Quartermasters can also fight the devils

Chapter 774: Destroyer "Lafite"

At the same time, the U.S. military also deployed a large number of fighter jets at the newly occupied Okinawa Island airport, specifically to intercept incoming Japanese aircraft.

On April 16, 1945, the Japanese Imperial Headquarters ordered the implementation of the "Kikusui III" operation plan. This time, the Japanese Imperial Headquarters dispatched 391 naval aircraft, 107 army aircraft, a total of 489 combat aircraft, of which 196 were used for kamikaze suicide missions.

During Operation Kikusui III, Japanese aircraft sank a transport ship and an ammunition ship of the United States, damaged an aircraft carrier, a destroyer, a medical ship, and two transport ships, and the Japanese army lost 182 combat aircraft.

On the day when the Japanese army began to implement the "Kikusui III" operation, the "Lafite" destroyer of the United States Navy was responsible for serving as a radar warning ship. At eight o'clock in the morning, the "Lafite" destroyer of the United States Navy discovered from the ship-borne radar that more than 50 Japanese planes were flying, and it immediately issued an early warning to the entire fleet and began to guide the United States fighter jets in the air to intercept.

As Japanese planes and American planes engaged in a melee in the air, the American Navy's destroyer "Lafite" did not dare to fire into the air for fear of accidentally hitting American planes.

However, the two Japanese kamikaze suicide planes in the air took advantage of the fact that the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy did not dare to open fire, and quickly rushed towards the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy from the air.

Seeing the two Japanese kamikaze suicide planes flying towards the warship, the "Lafite" destroyer of the United States Navy did not care about accidental injuries, and quickly organized various anti-aircraft firepower on the warship to shoot, and successfully shot down the two Japanese kamikaze suicide planes.

However, before the officers and soldiers on the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy could rejoice over shooting down two Japanese kamikaze suicide planes, more than 20 Japanese planes in the air swooped down on the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy from several directions.

Faced with more than 20 Japanese planes attacking them, the officers and soldiers on the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy tried their best to organize the entire ship's firepower for anti-aircraft shooting. However, there were too many Japanese planes and their attacks were in different directions, which made it difficult for the USS Lafite destroyer to fully take into account its anti-aircraft firepower.

The USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy was also hit by three Japanese kamikaze suicide planes in succession. One of the Japanese kamikaze suicide planes hit the turret of the 127mm rear main gun of the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy.

The violent explosion blew away the main turret at the rear of the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy. Flames and thick smoke gushed out as high as sixty meters. The deck was full of fires caused by the aviation fuel splashed from the Japanese kamikaze suicide planes.

Faced with the raging fire caused by the explosion, the damage control team members on the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy worked desperately to put out the fire and tried their best to control the spread of the fire.

Immediately afterwards, another Japanese plane dropped an aerial bomb on the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy, hitting the ammunition compartment of the 20mm anti-aircraft gun of the USS Lafite destroyer. This triggered a larger explosion on the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy, and destroyed the steering gear on the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy, causing the USS Lafite destroyer to completely lose its maneuverability.

Subsequently, two more Japanese kamikaze suicide planes crashed into the USS Lafite destroyer of the US Navy, which further aggravated the damage to the USS Lafite destroyer of the US Navy.

All the guns on the rear half of the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy were destroyed by Japanese planes, leaving only the four 20mm guns on the front of the ship still fighting. This life-and-death struggle between the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy and the Japanese planes lasted for a full eighty minutes.

Within eighty minutes, the USS Lafite of the United States Navy was attacked by a total of 22 Japanese kamikaze suicide planes. The USS Lafite of the United States Navy successfully shot down nine of the Japanese kamikaze suicide planes, but was also hit by five of the Japanese kamikaze suicide planes and was hit by four aerial bombs from Japanese planes.

Despite suffering such severe damage, the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy did not sink in the end thanks to the efforts of all the crew members. However, among the 350 officers and soldiers on the USS Lafite destroyer, 32 were killed and 71 were injured, which was almost one-third of the total number of officers and soldiers on the ship.

The USS Laffey, a destroyer of the United States Navy, was towed to an anchorage in the Kerama Islands for emergency repairs. On April 22, 1945, it was able to sail to Guam under its own power after the repairs. Finally, on May 22, 1945, it arrived in Seattle, the United States, for a major overhaul at the Todd Shipyard, and was not completely repaired until September 6.

After this battle, the USS Lafite destroyer of the United States Navy won the honor of "unsinkable ship" and became a symbol of bravery and strength of the United States Navy.

The three Kikusui operations carried out by the Japanese headquarters were all conducted during the day. Although Japanese aircraft could easily detect targets such as American warships during the day, Japanese aircraft also achieved many results in these three Kikusui operations.

However, the price paid by the Japanese aircraft was also quite huge. For the Japanese headquarters, it was difficult to quickly replenish the lost aircraft and pilots in these three Kikusui operations within a period of time. Therefore, in the subsequent Kikusui operations, the Japanese headquarters had to switch to attacking the United States' warships at night, hoping to reduce the loss of some Japanese aircraft.

On April 21 and 22, 1945, the Japanese military headquarters once again dispatched 317 aircraft to implement the "Kikusui IV" operation plan, including 131 suicide planes for kamikaze special attacks.

In order to make up for the losses of Japanese aircraft during previous combat missions, the Japanese military headquarters converted the original Japanese seaplanes into kamikaze suicide planes and put them into the kamikaze operation.

On May 4 and May 11, 1945, the Japanese military headquarters dispatched a total of 597 aircraft, including 300 kamikaze suicide planes, and launched the "Kikusui No. 5" and "Kikusui No. 6" operations.