报国死何难(英中对照)

古德明《征服英语》之英语军事故事，古德明，香港英语教育作家，他开了一个《征服英语专栏》，在专栏中专门用英语写了世界近代史上的军事小故事，用英语讲述历史中那些惊心动魄的战争。
报国死何难
during the spring of 1942, the japanese war machine was bulldozing its way through the south pacific. for a while, the japanese seemed invincible. the course of the war in the pacific turned, however, when the united states won a smashing defensive victory over the japanese at the battle of midway island in june 1942.
the american victory owed a lot to torpedo squadron eight. flying obsolete and slow torpedo bombers, the squadron were literally annihilated by the japanese during their unescorted attack on four japanese aircraft carriers. of the 32 aircrew, only one man survived. yet their gallant sacrifice was not in vain-- the squadron drew the japanese air patrol down to low level, allowing american dive bombers a completely unopposed attack on the four japanese carriers, three of which were sunk in mere minutes.

一九四二年春天，日本的战争机器在南太平洋所向披靡，一时似乎无可颉颃。但是，一九四二年六月，美军在中途岛防 卫战中大败日本，太平洋战情终告扭转。
美军这场胜利，鱼雷轰炸机第八中队功劳不少。他们没有战斗机掩护，驾着落伍缓慢的鱼雷轰炸机，轰炸四艘日本航空母舰，结果全遭击落，三十二个机员，只有一人生还。但英勇的第八中队并没有白白牺牲──他们把日本空中巡逻队引到低空，让美国的俯冲轰炸机在毫无拦截之下攻击那四艘日本航空母舰，不过几分钟，就炸沉了三艘。