At about 7 o'clock in the morning, two groups of air strike forces of the Naval Resistance Army had already taken off. The commander of the Japanese army, Ozawa Jizaburo, naturally knew that several battleships he had left behind had been discovered by enemy aircraft, but Ozawa Jizaburo did not make any response at all.

It's not that Jizaburo Ozawa doesn't want to deal with it, but he can't afford it. Because in the ocean west of Saipan, an extremely tragic naval battle has been fought for a long time, and all the only more than 20 fighters in the Japanese fleet have been sent by Jizaburo Ozawa to support the Saipan battlefield.

On the side of the Naval Resistance Army, Li Guang was bold enough to leave only twenty-four fighters. And Ozawa Jizaburo did not have a single carrier-based aircraft at hand at this time, except for the reconnaissance aircraft on the battleship. The entire huge fleet, not to mention the armor, was almost naked.

If you can't send fighters, you can always send warships. Ozawa Jizaburo thought that the main fleet and the five battleships that fell behind were already more than 300 kilometers away, and the battleship support was not rushed at all, and the possibility of death was even greater, so he could only turn a deaf ear to the eager telegrams of the few battleships that fell behind.

Ozawa Jizaburo only felt that the battle was a little awkward at the moment, and he also expected possible losses. It stands to reason that Ozawa should be a little pessimistic and disappointed, but in fact, Jizaburo Ozawa has a blazing eye, looking forward to victory.

His expectation was justified, because this past night, the movement of the other Japanese fleet was too smooth.

Last night, when Ozawa Jizaburo received the news of the death of Admiral Yamamoto's fifty-six in battle, he immediately divided the fleet into three. One of the fleets that went straight to Saipan consisted of only one cruiser and nineteen destroyers. The commander was Major General Yorizo Tanaka.

Rear Admiral Yorizo Tanaka is not well-known in the Japanese Navy, and even has the nickname of a coward, but this man is a rare and flexible general in the Japanese Navy. In the second half of '42 and the first half of '43, during the Battle of Kuah Island, this man invented the "Tokyo Express" or "Rat Transport" supply method. To put it bluntly, it is to rely on the high speed of the destroyer. Like rats, it delivered supplies to the Japanese troops on Kuah Island at night. The devil was able to fight with the US army on Kuah Island for more than half a year, and Tanaka Yorizo contributed a lot. But his sneaky delivery of supplies was inevitably despised among traditional Japanese admirals - too devoid of bushido spirit.

As soon as the Tanaka fleet departed, the good fortune of the Japanese army came to the door.

You must know that Spruance's command on the US side is: the US fleet moves far away from Saipan at night, and then moves to the vicinity of Saipan in the early morning. This simple means was used to prevent the fleet from being detected by the Japanese. The method is not wrong, but it was wrong on this night.

The night before, the U.S. and Japanese decoy fleets had a big fight, taking out two old Japanese battleships. Victory. But the U.S. military did not clean up the battlefield at all, and of course did not have time to clean up the battlefield, after all, their mission was to ensure the smooth offensive of the U.S. Army on Saipan. In order to clean up the battlefield, some prisoners were captured and a bunch of US Army officers and soldiers died. Obviously not cost-effective.

The U.S. fleet withdrew from the battlefield, but Jizaburo Ozawa could not let a large number of Japanese officers and soldiers drown alive at sea. As a result, several Japanese submarines appeared in the daytime on the already silent battlefield. Rescue the devil officers and soldiers who fell into the water.

Coincidentally, the US military did not expect it. Since the U.S. fleet is in the waters west of Saipan during the daytime, and if it wants to move eastward like the other day, it needs to bypass Saipan, and the Grand Fleet's detour is really not so smooth. So that night the U.S. fleet was swimming westward. Anyway, it's also far away from Saipan.

The U.S. fleet was lazy, and was easily discovered by a returning Japanese submarine. Submarine reconnaissance is not efficient in itself, and the means often used are generally not in the vicinity of the opponent's ports. It's about lining up on the opponent's route. However, on this night, the US fleet in the vast ocean was discovered by a Japanese submarine, which was a coincidence enough. This was also the luck of the Japanese army.

