The "Jet-1" battle plan (not the historical "Jet-1" in Leyte Gulf) is a comprehensive naval and air decisive battle plan centered on the Ryukyus. As early as after the Battle of Marinaya, the Japanese naval staff officers led by Kuroshima Kameto were ordered to formulate this decisive battle plan. But Yamamoto's decision to implement the plan at this moment has made many people frown. "Your Excellency, it's too early for a decisive battle!" Tsukahara 243, who became famous in the first war of Wake Island, stood up and took the lead in saying: "When the Soviet allies have begun to counterattack and the situation in Europe is also tilting against us, I think we should continue to defend it. Even if the German navy, like the German navy in the last European war, is an existing fleet, it can contain most of the strength of the Chinese navy. ”

His words represent the voices of many officers. After spending decades of time, exhausting the last copper plate of the national treasury, gambling on the fortunes of the country for a hundred years and the youth of a generation of naval personnel, and building the world's third-strongest navy, we should never rashly fight to the death at a time that is not favorable to us. Because from its own point of view, the battleship Yamato, the "weapon of decisive battle", is still alone, and the battleship Musashi was damaged in the rainbow bombing not long ago, which caused the outfitting progress to be delayed. The external situation is not suitable, the battle for the Iberian Peninsula has begun, the invincible German army is attacking the peninsula in a big way, if it can seize Gibraltar in one fell swoop, it can force Turkey to open the straits, release the Soviet fleet in the Black Sea, sweep across the Mediterranean Sea and cut off the Suez Canal, in that case, the axis will be just around the corner. In the direction of Central Asia, the Soviet army also began wave after wave of major counteroffensives, although it did not dare to say that it was recaptured, at least it had put China in a dilemma. So they believe that the situation in Europe should become clear by August at the latest. Therefore, as long as it can be delayed for a few more months, and wait for the German army to seize Gibraltar, even if Yang Qiu is conceited, he must transfer southeastern forces to reinforce the Persian Gulf and India.

Tamon Yamaguchi also bounced up from his seat. A look of anxiety: "Your Excellency, General Tsukahara's words are very reasonable. We should now take the initiative to take a half-step back and allow the Army to drain China's forces in Korea and Okinawa. He believed that as long as we did not fight a decisive battle for a day, then the main force of the Shina Navy would not be able to leave the East China Sea, and we would have to maintain at least three million troops on land! In this way, they could not fight in Malacca, nor could they fight in Burma and the Philippines. On the other hand, if you fight too early, there will be a problem. Then it is equivalent to helping China release a million troops, and their main naval force will also turn south and attack Malacca and Singapore. ”

The joint opposition of the two aviation officers made the conference room a little more dignified.

But Yamamoto was unmoved, and sat on a chair like a stone Buddha. Seeing that he didn't speak, Tsukahara thought that he had listened, and was just about to continue to persuade again, when the turtle man of Kuroshima next to him rushed out: "General Tsukahara." Why just consider delaying China? Have you forgotten that the Reich's oil stocks are already running low! "The bombing of the Tokuyama oil depot plunged Japan into its biggest crisis. Don't look at the reserve oil reserves, there are more than a million tons, but this oil is fundamentally combined with the fleet's long-term operations. Not to mention that there are still 3,000 fighters to maintain. Originally, Yamamoto also hoped that as long as Kimura broke through, he would be able to personally lead the main force to reopen Wake Island and the Marshall Islands, and open up the long-distance route between Rabaul and the Coral Sea. But the naval battle of Nanumea was lost. means that the idea is shattered.

As a result, the remaining oil stocks will only last for another three months at most.

There are also some local aluminium reserves. It is also possible to hide the aircraft plant in the mountains, but oil cannot be turned out. Without oil, even if you build more aircraft and warships, will you go to war without training?

Tsukahara insisted on doing it too early, and if the decisive battle is over, he will be able to get oil? In the final analysis, there are only three ways to obtain oil: to restore oil production in Sakhalin, to occupy Saltu (Daqing), and to break through the blockade of Taiwan, Guam and Wake Island. But these are difficult to do, because China is different from the United States! The Battle of Wake Island was able to destroy the U.S. Navy's power in the Pacific in one fell swoop, breaking the flanking attack, and straining the U.S. because the U.S. had just entered the war, and most of the ships were in the early stages of construction. China, on the other hand, had been mobilizing the country for nearly two years, and most of its naval projects had been proposed in 1936 and 1938, so the speed with which their naval forces had recovered was astonishing. As far as intelligence is known, at least three Shandong-class battleships, four Liaoning-class aircraft carriers, six escort aircraft carriers, six Xi'an-class heavy cruisers, ten Brahmaputra-class light cruisers, and dozens of destroyer submarines are about to be delivered. What's more, there is also a fleet that has nothing to do in the Indian Ocean. So, even if there is another naval battle of Wake Island, there will be no oil supply.

