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Volume 2 Growth Chapter 750 The War Situation in the Pacific

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    "Our Japanese allies seem to have encountered some troubles in their attack on the Hawaiian Islands. [They lost a considerable number of warships and pilots, but did not obtain the key springboard to Pearl Harbor. As of now, they are still entrenched in  Midway Island has an area of ??only 5 square kilometers, and even this island is more than 1,900 kilometers away from Kauai, the northwest tip of the Hawaiian Islands. "In front of a huge map that stretches out, the Secretary of State for the Navy.  Redel was using his trademark deep voice to briefly describe the war situation taking place on the other side of the world to the participants in the room.  With his in-depth and simple analysis, even laymen with little knowledge of naval strategy can make a more accurate identification of the current situation.  As a senior intellectual who has written articles in various naval magazines in his early years and holds an honorary doctorate from Keele University, Redl's ability to organize language is unquestionable; in a few words, he clearly outlined the situation in the Pacific.  .  It turns out that while the three German armed forces were going all out to attack Cuba, Japan, located on the other side of the world, also launched a full-scale attack on Hawaii, the last foothold of the United States in the Pacific.  As an important ally of Germany on the anti-American front, Japan, which lacks oil, has received strong support from Germany and the Netherlands. With no worries about fuel, the main force of the combined fleet will no longer lie down after a single attack on Pearl Harbor in history.  A tragic situation for half a year.  In order to demonstrate the superiority of the Navy over the Army, their dispatches were extremely active; after the engineering force initially built the previously captured Midway Island into a relay base, Admiral Yamamoto, driven by the drive to dominate the Pacific,  He once again pulled out the shining cold blade from his scabbard!  For the Japanese Navy.  Now is indeed the best time for them to eliminate the presence of American power in the Pacific.  As Germany's naval and air forces penetrated into the Caribbean region.  The U.S. Atlantic Fleet, overwhelmed with self-care, no longer has the willingness or ability to deploy warships to support the Pacific theater.  The only reinforcements currently available to the U.S. fleet stationed in Hawaii are cruiser- and lower-class ships built in West Coast shipyards such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as some land-based fighters transported from the West Coast by merchant ships.  Taking into account the gap in the initial lineup between the two sides, the Japanese fleet has fully grasped the war initiative in the Pacific Ocean.  On February 21, the powerful combined fleet arrived in the waters near the west of the Hawaiian Islands.  A large number of Type-97 attack aircraft carrying high-explosive bombs immediately took off from five regular aircraft carriers and launched fierce air attacks on targets on the shore; Zero fighter jets with a range of up to 2,200 kilometers were scattered and released, and cooperated with submarines and mine teams to launch a search for the US fleet.  .  Although the Japanese Navy's aircraft carrier combat capabilities are far from comparable to those of Germany and the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, it has an absolute advantage over the three short and poor aircraft carriers of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.  General Yamamoto had every reason to believe that he could defeat his opponents this time and successfully open the door to Pearl Harbor.  However, the Japanese army's determined attack became difficult due to the fierce resistance of the U.S. land-based aviation forces.  As early as last November after the Battle of Midway, the U.S. military began to comprehensively strengthen its land-based aviation forces on the Hawaiian Islands: after all, as long as you glance at the map, you can understand that in the vast and vast North Pacific, the Japanese army has no choice.  The only target for attack is this key island group that has been stolen by the United States for 40 years.  Although the increasingly severe war situation in the Caribbean has caused the US military to devote most of its power to this main battlefield at home, it relies on the powerful military production of the United States to gradually complete the transformation of war.  There are still a large number of single-engine and twin-engine fighters transferred from the west coast of the United States to the airport in Hawaii under the relay of transport ships.  To this day.  There are more than 800 fighter planes in various airports in the Hawaiian Islands that can take off for combat, which is undoubtedly far more than the total number of aircraft that the five aircraft carriers of the Japanese fleet can carry.  Due to the disadvantage of fighter planes in folding wings, the hangar area utilization rate of Japanese aircraft carriers is much lower than that of their German and American counterparts: its five regular aircraft carriers, even including deck tethering, can only carry less than 400 carrier-based aircraft at most.  In terms of performance, Japanese carrier-based aircraft are also at a disadvantage.  The Zero fighter, which they relied on as the main force in aviation, was actually a helpless product with backward engine technology. Its output of only 950 horsepower was unbearable compared to the figures of its German and American counterparts, which often had more than 1,600 horsepower.  In order to gain the strength to fight with its opponents driven by this weak heart, the Zero fighter was forced to do everything possible to reduce its own weight.  This fighter aircraft with an empty weight of less than 1.7 tons not only abandons the bulletproof steel plates around the cockpit, but also does not even have the most basic self-sealing fuel tank. Once the fuel tank is hit by an enemy bullet, the pilot must quickly find a base to land nearby, otherwise  The machine will be destroyed due to the exhaustion of fuel.  