In the middle of the night of 22 April, on the sea about 500 kilometers from Puerto Rico, Mitsuo Fuchida led all the attack planes of the mobile fleet swooped down, and because of this ground attack, all Ju-98s were loaded with bombs and incendiary bombs. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

At 23:07, with Puerto Rico still 180 kilometers away, he decisively gave the order: "Lower the altitude and advance ......"

This hand was learned from the hands of Germany, although the American radar can detect targets at a distance of 150 kilometers, but when the altitude of the fleet drops to about 35 meters, due to the influence of the curvature of the earth, the detection range will be reduced to about 70 kilometers, which has been tried and tested repeatedly during training on Socotra Island. The difficulty this time lies in the low-altitude flight at night, but it is still difficult to defeat the world's largest Axis carrier-based aircraft group at this time.

According to Mitsuo Fuchida's order, the group of planes descended from a mid-altitude of about 3,000 meters to a low altitude of about 800, and after maintaining an attitude of flight for 2 minutes, it was further reduced to 300 meters, and then gradually changed to 100 meters, 50 meters, and 35 meters...... It is not impossible to descend directly from 3000 meters to 35 meters, but it is very easy to have accidents, and the stability rate can be improved after forming a stepped shape. In fact, many of these top pilots can fly at an altitude of about 20 meters, but it was in the calm and well-lit Indian Ocean, and the 35-meter-high night sky raid had basically reached its limit.

Almost at the same time, Major General Cohen, who was in command in Puerto Rico, received a telegram that made him laugh and cry - a telegram of commendation and promotion in the line of fire, and he had been promoted to lieutenant general for his service to the Panamanian war.

The results arranged on Cohen's head were not small, including: 2 battleships, 1 fleet aircraft carrier (the Falcon Eagle was only damaged by the Navy's carrier-based aircraft, and was eventually sunk by the army aviation), 2 light aircraft carriers (the army aviation personnel could not distinguish the difference between oil tankers and light aircraft carriers, so they reported it in a daze, strictly speaking, it was not a false report, and Washington also admitted it), 4-5 cruisers and 4 destroyers, shot down more than 200 enemy planes, and severely damaged the enemy's landing force......

This result sounds quite brilliant, and the promotion is certainly reasonable, but Cohen can guess the thoughts of those bigwigs in Washington: since the losses of the own side cannot be concealed -- it is really difficult to block news in a democratic country, then it is appropriate to exaggerate the enemy's losses a little, and in good conscience, the US military does not mix too much, which is far inferior to the "brilliant record" of the Japanese Navy in sinking 8 or 10 aircraft carriers at every turn in history.

This is the consequence of a series of political deals, and the Army needs to create a heroic figure for the battle, and Cohen is the only one who can barely get around; Because of the martyrdom of Fletcher and a large number of officers, the navy is easy to show its pathos in front of the media, and in addition, this time the army aviation has made great efforts and the navy has reservations, so it has given up competing with the army aviation. The president and the top level of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reached a consensus that Roosevelt would ensure that the generals would pass in front of Congress, the people, and political groups, and the generals would continue to support the president -- support Roosevelt's re-election.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and his confidants and his aides deliberated hard and concluded that the war could not be ended in this term of office, and that Roosevelt had to be re-elected in order to continue the war. At such a critical juncture, it is not necessary to take a little responsibility for the generals, but it can win the favor of the soldiers, although the American military generally does not interfere in politics, but their influence is clearly there, and it would be great if there were war heroes to stand up for the president.

Although the whole battle is not completely over, Cohen knows exactly how the next step will be: on the one hand, the mainstream media will downplay the destruction of the Panama Canal, and will definitely pat their chests and say that "it will not have much impact", and on the other hand, they will vigorously publicize the singing and crying things that have emerged during the war, and arouse the common hatred of the American people. As for the shining points, it is also easy to dig out, such as "thwarting the attack of the Axis group on the east coast of the United States", "repelling the attack of the Axis superior navy on the Caribbean, defending the countries of Central and South America" and other headlines can be said with open mouths.

However, when he turned his head to look at the ground crew who were still busy in the hangar, he felt a little sad: these young men had welcomed the Army Aviation officers and men from the West Coast this time, and although the latter were as scrappy and energetic as ever, the ground crews were close to collapse - the pilots they had come into contact with had been killed or wounded one after another in the past few days, and no one knew how many survivors this new group of comrades would eventually have.

"Sir, the radar room reported that a large number of enemy aircraft were found, and they are still more than 60 kilometers away from us."

