down 30 planes. The 19 Japanese plane that landed successfully was also seriously injured, and only nine planes could be used. After fighting for a whole day, the Japanese army lost nearly 3 15 planes, and the one-sided situation made the US military call the day's fighting "Mariana Turkey Shooting Competition".

On June 20, the fourth detachment was sent to attack the Japanese stronghold in Guam, and three other detachments, including Wasp, pursued the Japanese fleet westward. At 3: 40 pm, the reconnaissance plane of Enterprise spotted Ozawa's fleet. Although the radio signal was unclear, Mitchell immediately ordered the fleet to prepare to send a fleet to attack and risk taking back the plane after dark. At 57 o'clock, Mitchell finally received a complete reconnaissance report, and confirmed the position of the Japanese fleet at 4: 05, and ordered the fleet to send planes to attack. 2 1, the carrier is like a wasp, sending 2 16 planes to the sky. Only the Princeton was temporarily on standby, and then a plane was sent to carry out a second wave of attacks. Ozawa reluctantly sent 75 planes to meet him, and at the same time gave up the tanker, accelerated the retreat, and let the ships maneuver independently. Later, wasps took the lead in attacking backward oil tankers and sinking two; Bombers from Palau Forest and York City successfully torpedoed the aircraft carrier Eagle. The Enterprise tried to attack the battleship Changmenhao and the top heavy cruiser, but none of them hit. The carrier Ruihe was attacked and damaged by the fleets sent by Enterprise, Yorktown and Sang jacinto, and was once ordered to abandon the ship. However, the actual damage to the hull was not great and the damage was properly handled, so the ship abandonment order was quickly cancelled. Bunkhill, Monterey and cabot's fleet jumped over the tanker that had just been attacked by the wasp fleet and continued to attack Sotheby's, eventually causing minor injuries to Chiyoda and hazel. After the naval battle, there were only 35 planes left in Japan's first mobile fleet.

At this point, the US plane began to return and landed at 8: 45 pm. Mitchell ordered the warship to turn on all the lights and ordered the destroyer to fire flares into the sky; The aircraft carrier used the probe light to guide the plane to land. But at this time, American planes were short of fuel, scrambling to land, and the order was chaotic; Some planes even misjudged the destroyer's signal as an aircraft carrier and almost collided with it. The chaos finally ended around 1 1. The American army accidentally lost 80 planes when landing, but only 20 were damaged in the war.

On the 20 th, the fleet continued to search for the pilot who fell into the water and prepared to pursue it westward. In the early morning, Bunker Hill and Enterprise sent night reconnaissance planes to search for the enemy. After sunrise, each ship will send a tracking reconnaissance plane. At this time, Ozawa's fleet has long gone, which has exceeded the operational distance of the US aircraft carrier, and Mitchell is still busy looking for pilots; However, spruance still hoped that the fleet could pursue the injured Japanese warships, so he ordered Li's battleships to pursue first, and temporarily transferred Vespa and Bunker Hill to cover the battleships, and other ships followed. [29] In the end, the US military did not find it, and the destroyer was short of fuel. The fleet began to retreat at night, refueled at sea on the 22nd and returned to Saipan on the 23rd. On the same day, Vespa Vespa and other ships went to Eniwetok to rest and arrived on the 24th. Clark's first team went to Ogasawara Islands again and returned to Eniwetok on 27th.

