"How serious is the situation with those three battleships?" Hao Dongjue was not too surprised to learn that the three battleships had returned early because of the applause, these three battleships had been running around on the battlefield for several months, and they had been injured several times, and they had never had the opportunity to return to China for overhaul.

"I don't think it's going to sink yet, it's nice to be back in Lae."

At this time, the communications staff officer ran out. "Commander, there is a problem with the two battleships in the formation of Northeast Wei, and the speed has dropped to 12 knots."

Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue were both surprised, this time they didn't need to ask, they all knew that there must be something wrong with the warships belonging to the First Task Force, those warships that were arranged to belong to the Second Task Force and the Fourth Task Force had all returned to Hong Kong for maintenance, and they were in very good condition, and the possibility of failure was very small. It was also true that the problem was a cruiser and a destroyer, and both ships had faulty engine systems, and the engine rooms of both battleships were hit during the battle, and only minor battlefield repairs were made, and no major repairs were made to port. 16K. Mobile station ap.

"Let them break out of formation and return home." Tan Renhao sighed secretly, "In addition, after arriving at the safe sea area, contact the Theater Command in Lae City on your own and prepare to return to China for overhaul." ”

The communications staff officer immediately sent someone to convey the order by light signal, and ten minutes later, the two battleships broke away from the formation and headed west.

"What a disaster!" Seeing the two battleships that disappeared into the gray night sky, Hao Dongjue also lost his appetite, he threw his lunch box aside, "I hope I don't crash into an American submarine, we don't have anti-submarine patrol planes around here." ”

Tan Renhao's expression was also gloomy, when there was no problem, these battleships were holding on, and now there were five battleships that had problems, and now only two cruisers were still under the first task force, namely the flagship "Wei Chigong" and the "Duan Zhixuan" commanded by Wei Dongbei.

It is not known how long these two cruisers will last.

Not long after the two battleships left, the communications staff officer ran back again, Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue were very surprised, could it be that this time there was a problem with the "Duan Zhixuan", and Wei Dongbei had to return ahead of schedule?

"Commander, a telegram from Lae, the U.S. military fleet has been dispatched."

Hearing this, Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue immediately rushed into the command cabin quickly.

The telegram was sent by Yan Guozhong. The night reconnaissance plane he sent out found a large group of planes over the US military airfield that had not been hit, and many planes were landing at the airfield. But the telegram does not mention what type of aircraft, only one point, these planes are twin-engined, and they are all relatively large.

"Twin-engined?" Tan Renhao glanced at Hao Dongjue.

“B-25？” This was Hao Dongjue's first reaction, "Or the P-38, there are not a few twin-engine combat aircraft in the US military, and only these two are active in the Pacific region." ”

Tan Renhao frowned slightly, he had encountered these two planes on the battlefield, but he had not encountered them all times. The B-25 is a medium bomber. in bomb load. It is inferior to heavy bombers such as the B-17 and B-24 in terms of strike range, and inferior to tactical bombers in terms of flexibility. Therefore, the range of use of the B-25 in the Pacific theater was not very wide. The U.S. military even uses these planes mainly for reconnaissance and patrol missions, and the -38 is a heavy night fighter of both sides of the U.S. Army Aviation. Radars are also installed on its night combat models, which can detect and intercept enemy aircraft at night. However, in the Pacific theater, the scope of use of this US fighter is still not very wide, and its main task is reconnaissance. and bombing missions during the day, rather than volleys and air combat.

"The U.S. military doesn't have many of these two fighters, right?" Tan Renhao glanced at the telegram again, "Now that at least a hundred of these planes have arrived over the airport in Port Moresby, what did MacArthur send these planes for?" Is it ready to organize bombing at night? ”

"There wasn't enough time, the planes would definitely need to be refueled, they would even need to be bombed, and it would take at least an hour to fly to Lae by daybreak." Hao Dongjue hesitated for a moment, "Unless it's to deal with us." ”

"Against us? This group is supposed to have flown 50 nautical miles to the west.

