PS: Congratulations to the reader "Yuebei Hanjiang" to become the leader of this book, and I will make up for it after my trip, thank you for your support!

Long after the end of World War II, in addition to the need for further study and absorption of the tactics and tactics of the Great War, the art of command has also become a topic of conversation among military fans around the world, and Tsukahara 243 has always been recognized by the Japanese side as the strongest aircraft carrier commander in World War II, and the most important basis for this proposal is the "U-turn of the gods" in the Caribbean Sea War, believing that the significance and whimsy of this U-turn even surpassed the enemy's turn in front of the enemy during the Battle of Tsushima by Heihachiro Togo -- that battle laid the foundation for the victory of the Battle of Tsushima. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Ozawa walked over to the chart and analyzed the tactical significance of Tsukahara's move with Crank.

"The enemy just spotted us here." Ozawa pointed to the location on the chart, "Let's assume that the point is T-point, if you are an enemy, where will you go if you are going to send out an air attack?" ”

"If the enemy plane arrives in 2 hours, combined with the speed and direction of the fleet when it is discovered, it should go to the vicinity of T+100 km."

"Now the fleet is going back, and the position in 2 hours is on the T-100, if the commander of the enemy air force does not find the enemy, he subconsciously judges whether to continue to search in the front hemisphere?"

Cranke nodded, it was almost certain - now that the fleets were in a hurry to get out of the Caribbean, the motorized fleet was the closest to the exit, and everyone would only think that he was running fast, and no one would expect him to run back.

"Assuming that the enemy air force has searched for 100 kilometers and still does not find the target, then it will basically be chaotic, even if the commander of the US air force is more experienced and reacts quickly, the enemy aircraft group will fly back from the position of T+200, and the fleet can run out about 50 kilometers in the process, and the enemy must fly from the place of T+200 to the position of T-150 to attack again, guess, what will be the consequences?"

Cranke gasped: "The US military wasted 350 kilometers of fuel and time in vain. ”

"It will also overwhelm the pilots' patience, physical strength, and reduce the number of planes that can be put on attack - if they don't want to fall overboard or parachute to South America, they have to return." Ozawa said, "When people are anxious, their technical movements will be deformed, and if my guess is correct, Tsukahara-kun should arrange fighter interceptions to weaken the enemy's superiority layer by layer." ”

"I have a question, how to direct enemy aircraft to search in the direction of T+200 and not in the opposite direction?"

"It will take on-the-spot micro-tactics and some luck on the part of the front-line aviation commanders." Ozawa laughed, "Luck is a very important part of naval warfare, isn't it?" ”

Cranke nodded, convinced of the change and looking forward to the rest of the game.

At 7:55, the formation of the cover planes flew back to Xianghe and Ruihe to refuel, and all the pilots were stunned to see the fleet galloping westward.

"Chief ......" This time, Minoru Genda and Mitsuo Fuchida jointly came up to ask, and the anxiety was overflowing.

"I know what you want to ask, let the chief of staff explain it to you, I have other questions to think about." Tsukahara waved his hand unhurriedly, with a calm and relaxed expression.

Ryunosuke Kusaka explained the truth to the two of them and said: "Although the commander hopes that the whereabouts of this fleet will be exposed as late as possible, since it is inevitable that it will be exposed, he can only come up with some ingenious tactics, and the focus of the fighter force will be to divert the enemy attack aircraft group from the mobile fleet, and strive to delay and destroy as many enemy aircraft as possible." ”

After listening to this explanation, Minoru Genda and Mitsuo Fuchida were both relieved and said happily: "The chief has an ingenious idea, but we really misunderstood. ”

Tsukahara shook his head: "There are many opportunistic elements, but now we are at a disadvantage, and we have to protect ourselves and cover the shelling formation, so we can only make this strategy." ”

"When will the fighter unit strike?"

"Don't worry." Tsukahara looked at the wall clock, "The enemy reconnaissance plane found the fleet at about 7:10, and the first attack wave should be released one after another at 7:30, and I expect it to arrive at 9:30 at the earliest, all we have to do now is wait, if the reconnaissance can send back useful information, we can launch an attack as soon as possible." ”

Up to now, neither Tsukahara nor Fletcher had expected that the two aircraft carrier formations were currently moving in opposite directions, and that the distance between them was rapidly shrinking -- not at a speed of 25 km/h, as Cox thought, but at nearly 90 km/h.

At 8:30, Tsukahara gave an order: 70 Bf-219s were released one after another and began to assemble at the designated location to ambush possible US attack aircraft groups. To bolster the ambush force, he reduced the size of the mobile fleet from 24 to 20 aircraft.

Although Ryunosuke Kusaka looked calm when he explained to Minoru Genda and Mitsuo Fuchida just now, he was very nervous now: after Tsukahara sent 70 fighters away, the fleet covering force was only 20 aircraft, which was a rather dangerous number, and if the enemy army was not fooled and attacked the fleet directly, this little effort would be in vain, and it would not be able to parry at all.