Guam, Tinian Island and Ogasawara Islands

On June 30th, Major General Ralph E Davidson took over the command of the second detachment from Montgomery and took Vespa as the flagship. Franklin joined detachment 23 earlier. On the same day, Wasp II and Clark I left Hong Kong and attacked Ogasawara Islands again on July 4th. Then bomb Guam and Rota Island on the 6th. On July 9, American troops occupied Saipan, while Vespa continued to air strike Guam and Tinian Island. On 2 1 and 24/,American troops landed in the north of Guam and Tinian Island respectively, and occupied the two islands on August 10 and 2. On July 23rd, the wasp changed its air strikes to Yap Island, ulrich and Palau, and withdrew on July 27th. 29, Franklin from the second team transferred to the first team to continue fighting. The Yorktown was transferred from the first detachment to the second detachment. The second team finally returned to Eniwetok on August 2nd. On August 4th, Wasp and the first detachment attacked Ogasawara Islands again, and returned to Eniwetok to rest and stand by after the attack on August 5th. On October 2nd, 65438/Kloc-0, the first detachment of ships, such as Wasp, left Hong Kong. On October 8th, 65438/Kloc-0, they joined forces with three other detachments to attack Okinawa at sea. On June 5438+00, the fleet launched a large-scale attack on Okinawa and dispatched 1 396 sorties, which severely damaged the port of Okinawa. At this time, it is estimated that American troops will attack Taiwan Province Province, and Fu, who is far away in Taiwan Province, is ready for battle. At that time, there were about 230 Japanese warplanes stationed in Taiwan Province.

As expected by the Japanese army, on June 5438+02, the American fleet attacked the south of Taiwan Province Province. Halsey sent the first detachment of Wasp to attack the southern province of Taiwan Province; The second team attacked the northern part of Taiwan Province Province; The third detachment attacked the central province of Taiwan Province; The fourth detachment focused on attacking Kaohsiung. In the early morning, the ships sent fighters to carry out the first wave of attacks; Fu sent fighters to intercept and bombers to attack the American aircraft carrier, and an air battle broke out in Taiwan. The U.S. military is obviously superior in air combat. After the first wave of attacks, only 60 Japanese fighters were available. After the second wave of attacks, it was completely destroyed, and no fighter plane could face the third wave of attacks; Fu's headquarters was also razed to the ground after the air raid. In the evening, Japanese torpedo planes found the American fleet and launched attacks one after another, but none of them succeeded, losing 42 planes. On that day, the US military attacked 1378 sorties, with only 48 aircraft lost.

101October 13, the fleet attacked Taiwan Province province again, and the number of attacks dropped to 974. In the evening, the American fleet was attacked by the Japanese; Franklin Island was damaged and no one was killed or injured; The heavy cruiser Canberra was badly damaged by torpedoes and had to be assisted by tugboats to leave the battlefield. 14, the fleet sent 146 fighter planes and 100 bombers to attack Taiwan Province province again to cover the retreat of the Canberra. Army Air Force dispatched 109 B-29 bomber to bomb Kaohsiung, Chinese mainland. That night, the Japanese torpedo bomber attacked again at night, and the light cruiser Houston was hit hard by torpedoes and was once ordered to abandon the ship; Since the two damaged cruisers are only 90 miles (145km) away from Taiwan Province Province and Sendao Islands, halsey ordered three cruisers and eight destroyers to form a rescue team on 15 to assist the two ships in towing. Coburn and cabot were also sent to seek air support. The fleet slowly retreated to the southwest.

10 June 15 The fourth detachment attacked Luzon; The Japanese attacked the rescue team again on the same day and 16; 16, Houston was hit by a torpedo again, with more than 6,300 tons of water. At one time, the captain decided to abandon the ship, but the destroyer decided to continue towing. At this time, Radio Tokyo said that the American Third Fleet was hit hard. When halsey learned of this incident, he thought that the Japanese army wrongly judged the rescue team as the third fleet, and simply used the rescue team as bait to lure the Japanese army to attack and ordered the second and third teams to ambush. /kloc-on the morning of 0/6, the Japanese ordered the Na Zhi and the Foot Handle to set off from the Seto Inland Sea and pursue southward, but they were attacked by two planes, the Wenkeshan off Okinawa. At this time, Fu learned that the American aircraft carrier was not damaged and ordered the cruiser to retreat immediately. Although the American ambush failed, two seriously damaged warships had to evacuate and finally arrived at Uliti Atoll on the 27th.

