Together with the high-speed fleet, there was also a low-speed fleet composed of three Condor-class escort aircraft carriers, and they followed closely behind the high-speed fleet, and these three ships were named escort aircraft carriers named Divine Eagle, Sky Eagle, and Flying Eagle, and in addition to the old Zero fighters, the ships also carried a full seventy-five Bat attack aircraft. The pursuing fleet will carry out the second set of combat strategies that have been prepared for a long time.

Due to their slow speed, the maximum speed of these three escort aircraft carriers does not exceed 22 knots, and they can only be used as aircraft replenishment ships for the time being.

In the other direction, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, which had successfully completed the bombing of Tokyo, was heading northwest at full speed, as the Japanese Navy had predicted, and they would enter the Bering Sea from the waters close to the Soviet coastline of the Kamchatka Peninsula and then make a detour to the Gulf of Alaska to return to the United States. The route was very close to what the Japanese had predicted.

In the first 12 days, the Americans only encountered a Japanese fishing boat on the way, but before they could react and send a telegram, the carrier-based planes that had taken off from the two aircraft carriers had unceremoniously dropped a 1,000-pound bombshell and sank it directly into the sea. Against the conventional fishing boat, which was only a few hundred tons, a 500-pound bombing order was enough to solve the problem, but in order to ensure that the opponent could not send a wireless message in time to ensure that one hit would kill, the US fleet could be described as ruthless when it attacked, and directly used 1,000-pound aerial bombs to solve the target.

On 1 April, the US warship quietly passed through the waters of the Comandor Islands and entered the Bering Sea under the cover of darkness and night. The Komandor Islands were originally part of the United States, but after the outbreak of the Pacific War, like the Aleutian Islands, the Japanese Navy sent a detachment to easily and almost undefended the islands, and established an airstrip here. However, due to the high latitude of the site, the development was delayed. Japan also has only a few coastal patrol aircraft deployed here.

But good luck still came with the Americans, and on April 1, the local rain and snow weather occurred, and the patrol planes on the island could not be dispatched, and the American fleet unknowingly navigated the area.

The fleet then continued northward, reaching a high latitude close to 60 degrees north latitude. Only then did it go east at full speed.

Sixty degrees north latitude, this is close to the Arctic Circle, how high is the latitude here? Oslo, the capital of Norway, is located on this line of latitude. At the beginning of April, it was still rainy, snowy, and stormy, and the bad weather was not suitable for aircraft carriers to fight here.

The reason why the US fleet made such a big circle to return home was also a last resort. Crossing the entire Pacific Ocean to attack the Japanese capital was an incomparably insane adventure for political purposes, and the commander of the fleet, Admiral Fletcher, himself was very opposed to such a risky operation. But pressure from Washington forced him to accept the task.

For the sake of safety, General Fletcher chose this long-distance battle plan, and the reason was simple: take a ruler and measure it on the map, and when his fleet finished attacking, turn around and return home, first go north and then east, and wait for the fleet to sail to Nuniwack Island on the west coast of Alaska, the distance of the carrier. It's slightly less than the distance from Hawaii to Nunik.

That is, take this route. Although the process was arduous, it was guaranteed that his fleet would never be intercepted by the Japanese high-speed aircraft carrier fleet during the process, and could safely return to the west coast of the United States.

Although it was located in the cold zone at high latitudes, it would be a long journey from here back to the southern American ports in the mid-latitudes, with an additional voyage of nearly 50 percent. However, for the rest of the journey, its warships can be covered and supported by shore-based aviation at any time, and even if they are intercepted halfway by the Japanese course, they do not have to worry.

From the map, the Arras Peninsula resembles the slender tongue of a woodpecker. Stretching out from the American continent, it goes deep into the Great Flat Ocean for a distance of hundreds of kilometers. This peculiar terrain was very conducive to covering the return of the American fleet to the warm home ports to the south by covering the American fleet that had reached the west coast of the United States.

Although the Japanese Navy seized Kiska Island and the Andreyanov Islands in the North Pacific in 1942, it did not capture Umnak Island and Unalas Island, which were closer to Alaska. There are two main reasons, one is that they are too far away, the second is that these are desert islands and have no strategic value, and the third is that these islands are too close to the Alaska Peninsula, which Li Huamei strongly opposes.

The reason for Li Huamei's strong opposition is very simple: this is chicken ribs, and she doesn't want to become a second melon island here.

The two islands were so close to the narrow Alaska Peninsula that once the Japanese Navy occupied them, U.S. Army Air Force planes could bomb them every day.

If you want to stay here, you have to send planes here to engage in endless shopping with the American Army and Navy every day.

During World War II, no country could compete with the United States for the Air Force. During World War II, with the national strength of the United States, there were 1 million reserve pilots in the country, and its pilot training institutions could train more than 80,000 pilots a year. For the sake of these two islands, which have no strategic value to Japan, Li Huamei, who has been endlessly fighting with the Americans for planes and pilots, and knows the tragic fate of the Japanese on Kuah Island in history, will not make this mistake.

