Iron Cross

"Without adequate night take-off and landing drills, and after flying and fighting for five hours, the pilots were physically and mentally exhausted. How can the losses not be huge?" Horikichi smiled faintly, "I still remember the words of Special Envoy Cole, 'The plane can It's a 5-hour flight, where are the people? 'Look, when I planned the attack on Pearl Harbor, I didn't do it until I was more than 500 kilometers away. I don't know that it's safer to be farther away, but it's difficult for the pilot to do it. mission and return safely.”

Matsuda Chiaki agreed with this judgment, but still refused to admit defeat and said: "Sir, even if this is true, it is still profitable. Just exchange a mere 80 crews and 120 aircraft for 2 aircraft carriers..."

"First of all, you made such a decision after knowing the strength of both sides clearly. Now that the decoy fleet and Tsunoda fleet are both in the sight of the US military commander, if you decide to fight, the normal logic is to fight first to make it easier to attack. The decoy fleet; to say the least, even if the Americans choose to fight Tsunoda, I will still make a profit..." Horikichi smiled slightly, "We can also fight the U.S. military in the Fifth Aviation Battle. Don't forget that I still have two Unryu-class ones. With the Chitose, the Americans organized a fast column to advance. Although they shortened the distance from Tsunoda, why not also shorten the distance from the Fifth Air Battle? The maximum speed of the Fifth Air Battle is 29 knots, and it has 169 aircraft and can organize at least 150. How many Essex ships do you think can be sunk by the attack group?"

"Two ships may have difficulties, maybe only one."

"That is to exchange two Unryu-class ships for one Essex-class ship. On the surface, we will suffer a slight loss. When Tsukahara comes up tomorrow morning, how do you feel about facing the reduced strength of the US fleet?"

The other party blurted out: "That would be much easier to fight!"

At this point, Matsuda Chiaki finally understood Horitsukichi's intentions: Yano Hero's decoy fleet and the quickly exposed Tsunoda fleet were essentially decoys in the hope that the U.S. military would split up its forces and attack. It's just that the U.S. military's decoy fleet would suffer small losses, while the U.S. force swallowing Kakuda would suffer a lot. , but no matter what kind of loss, Halsey can't escape unscathed. Not only can they not escape unscathed, but they also have to close the distance - after releasing the attack group at 800 kilometers, the U.S. military's rapid column must be close to at least 600 kilometers before it can be certain to pick up the returning group. Otherwise, the 1,600-kilometer round-trip flight alone will kill the U.S. military. Attack group. .

Now Chiaki Matsuda began to worry about Halsey's attitude of still moving forward as a group, ignoring the bait, and even slowing down slightly. He believed that it would be difficult to deal with it tomorrow.

Horikichi smiled and said, "That's okay. At least Tsunoda's oil shortage problem can be properly solved. We have determined our tactics and cannot just place our hopes on the enemy to act according to our intentions. We should give the enemy two or more choices, no matter what the enemy does. If we choose, we should all think of ways to deal with it and ensure the smooth implementation of our strategic intentions.”

Matsuda Chiaki said: "Although the enemy did not organize a rapid troop advance in the afternoon, I still have a question: What if the enemy organizes a rapid column pursuit at night and launches a direct attack at dawn? I think this is likely to lead to a three-way collision in the early morning. Hair encounter."

"I guess it's there." Horikichi smiled slightly, "I'm not afraid of the tactic of using fast columns to butt heads... The Americans only have two South Dakotas in their hands. Nishimura has Musashi, Kongo and a few heavy cruisers, and the decoy fleet has There are nearly 20 torpedo boats and a bunch of destroyers. In terms of artillery combat and lightning strike capabilities, who do you think is more powerful in a night battle? "

Chiaki Matsuda was stunned for a moment, then realized what he was doing, and sighed repeatedly: "Sir, you have a great plan. I admire him so much."

"It's impossible to exhaust all strategies. Is there such a person in the world?" Horikichi smiled faintly, "Otherwise, how could I fail so many of my previous strategies?"

"If the enemy doesn't make any major changes in decision-making, they should still huddle up and press forward. How do you plan to fight tomorrow morning, sir?"

Horikichi did not answer directly, but first asked: "How far away is Tsukahara-kun from the enemy fleet?"

"Based on the position reported in the afternoon and the accelerated report tonight, it is expected that the distance will be shortened to about 900-1,000 kilometers at about 7 o'clock tomorrow morning, and it will be more certain to start the war in the afternoon."

"As long as this U.S. fleet does not turn around and run away tonight, it will not be able to run away tomorrow... Even if it runs now, it will only be able to escape part of it tomorrow. But if the enemy forces always stay together, they must eat up their opponents at the minimum cost tomorrow. It will take some effort." Horikichi sighed, "The enemy has 550 carrier-based aircraft, at least 250 of which are fighter jets. Breaking through Baotuan's air defense system will cost a lot. I am still thinking about how to fight: just rely on me and I’m afraid Tsunoda’s combined forces won’t be able to defeat the opponent, and even if Tsukahara’s strength is added, there will be considerable losses. There must be a better way…”

At nightfall, Horikichi's five-ship battle advanced at a speed of 27 knots, speeding up to join Tsunoda and the decoy fleet. There was no need to meet face-to-face, and they only needed to conduct coordinated operations 200-300 kilometers apart.

