I think that the Naval Resistance Army was clumsy in dealing with a single destroyer of the Japanese army, but now it can easily annihilate a Japanese fleet in a few hours. The army has been strengthened, and the sense of satisfaction and pride is indescribable.

Li Guang was satisfied, but General Yamamoto was almost dizzy from the battle that took place in the early morning of September 7. In the blink of an eye, a fleet was wiped out, a lieutenant general was killed, and the rate of loss was comparable to the Battle of Midway. An ominous thought involuntarily popped up in Yamamoto's mind, and he shook his head and hurriedly expelled the unpleasant thought from his mind.

The Japanese could not stop - the Battle of the Marianas had begun.

For this naval battle, the Japanese Navy concentrated almost all of its main warships.

Large and small, regular or refitted, all seven aircraft carriers.

A total of six battleships, including two old battleships.

The total number of heavy cruisers was twelve.

Light cruisers, destroyers, submarines, torpedo boats, gunboats, etc. totaled hundreds.

More importantly, Yamamoto fifty-six gathered almost all the naval aviation he could mobilize (there were some naval fighters that needed to defend the homeland, and it was impossible to mobilize). Six or seven hundred fighters of all kinds were prepared.

This is the strongest naval lineup in Japan, and it is also the home of the Japanese Navy. Yamamoto was careful and endured for half a year for this decisive battle. On the battlefield, the Japanese army was defeated again and again, retreated again and again, and paid countless lives, just for this half a year, and for this battle.

Yamamoto is sober-minded, he knows that fighting with the US military is attrition, and little Japan has only a dead end. This has been fully illustrated by the Battle of Kuah Island and the Battle of New Guinea, in which Japan lost tens of thousands of fighters (in the historical Battle of Kuah, the Japanese lost more than 9,000 fighters).

There is only one path ahead of Japan: only a big victory can buy Japan time to recover. Remember: it's about buying time, not about winning the war.

There was time. Japan has only one chance that it may be able to withdraw from the war "decently".

And Yamamoto has put all his chips on this gambling battle, and he can only win big or lose it all.

However, the move of the Naval Resistance Army has added countless uncertainties to this battle.

After communicating with the Japanese Army, Yamamoto 56 promised a lot of benefits, and even some benefits he couldn't do, even the whole of Japan. In any case, the Japanese Army's dirt buns were finally obedient and began to work hard. Dispatch fighters.

Be sure to intercept the northward voyage of the Naval Resistance Fleet - cut off the crisis from the rear of the fleet at any cost. This is Yamamoto's request, and it is the key to this battle.

Yamamoto is turning to the Japanese Army, and General Nimitz is turning to U.S. Army General MacArthur. He asked US Army fighters to escort the Naval Resistance Army, and at the same time, he was also urging the Naval Resistance Army to go north at high speed to support the battlefield.

With the friendship of Li Guang and MacArthur. The U.S. military supports dozens of warplanes, which is already very good.

The U.S. Navy and Army are at odds. But after all, it is not as serious as the Japanese army. MacArthur, on the other hand, was very interested in Admiral Nimitz's low voice. In addition, MacArthur has been in a good mood recently, after all, the casualty ratio with the Japanese army is ten to one or even twenty to one, such a result is not something that every general can do. So Mai Dashuai sent hundreds of fighters to escort the naval resistance army.

Beginning at noon on 7 September, the naval resistance fleet ushered in one battle after another.

During this day, the naval resistance forces and the US military encountered a total of countless waves of strikes by Japanese fighters, and air battles took place almost every moment. The air battle continued until nightfall. This is gradually coming to an end.

During this day's fighting, the Naval Resistance Army and the US Army shot down more than 100 Japanese fighters, and all the pilots were exhausted. The U.S. military paid a considerable price, and the Naval Resistance Army also lost seven fighters in the day. Four pilots were killed.

However, the Japanese resistance did not end.

On the night of 7 September, the Maritime Resistance Army still encountered two minor troubles. At one time, it was a Japanese submarine, which was discovered in advance by the complete sonar of the Naval Resistance Army and easily sunk. Another time was two Japanese gunboats, which were discovered by reconnaissance planes of the Naval Resistance Army and easily evaded.

The fierce and tense battle made the pilots, crew and commanders of the Naval Resistance Force nervous, and everyone was exhausted after dozens of hours of continuous fighting.

However, in any case, the two aircraft carriers of the Maritime Resistance Force were unharmed and smoothly rushed out of the Sea of Halmahera in the early morning of 8 September and officially stepped into the vast Pacific Ocean.

At this time, the Naval Resistance Fleet was less than 2,200 kilometers away from Saipan, which also meant that the Maritime Resistance Force had entered a state of fighting alone, and the US Army fighters could no longer give much protection.