/KOOC-0/0/KOOC-0/October/KOOC-0/7, Vespa sailed south to support the US military to recapture the Philippines. However, Kenzaburo Ozawa ordered the fleet to stop the American troops from landing, and lured the American fleet with his own aircraft carrier to attack the American troops from Kurita Keno's second fleet to Wright. Later, this led to the Battle of Leyte Bay. On June 5438+08, the Hornets and the fourth team attacked Manila. American troops began to land in Truvan on the 20th, and douglas macarthur landed on the beach that afternoon, announcing his return to the Philippines. On June 265438+1October 2 1, Vespa and the fourth unit refueled at sea. On the 22nd, the first team and the second team Hancock went to Ulrich for supplies, and the fourth team went to Wright. On the 24th, a naval battle broke out in Wright Bay. That night, halsey recalled the first team, and then pursued Ozawa's decoy fleet northward with the other three teams and Li's battleship. At 8: 22 on the 25th, Lieutenant General thomas kinkaid's Seventh Fleet was attacked by Su Tian's Central Fleet and asked halsey for help. But halsey only ordered the first team to accelerate westward, and did not immediately turn around.

At this time, a team of ships such as wasps are refueling. At 9: 0017, the first unit began to advance westward, and then accelerated to 30 knots to support the seventh fleet as soon as possible. 10: 30, wasps and others sent reconnaissance planes and the first attack fleet, but it still took an hour and a half for the plane to reach leyte bay. Just as a team of planes arrived at Wright Bay, Su Tian had already started to retreat to the north. 12: 42, wasps and others dispatched the second wave fleet; The first wave of fleet has just come into contact with the detachment fleet of Major General Clifton sprague (Task Force 77.4.3, Tafei No.3, which was attacked by Suda Fleet and Kamikaze suicide plane not long ago). Clifton instructed the fleet to look north for the enemy, while he continued to order the remaining destroyers to search for survivors of the San Lu. In the afternoon 1: 00 pm 16: 00 pm, the Bumblebee's fleet found the Su Tian fleet, but only one bomb in Regan was hit and the bomb did not explode. The second wave of attacks also found nothing. The first detachment * * * attacked all day 147 sorties and was shot down by the Japanese army.

At 5 am on the 26th, the first team of Bumblebee finally joined the second team heading south, and the Hancock returned to the second team. At 0600, the two teams sent the first wave of planes to chase Su Tian, and then at 08 10 and 08 12: 45, they sent the second and third waves of attacks, and finally only sank the energy code ZaoShuang, seriously injuring Xiong Ye. The next day, the first team of Vespa attacked the Philippines again, and went to Ulissi to rest with the third team on the 28th, arriving on the 29th and 30th respectively. On the 30th, McCain succeeded Mitchell in commanding the fast aircraft carrier. 1944 65438+On February 8th, the US Third Fleet was resting in ulrich Atoll. A number of Essex-class ships formed the famous Murderer and walked side by side, ready to leave the Philippine Islands. From the foreground, we can clearly see the wasp, York City (CV- 10), Bumblebee (CV- 12), Hancock (CV- 19) and Ticonderoga (CV- 14). 165438+ 10. On 2 October, the first and third teams left Ulrich for Wright, in order to further weaken the air power of the Japanese army and replace the fourth team that was badly hit by the Kamikaze special attack team. On the 5th, two teams joined the second team on the coast of Polillo.

After the three teams joined forces, they attacked the Japanese airfields and supply ships in Renya Bay, North Sibuyan Sea and Manila Bay, sank the Na Zhi and destroyed many planes on the ground. In the afternoon, the flagship Lexington of the fleet was hit by a suicide plane, causing many casualties. McCain was forced to transfer his flagship from Lexington to Bumblebee. After emergency maintenance, the Lexington continued to fight. On the 6 th, the fleet attacked the three places again and refueled in the open sea in the evening. The second team and the injured Lexington returned to ulrich to recuperate and were replaced by the fourth team; The Wasp went to Guam to pick up a new aviation regiment, and Sherman temporarily replaced McCain to command the fleet on the Essex.

After carrying the new aviation regiment, the wasp joined the fleet at 13, continued to fight, concentrated on attacking Japanese transport ships, and prevented them from reinforcing Ormac. In June 13 and June 14, the fleet sank more than a dozen transport ships, such as Muji, Shu, Chongbo and Chuchun, injuring Chaoshi and destroying many planes on the ground. On June 5438+05, the fleet was evacuated to the western waters of Yap Island to rest; The third team returned to Ulissi to rest and was replaced by the second team; On the same day, McCain replaced the flagship with Hancock of the second detachment.

