Because the date of the large-scale attack of the Ming army air force was very close to the third Sunday in June, the US officers and soldiers privately called it the Father's Day offensive.

Father's Day first appeared in the United States 30 years ago, when Mrs. Dodd of Washington State proposed to establish a holiday to commemorate fathers who worked hard all day, and the state legislature endorsed the initiative and designated the third Sunday of June as Father's Day.

Although the scale of this battle for air supremacy is not large in terms of numbers, with the exception of a few few times when the total scale exceeds 150 planes, most of the air battles are only a few dozen planes, which is a bit petty compared with the European battlefields where hundreds or thousands of planes are dispatched at every turn.

However, considering that the combat area is located in the Pacific Ocean, far from the mainland of the Ming and American armies, the difficulty of delivery is not comparable, and the difficulty of fighting here is much more difficult than in Eurasia.

The Father's Day Offensive was a major development in the Hawaiian campaign and is sure to leave a lasting mark on the history of warfare.

The Daming Air Force was unable to sustain continuous high-intensity operations, and the number of sorties in the next two days was significantly reduced, with 46 sorties on July 2 and 43 sorties on July 3.

However, during this period, the ground forces were not idle, and in Hanalei Bay, north of Kauai Island, the air force survey team went to the southwest of the bay to select a more suitable flat land, and decided to build another diversion airfield here.

At the same time, the navy also sent shore-based aviation units to help in the war.

A total of 21 Type 37 twin-engine torpedo planes arrived over the course of two days, the first medium planes to be deployed to Hawaii, and they occupied almost the remaining open space around Weiyuan Airport.

"The fleet is running out of fuel, and the oil tankers accompanying it are all pumped clean, and they will be replenished in two days when the supply fleet arrives."

The fleet's liaison officer stationed on Kauai reported the latest situation to Zhou Changfeng, and then added: "By the way, Xia Jinbo would like to remind you that if the enemy's remaining shore artillery attacks are encountered, the fleet will definitely give priority to retreating. ”

The latter nodded slightly, "Got it, please ask them as soon as possible." ”

Battleship and shore defense artillery bombardment is something that any naval commander would try to avoid, and it is simply not worth it.

Coastal defense artillery relies on land, with high artillery accuracy, and the target is small, often only a dozen meters; Battleships inevitably roll and pitch at sea, and the overall projection area is also larger, often hundreds of meters.

If the battleship was hit by large-caliber coastal defense guns, it had to return to the port for repairs, and I don't know how much time it would take to get there.

In view of the fact that the US Pacific Fleet has not yet been annihilated, Song Zhongkai judged that it has not reached the point of sparing blood, so he first took a preventive shot.

If we forcibly confront the shore defense artillery, I am afraid that the result will not be to kill 1,000 enemies and lose 800 ourselves, and at this time, it will be terrible if the main fleet of the US army takes the opportunity to counterattack on a large scale.

The other news is good news, the second echelon will arrive in Kauai soon.

Convoys full of ground troops set off from Saipan and Guam, and the long ocean crossing is finally coming.

The second echelon contained all the remaining units of the 4th Marine Brigade, as well as the 1st Battalion of the Army's Assault Vehicle Brigade and the 5th Battalion of the 2nd Field Heavy Artillery Brigade, totaling about 7,000 men, and with it a large number of heavy weapons.

July 4th, dawn.

On the runways of Kauai's two airports, fighter jets and dive bombers have warmed up their engines, the morning sun shines on the aerial bombs hanging under the belly of the aircraft, and the white characters for "100 kilogram aviation anti-personnel blast bombs" painted on the shells are clearly visible.

The three-bladed variable-pitch propeller manufactured by Ziyun Precision Instrument Company rotated rapidly, pulling the plane to slowly taxi forward.

There were not many sorties in the first two days, which can be regarded as a break for pilots and ground crews.

From now on, the targeted air raids of destruction are officially launched.

The instructions given by the perimeter wind were simple - all bunkers, fortifications, barracks, batteries, staging areas, and railway shunting yards were left behind, and all of them were wiped off the face of the earth!

The wolf-like Ming army swarm pounced on Oahu, and the feeling of air supremacy was so wonderful that many people subconsciously regarded the current operation as actual combat training.

The M1 76.2mm anti-aircraft guns roared, spewing out orange muzzle flames, firing high-explosive shells into the blue sky, trying to break up the formation of the invading enemy.

The Ming army aircraft group turned while accelerating, and the fighters in the formation broke away according to the pre-assigned tasks and dived straight down to attack.

