Sato turned his head sideways when he heard Nagumo Tadaichi's question, his face full of frustration and unwillingness, because he was bent on avenging his subordinates, but in the end he almost took his own life. War was no longer what he knew, because at that time, sitting in the cockpit of the Zero fighter, he could feel that incomparable confidence. Now, every time he thinks of the pictures of being chased and beaten by the US Air Force in circles, he feels that his wounds are aching faintly -- whether it is the wound in his heart or on his arm.

The Zero fighter is no longer the invincible existence it once was, and now most American pilots know how to use some three-dimensional maneuvers to get rid of the entanglement of the Zero fighter, no matter how brave he is, he can't change the disadvantage of the fighter itself, so in the sky, he feels like he is dancing with shackles.

Thinking of this, he slowly spoke, and said to Nagumo Tadaichi in a hoarse tone: "Your Excellency General, the performance of our fighters has been thoroughly understood by the Americans, and their maneuver evasion is desperate, I don't think that these recruits can do what the dead veterans have not done." ”

At this time, he is no longer afraid of anything like his boss, and people who have experienced a life and death test often see things very simply, and in their eyes, there are only two options: survival or death. Nagumo Zhong sighed, he also knew that these precious new pilots would not be of much effect, but he really didn't have any decent troops to use.

"If we can attract the U.S. Navy within the combat radius of the roadbed aviation, is it possible to turn the tide of the war?" Nagumo Chunigchi muttered quietly, but he knew better than anyone else that in fact this was just a ridiculous way to comfort the front-line soldiers and hypnotize themselves.

The Empire of Japan, like the United States, did not have an independent air force, and they only had an army and navy in terms of establishment. These two units, which do not like each other, have their own aviation units. In terms of the intensity of training and the consistent reputation, the overall strength of the Japanese naval aviation is stronger than that of the army aviation -- this also reveals a terrible message from another aspect: that is, the Americans that the Japanese naval aviation cannot handle are also unable to handle the army aviation.

Moreover, Japan's army aviation and naval aviation can basically be regarded as the aviation units of two countries, and their production systems and personnel training systems are completely different. As far as airplanes are concerned, they have different models, different parts, different factories and even R&D. As for the quality of the pilots, a few months ago the naval aviation was superior to the army aviation, but now it can really be said that it is half a pound and eight taels. However, because army pilots can only navigate by terrain, they often get lost, and naval pilots look at the sextant to determine the direction. Therefore, only God can know how useful the army aviation can be when carrying out maritime missions.

The current situation is that the pilots of the Japanese naval aviation are losing relatively quickly, and in the battles of this period, the Japanese army aviation, which was forced to ask the Japanese army aviation, which did not originally participate in naval operations, was also transferred to the sea islands to participate in the war, but these army aviation pilots can basically only fight island defense battles and bomb ground targets, because there is no reference on the sea surface, so they cannot carry out support operations over too long distances, and their training does not have a project of bombing moving targets, so the attack effect on moving targets at sea is also very limited.

Such a patchwork of troops can only be regarded as better than nothing, and it is a bit difficult to expect it to create any miracles. Nagumo Tadaichi and Yamamoto Fifty-six had several combat meetings, but they all ended because there was no good solution. What disturbed them even more was that the U.S. Navy had been slow to strike back, as if the Americans were waiting for their powerful industrial production system to fully awaken.

In this kind of operation, the Americans have very cleverly hit the soft underbelly of the Japanese Navy, and the Japanese Navy is now in a very conflicted mood, hoping that the Americans will counterattack later so that they can train more pilots, and they also hope that the Americans will do it sooner rather than later, so as not to allow the United States to produce more weapons and equipment.

However, the Americans fought steadily, and Nimitz clearly grasped the point of Japan's greatest fear, and he did not rush to seek a decisive battle with the Japanese navy, but retreated into the Hawaiian sea and waited for his new fleet to join the battle sequence. By that time the United States will have more than 7 aircraft carriers, and the Japanese will lose absolute superiority in the aircraft carrier fleet. At this time, the Americans will have a full-scale counteroffensive in the Pacific, and the Japanese army can only cope with it.

Unlike the Japanese Navy, which had difficulty replenishing pilots after they were lost, the U.S. Navy's lost pilots were quickly replenished, and the huge industrial system allowed the U.S. to reserve a large number of pilots in the civilian sector, which could be quickly converted into basic fighter force in wartime, and the survival rate of American pilots was much higher than that of their Japanese counterparts.

