"Great victory, great victory!"

On March 6, Tokyo time, the good news of the Hawaiian Islands reached the base camp in Tokyo, Japan. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, yesterday the Hawaiian Front of our Imperial Army launched an unprecedented victory against the US fleet in the waters south of the Hawaiian Islands with its powerful air combat power. After repeated verification, it was confirmed that 2 aircraft carriers, 1 heavy cruiser, 2 light cruisers, and 6 destroyers were sunk, of which the 2 aircraft carriers sunk were of the Essex class and the other was the Independence-class ......"

At the headquarters meeting, it was Ishihara Hiroshi, deputy chief of staff of the Army Headquarters, who was briefing Prime Minister Hideki Tojo on the results of the previous day's naval battle on the Hawaiian Islands.

"How much do we lose?" Prime Minister Hideki Tojo interrupted Ishihara's report and asked about the damage.

"A total of 111 'Flying Dragons' and 'Swallowing Dragons' were lost, and 56 'Hurricane' fighters were lost. It accounted for 23.8% of the total number of aircraft in the sortie group, which was significantly better than the situation at the time of the Battle of Christmas Island. In addition, some of the pilots on the lost aircraft were successfully rescued. So the actual losses are much smaller than that. ”

Even large aircraft such as the "Flying Dragon" and "Swallowing Dragon" are not particularly precious to Japan, and they cannot be compared with pilots. There are now a lot of spare planes on Oahu, including more than 200 spare planes for the Wyvern and Swallowing Dragons.

So as long as the crew rescue was successful, the army aviation on the Hawaiian Islands actually lost combat power.

Hideki Tojo nodded with satisfaction, and the exchange of 167 aircraft for 2 aircraft carriers, 1 heavy cruiser, 2 light cruisers and 6 destroyers is obviously not a loss-making deal. Moreover, the Navy also reported sinking 1 light cruiser and 8 destroyers, and its own loss of aircraft was only 38. If we take into account that many pilots of the army and navy have been rescued, and the US military has lost at least more than 100 fighters, then the battle on March 4, Hawaii time, is indeed a great victory for the imperial army.

"It seems that the all-round upgrade of the fighters has paid off," said Hideki Tojo, "and a big victory in the Hawaiian Islands campaign is expected." ”

After saying this, Tojo looked at the two big leaders of the Japanese Navy, Yamamoto Isoroku and Nagano Shusei.

The faces of the two naval chiefs were not very good, because the results reported by the navy's Central Pacific Fleet were too embarrassing compared to those of the army. Only 1 light cruiser and 8 destroyers were killed, and the results of the army were reported...... Yamamoto Fifty-six, who had been in battle for a long time, knew that the results reported by the army were unreliable. It cannot be said that Yamashita Fengfumi is deliberately falsely reporting the battle results, but the statistics of naval battle results are very complicated, and in many cases they have to be inferred by evaluation.

For example, the Essex-class aircraft carrier of the United States was torpedoed, and the photos were also taken, and in the eyes of the army, the aircraft carrier must have been destroyed. But in fact, the aircraft carrier is likely to be fine, and it can continue to fight, at most, a few compartments are flooded, which slows down the speed of the voyage.

However, Yamamoto and Nagano didn't dare to say this kind of cold water, and they didn't fall out if they said that the navy and army didn't fall out? Hideki Tojo is a cautious guy again, and if he really turns his face, he has to find an opportunity to wear small shoes for the navy.

And...... Although the army's results were exaggerated, the losses could not be faked. The crash rate of less than 24% and the actual loss rate of less than 20% show that the new fighters have a high survivability on the battlefield and can withstand a protracted war of attrition.

And using the Hawaiian Islands to consume the U.S. military is not exactly what was envisaged in the "Jet-1 operation"?

As long as the US carrier-based aircraft pilots can be fully consumed, what is the Army's false report of the results of the war?

Don't look at the real result of the battle on 4 March, the Japanese army lost more planes, but the gold content of shore-based pilots and carrier-based pilots is different, and shore-based aviation can go into battle with 100 hours of flight time.

According to the standards of the Japanese army, carrier-based aircraft pilots must have more than one year of service experience in shore-based aviation, plus three to four months of rigorous training...... If converted into flight time, 500 hours is the minimum (you can only fly the Zero, which is relatively easy to fly, and if you want to fly heavy aircraft, 1000 hours is also necessary), otherwise you will be on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

Therefore, the use of shore-based consumption of carrier-based aircraft is actually the consumption of 1,000 flight hours by pilots with 100 flight hours (the flight time of US carrier-based aircraft pilots is far more than 1,000 hours), which is definitely a good deal.

However, such a war of attrition cannot continue forever, because the Hawaiian Islands are now surrounded by American troops. The Hawaiian Islands were located between the Hawaiian Islands and the Japanese mainland, the Gilbert Islands, and Wake Island, because Midway Island and Johnston Island (located in the southwest of the Hawaiian Islands, also a small island the size of a sesame seed, were abandoned by the Japanese because they could not be defended, and were occupied by the American forces on March 2) were occupied by the American army.