"What? So close! The chief of staff on the side was furious, "What are you doing in the radar room?" Such dereliction of duty will take them all to court-martial. ”

"It's too late, hurry up...... Prepare for air defense and sound the alarm. As soon as Cohen spoke, the terrible air defense sirens had sounded over Puerto Rico, but it was obviously too late, Mitsuo Fuchida soon led the attacking aircraft group to the airfield over the airfield, and when they approached the target, they had already climbed in altitude, and the huge axis aircraft group was like entering a no-man's land, wantonly strafing and dropping bombs, and the entire airport became a sea of fire, hangars, oil depots, towers, and runways were especially the most important.

"It's over!" The chief of staff wailed, "Wow, the plane that arrived in the evening......"

"Damn it!" Cohen tore the telegram in his hand to shreds, but he was not carried away by the rage, and ordered loudly, "Leave the plane or anything else, focus on protecting the pilot!" ”

Looking at the firelight rushing up in the sky and the scattered anti-aircraft artillery fire, Mitsuo Fuchida was very satisfied: the last night attack on Panama had thought about approaching at a low altitude, but considering the losses, it was not carried out, and it was honest and normal to advance, and as a result, more than 10 planes were lost at once, and this time he learned a lesson and took the risk of approaching at low altitude at night, and only 3 planes have been lost so far, and the effect seems to be much better than last time......

"Blow it up, blow it up for me! It's good to raze to the ground! ”

The damage caused by the night bombing was very serious, and most of the more than 150 planes that had not yet been put into service that had been transferred to the field in the afternoon were killed in flames and bombs, and fuel depots, hangars, and runways were once again seriously damaged.

Although there was not a single battleship, six heavy cruisers and more than 50 203mm guns covered the fire of the US engineering troops who had just carried out emergency repairs, and shrapnel and limbs flew across the entire base.

At about ten o'clock in the morning, Tsukahara led a mobile fleet to break through the Strait of Dominica and Puerto Rico and sail away, while the battleship formation and decoy fleet arrived in Martinique, which was under French control.

"Gee, if only Martinique could be a forward base." The excited Grass Deer said, "In this way, the shipping lanes of North and South America can easily be cut off by us." ”

"But it's impossible." Horikichi smiled faintly, "After this incident, the Americans will definitely manage the defense points in the Caribbean Sea, and the Frenchman's Martinique may not be able to protect it soon." ”

"Sir, the mobile fleet broke through the Strait of Dominica and Puerto Rico and headed north, General Tsukahara reminded us to pay attention to air defense, and the mobile fleet will not be able to cover us next."

"How many planes do you have left?"

"103 aircraft were changed from zero to war, 64 from Comet, and 59 from Tianshan...... All back-ups are gone! "The pilots lost a total of more than 70 people (groups) for various reasons, of which the German side was just in their early 20s, and the rest were all ours." ”

"The loss rate is more than one-fifth, and we have also lost Mutsu, Hiei, Hayabusa, and a few destroyers, and we have paid a lot of price." Those 50 pilots alone are equivalent to the results of training in the year before the war.

"Pilots on Socotra should be available soon." Cao Lu Yi is optimistic about this, "This loss should still be able to make up, by the end of this year, there will be about 500 pilots who can join the mobile fleet, and it seems that there will be no major battles in the future." ”

"Far from it, the Indian Ocean Raider will be launched soon, and the Combined Fleet will be the main force at that time." Horikichi sighed, "I just don't know what the country will think of this, but I hope they are not as blind as I thought." ”

"Sir, this is an unprecedented victory." Cao Lu Yi said indignantly, "We have wiped out the entire US aircraft carrier force, killed at least 1,000 enemy planes, blew up the canal, and more than 200 American pilots were captured by us alone. ”

"You know too little about high-level politics, the results are not necessarily the key, the line or faction is decisive, I hope these results can shut the mouths of some people in the country......"

Kusaka couldn't take any longer, so he had to change the topic and ask, "What does Tsukahara-kun want to do with his mobile fleet running so far?" We don't have air cover, how dangerous. ”

"What else can I do, go fight the East Coast."

"Huh?" Cao Lu was frightened, "Just rely on the 200 planes and a few heavy cruisers of the mobile fleet to fight the east coast of the United States?" ”

"Who's to say it isn't? However, the US aircraft carrier group has probably been beaten by us, and if it is operated properly, the risk will not be too great, let's return to the Azores as planned, and now we can walk slower on the road, and we must pay attention to anti-submarine. (To be continued.) )