Take Taobao to fight against Japan

For this extremely important strategic location, the Japanese side naturally cannot give up easily, and will definitely carry out a series of dying struggles, so a decisive strategic decisive battle here will be a matter of course.

The communications staff officer nodded confidently and seconded: "Yes, the Japanese are putting all their eggs in one basket, they are trying to defeat the US Pacific Fleet!

But it is clear that the American Pacific Fleet is no longer the fleet of Pearl Harbor, and the Japanese Combined Fleet is no longer the fleet of elite soldiers and generals. They can only hit eggs with stones, and they will only be smashed to pieces! "

Chapter 1598

"Confidence is good, but never underestimate our enemies."

Spruance smiled slightly, and then ordered in a deep voice, "John, you immediately notify a fleet commander to come to the headquarters for a meeting. This battle will definitely be a bloody and brutal life-and-death battle. Not only must we win, but we must also To win pretty!

As long as we win this crucial fleet decisive battle, the Japanese combined fleet will completely lose its combat effectiveness, and the entire Pacific battlefield will inevitably become the world of the American fleet! "

"Okay, Your Excellency Commander!"

Communications staff officer John immediately led the order with great excitement.

Immediately afterwards, Spruance looked at another communications staff officer and said: "Jack, you immediately send power to the 1st and 4th detachments and let them return to Mariana immediately!"

When the Fifth Fleet led by Spruance entered the Mariana Sea, after effectively suppressing the Japanese air force, he commanded the 58st and 1th detachments of the 4th Task Force, the main force of the Fifth Fleet, to attack. Iwo Jima and Chichijima in the Ogasawara Islands cleared the enemy aircraft to the north.

Judging from a large amount of contact information, Spruance confirmed that the Japanese army supported Mariana's attempt. Since the two fleets will soon contact each other, he immediately recalled the 1st and 4th air forces that had just destroyed Iwo Jima and Chichijima. detachment.

In addition, Spruance also drew 8 cruisers and 21 destroyers from Turner's United Expeditionary Force fleet to strengthen the military strength of the 58th Task Force. At the head, Task Force 58 was preparing to engage the Japanese fleet.

By 22 pm on the 58nd, Task Force 58 was assembled, and Spruance handed over command of the campaign to Vice Admiral Mark Mitchell, commander of Task Force [-].

Afterwards, all five task groups with a total of fifteen aircraft carriers set up a formation, and the 7th Detachment under the jurisdiction of two of the world's strongest Iowa-class battleships was placed between the Japanese fleet and the four aircraft task groups. In case the Japanese surface fleet approached the US aircraft carrier.

Except for the aircraft carrier of the 7th Detachment covering the 4th Detachment, the rest of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Detachments were deployed behind the battleship fleet, blocking the west side of Saipan Island, and waiting for the Japanese attack at any time.

This is done to protect the ground landing forces on Saipan, but it seems that it is dedicated to creating opportunities for the Japanese fleet to fight battleships!

At night, Mitchell, the commander of the 58th Task Force, insisted on advancing westward overnight. After discovering the Japanese fleet, he tried his best to destroy it. The possibility of launching a night battle.

But Spruance remained as cautious and defensive as ever.

Spruance decided not to annihilate the Japanese fleet but to focus on covering Saipan, and ordered the 58th Task Force to move westward during the day and retreat eastward at night, and must not leave a distance that could support Saipan. Big disappointment.

At 6:23 am on June 4, Lieutenant General Jisaburo Ozawa stood in front of the transparent glass window of the command cabin on the Zuikaku aircraft carrier, the flagship of the First Mobile Fleet of the Japanese Combined Fleet, quietly watching the reconnaissance plane that was taking off.

At this time, the First Mobile Fleet had arrived in the Philippine Sea 450 nautical miles from Saipan.

From the experience of previous naval battles, it is necessary to search for known or unknown enemy fleets to know the location and movement of the enemy fleet.