As a result, Tanaka Yorizo immediately knew the direction of the U.S. fleet, and immediately seized the lead in the battle.

Even more coincidental is the second half of the night. The US military has deployed a cordon of up to 15 submarines 200 kilometers south of Saipan, with a warning width of more than 200 kilometers. It cannot be said that it is not tight enough, but the US military was found a full 300 kilometers west of Saipan, and Rear Admiral Tanaka Yorizo's route was calculated with the goal of intercepting the US fleet returning to Saipan. This route runs through exactly twenty or thirty kilometers west of this US submarine line. Therefore, the US military did not know anything about this fleet of up to twenty warships.

At 4:30 a.m., the morning sun had just shed its first golden light. The distance between the Japanese fleet and the American fleet was already less than fifty kilometers.

Twenty minutes later, when you get into visual distance, the light becomes brighter. Yorizo Tanaka was terrified by the size of the U.S. fleet. Hundreds of U.S. warships are all over the sea, like a jungle of steel, and their power is amazing.

The twenty warships of the Tanaka fleet are quite a few in number, and the scale is not small, but compared to the American fleet in front of them, it is simply a small group of rats that have collided with a large group of cats. The emaciated rats of the Japanese army did not know if it was enough for the American army to fill their stomachs.

Tanaka Yorizo's mission was originally to attack the U.S. fleet, and it should be said that he was lucky enough to find the U.S. fleet so smoothly. Rear Admiral Tanaka understood that Vice Admiral Ozawa Jizaburo wanted to use the attack to disrupt the offensive deployment of the American army, so as to gain time and allow the Japanese main fleet, including the five wounded battleships, to retreat smoothly. Until this time, he did not know the news of the death of General Yamamoto's fifty-six in battle.

The attack has an attacking style, although the US military is powerful, there are aircraft carriers in hand. Tanaka Lai San knew that he was invincible, although he was a little timid, but he didn't want to go straight away. As a Japanese admiral, the coward Tanaka still has a little bit of courage, and he plans to fight and then slip away. So immediately sent a report to Lieutenant General Jizaburo Ozawa - to report on the situation on the battlefield.

In less than a minute, Jizaburo Ozawa sent back a telegram: Chief Yamamoto had been killed yesterday, and revenge was up to you. The tone is flat, but the effect is extraordinary.

Yamamoto Isoroku's prestige in the Japanese Navy was not covered, and the "god"-like figure died like this, and the news of his death immediately reddened the eyes of all devils. Before Tanaka's order had been given, his destroyers had already rushed towards the American fleet.

The sneak attack turned into a frontal encounter, and Tanaka Yorizo's command was out of order, and he was helpless, so he gritted his teeth and rushed over with the flagship Shentong light cruiser.

It should be said. Ozawa Jizaburo still has a very good grasp of the major general Tanaka under his command. For a cautious general like Tanaka, Ozawa Jizaburo announced Yamamoto's death that he wanted to force Major General Tanaka to fight bravely. The so-called mourning soldiers will win, and Ozawa Jizaburo may have also learned the Chinese "Art of War".

Yorizo Tanaka had already attacked, but he had not yet realized the viciousness of Jizaburo Ozawa -- Vice Admiral Ozawa used a second-level combat code to send the telegram, which means that the message received by Yorizo Tanaka was the same as that received by the captain of the other destroyers, and everyone could understand the telegram. By the time he understood, it was too late, and the battle went straight to the heat.

In the eyes of generals at different levels, the concept of opportunity is completely different.

Jizaburo Ozawa knew: Take the destroyer fleet and the powerful fleet of the US army to form a decisive battle. This is clearly not a cost-effective way to play. But for the current Japanese army, it is actually an opportunity that can be sought but not obtained.

The US air power is too strong, and the Japanese Navy's surface warships want to approach the US fleet so smoothly, which is simply a godsend. Since it is a God-given opportunity, Jizaburo Ozawa will naturally not let it go. He hoped that the Tanaka fleet would inflict a heavy blow on the U.S. military with a desperate blow.

