On March 30, the Atura Island in the North Pacific was now densely packed with nearly two hundred B29 bombers.
Within a distance of nearly 3,000 kilometers between Atura Island and Japan¡¯s four northern islands, one of the largest naval fleets in history is approaching Japan¡¯s four northern islands. In order to avoid possible attacks from the Soviet Union, the U.S. fleet approached the target from the east.
This unprecedentedly large fleet includes four Montana-class battleships, four Iowa-class battleships, and thirty-four Essex-class aircraft carriers (in February, three more Essexes were commissioned) , twelve Independence-class light aircraft carriers, plus a full 170 escort aircraft carriers, as well as more than 400 cruisers and other types of destroyers. As for the auxiliary supply ships following behind, there are nearly a thousand in number.
Such a huge fleet is like a pontoon bridge set up on the sea, forcibly "connecting" the United States and Japan, two countries separated by the Pacific Ocean.
When its dense and huge fleet floated on the sea and surged westward like locusts, the water in the Pacific Ocean was stirred up to boiling.
As early as a week before the U.S. Navy approached the Japanese mainland, the Eurasian coalition forces easily knew their movements. The Americans did not keep this operation secret, and could not keep it secret. This fleet was too large, covering an area of ??more than 500 square kilometers when spread out on the sea. The submarine deployed here by the coalition forces easily discovered their movements.
At six o'clock in the morning, when the sun in the North Pacific had just peeked out of the sky, the B29 heavy bombers on Atura Island lined up to take off one after another. Two of the B29s carried the weapon that the United States used to show off its muscles to the world. : Atomic bombs, their codenames are "Boy" and "Fat Man".
The two atomic bombs were loaded onto the B29 that had been specially modified for this operation. Then they were mixed in with a bunch of B29 bombers and took off together, forming two dense flight formations in the air. Their destination was the largest of the four northern islands of Japan. Kunashir Island and Etara Island.
It is expected that these aircraft will fly over the target at around 12:15 that day.
Those B29 bombers acting as decoys and cover. Two large auxiliary fuel tanks and internal fuel tanks are added to increase the range, so that it can complete this "bait escort" mission with a round-trip distance of nearly 6,000 kilometers.
For the B29 bomber, the distance of six thousand kilometers is really too far. After all the take-off weight is used to fill the fuel, there is basically no weight left to install bombs.
This attack on the four northern islands may also conflict with the British and German air forces deployed there to assist Japan. But the United States no longer cares about this.
"War without declaring war!"
This is the official thinking of the United States.
Everything will be decided after these two "Swords of God" are thrown down and the strong muscles of the United States of America are shown to old Europe.
Even though Europe is now in a state of war, President Dewey still desperately wants to avoid becoming an enemy of the entire world. Even though the U.S. Navy is now number one in the world on paper, he does not have the courage and five "gods" Make¡± the whole world an enemy. By intimidating some countries in the Eurasian coalition to withdraw from the war through the threat of atomic bombs, that would be the best result.
At 8 o'clock in the morning, on the ocean about 400 kilometers northeast of Etara Island, one of the four northern islands of Japan, the largest naval fleet in human history has approached here. At eight o'clock, the first wave of about 800 aircraft took off, making a gesture of attacking the four northern islands.
With the development of aviation technology in 1946, the traditional piston fighter has evolved to the "all-powerful" stage. Traditional professional dive bombers have been basically eliminated. In this operation, the first wave of attacks on the Fletcher fleet's aircraft carriers, which carried out the assault mission, carried nearly 80% of the carrier-based aircraft fighters, and they were all F8F fighters. The remaining aircraft are torpedo attack aircraft and a small number of long-range reconnaissance aircraft.
The first wave of 800 attack aircraft were all F8F fighters. But two hundred of them had heavy aerial bombs hanging under their bellies. This attack was the tactical target of the US aircraft carrier. It is not for bombing at all, but to lure the air defense fighters out of the island, and then engage in a fighter-to-fighter air battle with them, attracting and consuming the island's air defense forces, so as to facilitate the entry of the B29 fleet. The panda carrying aerial bombs will also join the air battle after throwing the aerial bombs.
