In the cool breeze of a summer night, the American Robert Koontz looked at the dark Panama Port with mixed feelings.

The feared night raids did not come, but he had no doubt about the Luftwaffe's ability to bomb at night, so the silence of the night gave him a very strange feeling, as if a huge pocket was waiting for him and his fleet in the Atlantic.

In the darkness, the majestic warships were ready to go.

"The first detachment successfully entered the 3rd lock area!"

The adjutant's voice was clearly filled with an irrepressible excitement, the Panama Canal is 81.3 kilometers long, the water depth varies from 13 to 15 meters, the river width is 150 meters to 304 meters, and the maximum navigation capacity is 76,000 tons of ships, the water level of the canal is 26 meters higher than the two oceans, there are 6 locks, and it generally takes 9 hours for ships to pass through the canal. Considering that the ships could not make evasive actions in the canal, Robert Koontz divided his Pacific Fleet into three detachments and entered the canal zone one by one, and he planned to wait for the first detachment to sail through the canal zone before letting the second detachment enter, although this speed was slow, but even if the canal was suddenly bombed and blocked by the Luftwaffe, his Pacific Fleet would not be trapped in the canal. However, if a detachment were to remain in the Canal Zone and unable to move, the consequences would be unacceptable.

Because of this, General Robert Koontz was anxious and apprehensive.

In order to deal with a possible German air attack, the US Army and Navy units guarding the Canal Zone prepared all the weapons that could be used for air defense, more than 300 anti-aircraft guns, more than 500 machine guns and machine guns were in unison, and the garrisons of the fortresses were even prepared with emergency digging tools and explosives.

Since its trial voyage in 1904 and its official opening to the outside world in 1920, the Panama Canal has not only shortened the travel time between the two oceanic fleets of the United States, but also brought huge revenues to the United States government. Nearly 10,000 ships pass through the canal each year, or more than 200 per day, and the U.S. government collects hundreds of thousands of dollars a day from these vessels. In order to consolidate its control over this treasured land, the United States first instigated Panama's independence from Colombia, and then signed a series of treaties with Panama. Turning the Panama Canal Zone into a "country within a state". Since then, the United States has built as many as 14 military bases and forts on both sides of the Canal Zone, and has stationed heavy troops here all year round.

Since the completion of the Panamanian defense system, the U.S. government has not only invested a lot of money in maintaining and expanding it every year, but also used the Atlantic Fleet, the Pacific Fleet, and the Army to conduct simulated offensive and defensive exercises on the Panama Canal defense system several times. After satisfying these exercises, the U.S. Navy proudly concluded that even the world's most powerful fleet could not capture the Panama Canal defense zone!

Despite the Navy's confidence, the U.S. government began the war by trying to exclude Panama from the war zone. Unfortunately, their poor performance did not have any effect, and the Germans soon declared Panama a war zone for both sides and demanded that all neutral ships stay away from this area, and at the same time sent more than 30 mine-laying submarines to deploy mines near the two entrances and exits in the north and south. In mid-July, the Panama Canal was completely blocked, and the U.S. garrison in the canal zone had to buy food and supplies from the Panamanian government, and the fleet had to rely on what it had stored before the war.

By the end of July, the situation had finally improved, when the United States minesweeper force stationed in the Panama Canal Zone barely cleared a safe passage for large ships at the southern exit of the canal, and a fleet of 7,000 Army soldiers and military supplies ventured from San Francisco, bringing the number of American regulars stationed in the Canal Zone to 33,000, assisted by a mercenary army recruited from among the locals. Before the arrival of the US Pacific Fleet. There are 2 cruisers, 5 destroyers, and 16 minesweepers stationed in the canal zone.

Counting the bombing of the Pacific Fleet on the day it arrived in the port of Panama. Since August, the Panama Canal Zone has been bombed nine times by Luftwaffe long-range bombers, killing more than 2,900 soldiers of the fortified garrison, naval officers and Panamanian civilians, and destroying about 4,000 tons of military materiel. The Luftwaffe also paid the ground price of five Dornier 101 medium bombers and three Black Hawk DD long-range fighters.

