The Rise of the Third Reich

As the construction on Palmyra Atoll began to show results, Halsey's commander of the 50th Task Force also came to an end. On February 28, Halsey handed over the fleet to Vice Admiral Norman Scott, and took Chief of Staff Callahan and the "Central Pacific Command" to Palmyra Atoll, and established his own command center in a row of simple houses next to the airport under construction on the atoll.

On March 1, the four commanders of the task force, including Spruance, Kincaid, Fletcher and Scott, as well as the commander-in-chief of the amphibious landing of the Central Pacific Command, Richmond Turner, the commander-in-chief of the amphibious landing force and commander of the 5th Amphibious Operations Army, Holland Smith, the commander-in-chief of the Hawaiian Islands Army, George Patton and others, were all summoned to the temporary station of the "Central Pacific Command" on Palmyra Atoll.

Amid the noisy sound of machinery running everywhere, the combat meeting of the "Central Pacific Command" was held.

Halsey used his loud voice, almost yelling, to say to his generals: "Guys, we are finally back in the Hawaiian Islands! On December 7, 1941, those Japanese bastards caught us off guard with a treacherous sneak attack. Now I want to fight back and give them a taste of their power. So I also want to sneak attack Pearl Harbor!"

Sneak attack on Pearl Harbor? It doesn't seem to be in the plan?

"Admiral, Pearl Harbor is probably the most heavily guarded place in the world right now," Lieutenant General Patton interrupted, "It seems difficult to use the 'surprise attack' tactic if we want to attack there?"

"George, I think so!" Halsey shrugged, "We can also catch the Japanese devils off guard... In fact, the Japanese will not think that we will attack Pearl Harbor directly. In their imagination, our next target is either Niihau Island or Christmas Island, but I just want to attack Pearl Harbor."

"Admiral," Patton said, "I don't object to attacking Oahu, but the Japanese have been building Oahu in the past two years. There should be a lot of large-caliber coastal defense artillery and land forces there, right?"

"A lot!" Halsey said, "It must be dozens of times more than Palmyra Atoll." He looked at Lieutenant General Patton, "But there will be no less garrison on Niihau Island! If we can't send some wrong signals to the Japanese, Niihau Island will become our sad island."

General Patton nodded silently. The Hawaiian Islands will become a sad place for Americans anyway... 200,000-300,000 American lives will probably be lost here.

"Then how can we launch a surprise attack?" Spruance asked with a frown. He was a cautious person and didn't like to take risks.

But this time he would not oppose Halsey, because the battle in the Hawaiian Islands was going very badly!

The expected fleet decisive battle and the crazy attack of the Japanese shore-based aviation did not occur, which means that the Japanese army learned the lesson of Christmas Island and knew to conserve its strength.

If the Japanese air force is not deployed, the loss-making business of exchanging ships for planes will not be able to continue. If the Japanese air force in the Hawaiian Islands is not severely weakened, the next battle to attack the Hawaiian Islands will be difficult to fight.

"We'll go for a night attack," Halsey said. "We have night fighters... lots of them! I bet the Japanese don't have any night fighters available.

We also have high-speed destroyers and submarines. Destroyers can approach Oahu under the cover of night, and then carry out artillery fire to lure the shore batteries to open fire. Submarines can go around Oahu to lay mines, creating the illusion that we are going to blockade Oahu with mines.

Finally, we have BQ-7 remote-controlled bombings to kill planes, which can be used to hit Japanese ground facilities. I think... that scene will be very shocking."

In fact, there are not many Japanese warships in Pearl Harbor now. Although there are many planes at the nearby airport, most of them are placed in reinforced concrete hangars. The possibility of being destroyed by bombs is not great. The bombing will at most destroy the runway. But the number of Japanese engineers on Oahu must be large, and it will not be too difficult to repair the runway.

As for the actions of destroyers and submarines, it is even more impossible to cause any damage to the impregnable Hawaiian Islands.

So Halsey's version of "attack on Pearl Harbor" can only play one role - to scare people!

The purpose of scaring the Japanese was, of course, to make them misunderstand and make the wrong decision.

…

The operational concept of "sneak attack on Pearl Harbor" proposed by Admiral Halsey soon became a plan. The American fleet and shore-based aviation forces gathered near Palmyra Atoll and Midway Island were busy around this bold plan.

At the same time, the Japanese Navy Central Pacific Fleet Command and the Japanese Army Hawaiian Army Command on Oahu were also busy preparing for the "final decisive battle".

There were two Japanese generals in charge of Hawaii, namely Army General Yamashita Tomoyuki and the newly promoted Navy Admiral Takasu Shiro.

Although the Hawaiian Islands now seemed to be surrounded, Yamashita Tomoyuki and Takasu Shiro were not panicked.