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During the day on the 7th, a decisive battle between the Japanese and American fleets had also broken out.

It should be said that whether the Maritime Resistance Army played the role of a decoy or other roles, it can be regarded as a success and has completed its task. So why was Admiral Nimitz still so anxious, and in order to let the Naval Resistance Army go north smoothly, he even lowered his face and asked the proud Admiral MacArthur for assistance?

It begins on the morning of the seventh day.

The battle had just begun, the American fleet had already fallen to the downwind, and Nimitz had a sharp sense of the battlefield, and he had already felt the cold of the blade's throat.

The commander of the Japanese fleet was Vice Admiral Seizaburo Ozawa, who changed Nagumo Tadaichi's style and attached great importance to reconnaissance, and shot 43 reconnaissance planes.

In the early morning of the 7th, Ozawa Seizaburo was very neat in determining the position of the American fleet. The Japanese immediately took the lead on the battlefield.

Thinking about the Battle of Midway, if Nagumo Zhong had dispatched more than 40 reconnaissance planes, even if it was 20 reconnaissance planes, he might be able to win the battle.

In such a situation, Ozawa Sezaburo sacrificed three major killing moves.

The first move, kamikaze.

The second trick is shuttle bombing.

The third move, super distance attack.

Kamikaze attack, everyone is already familiar with it, the copyright should belong to Rear Admiral Ryujiro Onishi of the Japanese Navy.

And the second move, shuttle bombing, is the initiative of Lieutenant General Sezaburo Ozawa. The so-called shuttle bombing refers to the use of Japanese bases on Pacific islands, and the fighters are limited to the range, not the combat radius. The warplanes took off in the distance and then passed over the American fleet. Carry out bombing. This trick seems simple, but it is very powerful, you must know that in the previous battle, there were very few fighters who did not fly back to the departure airport. It is completely exploited by the misunderstanding of human thinking, so that the opponent ignores the nearby airport.

For example, Lieutenant General Spruance bombed the islands around Saipan almost every day. But this surrounding island refers to the combat radius of the fighters.

Although Spruance did not expect that Ozawa Seisaburo would shuttle and bomb, his usual caution greatly reduced the power of the Japanese army's tactics. The airfield on the surrounding islands was bombed by the US military again and again. Although Japanese fighters could bomb the American fleet, they had nowhere to stay after a long flight and battle.

As for over-range attacks, this is a common result of the Japanese Navy. The Japanese army also had new fighters in the fourth or third year, and it was the concerted efforts of the whole of Japan. The Japanese aircraft carriers finally extended their combat radius to nearly 400 nautical miles, 700 kilometers.

Although the combat radius of the US aircraft carrier has been increased compared with the early stage of the Pacific War. But it was still only two hundred and seventy nautical miles. Less than 500 km.

In other words, only the Japanese army could fight the American army, but the American army could not fight the Japanese army.

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The Japanese army has the Japanese army's killing moves, and the American army has the response of the American army.

First of all, the US warship has a complete radar early warning system, in such fine weather. There was no possibility that the Japanese fighters would slip through the net.

Moreover, the commander of the US military, Lieutenant General Spruance, has the usual wealth and depth of the US military.

One commenter asked, what kind of trick can this thing be? Poor people can only giggle, this is really a trick.

Just look at Spruance's formation to see how rich and powerful it is.

The U.S. military has a complete radar. Although I don't know the exact location of the Japanese fleet, I know the direction roughly. Therefore, in the direction where the Japanese fighters were flying, the US military lined up the six battleships in a horizontal formation to act as the first line of defense. In fact, in addition to acting as a line of defense, it also serves as a decoy.

It's really big, so big that the whole world can be jaw-dropping.

The battleship is anti-beating, three or two torpedoes, and a few bombs are definitely unsinkable. But this guy is amazingly expensive, and the cost is much higher than that of an aircraft carrier. The aircraft carrier Atlantic, which was once torpedoed, could buy a destroyer for the repair cost alone. The cost of these battleships, once damaged, was staggering.

However, the battleship's air defense capability is indeed strong, and the dense barrels are like a jungle, and the six steel monsters can really weave a firepower net.

Under this earth-shattering manipulation, the heavy cruisers, light cruisers on the second line of defense, can hardly arouse the amazement of onlookers.

However, these are not all the strokes of Vice Admiral Spruance, all twelve escort aircraft carriers of the US military, and a three-by-four formation is also listed. And this large array is located on the side of the main aircraft carrier formation, and if you want to talk about the role, it is still a decoy.

It should be said that only the US military, and only the US military in the world, can put on such a luxurious and extravagant lineup. In addition to envy, jealousy and hatred, can there be other feelings?