If it was coming against us, it should have dropped the bomb first, and then landed, so we would have run away a long time ago. ”

Hao Dongjue nodded slightly, he took the telegram and looked at it for a while. "It's a little weird, but ......"

"But what?" Tan Renhao looked at his partner.

"There are several transport aircraft in the U.S. military that are twin-engined, including hundreds of C47s in Australia, these can't be transport planes, not bombers, right?"

Tan Renhao was slightly stunned, and immediately called the staff officer over. "Immediately ask General Yan Guozhong when our bombers will arrive. Also, let the night reconnaissance plane further confirm the situation, whether it is a bomber or a transport plane, don't be confused, let the pilots keep their eyes open, if you can't see clearly, then fly lower! ”

Half an hour later, Yan Guozhong's second telegram arrived. Bombers dispatched by the Navy and the Strategic Strike Force will bomb after 4 a.m., which will ensure that the US military will not be able to repair the airfield before dawn. And the reconnaissance aircraft has confirmed that it is indeed a C-47 transport aircraft, not a B-25 or a P-38.

In fact, these three aircraft are relatively recognizable in appearance, the C-47 has a thicker fuselage, and the front end of the aircraft has a pronounced ovoid fairing, while the B25 has a thinner fuselage, and the characteristics of the -38 are even more obvious, and the aircraft adopts a beam tail layout, with the pilot in the middle of the wing. The pilot of the night reconnaissance plane just didn't make it clear in the telegram, which caused Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue to have a false alarm. In addition, the telegram added that more than 200 U.S. military transport planes have arrived in Port Moresby, and the number continues to increase, and it is likely that the number will reach more than 300 by dawn.

"What did MacArthur do with so many transport planes in the past, did he not have bombers anymore, and he was going to use transport planes to carry out bombing missions?"

"You can figure it out." Tan Renhao glanced at his partner, who looked a little half-joking, "MacArthur should still have a lot of bombers in his hands." But the problem is that the purpose of his transport plane in the past was not to deal with us. ”

"So what is he going to do? Be prepared to evacuate the wounded to the ground. This is also not the time, is there so many wounded who need to mobilize hundreds of transport planes to transport? ”

Tan Renhao shook his head, he didn't joke with Hao Dongjue. "It seems that MacArthur is on guard against our big attack on Port Moresby. How many soldiers can a C-47 transport? ”

"At least 36 people, maybe 50 people if you reduce the amount of equipment you can carry and let some soldiers sit in hanging baskets."

"How many C-47s does the U.S. military have on the Australian side?" Tan Renhao asked the second question.

"There must be hundreds, anyway." Hao Dongjue pondered for a moment, "There are about 400 of them." At least that's what we've gotten before. ”

"Then, according to the calculation of one plane transporting 36 people, 400 planes can transport nearly 15,000 soldiers at one time." Tan Renhao sighed, "It seems that MacArthur has also obtained a lot of information, our actions have frightened him, and he thinks that we will focus on attacking Port Moresby." ”

"You mean......" Hao Dongjue glanced at his partner in surprise, "MacArthur is sending more troops to Port Moresby?" ”

"yes, otherwise what else could he do with so many transport planes?" Tan Renhao sneered, "These 400 transport planes can transport a maximum of a few hundred tons of goods in one night. And for the tens of thousands of U.S. troops over there. They eat hundreds of tons of food in a day alone. So, MacArthur was able to transport only soldiers. Our build-up of two divisions in Lae must have been known to MacArthur, perhaps. The news of Yan Guozhong's application for the reserve of three divisions was also obtained by MacArthur. And this time our series of attacks will make MacArthur think that we are holding back his forces in the Solomon Islands, and then focus on attacking Port Moresby, and even devote five divisions of troops to attack Port Moresby, and the number of American troops in Port Moresby is less than 35,000, and without sea supremacy and air supremacy, it will definitely not be able to stop the attack of five Marine Divisions. Port Moresby does not yet have a shortage of supplies. In this case, if you were MacArthur, what would you do with these 400 transport planes? ”

Hao Dongjue nodded slightly. "Looks like MacArthur is ready to fight hard."

