Hawaii time, September 26, 1943, 2 p.m. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The atmosphere in the bridge of the battleship Iowou, the flagship of the 58th Task Force of the United States, was extremely solemn, and everyone, including the commander, Admiral Spruance, did not hold their breath and kept looking at the sky -- it was cloudless, and it was a very good weather to be bombed. And it's still very bright, and it's at least 4 hours before sunset.

That's a life-threatening 4 hours!

Everyone knows that in the next 4 hours, their fleet is bound to suffer the most violent air strike in the history of mankind! 1,000, or even 2,000 terrible Japanese planes will come with bombs, covering the sky and the sun.

And the only thing that Admiral Spruance can use to face is a measly 1,364 F4U and F6F...... The immortal staff officer Kuroshima Kameto guessed half right, Spruance did not bring bombs this time, but did not bring dive bombers and torpedo attack aircraft!

On his 41 aircraft carriers, all F4U and F6F, not a single bomber and torpedo machine.

This strange method of aircraft configuration was first adopted by the Germans on the carrier carrier, because the target of the carrier was merchant ships, and there was no need for torpedo planes and dive bombers with strong anti-ship capabilities. Moreover, the significance of survival of aircraft carriers operating behind enemy lines is far greater than the significance of combat -- as long as they exist, the Japanese navy will not be at peace, and they will have to send aircraft carriers to escort them, and they will have to send fleets to search all over the ocean.

Therefore, the U.S. aircraft carrier has always been an all-fighter configuration, and usually carries one Cleveland-class light cruiser and one Oakland-class light cruiser, both of which are ships with enhanced anti-aircraft firepower.

Therefore, the US diplomatic formations that penetrate into the western Pacific often have a strong survivability, and they may not be able to sink many Japanese transport ships, but the Japanese often have to pay a great price if they want to sink one.

And the experience accumulated by the aircraft carrier has also attracted the attention of the top brass of the Pacific Fleet, including Nimitz and Spruance.

In their opinion, a broken formation with 2 air defense cruisers (the Cleveland-class can also be considered an air defense ship), 1 Independence-class aircraft carrier with enhanced air defense (24 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns and 16 20mm Erikon anti-aircraft guns), and 30 F4U and F6F can survive the blows of dozens or more Japanese aircraft (mainly a land attack). Then, when the size of the fleet expands dozens of times, it is entirely possible to block the repeated attacks of 2,000 Japanese aircraft.

Of course, Nimitz and Spruance didn't dare to think of anything unsinkable. In a large formation of more than 400 ships, the loss of dozens of ships is quite bearable, as long as there are no valuable Iowa-class, South Dakota-class battleships and Essex-class aircraft carriers among the sunken ships.

At 2:11 a.m., the air defense sirens aboard the battleship Iowa suddenly sounded, followed by a report from the fleet staff.

"Radar detects enemy aircraft! Azimuth 252, distance 100, height 5000, number over 200! …… It should be a large fleet of planes sent from Christmas Island! ”

"It should be their first attack wave!" Miles. Major General Browning's face turned pale, "There are 200 or maybe 300 planes in one attack wave, which means that the Japanese have transferred all the planes from the Hawaiian Islands to Christmas Island!" ”

"Send out fighter jets!" Spruance gritted his teeth, "Each aircraft carrier catapults a squadron of fighters into the sky and stops the Japanese at all costs!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

Unlike most Japanese aircraft carriers that do not have catapults (only five aircraft carriers, including "Taiho", "Kaga", "Akagi", "Shozuru" and "Zuizuru", have flywheel catapults installed on them), the current US aircraft carriers have at least two catapults, of which the flywheel catapults installed on escort carriers and Independence-class carriers, Raider-class aircraft carriers and Vespa-class aircraft carriers, and the rest of the large fleet aircraft carriers are equipped with hydraulic catapults.

Therefore, in the event of an emergency, the US aircraft carrier does not have to move against the wind, but only needs to use a catapult to eject at least 18 aircraft into the sky (1 flywheel catapult can launch 18 aircraft at a time, and there is no limit on the number of catapult aircraft on a hydraulic catapult on a large aircraft carrier). So, less than a quarter of an hour after Spruance's order, 41 F4U and F492F of 12 fighter squadrons (all 12) had already been launched into the sky. Together with the three fighter squadrons that were already in charge of direct cover in the air, the Japanese fighters pounced on the sky.

At the same time, the US warships, which had been sailing slowly on the sea, also accelerated one after another, and began to form dozens of air defense formations with aircraft carriers as the core at sea.

……

"Takahashi Nakasa, the discovery of the American fleet...... Oh my God, there are so many ships, all over the ocean, and there are hundreds of them! ”

Takahashi Tsukasa, who participated in the Pearl Harbor attack, is the commander-in-chief of the first attack wave sent out from Christmas Island today. He flew a shore-based "Meteor" torpedo bomber, but instead of torpedoes, the plane carried two 250-kilogram armor-piercing bombs.

