Japanese fleet.

Ozawa Sezaburo was in a state of "complete victory" on the seventh day, so naturally he would not accept it as soon as it was built. In half a year, the Japanese army paid a huge price, just to create an opportunity to "win or lose" in World War I. This so-called win or loss is the product of Yamamoto 56's deceitful men, not that Yamamoto really thinks that if he wins this battle, Japan will win.

The importance of the first strike in battle cannot be overstated. As the commander of the fleet, Ozawa Sezaburo even sent two important chess pieces - two old-style battleships to the US military, in fact, in order to firmly control the first move in the hands of the Japanese army.

In the early morning of the 8th, Lieutenant General Ozawa Sezaburo still had a firm grip on the first move.

As a result, the Japanese attacked again early in the morning.

The first Japanese fighters to take off were bomber groups deployed in the Palau Islands, followed by kamikaze attack planes deployed in the direction of the Philippines. Finally, there is the Japanese aircraft carrier formation group.

Ozawa Sezaburo calculated accurately, and he hoped that all fighters would arrive at the battlefield at the same time and deliver a fatal blow to the US military with superior forces.

However, hope is just hope. Perhaps the Japanese pilots at the beginning of the Pacific War were able to achieve this cooperation, but the quality of the Japanese pilots at this moment was really difficult to meet Ozawa's expectations.

In fact, yesterday's battle has already shown this point, and the proportion of Japanese fighters wrecked during the flight is extremely high. But what can this be?

Ozawa Seizaburo must fight, and this is where Japan's hope for victory lies.

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The composition of the command system on the part of the US military is a bit peculiar. The first rank, Admiral Nimitz, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, has the highest authority, and not only the logistics of the combat fleet and the friendly forces, the naval resistance forces, are under his command. And the final decision on the termination or continuation of the battle is also in his hands.

Level 2. Vice Admiral Spruance, commander of the U.S. Fifth Fleet. But instead of commanding the fleet, he commanded all the battlefield forces of the U.S. Army on Wake Island.

The third rank, nominally the 58th Task Force, but in essence the main force of the Fifth Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Mitchell. He was responsible for the specific command of the battle at sea, that is, the former enemy commander of the American army.

To fight or not to fight. The order given by Nimitz last night has been determined, and the fighting will still continue.

As the commander-in-chief of the battlefield, Lieutenant General Spruance knew one thing very well: In fact, the command of the US troops in the seven-day battle was not very good, and it was only passive defense. In one day and one night, he did not find the whereabouts of his opponent. Command and search capabilities are simply not passable. Although no one blames him for this, it is his real responsibility.

Knowing the opponent's movements is the first move, and how important it is to be the first move. Spruance self-heating is very clear. What he has to do is to reverse the passive situation. Take back the first hand from the Japanese army. In other words. It is to find the location of the Japanese army.

Yesterday, the US fleet was beaten for a day, and dozens of US reconnaissance planes found nothing, and Spruance, who was known for his meticulous thinking, would become a pig if he could not figure out the reason, and naturally he had a new inference -- the Japanese fleet was far outside the combat radius of the US troops.

As a result, with the US military's usual wealth. Spruance flew the reconnaissance plane again early this morning. American battleships, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, aircraft carriers. Batch after batch of reconnaissance planes were released. Coupled with the temporary mobilization of large water reconnaissance planes, the reconnaissance force alone is enough to fight a medium-sized battle.

The US military set a record in this war, and its reconnaissance force reached the peak of World War II, and on this day alone, the number of US reconnaissance planes reached an astonishing more than 110.

As a former enemy commander, Lieutenant General Mitchell also has a sense of honor as a soldier, and he is beaten purely passively, which is really uncomfortable.

Ozawa Seisaburo was distressed about the proportion of Japanese fighters lost, but in terms of value, the losses of US warships were many times higher than that of hundreds of fighters, and the proportion of casualties far exceeded that of the Japanese army. Fortunately, in the night battle, the Japanese decoy fleet was completely annihilated by the American army, and the casualty ratio was much better.

But, as a battlefield commander, Lieutenant General Mitchell is well aware that none of this is the point. The point is that the fleet is not able to maneuver in a large area and is still towed near Saipan. That is, the first hand was still in the hands of the Japanese army.

He had figured out a way to hide a little farther away, at least away from Saipan. But he couldn't do it, although the American battleships did not sink a single one, but a total of six, five were wounded.

Whether it is Vice Admiral Spruance or Vice Admiral Mitchell, they can use the battleship as bait, but they cannot let the battleship that has been injured be slaughtered. Therefore, the US aircraft carriers have to provide protection for the battleships at this moment.

In this case, Mitchell showed his fighting side. In any case, the first move was in the hands of the Japanese, and it was clear that at least until the American military discovered the whereabouts of the Japanese fleet, the American military was still as passive as yesterday.

Since they are all beaten, it is a good way to catch up. The U.S. military did not know the exact location of the Japanese troops, but they did know the general direction.

