At this time, the tarmac at Midway was already full of fighters and bombers, 50 modified B-24 heavy bombers were hiding in these planes, and 45 "Whaling Fork anti-ship missiles" had been loaded into the planes and were ready to go to the battlefield at any time. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Chiang Haoran and Nimitz made a round tour of the island and made sure that everything was correct, and then they boarded the battleship Iowa, the flagship of the campaign, and headed for the Third Fleet, which was 500 nautical miles ahead.

The battleship Iowa was the largest displacement battleship ever built in the U.S. Navy. On the basis of maintaining the protection level of the South Dakota class, it focuses on increasing the speed, carrying a more powerful power plant, and the design speed is up to 33 knots, which is the largest main engine power and the highest speed battleship in history. The standard displacement is 44,500 tons, the full load displacement is 55,710 tons, the total armor weight is 18,466 tons, the total length is 270.4 meters, the waterline length is 262.1 meters, the maximum width is 33 meters, the maximum draft is 11 meters, the main engine power is 212,000 horsepower, the endurance is 15,900 nautical miles and 17 knots, the main gun is 9 50 times the caliber 406 mm 3 triple mounts, the secondary guns are 20 38 times the caliber 127 mm 10 twin mounts, and the carrier-based aircraft is 4 catapults and 2 catapults.

Historically, the Iowa was launched in 1942, but Jiang Haoran's appearance has already made history full of holes.

Although the Iowa was born in response to the Japanese battleship Yamato, because the islanders took extremely strict secrecy measures for the construction and use of the Yamato, the US Navy greatly underestimated the strength of the ship for a long time, mistakenly believing that its displacement did not exceed 46,000 tons, and it used 406 mm caliber main guns and a speed of 30 knots.

Based on erroneous information, the Americans believed that the firepower and armor thickness of the "Iowa" class battleships were enough to deal with the new Japanese battleships while reaching a high speed of 33 knots, but in fact, the tonnage, main gun power, and armor thickness of the Yamato surpassed the battleships of the same era, and it was still the strongest battleship in the world at that time.

Of course, in this period of rapid development of aircraft carriers, battleships have actually begun to come to an end from their peak.

A battleship is a kind of large-scale surface combat ship with large-caliber naval guns as its main weapon, with strong armor protection ability and strong assault power, and undertakes ocean-going combat missions. In the centuries leading up to the end of World War II, battleships dominated the sea world, leading a generation of blue coquettishness, and were an indispensable backbone of the naval fleet.

As early as the middle of the 17th century, three-masted sail warships appeared at sea, its hull was wooden, and its displacement increased to 4,000 tons to 5,000 tons; The artillery deck has up to 3 floors and can hold more than 100 guns. This kind of battleship completely changed the tactics of the past sideside battle in naval warfare, and mainly used multiple ships to form a single column battle line for artillery battles, hence the name "battleship". In the second half of the 19th century, battleships generally adopted steel armor, with a full load displacement of 10,000 tons to 12,000 tons, a speed of 16 knots to 17 knots, the caliber of the main gun increased from 200 mm to 300 mm to 350 mm, and the thickness of the hull protective armor reached 230 mm to 450 mm. In the naval battles of World War I, battleships fully demonstrated the superiority of large ships and huge guns, and thus became the focus of the development of the navies of various countries.

In the late 30s of the 20th century, the development of battleships reached its peak. The battleships built during this period, such as the Japanese "Yamato" and "Musashi", had a displacement of more than 70,000 tons, three triple main guns with a caliber of 460 mm and a speed of 27 knots; The thickness of the armor is also roughly the same caliber as the main gun, and the underwater protection is strengthened to resist the attack of torpedoes, and the characteristics of the large ship and the giant cannon are more obvious. It can be said that before World War II, battleships have always been the main ships and core forces of the fleets of various maritime powers, occupying the position of maritime hegemon.

But in the latter part of World War II, aircraft carriers completely replaced the important position of battleships and became the hegemon of the seas.

It was already midnight when the battleship Iowa caught up with the Third Fleet, and under the dim stars and moon, three aircraft carriers and more than 100 warships of various types were advancing through the wind and waves, and they would expand their battle line to a thousand nautical miles from Midway Island before dawn.

The Third Fleet is the frontal force of this campaign, and it is responsible for luring the enemy into the depths; 500 nautical miles behind the southwest of the Third Fleet is an aircraft carrier battle group composed of two aircraft carriers of the Seventh Fleet in the Pacific Ocean, and at the same distance from the Seventh Fleet in the southeast, there is an aircraft carrier battle group composed of two aircraft carriers of the British East India Fleet.

The three aircraft carrier battle groups formed a huge "pin" character on the vast sea, and only when the Third Fleet in front successfully drew the Japanese Combined Fleet into a distance of 500 nautical miles from Midway Island, the two aircraft carrier battle groups in ambush in the rear immediately came up and tightened their pockets, and the tactical purpose of this battle was to completely annihilate all the invading enemies.

