In the early morning of November 3rd, Vilmots? The main force of the Axis fleet under the command of Admiral Yankel has appeared in the waters east of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, about 280 nautical miles from Manila, and the whole of Luzon is almost within the range of the Axis air fleet.

It has been raining lightly in the South China Sea for the past two days, and although the rain has stopped, the weather is still gloomy, and the sea is foggy and the visibility is very poor. From the bridge of the flagship "Grand Duke Friedrich", only a vague figure of the destroyer fleet about five hundred meters away from it could be barely seen.

According to the battle plan, the transport fleet transporting the 2nd Austro-Hungarian Marine Division and the 1st Marine Division of the Chinese Marine Corps had already departed from Haikou, and the entire landing force would land in Lingayen Bay and Subic Bay on Luzon Island in the early morning of 4 November, and then flank Manila from the north and south.

Before that, the naval fleet and strategic bomber forces were to bomb all airfields in the Philippines today and destroy the US Far East Air Force to the maximum extent possible in order to eliminate its threat to the landing force. After the completion of the air raid, the entire air fleet will be divided into three parts: Admiral Yankel commanded the Austro-Hun task force consisting of four aircraft carriers to approach Manila Bay and be responsible for controlling air supremacy in the Manila area; Admiral Marshall commanded the German task force to enter the Mindoro Strait and attack the entire southern Philippine sea; Admiral Chen Shiying commanded a task force consisting of five Chinese and Austrian aircraft carriers to approach Lingayen Bay to reinforce the landing force and at the same time guard against an attack by Japanese military planes in Taiwan.

The primary task of the entire operation plan is to eliminate the US Far East Air Force deployed in the Philippines, which will have a direct impact on future landing operations, and if we can successfully destroy half of the enemy's air forces, especially the US bombers deployed at Clark and Delmont airfields, the entire landing operation will be much smoother.

Now a Chinese army and a German infantry division have been assembled on Hainan Island, just waiting for the successful landing of the marines. There will be a large influx of people on the Philippine islands.

At present, the US Far East Army stationed in the Philippines has a total of 180,000 troops, including 32,000 troops in two divisions of the US Army, and the Philippine Army loyal to the United States has about 12 infantry divisions and about 150,000 troops. Among them, the Philippine army is mainly equipped with American-made M1903 Springfield rifles, but the number of machine guns is limited. In particular, there was a lack of heavy firepower, in total there were only more than 330 artillery pieces and about 120 light tanks.

The equipment of the US infantry divisions in the Philippines is comparable to that of the German-Austrian infantry divisions, each infantry division is equipped with 54 105mm howitzers and 12 heavy howitzers, and is also equipped with an independent tank battalion with 78 tanks, in addition to about 1,300 transport vehicles of various types, which are highly mobile.

The problem is that the US Far East Army is weak, while the total number of troops dispatched by the Axis powers is about 230,000 men, and the naval and aviation forces have an absolute advantage, if the US Far East Air Force suffers a heavy blow. Not surprisingly, the US Far East Army was simply unable to withstand the Axis offensive.

The entire island of Hainan and Luzon was covered with a heavy fog, and the air raids, which were scheduled to start in the early hours of the morning, simply could not be carried out as scheduled. The Axis fleet was going round and round at sea, and Admiral Yankel was also a little anxious. There are growing signs that the enemy has discovered his whereabouts, or at least suspects that the Axis fleet is moving towards Luzon.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, the entire sea was still covered in a thick fog, and communication between the fleets was very difficult. But. This also has some benefits, as the fog can help the fleet hide its tracks. Do not let enemy reconnaissance planes detect it. From the morning to now, two enemy patrol planes have flown overhead in the sky, one is an enemy four-engine B17 heavy bomber, and the other is supposed to be a single-engine fighter or reconnaissance plane patrolling by the Americans.

Admiral Yankel stood on the bridge of the "Grand Duke Friedrich", leaning out of the window from time to time, anxiously waiting for the fog to lift.

Meanwhile. At the headquarters of the U.S. Far East Army at 1 Victoria Avenue in downtown Manila, MacArthur had received a warning from Washington that the Philippines might be attacked by the Axis powers in the near future.

By this time, the fog on Luzon had begun to dissipate, and Britton, after receiving a call from Chief of Staff Sutherland, ordered 40 P40 fighters and 3 B17 bombers to take off to the South China Sea for reconnaissance and alert.

9:30 a.m. An Austro-Hungarian heavy bomber group took off first at the Sanya airport on Hainan Island, followed by six bomber groups totaling 72 heavy bombers and 146 medium bombers at three large airports on Hainan Island, taking off one after another and beginning to fly toward their respective targets on Luzon Island.

In the waters of the Zhongsha Islands, Admiral Yankel, who had maintained radio silence all along, finally breathed a sigh of relief after receiving a telegram that the bomber group at the Hainan Island airfield had departed, and began to order the fighters escorting the aircraft carriers and the bomber units of the first attack wave to prepare for takeoff.

The distance from Hainan Island to Luzon was 1,100 kilometers, and the bomber units needed to fly for three hours, and the naval fighter units escorting them were ready to take off at 11 o'clock.

At 10:20 a.m., the radar station at Iba airport, located about 130 kilometers north of Manila, reported that a large number of unidentified aircraft were approaching, and Major General Britton, who had been staying at Fort Auchinlay since morning, ordered 112 P40 fighters to meet the enemy urgently, and ordered all B17 and B24 bombers at Clark airport to take off as well.

It soon turned out that the radar station at Iba Airport had found three P40 fighters from his own side that had been sent earlier, but it was just a false alarm, and Britton ordered all the fighters to return to base.

Towards noon, the tension of the Americans disappeared, and it is true that raids are usually carried out in the early morning, and under normal circumstances, no side will carry out an air raid in broad daylight. Britton telephoned MacArthur to say that he was preparing to send another batch of B17s to the South China Sea in the afternoon for aerial reconnaissance, after which he ordered the fighter jets patrolling the sea to return to the airfield for refueling.

The Americans began to eat lunch in a regular manner, the airport was very lax, and most of the duty officers were off duty with the pilots to go to lunch.

At 12:23, the radar watchman at the Iba airport, which had given the false alarm in the morning, noticed that a large number of planes were approaching Luzon and sent a telegram to the Clark airport, but the telegraph operator on duty at the Clark airport went to lunch with the pilots, and the telegraph room was unattended.

Ten minutes later, a U.S. officer on duty at Clark Airport received a phone call from Iba Airport, reporting to him the news of an incursion by enemy aircraft. Due to the "false alarm" situation that occurred in the morning, the officer did not immediately sound the air defense alarm at the airport, but continued to verify the intelligence.

The time for wealth was delayed.

At 12:31, a squadron of fighters stationed at the Iba airfield was attacked by more than 100 Axis fighters and bombers before it could take off, and five minutes later, the main airport in the Philippines, Clark airfield, was also subjected to massive air strikes, and the Americans did not react at all. (To be continued......)