ps: I went to Xi'an this morning, went to the History Museum in the afternoon, and went to **** Lane in the evening to experience snacks and shadow puppetry......

Soon after Brooke set off with his group, General Ross's emergency telegram arrived, telling him that the defense line in the Canal Zone was in an emergency: the Germans resumed their offensive after the American attack group retreated, and the early morning air raid caused more than 300 casualties and 7 tanks to the beachhead, and the casualty rate was slightly less than 15%, which was far lower than the advance estimate. At the same time, an amphibious infantry battalion and artillery battalion were allowed to carry out the landing and advance in depth. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Now it was the turn of the Ross' ground forces to withstand the wrath of the Axis attack group: since the Panamanian defenders did not have a single aircraft, Tsukahara only symbolically assigned six fighters to the attack group, and the other 90 or so planes were all He-218s or Ju-98s - the cautious Tsukahara was always on high alert for possible enemy fleets, and had a strong attack fleet on hand. With the continuous advancement of the German Marine Brigade and the extensive coverage of air raids, the casualties of the Panamanian defenders continued to expand, although Ross had 4 times more troops than the German army, but his troops not only lacked heavy firepower and basically did not have actual combat experience, but were pressed and beaten by the Marine Brigade composed of far fewer than himself but composed of hundreds of elite soldiers, and the M4 Sherman tanks he used through gritted teeth were not at all tiger-style opponents, one after another were either destroyed by 88mm tank guns by remote roll call, or destroyed by He-218 dive attacks.

Cohen wanted to help Ross, but he promised Brooke to send all B-25s on reconnaissance missions first, and received a clear order from Washington to counter-ship later, plus the air raid group had already departed, he said that he could only send a telegram to Brooke to ask him to properly cover the ground forces if he had spare strength after the air raid was completed. He could consciously see the casualties of the Panamanian defenders as a sacrifice that had to be made in order to hold back the Axis fleet.

After Brooke set off on the offensive with a fleet of 128 aircraft, Cohen sent 24 B-25s on a search mission to survey the 400-kilometer radius of the Panama Canal Zone. Watching one plane after another take off, Cohen's head was dumbfounded, tears welling down the corners of his eyes, and he didn't know how many planes would come back alive in the end.

The attack of the Marine Brigade was very fierce, and the artillery support of the fleet was also very hard, and after the Mutsu was hung up, Horikichi had already instinctively sensed that the situation was not ideal, and the enemy's land aviation attack was getting stronger and stronger, but he had to insist: The pivot of the Panama Canal lies in the locks, and only by completely destroying them can the canal be paralyzed for a long time, and the canal has a total of three locks, two of which are located in the direction of the Pacific Ocean, and only one is located in the direction of the Atlantic -- the Gatun Lock, which is also the focus of the defense of the US ground forces.

The locks are more than 40 kilometers away from the beachhead on the left side where the Marine Brigade landed, and the covering fire of the artillery fleet cannot be reached, so if it has to be forcibly shelled, it must advance to the Limon Bay at the exit of the canal; theoretically the fleet can rush in, but the water depth there is limited, the main channel is narrow, and the room for maneuver is insufficient, and the consequences in case of an aircraft attack on the way are unimaginable, so the lock must rely on the cover of the Marine Corps and the attack aircraft group to hope for capture.

In view of the crucial significance of paralyzing the canal, after much deliberation, he decided to give Reimer a daylight to risk his fleet into the Bay of Limon for artillery bombardment if the Germans were unable to effectively control the locks before dark. Just as he was thinking about what method he should use to carry out the artillery bombardment if the Marine Brigade could not complete its mission, Kusaka reminded him with a solemn face that the second wave of enemy air raids was about to begin, and the number was about 130.

The attack was dominated by the strength of the US Navy, and the composition of the force changed significantly, becoming a combination of 48 F4U, 36 SBDs and 48 TBFs, with a very small number of aircraft, and all TBFs were equipped with torpedoes. Although Brooke was confident in his troops, he couldn't help but sigh when faced with the dense array of Axis aircraft that came to intercept it: the number of enemy planes was really quite large, at least more than 70 in his opinion, which showed that the rear was wrong in estimating the total number of aircraft of the enemy fleet at least the total number of fighters - they did not have only 50-60 aircraft left, they should have at least 100 aircraft.

He had a good eyesight, and he could see at a glance the reality of the falsehood, with a total of 72 interceptor planes, 16 fighters serving as the last barrier over the fleet, 24 direct cover planes of the mobile fleet, 6 fighters sent to escort the ground attack group and had just returned home to replenish, and now Tsukahara still had a reserve of 10 planes in his hands -- there was hardly much behind.

Ryunosuke Kusaka asked curiously, "Sir, why don't you continue to perform the shockwave tactic?" ”

"It is enough to use the same tactic once, and the enemy will detect it and be on guard."

The large groups of aircraft on both sides engaged in fierce battles, and Brooke adopted a new tactic this time: surround all the attack planes with fighter planes, and clearly stipulate that even if they encounter enemy planes intercepting them head-on, they should not break away from the formation, forcing the enemy planes to engage in hard-to-head combat.

The new tactics caught the Japanese and German pilots a little off guard, they didn't want to fight the enemy fighters, but they couldn't attack the SBD inside without fighting the F4U, and in the hesitation and entanglement, the American aircraft group flew a long way forward. Lieutenant Colonel Rudolph, who was in charge, saw that the situation was not right and ordered the group to attack head-on, whether the opponent was a fighter or an attack aircraft.

After 10 minutes of interception and delayed operations, the Axis Group lost a total of 11 aircraft, and the US military shot down 45 aircraft, including 19 F4U, 14 SBDs and 12 TBFs, and the exchange ratio further declined, reflecting the effectiveness of the new US tactics on the one hand, and on the other hand, the combat efficiency decreased due to the excessive power consumed by the Axis Group on the F4U. A group of US planes arrived over the fleet and prepared to disperse the attack.

The anti-aircraft fire of the fleet opened fire desperately, but the effect was mediocre, and only 2 SBDs and 1 TBF were shot.

As if it had been said, the US planes first dispersed on a large scale, and just as the Japanese and German planes were scattered to meet the attack, the US forces turned into a concentrated attack on the Mutsu -- more than 40 attack planes flew up and down around the ship and wantonly attacked; although the Axis fighters tried their best to protect it, the formation just now had already dispersed, and in addition the desperate struggle of the US fighters, it was difficult for the defense to cover up in place.

Mutsu was in danger, and everyone's hearts were in their throats...... (To be continued.) )