Although he no longer had the luxury of hoping to win this war, he was like the dead Yamamoto Fifty-six Generals. He hoped to buy the Japanese army a longer respite. And twenty battleships of the Tanaka fleet. It's the price of buying time. Of course, he didn't expect that his incentives were a little too extreme, and the crazy Tanaka fleet would actually fight in the form of white-knuckle combat at sea.

If you over-motivate your subordinates, the consequences are difficult to predict.

Not only that, Jizaburo Ozawa sent all twenty-three fighters more thoroughly, betting on the final bargaining chips. In the hope of dealing a heavy blow to the US military.

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4:50. The radar of the American fleet detected the Japanese fleet. At this time, the distance between the two sides was less than forty kilometers. Although the US radar is advanced, it does not have any advantage over the Japanese army's cat's eye observation post under this clear sky.

The sudden encounter caught Vice Admiral Mitchell, the commander of the US fleet, a little off guard. For a while, he fell into an extremely passive state. It's not that Lieutenant General Mitchell's level is too poor, but that reality is a constraint.

Although the formation of the US military on the sea is extremely tight, it is a circular battle formation that gathers the wisdom of the US military.

This well-defended circular battle formation was extremely effective in defending against Japanese fighter attacks, and the fighting over the past few days had proven it. It is also extremely effective against submarines, but this formation has quite serious drawbacks in dealing with attacks from ships on the sea.

First of all, such a large battle formation was quite slow during the voyage, especially at night (it was just dawn at this time, and the American troops had not yet picked up speed), with less than twenty knots.

The US military attaches great importance to training, but if more than 100 warships want to sail at a speed of 30 knots, it is absolutely not possible to do it in one or two years. The reason why the Navy's resistance forces had to adopt the tactics of personal escort was not only because they did not have so many warships, but also because the time and money required to cooperate with training and exercises were too large. Therefore, when encountering a Japanese destroyer that pounced at a speed of more than 30 knots, the US forces were unable to maneuver at all, and it was very difficult to even open the distance and give full play to their own advantages.

In addition, the circular formation of the US military has caused the average deployment of the escort force, making it difficult to concentrate troops. There were battleships, heavy cruisers, destroyers. In terms of combat power and protection, it is several orders of magnitude higher than that of the Tanaka fleet, but the number of warships directly facing the Tanaka fleet is really not much. There were only about 20 warships that could fight with the 20 Japanese warships, and the number was almost 1 to 1. Although the U.S. military far outnumbered the Tanaka fleet in terms of firepower, it was not easy to win quickly.

In particular, it was even more difficult to intercept all the Japanese warships from breaking through the inner ring of the circular battle formation. You must know that the inner circle of the US military battle array is full of aircraft carriers with weak defense.

Another point that is most important is the quality of the two armies. In terms of equipment, almost all US warships have artillery aiming radars, but under such clear skies, they really do not have much advantage over the Japanese army's optical aiming. Although the Japanese army launched an attack without occupying the backlight position in the east due to the confusion of command, it was not possible for the large and slow American fleet to occupy the backlight position. In addition to aircraft carriers, the quality of the officers and men of other surface ships of the US and Japanese armed forces is compared, and the Japanese army obviously has the upper hand. In particular, the quality of the officers and men of the Japanese destroyers was very high. It is almost the first in the world, and even the oldest British Royal Navy is secondary.

As mentioned above, the captain of a Japanese destroyer is generally a captain with the rank of Junior Officer. This is similar to the fact that the commander of a destroyer in the Western fleet has the rank of major. However, the age level of the Japanese destroyer Shozo and the average age of the major in the West are too much different, the average age is more than forty years old.

Does it mean that these young people in the Japanese army who are old are mediocre in qualifications, their level is not high, and they can't climb to a high position?

No, there are two kinds of academic qualifications in the Japanese Navy. One is the Naval Academy, which is equivalent to a secondary school degree, and the other is the Etajima Naval Academy (also called the Naval Academy in its name). Equivalent to a university degree. The former is for the training of junior officers, and the latter for the training of senior commanders. As a result, an unwritten convention has formed in the Japanese Navy, where seniority is serious -- no matter how hard you work after graduating from a naval academy, the captain of a destroyer is almost the ceiling for her promotion. As a result, a large number of destroyer captains over the age of 40 or even 50 years old have been created. The captains of these destroyers have been living and training on warships for a long time. The familiarity with destroyers is beyond the reach of navies. And their level of mine warfare (torpedo) technology is even more amazing. Even the oldest destroyers of the British Imperial Navy were incomparable in their level of combat. Although the Japanese Navy suffered heavy losses in the two years since the war began, the 20 warships led by Yorizo Tanaka were all elite forces.

