In addition, it is worth mentioning that aviation rockets are used to deal with submarines with miraculous effects, as long as they are hit, they are pierced, and the submarine will either sink into the water, or give up diving and surrender obediently. And the rocket is not like a depth charge that must fly above the submarine and drop, so it can hit the enemy's submarine earlier, so that it has no time to dive and escape, and at the same time there is no radar on the submarine, you must see the plane to find out, at this time the distance between the two sides is quite close for aviation rockets, so the accuracy is much higher than when attacking a destroyer.

Because of these advantages of aviation rockets, the anti-submarine efficiency of Japanese aircraft suddenly increased several times after rockets were widely used as the main anti-submarine weapon. And the sharp drop in the aircraft loss rate against destroyers also has strategic significance that cannot be ignored in the long run. However, to the frustration of the Japanese government, the domestically produced rockets have always been less useful than those imported from China

And for those large warships with rough skin and thick flesh (including newer 10,000-ton light cruisers), the Japanese relied more on the newly equipped hydrogen peroxide aviation torpedoes. If the enemy fleet was large, the Japanese torpedo pilots would choose to attack outside the range of the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery, and although the hit rate would drop significantly, the planes would be much safer.

Moreover, the track of hydrogen peroxide torpedoes is very inconspicuous, and the enemy cannot see it until the torpedo is very close, so it is difficult for American warships to avoid it in time. And since the Japanese torpedo pilots now knew that they had to launch torpedo attacks from multiple directions, the enemy ships could not reduce the probability of being hit by facing them through the bow of the ship. Therefore, as long as the Japanese fleet fired enough torpedoes. Against the large fleet of the Americans, a round of attacks can always sink a few ships, as long as the planes are still there, go back and resupply them and do it again. Since the Japanese army has basically seized air supremacy in the South Pacific, there is no need to worry too much about the interception and pursuit of enemy planes, so it is possible to launch two or three rounds of attacks in a row (no matter how many times the pilot's physical strength and spirit will be unbearable), no matter how strong the enemy's fleet is, it will not be able to eat and go around

However, if there are not many enemy ships, the anti-aircraft fire will naturally not be much stronger, and the pilots of the Japanese torpedo planes will often choose to forcibly approach the enemy ships to launch torpedoes. to increase the hit rate of the torpedo as much as possible. As long as it is possible to sink enemy ships, it is worth losing so many aircraft and a few aircraft. At the same time, in this situation, dive bombers with a high bomb hit rate still have a very important position in tactics. In addition, dive bombers can only be used when cleaning up the remnants of the enemy, although it is easier to use torpedoes against enemy ships that have lost their combat effectiveness. However, against light warships, high-explosive aerial bombs can also kill with one hit. And the cost of an aerial bomb is less than one-twentieth of the cost of a torpedo of the same weight

And after being cheated by the Germans. The devil also got inspiration from this, realizing that while the main force was attacking at low altitude, a small number of dive bombers could also be sent to fly to high altitude to "pick up leaks". Due to the small number, the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns of the enemy ships were neither fired nor not. Because large-caliber antiaircraft guns have no power if they are not numerous, if the enemy only departs a small part of the anti-aircraft artillery fire to deal with the Japanese planes at high altitudes, it is almost no different from not fighting, and it is a complete waste of shells, and if there are too many parts, not only will a large number of shells be wasted, but also the Japanese planes that attack at low altitudes will also have an opportunity. Of course, the premise of the implementation of this tactic is that the fighters escorted by the enemy must have absolute superiority over the enemy's fighters (so it must be an ace pilot, after all, the Japanese in this time and space have long understood in the war of aggression against China that no weapon can maintain superiority forever). To ensure that there are not many enemy planes still not afraid of interception, otherwise people will send a squadron of fighters to pounce, and the slow dive bombers will have to wait for death

In general, Japanese planes are now more inclined to attack ships from a relatively safe distance (Note 1), and compensate for the loss of accuracy caused by the astonishing density of firepower generated by concentrated projection, which can not only greatly inhibit the effectiveness of the powerful anti-aircraft artillery fire of the US military, but also better than the traditional fighting style even if it encounters the US fleet protected by fighter groups.

If the enemy planes rush out to intercept or pursue, they will have to engage the Japanese escort aircraft formation in a state of loss, at least partial loss of anti-aircraft artillery protection, not to mention the US Navy's garbage F4F fighters, even if it is a relatively advanced US Army Aviation P38 fighter, at medium and low altitudes (P38 is a high-altitude and high-speed fighter) is not the opponent of the Japanese Zero fighter, not to mention that the Japanese aircraft carrier formation is mainly active in the central South Pacific, and it is almost impossible to encounter the US Army Aviation aircraft. And if the enemy planes do not dare to rush out to intercept or pursue, the Japanese planes will probably be able to swagger away after sinking some enemy ships, and the blow to the enemy's morale will be even more fatal

The new tactics greatly reduced the loss rate of the Japanese carrier-based air group, and the fact that the two Japanese aircraft carrier formations were met by American anti-submarine escort groups without capital ships, so the battle was almost entirely one-sided. Moreover, after selling the Kaga aircraft carrier, which had been slowing down the fleet's speed before, the maximum speed of all the ships of the Japanese aircraft carrier formation exceeded 32 knots, not to mention the speed of the carrier-based air group, not to mention the Allied transport ships with a maximum speed of only 18 knots, even if it was a cruiser and destroyer with high speed, it would be difficult to escape once it was targeted by the Japanese aircraft carrier group. If you can't fight and can't escape, you can imagine the magnitude of the losses of the allies

During the short operation of the two aircraft carrier formations of the Japanese Combined Fleet, the Allies successively sank two heavy cruisers (Note 2), two escort carriers, eight destroyers, and 29 transport ships by their huge carrier-based bomber groups, and a division of American reinforcements and an astonishing amount of weapons and ammunition sank into the Pacific Ocean with the ships before they could reach Australian soil

In addition, 14 Allied transport ships surrendered to the Japanese after the escort ships were sunk, and the Japanese army received enough heavy weapons to equip two divisions and enough ammunition for 30,000 troops to use for a whole year according to Japanese standards

Note 1: In order to ensure the basic accuracy, the Japanese aircraft should not be too far away from the enemy ship when attacking with torpedoes and rockets, and the effective firing height of large-caliber anti-aircraft guns is generally more than 8,000 meters, and the firing range is more than ten kilometers, so it is impossible not to be hit at all, but as long as it does not enter the shrapnel density is large (the more enemy ships within the reach of anti-aircraft guns, the greater the density of shrapnel in the area. ), which is enough to reduce the loss rate of the aircraft to a fraction of what it used to be.

Note 2: They are all treaty-type heavy cruisers whose displacement is limited to more than 10,000 tons, and their air defense capabilities are not as good as the new light cruisers, and the Baltimore-class heavy cruisers designed and built by the United States for the Pacific War will not be completed until 1943 at the earliest, so the current heavy cruisers of the United States have the problem of unclear positioning, so the United States Admiralty simply let them take the escort fleet, and in the absence of redundant aircraft carriers, the seaplanes carried on the heavy cruisers are still somewhat useful (to be continued......