From the beginning to the end, the first wave of the US carrier-based aircraft group on the Japanese Southern Front Fleet lasted 37 minutes, and at the cost of losing 41 fighters, they wounded all three of the enemy's main aircraft carriers, the "Kasamaki," which was hit by four aerial bombs and one torpedo. The "Ikoma" was hit by three bombs, and the crew barely recovered the carrier-based aircraft take-off and landing capability after emergency repairs, but after accepting the carrier-based aircraft belonging to the two friendly ships, it no longer had the deck space to cast or recover the carrier-based aircraft; The "Aso" was bombed by enemy carrier-based planes at high altitudes and hit by three ordinary aerial bombs, and the fire got out of control for a time and was almost abandoned. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Despite his reluctance, under the rather unfavorable situation of temporarily losing his aviation combat power, Kurita had no choice but to lead the fleet to withdraw from the battle on his own initiative. Under the cover of the rain curtain, the remnants of Japan's Southern Front Fleet were finally able to escape the powerful air attack of the US Task Force No. 1 Pacific Task Force, while three cruisers, three destroyers, more than 200 carrier-based aircraft, and more than 3,000 officers and men disappeared into the waters southeast of the Philippines......

In the first battle in the Philippine Sea, the powerful US Task Force No. 1 Pacific won a hearty victory at a small price, demonstrating the rich rewards brought about by the revolutionary development of naval aviation technology. After the naval battle, Halsey led the fleet to approach Luzon again and carried out a third round of air raids on the Japanese garrison. Due to technical and tactical inferiority, the Japanese garrison suffered heavy losses in this round of strikes, most of the land-based radar stations deployed on Luzon and surrounding islands were destroyed, a large number of military strongholds were bombed by the US military and then breached by the Philippine Resistance Alliance forces, the puppet forces cultivated by the Japanese army in the Philippines collapsed, and the casualties of the Japanese troops also rose sharply. If the U.S. fleet had continued this oppressive offensive, the Japanese would have been driven out of much of the Philippines in just one month.

During this period, the reorganized Japanese Combined Fleet finally completed the build-up of forces, and a huge fleet of four battleships, seven aircraft carriers, and six new heavy cruisers as the main force swept into the Philippine waters, and the Japanese army and navy all drew air forces from all over Southeast Asia to the Philippine Islands, and the continuous combat operations had caused the Halsey Fleet to consume one-third of its carrier-based aircraft and a considerable part of its fuel and ammunition. There are two arguments for such a situation, both among the participants and bystanders: one is that the US fleet will crush the main force of the Japanese Navy in one fell swoop, so that the scope of the war will be as small as possible and the time span will be as short as possible, so as to help the United States maintain an upward trend in the economy that has struggled to recover after the war; One was that the U.S. fleet should avoid the enemy's advance, return to Hawaii or New Guinea for a short rest, and wait for the Japanese fleet to stay away from its own base and then look for a decisive opportunity to defeat the enemy.

Outside the generals, the military order is not subject to it. This old Chinese proverb is not only admired by Chinese military commanders, but also often used by officers in the Japanese army. After the Combined Fleet sailed out of the home waters, the various opinions and instructions of the Japanese headquarters and the naval headquarters only served as a reference for the fleet commander's decision-making, and the fleet commander had the absolute decision-making power to decide what to adopt in the face of the actual situation.

During World War I, aircraft carriers began to threaten the core position of battleships and battlecruisers, and by World War II, the era of giant ships and cannons was undoubtedly declining. Against this background, Isoroku Yamamoto, as a representative of the air flow of the Japanese Navy, gradually reached its peak in the status and influence of the Japanese Navy. In 1942, when the Combined Fleet was reorganized, he took charge of the Combined Fleet and successfully suppressed the Russian Pacific Fleet during the Japanese-Soviet War. After the end of the war, Yamamoto was promoted for his important contributions to the construction of the navy and his outstanding exploits during the war, and after that, he served as the chief of naval orders for a long time, and never had the opportunity to gallop on the battlefield again. In this re-establishment of the Combined Fleet, Koga Beitichi, who had outstanding seniority, reputation, and prestige, became the new commander of the Combined Fleet. Compared with the distinctive Yamamoto Isoroku, Koga Beeichi was neither a flag-waving voice nor an old-fashioned man obsessed with artillery or torpedoes; he served as commander of all levels of fleets and various ships, and also served as a supervisor in the Ship Administration Headquarters, and was one of the few naval generals who was familiar with the construction of ships and was proficient in command, and was admired by his subordinates, especially young officers, for his open-minded and pragmatic character. At the time of the Tokyo explosion, he was leading the 2nd Fleet on a cruise in the northern seas, and not only was he lucky enough to escape, but he was also praised for actively organizing personnel to search and rescue the aftermath.

