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On 8 April, the USS Enterprise and USS Liberty left Pearl Harbor and, escorted by two cruisers and four destroyers, went to rendezvous with the USS Hornet. A Baxia-class air defense destroyer of the Maritime Resistance Army has just been installed with anti-aircraft guns and is also sailing with the fleet.

The U.S. maintenance facilities at Pearl Harbor are extremely complete, and such work as installing anti-aircraft artillery is not difficult for the U.S. military at all. The installation of anti-aircraft artillery seems to be not difficult, but the skills are also quite complicated, and it is obvious that the level of installation of anti-aircraft artillery is more than a step higher than that of the naval anti-aircraft army. In terms of details, compared with the rough construction of the Naval Resistance Army, it is simply not a grade. This installation process will play a considerable role in enhancing the combat effectiveness of the Naval Resistance Force, and after absorbing the experience of the US military, the air defense level of the Naval Resistance Force will be improved again.

The convoy plans of the Americans were also quite well developed. For the safety of the "Hornet", the aircraft carrier "Enterprise" is responsible for air support. After the B-25 bombers took off, the aircraft carrier immediately returned to the sea in order to avoid the attack of Japanese aircraft.

This is very necessary, you must know that although there are fighters in the hangar on the aircraft carrier, in the event of a war, because the B25 bombers occupy the deck, they cannot take off to escort at all. The Americans thought very carefully.

This time it was Rear Admiral Halsey who led the Enterprise on the voyage, who was the commander-in-chief of the operation.

Li Guang felt that it was very necessary to use the combat plan formulated by the Americans as a teaching material, so that the general staff of the Naval Resistance Force could study it well.

Of course, what Li Guang values most is the radar equipped on the US aircraft carrier. In the First Battle of the Sea of Ceylon, the British radar played a huge role, if it were not for the poor British pilots. The performance of the fighters is also poor, and the British army will not lose this battle so badly.

However, not all US warships at this moment are equipped with radars, for example, the USS Saratoga aircraft carrier of the US military is installing radars in the United States at the moment.

The reconnaissance aircraft of the US military also had a fatal drawback, it was not equipped with radar. In the early days of the Pacific War, the Americans had a gap in radar in warships and aircraft, but with the strong production capacity of the United States, these gaps were rapidly narrowing, and in some respects they were rapidly surpassing the British.

On the Liberty Dragon, Huang Zhonghua and an operational staff officer analyzed the entire process of the naval battle of Ceylon bit by bit.

In the naval battle of Ceylon, the generals of both sides did not make too many mistakes. And the British army lost. It is completely lost in terms of the quality of the pilots and the performance of the fighters.

Through the detailed battle report of the Ceylon naval battle sent back from Tang Gang, everyone realized that this was a high-level naval battle, and the officers of the naval resistance army on the Liberty Dragon were like being baptized, and their tactical cultivation was raised to a higher level.

Li Guang's arrival. As a result, history changed dramatically, and the Battle of Ceylon was originally a small naval battle. But now it has become a big war in which eight or nine aircraft carriers from both sides participate. Just a war. The displacement of the lost warships on both sides exceeded 100,000 tons.

The Naval Resistance Force does not have accurate information, and the US military is not very clear about how many aircraft carriers the Japanese army has. However, the US military is certain that the Japanese army has only six regular large aircraft carriers, namely: Akagi and Kaga of the First Air Force. The second team of the Dragons and Dragons. Shozuru and Zuizuru of the 5th Air Force.

As for the other light aircraft carriers of the Japanese army, according to the intelligence of the US military, there are probably three or four.

Li Guang regretted that he did not study history properly. He really didn't know how many aircraft carriers the Japanese army had. And the total number of battleships of the Japanese army, he is not very clear, but he knows that the Japanese Navy has two so-called super battleships, the Yamato and the Musashi (which have not yet been launched).

If according to the intelligence of the US military. Then the Japanese army at this time had only five large aircraft carriers left. The U.S. military now has five large aircraft carriers, perhaps fewer of them than the Japanese in terms of small aircraft carriers, but if the Liberty Dragon is added, the two sides may be evenly matched.

Maybe this is the optimistic side of the naval battle of Ceylon?

The Battle of Ceylon was not good news for the Allies as a whole, and the British Navy suffered heavy losses in this battle, and it was not ordinarily heavy, almost the kind that broke the bones.

Putting away his thoughts, Li Guang took advantage of the strong wind on the sea and walked to the deck to carefully observe the American modified B25 bombers.