165438+1October 17, the first, second and fourth teams attacked Luzon again, and retreated to the rear to refuel on the 20th. 2 1, the fourth team left the team to attack Yap Island, and then went to Ulissi to rest; The first team of Vespa arrived in Ulissi on 23rd and 24th. 65438+February 1 day, Vespa left again to support the allied forces to land in Mindoro, but halsey soon received the news from MacArthur and postponed the landing time to15; The wasp and others returned to Ulissi again on the same day. On February 3rd, 65438, all teams returned to Ulissi to rest.

65438+February 10 and 1 1 day, the fleet left Ulissi for Mindoro. Wasp stayed in Montgomery's first unit, accompanied by flagship Yorktown, coburn and Monterey. From 14 to 16, Vespa Vespa blocked the airport around Luzon day and night, making it impossible for Japanese planes to take off and attack landing ships. 1944 12 18, the Third Fleet was attacked by Typhoon Cobra in the East Philippine Sea. The wasp photographed the typhoon eye and the overall structure map with radar, which is the second typhoon structure observed with ship radar in history. The storm eventually sank three American destroyers, killing nearly 800 people. And its huge loss also made halsey widely criticized later. 12 17, the fleet refueled in the open sea, but the wind was strong and the sea was rough, making it difficult for the fleet to refuel. The bad weather was caused by the tropical disturbance to the east of the fleet; The tropical disturbance formed in the northwest of Wuli, moved to the west-northwest direction, and strengthened rapidly, and was later named Typhoon Cobra. Because the wave direction is consistent with the northeast wind in winter, halsey didn't notice the typhoon approaching.

18, the waves intensified, but the weather forecast of the fleet was still wrong, the air pressure remained stable until sunrise, and the north wind continued on the sea, so halsey ordered the fleet to refuel again. At this time, the wind and waves began to separate the ship from the team; The weather data reported by ships are different, which has caused more confusion. In the morning 10, the air pressure began to drop sharply, and at the same time the wind was counterclockwise, and the sea surface turned up huge waves; The wasp recorded a wind speed of 73 knots every 10 minute at 2 pm, and the highest gust exceeded every 10 minute 100 knots. The ship's radar even caught the eye of the wind, and the typhoon was obviously nearby. Halsey immediately ordered the fleet to avoid the southwest; However, the departing and slower warships have been unable to leave, and even destroyers have crossed the eye of the wind. In the end, three American destroyers sank; The hangars in Monterrey and coburn caught fire, and the former had to be evacuated to Pearl Harbor for maintenance. In contrast, large ships such as Wasp were slightly damaged, but they just entered too much water.

At 4 o'clock in the evening, the fleet finally escaped from the storm. At 6 o'clock, the weather turned fine and the fleet began to search and rescue the officers and men who fell into the sea. At that time, halsey did not know that a destroyer had sunk, and it was not until the next morning that the three destroyers lost contact. After the search and rescue, the fleet evacuated.

Lizzy arrived on the 24th. On the 28th, after the American troops landed in Renya Bay, Nimitz approved the fleet to enter the South China Sea.

On February 30th, 65438, the fleet left Ulysses. At this time, the first team began to be commanded by Major General Arthur W. Radford. The fleet later attacked Japanese airports in Taiwan Province Province and Luzon Island on1October 3rd and 4th, 1945+65438, but the effect was not obvious due to the bad weather. On the 7th, the fleet concentrated on attacking Luzon, and was again hindered by bad weather. On the 9 th, the US military began to land in Renya Bay with little resistance; The fleet attacked Taiwan Province Province and Ryukyu Islands to the north, but the bad weather still plagued the fleet and could not attack effectively. On June 65438+1October 10, Vespa and other fast aircraft carriers passed through bass strait and went to air attack the Japanese army in French Indian zhina to supply. Halsey believed that Yi Shi, Sunward and some Japanese battleships retreated to Vietnam after the naval battle in Leyte Bay, so they attacked Cam Ranh Bay first.