There is only one problem that Horikichi is worried about: he and Tsunoda only have 350 combat aircraft in total. At least 100 must be reserved for defense. Only 250 aircraft can be used for offense. He estimates that Halsey will dispatch 250 fighter jets. In interception, I am afraid that half of the aviation force will be lost in such a fight, and I can't say that it can completely destroy the opponent.

If the US military takes advantage of the situation to counterattack again, he thinks it will be extremely difficult to bear - it is okay to pay some price to take down the US Pacific Fleet, but since he has made up his mind to seize Hawaii, the fleet's strength cannot be lost too much. How to organize Halsey, who has always been in a group, to go out of control tomorrow is also a troublesome matter. Even if he releases the attack group earlier, as long as the US military also releases the attack group before the arrival of his own attack group, it will be an extremely tragic and mutually destructive battle.

He repeatedly looked at the sea charts and even drew on paper with his own hands, as if he was weighing and calculating his life. All the staff, including Matsuda Chiaki, looked at him quietly, fearing that they would disturb the commander's thoughts. Five minutes later, Hori Teikichi smiled: "Got it!"

"Quick! Maximum speed!"

"Quick! Maximum speed! Go!"

These two identical orders were given by Yano Hero and Kakuji Kakuta to their respective troops.

As soon as night fell, the two fleets rushed at full speed, eager to rush over to meet up - as long as the two armies met, the situation of the entire fleet would change greatly, so everyone gave a death order, regardless of whether there were US submarines on the road, they had to rush over first.

In fact, there were two US submarines on the way, but before they were ready, Kakuta's fleet had rushed through the interception line like the wind. On the night of late October, in the North Pacific with high winds and rough waves, Kakuta was racing at a speed of 27 knots, which was really desperate.

Arima Masafumi calculated that if the bait fleet could not be met in the early morning of tomorrow, Musashi would only have 50-80 nautical miles of fuel left at most, and it would be completely out of fuel during the day. Therefore, Nishimura Shoji was also walking on thin ice and personally commanded in the engine room.

Time passed by minute by minute, and at 9:30 in the evening, the two fleets that rushed to the road successfully narrowed the distance to 500 kilometers, and they could enter the visual position in another 6 hours.

Also late at night, Spruance and Nimitz were discussing the enemy situation and countermeasures with a group of staff in the command room. Both of them felt restless, as if there was something they had not considered thoroughly, but they could not remember it for a while. Finally, Spruance suddenly suggested to go to Turner to have a chat and drink a cup of coffee to relieve their emotions before talking...

Nimitz knew that his suggestion to chat and drink coffee were just excuses, and asking Turner for advice was the real thing - sometimes outsiders see more clearly than insiders.

Spruance and Turner have always had a good relationship. He called him, and the other party immediately welcomed him and enthusiastically prepared coffee and pastries at home.

As soon as he arrived at Turner's house, Spruance, who had no intention of drinking coffee at all, described the entire battle situation with the most concise and clear logic.

Turner listened silently. Although there was no professional command center, he had been a naval officer and chief of staff for so many years, and he had no shortage of detailed nautical charts and a full set of tools for staff operations. He quickly marked the detailed positions and movement directions of the two fleets on the map and started thinking quickly.

Turner was not involved in the incident two days ago, and was not affected by Hori Teikichi's two fake moves, so he looked at the problem from a different angle. He started from Halsey's idea of ​​an early morning attack and worked his way back, muttering: "Attack! Attack! Attack... It's bad! William and you have been fooled!"

"Why?"

"Think about it, at 5 a.m., assuming the enemy is really in that position, William is estimated to be 500 kilometers away from the enemy?"

"Yes, almost."

"Then how far is it at 3 a.m.?"

Spruance was a little confused by his question: "It's less than 600, and the specific calculation needs to be made. I estimate it to be about the same."

Turner immediately said: "I also estimate it to be about this number...Okay, when was Pearl Harbor attacked this time? From where did the enemy planes take off?"

"Ah!" Hearing this, Spruance was terrified, as if he had been electrocuted, and he jumped up - he finally understood the reason for his restlessness.

Nimitz's hands were shaking so much that he spilled the entire cup of coffee on the chart. Turner's words made the two of them instantly understand the danger of the problem: since the Japanese army could attack Pearl Harbor at night, they could also attack Halsey at night - don't think that if you can't do it, the enemy can't do it either.

The three of them knew that in addition to the gap between fleet aircraft carriers, the gap between the United States and the Axis in the field of carrier-based aircraft pilots was even greater: the only small number of pilots who could fly at night were the elite backbone left by Nimitz after the South Atlantic Campaign, but Japanese pilots generally had the ability to fly at night. This was not speculation but a fact - otherwise why would Pearl Harbor be bombed at night?

Turner followed up with a knife: "There is no need to wipe out William's troops. The enemy only needs to dispatch 60-80 elite attack aircraft and find two Essex-class ships to attack. If the take-off and landing capabilities of the Essex-class are destroyed, the entire fleet will be finished. After dawn tomorrow, the Japanese army will come to attack again. Will the fleet still have a way out?"