"Isn't there a way to change a fighter?" Sato suddenly asked Nagumo Tadaichi, who had already walked a few steps away: "Your Excellency General, the performance of our fighter has been thoroughly explored by the Americans, and if we continue to fight like this, no matter how many excellent pilots we have, we will not be able to withstand such rapid attrition!

"Really...... I can't take it out!" Jiro Horikoshi, an aircraft designer who is far away in Japan, lamented to his subordinates who asked the same question: "Under normal circumstances, we should improve the Zero fighter and change the flight performance of the aircraft to cope with the current situation." But there is really no room for improvement in the design of the Zero fighter, and if we force a change, it will be the same as redesigning a fighter. ”

"Then we'll redesign a fighter!" said one of the assistants, clenching his fists. But he regretted it, after all, as a technician who had been involved in aircraft design, he knew how difficult it was to redesign an aircraft.

And Horikoshi Jiro and others are not without attempts in this regard, in fact, a newer fighter has made a wooden model, and is experimenting with its resistance in the air, this fighter uses a similar shape to the Zero fighter, but it is larger and faster. This fighter uses newer engines and can reach speeds of up to an astonishing 600 kilometers per hour, and even exceed this speed, flying to the terrible limit of 650 kilometers.

However, what is desperate is that the new engine is still in the laboratory, and the failure is difficult to control to a low level. Even if it is barely equipped, it is still unknown whether it can achieve the desired effect. The service time of this fighter was set for June 1939, which means that it will take about 5 months to enter service at the earliest, during which time Japan can only rely on the Zero fighter that has been leaked by Accardo, and fight the increasingly powerful US Air Force.

"We don't have time. Nagumo Zhong turned his head, looked at Sato with a desperate face, and said a little depressed: "By the time we have new fighters, the Americans will have more than ten aircraft carriers, and what will we use to defend the territory for His Majesty the Emperor at that time?" So, Sato-kun, put away any luck, we can only fight, for the future of the Great Japanese Empire, fight until the last moment!"

Not far away, on the airfield of the Army Airlines, two Army Aviation fighters were taking off slowly, they were ordered to take off to patrol the nearby sea area, Yamamoto Isoroku was standing on the edge of this airfield at this moment, he watched the two planes painted with the red sun sign slowly flying into the sky, and his heart could not be said.

On the deck of the aircraft carrier, he sent off those familiar pilots in this way countless times, but again and again, these pilots did not fly back, they died in a foreign land, and even their bodies were not left to their relatives back home. As the supreme commander of these people, Yamamoto felt that it was he who had brought these pilots to their deaths, so he had recently become taciturn and sullen.

As a general of the Japanese Navy, Isoroku Yamamoto, like many famous Japanese naval generals, pursued the principles of command handed down from the British Empire. From the very heart of the Japanese Navy, the Japanese Navy was learning from the British Empire, the strongest maritime power, so Yamamoto and almost all of his Japanese commanders paid attention to the Nelson fighting spirit of fighting the enemy. But this bullish idea can only be felt when the British Empire, which has dominated the seas for 100 years, is spoken, because at least until 1937, the British Empire still had money, ships and people. However, the Japanese Navy, which pursued the idea of using it, was to die to its own death if it played this game against the US Navy, and Japan's productivity was not comparable to that of the United States, and this disadvantage was even more obvious in the high-level arms of the Navy. But naval aviation has always been ready to fight when the enemy sees it, and there is no time to accumulate their valuable pilots.

I really can't blame the commanders of the Japanese Navy for being idiots, because they relied on learning from the British Navy to win the Beiyang Naval Division of the Great Qing Dynasty and the Far East Fleet of the Russians.

But Yamamoto is not an ordinary player, he himself has realized that the Navy's tactics of hard work and attrition are definitely wrong, and he now wants to change this tactic and use the islands of Southeast Asia to fight a naval guerrilla war with the Americans to consume the United States' maritime power.

The problem now is that Ren Yamamoto has a thousand schemes, and Nimitz of the United States just won't fight. The big hole that Yamamoto dug for Nimitz in Southeast Asia, and it is useless for the US Navy to be the prey if it is not fooled. So at least for now, the Japanese Navy is tragic.