Although the Type Zero's range was incredible, it obviously couldn't withstand the rapid leakage of fuel!  Even with such extreme weight reduction measures, the Zero¡¯s 533km/h The maximum speed is still much slower than that of US military fighter jets, and the climb rate is also far behind.  Here are the consequences of an engine tragedy.  The only thing the Japanese army can praise is the quality of their pilots.  In order to prepare for the one day war against the United States, the current group of Japanese pilots are all well-trained veterans. Since the US military must prioritize ensuring the battle at home in the southeast, skilled pilots sent to the Pacific are indeed rare animals.  However, due to the gap in quantity and quality, the Japanese army is still at a huge disadvantage in terms of aviation combat effectiveness.  As for Japan¡¯s land-based aviation, there is no condition for their participation in this early offensive operation against the Hawaiian Islands.  Even Midway Island, which is the closest to the northwest tip of Hawaii, is nearly 2,000 kilometers away. No tactical aircraft can have such a long combat radius.  And due to its appalling engine technology, Japan's heavy long-range bomber does not even have a design drawing.  During the offensive, the Japanese army could only rely on the air defense power of carrier-based aircraft and surface ships to compete unilaterally with a large number of land-based fighters of the US military!  After a day of fierce fighting, the combined fleet suffered heavy losses from the opponent's air attack: 3 cruisers and 4 destroyers were sunk, and the battleships Kawachi and Settsu also suffered serious damage.  In addition to the unflattering performance of the 25mm anti-aircraft guns on the Japanese warships, the combined fleet did not have radar, which was another core factor that caused huge losses.  The air defense warning of Japanese warships relies entirely on visual observation by lookouts, and the visual distance and the search range of air radar are completely different. When the air defense alarm sounds, the reaction time left for the fleet is only about one-third of that using radar.  And if there is fog or cloudy weather, you can only react if the other party is already close to your face.  During the battle on the evening of the 21st, a group of fbd bombers took advantage of the cover of low-hanging clouds and rushed until they were less than 20 kilometers away from the Japanese fleet before being discovered.  The two aircraft carriers Akagi and Kaga were hit by bombs one after another and caught fire. Among them, the Akagi was hit in the hangar. Two elevators were scrapped in the fire and had to return to the home port for repairs.  This undoubtedly made the Japanese fleet, which was already weak in aviation, even worse.  In order to change this situation, Yamamoto decided to dispatch a high-speed fleet to carry out night bombardment of the US military airport on the island.  In addition to as many as 12 battleships, he also has more than 30 light and heavy cruisers, as well as more than a hundred cannon fodder destroyers. The lineup is more than twice that of the opponent; and night battles are the Japanese navy's first choice since the Russo-Japanese War.  It is an important project that has been devoted to hard training, and all torpedo teams are very good at it.  Coupled with the unparalleled 610mm oxygen torpedo, the Japanese fleet is fully capable of this night operation mission.  However, the Japanese artillery fleet also suffered an unexpected defeat.  The day after the airport on Hawaii Island was bombarded, the U.S. military dispatched a high-speed heavy artillery fleet with two North Carolina-class battleships and two Lexington-class battle cruisers as the core to stop the attack.  Although the lookouts of the Japanese mine team are all very sharp-eyed, they can even see the outline of ships on the sea surface 12km away on a moonless night (this is really not made up by the author, the lookouts of the Locust Kingdom in the Battle of Guadalcanal were just like this)  (like existence), but after all, the human eye is not as powerful as radar, and it is even different in terms of accurate ranging.  In the night battle that broke out in the early morning of the 23rd, the two Japanese high-speed battleships Hiei and Kirishima were shot in multiple places under the guidance of the US military's radar fire control. After major modifications, they still did not have the ability to withstand the 406mm heavy artillery.  They were overturned and sunk one after another in the blazing fire.  The U.S. military also greatly underestimated the opponent's night fighting qualities. The Kirishima's resistance before it died also sent the Lexington 10 kilometers away into flames, making it the best target for the Japanese torpedo team.  .  Two heavy-duty ship-launched torpedoes with a charge of up to 490kg hit the underwater part on its starboard side. The terrifying explosion impact instantly tore the surrounding large steel plates into pieces, and the water intrusion was completely out of control.  In the end, the high-speed battle cruiser twisted its 37,000-ton steel body and sank into the sea, accompanying the two Japanese warships all the way.  In the second round of sea-air confrontation that day, the Japanese aircraft carriers also suffered their first defeat since the war began. The two aircraft carriers Kaga and Soryu were sunk. Their result was only torpedoes against the other side.  Yorktown.  Due to the numerous mines near the Hawaiian Islands, the Japanese army did not dare to force the landing troops ashore at night. Yamamoto could only silently swallow the bitter pill of failure and switch from a forceful attack to a complete blockade of the Hawaiian Islands.  (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster! PS: Thanks to book friends Angel Airan, Longcheng Xiaoyi, hill2, limy1931, Paradise Rebirth for their monthly ticket support, and zccharles, Golden Crab, Yuan yh1234567,  Reward from zhoyuu1976~~~
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