The Coral Sea, like a turquoise silk, rises and falls with the gentle sea breeze, a large cloud like cotton wool slowly drifts through the sky, and a few unknown waterfowl are rising and falling on several coral islands emerging from the sea (according to the standards of the Japanese Empire, there are two tables the size of the island). Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoBut such a pleasant and harmonious picturesque scene did not make Lieutenant General Nagumo Zhongichi relax his brows.

Because his fleet has been roaming the North Coral Sea for several days, but has not found any trace of the US Pacific Fleet aircraft carrier that it wants to destroy.

That's a bit of a rush. Although the attack on Australia is now going well, not only has Port Moresby been successfully captured, but even New Caledonia can be seen. However, the most important stronghold on the US-Australia route is New Zealand, and as long as New Zealand is not able to get it, the US-Australia route cannot be said to be blocked.

Now the purpose of the Anglo-American allies to abandon their outlying positions one after another must be to concentrate their forces to defend the most critical territory, and New Zealand must be among them.

Therefore, the Southern Army has so far taken a cautious stance on the capture of New Zealand. If the Navy wants to cut off the US-Australia route without being able to control New Zealand, then annihilating the four main carriers of the US Pacific Fleet is the only option.

But for several days, there was no trace of the US aircraft carrier!

Nagumo Tadaichi, who was a little impatient with waiting, decided to expand the search area yesterday and sent two air teams (the 10th Air Force and the 11th Air Force) with seaplane carriers as the core to the vicinity of the Coral Islands and Norfolk Island, and then sent Zero Naval Reconnaissance to search.

If it is not found again, I am afraid that it means that the aircraft carriers of the Americans are really not nearby. Then Nagumo Tadaichi was ready to advise Yamamoto Fifty to abandon the decisive battle in the Coral Sea and send a landing force to take New Caledonia.

Just when Nagumo Zhongyi was waiting a little impatiently, a rush of footsteps suddenly sounded. Nagumo looked back and saw that it was his chief of staff, Major General Ryunosuke Kusaka, who walked briskly.

"Your Excellency, the 10th Air Force broke the silence and sent an urgent telegram."

"Oh?" Nagumo Zhongyi raised an eyebrow.

Now the 1st Air Fleet is in radio silence, and the various warring teams under it are naturally in silence. The 10th Air Squadron, with the seaplane carrier "Chiyoda" as the core, suddenly broke the silence, and there must have been an important discovery!

"They were spotted by an American seaplane!" Kusaka Ryunosuke's words disappointed Nagumo Tada.

"However, the Type 2 water battle sent by the Chiyoda shot down this American Catalina seaplane." Kusaka Ryunosuke continued.

Type 2 water warfare is actually a "magic version" of the Zero fighter, which changed one carrier-based fighter into a fighter that can take off and land on the water, and carried four planes on the seaplane carrier "Chiyoda".

"Oh." Nagumo nodded, "But the position of the 10th Air Force is still exposed?" ”

"Most of it has been exposed." Ryunosuke Kusaka said, "Before shooting down the U.S. seaplane, the Chiyoda's radio detected the radio signal...... But it's also an opportunity. ”

"Opportunity?" Nagumo thought for a moment, "Kusaka-kun, do you think it is possible that the US aircraft carrier is also looking for us?" ”

"Highly likely!" Ryunosuke Kusaka said, "There are only two possibilities now, one is that the US aircraft carrier is not nearby; Second, the Americans saw through our plan to lure the enemy, so they ignored the two Yamato-class ships and searched for our 1st Air Fleet. ”

Nan Yunzhong nodded. There are really only these two possibilities now, and if the American aircraft carrier had intended to attack Yamamoto's 1st Fleet, it would have been launched long ago.

Ryunosuke Kusaka added: "If the U.S. aircraft carrier is near the Coral Sea, it is very likely that it will be attracted to the 10th Air Force. Your Excellency, this is our opportunity. ”

"Then let's go south too!" Nagumo Zhong thought for a while, and then said, "The 1st Air Battle, the 2nd Air Battle, and the 5th Air Battle are scattered south to expand the search range as much as possible. We have 6 large aircraft carriers, and the Americans have only 4 at most, so if you find them, you will be able to annihilate them! ”

"Hay!"

……

When Nagumo Tadaichi's three main air teams spread out in formation on the North Coral Sea and marched south in unison. In the Southern Coral Sea, Halsey's two air flotillas were heading north, targeting the area around the Coral Islands where the Japanese 10th Air Force had been discovered. Moreover, Halsey also had his two squadrons carefully advance close to the east coast of Australia, and the P38 fighter jets deployed in Brisbane were always on standby, ready to attack and support Halsey's fleet.

