"Great, let the Franklin return to the sea immediately, send 4 destroyers to escort it, and make it safely to the Panama Canal no matter what. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ”

"Panama? Why don't you go back to San Diego first? Major General Browning asked his cautious commander Spruance.

"Don't go back to San Diego," Spruance said, "and we're likely to be ambushed by Japanese submarines and fleets on the way back to San Diego, and we can't take that risk, so it's safer to go to Panama...... Not only was the Franklin going to Panama, but the main forces of Task Force 58 were to return to Panama. ”

"Understood, sir." Rear Admiral Browning asked again, "When will the main forces of the fleet return home?" ”

"The night after tomorrow...... 29 nights at the latest! Spruance crossed his arms and paced inside the bridge of the Essex, "The airfield on Christmas Island will definitely be bombed to the surface of the moon tomorrow morning, so that the Japanese will have to fight us with aircraft carriers...... I expect that there will be a big battle during the day on the 27th, 28th, or 29th, after which the Japanese will not have many aircraft to consume on their aircraft carriers. In this case, the first phase of the 'Hunter' operation is completed, and the second phase can be started. ”

There is also a second stage! Japan is really in big trouble this time.

It turned out that the operation of the US 58th Task Force was divided into two phases, the first stage was a feint attack on Christmas Island, on the one hand, the tactic of "exchanging warships for aircraft" consumed Japanese planes and pilots, and on the other hand, it attracted the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet to reach the area around Christmas Island.

The second phase of the operation was a "large formation breaking of diplomatic relations" aimed at consuming fuel for the combined fleet -- the breaking of diplomatic relations was pretended, and the main purpose was to lead the main force of the Japanese combined fleet to go around the sea in circles.

Therefore, after the objectives of the first phase of the operation are successfully achieved, the 58th Task Force will be split into two, and the slow-speed landing ships and transport ships will return, and most of the combat ships will also return.

And 2 Iowa-class battleships, 1 South Dakota-class battleship and 2 Essex-class aircraft carriers, plus some ships with a larger range, such as Baltimore-class heavy cruisers, Cleveland-class light cruisers, Oakland-class light cruisers, etc., form a 58th Breaking Fleet, and after completing a replenishment, it will break west into the western Pacific!

The deterrent power of such a broken fleet is not comparable to the combination of an Independence-class aircraft carrier and a Cleveland-class light cruiser.

Therefore, it is impossible for the Japanese to turn a blind eye and will inevitably encircle, pursue, and intercept -- and they cannot just intercept it casually, but must go all out.

Because the combat effectiveness of the 2 Iowa-class battleships, 1 South Dakota-class battleship and 2 Essex-class aircraft carriers is very impressive, and the Japanese have fewer ships, they can't help but fight. As long as the 58th Task Force can circumnavigate for one month, the Japanese Combined Fleet will have to burn at least 450,000-500,000 tons of heavy oil, and Japan's transportation routes in the western Pacific will also be greatly affected.

One month later, another large fleet will be dispatched to take over the work of the 58th Fleet. After that, it was the Second Battle of Christmas Island......

In short, US imperialism will not allow the Japanese militarist fleet time to recuperate. From now on, it will be a non-stop war of attrition!

Non-stop consumption of Japan's oil and the lives of elite pilots!

"No! I disagree! "At midnight, Jizaburo Ozawa, commander of Japan's 1st Mobile Fleet aboard the USS Shozuru, was arguing with the rear over the airwaves.

"Now it is not a question of strategy that is to be considered, but a question of campaign and tactics." Ozawa dictated the telegram, "At present, the First Mobile Fleet has only 10 motherships, which can only accommodate more than 400 standing carrier-based aircraft at most, and only the Zero has no gales, and it is impossible to defeat the F4U and F6F, which have an overwhelming numerical advantage.

So tomorrow's sortie is simply irresponsible death, and I cannot agree to such a reckless action. And...... Today's operation has shown that the current strength of naval aviation alone is simply not capable of annihilating the invading US fleet! A sortie will only bury the essence of naval aviation! ”

Spruance and Nimitz were brilliant, and Jizaburo Ozawa was no fool either—unlike Yamamoto, Nagano and Ito in the rear, he was a front-line commander and therefore knew very well that the Japanese naval aviation had lost the sharpness of the early days of the war.

Before today's war began, he also pinned his hopes on the Japanese Army's "Pacific decisive battle aircraft" Hurricane fighter, believing that the United States' F4U and F6F could be restrained by combining the high and low altitudes of the Hurricane and the Zero, but the results of today's air battle showed that the Hurricane fighter was exaggerating, and its performance in the airspace above 6,000 meters was inferior to that of the United States' F4U, and at 6,000 meters, it was inferior to the F6F.