"It also proves that our actions are working. Even MacArthur, the old fox, had to think that we would focus on attacking Port Moresby. Tan Renhao laughed, "If he arranges all transport planes tonight, then it is impossible to think of deploying bombers here." Contact Lei Shaoqing and them, and let them attack according to the plan. Maybe by the time their bombers arrived after dawn, the airfield would be littered with corpses. ”

By the time Tan Renhao made this analysis, more than 200 heavy bombers, as well as five squadrons of tactical bombers dispatched by the HNA (no escort fighters had been arranged because there was no threat from enemy fighters) had flown over the mountains less than 80 nautical miles from Port Moresby. These two groups of bombers arrived over the US airfield one after another at around 4:15 a.m. At that time, the fourth batch of C-47s carrying American officers and soldiers had just arrived. I haven't had time to land yet. The airport was brightly lit, and a large number of US officers and men who got off the plane did not have time to move to a safe place at all, and were directly exposed to the airport.

The "Wolf Dove" group was the first to start dropping bombs, and when many heavy bombers who had finished dropping their bombs found that there were still quite a few US transport planes in the sky, they no longer rushed to return home, but leaned in and began to "beat" those US transport planes with the self-defense guns on the bombers. Then, the tactical bombers who had finished dropping bombs also joined the ranks of dealing with US transport planes, and this was probably the first time that bomber pilots were not chased and killed by other people's fighters on the battlefield, but they went to hunt down enemy planes. Of course, the effect of night interception was not very small, and not many C47s were shot down, but most of the C-47s were so frightened that they fled in all directions and did not dare to land on the airfield at all.

And at that time there was not enough fuel on many C-47s. After the Tang Empire's bomber group returned, many C-47s that had run out of fuel had to make a forced landing on the island, and some C-47s that had fled to the surface of the sea simply made a forced landing on the sea.

This was the second major strategic airlift carried out by the US military in the Pacific theater, and the result was a disastrous failure. The first strategic airlift of troops and supplies to Guam was basically successful, which allowed the US military to hold out in the Mariana Islands for a lot longer. This time, the strategic airlift organized by MacArthur was a complete failure.

More than 100 C-47s were lost in the airlift, of which more than 50 were damaged after the forced landing alone.

In addition, of the more than 10,000 American officers and soldiers transported to Port Moresby, more than 2,000 were killed on the airfield, and more than 4,000 were disabled and incapacitated (it was even more troublesome to transport these wounded back), so MacArthur only added less than 3,000 officers and men to Port Moresby, and at the same time, the American troops here had to take care of the more than 4,000 wounded and prepare more than 2,000 body bags.

The use of strategic airlift in the Pacific theater is not very large, and this is limited by geographical conditions and second, by the characteristics of warfare. Although the Pacific Theater was the most intense, longest-lasting, and largest battlefield during the entire Great War, in fact, the scale of the battles in the Pacific Theater was not very large, the number of troops invested in each battle was not very large, and the geographical scope of the battle was not very wide, which was too far behind the continental battlefield. The predominance of maritime transport in the Pacific also limits the role of strategic airlift, and in addition, airports on many islands cannot accommodate large transport aircraft, which limits the scale of strategic airlift.

"Strategic airlift" is a new term that emerged in this war, along with "strategic bombing"

The same. Although "strategic airlift" does not have as much blood and rain as "strategic bombing," the changes it has brought to the war are extremely remarkable. On the Mediterranean side, for example, Italy and Spain carried out several large-scale strategic airlifts to the North African theater with the help of British and French airlift forces. And in the middle of 24, there were even officers of the US Army Aviation who proposed to airlift strategic materials to Russia through the skies over the Arctic Ocean.

The emergence of "strategic airlift" brought great changes to the war, but under the technical conditions at that time, the role that strategic airlift could play was still very limited.