At 4:54 AM on December 3, 1941, the figures of nearly 200 warships of the US Pacific Fleet's 1st Fleet, located 400 nautical miles east of the Mariana Islands, were clearly visible in the morning light.

At this time, the elevators on the 12 aircraft carriers of the 6 aircraft carrier battle groups finally stopped running, and the wide flight decks were full of aircraft. American pilots were all ready to sortied. In the island command room of the aircraft carrier USS *Yorktown*, Vice Admiral Nimitz felt his fiercely beating heart almost rolling in his chest.

Although Vice Admiral Nimitz tried his best to calm down, he really couldn't. The United States, without the burden of naval tradition, chose the aircraft carrier route, but he didn't expect that China, which had even less naval tradition, also chose the aircraft carrier route. No matter how many times the US Navy General Staff had deduced it, now that the real aircraft carrier battle was about to begin, Vice Admiral Nimitz was still nervous with a racing heart and a dry mouth.

In the island command room, sounds of objects falling to the ground or tables and chairs being kicked were heard from time to time. It was not only Vice Admiral Nimitz who was nervous; the US naval officers were also in a state of excessive tension.

At this point, there was no possibility of stopping. The US Pacific 1st Fleet organized 6 aircraft carrier battle groups, each centered on 2 aircraft carriers. Each US aircraft carrier had 75 fighters of various types, totaling 900 fighters ready for battle.

Aircraft signals appeared constantly on the fleet's air defense radar. Judging from the number of signals, a considerable part of them were Chinese reconnaissance planes. And US reconnaissance planes had also detected the position of the Chinese aircraft carrier formation about 350 nautical miles southeast of the US fleet. For aircraft carriers, this distance had already entered a combat state.

"The 1st Aircraft Carrier Group is ready, requesting takeoff." A voice came from the radio.

Vice Admiral Nimitz felt his heart beat even faster. He said, "Takeoff permitted!"

Only after his voice was emitted did Vice Admiral Nimitz realize that his voice was dry enough to surprise himself.

The flight deck on the left of the island was full of planes. With Vice Admiral Nimitz's order, two air crew members ran to the two fighters at the very front, pulled away the chocks under the tires, and then ran back to their positions. The air crew responsible for pulling the propeller stepped forward and pulled the propeller hard. With a chugging sound, the propeller soon began to rotate. More than ten seconds later, the wind rolled up by the propeller made the sleeves of the nearby US carrier ground crew sway slightly.

The air crew holding the lighted signal wand began to wave it. The pilot of the foremost fighter released the brakes, and the plane began to taxi along the carrier runway. The US officers on the island crowded to the window by coincidence, watching the American P-51 fighter taxi quickly across the somewhat dim deck and rush forward.

When the plane left the deck, it fell sharply due to the weight of the fuselage. Even knowing that this was normal, the US naval officers couldn't help but sigh. A moment later, the bright indicator light on the tail of the plane appeared in the sight of the officers. The P-51 fighter continued to fly upward. The first fighter took off successfully.

The subsequent fighters took off more and more smoothly because the planes in front gave up more runway distance. After 10 P-51s flew out, the subsequent fighters even left the deck before flying to the edge of the carrier deck, flying directly upward to join the fleet circling around the aircraft carrier formation to complete the formation.

350 nautical miles away, the Coalition aircraft carrier formation was carrying out the same action. Yamamoto Isoroku watched the fighters forming quickly in the air without saying a word, and the dignified look on his face finally relaxed a little. The US military had no experience in large-scale aircraft carrier operations, and neither did the Coalition. It was just that as a Japanese, Yamamoto was more accustomed to showing calmness at this time. Even so, the violently beating heart made Yamamoto feel a bit nauseous.

In the past hour, at least three officers in the Coalition Command vomited due to tachycardia. This couldn't be helped. When the heart beats too fast, the body thinks it might have ingested toxic substances and automatically triggers a vomiting reaction.

Similar to the deployment of the US aircraft carrier formation, the Chinese aircraft carrier formation did not assume an overly dense formation; the distance between them was about 20 kilometers. This distance ensured that torpedo attacks launched by the enemy would not cover two aircraft carrier battle groups at the same time.

350 nautical miles was about 600 kilometers, and the fighters could fly there in one hour. Before the war, the Coalition General Staff believed that US fighters would definitely not fly in a straight line, so the Coalition chose the shortest straight line, striving to launch an attack earlier.

Among the 300 J-9 "advanced trainers," 150 carried torpedoes and 150 carried rockets. Under the escort of 300 J-10 fighters, they flew towards the US aircraft carrier formation according to the plan. As expected, the Coalition aircraft group did not encounter the US aircraft group on the scheduled flight route.

After flying 570 kilometers, the figures of US warships on the sea surface could already be vaguely seen. Before the Coalition aviation approached the air defense fire circle of the US aircraft carrier formation, a large number of US fighters came head-on.