Therefore, the Zero, Purple Electric, and Hurricane aircraft could not be directly transferred to the Hawaiian Islands. Although pilots can be transported by long-range transport aircraft, after the use of the archipelago's stock of warplanes, they can only be transported by transport fleets or aircraft carriers - fortunately, there is no problem at the moment, because Oahu has a large number of "Hurricane" and "Purple Reform" in stock, with a total of more than 1,200 (reserve aircraft), which is enough to sustain consumption for more than a month.

"The Hawaiian Islands have won the first battle," said Yamamoto, "and now we only need to stick to the established attrition tactics, and the final victory is expected!" ”

Hideki Tojo was very satisfied with Yamamoto's conclusion -- he wanted to regard the first battle of the Hawaiian Islands as a great victory, and whether there was water or not, it would boost the morale of the people and be beneficial to the ongoing negotiations between Britain and Japan and Russia and Japan. Now that Yamamoto fifty-six has agreed, then there is no problem.

"Then," said Tojo, "in the name of the base camp, I will report to His Majesty the Emperor and inform the people and friends." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a staff officer from the base camp shouted a report at the door of the conference room, and then walked in and handed a telegram to Ishihara with both hands.

Ishihara looked at the telegram and reported to Tojo: "Your Excellency Prime Minister, the report of the Hawaiian Front, the Americans attacked the island of Niihau with warplanes and naval guns in the early hours of this morning, causing serious damage. ”

"Is it Niihau?" Yamamoto Isoroku laughed when he heard the news, "It seems that the Americans still don't dare to attack Oahu directly!" ”

Sugiyama said: "It must have been yesterday's victory that made the Americans know that they would not be able to win in the Hawaiian Islands without enough shore-based aircraft, so they had to take Nihau Island first." But...... On Niihau Island, there was the elite 106th Division of the Imperial Army, and even if the American army suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties, it would be difficult to capture it. ”

Yamamoto Fifty-six nodded, thinking: Killing and injuring hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops is a fool's Yuan bragging, but the loss of more than 100,000 is inevitable. It seems that the battle for the Hawaiian Islands has taken the route of consuming human lives. This is also envisaged by the "Jet-1 operation".

A great victory in the Battle of the Hawaiian Islands is indeed expected!

……

"2 aircraft carriers, 1 heavy cruiser, 3 light cruisers, 14 destroyers......" Hersmann read the good news sent by the Japanese while reading, and finally asked Richthofen, the commander of naval aviation, with a smile, "Marshal, how much moisture do you see in this war report?" ”

Richthofen shook his head and said: "I don't know, it's been a long time since we've hit the American fleet with dive bombers and torpedo bombers...... Their air defense is too powerful to attack only with Hs293 and Fritz-X. However, it did not work very well, because the American disposable Spitfire and 127mm anti-aircraft guns were too much of a threat to the Ju288. ”

The head of the Air Force Armaments Bureau, who is responsible for the manufacture of all aviation weapons, is Ernst Brown. At today's meeting, Admiral Udet said to Hersman: "Imperial Marshal, we must wait until the 'Reaper' air-to-ship missiles are actually equipped with troops before it is possible to regain superiority over the main fleet of the United States." ”

The so-called "Reaper" air-to-ship missile is actually an improved version of the "Silver Reaper". The "Silver Reaper" is a "suicide jet" developed by combining the best technology of Britain and Germany, and if the "artificial intelligence" is replaced by a television camera remote control system, then the "Silver Reaper" will become a real missile. That is, the "Reaper" air-to-ship missile!

Of course, there is still a difference between the "Reaper" air-ship island missile and the real missiles of later generations. The main thing is that instead of a rocket engine, a jet engine with a higher safety factor is used.

This is because the current solid rocket engine technology is immature, and the liquid rocket engine technology is not very safe, and if a missile as big as the "Silver Reaper" uses a liquid rocket engine, the slightest carelessness will result in the destruction of the aircraft -- the rockets that later used liquid fuel were all refueled before launch, and this method could not be applied to the "Reaper" missiles carried by aircraft. There are no conditions for refueling rocket fuel on the plane, and the rocket fuel itself is very unsafe, and it is too easy to cause accidents when carried in large quantities by aircraft.

So now Henschel and Rolls-Royce simply spared no expense and used jet engines to drive anti-ship missiles. The resulting anti-ship missile, although expensive, is safe and effective, allowing the Ju288 to drop bombs at relatively safe heights and distances.

Air Marshal Richthofen said to Hersmann again: "The 200 'Silver Reaper' that we handed over to Japan will certainly be the most powerful anti-ship weapon before the Reaper ship-to-air missile is equipped with troops." Therefore, Japan's victory in the Hawaiian Islands is a high probability event, and even if it does not win in the end, the Americans will lose a lot. I estimate that the Americans will lose thousands of naval aviation pilots in the Hawaiian Islands, and their carrier-based aircraft forces will be demoralized after the Battle of the Hawaiian Islands. If we can solve the Soviet Union before the American carrier-based aircraft force recovers, then the Caribbean operation will be possible. ”