By the end of January 1943, after the complete capture of Pearl Harbor on Oahu, the battleship Yamato, which was the spirit of Yamato Nadeshiko, stayed here for a long time.

When Tokyo was bombed, "Yamato Nadeshiko", a combined incarnation of Li Huamei and Katyusha, was flying a restored F4U Corsair fighter for flight tests.

A few months ago, the U.S. Navy deployed a total of forty pirates in support of Oahu. In that disastrous air battle, because the airfield on Oahu was blown up in advance, the pirates who had "no home" could not find the airfield to land, and they were either sunk in the air, ran out of fuel and crashed, or were forced to land on the crater-riddled runway of Oahu, and finally the entire army was destroyed.

One of the 40 Pirate fighters lost was forced to land on the surface by a pilot and then sunk to the bottom of the sea, where the pilot was captured by a nearby Japanese destroyer. Afterwards, "Yamato Nadeshiko" dived underwater at the site of the plane sinking and salvaged the relatively well-preserved pirate.

Then, it took the Japanese nearly two months to repair the Corsair fighter with parts recovered from the wreckage of the pirate fighter captured in other seas and the Oahu airport, as well as self-made and replenished parts, and microscopic repairs that consumed the power of faith.

The repaired pirates were then handed over to Japanese pilots for flight tests and simulated air combat tests. In order to better understand the performance of this aircraft and calculate its upgrade potential, at the request of the Japanese side, Dr. Tanke, who designed the German version of the Corsair, also flew from Germany, and his people are now on Oahu to help the Japanese side put forward suggestions for improvement.

It was now March 1943, and both Li Huamei and Katyusha knew very well that it would be three months at most. The new generation of fighter aircraft of the United States, the F6F Villain, will join the Navy, and although the Japanese Army Aviation's Hurricane fighter and the Navy's Purple Electric fighter will also be in service at this time, the Japanese Air Force's superiority in aircraft performance is rapidly disappearing.

The appearance and aerodynamic performance of the Corsair fighter that Li Huamei is flying now are very different from when it first took off from a US aircraft carrier to support Oahu.

During the more than 20 days that the aircraft was tested after the repair, Li Huamei based on the results of her own tests and the opinions of Dr. Tan Ke. A series of modifications have been made to this imperfect F4U.

The first to be improved was the wing.

For the Corsair fighter, the entire wing can be seen in three parts, the first is the inner wing section that folds downward, which can be seen as part of the middle section of the fuselage, which also houses the landing gear; Then there is the placket part of the outer wing section, made of all-metal, which houses the gun compartment; Finally, there is the rear half of the canvas-covered outer wing, and the ailerons are also wooden-cleat-skinned.

According to the opinions of Li Huamei and Dr. Tan Ke, the Japanese side first covered these canvases and wooden skins. All replaced with aluminum skin. (Historically, the Americans also made such improvements in the middle and late stages)

Enlarge the vertical tail to improve course stability. In terms of engine, Li Huamei did not hesitate to consume the power of faith to strengthen and improve horsepower. In addition to this, a large number of modifications and corrections were made to the shape and structure of the wing of the aircraft according to various problems that arose during the tests.

By the twentieth of March, there were more than forty improvements and corrections to the captured pirate on record.

At this time, the Corsair fighter numbered 127 was painted a striking red color to prevent accidental hits. Its aerodynamic performance is very close to that of the future improved version of the Corsair F4U4.

When the news of the bombing of Tokyo came, "Yamato Nadeshiko" was piloting this modified pirate. Engaged in simulated air combat with the Flying Swallow fighter of the Japanese Army Airlines, and she was fought by the ace pilot of the Army Airlines, Hiroyoshi Nishizawa.

On the ground, technicians from Japan and Germany, using a radio communicator, received Li Huamei's comments in the air.

"In terms of speed, the early pirates are at a slight disadvantage to the Feiyan. But this RE2800 engine has a lot of potential for improvement, once the horsepower rises to 2400 horsepower, the current Swift or Swift will not be as good at maximum speed as the opponent without replacing the engine. ”

"Although they were all developed from HE151, the wings of the Flying Swifts used by the Army are larger than those used by the Navy. So the performance of the disk is slightly inferior. The Pirate hovers better than the Delphinium at any speed of 500 km/h. At speeds of 500 km to 600 mph, the hovering performance is still slightly superior, and at more than 600 km/h, the two sides are basically equal. ”

"In dive performance, the Swift wins, but the Corsair has a higher critical Mach number and can continue to dive for longer distances."

