Wake Island, formerly known as Halsian or Helsien Island, is an atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, 500 nautical miles from Guam in the west and Hawaii in the east. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 It is made up of three small coral reef islands, with a land area of only 10 square kilometers, but thanks to the protection of atolls on three sides, it is a natural anchorage in the vast Pacific Ocean to shelter from the wind and waves, and it is also an important stronghold in times of war. In the summer of 1933, the U.S. Navy worked around the clock, building two airstrips, three battery groups, several naval barracks, and a hidden submarine base in a very short period of time.

Although regarded by the Americans as an "unsinkable aircraft carrier", Wake Island fell into the hands of the Japanese in April 1934 and became an important forward base for the Japanese Navy to attack Midway and the Hawaiian Islands. After that, the Japanese Navy sent an attack fleet and a landing force to the west coast of the United States in an attempt to accomplish the battle, but suffered a heavy setback, losing a number of capital ships and a large number of excellent carrier-based aircraft pilots, and failed to defend the Hawaiian Islands, which had been bought with blood. Even so, the over-swelling ambitions of those in power and the disillusionment of the military and the people have not returned to their senses, and the whole country is convinced that they are gradually becoming the masters of the world......

On December 3, 1936, the 970th day of the Sun Flag flying over Wake Island, a U.S. fleet in battle formation returned to the seas. In this fleet, in addition to the escort ships responsible for air defense and anti-submarine, there are also heavy artillery ships with fierce firepower and large heavy aircraft carriers. Under the blowing of the sea breeze, the battleships with a majestic posture adjusted their course, and the thick and long straight gun barrels rose high, and as the battle siren sounded, the sailors on the deck returned to the cabin as quickly as possible, and only some personnel in key positions remained in the open air.

Suddenly, a huge roar resounded across the sea like thunder on a sunny day, and the huge flames with dazzling shock waves actually pressed huge pits out of the undulating sea!

The aftermath of the thunder echoed in the sky, and it took more than a minute before a series of thunderclaps came from the direction of the island, and the rising smoke and dust rushed hundreds of meters into the air. In the next nearly two hours, the deafening cannon sound was one after another, and the columns of smoke that rose one after another mixed together, forming a strange pillar of heaven, which could be seen within a radius of dozens of nautical miles!

Before the shelling was completely over, landing ships loaded with brave American cowboys rushed to the islands and reefs on the east and west sides. Under the bright sun, the first landing forces of American troops rushed unstoppably onto the beach. Because the accompanying destroyers had cleared the Japanese inshore offensive with rapid firepower in advance, these soldiers did not encounter too stubborn resistance when crossing the beach, and judging from the situation of the remaining Japanese positions, the soldiers stationed here and the firepower equipped with them were not particularly strong -- after the Hawaiian Islands changed hands, the Japanese base camp quickly adjusted their military deployment in the Central and South Pacific, focusing on sending additional troops to the Marshall Islands and strengthening the defense on the spot, However, during this period, the active US submarine force made great efforts, sinking 22 Japanese warships in the waters around Wake Island alone, sinking thousands of Japanese fighters with them, and sinking countless war materials to the bottom of the sea.

In the positions and fortifications near the coast, although the Japanese officers and men had extremely tenacious fighting spirit and determination to die, they were faced with a united and powerful army, with naval guns and aircraft suppressing almost at any cost, and the landing American troops were also crushing the Japanese defense line with the support of artillery fire...... The battle lasted from early morning to early afternoon, and the sound of gunfire gradually subsided, but the Japanese fleet did not show up for a long time, and there was a distance of nearly 1,000 kilometers from the Marshall Islands to here, and the Japanese land-based fighters in service did not have such a long combat radius. By dusk, the U.S. landing force had completely cleared the Japanese garrison on Wake Island. After counting, 743 remains of the Japanese dead were found, and only 7 wounded soldiers were captured.

After retaking Wake Island, the U.S. military quickly repaired the runway and set up a land-based radar station, and all the preparations quickly paid off -- in the early morning of 8 December, a group of planes flying from the southwest appeared on the screen of the high-power radar, and the airport and the U.S. ships stationed in the sea area sounded the siren. In just one minute, the first ground-based fighter plane ready to take off on the runway gained enough speed to take off, and looking at the tarmac around the runway, those "falcons" or "lightning" were waiting for a short time on the way to the runway, or in the state of rapid rotation of the propeller, and the air was soon filled with the smell of incomplete combustion of aviation gasoline, and the unique roar enveloped the entire airport, invisibly urging people's nerves, heating people's blood, and agitating people's souls. Let them be impatiently excited!