Unlike the Type 97 naval attack and the "Tianshan" naval attack, the "Meteor" torpedo bomber is a torpedo bomber that can be used as a dive bomber. For Japan, this is a "secret weapon".

Moreover, the "Meteor" torpedo bomber is also very fast, and after dropping bombs or torpedoes, it can fly up to 566 kilometers per hour, which is almost as fast as a Zero fighter.

So sitting in the cockpit of the "Meteor" torpedo bomber, Takahashi was very confident, and he himself estimated that the first attack wave under his command could sink at least 5 American aircraft carriers!

"Haha," seeing the American ships covering almost the entire ocean, Takahashi not only felt frightened, but also laughed, he turned on the Siemens radio on the plane, and said loudly: "Gentlemen, look down below you, the American fleet has already poured in, and today is the time for us to build up our achievements!" Don't let one go! Great Japanese Empire onboard! The Emperor ......"

Takahashi's words came to an abrupt end at this point, because he had already seen the dense American fighter jets in the sky.

There are more than 500 F4U and F6F in total, covering the sky and the sun, like a swarm of bees. That's too much, right? How could it be so many? So many fighters...... How many aircraft carriers should there be? 20 ships? Or 30 ships?

"Baga!" Takahashi shouted loudly, "Hurry up and send a telegram to the headquarters: the US fleet is unprecedented, with at least hundreds of ships, and a huge number of aircraft carriers, countless fighters, and our department is in a bitter battle!" ”

This Takahashi is worthy of being a veteran of Pearl Harbor, and as soon as he saw the number of American fighters, he knew that he was going to fight hard.

Because Takahashi has 55 Hurricane and 58 Zero in his hands, a total of 113 fighters, and the opponent has at least 500 fighters...... 1 fights 5, even if the Japanese pilots are all aces, they can't deal with it, so it's certain that the fighter unit will suffer heavy losses.

Now the question is whether these Imperial Japanese fighter pilots died worthwhile enough.

"This official is Takahashi Tsuchichi Nakasa, the commander-in-chief of the air raid!" Takahashi Hyukichi spoke in a solemn tone, and gave an order through the radio, "I order the squadron to be used as a unit and spread out in formation...... All fighters stop at all costs to block enemy aircraft, and all bombers attack bravely! The target is the American escort formation! First attack escort aircraft carriers, then landing ships and tankers. Kill give! Great Japanese Empire onboard! The emperor is onboard! ”

Not to mention, this Takahashi Hyuka still has real skills. When confronted with the US "sea of warships" and "sea of aircraft," he very calmly chose the secondary target -- the US escort formation -- to launch an attack.

Because he knew very well that the main anti-aircraft fire of the Americans must be concentrated in the main formations, especially around the Essex-class aircraft carriers. If he were to lead the torpedo planes and bombers to break through, it would be a life of death.

And even if they traded their lives for a few American aircraft carriers, most of the Americans rushed to Christmas Island to launch a landing battle.

And to stop the landing, it is necessary to attack landing ships and tankers...... However, the opponent he met today was a super tyrant.

"Sir, it seems that Japanese planes have pounced on our landing ship formation and transport formation."

Rear Admiral Browning, chief of staff of the US Task Force 58, was quick to notice the changes on the battlefield. The fighters of the Japanese rushed like moths to a flame, and the American planes, which were several times more numerous than them. The Japanese torpedo planes and dive bombers, on the other hand, scattered all at once, and instead of rushing to the tightly guarded aircraft carriers, as the Americans had expected, they flew towards the surface of the sea where the landing ship formations and transport/tanker formations were concentrated.

"It doesn't matter, divide a part of the fighters to chase after and destroy as many as possible." Admiral Spruance didn't panic at all, as if he didn't care about the expensive American lives on the landing ships - in fact, there were not many American lives on those landing ships! Those are "landing ships of the air defense type", on which there is no landing force, only 40 anti-aircraft guns and 20mm guns!

Because Nimitz and Spruance had no intention of landing on Christmas Island at all!

This combat operation, codenamed "Hunter", is simply a local tyrant-style feint!

404 warships and more than 1,300 combat planes were dispatched to burn more than 1 million tons of fuel in order to create the illusion that the US military wanted to seize Christmas Island.

The purpose of creating this illusion was twofold: first, to mobilize the main force of the Japanese fleet -- to consume the fuel of the Japanese; The second is to consume the lives of Japanese pilots!

At 2:33 p.m. on September 26, 1943, Hawaiian time, a fierce sea and air battle officially began in the Pacific Ocean about 280 nautical miles from Christmas Island.