Moreover, this somewhat frivolous Hurricane fighter will not be able to get on the aircraft carrier, because the Christmas Island airfield will be destroyed by the US naval guns, and from tomorrow, the Japanese army will have to rely on the aircraft carrier of the First Mobile Fleet to fight. When the time comes, it's time for the Zero 52 to be a single tree that is struggling to support.

"What Ozawa-kun said makes sense!" Yamamoto Fifty-six read Jizaburo Ozawa's call back and nodded thoughtfully.

The battle during the day on the 26th, Hawaii time, was a shore-based + carrier-based sortie in turn, but the result was still heavy losses! If there is only a carrier-based and no shore base in the future, most of them will not be able to make the exchange ratio during the day on the 26th, and this will only be sacrificing the lives of elite pilots in vain.

"You can have a whole team assault!" Ito suggested, "It's impossible to abandon Christmas Island, and there is still an army division on the island!" And as soon as Christmas Island is lost, the US military's broken fleet and submarines will be doubly active! ”

"A full assault?" Yamamoto fifty-six asked, "What kind of assault method?" ”

Ito said: "It is possible to dispatch all carrier-based aircraft at once...... So there are about 400 of them. And it is not necessary to mount torpedoes, so that all the "Meteor" torpedo attack aircraft can be hung with bombs. Because I looked at the specific loss reports, I found that the losses of the torpedo machine unit were very staggering, almost 80%, and the results were not obvious. It seems that it makes sense that the Germans did not deploy torpedo bombers on aircraft carriers. ”

"But it is impossible to sink all the large American aircraft carriers with less than 300 dive bombers."

Questions were immediately raised. Now everyone knows that the US imperialists are not paper tigers, and 300 dives will definitely not be able to take over the 80 aircraft carriers of others (the Japanese overestimate the number of US aircraft carriers), and this battle still has to be fought.

"And battleships and submarines!" Junichi Ito said, "The all-team assault was not only a sortie of carrier-based aircraft on an aircraft carrier, but also three super battleships, including Yamato, Musashi, and Shinano, which arrived in the waters off Christmas Island, and four Kongo-class fast battleships, as well as all the submarines...... The attack of carrier-based aircraft is only aimed at damaging some of the large US aircraft carriers, slowing them down or losing some of their combat capability. Thereby creating favorable conditions for the sortie of battleships and submarines! ”

"Do you want to fight hard?" Yamamoto Fifty-six nodded, then looked at Ito Junichi, "What if you lose?" ”

"If you lose, you kill yourself!" Ito replied.

"Huh?" Nagano was stunned for a moment, and looked at Ito Junichi in surprise, "Does Ito-kun want to seppuku?" ”

"Of course not!" Ito shook his head, "It's just a battle, even if you lose, the empire still has a chance." ”

"That suicide is ......" Nagano Shushen was a little confused.

Yamamoto Fifty-six took the question and said lightly: "Nagano-kun, when Ito-kun said suicide, he should be referring to suicide people man-missiles...... It was the method of the German Reich Marshal. If the Navy loses on Christmas Island this time, then the future battle for the Hawaiian Islands will have to use this method. ”

After all, the "kamikaze tactic" is a bit of a dog jumping over a wall, and Japanese militarism is not willing to adopt it until it reaches the end of the road. But Yamamoto and Ito haven't forgotten that there is such a thing.

……

"Keeping the Franklin? It's just wonderful. ”

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was rejoicing at the fact that the USS Franklin had been preserved. He smiled and said to Admiral Leahy, chief of staff of the commander-in-chief of the US Army and Navy (a very awkward title, equivalent to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), who came to report to him: "We're fighting a great battle, aren't we?" ”

"Yes, it's great." Admiral Leahy said, "Ship for plane...... It's unthinkable. ”

"We're broad!" The President of the United States shrugged, "The big guys have their own way of fighting wars." Roosevelt looked at William. Leahy, "What can be solved with money and equipment, not with human life...... That's our principle, and I hope it will be followed in the landing on the Hawaiian Islands. ”

"I understand, Mr. President." William. Leahy smiled, "Actually, we have been preparing for a long time, and several light ships dedicated to inshore fire support have now completed development and are preparing for mass production." By the time we counterattack the Hawaiian Islands next year, there will be hundreds of these inshore fire support ships to bombard the Japanese. ”

"But the Japanese also built a lot of batteries on the Hawaiian Islands," Roosevelt asked, "do we have a way?" ”

"Now there are some ideas," said William. "One is to ram with a remote-controlled B-17 or B-24 filled with explosives; There was also a way to drop 1000-pound armor-piercing bombs from dive bombers. ”

Because the German remote-controlled gliding bomb was picked up very early, now the United States is also doing better research in this area than in history. The BQ-7 remote-controlled suicide aircraft and the B-24 remote-controlled suicide model have now been successfully developed. And both of these weapons, of course, are prepared for the reconquest of the Hawaiian Islands, which will become a sortie for BQ-7 and B-24 remote-controlled suicide planes once Christmas Island falls into the hands of the United States!