Long before the outbreak of the South American War, the German Navy Staff organized a part of the force to study the US defense system in the Panama Canal Zone, and finally came to the conclusion that it was extremely difficult for the Navy to capture the Canal Zone alone, and even if it was a joint attack by land, sea and air, it would take a lot of troops and time to capture those strong fortresses, and the cost would be high. It would be much easier to completely block the canal than to capture it, and long-range bombers from Mexico could bombard the Panama Canal intensively, drop a large number of mines, or concentrate a large number of submarines lurking at the exit of the canal.

Ultimately. The German High Command made a decision that would be incomprehensible to ordinary people: let the US Pacific Fleet pass through the Panama Canal!

When Germany's main aircraft carriers "Kemal", "Ernst", "Georg", "Zeppelin", "Tirpitz", "Alexander", "Lewald", "Joachim" and "Seckendorff" carried more than 20,000 naval officers and 645 carrier-based aircraft on board the Caribbean Sea and sailed to Panama under the cover of night, people began to appreciate the good intentions of the German High Command.

As deputy commander of the German Atlantic Fleet and commander of the aircraft carrier group, Prince Heinrich of Prussia remained on his flagship, the Ernst. The battle in this direction was destined to be fierce and brutal, but the German prince did not have the slightest cowardice in his heart. In a personal letter to his son, Kaiser Wilhelm III, he said he would rather die on the verge of victory, like Nelson in England, than die in defeat.

Heinrich's fleet, which gathered the essence of the German Navy's aircraft carriers, was not alone, with 4 heavy cruisers, 9 light cruisers and 31 destroyers, and the strength and will of these warships and the German officers and men on them were not to be underestimated.

More than 20 nautical miles from the northern entrance and exit of the Panamanian Canal, 36 German submarines will also fight alongside the German prince.

Meanwhile. Reinhardscher and his battleships "Graf", "Albrecht", "Geertz", "August", "Albert", "Bavaria", "Baden", "Württemberg", "Saxony", "King", "Marquis the Great", "Prince William", "Caesar", "Frederick the Great", "Border Governor", "King Albert", and the battle cruisers "Mackensen", "Count Spee", "Prince Frederick", " The "De Fllinger", "Luzo", and "Hindenburg" were also ready to meet the enemy in the waters north of Cuba. More than 800 nautical miles ahead of them, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, which had been suffocating in the Norfolk military port for a long time, was rapidly moving south with full of anger.

In the early morning of 29 August, the first detachment of the U.S. Pacific Fleet sailed safely out of the Panama Canal Zone. A few minutes later, Robert Koontz ordered his second detachment to enter the Canal Zone.

Shortly after the sun rose, German fighter jets and dive bombers flying in from southeastern Mexico landed one after the other at three makeshift military airfields near Guantanamo, Cuba. With the addition of this group of new forces, the number of German land-based planes stationed in eastern Cuba has increased to four, divided into three fighter squadrons, four dive bomber squadrons, and two torpedo bomber squadrons, plus the carrier-based aircraft on the escort aircraft carriers "Knoobsdorf," "Ludwig," and "Brunx" in the Scheer fleet, and the German army can dispatch more than 300 planes in this direction, far more than the carrier-based aircraft on the wrinkled aircraft carriers of the US Atlantic Fleet.

In the evening, Heinrich's fleet sailed 500 nautical miles to the north entrance and exit of the Panamanian Canal, at the same time. The 2nd Detachment of the U.S. Pacific Fleet sailed out of the Canal Zone, and Robert Koontz and his 3rd Detachment then entered the Canal Zone, and according to the report of the German submarine U-911, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet had reached a distance of more than 700 nautical miles from Cuba, which means that the distance from the U.S. Pacific Fleet to Cuba was very close to that of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet to Cuba. Judging from their own deployment alone, the Americans calculated very accurately, but unfortunately they did not expect that Heinrich's nine capital aircraft carriers would take the initiative to leave Cuban waters and move south.