In that case, why bother with a decisive battle so early?

"Tsukahara-kun." Seeing that everyone was about to be persuaded by him, Yamamoto spoke up. The corner of his eyes was slightly raised, and he said in a deep voice: "What you said is very reasonable, but you have forgotten the responsibility of our navy!" ”

Liability? Tsukahara looked at Yamamoto and understood. If Kimura can bring back 90,000 tons of oil, the Navy will have an excuse to delay. Now, if we watch the Chinese navy land on Okinawa and do not fight, the emperor and the cabinet will probably not want a combined fleet that will not dare to fight. "Hey, it's too early!" Tsukahara sighed inwardly, and after looking at Yamamoto, he had to slowly sit back in his place. Seeing this, Yamamoto waved his right hand: "Kuroshima-kun, tell you about the plan." ”

"Hey!"

The "Immortal Staff" Kuroshima Turtle Man walked to the chart and began to introduce the "Jie-1 Plan". The officers took two steps closer, and no one disliked the stench on him now, because if the battle was lost, he would not be able to smell it.

The plan is not complicated, and the core is to find an opportunity to use the complex hydrology of the Okinawa island chain to fight a decisive battle with the Chinese Navy. There are two decisive targets, namely, the "21st Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" of the Chinese Navy, which poses the greatest threat to Okinawa and the mainland, and the "12th Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" that has just been formed. The plan calls for at least one of them to be eaten.

After comparing the strength of the two battle groups, Kuroshima Kameto and other staff officers all chose the "12th Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" without exception. Because the "21st Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" has not been in the line of fire since Guam, the three aircraft carriers in the fleet are all cutting-edge Liaoning-class aircraft carriers, with a large number of aircraft carriers and strong combat effectiveness, and there are also four aircraft carriers and four fast battleships of the "23rd Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" that can support them, so the chances of victory are not great. On the contrary, the "12th Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" has only one freshly repaired Sichuan-class and two Beihai-class aircraft carriers, which are much inferior in terms of experience and number of aircraft carriers. However, this does not mean that the "12th Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" is easy to deal with, after all, in addition to the three fleet aircraft carriers, there are also four escort aircraft carriers and five battleships, one of which is the cutting-edge Shandong battleship.

But it was because of the battleship Shandong. The Black Island Turtle Man suggested that the "12th Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" should be attacked. Because in his opinion, if he can sink the Shandong, it can seriously damage the confidence of the Chinese Navy and clear the way for the sortie of the Yamato and Musashi in October. Therefore, the Jet-1 plan is mainly aimed at the "12th Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" and lure it out to eliminate it.

The goal has been determined, but the implementation is complicated, because the operational objectives of the Chinese Navy's "12th Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" are the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, taking into account the Northeast Pacific. And now the Combined Fleet is not able to enter the sea east of the Okinawa island chain at all, because once it enters. It will have to face an overwhelming number of Chinese bombers and naval patrol aircraft. Therefore, how to lure away the "21st Carrier Battle Group" that poses the greatest threat and attract the "12th Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" out is the most critical step.

According to the imagination of the Black Island Turtle People, this task was to be entrusted to the Fourth Fleet stationed in the Philippines. The Fourth Fleet, in coordination with the light escort aircraft carriers in the main fleet, pretended to attack Fujian and Taiwan from the Bass Strait, forcing the "21st Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" to reinforce the direction, and then adopted the hit-and-run night attack tactics to attack from the Philippine Sea and cross the Okinawa island chain and repeatedly harass the Chinese naval landing force in the East China Sea. Force the "12th Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" to come out for a decisive battle. When it came out, it took the north and south Daito Island as a counteroffensive point, and dispatched all the army, air, and sea forces near Okinawa to completely annihilate it.

There is another key to achieving this goal. That is, the army must drag the landing force of the other side as much as possible, and drag the four escort aircraft carriers of the "12th Aircraft Carrier Battle Group" in the island chain and cannot leave. Otherwise, if all seven aircraft carriers come out, it will be themselves dangerously.