So in the naval battle just began. Although the Japanese destroyers did not have a unified command. But soon a tacit understanding was established between destroyer individuals and individuals. It seems that the track is chaotic, but they cover each other in twos and threes, sharing firepower with each other, which is the ultimate level of art.

The U.S. military was still panicking, and the Japanese destroyers were already approaching within 30 kilometers of the U.S. fleet. Amid the roar of naval guns, the US military looked very majestic. After all, the number of artillery calibers far exceeded that of the Japanese army, and because of the side facing the enemy, the firepower was even more terrifying. But due to the long distance, the effect of the shelling is not to be said. The Japanese destroyers of the first stage turned out to be unscathed.

For example, the US military has strict regulations: The take-off procedures for aircraft carriers require aircraft carriers to be at a speed of more than 21 knots. But this time, the situation is too critical, and Vice Admiral Mitchell has the patience to wait for the aircraft carrier to accelerate. It was indeed impossible to accelerate before the surrounding escort warships could disperse. Since Vice Admiral Mitchell can make command and deployment beyond the combat radius of the fighters, he will also order the carrier-based aircraft to take off immediately before the speed of the aircraft carrier arrives. (Note: Although the United States got the idea of a sliding take-off deck, the existing aircraft carriers are still flat-decked, and the aircraft carriers with a sliding take-off deck arrangement have not yet been launched.) ）

It was already past five o'clock before the first US fighter plane took off. It took half an hour for all the more than 300 US fighters to complete their takeoff. The take-off speed is so slow that it can hardly be called elite. Moreover, only in the process of take-off, more than sixty fighters were lost, and the speed of the aircraft carrier was not enough, and the harm was visible.

These US fighters that took off one after another caused heavy losses to the Tanaka fleet, and the battle scene was hot enough, and there were not many casualties of their own. But in terms of hit rate, it's really pitiful. Nearly 300 warplanes of various types dropped more than 400 bombs and torpedoes, and only 12 hits. The hit rate was only a pitiful three percent.

The reason for this was that the US pilots were worried that they would be accidentally injured by their own firepower, so they were a little panicked in dropping bombs. Second, the Japanese destroyers had high speed, small hulls, and the operational level of the officers and men was really good. As for the anti-aircraft fire of the Japanese army, it really did not count much of a threat. In addition, the US pilots were indeed somewhat beyond their ability to deal with destroyers with a speed of up to 356 knots.

Even so, American fighters destroyed a full ten Japanese destroyers, and in the process, the American naval guns still did nothing.

Did these 10 Japanese destroyers also achieve nothing? You know, most of these destroyers released four, or even eight spear-type oxygen torpedoes, after being hit, or before they felt like they had no chance of surviving. This kind of powerful and terrifying weapon of mass destruction, fired at a distance of more than 20 kilometers, although there is not much accuracy to speak of, and there are many of them, the effect is still there.

At 5:40 a.m., a regular US aircraft carrier collided with an escort aircraft carrier in a panic because it was dodging a torpedo, and as a result, one was sunk and one was injured.

In the second phase of the battle, the Japanese achieved the result of sinking and losing one at the cost of ten destroyers. It seemed to be a loss, but in fact it was to seize the initiative on the battlefield -- the Japanese destroyer forward was already less than 10 kilometers away from the American fleet, and the destroyer that was slightly behind was also within 15 kilometers. The pattern of white-knuckle warfare has been formed.

The U.S. military side was not at all without progress, in the fifty-minute battle. The U.S. battleships had completed the queue adjustment, and three full columns of battleships lined up in front of the Japanese destroyers like an impregnable wall.

However, although the formation of the US fleet was adjusted in place, the operational command was still chaotic, and each ship was basically fighting its own battle.

