The Rise of the Third Reich

Hawaii time, September 26, 1943, 2 p.m.

The atmosphere on the bridge of the battleship USS Iowa, the flagship of the U.S. 58th Task Force, was extremely solemn. Everyone, including the commander, Admiral Spruance, did not hold their breath and kept watching. The sky was cloudless, perfect weather for bombing. And the sky is still very bright, there are still at least 4 hours until sunset.

This is a life-threatening 4 hours!

Everyone knows that in the next four hours, their fleet will inevitably encounter what may be the most violent air attack in human history! 1,000 or even 2,000 terrible Japanese planes will come with bombs, covering the sky and the sun.

Admiral Spruance could fight with only 1,364 F4Us and F6Fs... Immortal Staff Officer Kuroshima Turtle Man got half of his guess right. It wasn't that Spruance didn't bring bombs this time, but that he didn't bring them. Dive bombers and torpedo attack planes!

All of his 41 aircraft carriers are F4U and F6F, and there are not a single bomber or torpedo plane.

This strange fighter configuration method was first adopted by the Germans on the break-through aircraft carrier, because the target of the break-through aircraft carrier was merchant ships and did not require torpedo planes and dive bombers with powerful anti-ship capabilities. Moreover, the diplomatic-breaking aircraft carriers are active behind enemy lines, and their survival significance is far greater than their combat significance. As long as they exist, the Japanese navy will have no peace, and will have to send aircraft carriers to escort, and fleets will have to be sent to search across the ocean.

Therefore, the US aircraft carrier has always been equipped with all fighter aircraft, and usually also brings a Cleveland-class light cruiser and an Oakland-class light cruiser, both of which are ships with enhanced anti-aircraft firepower.

Therefore, the American engagement formations that penetrate into the Western Pacific often have strong survivability. They may not be able to sink many Japanese transport ships, but the Japanese often have to pay a huge price if they want to sink one.

The experience accumulated in breaking diplomatic relations with the aircraft carrier also attracted the attention of senior Pacific Fleet officials, including Nimitz and Spruance.

In their view, they have 2 anti-aircraft cruisers (the Cleveland class can also be regarded as air defense ships), 1 Independence-class aircraft carrier with enhanced air defense (24 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns and 1 Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun), and 30 F4U and The F6F's breakup formation can survive the attack of dozens or even more Japanese aircraft (mainly Type One land attack). So when the size of the fleet expands dozens of times, it will be completely possible to block the attacks of 2,000 Japanese aircraft.

Of course, Nimitz and Spruance did not dare to think that the ship was unsinkable. In a large formation of more than 400 ships, the loss of dozens of ships is completely bearable, as long as there are no precious Iowa-class, South Dakota-class battleships and Essex-class aircraft carriers among the sunk ships. That's it.

At 2:11, the air defense siren on the battleship Iowa suddenly sounded, followed immediately by a report from the fleet staff.

"Enemy planes detected by radar! Bearing 252, distance 100, altitude 5000, more than 200 in number! ... It should be a large group of planes sent from Christmas Island!"

"It should be their first attack wave!" Major General Miles Browning's face was ashen. "There are 200 or 300 aircraft in one attack wave, which shows that the Japanese have transferred all the aircraft from the Hawaiian Islands to Christmas Island. !”

"Send out fighter jets!" Spruance gritted his teeth. "Each aircraft carrier ejects a squadron of fighter jets into the sky and stops the Japanese at all costs!"

"Yes, sir!"

Unlike the situation where most Japanese aircraft carriers do not have catapults (currently only five aircraft carriers including "Taiho", "Kaga", "Akagi", "Shokaku" and "Zuikaku" are equipped with flywheel catapults), Currently, there are at least two catapults on U.S. aircraft carriers, including flywheel catapults installed on escort aircraft carriers, Independence-class aircraft carriers, Raider-class aircraft carriers and Wasp-class aircraft carriers. The remaining large fleet aircraft carriers are equipped with hydraulic catapults.

Therefore, when an American aircraft carrier encounters an emergency, it does not need to rush into the wind. It can only use a catapult to launch at least 18 aircraft into the sky (one flywheel catapult can launch 18 aircraft at a time, and the hydraulic catapult on a large aircraft carrier does not Limitation on the number of ejection aircraft). Therefore, less than a quarter of an hour after Spruance's order was issued, 492 F4Us and F6Fs from 41 fighter squadrons (all 12 aircraft) had been launched into the sky. Together with the three fighter squadrons that were originally responsible for direct cover in the air, they pounced on the Japanese fighters in the air.

At the same time, the American ships that were originally sailing slowly on the sea also accelerated and began to form dozens of air defense formations with aircraft carriers as the core.

…

"Commander Takahashi, we discovered the American fleet... Oh my god, there are so many ships, covering the entire ocean, I'm afraid there are hundreds of them!"