At the end of the meeting, Isoroku Yamamoto also vetoed the proposal to use the battleship Yamato. In his opinion. As long as the Yamato and Musashi are still around, the Japanese Navy still has hope of fighting back. As for the battleship Kirishima, because it was wounded in the naval battle of Wake Island. It was damaged again in the rainbow bombing, so it has been dragged to Hachijo Island for maintenance and is temporarily unable to fight.

After the plan was determined, the combined fleet was regrouped.

The commander-in-chief is still Yamamoto Isoroku, and the chief of staff, Ugaki.

The 1st Battleship Squadron, the Nagato and Mutsu, and the commander Yamamoto Isoroku.

The second battleship squadron, the Kongo and Hiei, was commanded by Nobutake Kondo.

The First Air Force, the aircraft carriers Shozuru, Soryu and Flying Dragon, Commander Tsukahara 243.

The Second Air Force, the aircraft carriers Flying Eagle, Hayabusa and Ryuho, was commanded by Tadaichi Nagumo.

The first heavy patrol team, Myoko, Nachi, Ashigara, and Haguro, was commanded by Hiroki Abe.

The second patrol team, the Takao, Atago, Maya, and Torikai, was commanded by Takasu Shiro.

The third patrol team, the Tone, Chikumo, Oi and Kitakami heavy torpedo ships, was commanded by Keno Kurita.

The two light patrol teams are the first team (Abukuma, Isuzu, Natori, and Kinu), and the second team (Agano, Yaji, Noh, and Sakugo). There were also six destroyer squadrons, two torpedo squadrons, and finally the Fourth Fleet under the command of Narumi Inoue and the Okinawa garrison fleet under the command of Vice Takeshi Toyoda.

This arrangement of troops puzzled many people, because Yamamoto actually handed over the Second Air Force to Nagumo, who had no previous aviation command experience, instead of experienced aviation factions such as Jizaburo Ozawa or Tabun Yamaguchi.

When Yamamoto Fifty-six was busy deploying troops, the Sino-Japanese war finally came to a critical moment.

At 8 a.m. on April 16, 1941, just as the sound of artillery outside Nanumea Atoll had dispersed, rumbling explosions could be heard 30 nautical miles north of Kume Island. Two Xin'anjiang-class fast-laying mine-laying light cruisers, led by six destroyers, constantly dropped depth charges into the sea in a circular anti-submarine formation. The dense column of water, and the high-frequency sound waves emitted by the hull sonar, startled the fish constantly jumping out of the water. Above the head of the fleet, two "Harpoon" naval anti-submarine patrol planes also circled back and forth looking down at the sea. This anti-submarine patrol aircraft, which is modeled on the Y-5, is a new aircraft that has recently entered service, and its belly bomb bay can carry two 550-millimeter Halberd aviation torpedoes, or eight 150-kilogram depth charges/cluster bombs, and can also carry 10 130-millimeter ground/sea rockets under the wings to carry out 800-kilometer anti-submarine cruise missions.

In the midst of a whooshing whistle, two Xin'anjiang-class minelaying cruisers fired a dense string of hedgehog shells at the sonar location. The hedgehog bullet is a new type of anti-submarine weapon, named for a high-density attack in a short period of time. Soon after the ammunition entered the water, the entire sea seemed to jump up, and dozens of water columns rose at the same time. At the end of the water column, a large mass of oil surfaced. A few moments later, there were still a lot of corpses floating.

Shortly after the sinking of the Japanese submarine, an "iron wall" appeared on the horizon. At the same time, hundreds of Air Force bombers, protected by fighter jets, rushed towards the distant Ryukyu Island, and then carrier-based bombers also roared down from the sky, dropping bombs on Kume Island.

When carrier-based planes took turns bombing the island, in the center of the "iron wall," a huge warship slowly began to turn its hull sideways. On its bridge signal platform. With graceful and dashing movements, the sailors alternately waved two signal flags to guide the four Beijing-class battleships behind them to turn synchronously.

It is currently the world's largest tonnage and the strongest battleship with the strongest unit firepower throwing ability, the Shandong.