Tsukahara comforted him: "Don't worry too much: these planes are only half an hour away from the fleet, and the perimeter heavy cruisers can also provide the fleet with 20 minutes of warning time, and if something changes, just go past the first 10 minutes." ”

At 8:40, Ryunosuke Kusaka told Tsukahara with a sad face: "The first batch of water reconnaissance except for the No. 3 plane, all the rest returned, and the report found nothing, and the second batch took off about half an hour ago, and they will search again." ”

Tsukahara nodded: "This matter is not urgent, let the reconnaissance plane be careful, and then be careful." ”

The reason why the No. 3 aircraft did not report the news for a long time was because the plane had a problem during the reconnaissance, the throttle valve failed and the speed could not be pushed, the plane became lower and lower, and finally fell into the sea altogether. The pilot, Nakamura, could only stop on the sea for emergency repairs, and the other two were so anxious that they were sweating profusely but staring dryly, complaining that Nakamura did not conduct a detailed inspection of the plane before departure, and on the other hand, they were anxious for fear of making a mistake. Nearly an hour later, the throttle valve was barely back to normal and could be pushed three-quarters of the way through, so the investigation was reopened.

After flying for more than 40 minutes, the observer Hashimoto suddenly shouted: "Nakamura! ”

"I've told you many times, it's not my fault, who knew the plane broke down suddenly?"

"No, no, no!" Hashimoto was so anxious that he shouted, "Look below! ”

"Below?" Nakamura subconsciously looked down, and suddenly found a large fleet of fleets on the sea, among which there were several flat-deck ships.

"This is a U.S. aircraft carrier?" Nakamura called out in surprise, "When I descend to the altitude to get close to the reconnaissance, you will immediately prepare a report." ”

"The US aircraft carrier formation, fleet aircraft carrier 3, light aircraft carrier 2, course 115 degrees, speed 28 knots, the center is about 380 kilometers southeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti......"

Originally, according to the normal patrol route and time, the No. 3 plane would not have been able to detect the US military formation, and they would also go back to their orders like other water scouts and wait for the second wave of reconnaissance planes to arrive to reconnoitre.

At 9 o'clock, Minoru Genda rushed over almost separately to report the news, and Tsukahara finally showed a smile on his face.

On the Lexington, Cox is reporting: "At 7:30, the first attack wave has taken off, including 16 F6F fighters, 18 F4F fighters, 36 SBD dive bombers, 36 TBF torpedo attack aircraft, a total of 106 aircraft, they will coordinate with the Puerto Rican Army Aviation for the first round of strikes, the Army Aviation sent all the troops including 36 P-47, 48 SBD and 24 A20, a total of 108 aircraft, B-25 formation because of too large losses and combat effectiveness is not obvious, This time it will not be dispatched, so that a total of 210 aircraft will be put into the first round of strikes; At 8 o'clock sharp, the second attack wave took off, including 16 F6F, 24 F4F, 54 SBD dive bombers, 36 TBF torpedo attack aircraft, a total of 130 aircraft, and the fleet itself reserved 32 direct cover aircraft. ”

"Will there be any reinforcements for the Army Airlines?"

"There is another batch, but it will arrive this afternoon, and it is expected to be in battle tomorrow." Cox smiled bitterly, "Most of the central states are ground-attack aircraft, and there are very few pilots who can attack the sea, and General Marshall is pumping the air forces of the states on the west coast. ”

Fletcher nodded: "We're all or nothing. ”

Cox understood what Fletcher meant: the TBF dive bomber with torpedoes only had a range of about 1,600 kilometers, and the F4F fighter had a similar range after loading the drop fuel tank, and now the fleet launched an attack more than 700 kilometers away, which was tantamount to letting these planes parachute to Venezuela after completing the attack, but the SBD and F6F fighters had a longer range and had a chance to return to the mothership.

At this time, a staff officer quickly stepped forward to report: "A Japanese water scout has been spotted, and the escort fighter has shot it down, but we have received a telegram from the enemy......

"Damn, our location seems to be exposed." Fletcher looked at the time, and his uneasiness was suppressed a little, "It's 9:02 now, and in a little more than half an hour our planes will be able to spot the enemy fleet and attack, and the enemy will probably not be able to attack us in time." ”

"Now that they have a range of more than 700 kilometers, even if they release an attack group, they will not be able to recover it because of the lack of distance, and I think the Japanese or the Germans will be very distressed by the current situation." Cox is equally optimistic.

"Let the fighters be more vigilant, maybe the enemy's light aircraft carrier formation will send a small formation to attack our army, and they will be closer to us." Fletcher added, "If the first strike goes well, we can let the second attack wave directly adjust the direction of the attack, use the main force to deal with the enemy's light air mother formation, and then we will give those battleships another lethal wave tomorrow morning!" (To be continued.) )