First of all, although the transfer aircraft he chose were land-based aircraft, they were also carrier-based aircraft of the HNA, and most of the pilots had received basic carrier-based pilot training (they were actually reserve pilots of the Japanese Navy's carrier-based aircraft force), so after the mission was completed, there was no need to return to Midway, but could follow those carrier-based aircraft to land on the Japanese aircraft carriers, anyway, with the size and air defense capabilities of the US fleet, even if the proximity fuse was abolished, The loss of Japanese aircraft will never be less than 150 aircraft, so at least the first wave of aircraft will definitely be freed up. As for the latter, if the Midway airfield is not emptied in time, Yamaguchi Tashi allows the pilots to abandon the plane and parachute, so that they will generally land on Midway Island or the nearby sea, and the possibility of being rescued is very great, as for the loss of aircraft, with Japan's estimated production of more than 12,000 planes in 1942, it will not be as distressing as the loss of pilots, especially the pilots of carrier-based aircraft

With the addition of these 150 land-based aircraft, the second wave of attacks launched by the Japanese army against the US aircraft carrier formation will have nearly 500 fighters, which will not only greatly enhance the attack capability, but also disperse the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower and reduce its own losses, and the slowdown in the loss of aircraft will allow the attack to take a longer time and the actual combat capability will more than double. The second wave of nearly 500 Japanese attack planes did pose a mortal threat to the US fleet, but when Nimitz learned that a large number of enemy planes were approaching, his first reaction was surprise and incomparably surprised

The reason is simple, at least within 1 hour. The US carrier-based radar has not detected even a single enemy plane, and the US fleet has been far away from the sea area where it was engaged before during this time, why did the Japanese aircraft group accelerate towards their position without hesitation, and how did they determine the position of their own fleet?

Nimitz thought at first that the Japanese might have used a wooden plane as a reconnaissance aircraft, so the reflectivity of the radar wave was very low, resulting in the failure of the US carrier-based radar to detect it, but he soon realized that this was impossible, the Essex-class aircraft carrier was equipped with the latest American ship-based anti-aircraft radar, and the performance was many times stronger than the previous one, even if it was a wooden aircraft (in fact, a wooden plane could not be all wood. There are always parts that are made of metal. So it's just that the reflectivity of radar waves is much lower than that of metal aircraft, and it is impossible to be truly invisible. It can also be found, although the detection range is much shorter than that of metal aircraft. But at least it is longer than the airborne radar to detect the sea. And it's not a little longer. Because airborne radar is limited by size and its power is not large, the detection range can never be compared with that of ship-based air-to-air radar. Even the Japanese used wooden planes as reconnaissance aircraft. It is also impossible to find the US fleet first when the US shipborne radar does not detect it.

But thinking of this, Nimitz's heart suddenly moved, "Could it be that their airborne radar detection range is much larger than I thought?" Impossible, the Japanese radar jishu is not comparable to our American in any case, even if the jishu transferred by the Germans, and the airborne radar is limited by size, etc., are they using large aircraft as a platform? True, this made it possible to install a larger radar, I see! ”

After understanding the existence of the AWACS aircraft, Nimitz couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised, and he could understand after a little thought that for the AWACS aircraft, the most important thing is the flight platform equipped with radar and the large airborne radar with advanced performance, and whether it is a large aircraft manufacturing jishu or a radar jishu, Japan is a cut behind the United States, so as long as the United States also starts this research, it will soon be able to catch up. And as long as he has this new weapon, the enemy will never want to sneak up on his fleet in the future, and in terms of attack, it will not be like this time until several aircraft carriers have sunk to find the location of the enemy's aircraft carrier formation

However, Nimitz's joy lasted only a short time, because the discovery of the new AWACS weapon, although it was a cause for joy, did not help to solve the immediate crisis. What is particularly worrying is that Nimitz had sent out most of his fighters in order to ensure the effectiveness of the counterattack, and now the total number of carrier-based fighters left to protect the fleet is only fifty or sixty

In fact, it was not unreasonable for Nimitz to do this at that time, because the US carrier-based aircraft suffered huge losses in the first wave of Japanese attacks, if there were too many planes left to watch the house, then the strength of the counterattack would not be enough at all, and it would not be possible to bomb and sink a few Japanese aircraft carriers at all, and let those pilots die in vain. And with Nimitz's perception at that time, the U.S. fleet was still quite safe even if it was not protected by too many fighter jets

At that time, Nimitz thought that if a Japanese reconnaissance plane approached the airborne radar that could detect the position of the US fleet, the US fighter would rush up and kill them at the first opportunity; although the Zero fighter that was generally sent for reconnaissance was already the fastest of all kinds of Japanese aircraft, the speed of any new US fighter was faster than it, and the acceleration performance was also better, so once the Japanese reconnaissance plane appeared, it would be a dead word, and it could not even escape. Therefore, Nimitz was relieved to send most of the carrier-based planes, because as long as he ordered a retreat, it stands to reason that it would be difficult for the Japanese planes to find and keep an eye on their own fleet, and how did he know that there would be a new weapon such as early warning aircraft? But now it's useless to say anything, you can only fight to the death

Before the battle began, Nimitz, who had regained his composure, issued a very important order, that is, to ask the remaining fighter pilots to pay attention to saving themselves and try to use the exchange ratio more haode one-hit disengagement tactics, even if it caused the American ships below to be bombed indiscriminately by the Japanese planes.

Nimitz knew very well that as long as those fighters were still there, it would be a great deterrent to the Japanese bombers, and once they were all shot down, the Japanese dive bombers and torpedo bombers could calmly carry out more elaborate tactical coordination, such as first using the dive bombers to blow up the anti-aircraft guns on one side of the warship, and then the torpedo planes could safely target this side to launch an attack, so that they would not be attacked by the close fire artillery, which would not only be safer, but also because they could slow down the flight speed as much as possible, and the accuracy of hitting would be much improved. If this were the case, the Japanese fleet would be able to inflict a heavy blow on the American ships with very low losses (the historical defeat of the Japanese in the Battle of the Malay Sea with only 3 aircraft was the most typical example), and it was not impossible to even leave all these hundreds of ships behind (to be continued......