The most important thing in fighting at sea is, of course, to discover the opponent first!

Most of the planes in the Hawaii base have been transferred to the direction of the Aleutian Islands, and they want to fight the main force of the island country's fleet there, but they have been empty, and now the forces in the Hawaii base are empty, but there is no problem in taking off a dozen maritime patrol planes.

It was still night, and the VP-6F squadron inside the Pearl Harbor base took off in its own PBY-5 seaplane.

During the last surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the island nation, the Maritime Patrol Aircraft Wing suffered great losses, and almost all but three reconnaissance planes that went out to sea to patrol were sunk at the base.

However, the industrial capacity of the United States was too strong, and they soon produced a batch of brand new seaplanes and equipped them with their own troops, and since only the bases were damaged, most of the pilots were still intact, so they quickly regained their combat effectiveness. Moreover, the model has changed from the original PBY-1 to the latest PBY-5.

This seaplane looks like a boat underneath and can take off and land on the water, while the wings are high above and the engines are also the highest, so as to avoid the effects of splashing seawater on the sea.

This is the largest seaplane produced in the United States and was also famous in World War II.

Now, Pilot Krauss turns on the knobs, and the two Pratt & Whitney R-82s on top let out a familiar roar, and the Hamilton standard hydraulically controlled propellers follow suit, and both engines are up and running.

Pushing the throttle stick to the front and reaching 1,200 horsepower for take-off, Klaus piloted the plane, glided down the runway, and then plunged into the darkness.

With two hours left before dawn, he could fly slowly to Midway Island and wander around the waters around Midway.

Seaplanes can not only take off and land on the water, but also have retractable landing gear, take off and land on land, at the same time, it can perform a variety of tasks, usually patrol the sea, hang bombs can attack enemy submarines and surface ships, but also land on the sea to rescue pilots who fall into the water, etc., it is definitely a flight all-rounder.

At the same time, it also has multiple crew members, and as a long-endurance aircraft, its crew is composed of bombardier/nose heavy, chief and co-pilot, navigator, radioman, random mechanic, and two waist heavys. At the same time, in order to ensure long-term missions at the forward base, the cabin is also equipped with sleepers, galleys and food storage facilities.

Just as the plane was heading in the direction of Midway, the crew had already begun to search the sea.

The dark night will not affect too much, because it is equipped with a sea search radar, although the performance is not very reliable, but it can already find large ships on the sea surface, and the darkness can just cover it and let it search calmly.

They didn't dare to get too close to Midway, which was already dangerous, and at the same time, it was also to avoid startling the snakes, and the surface formation of the islanders would definitely not stay at Midway.

"Fly north, and if the commander of the opposing side is smart enough, it will definitely go north, ready to intercept our fleet." The captain said.

Klaus pushed the control disc, and the bomber began to fly north, and by this time, the east was already showing the whiteness of the fish's belly.

"The radar found the target, one hundred and fifty nautical miles north of Midway, there are a large number of warships!"

This news instantly stimulated everyone, Klaus raised his head and looked into the distance, just on the sparkling sea, it seemed that he could see ships floating on the sea one by one.

It's definitely the fleet of the islanders!

"Quick, report to your superiors, we have discovered the island fleet!" The captain shouted, "Closer, let's continue to observe closer." ”

As reconnaissance planes, they absolutely cannot rely solely on radar, they must also visually confirm the target, identify the type and number of targets, and this process is very dangerous.

As a seaplane, their fastest speed is less than 300 kilometers per hour, while fighter jets can easily exceed 500 kilometers per hour, and once targeted by fighters, it is difficult for them to escape.

However, no one is afraid, this is their mission!

As the seaplane approached slowly, you could see the black smoke coming out of the top of the warships, the whirlpool of the sea water at the tail, and the wide deck plane, which was the main aircraft carrier fleet!

"The confirmed target is the island country's aircraft carrier group, with a total of four aircraft carriers and several large warships." Klaus shouted.

At this time, it was indeed the island nation's aircraft carrier formation driving on the sea, and on the aircraft carrier Kaga, Nagumo Tadaichi was pondering the chart.

Midway was taken cleanly, and the next thing they were going to do was to ambush the Americans' aircraft carrier formation! Therefore, in the second half of last night, Nagumo Tadaichi sailed north with a mobile fleet with four aircraft carriers as the core, trying to find the main force of the US aircraft carriers for a decisive battle.

The Americans will certainly rush back in a hurry, and at the top speed, they will not even have time to turn to the wind and fly more carrier-based aircraft, and they can easily achieve the goal of ambush as long as they ambush the opponent's channel in advance.

Where is the good place?

"Report, an American patrol aircraft was spotted." Just then, a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Immediately dispatch our escort fighter and shoot it down!" Nagumo Tadaichi said, standing up and walking to the window of the bridge, looking at the sea in the distance.

Aircraft carrier formations are not capable of fighting at night.

The difficulty is not the night take-off, but the night landing, the landing on the aircraft carrier is already suffering, and the night is even more impossible, and in history, there are only Saratoga, Raiders, Enterprises, Independence. It's basically training in nature. The actual combat effect is about equal to zero.

Even in later generations, at most half of the pilots of aircraft carriers have the ability to land at night, so if they want to attack, they will take off in the early morning and return to the sea at dawn.

Now that they are sailing, in order to hurry, they did not even release the carrier-based aircraft, but just sailed north.

But naval aviation is well-trained, and just after discovering it, within a minute, the pilot, Jiro Matsushita, had already taken off in the Zero Combat and swooped in the direction of the maritime patrol plane.

When it was discovered, the maritime patrol plane immediately turned around and returned at top speed, but unfortunately, it could not escape the pursuit of the fighters behind it, and a few minutes later, a fireball appeared in the air.

Blown up!

This was just a small episode in the voyage, but Nagumo Tadaichi still raised his vigilance and ordered the release of more than a dozen fighter jets to fly over his side, ready to deal with unexpected situations at any time.