Just when the Soviet Union gathered almost all of its armored forces and headed south, preparing to fight to the death with Germany's main force Group G, the naval battle of the Solomon Islands, unprecedented in human history, also quietly kicked off.

Do not doubt that this was indeed the largest naval battle in human history, surpassing the scale of any previous fleet engagement. It was more brutal than the Battle of Jutland in World War I, and bloodier than the recently concluded Battle of the English Channel between England and Germany.

Yamamoto does not have much troops left, and the battleship Fuso is now on a mission in Philippine waters, so he can't rush to help for the time being. Therefore, the Yamamoto fleet that can carry out tasks is the Ise in the Ise-class battleships, as well as the Hyuga, plus the two treasures of the Combined Fleet, the Nagato and the Mutsu battleship.

Of course, another Kongo-class battlecruiser is now on its way back to the homeland, and it is not a reinforcement that Yamamoto Isoroku can count on. So the only thing the Japanese Navy can squander in its hands this time is these 4 battleships.

Let's take a look at what level these 4 battleships are: the two battleships of the aging dragon bell, the Ise and the Hyuga, are antiques, their combat effectiveness is very limited, and they are both old-fashioned designs that are relatively clumsy, and the turrets with 6 main guns are stacked on the ship, or the classic design of boilers, ammunition depots, boilers, and ammunition depots of the Fuso-class battleships. Counting on these two battleships, Yamamoto himself knew that it was unrealistic.

So he decisively played the trick of luring the enemy into depth, and used the two old battleships as his own bait and placed them in the center of the entire fleet, and the responsibility of this decoy fleet was to attract the attack of the US Navy fleet, as long as it could deceive the US Navy's two waves of attack aircraft, it would be considered a complete success.

As for himself, he led the two most elite battleships of the Japanese Navy so far, namely Nagato and Mutsu, with a heavy cruiser and destroyer, to flank the center of the US Navy's aircraft carrier fleet, and decided the outcome of the naval battle with artillery battles.

In other words, the Japanese navy has laid a half-moon array in the Solomon Islands, relying on nearby islands and other areas to hide its whereabouts, and the fleet on both wings is the real killer move, and the fleet in the middle is a huge decoy -- a decoy that the United States will collapse if it bites on it.

Yamamoto had two insurances, that is, his own assault fleet, and the air fleet of Nagumo Tadaichi, which was hidden to the end on the other side. As long as one of their two fleets has a chance to attack, then it can pose a mortal threat to the American fleet.

In fact, the only thing that can threaten the US military is the two large aircraft carriers under the command of Nagumo Tadaichi, namely the Kaga and the Akagi, and the slightly smaller aircraft carrier Ryusho. The three aircraft carriers were held by Nagumo and were ready to wait for the war to start before launching an attack on the American fleet.

Yamamoto Fifty-six, who wanted to exchange two old battleships for the greatest results, could be said to have exhausted the mechanism, and he did not put the order wrong this time, and did not make a fool of himself by using aircraft carriers as bait and battleships to assault. So in this way, the Combined Fleet set up an eight-door golden lock formation in the Solomon Islands, waiting for the US Navy to take the bait.

A vintage Japanese Type 95 seaplane flies a little leisurely in the sky. The plane took off from its base on the edge of the Solomon Islands to complete a number of routine patrol and reconnaissance missions for the Japanese Combined Fleet.

As the war gets closer and closer to this area, there is a tendency to carry out such long-distance reconnaissance missions more and more desperately, after all, the quality and quantity of US carrier-based fighters are no longer comparable to those in the early days of the war.

With one plane after another going and never returning, the Japanese Navy basically stopped this practice of wasting troops. However, as the clouds of war in the Solomon Sea area were thick, this kind of reconnaissance was enforced again, after all, the Japanese navy lacked the means of searching for the ocean, and could only rely on this clumsy method of casting nets to catch fish.

"Kagawa-kun, don't you say that this is forcing us to send us to death? Knowing that the two planes that took off yesterday did not return to the base without escort, they sent the two of us out today. Akanishi, a young pilot sitting in the driver's seat, complained.

As the war progressed, the Japanese soldiers who originally flew seaplanes had been added to the fighter unit, and most of the new pilots like Akasai, who were young and did not have good flying skills, were sent to this kind of reconnaissance unit for training.

The Japanese soldier named Kagawa did not put down the telescope in his hand, and while observing the wide sea, he shouted loudly, "For the future of the Great Japanese Empire, for His Majesty the Emperor...... Even if we give our lives, isn't it right?"