The strength was several times stronger than that of the opponent, and it was not very bad to fight on their own, at least the results of the battle were presented in front of the US troops at 5:55 -- the flagship Mikatan light cruiser on which Rear Admiral Yorizo Tanaka was ridden was large and had obvious targets, which attracted too much artillery fire from the US troops, and was blown into a pile of scrap metal almost without resistance. However, Yorizo Tanaka was not killed. After the war, he became a prisoner of the American army. And Tanaka Yorizo gave an order before the flagship was blown up and sunk, but it was vicious and abnormal, and it was in the process of fermentation at the moment.

Without waiting for the US military to cheer, the evil consequences of the US military's command confusion appeared. In the heat of battle. The dense firepower net of the US military actually leaked a small fish. A Japanese destroyer desperately smashed into a position less than three kilometers of an American battleship, and then released four oxygen torpedoes. Didn't wait for the American artillery fire to hit. The destroyer is like a figure skating dancer. After a very smooth semicircle on the sea, four torpedoes on the other side of the destroyer were released again - the target was an American heavy cruiser less than four kilometers away. The combat quality of the Japanese destroyers can be described as vividly and vividly.

At the same time that the Japanese destroyer was blown to pieces by artillery fire, one of the majestic battleships of the American army was also hit by two torpedoes, and the power was immediately lost, becoming a dead city floating on the sea.

Two minutes later, the American heavy cruiser did not escape the ravages of the oxygen torpedo. A large hole of fifteen square meters was blown out of the waterline armor on the side side, and the sea water rushed in, and it only took a few minutes for it to begin to sink incliningly.

If this is the result of the confusion in the command of the US military. Then the catastrophe of the confusion of the command of the US military is still to come.

At 10:60 a.m., the naval battle had been going on for eighty minutes. Sixteen of the twenty Japanese warships were sunk, including the flagship Shentong light cruiser. Although the American battleships, the aircraft carrier sank and was damaged, one battleship was seriously damaged, and one heavy cruiser sank. In terms of cost and quantity, the losses of the US military are much better.

However, the advantage of the US military in the battle loss ratio plummeted after 6.10 points. With so many warships, so many personnel, and so many radars, the American army did not even find that after the Japanese lost sixteen destroyers, they had only two destroyers on their front.

When the two dying Japanese destroyers in front of them were blown to pieces by the dense artillery fire, there were two loud bangs in the rear of the American fleet, which immediately stunned Vice Admiral Mitchell.

Two Japanese destroyers actually bypassed the American fleet and appeared in the American aircraft carrier group. This is exactly the vicious tactic that Yorizo Tanaka arranged before the flagship was blown up and sunk. All the casualties of the Japanese army were for the cover of these two destroyers.

Before Lieutenant General Mitchell could give the order, there were two loud bangs, and a total of four fireworks rose from the sea.

In just a minute or two, four US aircraft carriers were injured. One of the regular aircraft carriers is estimated to be saved, but the three escort aircraft carriers were hit by a big killer such as an oxygen torpedo, which is definitely dead or alive.

You know, one Japanese destroyer carried eight torpedoes. Two destroyers had sixteen torpedoes. It is impossible to guess how many torpedoes the Japanese used to sink and damage the four aircraft carriers, but Vice Admiral Mitchell was sure that the little devil still had torpedoes.

When Mitchell was helpless, the American army showed its brave side, and an American destroyer braved the Japanese artillery fire, slammed and rushed towards a Japanese destroyer.

Another U.S. light cruiser went so far as to stop in front of a regular aircraft carrier, using its own weak body to shield the aircraft carrier from mines.

At 6:16 a.m., a Japanese destroyer and a U.S. destroyer collided together, and the total number of torpedoes carried by both sides exceeded 10, which were detonated in an instant. When the earth-shattering explosion passed, the mist dissipated, and only patches of garbage remained on the surface of the sea. In a tragic collision, the two destroyers both sank, and nearly 400 officers and men on both sides were all killed in the sea.

At 6:20 a.m., the fierce battle on the sea ended. The last Japanese destroyer fired its last four torpedoes, sank a light cruiser, damaged a regular aircraft carrier, and was itself sunk on the spot by heavy American fire.

