"General, Ryūjō has been sunk. Hoshō has also suffered heavy damage and is about to sink," Colonel Sanwa Yoshitomi reported with a grief-stricken face. Although the two were merely light aircraft carriers, the 2nd Carrier Squadron had only four aircraft carriers in total.
Lieutenant General Kakuta Kakuji nodded. The loss of two aircraft carriers made his heart feel as though it were bleeding. But there was nothing he could do. Even the aircraft carriers Sōryū and Hiryu were under German encirclement; being sunk was only a matter of time.
"General, another batch of German aircraft has arrived—more than a hundred of them!" a staff officer reported.
Lieutenant General Kakuta Kakuji's expression immediately turned even uglier. Under the encirclement of the German Navy's carrier-based aircraft, neither Sōryū nor Hiryu could escape. Now that another hundred-plus carrier-based aircraft had arrived, the Second Carrier Squadron of the Combined Fleet truly had no power left to turn the tide!
Whooo! Whooo!
Piercing howls rang out as two flights of eight Dive Bombers launched another attack on Sōryū. Its vast flight deck was the perfect target for the Dive Bombers.
"Emergency turn! Evasive maneuver!"
Colonel Yamada Sadayoshi, captain of Sōryū, was directing the carrier to evade the Aerial Bombs. Although Sōryū was already in peril on every side, they continued to struggle. They would not give up even the slightest hope.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions rang out continuously aboard Sōryū. The flight deck was easily pierced by Aerial Bombs, which exploded within the carrier, ravaging it and inflicting even greater damage.
After being hit in succession, Sōryū had already suffered severe damage. Although it was a medium aircraft carrier with a displacement of twenty thousand tons, three Torpedoes and more than ten Aerial Bombs were still enough to make it unable to hold on any