Although the Iwashima Arsenal has been working overtime to imitate the Erlikon and Bofors anti-aircraft guns, it is a pity that the U.S. forces on Oahu, which lacks small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, can only put up weak resistance with anti-aircraft machine guns.

The effective firing height of the 40mm anti-aircraft gun is about 2700m, the effective firing height of the 20mm anti-aircraft gun is about 1800m, and the 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun is only 1000m.

The fighter fired a series of dense bullets when diving, and then threw out two 50kg light aerial bombs mounted under the wings, and then leisurely changed out of the dive state and calmly pulled up.

In the smoke and dust of the explosion, the strafing of the Browning anti-aircraft machine guns came to an abrupt halt, and another anti-aircraft position turned into flying ash.

The severed limbs and viscera were scattered on the ground, and the bloody condition was uncontrollable, and the cries for help of the survivors terrified the other officers and soldiers even more.

"I'm serious, but if you go to Europe and buy some small guns, they won't be like this, and they won't be short of money."

"It's really sad, the evil consequences of self-eating knives and guns in storage."

The pilots sighed over the radio.

Having suppressed most of the anti-aircraft machine-gun positions, the Ming planes began to turn to attack anti-aircraft guns.

Without the protection of close-range anti-aircraft weapons, those artillery guns became lambs to the slaughter, and the US anti-aircraft artillery had no better choice but to retreat and run away.

As the 250kg bombs dropped by the dive bombers fell, one after another 76.2mm anti-aircraft guns turned into twisted scrap steel and emitted wisps of green smoke after the flickering fire......

Such a war situation can also confirm the importance of the integrity of the weapons and equipment system, and what is worse than mediocrity is the lack of it.

In the current situation, even if the 88mm anti-aircraft guns were replaced by the Germans, the same fate would have happened.

Over the next three days, the Kauai Ming Army Air Force made 421 sorties, lost 22 aircraft, and confirmed 34 crew members killed.

They destroyed numerous military installations on Oahu, attacked a number of small ships stranded in Pearl Harbor, and sank 23 patrol boats, minesweepers, minelayers, barges, and so on.

The Clarke, which ran aground on the beach a few days ago, was also completely destroyed, and she fought until the last moment, until she was hit by more than ten 250kg dive bombers dropped by the Ming army dive bombers besieging her.

Onlookers describe the scene as "a flock of falcons taking turns swooping down to kill a large stranded fish".

At the same time, buildings such as hangars, ports, workshops, barracks, warehouses, railway stations, etc., on Oahu, were severely damaged.

When a downed Type 38 dive bomber crashed, it crashed into an oil storage tank at the Pearl Harbor Upper oil depot, and the concrete protective layer could not withstand such a violent impact, and the walls of the tank cracked instantly, and the diesel fuel inside quickly burned.

The flames spread rapidly along the flow of diesel until they were blocked by an earthen embankment, which did not threaten the adjacent oil storage tanks.

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The fire and smoke soared into the sky, and the scene was as terrifying as a volcanic eruption.

Some planes were also ordered to drop leaflets into Honolulu, and countless flyers flew all over the sky like scattered flowers.

Due to the lack of experience in the first launch, most of the leaflets were blown out to sea by the wind, and it took the next few times to finally get half of the flyers to fall into the city.

Honolulu is only 10 kilometers from Pearl Harbor, and seeing is believing, and the citizens are well aware of the changes in the war situation in recent days.

Disappointment with the military, confusion about the present, and fear of the unknown are intertwined, and criminal cases in Honolulu have skyrocketed, and military and police officers on wartime law and order missions have no scruples about shooting, and sporadic gunfire has been uninterrupted from morning to night.

Out of fear of the enemy, the American officers and soldiers of the frightened bird were often suspicious and made a series of large and small moths.

Some 28mm high-explosive shells without delayed self-destruct fuses fell on urban areas, causing more than a dozen civilian casualties and causing many fires.

Such a chaotic situation is undoubtedly the darkest time in life for ordinary people living in Honolulu.

「…… The remaining aircraft were not enough to maintain the defense of Oahu, and in order to prolong the time, they (the remaining aircraft) had retreated to Lanai and Maui...... We've endured non-stop bombardment, we're being weakened every minute, and we need to replenish our planes as quickly as possible......

Chester Nimitz turned to Washington for more reinforcements, and he was well aware of the consequences of losing air supremacy.

Oahu, the base of the Pacific Fleet, the core of the Asian interests of the United States, is now in jeopardy!

Of course, the Americans were not idle during this time, and a large number of merchant ships set off from Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to Hawaii to deliver supplies and equipment.

Unlike the British, who suffered heavy losses, the Americans seem to have underestimated the difficulty of anti-submarine escort.