Kagawa is a traditional Japanese with an old-fashioned mind, and in his heart, it seems that it is also a beautiful thing to give his life for His Majesty the Emperor. Marshal Yamamoto Fifty-six had inspected their seaplane take-off base the other day and had encouraged Kagawa a few times, and he was still reminiscing about that moment that made his blood boil, so his mind was full of words of loyalty and conscientiousness.

Knowing that it was in vain, piloting this old-fashioned 95 seaplane, Akasai flew towards the sea area that was originally planned. Designed in 1933 and commissioned in 1935, this old seaplane was a decent seaplane at the time, but now compared to the high-quality American fighter jets, it is the kind of garbage that can't be beaten and can't run away.

Therefore, using this kind of aircraft to reconnoiter the movements of the US Navy is, to put it bluntly, to send soldiers to death -- it is a pity that in the vast sea, discovering the location of the enemy fleet is the prelude to launching an attack, and although he knew that he would die, Yamamoto Isoroku still sent batch after batch of reconnaissance planes, after all, this was the biggest gamble of his life.

Through the somewhat sparse clouds, four American fighter engines roared and swooped down from high altitudes. Akasai was so frightened that he quickly shook the control stick in his hand to avoid the attack of the American fighters, but his plane's flexibility in the sky was obviously affected by the pontoons, and he did not succeed in escaping the pursuit of the American fighters.

"This is Reconnaissance Plane 04! This is Reconnaissance Plane 04! We have discovered the planes of the American fleet!" In the back seat, Kagawa loudly reported his discovery, and at the same time as he transmitted his radio signal, the American fighter opened fire.

"Tutubu!" a volley of bullets hit the double-layered wing on the left side of Kagawa's front, and the dense bullet holes stretched along the wing, almost knocking the wing into a sieve. The US Navy, in order to deal with the Zero fighter, did not install a large-caliber cannon on the aircraft, similar to the German fighter, but generally used 12. A 7 mm caliber machine gun with a dense barrage to take out the nimble Zero.

So in the Pacific Ocean, it is rare to see the kind of picture of an enemy plane being smashed into pieces with a single shell. On the contrary, the air battles here are more prolonged, but the same blood, just as brutal to the point of despair.

Kagawa took the radio and reported over and over what he saw, and he knew that they were four very powerful P-40 naval fighters, and they were models with improved engines. Because the nose of this aircraft is relatively special, it is very easy to identify. He repeated what he saw, allowing the planes to machine gun everything around him.

A bullet from a heavy machine gun pierced the thin skin of the plane, and then a shot hit Akanishi, who was piloting the plane, and after piercing his head, it pierced his seat, and then, for some reason, the engine began to emit black smoke, making it difficult for Kagawa to see what was going on in front of him.

"Long live the Empire of Japan! Long live His Majesty the Emperor! I'm Kagawa! My plane has been hit! I'm crashing!" he looked around, and found that the angle of the sea level in the distance was already very strange, and then he felt the plane crash into the sea, and then there was endless darkness, coming from all directions.

"Your Excellency Marshal! News has come from the seaplane base on Island Seven that one of their seaplanes has spotted the aircraft of the American aircraft carrier fleet, in an area 70 kilometers north of the Solomon Islands. A staff officer stood behind Yamamoto Isoroku and reported valuable information from the reconnaissance unit.

Yamamoto Fifty-six nodded, signaling his staff officer that he had heard the other party's report clearly, and then Yamamoto remained silent, as if waiting for some news. 70 kilometers was still too far for him, and he had to wait a little longer, and when the U.S. Navy fleet bit the fleet of two battleships, Ise and Hyuga, then it was his chance to start exerting his strength.

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait for the Americans to exchange fire with Ise first! There is only one chance!" Yamamoto stood on the bridge of the battleship Nagato, looked at the calm sea in the distance, and muttered, "Nagumo-kun, I can't send you a radio to confirm your location, I hope everything goes well on your side." The future of the Japanese Empire is here!"

On the flagship of the U.S. Navy fleet, 70 kilometers away, Admiral Halsey gave his own order to attack: "Since two battleships of the Japanese Navy have been discovered, then we are not welcome...... Take off the plane and start attacking!"

With his order, on the deck of the US Navy's aircraft carrier fleet, the propellers of two attack planes that had already hung bombs began to rotate, and the entire aircraft carrier fleet moved in the wind, and the fleet began to spread out in all directions.

Halsey looked at the horizontal bombers that had taken off and formed an attack formation in the sky, and said to his men with a smile: "Gentlemen, the battle for the Solomon Islands has begun!"

Today's two watches, Long Ling wishes all book friends a happy Christmas Eve!