On June 1, 1942, in the port of Yokosuka, in the conference room of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Admiral Yamamoto presided over the second operational meeting on the Battle of Midway.

Minoru Genda and Kameto Kuroshima, who have always been regarded as right-hand men by Yamamoto 56ichi, explained to all the participants their Midway-Aleutian strategy plan.

The Black Island Turtle Man has a withdrawn personality and is not good at words, but it is still explained by Minoru Genda, who can speak well.

"According to the Diablo plan, the operation we launched this time corresponds to the planned "Date Operation". As the name suggests, this battle for us is to make an appointment with the U.S. Pacific Fleet to meet at Midway, and then it is not a romantic relationship, but a strategic decisive battle.

There are three major problems before us, the first of which is that the Military Command Department will have us attack the Aleutian Islands at the same time, which will inevitably disperse our forces. Moreover, in the memorandum of the exchange meeting between His Excellency and us, there is a sentence that he repeatedly says, this sentence is to concentrate superior forces to fight a war of annihilation. And the order of the military command to disperse our forces to the Aleutian Islands is precisely contrary to this operational idea.

The second problem is also related to the strength of the force, we can currently send ten aircraft carriers to carry out this operation, but in support of the Army's operations in the southwest Pacific, we have lost some pilots and fighters. In order to ensure that this campaign can be launched with the best possible forces, I suggest that it is better to postpone the launch of the operation and to ensure that the combat aircraft and pilots of the ten aircraft carriers are fully manned. ”

Yamamoto fifty-six interrupted Minoru Genda's narration.

"You are right, this battle is a decisive battle related to the direction of the Pacific theater, and if we win this battle, at least within half a year, the Americans will no longer have the strength to confront us in the Pacific region, and we will also gain enough bargaining chips to push the Americans to the negotiating table. We must launch this campaign with the utmost perfection.

I ordered that after the meeting, immediately after the meeting, a small group should be organized to go to various aircraft factories to wait and wait, and an airplane must be brought back for me by creating an airplane on the production line. Aviation schools should also step up efforts to select outstanding reserve pilots to supplement the shortage of carrier-based aircraft pilots.

As of the 25th of this month. It is necessary to ensure that the ten aircraft carriers participating in the war reach full capacity. ”

After Yamamoto Isoroku finished speaking, he motioned for Minoru Genda to continue explaining his plan.

Minoru Genda continued: "The third difficulty of the plan is that we must ensure that the Americans, knowing our plan, will not be so intimidated by our strong forces that they will not dare to come out in Hawaii to fight a decisive battle with us. Based on the first and third difficulties above, we have formulated two sets of plans, one is the real combat plan, which is the "Date Ops" mentioned by His Excellency Diablo. The other plan was the Independence Day Operational Plan, which was used to lure Americans into dating us.

With this Independence Day plan, as long as the blood of the commanders of the American Pacific Fleet will boil, they will inevitably fall into our trap and come to Midway to fight us in a decisive battle. ”

Minoru Genda then looked at the Pacific chart, without using any memorable information, and relied solely on memory, saying all two sets of battle plans, including the names of the ships participating in the battle.

After listening to Minoru Genda's battle plan. Yamamoto Fifty-six said, "Gentlemen, we all know. On the twentieth of last month, the despicable Russians betrayed our great alliance and launched a surprise attack on Romania and Hungary, our ally Germany, which had declared war on the Soviet Union and was currently fighting the Russians in Romania and Hungary.

According to a telegram sent back from our embassy in Germany, Germany is likely to launch an attack on the Russian mainland this month. In the short term, the Germans will not be able to support our operations in the Pacific, let alone declare war on the United States, so we will have to rely on ourselves to fight the United States.

I've been to the United States. I know how powerful the factories that are more numerous than the cherry blossoms at the foot of Mt. Fuji are in the land of the Americans, and I know that thousands of warships are being built in the shipyards on the east and west coasts of the United States.

According to my calculations, by the end of this year, the light aircraft carriers of the Americans will successively join the service of the Pacific Fleet of the United States, and in another six months, the powerful fleet aircraft carriers will also be opened from the shipyard and thrown into the war with our country, and it will be a terrifying number.