They did draw on the lessons of the Royal Navy, and the many merchant ships departing from the port assembled in groups of various sizes in several places on the west coast, accompanied by escort ships.

However, there was still an opportunity to take advantage of this, and since the change of combat duty in late June, a number of Ming submarines have been ordered to come to the waters east of Hawaii and cruise and hunt here.

According to the results reported by the submarine force, in less than 10 days since the end of June, the total tonnage sunk has reached 92,000 tons, and it has only lost one submarine for the time being.

On 9 July, the Equinox 14 submarine ran out of torpedoes and began to return to Midway, but they spotted a large fleet coming from east to west that evening.

The boat immediately sent a telegram to report that the rest of the nearby submarines came to hunt, claiming that the target fleet consisted of at least twenty merchant ships.

The Kauai Ming Army Air Force also decided to go on a long-distance raid in an effort to destroy the fleet as much as possible.

At noon the next day, 14 Type 37 shore-based torpedo planes belonging to the Navy took off from Weiyuan Airport.

The attack formation first flew to the northeast, then turned due east, corrected its course according to the guidance of the submarine force, and arrived at the target sea area in five hours, and then sent a telegram.

"Visually three large transport ships, sixteen freighters, and five destroyers escorting them, the aftermath of the deep bomb can be seen in the distance."

At this moment, in addition to the vernal equinox 14, there are two other submarines present, one of which has already launched a salvo, but it has not worked, and is now being attacked by a depth charge from an American destroyer.

The fleet, codenamed SK-23, carried hundreds of aircraft, tanks, artillery and other equipment from Seattle to Kahului, Maui.

More than a dozen twin-engine torpedo planes with dark blue fuselage and light blue belly - entered the attack position with murderous vigour, and the aviation torpedoes under the belly were terrifying to look at.

The cutting-edge Type 37 B has a longer range, not to mention that this time there is also an auxiliary fuel tank under the left and right wings, and the pilots are not in a hurry at all, and plan to hunt this fleet calmly.

The two torpedo planes first launched a small-angle dive strafing attack on the destroyer USS Noah (DD-343), and the bullets from the 12.8mm aviation machine gun in the nose swept across the destroyer's bridge and middeck.

The glass of the bridge crackled and shattered, the sailors were killed and wounded more than 10 people at once, several twin anti-aircraft machine guns were immediately muted, and the sides of the hull were also shot and leaked in many places.

The rest of the torpedo planes carefully selected their targets and saw the right time to strike the clumsy transport ship.

The YH-3-1-3 aimed at the largest transport ship, the Leonard, first machine-gun fire on its bridge to create chaos, then dropped torpedoes at an extremely close range of only 400 meters, and then whistled over the target more than 10 meters, and the self-defense machine guns did not forget to shoot a few more shuttles at this time.

The torpedo was in the middle of the hull, and a large amount of seawater poured in, and the requisitioned civilian freighter immediately could not hold on, and within a few minutes there was a noticeable tilt.

The attack formations took turns strafing and throwing mines, and several American destroyers opened fire with all their might, trying to defend the merchant ships loaded with vital equipment.

However, the anti-aircraft fire of the Chicago piano and the Browning anti-aircraft machine gun was too weak to stop the reckless Ming planes.

The battle lasted for nearly an hour, and after the Ming planes left, another ten minutes passed, and the F4F Wildcats, which had taken off from the island of Hawaii in a hurry, were late, but unfortunately it was too late.

The U.S. escort ships shot down only two Ming torpedo planes, and one crashed into the sea in the middle of the voyage because of heavy damage, and the fleet suffered heavy losses, and a total of nine merchant ships were sunk.

The P-40 fighters, M2 medium tanks, and M2 howitzers loaded on them were almost all brand new, and as soon as they left the Curtis or Detroit Arsenal production lines, they were shipped straight to the port for loading, only to sink forever to the bottom of the sea.

However, the nightmare is not over, taking advantage of the chaos of the situation, the Ming army submarine is also fishing in troubled waters.

Two submarines thundered, and several merchant ships were captured, and even the USS Paul Jones (DD-230) was sunk due to a late evasion.

The white track of the fleet has not faded away, countless debris, debris, and oil stains are almost floating on the sea, and some oil drums are still burning, becoming a real bonfire at sea.

The lifeboats shuttled with difficulty, and some of the crew members who fell into the water were rescued after a long time, and their bodies were covered with black heavy oil.

In the end, less than half of the equipment arrived on Maui, which was at best a relief for the immediate need to regain air supremacy over Oahu.

(End of chapter)