And the attack aircraft group of one thousand is just the first wave of the huge attack aircraft formation of the US military today!
The second wave of attack aircraft groups. It will be released at 8:30, and it will also be 800.
The third wave of attack aircraft was released at nine o'clock, and the number was also an astonishing 800 attack aircraft.
The fourth wave of 800 attack aircraft will be released at half past nine.
??As for the remaining more than a thousand aircraft, they are used for fleet air defense and to prevent sudden sneak attacks by the Eurasian combined navy.
The total number of attack aircraft in the four waves before and after was as high as 3,200. All are composed of F8F Panda fighter jets, and this is not all of this US fleet carrier-based aircraft.
One hundred and seventy escort aircraft carriers can carry more than 800 carrier-based aircraft.
The total number of carrier-based aircraft of the thirty-four Essex-class aircraft carriers is more than 3,000.
Counting the twelve independent-class aircraft carriers, the total number of carrier-based aircraft blocked by the US fleet at Japan's doorstep has exceeded 4,500!
By about ten o'clock, in this first round of offensive, the first wave of aircraft groups released has completed its return. When the fuel and ammunition are replenished, the fifth wave of attacking aircraft groups will continue to set off.
According to the combat plan formulated by the U.S. Navy, in the first round of offensive in the morning, the U.S. Navy dispatched five waves of a total of 4,000 aircraft in batches within two and a half hours to first "flood" the skies above the four northern islands, greatly consuming local air defense forces.
This cycle continued until the B29 fleet arrived and dropped the "god-killing weapon" before evacuating.
According to Nimitz¡¯s vision, the U.S. Navy would have more than 1,500 F8F Panda fighter jets flying in the sky over the Southern Kuril Islands at any time.
The entire combat plan is not about any military trick, it is just an upright "serious" crushing air battle. According to Nimitz's idea, a saturation attack with more than 3,000 aircraft would be used to directly "cover" the sky of the Southern Kuril Islands.
The largest air battle in human history was actually launched by naval aviation.
In order to prevent the attack on the four northern islands. The main fleet encountered a surprise attack by the malicious Eurasian combined navy. There was also a mobile reconnaissance fleet composed of twenty escort aircraft carriers. They were swimming about 200 kilometers away from the main fleet, releasing a large number of reconnaissance to conduct a drag-net interception. search.
The tactical purpose of such a large number of fighter jets is to ensure that the two B29s can safely fly over the target. Then "plant two suns" there.
The wealthy U.S. Navy is so "willful".
At 7:50 in the morning, the U.S. Navy pilots were sitting in their favorite planes before the sortie, waiting for the order to take off. Many pilots took out the crosses hanging around their necks and prayed uneasily.
The reason for uneasiness comes from the collapse of "faith" and the change of opponents.
In the past, the opponents that pilots faced were the Japanese Empire under the guidance of the Japanese evil god, but now, their opponents have become all countries with "gods", and three of them claim to have "gods" sent by God. Although U.S. officials have repeatedly claimed that these so-called "god messengers" are all blasphemous heretics and hypocrites of God. But no matter "we are at enmity with the angels of God." Or "We are fighting five evil gods", all of which have a huge impact on the morale of the army.
On an F8F fighter jet waiting for takeoff orders, pilot Jock was repeatedly checking the transistor radio on board. This batch of transistor radios is the largest military product exported by Germany to the United States in the past three and a half years. It has good quality, light weight, simple maintenance and low failure rate, and is highly praised by U.S. Navy pilots. In the past three years, the U.S. Navy has imported more than 100,000 transistor radios and related supporting maintenance spare parts from Germany. On transistor radio, the Germans also opened up an unlimited supply to the United States.
Some conservatives in the upper echelons of the U.S. Navy insist on using domestically produced vacuum tube radios. However, the advantages of transistor radios over tube radios are too great. Both communication effects and failure rates are overwhelmingly superior. Although the Navy once tried to replace the German products on the aircraft with vacuum tube radios. However, they encountered collective resistance from the pilots and finally had to give up.
