On the other side of the ocean, the sea is still overcast before dawn, and the weather conditions on the sea are not very good, with occasional light rain in the sky. On the flight deck of the "Zuizuru", the flagship of the Japanese Third Fleet, through the faint maintenance lights, you can see figures swaying back and forth, and the fighter-bombers modified by the Zero fighter as the first attack wave are neatly lined up on the flight deck one after another.

The nerve-wracking night was almost over, and the battle was about to begin, but Ozawa, who was standing on the bridge of the flagship, seemed calm. It was still some time before dawn, the weather was overcast, and there was no starlight to be seen, and the entire Japanese mobile fleet was making the final preparations for the expedition in the dark sea.

One of the reasons why Ozawa is more calm is that he is prepared to use "ultra-range attacks".

The armor of the Japanese combat aircraft is very weak, and the weight of the armor saved makes the combat range of the Japanese aircraft generally longer than that of the fighters of other countries. Generally speaking, the combat radius of the Austro-Hungarian fighter plane is about 300 nautical miles, while the combat radius of the German fighter is about 280 nautical miles, and the performance of the Chinese and Italian fighters is basically similar to that of the Germans, while the attack distance of the Japanese fighters can reach 350 nautical miles. If Japanese fighters had taken off from the attack range of the Axis carrier-based aircraft, would the Japanese fleet have been spared from attack?

This is the idea of what Ozawa calls "ultra-distance attacks".

In fact, Ozawa even put the attack completely 350 nautical miles away, and his idea was to reinforce the Okinawa Islands anyway, so that the carrier-based aircraft would not need to return to the aircraft carrier after completing the attack, but would directly land on the Japanese airfield in Okinawa, which would be tantamount to increasing the attack distance of the carrier-based aircraft.

It should be said that Jizaburo Ozawa's plan was really good, and the First Air Force under the command of Lieutenant General Kakuji Tsunoda suffered heavy losses in the early stage. There are still about 450 land-based combat aircraft, and they will fully cooperate with the operations of the Ozawa fleet. Although it was inferior in strength, the Japanese navy had a geographical advantage, and it was not impossible to inflict heavy losses on the enemy if it could take it by surprise.

However, to complete such a long-range "cross-attack", the pilots are required to have a very high level of skill. If it was at the beginning of the war, it wasn't much of a deal. The problem is that after several years of war of aggression against China, most of the outstanding pilots of the Japanese Army Aviation have been lost on the Chinese battlefield, especially since the Axis powers began their all-out counteroffensive, and most of the outstanding pilots in the navy have also been lost.

Even so, Ozawa only took one risk.

The first wave of reconnaissance planes of the Joshima unit, which was at the forefront of the Third Fleet, was ready for takeoff. The "Falcon," "Flying Eagle," and "Longxiang" are preparing to dispatch a total of 31 "Tianshan-type" reconnaissance bombers. Ozawa learned the lessons of Nagumo's naval battle in "Sumatra" and sent a sufficient number of reconnaissance aircraft in the first wave so that no important targets at sea would be missed.

At 4:20, the first wave of reconnaissance planes took off from the aircraft carrier one after another.

The Chinese Combined Fleet circled the waters southeast of Okinawa for two days, which made Sa Shijun feel a sense of trepidation. Japanese submarines are often found in the vicinity of this area, and if they encounter a Japanese submarine, the fleet's whereabouts will be exposed to the eyes of the Japanese. Over the course of two days, more than a dozen submarine alarms strained the fleet. Nervous lookouts often mistook the whales that surfaced for Japanese submarines.

On June 4, the submarine forces, which had been monitoring the movements of the Japanese fleet, reported the loss of traces of Ozawa's fleet. It is clear that the enemy has begun to move south. In order to avoid a possible surprise attack, Sa Shijun ordered the entire fleet to sail south for dozens of nautical miles at night, and moved to the waters southwest of Okidadong Island, only to turn again before dawn and begin to move north.

The Sino-German combined fleet is still sailing north at cruising speed, and the fleet has been changed from a night anti-submarine formation to a four-ring air defense formation. The two German air fleets were on the right, the Chinese and Italian fleets were on the left, and the four air fleets were about 10 nautical miles apart.

Sa Shijun has been staying on the bridge of the flagship "Beihai" since the first wave of reconnaissance planes were dispatched, because there was a light rain last night, and the sea breeze in the early morning was still a little cool. The big war is imminent. Even a veteran like him can still feel a little nervous. The reconnaissance planes sent from the aircraft carriers had been away for more than an hour, and there was still no news from the enemy fleet, and the seaplanes on the heavy cruisers and light cruisers in the fleet were also sent out to carry out the second wave of reconnaissance missions.

However, although Sa Shijun felt a little nervous and excited, he was very sure in his heart that he clearly had the advantage of strength, and as long as there were no major omissions, it would not be too difficult to win this naval battle. In addition, he felt relieved that the anti-aircraft artillery in the fleet was equipped with a large number of the latest artillery shells equipped with "radio proximity fuses," which made the air defense capability of the entire fleet several times higher.

In this era, most artillery shell fuses will only detonate after contacting the target, and anti-aircraft artillery shells are generally equipped with time-delay fuzes, and if they do not directly hit the target aircraft, they will automatically detonate at high altitude according to the pre-set time, and then they will explode in the air even if they do not hit the target. The biggest feature of the "radio proximity fuze" is that after the shell reaches a certain height in the chamber, the fuze can automatically emit radio waves to the surroundings and automatically perceive the existence of the target. If the target echo is within 15 meters, the ammunition will be automatically detonated, and the shock wave and fragments can be used to inflict damage on the target even if it does not hit the target.

The latest "radio proximity fuze" greatly strengthened the air defense capability of the Axis navy, and the latest "wireless proximity fuze" greatly improved its stability and reliability due to the use of transistors invented by the Austro-Hungarian "Imperial Standard Electrical Company". Due to the need for strict secrecy, the German and Austrian military, which developed the "wireless proximity fuse," strictly forbade the use of this new type of anti-aircraft artillery shell on land in order to prevent the undetonated artillery shells from being obtained by the enemy.

However, according to reliable intelligence, it seems that the US Navy has a similar product.

If there were no surprises, the Japanese land-based fighters on the Ryukyu Islands would certainly take off half an hour before dawn and then carry out attack and reconnaissance missions over the waters east of Okinawa in an attempt to prevent the Allied landing. However, they will be suppressed by the air fleet commanded by Admiral Chen Shiying and Admiral Sucker, while Sa Shijun's side will need to focus most of his energy on the southbound Ozawa fleet.

Whether or not the Japanese air fleet can be inflicted a heavy blow is a rare opportunity. (To be continued.) )