12 year 10 month 12 day, the fleet arrived at the Vietnamese coast. At 3: 30 in the morning, the aircraft carrier of the fifth detachment first sent planes for reconnaissance. At 6: 40 in the morning, battleships and cruisers went to shell the battleships in Cam Ranh Bay. By 7: 30, the aircraft carriers of the first, second and third teams began to send air strikes. Throughout the day, the fleet attacked 1465 sorties, and some planes even searched for targets to bomb along the coast, covering the whole of southern Vietnam. The third detachment attacked Guiren and Saigon, sinking the Xiangcone, two escort destroyers, nine fully loaded transport ships and 1 oil tanker. The French cruiser lamotte Piquet, captured by Japanese, also sank in Cam Ranh Bay. In the end, the US military sank 45 Japanese warships and merchant ships and destroyed several oil tankers. As there were no Japanese battleships in the port, the American gunboats withdrew at 8 pm, and the fleet retreated to the east to refuel and avoid the typhoon. The big waves at sea allowed the fleet to refuel on 14.

/kloc-on the morning of 0/5, the fleet attacked Kaohsiung and Zuoying Port and sank the Qifeng and Song Hao, but the air raid was invalid due to poor visibility. In the afternoon, the fleet moved west again and attacked Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Hainan on 16. Although bad weather and intensive anti-aircraft guns hindered the air raid, the US military sank several Japanese transport ships. On June 5438+07, the northeast monsoon strengthened, forcing the fleet to retreat to the western waters of Luzon to refuel, and then attacked Taiwan Province Province again.

2 1 in the morning, the fleet began to send planes to attack airports and seaports all over Taiwan Province province. The Japanese suicide plane found the third detachment of the US army at noon and immediately launched an attack, injuring the Langley and Ticonderoga successively. The second detachment was also attacked, but it was not damaged; Hancock exploded and caught fire on the same day due to the plane landing accident, but the loss was not serious. In the evening, Ticonderoga withdrew to Ulissi, while Vespa sailed north, preparing for air strikes on Okinawa and Iwo Jima.

On the 22nd, the fleet bombed Okinawa and made detailed photo reconnaissance to collect information for landing in the future. In the evening, the fleet withdrew and returned to ulrich for rest on 26th. On the same day, spruance succeeded halsey in commanding the US fleet, and its establishment was changed to the Fifth Fleet, while the fast aircraft carrier formation was renamed Task Force 58 again, under Mitchell's command.

Okinawa, Iwo Jima and Japan

1945, an SB2C dive bomber is preparing to land on the flight deck of Vespa. On February 10, the Fifth Fleet filed out of Ulissi and went to air strike the Japanese mainland. The Hornet stayed in the first team under the command of Clark, including the flagship Hornet, Benington and Bellow Forest. The fleet first headed northeast, and conducted exercises with the Marine Corps in Tianning Island at 12, and then accelerated northward to prepare for air strikes against Tokyo.

On February 16, the fleet first sent five waves of fighters to sweep the airports around Tokyo Bay. The fighters of the third detachment first arrived over Tokyo and attacked the port facilities; Although the second detachment was intercepted by nearly 100 Japanese planes, it shot down nearly 40 planes. The first team attacked the industrial facilities in Tokyo and Yokosuga. At noon Mitchell sent bombers to attack factories in Daejeon and Tokyo; At night, night fighters were sent to attack the airport. On June 5438+07, the fleet went to Iwo Jima, ready to support the American troops who were about to land. The fourth detachment attacked the mother island and the mother island on the same day; The second and third teams went to the west of Iwo Jima. On June 5438+08, each team attacked the home island again, and then dispersed deployment: the first, fourth and fifth teams went south to refuel, and the second and third teams stood by, ready to support the US military landing at any time; American warships shelled coastal facilities for days.