Since Halsey and Nagumo Tadaichi made their decision at about the same time, the five aircraft carrier fleets of both sides also began to advance towards the Coral Islands at about 2 p.m. on November 5, 1942. However, because Halsey had no battleships to escort him, and there were not even a few heavy cruisers, by the evening of the 5th, the two American aircraft carrier squadrons stopped advancing and wandered about 250 nautical miles northeast of Brisbane.

Nagumo Tadaichi's four squadrons headed south overnight, and by the early morning of 6 November, they had crossed the Coral Islands and arrived in the middle of the Coral Sea -- the three main squadrons were located between the Coral Islands and Norfolk Island, and the 10th and 11th seaplane carrier squadrons were still near the Coral Islands and Norfolk Island. Yamamoto's 1st Fleet left the vicinity of New Caledonia on the night of 5 November and began to approach south.

At this time, the northern and central parts of the Coral Sea can be said to be full of Japanese battleship formations! Such a high-density deployment naturally could not escape the night reconnaissance of the American Catalina seaplanes equipped with radars.

So by the early morning of November 6, Vice Admiral Halsey already knew that at least 6 large Japanese ship formations had appeared in the Coral Sea!

However, because the Catarina aircraft was used for night reconnaissance, relying on the "electronic eye" rather than the naked eye, Halsey did not know the composition of the six Japanese ship formations. Admiral MacArthur in Brisbane and Admiral Nimitz in San Diego also did not know what ships the Japanese fleet was made of.

"Admiral, Admiral MacArthur's telegram." Red-eyed and unseen for an unknown amount of time, Spruance walked briskly into the Pacific Fleet's operational command center, holding a telegram from MacArthur in his hand -- he had just exchanged views with MacArthur over a telegraph.

"He thinks the Japanese may be going to land on the east coast of Australia!"

As soon as Spruance's words came out, Nimitz was stunned.

"Login? Right now? ”

"Yes, Admiral MacArthur judged it that way." Spruance said, "The Japanese captured Moresby on the 30th, and then shelled New Caledonia for several days, completely paralyzing the island." Last night we found 5 more large formations of Japanese ships...... Rabaul's fleet may have poured out! And, most likely, there were regiments of landing ships in them. Admiral MacArthur believed that it was quite possible that the Japanese would skip their strongholds in northeastern Australia and land directly near Brisbane! ”

"Landing directly in Brisbane? Is that okay? "Nimitz was an admiral and didn't know much about land warfare.

"Admiral MacArthur thinks it's feasible." Spruance said, "He called this tactic 'leapfrogging,' which means that we will not attack the heavily defended frontline strongholds, and directly use the superiority of the sea to attack our rear strongholds, so that our frontline strongholds will be isolated." ”

MacArthur himself suffered this in the Philippines, and the Japanese uprooted all the Allied strongholds around the Bataan Peninsula before finally conquering the Bataan Peninsula. If it weren't for Roosevelt's help in making MacArthur the commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in the South Pacific, he would probably be moving bricks and losing weight in Japanese prisoner of war camps now!

So in the defense of Australia, he learned his lesson. After determining that the navy could not defeat the Japanese, a defensive strategy was formulated to shrink the strongholds on the front line. Port Moresby, Guadalcanal, and New Caledonia are all "void defenses", with heavy troops piled up in New Zealand and Australia.

This style of play is certainly correct, and now the US Pacific Fleet does not have battleships, and the carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier are not Japan's zero-type opponents for the time being, and if they really want to start a war in the Solomon Islands, they will definitely be defeated by Japan.

However, there is also a problem with piling up the main force in the old nest, that is, the Japanese can go straight to the Yellow Dragon! This is also the reason why MacArthur asked for armored divisions on the mainland, and with an armored division in Brisbane and Sydney, MacArthur was able to quickly counterattack when the Japanese army launched a landing battle. At the same time, the A-36 (P51 dive-bombing version) brought by the FS06 fleet was also deployed to the Australian Army Air Force for counterattack.

If the 4th Panzer Division and 200 A-36s arrived, it would be difficult for the Japanese to play frog jumping in Brisbane or Sydney.

But the problem is that the 4th Panzer Division is still unloading ships, and the 200 A-36s are still on the way. If the Japanese did land near Brisbane, MacArthur would still have a great headache - MacArthur's forces were limited and it was impossible to fortify the long eastern coastline of Australia.

In fact, the vast majority of the area was undefended, and the Japanese would definitely succeed in landing. If MacArthur had not been able to fight back in time, allowing the Japanese to gain a foothold near Brisbane and take a few more small ports, things would have been in trouble.

"So Admiral MacArthur asked Halsey's fleet to maneuver around the Japanese in the Coral Sea?" Nimitz had already understood what MacArthur meant, and seeing Spruance nodding, Nimitz sighed softly, "In December, we will have 1 Essex-class and 2-3 Independence-class...... So Halsey must keep 2 of the 4 large aircraft carriers. In this way, we will be able to send the FS08 fleet in December. ”

"I see, sir." (To be continued.) )