Historically, the real end of the Japanese air force was not in the Battle of Midway, but on Kuah Island. At that time, Japan foolishly fought an aerial strangulation battle with the US Navy and Army in the Kuah Island area for eight weeks. As a result of this aerial battle, eight weeks of tug-of-war from December 17, 1943 to February 19, 1944, brought the last drop of blood to the Japanese navy.

On January 3, the 201st Air Fleet, which had participated in the war, was the first to withdraw to Saipan, and only 30 pilots of the air force left in a hurry with tired faces; On February 17, Team 204 had one last Zero available; When the 11th Air Force withdrew from Rabaul on 20 February, there were only 30 Zeros, 6 Type 1 Land Attackers, 8 99 Bombs, 10 Comets and 6 97 Bombs.

According to official Japanese records, a total of 18 squadrons of the Navy were withdrawn from the front line or simply disbanded, including 7 medium bomber squadrons (Type 1 land attack), 3 light bomber squadrons (99 Ship Bomb and 97 Ship Attack), 3 reconnaissance squadrons (Zero Naval Reconnaissance, Zero Water Observation Aircraft), and 5 fighter squadrons (Zero Combat). The well-known Kaoya, Tainan, 204, and 582 air fleets were disbanded, and the Chitose, Wonsan, 204, and 281 air fleets were also beaten to empty shelves. Eight out of ten pilots in Japan Airlines who flew more than 300 hours were devoured: "No one came back alive from Solomon." The Japanese Army Aviation, which cooperated with the naval airline, also shed blood in the eight-month and week-long strangulation battle on Kuah Island.

In contrast, the US Air Force, which has a big business, has trained a bunch of ace pilots through these eight weeks of air combat, and on the contrary, it has become stronger and stronger. Before the Battle of Kuah, the Japanese Air Force still had a certain technical advantage over the American Air Force, but after the Battle of Kuah Island, even this advantage was lost, and then with the appearance of the F4U and F6F, the Japanese Air Force also lost its advantage in performance, and soon came to an end.

Li Huamei, who knows this history, will not repeat such a mistake. In her opinion, there is only one way out of prolonging the war in the Pacific as long as possible and dragging the United States down: that is, to keep sinking American warships in the Pacific.

The huge national power of the United States can easily train pilots who go to sea, and no matter how many American planes are shot down in the sky, there is no point. There are only warships, and the construction period of warships is long, and no matter how strong the United States' national strength and industrial production capacity are, the speed at which it can build its fleet is still limited, and the speed at which it can train sailor officers is still limited by objective conditions. The speed of two fleets a year is certainly terrifying, but theoretically, it is only necessary to achieve the mission goal of "sinking two fleets of the US Navy every year" to achieve the goal of protracting the Pacific War for a long time.

Therefore, after learning that the Pacific Fleet had attacked Tokyo, Li Huamei and the commander of the Combined Fleet, Mimoto Fifty-six, were all overjoyed when they heard the news. They are not afraid of the US fleet attacking, but they are afraid that they will hoard warships at home and play the tactics of "piling up troops of turtle streams".

On 8 April, Fletcher's fleet successfully reached Nunewak Island near Alaska, where his fleet had sailed tens of thousands of kilometers and was supported by American land-based air forces that had long been prepared.

In response to this operation, the United States spared no effort to build a number of coastal field airfields along the cold Alaskan coast. During this time in April, on the Alaska Peninsula jutting into the Pacific Ocean, as long as the weather permits, a large number of long-range reconnaissance planes converted from B17s will be dispatched every day, and they will cruise over the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean in order to warn the Japanese interceptor fleet of possible Japanese interception fleets for the Fletcher fleet.

The B17 bomber has a range of more than 3,000 kilometers, and with its improved reconnaissance version, the radius of the enemy is more than 2,000 kilometers. Under such circumstances, it was simply impossible for the Japanese interceptor fleet to silently enter the Bering Sea and sneak attack Fletcher's fleet. And when it was driving close to the American coastline, the Japanese fleet could not get close to a sneak attack.

After a brief resupply break at the ports on the west coast of Alaska, on 15 April, the Fletcher fleet, under the cover of the United States Army and the United States, safely passed through the strait between the Alaska Peninsula and Unimac Island, entered the Gulf of Alaska, and returned to the southern United States.

Along the way, the skies over the Fletcher fleet were covered by army aircraft at all times, and a large number of B17 reconnaissance models were in the skies to protect the enemy. And the routes taken by its fleet are the safest routes close to the coastline. After entering the Gulf of Alaska, his fleet was covered by a full twelve escort carriers. (To be continued......)

PS: There will be a shift at nine o'clock in the morning as soon as possible