In the Battle of Santa Cruz, the U.S.carrier Hornet was sunk by Japanese carrier-based aircrafts with a loss of 74 aircrafts. On the Japanese side, the carriers Zuiho and Zuikaku were wounded with 100 planes lost.

Although the Japanese sank a US carrier,the loss of Japanese aircrafts and experienced pilots was difficult to make up. In this battle US pilots already clearly felt that the attack of Japanese aircrafts were by far less sophisticated. In contrast,the training and supplement of US pilots was going on continously with a great momentum, which was the advantage that Japan could never match.

In this picture Hornet was hit by severl bombs and torpedos.The A6M3 zeros also suffered heavy losses in the air combat.