On February 19, the US Marine Corps began to land on Iwo Jima, and the battle of Iwo Jima broke out. At that time, wasps and others were still refueling in the open sea and conducting air defense exercises. From the 20th, wasps and others began to send planes to support the landing troops, occasionally bombing Japanese strongholds that naval guns could not reach. Because most of the napalm bombs of carrier aircraft did not explode, the effect was not good. Japanese planes invaded the fleet intermittently all day, but many attacks failed. On February 2 1, the second and third teams attacked the mother island and the mother island; The first and fourth detachments are responsible for supporting the beachhead troops; The fifth team also joined the fighting during the day. However, Saratoga had just entered the sea area on duty, and was attacked and injured, and was forced to withdraw to the United States for maintenance. Since then, he has not participated in the battle; The Bismarck Sea was much heavier than the suicide plane, so the Enterprise had to be the carrier of the midnight war alone, and continuously dispatched the recovery plane 174 hours until March 2. On the 23rd, the fleet went to the distant sea for supplies, then turned to the north and attacked Japan again.

On the morning of February 25, the fleet sent a fleet to attack Tokyo, but it almost failed because of the bad weather. In the afternoon, Mitchell suspended all flights and wanted to attack Nagoya the next day. However, the weather on the sea surface deteriorated further, and the waves turned up, so the fleet could not enter the attack range in time. On the morning of 26th, Mitchell canceled the attack, ordered the fleet to refuel the next day, and then attacked Okinawa. The fourth team went to Ulissi to rest after refueling. On March 1, wasps and others attacked Okinawa and made detailed photo reconnaissance. The fleet was evacuated to Ulissi to rest that night and arrived on the 4th.

On March 14, the fleet left Ulrich to support the Okinawa campaign, and first attacked Kyushu, weakening the Japanese air power there. At this time, the fleet establishment was slightly mobilized, but the first team remained unchanged as a whole. 1In June, 945, the sailors of Wasp pulled up a rope net on the deck and used the front flight deck as a temporary volleyball court. At this time, two F4U pirate fighters are flying over the island. As early as during the battle of Okinawa, Wasp was injured by Japanese bombers and returned to China for maintenance. It was preparing to return to the battlefield. The Franklin, which was attacked on the same day as the Wasp, is still under repair and has not participated in the war since then. On the morning of March 18, the fleet began to send fleets to attack airports all over Kyushu. However, before the US attack, Yuyuan Garden only sent a few planes to take off and was heading to attack the fourth detachment, so the US military did not gain much. The enterprise was hit by a Japanese bomb earlier in the morning, but it did not detonate; The intrepid successfully intercepted the suicide attack and the hull was slightly damaged; In the afternoon, the Yorktown was hit by a bomb and its hull exploded. After the emergency repair, it continued to fight.

On the same day, the US military scouted Kobe and Wushi and found a large number of Japanese warships in the harbor, so Mitchell ordered the fleet to attack the Seto Inland Sea on 19. Since the second unit only has the large aircraft carrier Franklin, Vespa joined the second unit on the same day to enhance its strength. On that day, American troops wounded Yamato, Sunward, Hazelnut, Ikoma, Katsuragi, Longfeng, Tiancheng, Fengxiang, Yinghai, Li Gen and Dadian.

However, the US military was also attacked by Japanese planes. At 7: 00 a.m. 10, a Japanese bomber evaded reconnaissance, dived and dropped a bomb over Vespa. The bomb penetrated the crew cabin and exploded on the deck of the hangar. At that time, the cabin was crowded with night shift staff who were having breakfast, so the explosion caused many deaths and injuries; However, the fire was quickly controlled and no more planes and ammunition were affected. At 8 o'clock, the wasp is ready to recycle the plane. After 8 o'clock, a Japanese suicide plane evaded reconnaissance again and tried to crash into a wasp, but it fell into the water a few feet away from the ship's side lifting platform and exploded, causing no more casualties. In the end, one person died and 269 people were injured on board10/kloc-0, but they were still able to take off and land. On the same day, the Franklin was hit hard by Japanese bombers and once stalled at sea, but it was finally withdrawn. Enterprise and some warships of the fourth detachment were transferred to the second detachment to cover the retreat.