Night fell quietly, and both fleets quietly carried out their own deployments under the cover of night. At 4 o'clock the next morning, Robert Koontz's 3rd detachment finally left the feared Canal Zone unharmed.

Before dawn, the battleships "South Dakota", "Indiana", "Montana", "Wyoming", "Arkansas", "New York", "Texas", "Pennsylvania", "Arizona", "New Mexico", "Mississippi", "Idaho", "Colorado", "Maryland", "West Virginia" and the battle cruisers "Lexington", "Constellation", "Saratoga", "Rover" The cannon formation of the giant ships embarked on a journey with the Atlantic Fleet to flank the German fleet from the north to the south. The only place to provide air cover for this Pacific Fleet was the few carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carriers "Langley" and "Yorktown". Even with the addition of land-based aircraft in the Panama Canal Zone, there are less than 120 American fighters in this direction.

At dawn, the nine main aircraft carriers of Heinrich's fleet were 350 nautical miles closer to the northern mouth of the Panamanian Canal. In the morning light. Twenty-four Sky X-L combat reconnaissance planes were the first to take to the air and flew south in a huge fan-shaped cable formation. On the deck of the aircraft carrier, 175 Heinkel DD fighters, 225 Junkers Ju-DD dive bombers and 210LKS Barracuda torpedo bombers lined up on the deck of the aircraft carrier, and round bombs and slender torpedoes were already hanging from the belly and under the wings of these fighters.

In the sea 100 nautical miles north of Cuba, Scheer's 16 battleships and 6 battlecruisers were deployed in a line of battle diagonal columns, and the apocalyptic battle of the era of big ships and huge guns was about to begin.

At 10 a.m. on 30 August, German Navy carrier-based aircraft heading south spotted the U.S. Pacific Fleet heading north in three columns 15 nautical miles north of the Panama Canal. Nearly 30,000 US Navy officers and men were at a loss as to the impending crisis, and it was not until the figure of the German reconnaissance plane appeared over the fleet that Robert Koontz ordered the entire fleet to prepare for air defense.

Five minutes later, the carrier-based aircraft of Heinrich's fleet began to take off, and within half an hour a large number of fighters and dive bombers flew in formation towards the American fleet.

At the same time, the German submarine U-929 spotted the U.S. Atlantic Fleet more than 80 nautical miles north of the Florida Strait, and the fleet under the command of Admiral Edward Eberly was about 20 hours away from the Scheer fleet.

Suddenly, air raid sirens rang out for the US military forts in the Panama Canal Zone, and in a short time a large group of black dots appeared in the sky west of the canal. That's the direction of Mexico and Guatemala! In a hurry, in just a quarter of an hour, 11 of the 24 US fighters that took off to meet the enemy were shot down, and all the rest fled back to the military airfield protected by anti-aircraft fire on the ground.

As the German fleet approached, heavy anti-aircraft artillery fire rang out in the northern section of the Panama Canal Zone, and the anti-aircraft fire was huge, and in a short time two German bombers flying at medium and low altitudes were shot down, but this time the Germans did not carry out high-altitude bombing to avoid artillery fire as usual, and their targets did not seem to be in the Canal Zone and the surrounding fortifications. I saw one after another black bombs with strange styles falling into the sea at the north estuary of the canal, and the splashes were also aroused by the size and weight of the bombs themselves. Seeing this scene, the US generals in charge of the garrison of the Canal Zone secretly shouted in their hearts: the Germans are dropping mines!

In just half an hour, 9 Dornier 101 and 1 escort Black Hawk DD were shot down by American artillery fire, which even exceeded the total number of planes lost by the Germans in bombing here in the previous month, but in return, the rest of the Dornier 101 medium bombers dropped more than 400 anchor mines and sunken mines loaded with 200 kilograms of high explosives at the northern estuary of the Panama Canal, and a large number of mines made it impossible for the entire Panama Canal to enter and exit the ships for a week, that is, The US Pacific Fleet, which was about to be attacked by a large number of German naval carrier-based aircraft, had no way out.