The Rise of the Third Reich

Haven't retreated yet? That means there is still a chance to defeat US imperialism!

Yamamoto Isoroku and Nagano Shushen both cheered up and looked at Ito Zhengichi with burning eyes.

Ito said: "The 10th Fleet reported that the airport at Palmyra Atoll was bombed by hundreds of U.S. carrier-based aircraft early this morning Hawaii time. 16 aircraft were destroyed on the ground, and another 8 Zeros were destroyed. The fighter jets were shot down. In addition, 10 Type 97 large boats parked on the water nearby were destroyed."

Palmyra Atoll is 371 nautical miles northwest of Christmas Island. It is an atoll with a small land area and cannot station a large army, so it has little military value. However, the Japanese still built an airport and seaplane terminal there, and deployed more than a dozen aircraft and several seaplanes to monitor the surrounding waters. But I didn't expect that such an atoll with limited military value would be bombed by hundreds of American carriers!

"Has the U.S. fleet arrived northwest of Christmas Island? Their goal is..." Yamamoto Isoroku immediately found the location of Palmyra Atoll on the chart.

It is 371 nautical miles away from Christmas Island. If you want to use carrier-based aircraft to bomb, the aircraft carrier will most likely be located northwest of Christmas Island... In other words, the American fleet did not retreat, but bypassed Christmas Island.

"The Americans want to capture Palmyra Atoll?" Nagano analyzed with a frown, "Maybe they want to deploy P51 fighter jets on Palmyra Atoll?"

"Deploy P51?" Yamamoto Isoroku took a breath, the problem seemed to be getting more and more serious!

The current main model of the American P51 fighter is the P51B/C. P51B and P51C are basically the same, but they are made by different manufacturers, so they can be regarded as one model. This model of P51 has very superior performance, with a top speed of more than 700 kilometers per hour, and it also has a very large range. Moreover, this kind of aircraft has a large airspace advantage. For Japan, it can almost cover the airspace below 8,000 meters. If any of their fighter aircraft encounters the P51B/C above 7,000 meters, it is basically equivalent to the pilot becoming a god...

According to German tests (Germany has obtained intact P51B/C on the British and Soviet-German battlefields), only the Fw-801S, BMW-801F air-cooled engines and Mercedes-Benz's DB603 series liquid-cooled engines are installed. Only the 190 series fighters and the Bf-109K equipped with DB605 series engines can ensure an advantage in air combat with the P51B/C in airspace below 8,000 meters - this is because the P51B/C fighter has an excellent aerodynamic shape and the advantageous airspace is also Very large, the Fw-190 and Bf-109 can only clearly outperform each other if they have a larger engine power advantage.

When the Fokker Zero D encounters the P51B/C alone, if there is no obvious gap in the pilot's skills, it will be difficult to shoot down the opponent. Moreover, once the Fokker Zero D is lured to an altitude of more than 5,000 meters by the P51B/C, it will be in danger.

Therefore, the German Air Force delegation in Japan has made suggestions: avoid air combat with P51B/C as much as possible.

Moreover, the Germans also told the Japanese that the P-51B/C can achieve a super range of more than 3,000 kilometers after adding auxiliary fuel tanks.

In other words, once the Americans deploy the P51B/C in Palmyra Atoll, its combat radius can almost cover the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands!

As long as dozens of P51B/Cs are loaded onto cargo ships and transported to Palmyra Atoll, Japanese pilots will suffer even more heavy losses in the following battles!

"The United States cannot be allowed to occupy Palmyra Atoll!" Yamamoto Isoroku immediately made a decision, "Order the First Mobile Fleet to approach Palmyra Atoll, and also...order the 10th Front Fleet to immediately destroy Palmyra Atoll. Reef Airport.”

Because Palmyra Atoll is too small, the Japanese army does not deploy many troops there, and there are not many fortifications and heavy weapons. It is easily occupied by the US military, so Yamamoto Isoroku did the worst at this time. Intend.

However, his worst-case scenario later proved to be completely unnecessary. Because while the Japanese troops stationed on Palmyra Atoll were placing explosives on the airports, warehouses, barracks and other facilities they had finally built with great difficulty, the Americans who had bombed them before were heading towards their next target. The destination was Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands.

Since the Tarawa Atoll is far away, more than 1,000 nautical miles away, at a speed of 18 knots, it will take at least 50 hours to enter the combat radius of a carrier-based aircraft attack on Tarawa.

Therefore, within more than 40 hours after the attack on Palmyra Atoll, the huge US fleet seemed to disappear from the air. It was not until the afternoon of October 1st, Hawaiian Islands time, that the battleship Yamato, the flagship of the Combined Fleet, which was conducting refueling operations in the waters near Midway Island, received a report from the 3rd Patrol Area of ​​the Japanese 4th Fleet (responsible for the defense of Tarawa Island): Seaplane reconnaissance discovered the American fleet, numbering more than 20 ships!