Your Excellency said at the discussion meeting with us that we can only make up for the gap in the comprehensive national strength between our country and the United States through properly planned wars of annihilation again and again, and strive to make a time difference and force the Americans to the negotiating table to negotiate peace with us before the United States' comprehensive national strength is fully brought into play, which is the best result of this war.

If the Americans continue to resist, we can also rely on this victory to gain the strategic initiative in the Pacific theater and wait until Germany defeats Russia and launch a war against the United States.

The fate of the empire is in battle here, and I ask you to work with me to make a modest contribution to the dream of His Majesty the Emperor. ”

After Yamamoto finished speaking, he stood up and bowed deeply to all the officers present.

All the officers stood up and bowed to Yamamoto Fifty-six in the same 90-degree bow.

Five days later, on the island of Hawaii, in the Pacific Fleet's operations boardroom.

After the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Nimitz, and all the other officers arrived, there was no nonsense and went straight to the topic of the meeting.

"Mr. Stationmaster, you will explain to you how arrogant the Japanese Navy has become, so that everyone can feel my anger at this time."

Hearing the pent-up anger in Admiral Nimitz's tone, Halsey, Spruance, and Fletcher and other senior officers looked at Rocherford together, and nearly twenty spotlights converged on Rocherford's face.

Rocherford's face was as gloomy as Admiral Nimitz's, he stood up, walked to the chart hanging on the wall, pointed to the chart and said to all the officers: "After a period of listening and gathering all the intelligence, we have learned the next battle plan of the Japanese Navy. ”

Rocherford's hand first drew a circle around the location of Midway on the chart, followed by the Aleutian Islands.

"Gentlemen, the next operational plan of the Japanese Combined Fleet is to attack Midway and the Aleutian Islands at the same time, and for this operation they plan to dispatch more than 200 ships.

Among them are 8 aircraft carriers, 9 battleships. Twenty-three cruisers, 65 destroyers, and 21 submarines, plus 600 aircraft, and a large number of transport ships and landing craft to assist in the war, were almost the entire strength of the Japanese Combined Fleet.

The enemy would attack in five formations, the first of which would be a submarine force tasked with reconnaissance and patrolling between Hawaii and Midway.

The second formation was the northern formation attacking the Aleutian Islands, under the command of the light aircraft carriers Longxiang and Hayabusa. As well as the corresponding escort formations and landing ship formations.

The third force is the First Mobile Fleet under the command of Nagumo Tadaichi, which has four aircraft carriers and three battleships under the command of Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, and Soryu, as well as escort cruisers and destroyers, and this force will be the main force for the attack on Midway, and their mission is to destroy the airfield on Midway. If we fight them in the Midway area, this fleet will be our main adversary.

After the 1st Mobile Fleet led by Nagumo successfully destroys the airfield at Midway, it will provide cover for the 4th Fleet, the fleet that actually landed at Midway.

The fourth fleet, with one light aircraft carrier and two battleships as the core combat force, was responsible for landing on Midway. But this fleet did not operate at the same time as the 1st Mobile Fleet.

The last Japanese fleet, the main formation led by Isoroku Yamamoto, consisted of the light aircraft carrier Hosho and four battleships, including the Yamato, and other auxiliary ships. The position of this fleet was between the Aleutian Islands and Midway, and it was used as a reserve for both theater of operations.

The Japanese were arrogant, and in their eyes it was a battle that was sure to be won. So, they gave the operation. It was named "Operation Independence Day". ”

Halsey, who was smoking, instantly raised the eyebrow of his right eye to his forehead, looking like one eye was big and the other was small.

Glaring at Rocherford. Then he looked at Nimitz, and Halsey asked sullenly, "Since the Japanese named this operation Operation Independence Day, is it ・・・・・・ the day they planned to launch the attack?"

Nimitz nodded heavily and said to Halsey, "That's right, the day the Japanese are scheduled to attack Midway is July 4th, Independence Day. ”

Although the answer has already been guessed. Nimitz's answer still caused an uproar in the conference room.

