Chapter 667: Battle of the Coral Sea

Less than two hours after the Battle of the Coral Sea between the United States and Japan ended, the Japanese naval fleet, which had gained some tactical superiority, was ambushed by the Chinese Nanyang Navy on the way back and suffered heavy losses.

How did the Nanyang Navy know about the naval battle between Japan and the United States in the Coral Sea? In that battle, the Chinese Navy defeated a Japanese mixed fleet consisting of heavy cruisers and seven other warships with only one destroyer, of which two were sunk, two were captured, and the rest were all heavily damaged, and only two warships returned to the Japanese naval base in the Philippines.

Here's the problem: The two captured Japanese warships had the complete code book of the Japanese Navy, and in addition, Chen Feng's new warships were equipped with shipborne radars, so as long as the Japanese Navy's carrier-based planes flew together, the Nanyang Navy could determine the approximate location of the Japanese Navy's aircraft carrier formation.

Therefore, this time, while the US military deciphered the code of the Japanese Navy, the Chinese Navy also immediately deciphered the Japanese army's telegram and learned of the Japanese army's operational plan. In addition, the Navy's radar also spotted another aircraft carrier formation with a large number of carrier-based aircraft in the Coral Sea.

After the research and analysis of Chen Shaokuan and others, it was determined that the other naval fleet was the Pacific Fleet of the US military, and its purpose was to intercept the naval fleet that was ambushing the Japanese army. Immediately, Chen Shaokuan decided to be a fisherman, preparing to come out and clean up the mess when the navies of the United States and Japan were both defeated.

So, under Chen Shaokuan's order. In addition to the two main battle aircraft carriers, the aircraft carrier formation also includes two battleships, four missile cruisers, eight Type 051 missile destroyers, eight Type 03H2 missile frigates, and two supply ships, under the command of Rear Admiral Chang Zhiguo, deputy commander-in-chief of the Navy.

Originally, the strength of the Japanese naval fleet was not very strong, with only 3 aircraft carriers, 6 heavy cruisers, 7 destroyers and 4 troop carriers. However, in the battle with the American forces, the Japanese lost a total of 2 warships, including the aircraft carrier "Xiangfeng", 1 destroyer was sunk, and 1 aircraft carrier was damaged. Far behind the Chinese Navy in terms of strength comparison!

In addition, the warships of the Japanese Navy are old things that were launched a few years ago, or even decades ago. The vast majority of the warships of the Chinese Navy are new goods that have been launched in the past two years. In addition, there are a large number of new warships that are ahead of their time, so the two sides are not at all opponents of the same rank.

When the Japanese Navy, which had just won the victory, penetrated into the encirclement arranged by the Chinese Navy in advance in an extremely loose formation, 224 Chinese carrier-based planes that were ready to take off immediately from the aircraft carrier. Pounce on the Japanese fleet.

15 minutes later. The Chinese Navy's carrier-based aircraft group spotted the Xianghe and Zuihe heading northwest. The two aircraft carriers were separated by 7 nautical miles and were each escorted by three heavy cruisers and three destroyers, of which the Zuihe aircraft carrier was slow. Looks like he's hurt.

The buzzing sound of the Chinese aircraft group in the clouds attracted the attention of the Japanese Navy, and Vice Admiral Takeo Takagi, the supreme commander of the Japanese Navy, immediately ordered the carrier-based aircraft on the two aircraft carriers to take off immediately to intercept the enemy. However, it was too late, and the Chinese Navy's carrier-based aircraft formation emerged from the cumulus clouds and launched its first attack on the aircraft carriers of the heavily defended enemy fleet.

Torpedo planes and dive bombers frantically rushed towards the Japanese aircraft carriers, and because they had trained thousands and hundreds of times in the tactics of carrier bombing, the Chinese carrier-based aircraft group cooperated very tacitly, and the vast majority of the torpedoes did not deviate from the target, and some of the bombs dropped by the bombers also hit the target.

Among them, the Xianghe aircraft carrier was hit by 47 bullets in the first round, and a fire broke out on the flight deck, causing all the carrier-based aircraft to be unable to take off normally, and two of the Japanese Zero fighters forcibly took off, but finally failed due to deck problems, and the two fighters flew directly into the sea.

The Zuihe aircraft carrier was originally seriously wounded, moved slowly, and was simply a moving live target, and the power was knocked out in the first round of bombing, and then the port side was hit by a torpedo into the water, and then more than 70 bombs were hit in a row, and the hull was seriously damaged, and finally lost the value of salvage, and sank half an hour later.

The naval battle lasted only one hour, and by the time the Chinese naval formation entered the battlefield, the Japanese fleet was basically beaten by the carrier-based aircraft group and lost its combat effectiveness, and the large number of naval fleets of the Chinese Navy had only time to clean up the mess after entering the battlefield, and the Japanese fleet, which consisted of 21 warships and troop carriers, was wiped out.

The Japanese lost a total of 19 warships, of which 11 were sunk, 9 were captured, and only 2 escaped from the battlefield early. There were 10,876 casualties, including 8,658 in the Army, and the supreme commander of the fleet, Vice Admiral Takeo Takagi, was killed, and the supreme commander of the aircraft carrier's air force, Rear Admiral Hara, was captured.

