On the night of 25 August, the main force of the huge Combined Fleet slowly swept 200 nautical miles west of the Cook Islands, adjusted its course to the northwest, and headed for Tarawa. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Sir, the Tsunoda fleet has arrived in Rabaul and is expected to continue its departure tomorrow after the unloading is completed."

Horiyoshi nodded and asked, "What about the rest of the transports?" ”

"Basically relatively smooth, only 2 were sunk by the U.S. military, but most of them were old German munitions, and the losses were not large, the aircraft carrier Big Eagle sank 1 U.S. submarine, and the floating items showed that it was the U.S. Sailfish; Several other munitions ships were sent directly by the Army to Indochina for sale, and then prepared to meet the second Indian dispatch in the direction of the Philippines. ”

"That's good, those technical data, industrial equipment, especially machine tools are the top priority, and there is no room for error." Hearing that the transportation line is basically safe, Hori's brow furrowed, "When they return to their homeland, they will definitely be able to play an exponential role." ”

In fact, the local hope for this batch of materials is also to cut off the autumn water, taking the zero war reform as an example, after the German army improved and completed the drawings, the Japanese side also got a set, according to the German side's technical parameters to adjust the body, strengthen the structure is very easy, but the engine that reaches the same level as Germany is dead or alive can not be built, similar results also occurred in the Tianshan Reform, the Comet Change. In the end, there was no choice but to make a decision: on the one hand, the domestic company continued to improve the Yu series of engines, and on the other hand, it was decided that all new aircraft would be imported from Germany. Because the engine factories had been twisting and turning and refusing to admit that their skills were inferior, and they did not report it, by the time Isoroku Yamamoto, who discovered the problem, personally supervised and made adjustments, the combined fleet had actually left Europe, but fortunately, Horikichi had the foresight to purchase hundreds of original engines for each model.

The Combined Fleet also proposed to simultaneously import a batch of original engines and precision machine tools, and required the country to complete at least a part of the airframes in order to provide parts support -- this made Mitsubishi, Nakajima, Aichi and other aircraft manufacturing companies overjoyed, at least the airframes they manufactured would not be wasted.

In the end, they changed their thinking, no longer trying to study the latest engines, but mainly copied the old German models, especially the Stuka and FW-190, which were highly valued by the army. In addition to engines, there are also a large number of German special steels in the cargo hold of the transport fleet, many of which are components and materials urgently needed by the domestic shipbuilding industry, and they are also heading to the mainland.

After a major change in the course of history, the situation in Japan itself has also changed:

After the Combined Fleet went to Europe to fight and adjusted its aircraft carrier construction plan at the same time, with the exception of the Yamato, because there was basically no need to repair any old ships, the Japanese Navy went all out to devote itself to the upsurge of building new warships; in addition, under the system of national unanimity, the army and navy achieved unanimity in many places, reduced internal friction, and saved a lot of money by withdrawing troops from China alone; in addition, the United Fleet won the naval battle in the South Pacific and avoided the meaningless battle for Kuah Island, and the overall situation in Japan was much better than in history.

Taking the aircraft carrier Taiho, which the Ministry of the Navy had high hopes for, for example, due to the cancellation of the Shinano reconstruction of the aircraft carrier, all the materials and workers were concentrated on this warship, not only did it not take the simplified project as in history, but the completion deadline was also advanced, and it was expected to be completed from June 1944 to December 1943.

In addition to Dafeng, the Ministry of the Navy launched three more Yunlong-class ships in August 43 on the basis of the construction of four Yunlong-class ships in the second half of 1942, and ambitiously stated that it was ready to start construction of six ships this year. Originally, it was planned to start construction of the second Taiho-class, but Yamamoto 56 refused to let go on the grounds that the construction period was long and the drawings for changing the Taiho were not perfect.

Due to the innovative use and decisive results of the two Yamato-class ships in naval battles, coupled with the losses of Mutsu and Hiei in the Panama Campaign, King Fushimi Miyahiro, the commander-in-chief of the fleet, put forward a new opinion: on the premise that the construction of the third Shinano continues to advance, he is ready to start construction and change the Yamato-class.

Yamamoto 56 was reluctant to even change the Daiho class for fear of delaying the formation of the Yunlong class, so naturally he would not agree to build the Yamato class, and the two sides argued, and finally reached an agreement, in view of the fact that the Shinano completion date (June 44) was still far away, whether to build the No. 4 ship and wait for the combined fleet to return to decide, this decision was echoed by the majority, and the scheming Yamamoto decided that Horikichi would not agree, but King Fushimi Miyahiro was annoyed - he thought that Yamamoto and Horikichi deliberately united against the fleet faction.

Horikiyoshi, who was stationed on the Musashi, had no idea about this, and he was still wondering whether he could use Germany's transformation of large cruise ships as a model to transform Japan's own auxiliary aircraft carriers, which were very useful from a practical point of view. But it was too wasteful to use warships like Chitose and Chiyoda, and he knew that the army still had several amphibious aircraft carriers in its hands, and he planned to convert them all into auxiliary aircraft carriers.