In the early morning, just after the end of the night battle, the US aircraft carrier group lined up in the ocean east of Saipan to block the attack, and several damaged battleships were slowly retreating to the northeast. However, the blocking battle array did not swim in a small sea area, but broke the waves and headed south.

After a day and a night of fighting, the US troops were quite tired, but the mental state of the officers and men was much better than yesterday. In particular, almost all of the US military pilots were eager to try and had high fighting spirits.

The reason is obvious. In yesterday's battle, not to mention the escort aircraft carriers, the number of fighter pilots killed on regular aircraft carriers was in the single digits, but the results were unprecedentedly brilliant.

One of the most outstanding pilots is a flight instructor promoted by the Naval Resistance Force for the U.S. military-

He took part in the battle aboard the US aircraft carrier Enterprise, taking off three times in one day and shooting down seven Japanese fighters, bringing his personal success to twelve.

US military pilots have never fought such heartily before, and today, when the quality of both fighters and pilots surpasses that of the Japanese army, the morale of the US military cannot be high. The high morale of the pilots boosted the morale of the entire fleet, and as a result, in the early morning of the 8th, the mental tension of the US crew was relieved a lot.

In fact, this is also the reason why the US military will continue to fight. The US generals, especially Lieutenant General Spruance, were very keenly aware of the serious decline in the combat effectiveness of the Japanese fighters during yesterday's battle. If it were a comparison of the quality of the Japanese and US military during the Midway period, the US aircraft carrier would have been disabled.

On the other hand, the Japanese army: In today's battle, Ozawa Sezaburo did not send a reconnaissance plane. Because he thought it was not necessary, the US army and the Japanese decoy fleet would not be able to run far at night.

The U.S. military could not run far, and it did not run more than 100 kilometers from early morning to dawn. But it is important to know that the quality of the Japanese pilots has fallen to a precarious point. As a result, the first batch of more than 200 fighters sent by Ozawa Sezaburo suffered heavy losses because of the distance of 100 kilometers, and only more than 150 planes were able to find the US fleet. Nearly 100 others are missing.

Ozawa Seisaburo was known as the Ogene Shogun because of his facial muscle damage and his lack of smiling. In fact, this nickname is not just a superficial description, but in his heart, Saburo Osawa is also the kind of ruthless soldier. He didn't care about the accidental loss of 100 pilots at all, at most he knew that he was distressed about the needless consumption of fighters.

However, Japan has trained such a group of pilots in half a year, and Ozawa Sezaburo can only choose such tactics at the moment.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, Japanese fighters were again intercepted by a group of US planes.

This air battle did not achieve the goal of concentrating forces of Ozawa Sezaburo, and because of the quality of the Japanese pilots, they did not concentrate at all when they flew to the battlefield. It is said that it is a group of aircraft, but in fact, the arrival of fighters is always in twos and threes, and it is not large-scale at all.

In the case of the overall superiority of the quality, quantity, and pilot quality of the US fighters, in one morning of the Japanese army, less than 20 of the 150 fighters broke through the interception of the US fighters. During the battle, the Japanese fighters were blown up one after another in the air, and at the most intense time, several fighters were shot down at the same time. The U.S. pilot shouted a famous phrase that was passed on to posterity: "Look, this is like a turkey hunting contest." ”

Even if the Japanese fighters broke through the interception of the US fighters, they still had to face the fire of the Grim Reaper, and there were less than five of them that could survive and drop bombs or torpedoes under the dense antiaircraft artillery fire. In addition to a torpedo plane that sank a US escort aircraft carrier, another result was that a kamikaze special attack fighter plunged headlong near the waterline of a regular US aircraft carrier, causing serious damage to the aircraft carrier and withdrawing from the battle.

At the cost of more than 200 fighters, Ozawa Seisaburo achieved such a result, which was even worse than yesterday's combat results.

By the time the U.S. military has completely withstood this wave of blows, there will be only four regular aircraft carriers and only eight escort aircraft carriers. However, the number of fighters that the US military can dispatch, especially on the four regular aircraft carriers, can still dispatch more than 300.

The combat power is still strong.

Ozawa Seizaburo was like a dwarf holding a rubber dagger in front of a giant fighting, and after he recovered the fighters, he counted the numbers, only to find that the Japanese army had seven aircraft carriers, intact, and the total number of fighters was only one hundred and ten.

A sense of powerlessness welled up in my heart. Blood was dripping inside, and Sezaburo Ozawa almost cried.

The concept of the battle, the Japanese army can be described as gorgeous, rigorous, grand and splendid. However, no matter how gorgeous and grand the idea is, it requires combat effectiveness to realize. What the Japanese army lacks now is combat effectiveness.

Suppose Ozawa Seizaburo chooses to retreat now. For the Japanese army, it was still considered a victory. But, will Sezaburo Ozawa retreat? (To be continued......)