"Roll: Compared to Swifts and Swifts, the Pirates have won across the board, while Skythunder and Thunderbolt are comparable in terms of rollover rate."

"In terms of climbing performance, the Pirates still won and could climb an extra 240 meters per minute."

When the pirate, whose body was painted bright red, landed on the runway of the airport, the ground crew on the ground hurriedly rushed to take the gangway to pick up the "Yamato Nadeshiko" from the cabin.

In the pergola on the side of the runway, whether it is a German or Japanese course designer, the faces of the two are not too good-looking. Similar comparative tests have been going on for several days. In the past few days, the Japanese air force, whether it is the Flying Swallow and Thunder used by the Army, or the Swift and Sky Thunder used by the Navy, have all been at a disadvantage in the simulated air combat test with the pirates after the magic change. Only shipped by the Germans, the HE151 with the latest 2,000 hp liquid-cooled engine could compete with the Magic Pirates in simulated air combat.

Although it is the perfect version of the pirate after Li Huamei's magic reform, Li Huamei knows very well that with the industrial strength and scientific and technological accumulation of the United States, the United States can solve a bunch of problems on the F4U and improve it into a perfect fighter with perfect performance in a maximum of one year. Even the most problematic operability of the F4U, although the early F4U-1 was very unfriendly to operate, and even once got the nickname of "Second Lieutenant Murderer" (the first squadron equipped with F4U1 fell in a flight accident within a few months and killed a full fourteen second lieutenant pilots), but this can only show that it may stall and lose control at low speeds, in fact, the stall is not terrible, the terrible thing is that there is no warning before the attack.

Take the perfect version of the F4U-4 in history, for example, it always vibrates violently for a period of time before each stall and drops its wings, while another American aircraft of the same period, the P-51D, loses its wings without warning. When stalled, the Mustang tends to roll downwards and the aileron becomes unresponsive. It takes at least 500 feet to regain control and return to flying condition, and the F4U-4 has a minimum speed of 30 mph lower than the P-51D. As for the state at high speeds, according to the experience of the vast majority of pilots, the balance between the handling feel and response of the F4U-4 can only be described as perfect.

As for the issue of the F4U shipwreckage. In the Hawaiian air battle, the U.S. Air Force was abused by the Japanese Air Force, and the F6F Villain Woman was delayed in service, and the U.S. Navy absolutely could not tolerate a Navy fighter that had been designed to be parked on the shore as a shore-based aircraft.

The problem of F4U front parallax and landing difficulties is very easy to put it bluntly: as long as you add one more commander in the yellow vest on the ship, this "yellow vest" helps correct the direction of the voyage, and the pilot does not look at the surface of the ship and only looks at the flag of the ground service command.

The problem of pirate landing is really just a layer of window paper, which can be solved by a very simple technical means. The historical pirates did not come on board until 1944. That was before that, there was an F6F supporting the field, but now in this situation, the US Navy must be trying to find ways to get this aircraft on board, and it is not difficult to pierce this layer of window paper.

Although the Japanese know that it will be at least another year before the Americans can upgrade the current Corsair fighter to the performance standards of the "magic change pirate" in front of them. The performance of the active pirates is comparable to that of the "Swallow" series and the "Thunder" series. However, having foreseen the enemy's combat potential in advance, none of the current Japanese are in a good mood.

"It is necessary to speed up the development of Hurricane and Zidian. I must see this aircraft equip the troops before June! ”

As soon as he got off the plane, "Yamato Nadeshiko" said to the personnel of the technical part who came to greet him. According to the opinion of Yamato Nadeshiko. This test report handed over to Tokyo will be deleted The most important one: the pirate used for the test is an upgraded version of the performance that has been modified by her.