"Tarawa..." General Kogamine and Chief of Staff Ugaki Matoi looked at each other, both of them had ugly expressions that something was very wrong.

"Baga, what kind of war are the Americans fighting?" Koga Mineichi asked. "Are they going to seize the island or break the war?"

Ugaki frowned tightly, shook his head and said, "Commander, the Americans probably want to consume our strength..."

Koga Mineichi was silent for a while, then sighed with a wry smile: "Ugaki-kun, you are right... This is what the Americans had in mind, to drain our energy, and it seems they have succeeded.

From the time the U.S. fleet approached the Hawaiian Islands until now, we have lost more than 600 aircraft (including aircraft lost in the air battle on Christmas Island, reconnaissance aircraft shot down by the U.S. fleet, and aircraft lost during the night transition, as well as aircraft lost in the air battle at Christmas Island). Palmyra Atoll), and now looks set to continue.

In addition, fuel and consumption and losses are also very distressing. Now almost all the ships of the Combined Fleet are operating at sea, and there are a large number of supply ships and oil ships following them. Hundreds of aircraft are dispatched every day to perform search and direct cover missions... The daily fuel consumption is probably not less than 1.5 Thousands of tons! "

We have to bite the bullet and keep going at 15,000 tons a day. We can't just let the U.S. fleet wander around the Pacific at will, right? Moreover, the U.S. fleet that broke into the middle of the Pacific this time seems to be unprecedented in size and is very difficult to deal with!

Just a few hours after the main force of the Combined Fleet completed fuel replenishment (the replenishment ships came from Pearl Harbor), news of the bombing of Tarawa came.

This time the Americans dispatched at least 150 fighter planes, which not only dropped dozens of tons of bombs on Tarawa, but also shot down and destroyed 34 Japanese aircraft (15 of them were one-type land attack aircraft in the hangar, 5 It was a Type 97 large boat), causing the death of 15 naval pilots and captains. The US military only lost 1 F4U and 1 F6F - the exchange ratio between the two sides was so disparate. In addition to the fact that the US military aircraft had advantages in quantity and quality, it was because Tarawa was not on the front line, so the The quality of the pilots is not high and cannot be compared with the Japanese pilots in the Hawaiian Islands, Christmas Island, Dutch Harbor and the South Pacific frontier.

"At least 150 fighters... all of them are fighters!" Koga Mineichi, who was leading the fleet to join forces with Ozawa Jisaburo's First Mobile Fleet, looked even more gloomy after receiving the report.

"At least two Essex-class ships, maybe more!" Kogamine said to Ugaki Matoi, "Not only Tarawa, but most of our strongholds in the central and western Pacific cannot withstand the nearly 200 fighters above. Ah! In this way, the Americans can turn a small victory into a big victory and severely consume our strength!"

This is the biggest difference between breaking up with the Essex class and breaking up with the Independence class.

Only two Essex-class aircraft carriers have the ability to attack Japanese island strongholds in the Central and Western Pacific!

Therefore, Fletcher's break-up fleet can completely sweep away these islands and reefs with few aircraft (even dozens of them can't stop them) and garrisoned troops. If they are allowed to sweep all the way, they can easily cut off two The lives of three hundred Japanese pilots!

However, it is also extremely difficult to eliminate this break-up fleet, because the American break-up fleet is not slow and the main force of the Japanese combined fleet cannot catch up at all. However, if fast ships are deployed to chase, they may not be able to defeat it... It can't be done Well, it’s another Christmas Island-like consumption!

"Commander, we must not let go of this hateful American break-up fleet!" Matoi Ugaki is worthy of being the long-term chief of staff of the combined fleet. In the blink of an eye, he already has a countermeasure.

"The First Mobile Fleet can be reorganized, with the three aircraft carriers Shokaku, Zuikaku, and Taiho as the core to form a new First Mobile Fleet and pursue it with all its strength." Ugaki Matoi continued, "At the same time, the main force of the combined fleet will follow Behind the First Mobile Fleet, wait for the aircraft of the First Mobile Fleet to severely damage the U.S. break-up fleet, and then annihilate it!"

"Can three aircraft carriers severely damage the U.S. fleet?" Koga Mineichi asked very doubtfully.

"At least it can damage. As long as the U.S. break-up fleet can be slowed down, the combined fleet will have a chance to annihilate them!" Ugaki replied almost through gritted teeth, "The Japanese Empire must not allow 2 or 3 Egyptian ships. The Sykes-class aircraft carriers are rampant in the central and western waters of the Pacific, otherwise the Americans will adopt the same tactics over and over again, and the vitality of the Japanese Empire will be exhausted by the Americans in the near future!”