Shandong-class battleships, a total of four (Shandong, Shanxi, Fujian, Yunnan) were built. It is a comprehensive embodiment of Yang Qiu's drawings and China's thirty years of industrial road. Compared with the Montana-class battleships that were used as a template, it used the power pack of the French Utopian-class destroyers imported from the United States during the European War and digested by itself, and also combined with the economic crisis. Eight Jiangnan-made double-air drum fast-burning boilers were developed, and four Hanyang impulse steam turbines were installed, with four axles and four propellers propulsion, with a maximum output of 173,000 horsepower. On the ship type. It does not completely imitate Montana, but combines the results of the National Fluidics Laboratory led by Zhou Peiyuan, and adopts the design of a wave-piercing bow, a large square stern, a flat deck, and an outward bow to optimize the underwater ship type. Use a keel to enhance stability. If you really want to say that it is like the historical battleship type, then it should be closer to the avant-garde-class battleship.

The maximum speed of the design is 28 knots, but at sea trials. The Shandong ran a maximum speed of 29.3 knots with a light load, and the Shanxi set a record of 30 hours at 25 knots in a recent sea trial. This shows that the domestic power pack is close to the world's highest level in terms of power and stability. In terms of defense, the Shandong-class is similar to Montana, with armaments of the front and rear knapsacks, equipped with 4 triple L50/406 mm naval guns, 10 twin L56/120 mm high-level dual-purpose semi-automatic guns, 10 twin 85 mm deck anti-aircraft guns, and 16 quadruple 40 mm and 36 single 25 mm anti-aircraft guns. In terms of fire control, in addition to the sea and anti-air radars, there are two radio fire control radars, front and rear optical rangefinders and turret independent rangefinders. Compared with the similar Montana class, the electronic and anti-aircraft capabilities are stronger, especially the twin 85-mm anti-aircraft guns mounted on the deck, which use the Otto electric gun mount purchased from Italy before the war, which is first-class in terms of firepower and reaction speed.

The Shandong-class battleship also has unsatisfactory places, the first is that after combining French technology, the fuel consumption rate of the main engine remains high, so that the endurance index is reduced from the designed 15 knots / 13000 nautical miles to 15 knots / 11500 nautical miles, and only 5500 nautical miles at 23 knots. The second was that the main gun was inferior to the American MK7 naval gun of the original drawings, and the designers had to continue to use the French and Italian ideas. Although the requirements were finally met, the life of the chamber and barrel was sacrificed. Fortunately, there were no cases of battleships engaging and firing more than 100 rounds at all, and as for high-explosive shells with low bore pressure, the designers added soft rings to the shells to reduce wear.

No matter what flaws there are, Shandong is still a masterpiece of Chinese industry. Not to mention inspiring the people's morale, in the whole design and construction process alone, more than 1,000 kinds of technologies from various countries have been introduced and digested, as many as 2,000 domestic enterprises and laboratories have participated, more than 30,000 technical problems have been solved, and special precision bearings, super-large crankshafts, super-large large-inclination propellers and other industries that were previously restricted by various countries to China have been established.

Of course, Brigadier General Zhang Xiaoyu (book friend usmarinecorps cameo) will not care about this. He regretted that because the Sino-Japanese war was earlier than expected, it would not be until next month that the Shandong would have a "partner", and the last two ships would not be until the beginning of next year, and they were likely to face the embarrassment of being useless. In fact, as early as after the Battle of the Marianas, the navy thought about stopping construction, but because the latter two ships had already been launched into outfitting at that time, and the completion progress was more than eighty percent, and the loss was great if it was abandoned, it was decided to complete it.

"Sir, the shelling formation is complete."

"Report, the observer has taken off."

"The bombers are being evacuated."

"Drive the patrol formation into the battle position. Sir, Commander Zhang's telegram, the Air Force will help us clear the airspace before sunset, ready to start. ”

Inside the nautical bridge, the former captain of the battleship Peking, which is unkempt, is exceptionally neat today. Wearing a gold-rimmed hat, a brigadier general's rank on his shoulders, and a neatly ironed black general's coat, he pinched white gloves in one hand and held the railing with the other, looking at the bulging island at the end of the waterline. "Is there any news of the main Japanese fleet?"

"I was near the volcanic archipelago two days ago, and now I don't know where I am." The chief of staff who was transferred from the Beijing with him was very clear about his commander's thoughts, and said with a smile: "Sir, I bet that the probability of you encountering the Yamato is less than five percent." ”

"I'm betting that there's definitely a chance to match." Zhang Xiaoyu was stunned for a moment, and then laughed. After laughing, he threw his gloves on the worktop: "Let's start!" ”

As the gunner picked up the phone, the largest joint landing battle between the sea and the air in the history of mankind was about to break out...... (To be continued......)