However, no matter how strong the lineup is, he doesn't know the position of the opponent, so he can only be beaten, and everything is in vain. Spruance naturally would not have forgotten to send a large number of reconnaissance planes, and if he knew that the new Japanese fighters could guarantee operations within a radius of 700 kilometers, there might be other deployments, but he did not know.

Because he didn't know it, as soon as the battle began, the U.S. military fell into passivity.

At about nine o'clock, the US radar discovered the first batch of Japanese carrier-based aircraft. A total of forty-eight fighters, torpedo aircraft and dive bombers.

In the first round, the U.S. military responded in an orderly manner. The US military's cutting-edge F4U and F6F fighters showed their might, and none of the 48 Japanese fighters were able to break through the interception of the US fighters.

Around twelve o'clock.

The second group, or rather, the third group of Japanese planes arrived almost simultaneously. Of these three groups, one was 48 carrier-based aircraft on Japanese aircraft carriers. One batch was more than 30 fighters that carried out shuttle bombing. The next batch is more than 30 fighters of kamikaze attacks. The total number of warplanes exceeded 130, and it was like a black cloud urging the city.

In the face of so many fighters, the command system of the US military finally showed signs of overload. Sending more than 200 warplanes to intercept it is not difficult for the US military.

However, the fighters on the twelve escort aircraft carriers, the first sortie, behaved in a very chaotic manner.

These escort aircraft carriers, themselves civilian ship modifications, are called Jeep aircraft carriers, transport carriers in the US military. This thing looks similar to the appearance of a light aircraft carrier, but the escort aircraft carrier adopts a civilian standard structure, materials, pipelines, etc., and the damage resistance is too poor. The Indian Ocean aircraft carrier of the Maritime Resistance Force, although it is also a civilian standard, is designed as an aircraft carrier, and it still strengthens a lot of protection in some aspects, and it must be more resistant to beating than these things.

If we talk about analogy, these escort aircraft carriers are inferior in terms of protection capabilities compared to the first aircraft carrier of the Liberty Dragon of the Maritime Resistance Army, and the two are slightly similar.

The US Navy hardly treats such an aircraft carrier as a warship, so the US military naturally does not have the most elite pilots. In addition, the fighters used on these escort carriers are all old-fashioned Wildcat fighters.

The performance in the battle can be imagined, as soon as the fighters take to the sky, they immediately fly into chaos, and at most half of the fighters can reach the designated position.

In addition, the US military has not conducted joint training between escort aircraft carriers and regular aircraft carriers, and the cooperation is naturally unfamiliar.

Under such circumstances, it is inevitable that there will be loopholes in the air defense of US fighters. And this vulnerability is quite large. At least forty Japanese fighters broke through the line and flew over the fleet.

Under the dense network of firepower of battleships and cruisers, more than a dozen Japanese planes finally approached the US aircraft carrier formation.

With just a dozen fighters, the US military has so many aircraft carriers, and the anti-aircraft firepower is crazy, and they are not very afraid.

However, a terrifying scene appeared for the US military, and the US military was the first to experience a kamikaze attack.

During the battle, three Japanese fighters slipped through the net, but they were all kamikaze fighters. The three fighters crashed into the US warship as if they were crazy. Two hits, two aircraft carriers were bombed, and immediately set fire and sank.

It should be said that the US military was lucky. The kamikaze fighters, who had only been trained by the Japanese army for a few months, were so poor that they actually aimed at the escort carriers. Lieutenant General Spruance's bait was successful, but the bait itself was sad.

If we say that in the first wave of the Japanese army's strike, the US military coped with it perfectly and was almost unscathed. However, in the second wave of strikes, the US military lost more than 40 fighters, two escort aircraft carriers were sunk, one battleship was severely damaged, and one cruiser was injured.

Although such losses are not small, they are far from hurting the muscles and bones for the US military. However, the madness of the Japanese army caused confusion among the American officers and soldiers after nearly a month of tension. There were even US officers and soldiers, seeing their fighter planes, and opened fire indiscriminately. Some officers and men were so frightened by their own fighters in the air that they went insane and jumped from the warships into the sea to escape.

In the midst of the panic, a US destroyer rammed into a heavy cruiser and sank into the sea without even carrying it for three minutes. The heavy cruisers, on the other hand, suffered heavy losses and withdrew from the battle.

It was under these circumstances that the American army was disorganized and had no idea where the Japanese fleet was, so Admiral Nimitz urgently urged the naval resistance fleet to go north at full speed.

Based on the current situation, the US military can only roughly judge that the Japanese fleet is south of Saipan, and it is not clear whether it is due south or southeast, southeast, and southwest.

If the Naval Resistance Army goes north, it is very likely to form a flanking situation against the Japanese fleet, and even if it cannot form a flanking attack, it can also distract the Japanese army.

This is what Admiral Nimitz intended. (To be continued......)