The Rise of the Third Reich

"Sir, Japanese planes have penetrated our air defense firepower circle!"

"Sir, the Japanese bombers are at an altitude of 3,000-4,000 meters, so they are not torpedo planes."

"Sir, the destroyer Amen reported that the bow was hit, and the bomb caused a fire!"

"Sir, the destroyer Bush reported that the stern was hit by an armor-piercing bomb, and the bomb exploded in the engine room, and the entire ship lost power."

"Sir, the destroyer Callaghan exploded, probably because the bomb hit the ammunition depot... Oh, God, it's going to sink!"

"Sir, the stern of the destroyer Colehang was hit by a Japanese plane, it's over..."

Vice Admiral Fletcher, commander of the 51st Task Force of the United States, heard all kinds of bad news. The two new Japanese fighters are unexpectedly sharp!

Among them, the fighters have powerful firepower and a solid body, and can "face the nose" with the F4U. At the same time, the flexibility is not inferior to the F6F, enough to entangle with the F6F at an altitude below 6,000 meters without losing the wind.

The Japanese new bombers were also incredibly strong, and the F4U and F machine guns were almost ineffective against them! Even the 40mm anti-aircraft guns on the "Fletcher" class destroyers could hardly kill them at once. Even if they were hit by a few 40mm shells, as long as they were not in the vital parts, the aircraft could still barely complete the bombing or collision!

So the several Fletcher class destroyers on the outer defense line of the 51st Task Force soon suffered. Two were sunk and two were severely damaged in a very short time.

At the same time, the number of Japanese planes shot down was far less than expected. So far, the loss of the first wave of the Japanese attack was probably less than 20%. The American F4U and F6F fighters that intercepted them lost no less than 30! The two sides were almost exchanging 1:1.

And because the firepower of the new Japanese fighters was very strong, the survival rate of the pilots on the F4U and F6F that were hit was also lower than in the previous battles.

Lieutenant General Fletcher, holding a telescope, frowned and watched the fierce battles taking place in the sky and on the sea in the north. This is a very spectacular scene. Thick smoke columns streaked across the sky from time to time and rushed into the sea. Four or five blue-black smoke columns have appeared on the sea surface, and water columns and fireballs are rising from time to time. It seems that several destroyers have been hit by Japanese bombs!

However, compared with the huge 51st Task Force, the losses now suffered are just scratches.

"Where is the second wave of Japanese attack?" Lieutenant General Fletcher put down the telescope and asked the staff officer beside him.

"It has broken through three interception lines and will arrive in about 20 minutes."

"Arriving in succession?" Fletcher asked, "Are they scattered?"

"Yes, sir." The staff officer replied, "The second wave of Japanese attack was poorly organized and was dispersed by our F4U. Now it has formed several clusters."

The second wave of attack from Oahu was the aircraft of the Japanese Army. The Japanese Army Air Force was actually not bad, but there is no army in the world that is good at naval battles - the profession is not right!

The main business of the Japanese naval aviation force is not only the struggle for air supremacy, but also anti-ship, while the main business of the Japanese army aviation force is not only air combat, but also ground tactical bombing. The enemy's ground forces, armored clusters, artillery positions, logistics transportation lines, etc. are the targets that the Japanese army aviation force has to deal with in daily training.

And the execution of such tasks is always medium and small formations, and there will be no super-large formations of 700 aircraft at all - the US Army Aviation Force may do this, sending 700 B-17s and B-24s to bomb somewhere. But how can the Japanese Army afford strategic bombing?

Therefore, the Japanese Army's aircraft are not very good at maintaining large formations, and they are easily dispersed by the American F4U.

"It's not easy to deal with it if it is divided into several clusters..." Lieutenant General Fletcher frowned and didn't say anything more.

Obviously, the "turkey hunting" in the Battle of Christmas Island will not be repeated today. But what can it do? It's nothing more than losing a few more planes and warships. Hawaii... will be taken down sooner or later!

…

"Emperor, onboard!"

The God of Explosive Attack, Jiangcao Shigetaka, aimed the nose of the plane at a Fletcher-class destroyer on the sea that was frantically firing anti-aircraft shells into the sky, and shouted loudly.

The plane dived down at a 60-degree angle, with a speed of more than 650 kilometers. The destroyer on the sea became larger and larger, and countless orange-red lights passed through the sides of the cabin cover at a very fast speed.

"Ready... Release!"

As the bombardier Yamada's voice came from the headset, the fuselage suddenly became lighter, as if it jumped up dozens of meters at once. Jiangcao, whose eyes were black, knew that four 250-kilogram bombs had been dropped. He quickly pulled up the joystick and pulled up the nose of the plane he was driving.

"Boom..."

A loud noise came from behind him at this time, followed by the bombardier Yamada's cheer: "Hit, onboard!"

Another American destroyer is finished!

Jiangcao Shigetaka calculated in his mind: the first attack wave sank or severely damaged at least 7 American destroyers. For the huge American fleet, this loss is certainly nothing. But as long as they persist in fighting for several or even dozens of rounds, they can still inflict heavy damage to the American fleet.