At this point, all seven regular aircraft carriers dispatched by the powerful US Navy in the Battle of Saipan have lost their combat effectiveness. To the slight consolation of the US military, in the three days of naval battles, not a single regular aircraft carrier of the US military sank.

Lieutenant General Mitchell breathed a sigh of relief, but, is the battle really over?

No.

At 7:22 a.m., 23 warplanes released by Jizaburo Ozawa appeared on the US radar screen.

The consequences of Ozawa's over-motivation are revealed. In any case, he never imagined that the fleet led by the usually timid and cautious Yorizo Tanaka, inspired by the death of Yamamoto Isoroku, would be so brave that the entire army would be wiped out in just 90 minutes.

You know, that's a full twenty warships, and they disappear in ninety minutes, and the rate of consumption is a little too fast. In terms of the speed of tonnage loss, it may not be called the fastest naval battle, but the speed of loss of the number of ships is probably the first in the history of war.

Ozawa Jizaburo miscalculated, he originally thought that no matter how weak the Tanaka fleet was, it would be able to support it for at least three or four hours, and when the US military was in chaos, his carrier-based aircraft would give the US military a fatal blow, and the results would definitely be brilliant.

The arrival of the Japanese fighters was an hour late. Although the US fleet has not yet been completely brought into order, the command system is no longer chaotic, and the circular battle formation has basically taken shape. Even so, the U.S. military did not feel very well.

In the face of the 23 fighters of the Japanese army, Mitchell could only fly less than 70 old Wildcat fighters, and the pilots were also rookie level. There is no way, all regular aircraft carriers, all new fighters, all elite pilots, not one is useful.

In an aerial melee, the Japanese lost only six of the 23 fighters, while the Americans lost as many as 31 fighters.

Breaking through the anti-aircraft fire of the American naval guns, the Japanese lost six fighters again.

At this point, only eleven fighters remained, and only five torpedo planes and bombers remained. It was the performance of these five torpedo planes and bombers that almost frightened the US officers and men.

You must know that after a few days of fighting, the pilots of the remaining 20 or so fighters are the only remaining essence. Under normal circumstances, Ozawa Jizaburo was reluctant to use these backbone elites to do kamikaze special attacks, but the news of Yamamoto Fifty-six's death made the devil pilots scream and fall into madness, and they didn't need Ozawa's orders at all, so they chose kamikaze special attacks. Once these pilots use kamikaze, the level is definitely not comparable to those young kamikaze fighters who are treated as cannon fodder and have only a few hours of flying experience.

Only one of the five fighters was shot down by artillery fire in the process of breaking the defense, and all four of them accurately crashed into the US aircraft carrier and cruiser. Once again, he achieved three injuries and one sinking.

There are no ifs in the war, but if the Japanese fighters suddenly kill at the moment of the melee, it is very likely that all of them will break through the defense line, and the US aircraft carriers will not only be injured, but may all be sunk.

The U.S. military paid such a heavy price that almost all of its capital ships were wounded, and all of the aircraft carriers were unscathed except for the two escort carriers. Such an ending has already disgraced Lieutenant General Mitchell, and what is even more infuriating is that the last six Japanese Zero fighters, after running out of bullets, escaped unscathed, and easily shot down four American Wildcat fighters. The US military has hundreds of advanced fighters and hundreds of elite pilots, but they can only watch and let the six Japanese Zero fighters rage and go crazy.

In such an outcome, although the US military did not sink many ships, almost all of its capital ships were damaged, which directly prevented the US Pacific Fifth Fleet from conducting a large-scale battle for at least three or four months.

The other consequence was even more serious, and the results of the battle made the US military misjudge the military strength and combat effectiveness of the Japanese army. As a result, for as long as half a year, even if an aircraft carrier was repaired and a new aircraft carrier was installed, the Fifth Fleet, the main force of the US Pacific Fleet led by Admiral Nimitz, and the 58th Task Force, the core combat force, were still accumulating strength, and they did not take the initiative to attack, did not conduct a naval battle of a slight scale, and achieved nothing. (To be continued......)