The reason for this is that Japan has a very strange system of war mobilization. Not to mention the old problem that the sea and land are not universal, in order to maximize the interests of the military salary family, hinder the development of new engines and new aircraft, and so on. It is also often dry. If you don't create a sense of crisis for them, those old-style feudal capitalist chaebols will do all kinds of bullshit. In Japan, the production of 2,000 horsepower air-cooled and liquid-cooled engines was imported from Britain and Germany at the end of 1941, but they are not yet mass-produced. On the one hand, the lack of technology accumulation and the poor level of engineers are the reasons, and on the other hand, the lack of progress of chaebols such as Mitsui Mitsubishi, which produces engines in Japan, is also an important factor.

After discussing the topic of improving the aircraft with the Japanese and German technicians, the guards on one side came running with a telegram and brought the news of the air raid on Tokyo.

An hour later, "Yamato Nadeshiko" appeared "out of thin air" in the Yamato's operational command room.

At this time, Commander of the Combined Fleet, Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander Matsushita Fumi, Commander in Hawaii, and a number of senior officials of the Navy and Army were gathering in Yamato's operations command room to discuss how to deal with this unexpected incident.

In the past, it was often more difficult for the Japanese Navy and Army to go to the Navy's war room for a meeting, or conversely, for the Navy to go to the Army's war room for a meeting. Just for this kind of, both sides may have a fight for a long time.

This situation did not improve slightly until the appearance of the "Yamato Nadeshiko", but the situation became that when the navy and the army needed to coordinate operations, the army held a meeting with the navy at the time of the double number, and the meeting from the navy to the army side at the time of the single number.

Today's Yamato Nadeshiko has a transcendent position in the Japanese navy and army, and except for a few people who are the emperor and the prime minister, they can suppress the contradictions between the navy and the army at the same time, and let them sit together honestly and cooperate.

The meeting was led by the Navy, a huge map of the Pacific Ocean was hung on the wall, and Li Huamei took the whip and began to analyze where the US planes that attacked Tokyo came from.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we will once again fight a decisive battle with the US Navy, and the time has come for all the fighters and their mobile fleet."

At the time of the meeting, the Combined Fleet, which was resting at Pearl Harbor, was urgently returning to its warship under the call of a terrible assembly alarm. The supply ships parked in the harbor also refueled the ships at this time, replenished food, and made preparations for an ocean-going sortie.

The fast mobile fleet, headed by the five capital ships of Yamato, Shinano, Musashi, Soryu, and Wyryu, with eight cruisers, sailed out of Pearl Harbor at half past five in the afternoon of 20 March Hawaii time and began the operation to intercept the American fleet.

Even without historical experience, it is not too difficult to determine how many aircraft carriers the Americans have dispatched to carry out this battle plan. Just by counting the number of B25 bombers flying over Tokyo, it is easy to reverse the number of aircraft carriers dispatched by the adversary.

When the US planes attacked the Japanese mainland, the Japanese Combined Fleet was not all concentrated in Hawaii, and the three Kongo-class battle cruisers with three aircraft carriers, Zuizuru, Xiangzuru, and Kaga, were being maintained in Japan. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, although they took the shipyard on the island, the shipyard facilities were damaged to a certain extent during the war, and it is not a problem to repair small and medium-sized ships at present, but it is still difficult to carry out the task of maintaining large warships for the time being.

The U.S. Navy launched planes to attack Tokyo from thousands of kilometers away, and it is very difficult to determine its exact location. The Pacific Ocean is too big, and it is very difficult to catch a high-speed fleet in the vast ocean that is trying to escape.

During this sortie, Li Huamei and senior Japanese naval officials discussed and agreed that when the US attack fleet retreated, it was unlikely that it would take the nearest straight course from Tokyo to San Francisco, and that the most likely thing would be that after the bombers were released, the entire fleet would turn around and sail northeast, enter the Bering Sea in the North Pacific, and then pass through the waters between the Alaska Peninsula and the Dutch Harbor Island into the Gulf of Alaska, and then stick to the coastline or sail to Seattle on the west coast of the United States under the cover of shore-based planes to return to the mainland.

Of course, this is only speculation, and finding an escaping high-speed fleet on the vast sea thousands of kilometers wide is itself an extremely difficult and random task. (To be continued......)

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