On March 20, the fleet withdrew south and still sent planes to bomb the southern airport of Kyushu; Wasp is the flagship of the second detachment. In the afternoon, the second detachment encountered another suicide plane, a destroyer was damaged, and the deck of Enterprise was hit by friendly anti-aircraft guns.

2 1, the first unit was attacked by MXY-7 cherry blossom special attack machine and all were shot down. In the evening, Sang jacinto joined the first team. On the 22nd, all ships went to the open sea to refuel, and the Hornet, Enterprise and Franklin were evacuated to ulrich and the United States for repair. The second detachment will not return to the battlefield until April.

On March 24th, Vespa returned to Ulissi, made some repairs and prepared to return to China. On the 28th, Vespa went to Pearl Harbor with Franklin, arrived on April 3rd, and unloaded the ammunition. Wasp went to Bremerton, Washington on 5th, 13 arrived at Puget Sound Naval Terminal, and entered dry dock for maintenance on 22nd.

On June 2, the wasp completed its repair and conducted trial training near the shore. On the 9th, Vespa Vespa will go to the western Pacific again. First, it will carry more planes and officers and men in Alameda at 1 1, then it will go to Pearl Harbor at 13 and arrive at 19. Later, Wasp did not go to the front line immediately, and on the 22nd and 29th, it trained to fly at night offshore. 1August 6, 945, in the western Pacific Ocean, Vespa and her fleet were heading for an air strike against Japan. It is worth noting that two scoreboards were drawn on the island to record the bombing results. On the same day, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, while Vespa attacked several airports in Japan on August 9 and September 10, which disillusioned Japan's domestic decisive battle strategy and prevented the return of a large number of suicide planes. Finally, in August of 15, Japan finally announced its surrender. On July 1 1 day, Vespa set out for Eniwetok, attacked wake island on June 18, and arrived on June 19. 2 1, the wasp returned to the third fleet and finally joined the fourth detachment on the 26th. At this time, the fleet was bombing Seto Inland Sea and Wushi, focusing on the remaining Japanese warships, and eventually sank Yi Shi, Sunward, hazel, Li Gen, Tiancheng, Julia, Dadian, Iwate and Izumo. Injured Kochi, Longfeng, Yinghai and northbound.

On July 3 1, the fleet went out to sea to avoid typhoon and replenished at sea in early August. At this time, Nimitz intercepted the information that the Japanese army was assembling suicide planes and troops in the north of Honshu, trying to break through the US defense line and landed at the B-29 bomber base in Mariana, and ordered the fleet to attack immediately; Just as the fleet was sailing, on August 6, the little boy's atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima. The 8th Fleet Airport in northern Honshu; On the same day, the Soviet Union officially declared war on Japan. On the 9 th, the US military dropped a fat atomic bomb over Nagasaki; On 9th and 10, the fleet attacked Honshu again, destroying more than 25 bombers and injuring more than 14 1 0, finally crushing the Japanese counterattack. In June 1 1, the fleet went to the distant sea to refuel; At this time, Japan began to consider the surrender clause. 12, the fleet avoided the typhoon and then attacked Tokyo from 13 to 15. 15 At noon, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender, and the fleet immediately stopped the second wave of air strikes that day, but continued to intercept Japanese planes approaching the fleet.

According to the statistics of Wasp, during World War II, the fleet of ships shot down 30 fighters and destroyed the ground 4 1 1. And sank 1 14, injuring 305 ships; The total number of attacks reached 10200. Anti-aircraft guns on board shot down 16 planes.

/kloc-in August of 0/6, King George V of England joined the fourth detachment; Essex and Randolph joined on the 20th; HMS is indomitable, R92) is added to 2 1. On the 22nd, Vessels such as Wasp sent planes to reconnoiter inland and search for prison camps. On the 25th, Vespa Vespa and other aircraft carriers off Nagoya were hit by a typhoon. The wasp's 30-foot-long front flight deck was damaged, so it could not attend the Japanese surrender ceremony on September 2, but it continued to be on duty in the open sea. On the 28th, Wasp dropped supplies to the American prison camp in Japan. And its flagship position was transferred to Lexington at 3 1.