At the same time, on the sea about 300 kilometers away from Wake Island, the decks of the five US aircraft carriers were also a busy scene, and the neatly arranged carrier-based fighters had already started in a short time, and they slipped off the deck one after another. In a short time, more than fifty light blue and blue-gray warhawks were hovering over the fleet.

Under the guidance of radar, 12 US fighter planes that took off from Wake Island were the first to pounce on the Japanese carrier-based aircraft group. At 7:30 a.m. local time, the two sides saw each other above the clear blue sea; Three minutes later, the sound of a cannon sounded in the sky. The American-made "Eagle Falcon" has a fast speed, a solid structure, and heavy armor that has a good defense capability against close attacks by Japanese fighters, while the Type 95 carrier-based aircraft in active service of the Japanese army have fully absorbed the advantages of the carrier-based aircraft of the Allied countries, and especially have excellent maneuverability in low-altitude dogfights. Both sides had their own strengths, and the fierce air battle was suddenly inextricably linked.

At 7:52 a.m., the air raid sirens sounded from the group of American warships cruising in the waters near Wake Island, and the sentries on duty at the lookout saw black spots from the sky through their binoculars. Through radio transmission, the battle alarm had already spread to every US combat unit in the vicinity, and the battleships, cruisers, and destroyers all accelerated their speeds in advance, and the light and heavy antiaircraft guns on the ships were also waiting for them. Army and Marine Corps officers and men who had landed on Wake Island were also prepared in advance, with personnel properly equipped under bunkers or camouflaged, and machine guns and anti-aircraft guns deployed around key positions.

At 7:59 a.m., the first Japanese carrier-based bombers flying over Wake Island symbolically dropped aerial bombs on the airfields and beachheads occupied by the US troops, while more attack planes focused their attention on the US warships maneuvering near the sea. Even though dozens of US fighter planes were already in front of them, and US escort ships were ready to organize a tight anti-aircraft fire network at medium and low altitudes, these dozens of Japanese carrier-based planes were still flying east over the islands without hesitation......

The climax of the great air battle has just arrived, and the fighters of the two sides that have staggered by each other immediately circled each other under the strong hum of the engines, and according to the more traditional air combat mode, the side that goes around the rear of the opposing side will gain the initiative to attack, and the other side will try to get rid of the pursuit and reverse the offensive and defensive momentum. As a result, there was soon a spectacular scene of dozens of planes continuing to circle and maneuver at high altitude, and the performance and maneuvering skills of the fighters would play a crucial role when the pilots' combat intentions were similar. I saw that more than a dozen "Eagle Falcons" and ME-50s were the first to obtain the pursuer position, and some of them were either serving as cover for the main engine of the tactical formation, or were unfortunately surrounded by Japanese fighters outside the target.

As the battle heats up, the smooth roar of aviation machine guns and machine guns fills the middle and high altitudes, and the two groups of fighters who are striving for the commanding heights of the battlefield have also begun fierce hand-to-hand combat. Unlike the air combat mode of knight duel twenty years ago, on the battlefield of the 30s, it was difficult to win alone, and the overly large fighter formations were abandoned by actual combat due to poor flexibility, and air combat has gradually evolved into a stage for small tactical formations to show their talents, these formations are often composed of two to four fighters, distinguishing the main engine and wingman, and responding to each other and attacking alternately in battle, among which the two-plane and four-plane tactics are the most famous, they have not only been fully proven on the battlefield, Moreover, it was constantly improved in the course of war until a written and systematic tactical model was formed.

As far as actual combat experience is concerned, although the Japanese army was the latest among the great powers to join the war, a large number of veteran pilots had more than 100 combat missions and more than 1,000 flight hours, and this valuable wealth was further appreciated in the first two years of the war against the United States, and a series of victories in the Philippines, South Asia, and the Central Pacific gave the pilots full self-confidence. In the air battles in the Pacific Theater, it was once the absolute strength of the Japanese-made Type 95 fighters to get rid of them with superior maneuverability, especially in 1933-1934, when they dealt with the main fighters of the US military, they often easily played tricks on each other, and this was also reluctantly called "cat and mouse fighting" by many US pilots. This time, however, the Japanese pilots found that the US fighters they were facing were not only extremely powerful in firepower, but also had quite outstanding ability to engage in aerial dogfights; no matter how they circled and rolled, even if it was a difficult continuous roll, those US fighters still followed closely behind like tails. The Japanese pilots who had seized the attack position also found it not so easy to attack from the rear of the US fighter planes, and the process of putting them into the crosshair was tantamount to grabbing a loach with a wet hand......

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