Liu Guobang introduced the performance of these bombers one by one. For the Americans, Li Guang still admires it quite a lot. Although he knew from the movie that an air attack on Tokyo was feasible, he did not know the efforts made by the Americans to achieve it. From the battle plan and the pre-war preparations, the Americans were meticulous enough.

These 24 B-25B Mitchell bombers have a lot of modifications.

The first, in order to reduce weight, dismantle the machine gun in the belly turret; Considering that the double-barreled 12.7 mm machine gun in the tail turret was not reliable and often jammed, the Americans removed the tail machine gun to reduce the load on the aircraft. However, in order to protect the aircraft from being attacked from the rear, two wooden sticks painted black were installed on the tail of the aircraft to simulate the barrel of a machine gun. In order to reduce weight and avoid fire, the flares were removed, and only two were left behind the pilot's seat with armor protection for use during night landings;

Second, taking into account the possibility of colder weather, de-icers were installed at the nose and tail of the wing to prevent fuel freezing; And with the addition of ventilated steel plates around the top machine gun, the Norden bombing sight was removed. This was because the Norden sight was equipped with cutting-edge technology, and it was dismantled due to the risk that the aircraft would fall into the hands of the Japanese in view of the risk of a forced landing in enemy-occupied territory. Only an extremely inexpensive alternative sight was installed. The Americans did not keep this sight a secret from the Naval Resistance Force, and the B17 sold to the Naval Resistance Army also had a Norton sight, and if this sight was matched with the large-caliber zoom telescope of the Naval Resistance Army, the hit rate of the dexterous bomb would increase by leaps and bounds. However, it remains to be verified whether the hit rate of bombers can reach the level of the Japanese army.

The third item: to install auxiliary fuel tanks in the bomb bay, initially using a 265-gallon steel tank, but changing to a 225-gallon rubber tank due to a serious oil leak. A 160-gallon foldable rubber fuel tank is added above the bomb bay, which can be deflated and folded after the fuel inside is used up; In addition, a 110-gallon metal drop tank was installed in the belly turret, increasing the B-25's total fuel load from 646 gallons to 1,141 gallons; Considering that once you reach the skies over China, it will take time to find an airport where you can land, so you still need to bring more fuel. So in the radioman's cockpit at the tail of the aircraft, there was a small fuel tank of 60 gallons and ten small fuel tanks of 5 gallons.

The Americans required the machine gunners to constantly fill the fuel from the small fuel tank into the turret auxiliary fuel tank during the flight, and then drill holes in the small fuel tank, and then throw the plane out, so that the small fuel tank could quickly sink into the sea, leaving no trace of the Japanese tracking aircraft group; It can be seen that the Americans are careful, and even such small details are aware.

Fourth, the bomb hooks in the bomb bay were improved to allow two 227 kg blasting bombs and one 454 kg incendiary bomb to be installed in a small space with an auxiliary fuel tank.

Regardless of the Americans, the Americans don't like to listen anyway. Without exception, the Maritime Resistance Force was replaced with four 250-kilogram incendiary bombs. Li Guang was convinced that the incendiary bombs made by Su Zizi were definitely more powerful than those of the Americans. In addition, incendiary bombs are more effective against buildings in Tokyo, and you must know that little devils like wooden houses.

Fifth, among the 24 bombers modified, two cameras were installed on two to capture the bombing effect. In order to prevent the aircraft's position from being exposed, the radio was silent throughout the operation, so the radio transceiver was useless and was removed;

Note that the Navy, however, installed its own unique Yagi navigation antenna on its own aircraft. It's not heavy anyway.

Li Guang assessed the transformation of the Americans one by one, and generally felt that the Americans were very pragmatic and serious.

The meticulousness of the Americans is also manifested in the entire process of the operation, in order to maintain secrecy, the Americans also took special concealment measures when the fighter plane was loaded on the ship, and when the Hornet left the port, the plane was covered with canvas, which was difficult for the outside world to find.

On board the Liberty Dragon, the officers and staff officers of the Naval Resistance Force studied and deliberated on the US military's plan of action one by one, and the rigorous and scientific nature of this plan deeply admired the officers of the Naval Resistance Army.

No one is omnipotent, and neither can the traverser. The staff officers of the Naval Resistance Force learned a lot from this plan made by the United States alone, which was a combat plan similar to that of the British Navy, but in a different style. It fully embodies the adventurous and scientific spirit of the Americans. (To be continued......)