A military staff officer walked briskly down the hallways of the White House in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, when he came to the door of the president's office and knocked on it. With permission, he pushed open the door and walked into the president's office, standing in front of the gritty desk.

"Mr. President, the news that the German army has carried out airborne operations on Crete has been confirmed, with more than 4,000 troops. The staff officer handed the report to Roosevelt and gave him a brief introduction: "The Greek defenders are counterattacking, and we can only wait for the final result." ”

"How's the training and preparation of our paratroopers?" Roosevelt asked, his voice a little hoarse, because the recent American battle in the Pacific Ocean has not been going well, the battle for Oahu has reached a fever pitch, the Japanese have established a complete beachhead, and a large number of Japanese infantry is advancing towards the naval port on Oahu, intending to occupy it and win the strategic initiative for the Japanese army.

However, even if President Roosevelt, who had a unique strategic vision, many people of insight in the United States saw the decline of the Japanese army from the obstruction of Japan's attack, and they were in favor of the United States continuing to fight against Japan and in favor of the United States ending the Pacific War with the posture of winning the war.

Nimitz took advantage of the time Oahu had bought to finally wait for his third aircraft carrier, the USS Hornet. In this way, the number of fleet aircraft carriers in his hands has been expanded to three, and it has also restored the courage of the US Navy to fight a decisive battle again. Nimitz decided to come out of the nest and fight the Japanese fleet one more time.

"Mr. President, we are forming two paratrooper units at once, the 82nd Airborne Division and the 101st Airborne Division. The training of both divisions is very good, and new transport aircraft are also being developed. The staff officer obviously knew a lot about the development of the Airborne Forces in the United States, and when the president asked, he immediately answered the questions fluently.

Roosevelt thought about it for a while, and still asked the question he was most concerned about: "Is it a bit hasty for Nimitz's counterattack plan to be carried out now?" He himself did not approve of this plan of action codenamed Sailing, but Nimitz, after carefully analyzing the rules of action of the Japanese Navy, insisted on fighting a decisive battle at sea in the waters near Oahu.

The U.S. Navy set off in such a majestic manner, with the newly launched and completed Hornet aircraft carrier, with the Raider and the Yorktown, forming an aircraft carrier fleet similar to the German Navy, this fleet has no strong battleships, only shorter cruisers and destroyer escorts, but the maneuverability is very terrible, and the entire fleet can rush to the battlefield at a speed of more than 23 knots.

The staff officer thought for a while, but still decided not to bear this black pot for Nimitz: "Mr. President, the views of the Navy Staff are the same as yours, and you know this. However, Admiral Nimitz knew his fleet better, so making this decision cannot be said to be completely unwinning. ”

Roosevelt was worried that if Nimitz's counterattack made a mistake, then the American fleet would completely collapse and lose the strength of a war with Japan, so that the United States would lose the advantage of competing with Germany, and then the United States would have no chance of participating in the competition for victory or defeat in the European theater.

However, it is clear that the United States is not ready to counterattack the Japanese fleet in the Pacific, and the time to be fully prepared for a counterattack is three months later. At that time, most of the Independence-class aircraft carriers that the United States helped Britain build would be launched to participate in the war, and the dock locations needed by the United States for its own follow-up aircraft carriers were moved. In this way, the aircraft carriers built by the United States using the new production process will be launched quickly, one after the other, as exaggerated as dumplings.

But the United States does not have time to wait for these three months, if it waits for Japan to take Oahu and then counterattack, then the United States will not have time to intervene in the Middle East and German expansion in the Atlantic, Germany will take Egypt, control the Suez Canal and get involved in the Middle East, then the United States will experience a new financial crisis, the Jews will completely side with the Germans, and the United States will be reduced to a pitiful second-rate country at that time.

Therefore, after Nimitz put forward the plan to seize the time to counterattack at this moment, many high-level American leaders supported him, and even Roosevelt did not insist on opposing it. He authorized Nimitz to call in almost all of the warships that the United States could call up, and to go to the battlefield to fight the Japanese Combined Fleet to the death.

While Roosevelt was worried about whether the U.S. fleet could win the war, the U.S. Navy fleet was riding the waves in the eastern Pacific. Standing on the bridge of the newest battleship, the USS Hornet, Nimitz stood expressionlessly in front of the glass window, staring at the calm sea in silence.