During World War II, all countries, including the United States, did not have a fixed aircraft carrier battle group, and there was not even the concept of an aircraft carrier battle group. For example, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the U.S. fleet had a total of 17 aircraft carriers, 18 frigate carriers, 12 battleships, 24 cruisers, 141 destroyers, other ships, torpedo boats, submarines, and about 1,500 aircraft. Just consisting of 2 aircraft carriers and 4 destroyers.

It can be said that the brand-new concept of the aircraft carrier battle group was planned by Jiang Haoran, and although the supreme commander of this battle was General Nimitz, almost the entire plan was written by Jiang Haoran.

The premise is that before the Third Fleet introduces the combined fleet of the island forces into the ambush circle, the two aircraft carrier battle groups in the rear must be completely invisible and not detected by the enemy; once exposed in advance, if the Japanese concentrate their firepower to deal with a certain aircraft carrier battle group on the flank, whether it is the Seventh Fleet of the United States or the East India Fleet of Britain, they will absolutely not be able to resist it, and the long distance of several hundred nautical miles will become extremely slim. Therefore, the distance between the two aircraft carrier battle groups in the rear was widened to five hundred nautical miles, just to prevent this.

However, this move also has drawbacks, which means that in the early battle of luring the enemy, the frontal Third Fleet must complete this difficult task alone, and the risk is not low.

In the early morning of the next day, on the deck of the battleship Iowa, Jiang Haoran and Nimitz and a group of staff generals stood in the wind, the sea breeze blew the rice flag hunting, a few colored seagulls swept past the ship, a round of red sun emerged from the sea, hanging in the clouds, brilliant, the sea of clouds was dyed orange and bright red, like a flame boiling, and the sea water was also dyed red, indicating that today is a rare good weather, suitable for killing the enemy and making meritorious contributions. In the distance is a warship waving flags, the breeze and waves, a good picture of the sunrise on the sea, Jiang Haoran couldn't help but chant softly, "Half the river is sorrowful and half the river is red." ”

"Ah, what?" Nimitz looked sideways at Jiang Haoran and said suspiciously, Jiang Haoran spoke Chinese, and he responded in English.

Jiang Haoran smiled and replied in English: "It's nothing, it's just that the sea view is beautiful." ”

Nimitz shook his head with a wry smile, and said, "You still have this leisure, there is no trace of the monkey army yet, whether they will come or whether we can meet them as scheduled has not yet come to fruition, my heart is in my throat." ”

Jiang Haoran smiled slightly: "Don't worry, they will come, we choose the best straight-line distance, they will choose to pass by here in terms of range and tactical maneuvering, we just wait patiently." ”

Nimitz shrugged helplessly, but his eyes fell on the newly repaired "Enterprise" aircraft carrier in the distance, a plane was taking off from the aircraft carrier, the silver paint shone in the morning light, drawing a smooth line and rushing into the sky, slowly turning into a black dot and disappearing from view, the reconnaissance plane had already been dispatched.

Jiang Haoran also took this scene in his eyes, his expression was a little cold, he didn't know what he was thinking, behind him were Su Canwen and more than a dozen members of the Snow Wolf Special Combat Team, although they were still straight and cold as iron, but their faces were not so good-looking, there was a kind of weak whiteness, they had never been on a battleship or even experienced the bumps on the sea, so that they all vomited so much that they vomited out the sea urch, these dozen or so were quite good, and the rest included the Mei sisters, Liang Xiaotian, Xiaodao and other team members, At this time, he didn't even have the strength to get up, but Jiang Haoran didn't seem to feel anything, as usual.

Ten minutes later, a senior staff officer hurriedly came to report that the submarine ahead had discovered the enemy's ships, the exact number of which was unknown, and that they were about 300 nautical miles away from our aircraft carrier fleet.

"Good!" Nimitz waved his arms in the air and ordered all personnel to be ready for battle, pay close attention to the movements of the island army, and send reconnaissance planes to thoroughly check the number of warships on the island.

Half an hour later, the reconnaissance plane sent back the news that it had discovered that the four Japanese aircraft carriers and more than 100 other battleships, destroyers, cruisers, and other large and small warships were advancing at full speed, and the target direction was directly aimed at the Third Fleet.

Nimitz was ecstatic, the four aircraft carriers may not be the enemy's full strength, but they must be the main attack fleet, their appearance proves that the enemy's offensive direction is not wrong, it is completely in accordance with the thinking of the Mi army, now what they have to do is to withstand the first wave of attacks of the island army, try their best to transfer the support fleet of the island army, and then lead them into the ambush circle step by step.

Nimitz ordered the fleet to set up a defensive formation and prepare to meet the enemy.

In an instant, a terrible siren sounded on the sea, and the soldiers of the aircraft carrier and the ships began to emerge from the deck and enter the combat position, and one after another carrier-based planes began to take off from the aircraft carrier and quickly form an air formation.

The reconnaissance planes of the Mi army can discover the aircraft carriers of the island army, and similarly, the reconnaisance planes of the island army will also discover the aircraft carrier fleet of the Mi army, and a large-scale air battle is already on the verge of breaking out.