After the news of the Chinese Navy's heavy damage to the Japanese Navy in the Coral Sea was announced by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, it quickly aroused praise from the people at home and abroad, and the previous decline in China was swept away, and the citizens of Chongqing, Chengdu, Taiyuan, and Guisui took to the streets one after another to hold anti-Japanese demonstrations.

The governments of the United States, Britain, and other countries have sent congratulatory telegrams one after another, and the United States Government has even proposed to award Major General Chang Zhiguo, who commanded the campaign, such a great victory that the US Government has even proposed to award the medal to Major General Chang Zhiguo, who commanded the campaign.

The Allies were happy, of course, but the Japanese were not in a very good mood. Shigetaro, the new Minister of the Navy, was called to the palace by the emperor and pointed at his nose and scolded, and was almost dismissed. In addition, the entire navy was mourned and demoralized.

As a result of this battle, the Japanese Navy suffered heavy losses, 3 aircraft carriers, 4 heavy cruisers, and 7 destroyers were eliminated. However, the flame of desire of the Japanese base camp to capture Australia was not extinguished, and the Admiralty of the Japanese base camp immediately formulated a huge counterattack plan in an attempt to retaliate against the Chinese navy.

Japan is an island country, and the navy is the foundation of Japan's survival, so Japan's navy is also one of the most powerful branches of Japan's military, and to some extent the navy has represented Japan, just like the Tiger tank + Hitler = Nazi Germany, spaghetti + Mussolini equals Italy.

Despite the unprecedented defeat, the Japanese side still has great confidence in their navy, and this confidence mainly comes from the navy's proud achievements over the past 100 years, the Japanese navy has participated in the Sino-Japanese War against the Manchu Qing government in China, and the Japanese navy completely annihilated the Qing Beiyang Fleet, which was the sixth in the world and the first in Asia, with a slight loss. Later, Japan also launched a showdown with Tsarist Russia, as the main force of the navy in the Battle of Tsushima almost completely annihilated the Russian Far East Fleet, and after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese Navy swept across the Pacific Ocean, whether it was the arrogant US Navy or the British Royal Navy, in front of the Japanese Navy Combined Fleet was scum and was defeated.

In the eyes of the officers and men of the Japanese Navy, which has such a proud history, a small failure cannot prove that the Japanese Navy has declined. Moreover, there are objective reasons for this failure that cannot be ignored, on the one hand, the fleet dispatched this time is not the main force of the combined fleet, and it is not even a sub-fleet.

On the other hand, the strength of the opponent is extremely strong, and the US Navy has five cruisers, the USS Minneapolis, the USS New Orleans, the USS Astoria, the USS Chester, and the USS Portland, and five destroyers USS Phelps, the USS Dewey, the USS Farragut, the USS Erwin, and the USS Monaghan. The support group also has 3 cruisers (Australia, Chicago, Hobart) and 2 destroyers (Perkins, Wallk), and the aircraft carrier task force also has 2 aircraft carriers and 4 destroyers, which has surpassed the combined fleet.

Despite this, the warriors of the Empire of Japan defeated the U.S. Navy, and the tragedy that followed was entirely due to the sneak attack of the cunning Shina people, and the direct cause of the destruction of the Imperial Fleet was the bombing of the Shina naval aviation, which prevented the carrier-based aircraft on the Imperial aircraft carriers from taking off.

For all these reasons, the Japanese Navy does not believe that this defeat is due to a gap in the strength of the two navies, and even if there is a gap, it is because the Chinese Navy is at a disadvantage and the Japanese Navy has an absolute advantage.

Japanese Navy Minister Shigetaro Shimada is really angry this time, he has just been in office for less than three months, and he has encountered this kind of thing, which makes the navy, which has always been smooth-sailing, think about it, and let Shigetaro's face go where to rest. Therefore, Senior Admiral Shigetaro Shigetaro personally sent a telegram to Admiral Yamamoto 56, commander of the Combined Fleet, ordering Yamamoto's Combined Fleet to prepare and carry out the operational plan to capture Australia.

After receiving the order from the Admiralty, Yamamoto Isoroku did not rush into action, and although the strength of the Coral Sea naval battle did not attract the attention of the Admiralty, it made the admiral deeply uneasy. Although there were not many warships participating in this operation, the scale of the engagement was not very large, and its intensity was not very high. But this naval battle was the first duel between aircraft carriers in the world, and both fleets were engaged outside the line of sight of both sides.

From a tactical point of view, the Battle of the Coral Sea can be said to have a slight advantage for the Japanese army. Although the Japanese had more planes and casualties than the Americans, they won the victory of sinking the USS Neosho, USS Sims and the 33,000-ton large aircraft carrier USS Lexington at a smaller cost of losing 12,000 tons of "Xiangfeng" and sinking several small ships on the outskirts of Tulagi Island.

However, Isoroku Yamamoto confirmed that Japan had lost strategically, because this was the first time since the beginning of the war that the expansion of Japanese forces had been contained, and the operational plan to attack Port Moresby had to be postponed.

More importantly, China, which has always shown itself as a weak navy, also went against the norm this time, taking the initiative to attack, and even annihilating the fleet of the Great Japanese Navy in one fell swoop. Combined with the fiasco half a year ago, Admiral Yamamoto believed that the Chinese Navy was no longer the Chinese Navy it used to be, and that its strength was likely to be like their army, which had developed into a maritime force that could completely compete with the Japanese Empire when it was not paying attention. (To be continued......)