While pondering, Leng Bu Luyi handed over a telegram: "A telegram from the Marshall Islands sent a plane to reconnoiter two days ago, and found that there are American troops stationed in Tarawa, and the strength seems to be about 2,000 people, except for the North Carolina stranded on the shoal, no enemy fleet has been found for the time being. ”

"Are there any other signs of our army's activity?"

"The telegram was not written." Cao Lu dissuaded, "Since it has been completely occupied by the enemy, are we still going to fight?" ”

"How many enemy aircraft are there in Tarawa?"

"The situation is unknown, but it is expected that there will always be 20-30 planes."

"Then you can't let it stay." Horikichi smiled slightly, "Send a telegram to Tsunoda-kun, and after joining us up, we will attack Tarawa, and I will also send marines to take the island." ”

"Why is that?"

"I want to lure the U.S. Pacific Fleet into a fight."

"They're coming?" Cao Lu Yi was deeply skeptical, "If we want to come, we will attack Australia and New Zealand." ”

"Not necessarily." Horiyoshi said with a smile, "Originally, this battle could be fought or not, but this fleet has not seen him come forward to harass Australia and New Zealand like this, which shows how difficult this opponent is, I am a little uneasy, I have to greet him well, otherwise the combined fleet will be in big trouble when it goes west again in the future." ”

"Okay, then." Both Kusaka and Kondo Nobutake were surprised that the commander was so obsessed with attacking Tarawa and looking for a confrontation with the U.S. military, but the commander's opinion was right, thinking that the defenders of Tarawa and the dozens of planes couldn't do anything with the Combined Fleet, and if they could really lure out the U.S. fleet, it would be in vain.

If Nimitz knew that Horikichi had this thought, he would have to vomit blood in anger.

Just as Horikichi was making up his mind to prepare for a counterattack on Tarawa and lure the enemy out, Admiral Machar was leading a huge German-Italian fleet from Madagascar to the Falklands to carry out Operation "Pearl of Peace". In his opinion, it was easy to seize the Falklands, where there were few British troops and had little combat effectiveness, but the follow-up British and American counterattacks were the focus of close attention. "How has the situation changed?" he asked. Are Britain and the United States still sending troops and resources to South Africa? ”

"It's still ongoing, but with a significant reduction in frequency and quantity."

Jizaburo Ozawa asked with concern, "Is it that the enemy has been deployed, or have they noticed our movements?" ”

The staff officer on the opposite side hesitated for a moment, and finally replied, "Maybe both." ”

"After the capture of the Falklands, are we sure that we can get the support and help of the Argentines? Don't be a trap. ”

"No, if we still have this doubt, we don't have it now." Mashal explained to him with a smile:

After the Argentine military coup d'état, the United States, out of concern about the situation in Argentina, on the one hand, took further diplomatic measures such as further observation and warning, and on the other hand, used the navy to carry out armed intimidation against the Argentine authorities under the pretext that the Langley was preparing to be transferred to the Pacific Fleet. When the Langley formation arrived in Buenos Aires, all the combat planes took off with bombs and the infantry landed in full armor.

Generally speaking, if the newly inaugurated military government relents on the spot, the olive branch of the United States will immediately extend its olive branch, and the treatment and benefits it should give will not be less. The same is true of the coup d'état with Juan Peron, who are so carried away by the power and try to invoke the United States as Austrian aid and kill each other, and no one knows what to do next, except for Peron.

The clever Perón scoffed at the idea of hugging the thighs of the United States, and although he made a great contribution on the day of the coup, he now voluntarily gave up the opportunity to compete for supreme power, and only took the inconspicuous position of Minister of Labor and Social Security, while at the same time boasting of himself as a representative of the working class, declaring his disagreement with the American position. All the coup officers thought he was committing suicide, but in fact he was steadily consolidating his power.

The position of Minister of Labour and Social Security, although not important, has access to workers throughout Argentina. He gave up the opportunity to indulge and compete for power in Buenos Aires, inspected the whole country with his brilliant oratorical talents, paid attention to the development of the national economy, and in fact propagated his ideas to the public in the name of "social justice." He did not mention the name of National Socialism or what he would do in the future, but he constantly promised to give the people the welfare and power they deserved.

“…… My ideal Argentine government and national policy should be one in which the shirtless (in general, ordinary Argentines at the time) should be given decent jobs and raises, that the industries controlled by foreign governments, especially the Jewish consortium, should be returned to the Argentine people in a reasonable way, and that the wealth they created should be shared by all Argentine people.

I insist that the Malvinas Islands are sacred and inalienable territory of Argentina and that every Argentine will fight for him all his life, even to the point of giving his life......"

The diplomats of the Third Reich in Argentina calmly observed all this, and the telegram to Berlin was very simple - "The Malvinas Islands are Alsace and Lorraine of the Argentines, and Juan Perón is everywhere following the Führer's example, following the path that the Führer once walked, and I think he will succeed!" (To be continued.) )