Lieutenant Colonel Kazuichi Takahashi, who participated in the Pearl Harbor attack, is the commander-in-chief of the first attack wave sent to Christmas Island today. He was flying a shore-based "Meteor" torpedo bomber, but the aircraft carried not torpedoes but two 250kg armor-piercing bombs.

Different from the Type 97 ship attack and the "Tianshan" ship attack, the "Meteor" torpedo bomber is a torpedo bomber that can be used as a dive bomber. For Japan, this is a "secret weapon".

Moreover, the "Meteor" torpedo bomber is also very fast. After dropping bombs or torpedoes, it can fly as fast as 566 kilometers per hour, almost as fast as the Zero fighter.

So sitting in the cockpit of the "Meteor" torpedo bomber, Takahashi Heyi was very confident. He estimated that the first attack wave he commanded could sink at least 5 American aircraft carriers!

"Haha," seeing the American ships almost covering the entire ocean, Takahashi Heyi was not afraid, but laughed. He turned on the Siemens radio on the plane and said loudly: "Look below you, everyone, the American fleet has arrived in full force. Today is the time for us to establish our achievements! Don't let one go! The Great Japanese Empire on board! The Emperor..."

Takahashi's words stopped here, because he had already seen the dense American fighters in the sky.

A total of more than 500 F4U and F6F, covering the sky and the sun, swarming like bees. This is too much, right? How could there be so many? So many fighters... How many aircraft carriers should there be? 20? Or 30?

"Baga!" Takahashi Heyi shouted, "Hurry up and send a telegram to the headquarters: The US fleet is unprecedented in scale, with at least hundreds of ships, and there are a lot of aircraft carriers and countless fighter planes. Our troops are in a tough battle!"

This Takahashi is indeed a veteran who fought in Pearl Harbor. As soon as he saw the number of American fighter planes, he knew that he would have to fight hard.

Because Takahashi had 55 Swifts and 58 Zeros, a total of 113 fighters, and the opponent had at least 500... One against five, even if every Japanese pilot was an ace, they couldn't deal with it, so the fighter unit suffered heavy losses.

Now the question is whether the death of these fighter pilots of the Japanese Empire is valuable enough.

"I am Lieutenant Colonel Takahashi Kyoichi, the commander-in-chief of the air raid!" Takahashi Kyoichi said solemnly, giving orders through the radio, "I order the squadrons to disperse... All fighters stop enemy planes at all costs, and all bombers attack bravely! The target is the US escort formation! First attack the escort aircraft carrier, then the landing ship and the tanker. Kill! The Empire of Japan on board! The Emperor on board!"

It's true that Lieutenant Colonel Takahashi Kyoichi is really capable. When facing the US "sea of ​​warships" and "sea of ​​aircraft", he very calmly chose the secondary target - the US escort formation and launched an attack.

Because he knew very well that the Americans' main anti-aircraft firepower must be concentrated on the main formation, especially around the Essex-class aircraft carrier. If he led the torpedo planes and bombers to force his way in, he would definitely be in danger of death.

And even if they exchanged their lives for a few US aircraft carriers, the Americans would most likely rush to Christmas Island to launch a landing war.

To stop the landing, it is necessary to attack the landing ships and tankers... But the opponent he met today is a super rich man.

"Sir, the Japanese planes seem to be rushing towards our landing ship formation and transport formation."

Major General Browning, Chief of Staff of the US 58th Task Force, quickly noticed the changes on the battlefield. The Japanese fighters rushed towards the American planes that were several times more numerous than them like moths to a flame. The Japanese torpedo planes and dive bombers scattered at once, and did not rush towards the tightly guarded aircraft carriers as the Americans expected, but flew to the sea where the landing ship formation and the transport ship/tanker formation were concentrated.

"It doesn't matter, send some fighters to chase and kill as many as possible." Admiral Spruance was not panicked at all, as if he didn't care about the expensive American lives on the landing ships - in fact, there were not many American lives on those landing ships! Those were "anti-aircraft landing ships" with no landing troops on them, only 40 anti-aircraft guns and 20mm machine guns!

Because Nimitz and Spruance didn't plan to land on Christmas Island at all!

This operation, code-named "Hunter", was simply a feint by a wealthy man!

404 ships and more than 1,300 combat aircraft were dispatched, and more than one million tons of fuel were burned, just to create the illusion that the US military was going to capture Christmas Island.

There were two purposes for creating this illusion: one was to mobilize the main force of the Japanese fleet - to consume the Japanese fuel; the other was to consume the lives of Japanese pilots!

At 2:33 p.m. on September 26, 1943, Hawaii time, in the Pacific Ocean about 280 nautical miles away from Christmas Island, a fierce sea and air battle officially kicked off.