However, Koga's first time as commander of the Combined Fleet found himself in a very awkward position. The Combined Fleet's build-up was criticized as the most inefficient operational build-up in history, and it took 152 hours from the time the headquarters issued the order to the start of the battle, resulting in Kurita's Southern Fleet having to confront the main U.S. fleet alone in Philippine waters. It is not because of arrogance and arrogance that the Japanese Navy has abandoned its martial arts, but this is purely a sequelae of the Tokyo explosion -- most of the former generals and officers of the Navy's General Staff Headquarters and the Naval Administration Headquarters died in that celebration, and the officers and officers who were in the back of the bench were all ordered to be in danger, many of them were not familiar with the operation of their new posts at all, and many of the retired personnel who had been called up for a long time were also absent from the battlefield. After the order to rebuild and assemble the Combined Fleet was issued, the 3rd Fleet stationed in the southern part of the mainland could not be deployed due to the delay in the arrival of supplies, and the 1st and 2nd Fleets were injured and sick due to the first-line rescue after the Tokyo explosion, resulting in a large number of casualties and illnesses, until the fleet was deployed, and some ships were still 10% short, and the addition of a large number of reserve personnel and naval cadets forced the Combined Fleet to carry out various training during the voyage, and as a result, there were many non-technical accidents, several of which affected the fleet's voyage. In the face of the above difficulties, Koga and his assistants tried every conceivable way to make the Combined Fleet set off as soon as possible, so from the perspective of the Combined Fleet commander, Koga did not want to face the Americans in a tough battle as soon as he arrived in the Philippines, and if the American fleet retreated in the face of difficulties, then he would only let the Combined Fleet pretend to pursue it.

When the Combined Fleet arrived in Philippine waters, the Japanese air force stationed in the Philippines had not been able to monitor the traces of the US fleet for 48 hours, and there was also intelligence that the US military in Hawaii seemed to be making large-scale preparations for the ships to enter the port to replenish and recuperate. Even so, Koga Beeichi cautiously set up a posture to meet the battle, and he ordered the two light aircraft carriers in the best condition, together with some light ships, to form a reconnaissance detachment and go to the eastern waters of the Philippines to conduct combat alert, and he himself led the main force of the combined fleet to follow up two hundred nautical miles behind the reconnaissance detachment, and once the reconnaissance detachment discovered the traces of the US fleet or was suddenly attacked by the enemy, the main force of the combined fleet immediately launched a counterattack with the carrier-based aircraft carried by the remaining five aircraft carriers.

In the next three days, the Japanese army dispatched more than 300 sorties of carrier-based planes and more than 200 sorties of land-based planes to conduct large-scale and long-distance reconnaissance in the waters east of the Philippines.

Koga thought that the main fleet of the United States had really returned to Hawaii for rest and replenishment, but he did not expect that the Americans had been brewing and preparing for this local war for a long time, and as soon as the war began, they would quickly mobilize the strength of the entire country, and even tried their best to rely on external forces to assist in the war. The U.S. Task Force 1 in the Pacific commanded by Halsey seemed to be alone, but in fact there was no shortage of backups, and the Task Force 2 commanded by Spruance quietly played the role of a supply fleet behind it, and the carrier-based aircraft and pilots consumed by Task Force 1, the light ships returning home from injury, and the casualties were all replenished by Task Force 2 in a timely manner. In addition, the US military also put 90 percent of its submarine forces into the Pacific theater to provide alert, reconnaissance, and cover for fleet operations, sabotage the sea routes of the Philippine Japanese army, and established a secret underwater shipping line to transport all kinds of equipment, ammunition, equipment, and personnel to the Philippine Resistance Alliance forces, so that the Philippine Japanese army would lose sight of the other......

Based on the various intelligence information in his possession, Koga decided to lead the main force of the fleet to Manila, on the one hand, to relax the nervous novices a little, and on the other hand, he was ready to send ships to strengthen the blockade of the Philippine islands, and send the Marine Corps to work with the army units to recapture the occupied towns and strongholds, and strangle the Philippine resistance. In the event of a rainy day, the two light aircraft carriers tasked with reconnaissance and vigilance were recalled and transferred to land-based aviation units and large seaplanes for long-range reconnaissance, while light cruisers and large destroyers equipped with radar equipment were responsible for mobile vigilance patrols. As a result, as soon as the main force of the combined fleet sailed into Manila Bay, Halsey commanded the US 1st Pacific Fleet to return to Philippine waters, and the tragic situation caused by the previous US night attack on Manila made Koga Beaichi's staff members very frightened, and Koga, who had always been calm, was also very nervous at this time, and he led the capital ships to sail away from Manila overnight, but was ambushed by the US submarine force. According to past combat experience, the destroyers of the Combined Fleet, which had strengthened their antisubmarine capabilities, were enough to drive away the few US submarines that had come to fish under the dark moon and high winds, but the Americans had already used new equipment such as sound self-guided torpedoes and magnetic self-guided torpedoes, which were becoming more and more mature, and their submarines continued to fire cold arrows at long distances, sinking two Japanese cruisers and five destroyers one after another that night, damaging the Japanese modernized battleship "Omi" and severely damaging the Japanese light aircraft carrier "Sea Hawk."

(End of chapter)