"These damn Japs should be hanged." Halsey couldn't help but curse.

"They dared to launch an attack on Independence Day, which is a blatant insult to the United States of America and to the military uniform on our body." Fletcher shouted angrily.

"Do they really think that we are less numerous than they are, and that we don't exist? It's so arrogant. Spruance said.

Nimitz waved his hand, and the room quickly returned to silence.

"Since the Japanese insisted on attacking Midway on Independence Day. We must let them know that every Fourth of July since 1776 is a great day, which was, is, and will be.

After the war is over, I want those Japanese devils, every July 4th, to look up at the American flag with fearful eyes and tremble to the song of "The Star-Spangled Banner Never Falls." Nimitz said impassionedly.

Halsey raised his chin and stared at Nimitz and asked, "What are you going to do?" ”

Nimitz did not answer Halsey's question, but looked at Rocherford.

"Why are there only eight of the Japanese aircraft carriers you just mentioned? Why did the two fleet carriers of the Japanese, Shotsuru and Zuizuru, not take part in this campaign? Nimitz asked.

"According to the information we have intercepted, it seems that the two aircraft carriers are temporarily unable to attack due to a lack of pilots, and their subsequent mission is to cover the convoy south to Rabaul."

Nimitz looked at Halsey and said with a smile: "It seems that your last operation frightened the Japanese, and they actually dispatched two aircraft carriers to escort the transport fleet at once. ”

"It's a pity that they escaped a catastrophe, and if they also appeared at Midway, I would send them all to the bottom of the sea at once." Halsey said confidently.

Nimitz shook his head with a smile, denying Halsey's opinion.

"If we were you, knowing that those two aircraft carriers would also appear on Midway, I would choose to retreat, we only have three aircraft carriers at our disposal now, and it is too risky to fight against six aircraft carriers of the enemy at once. I would rather go and destroy the enemy in the direction of the Aleutian Islands first, let the Japanese seize Midway, and then take it back. ”

Hearing Nimitz's lesson, Halsey pouted at first, and then suddenly remembered something.

Halsey turned to Rocherford and asked, "Mr. Rocherford, do you know that this battle is a decisive battle, and your intelligence is accurate and reliable?" It won't be like the last ambush on the transport fleet, when the enemy was eight warships, but you told me there were sixteen. ”

Rocherford felt a pang of heat on his face, the miscalculation of the last intelligence had reached the size of a basketball court in his mental shadow area.

Halsey did not notice Rocherford's strangeness, and said to himself: "It doesn't matter if the number of enemies is less than in the intelligence, it is easier to destroy, if there are more than in the intelligence・・・・・・"

Nimitz saw Rocherford's predicament and hurriedly interjected to relieve Rocherford.

"Pre-war intelligence preparation is necessary, and the commander of the fleet is even more important in the impromptu decision on the battlefield. After the start of the campaign, it is necessary to strengthen reconnaissance of the battlefield, and if the number of enemy aircraft carriers is larger than expected, you must decisively withdraw from the battle, and absolutely not be brutal. Nimitz said.

"Since it is a decisive battle, we have to choose the strongest enemy to fight. Since it is a decisive battle against the enemy on Independence Day, we want them to remember this day for the rest of their lives. Gentlemen, inspect your warships, wipe off your aerial bombs and shells, and wait for my orders. Nimitz said.

After the group had departed in turn, Nimitz said to Rocherford, who he could keep, "Mr. Stationmaster, you and your men please work hard for a while, and when this battle is won, I will give you a holiday, and ask Washington for your credit." ”

"Mr. Admiral, the news of our victory is the best reward for us."

Time passed rapidly, and on the night of June 26 and 29, when the Soviet-German battlefield was in full swing, a total of four fleets left the Japanese mainland one after another and disappeared into the vast ocean under the cover of night.

Almost the day after the departure of almost every fleet, Rocherford would burst into Nimitz's office and excitedly shout to Nimitz: "They came out, on time." (To be continued.) )