There were times when the British were choked by the Germans during the One Year War. As a result, the aviation force almost ran out of radio stations. The Americans were prepared for a rainy day and stockpiled a large number of transistor radio stations in advance before the United States and Germany turned against each other. In addition, as a precaution, American officials did not easily stop the production line of vacuum tube radios as the British did, just in case. What surprises Americans is that even virtue has turned against them. However, transistor factories in Germany still secretly "re-export" transistor products to the United States through third countries. Now that the relationship between the United States and Europe has seriously deteriorated and war may begin at any time, the United States' access to transistors has been exceptionally smooth.
As for the transistor radio stations manufactured in the United States, Bell Labs, which developed transistors, was poisoned with botulinum toxin by Lin Han and Hannah more than ten years ago. The loss of a large number of relevant elite scientists caused Americans to fall behind in overall research on transistors.
Although the Germans used transistor radios on the Chinese battlefield in 1935, they exported them in larger quantities to the world after 1937 to earn foreign exchange. The Americans, who then caught up, increased their research on transistors. But as of 1946, the United States could only produce germanium transistors of substandard quality in laboratories. As for industrial mass production, it was still far away from industrial mass production (Note: Historically, although Bell Labs was The world's first transistor was built in 1945, but it took six years to achieve large-scale industrial production.)
While the American pilots were manipulating the transistor radio on their f8f, the Japanese pilots at the land-based airport hundreds of kilometers away from them were depressingly manipulating the tube radio on their plane.
The depression of Japanese pilots is also related to the radio.
After the outbreak of the Pacific War, due to their "friendly" relations with Germany, Japan's Hainan Airlines and Japan's Air Force received a large number of "cheap" transistor radio stations exported from Germany. The radio stations were also well received.
But at the end of last year, airport ground handlers in Japan suddenly received instructions from their superiors, requiring them to be prepared to replace tube radios on aircraft at any time. Later, pilots who had become accustomed to transistor radios were once again asked to become familiar with the use of tube radios.
In February of this year, airport ground staff in various places, despite the protests of pilots, followed the instructions of their superiors and forcibly replaced the transistor radios with bulky and old tube radios. A week ago, after receiving a warning that the U.S. fleet was about to launch a massive attack on the four northern islands, superiors specially sent a commissioner to inspect the replacement of airborne radio stations in the Hokkaido area.
As for why this was done, the superior¡¯s explanation was that it was a matter of life and death for the pilot. After just receiving the information that a large number of American aircraft were approaching, the ground crew who were conducting a final inspection of the aircraft before the sortie received an instruction to confirm the radio station replacement status of all sortie fighters for the last time.
Unlike their opponents, which are all F8F Panda fighter jets, the composition of the Japanese fighter jets parked at the island-based airports on the four northern islands is slightly more complex.
The defenders of the island base airport are all Japanese Army, and the ones responsible for the air defense of the airport are also Army Aviation. The piston fighters they equip are Hayate II fighter jets. Together with other types of combat aircraft, the total number is about 300. Therefore, the number of aircraft in the four island-based airports is not large. First, it is very close to Hokkaido, and can be supported by thousands of land aviation aircraft from the nearby Hokkaido direction at any time. Although the four northern islands have an extremely important strategic position, they are only small islands after all. They are isolated overseas and are vulnerable to attack. They have little room for maneuver. Once they encounter large-scale bombing by the opponent, they will soon be scrapped and paralyzed. There are too many aircraft piled up here. necessary.
The person who proposed this air defense system with light front and heavy rear was none other than Li Huamei. Li Huamei is a super ace in air combat, and has experience and lessons in Shanghai air defense operations, so he has just formulated such an air defense system.
On the four northern islands, the most deployed are various types of anti-aircraft guns. From the old triple 25 mm anti-aircraft guns that were eliminated by the navy, to the latest imitation 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, to heavy anti-aircraft guns modified with 150 mm cannons. In addition, there are 3.7-inch, 94mm anti-aircraft guns supported by the British and Germans.
The current four northern islands have long been built by the Japanese into a hedgehog array filled with anti-aircraft guns. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature. The novels will be better and updated faster!