Because as early as when Japan occupied the Hawaiian Islands, the Japanese Army and Navy leaders knew that the United States would counterattack the Hawaiian Islands sooner or later. And if the second Hawaiian Islands Battle was fought well, it would be the "final battle in the Pacific".

So in the past two years, no matter who was in charge of the Hawaiian Islands, they would spare no effort to stockpile supplies and build various defense facilities.

Among them, the air defense bunkers, underground oil depots, forts and airports on Oahu are the focus of all construction projects. In the past two years, various projects have never stopped.

By March 1944, Oahu was already impregnable by the Japanese. There were 220 coastal defense heavy guns above 250mm on the island!

Among them, there are as many as 36 410mm large-caliber artillery (the same as the Nagato's main gun), and they are all installed in twin armored turrets - the protection capabilities of these armored turrets are as good as those of the Nagato battleship. The turrets are exactly the same!

In addition to these 18 armored turrets, there are another 184 large-caliber artillery pieces placed in reinforced concrete bunkers on Oahu, all of which are modified from old battleship main guns (254mm, 305mm, 356mm and other calibers).

Then any enemy ships that want to get close to Oahu will undoubtedly have to be mentally prepared to be beaten into pieces.

In addition to the powerful artillery, the fortifications on Oahu are also extremely dense. The number of air-raid shelters and anti-gun bunkers is enough to hide all the people and weapons on the island (excluding ships and coastal defense artillery, of course) underground or in caves.

Among them, the bunker used as a wartime command post for the Navy's Central Pacific Fleet Headquarters and the Japanese Army's Hawaiian Front Headquarters was built inside a hollowed-out hill near Pearl Harbor. Even the Yamato's main gun , cannot destroy it.

After the US military captured Midway Island, Takasu Shiro and Yamashita Tomofumi moved their respective headquarters to this mountain bunker code-named "Tama".

Because of the sharp shore artillery and solid bunkers, Takasu Shiro and Yamashita Fengfumi were not actually worried about Oahu being attacked. In fact, they are still looking forward to the desperate Americans coming to attack Oahu head-on.

In this way, the 50,000 Japanese troops on the island can go on a killing spree and teach the Americans a lesson.

But such a good thing should never happen... It's strange to say that although the Japanese Empire has spent no less than 500 million yen in construction costs on Oahu in the past two years, turning it into a world-wide defense The strongest island. However, no big figure in the Japanese army and navy believed that the US military would land on Oahu (a rare agreement between the Japanese army and navy).

Because in the eyes of the top Japanese military officials, the Americans would suffer a lot in Christmas Island, Niihau Island, Kauai Island, and the Big Island of Hawaii, suffering heavy casualties and completely losing their offensive spirit. Then the entire army was wiped out by the counterattack of the invincible Imperial Japanese Army...

"Kurojima-kun, I haven't seen your people all day today. Are they going to test the motorboat again?"

When night fell on March 3, the 8th Fleet Commander Mikawa Junichi, who was sitting idle in the Central Pacific Front Fleet Headquarters, saw the Front Fleet Chief of Staff Kurojima Kameto approaching with a dark face, and asked with a smile.

Kuroshima was originally the chief of staff of the 10th Fleet on Christmas Island. Later, the 10th Fleet was abolished, and Kuroshima was transferred to Oahu by Takasu Shiro to continue to serve as chief of staff (Takasu’s original chief of staff, Ryuu Kusuka Nosuke is the person Nagumo Chuichi used to work for, and now he is the chief of staff of the Combined Fleet). However, there is really nothing to "advise" on the Hawaiian Islands. Everything has been planned in advance. So Hei Dao spent a lot of energy on a suicide bombing motorboat.

"Commander Mikawa," Kuroshima Turtle shook his head and said, "I didn't go to get a motorboat today. I went to see Midway Island and Palmyra Atoll today and took the Army's Hyakushi Division."

The Hyakushi Division is the Hyakushi Headquarters reconnaissance aircraft. It is the best reconnaissance aircraft of the Japanese Army. It has a very high speed. The latest model can reach 630 kilometers per hour. Because of its high speed, it can be used to scout areas tightly controlled by the enemy.

"Oh, how's the situation?" Sanchuan asked.

"It's not very good. The Americans' construction progress is faster than expected. The airport on Midway Island has been completely repaired, so the Baiji plane was blocked by the P-51 when it approached. There were 4 in Palmyra Atoll. Dockyard…”

Just as the Black Island Turtle Man said this, the air raid siren suddenly sounded. Immediately afterwards, a former staff officer of the front fleet quickly walked into the war room and bowed to Hei Dao.

"Chief of Staff, the electrical detectives just issued a warning and detected several unidentified aircraft."