The reason why the J-9 fighter was an "advanced trainer" was that the J-9 did not have separate naval and army models; it just adjusted some electronic equipment according to different combat environments. Only the 150 J-9s carrying torpedoes tried their best to avoid air combat. The J-9s carrying rockets temporarily acted as escorts for the torpedo planes, and the 300 J-10 fighters immediately entered air combat.

These chubby-looking J-10s had only briefly appeared when intercepting the US troops in the Philippines, and were completely new opponents for the US military. But the US P-51 had fought with the Chinese Air Force for more than a month and was already an "old acquaintance."

As soon as they engaged, the P-51 pilots immediately found that the chubby Chinese fighters in front of them pulled up at an amazing speed and disappeared from the eyes of the P-51 pilots in the blink of an eye. Most American pilots had flight experience before joining the army, flying planes on their own farms. Although they were frightened, the American pilots did not panic. They knew that the Coalition pilots had occupied the high position at this time, so they did not try to dogfight in the air but flew directly into the defense circle of the US aircraft carrier formation.

But there are always people with bad luck. Ensign John Smith, a pilot of the 5th Carrier Group, felt a violent vibration of the fuselage, which was the reaction of being hit by a Coalition fighter. Immediately, the rudder of the fighter lost control, and the plane began to spin uncontrollably.

In the spinning world, Ensign John Smith found that he didn't even have a chance to parachute in such a spin. In despair, Smith shouted "God, help!" slightly in his heart, and then plunged straight towards the sea surface with the out-of-control plane.

Contacting the sea surface at a speed of 400 kilometers per hour was equivalent to the plane hitting concrete directly. With the violent impact, Ensign Smith's spine broke into several pieces, and he died in an instant.

Ensign John Smith came from Illinois, a major agricultural state, and had been flying planes to spray pesticides on his family's farm since he was 12 years old. Like quite a few young soldiers, Ensign Smith married the girl next door, his childhood sweetheart, quickly before the war, and made a vow to survive the war, own a farm for the two of them after retirement, have seven or eight children, and spend their lives together.

But Ensign John Smith didn't expect that he would become the first soldier to die in battle in the world's first major aircraft carrier battle.

Not long after Ensign John Smith died in battle, Lieutenant Blind Valyakin's fighter was attacked jointly by two Coalition fighters and beaten into a fireball in the air. Before falling into the sea, Lieutenant Valyakin had already died from a bullet in the neck. Judging from the name, Lieutenant Blind Valyakin was a Nordic immigrant from the Great Lakes region of the United States. As a student at Columbia University in New York, Lieutenant Valyakin volunteered to join the army with many classmates and became an Air Force pilot.

Before his death, Lieutenant Valyakin didn't think that the lake surface near his hometown had just frozen. In previous years at this time, he was still preparing to go skating on the lake with his family. But this year he fell into the warm Pacific Ocean.

Seeing the US fighters retreating in defeat, Senior Colonel Li Tianming, commander of the first wave of Coalition attacks, ordered the torpedo planes to start attacking the ships on the periphery of the US aircraft carrier formation.

Although the J-9 was very versatile, it only had the ability of level bombing and could not implement dive bombing. A moment later, the US destroyer *Arsack* became the target. Although several anti-aircraft guns on the destroyer fired fiercely at the Chinese fighters under the command of fire control radar, they posed no threat to the J-9s 5 kilometers away. They could only watch helplessly as three torpedoes drew snow-white wakes in the warm seawater after entering the water, heading straight for the destroyer *Arsack*.

Although the *Arsack* ran at full power trying to avoid the torpedoes and successfully avoided the first torpedo, the second sonar torpedo still hit the stern of the destroyer which emitted the loudest noise, and the speed of the destroyer slowed down immediately. The third torpedo caught up from the oblique rear and hit the middle and rear of the hull. More than 200 kilograms of high explosives were detonated immediately, and the destroyer was blown directly into two sections and began to sink rapidly.

At this time, another batch of Chinese reconnaissance planes arrived at the battlefield. Because historically, the first wave of Japanese attack aircraft, 36 Type 97 carrier attack aircraft, 36 Type 99 carrier bombers, and 36 Zero fighters, began to take off simultaneously from 4 aircraft carriers. 108 carrier-based aircraft set off to attack Midway under the leadership of Navy Lieutenant Tomonaga Joichi. Vice Admiral Nagumo ordered reconnaissance planes to search the sea areas in the east and south directions, and the second wave of attack aircraft parked on the flight deck, ready to meet the US fleet. However, two reconnaissance planes of the heavy cruiser *Tone* were delayed for half an hour due to catapult failure, and one reconnaissance plane of the *Chikuma* returned halfway due to engine failure (this plane should have searched exactly over the US task force), laying the bane for the Japanese fleet.

He Rui ordered that all reconnaissance planes must be dispatched and must not let go of the movements of the US aircraft carrier formation.