No one knew how heavy the weight of the thousand pounds was on his shoulders at this moment, or what the young and adventurous fleet commander was thinking. He single-handedly brought about this decisive battle, belatedly appearing in the ocean east of Pearl Harbor with his fleet.

"General, General Spruance sent a signal with a flag that the entire fleet had arrived at the designated position and was entering the counterattack position as planned. "A staff officer came from behind Nimitz and gave him an update on the fleet.

Nimitz turned his head, nodded and smiled: "Believe me, the Japanese fleet will definitely be defeated by us this time, because I am not in a hurry to die, but I am really sure to win the war." ”

The staff officer was stunned, he didn't expect the general to explain such a sentence to him, so he had to say with some trepidation: "General, the Japanese aircraft carriers and battleships are several times larger than ours, and we have no way to win this kind of war......"

Nimitz pointed to the stack of materials on the map table and smiled. He seemed to be convincing the officers and sailors on the entire bridge, and as if he was using all his chips to convince himself to make such a big gamble: "The Japanese navy has been cruising the waters off Oahu for a long time, and they are not well supplied with oil or food." Kauai and Oahu did not leave any supplies for the Japanese, so as long as we counterattacked, the Japanese would retreat without incident. ”

There is also some information that he did not say, which came to the United States from special channels. I heard that a German officer had given a document to an American businessman in Argentina and had received a $2 million benefit fee. This document is an evaluation report from the German technical department, which details the flight performance of the Japanese Zero fighter.

It can be said that this information was given to the US government by the German government, and the purpose was to help the United States stabilize its own Pacific theater. However, the authenticity of this information cannot be confirmed, and the number jù in it is only a very primitive test number jù, not the real Zero fighter data.

However, after some evaluation, the U.S. Naval Air Force, which had this information, felt that it could rely on the latest P-40 fighter with improved Rolls-Royce engines to fight the Japanese Air Force, so this was one of the important reasons why Nimitz decided to launch a counteroffensive ahead of schedule.

"That'...... Checkmate. The staff officer, apparently persuaded by his own general, relaxed the expression on his face a little more, and said, "So, we can go home alive?"

"Of course!" Nimitz smiled and nodded, patted the young staff officer on the shoulder and said, "I will take you out, so naturally it is my responsibility to take everyone back with me." ”

After he had finished speaking, he issued his own order: "Tell Admiral Sù Spruance that the fleet maintains its present course, send reconnaissance planes, and confirm the security of the waters around the fleet! Send a flag to the 1st Destroyer Fleet to leave the fleet, and send a telegram two hours later to send planes to the military airfield on Hawaii Island, find the main force of the Japanese fleet, and return to the position." ”

The advantage of the Nimitz fleet was that Yamamoto Isoroku did not know about his sudden appearance at all. After so many days of fighting for the islands, the Japanese must have thought that the U.S. Navy would not be here. And the U.S. fleet is different from the original, they are supported by Army aircraft, and they have new P-40 fighters with new engines.

Moreover, although the U.S. fleet was running long distances, compared with the Japanese fleet, which had been involved in the battle, it could definitely be said that it was at ease, carrying more than 400 fighters, some of which did not return to the aircraft carrier once they took off, but flew to Pearl Harbor as a replenishment. So in terms of the number of aircraft, the number of American aircraft is not as small as the Japanese estimated.

Of course, the Japanese Navy had an absolute numerical superiority, with 8 battleships, as well as 4 fleet aircraft carriers. Moreover, the combat experience of the Japanese naval aviation is very rich, and almost all of them are skilled veteran pilots. Therefore, they had no fear and felt that the American fleet would never dare to appear near Pearl Harbor.

Tragically, Japan's 2nd Carrier Fleet had left the waters off Oahu a day earlier in order to support the attack on Darwin Harbor. Therefore, the absolute aircraft carrier superiority of the Japanese Navy is no longer there, and the number of carrier-based aircraft between the two sides is actually about the same, which also worries Sanmoto Fifty-six.

Neither fleet had now found an opponent, and Spruance did not know the exact location of the Japanese aircraft carrier fleet led by Admiral Tadaichi Nagumo, only that the Japanese 1st Battleship Squadron was shelling Oahu. Nagumo Tadaichi did not know that the U.S. fleet had arrived, and was still preparing to bomb U.S. military installations on Oahu.

The morning sun is rising little by little, which is really a rare good weather.