As long as the shore-based aircraft in the Hawaiian Islands can seriously weaken the American fleet, then the combined fleet will have a chance to deal a fatal blow to the Americans.

After all, the Hawaiian Islands are only used to consume the US military, and the real decisive battle still depends on the powerful combined fleet!

…

"Sir, another group of Japanese planes are approaching!"

The radar officer's report sounded in Lieutenant General Fletcher's ears: "Bearing 300, quantity over 100, altitude 6000, distance 150!"

Fletcher quickly raised his telescope and searched the sky. After a while, he saw hundreds of small black dots getting bigger and bigger from far to near. At this time, a similar number of small blue American planes suddenly appeared in Fletcher's telescope, colliding with the dark green Japanese fighter planes.

However, not all Japanese aircraft were resisted. About thirty or forty twin-engine bombers actually ignored the fire resistance of the F6F and rushed over - of course they also paid the price of several being shot down, but the Americans 2 F6Fs were also destroyed.

"Sir, the enemy plane is coming towards us!"

I don’t know what happened, but this wave of Japanese aircraft did not attack the periphery of the 51st Task Force, but penetrated directly into the core of the 51st Task Force from an altitude of 6,100 meters.

"Height, what's their height?" Fletcher suddenly realized something was wrong and asked loudly.

"6100..."

"That high?" Fletcher was stunned for a moment, and then the roar of anti-aircraft artillery started.

This is the 127mm anti-aircraft guns on the "Iowa" and several nearby large surface ships firing - the 40mm anti-aircraft guns and 20mm machine guns cannot reach the enemy aircraft above 6100 meters, so now it is the 127mm anti-aircraft guns firing radios at close range Explode fuse shells. Because there was radar fire control, the shooting was quite accurate. After a while, several Japanese planes fell down while smoking. But at the same time, Japanese bombs were also screaming and falling from the sky in piles.

"High-altitude horizontal bombing?" Fletcher was stunned again and again. What happened to the Japanese? You didn't play very well just now, and now you're confused again?

"Sir, the 51.6th Patrol Group reported that it was attacked by a Japanese heavy torpedo attack aircraft!"

At this time, the staff officer reported another incredible news.

"Heavy torpedo machine?" Fletcher asked. "One-type lighter?"

"No, no, I haven't seen it before. It's a new type of aircraft, but it weighs more than ten tons!"

"What?"

A torpedo plane weighing more than ten tons was already an antique in 1944. It was okay to use against the merchant fleet with little anti-aircraft firepower - it was best to attack at night. In this era, Europe and the United States both had radio altitude setting. Yi, large torpedo planes are generally used for night battles and are basically useless during the day.

The U.S. 51.6th Patrol Group is located at the northern end of the air defense formation of the 51st Task Force. The unit that was hit hard by the Japanese naval aviation just now had 5 destroyers sunk and 2 severely damaged. If there is another round of attacks dominated by "Galaxy" bombers, the entire brigade will most likely lose its combat effectiveness, not to mention being wiped out.

But at this moment, a group of large aircraft of more than ten tons came and threw torpedoes into the water.

To be honest, these Japanese aircraft did a pretty good job of dropping torpedoes, and they also paid attention to slowing down their flight speed when dropping the torpedoes, and at the same time lowered the altitude to the required level, but the place where the torpedoes were dropped was far away from the American warships. Every point is 4,000 meters away.

However, these "Tenglong" and "Flying Dragon" fighters flown by the Japanese Army Red Deer were still severely damaged. Eighteen of them were shot down in succession by American destroyers and anti-aircraft cruisers on the water, but the torpedoes launched only hit 6 and only damaged 2 American destroyers.

The "strange attacks" suffered by the 51.0th Battleship Group (Vice Admiral Fletcher's group) and the 51.6th Patrol Group were just the beginning.

Just 5 minutes later, the 51.5th Aircraft Carrier Group suffered another bomb dropped from an altitude of 5,000 meters by the "Tomb Dragon" bomber. This time, a 250 kilogram bomb actually hit an escort aircraft carrier, and the Japanese At the cost of 16 "Thanlong" being shot down.

Less than 3 minutes later, the 51.3rd Heavy Cruiser Group was also torpedoed by a group of dazed Japanese "Flying Dragon" heavy critical strike aircraft. As a result, in the face of fierce anti-aircraft firepower, the Japanese lost 28 "Flying Dragons" and only 8 of the torpedoes they threw hit. On the US side, 2 destroyers were severely damaged and 1 heavy cruiser was damaged.

A few minutes later, the 50th Task Force, which was approaching the 51st Task Force, also encountered a joint attack by Japanese torpedo attack opportunity level bombers. However, their fate was not much better. 38 "Swallowing Dragons" and "Flying Dragons" were shot down by the elite 50th Task Force carrier-based fleet, and 11 "Hastles" were shot down by American F6Fs. , and the 50th Task Force had an Essex-class aircraft carrier hit by a torpedo, two destroyers were severely damaged, and 12 F6F fighter jets were also lost.