Therefore, when the Ozawa fleet set off yesterday, it dispatched several waves of reconnaissance planes to search. Coupled with the information provided by the Mariana Islands, Ozawa Jisaburo has actually obtained sufficient information.

However, the war was imminent, and Jisaburo Ozawa was still very cautious to send a reconnaissance plane to search and investigate again.

The attack strategy adopted by Ozawa this time is that he intends to use Japan's presence in Guam,?Rota Island and other places have air bases, which allow the fleet to be deployed outside the strike radius of US carrier-based aircraft.

At the same time, Japanese carrier-based aircraft took off to attack the U.S. fleet. After passing through the U.S. fleet, they flew to Rota Island, Guam and other places to land, refuel and attach bombs to prepare for the next wave of attacks, carrying out so-called "shuttle bombing".

In this way, the strike range of Japanese carrier-based aircraft can be greatly extended, while the US fleet cannot attack the Japanese fleet.

At the same time, Ozawa also hopes that Kakuda's shore-based aircraft will help him to offset the quantitative advantage of the US carrier-based aircraft.

However, Spruance, the commander of the U.S. fleet, was calm by nature. Before Ozawa's fleet arrived, he took the initiative and wiped out the Japanese airfields on the nearby islands, destroying Ozawa's plan before it even started. in half.

However, Jisaburo Ozawa is still very smart, knowing that naval warfare is the most important thing for air dominance, so he planned ahead and requested as many shore-based combat aircraft as possible to assist in the battle.

Similarly, the Japanese base camp also paid the highest attention to this battle, recruiting a large number of combat aircraft from the Philippines, Taiwan and the mainland to land on Rota Island and Guam, and then participate in this unprecedented strategic decisive battle.

"Report to Your Excellency, the reconnaissance plane sent back a telegram, and found the main force of the US fleet 80 nautical miles west of Saipan!"

"Report to Your Excellency, Commander, Rota Island has sent a telegram, and the 440 combat aircraft supported by Taiwan have arrived safely!"

"Reporting to Your Excellency Commander, Ogasawara Chichijima has sent a telegram that the 570 combat aircraft that took off from the mainland have arrived safely and are ready to take off for combat at any time!"

"Report to Your Excellency Commander, there is a telegram from Guam,..."

After another investigation, it was confirmed that Ozawa Jisaburo had a clear grasp of the movement of the U.S. fleet. Not only did he know where the U.S. military was, but he also knew that the U.S. military had entered the attack radius of the Japanese aircraft, and he himself was not within the attack range of the U.S. aircraft.

In addition, the Japanese Air Force units that set off overnight also arrived at designated locations one after another.

But at this time, Spruance didn't know the exact location of Ozawa's fleet, and was preparing to order Mitchell to destroy the known enemy forces in Mariana, and to deal with the enemies in this area before the decisive battle with Ozawa.

"Shaoga! That's really great. The enemy is open and we are dark. We have already taken the lead in this battle, and we will definitely win a big victory!"

Jisaburo Ozawa waved his fist very excitedly, and immediately turned around to glance at the Japanese army staff officers standing around, and said loudly in an excited and depressed tone, "It's time for you all to decide the fate of the Great Japanese Empire." , we must go all out in this battle!

At the same time, I also believe that His Majesty the Emperor and Amaterasu will bless us for a complete victory, the Empire of Japan will prosper, and the Yamato nation will become the most noble nation in the world. "

After a lot of emotional provocative, Ozawa Jisaburo raised his fists vigorously and shouted loudly: "Immediately send my order, and all combat troops will immediately launch an attack on the US fleet according to the original plan!"

Chapter 1599

6月23日清晨6时15分，小泽治三郎派出栗田前卫舰队的飞机共104架发动第一波攻击。

Half an hour later, that is, at 6:45, the largest offensive wave of 278 aircraft will be sent from the main team A as the second wave.

At 97 o'clock in the morning, another [-] planes were dispatched from Team B for the third wave.

At 138 o'clock in the morning, the last [-] planes were dispatched from Team A and Team B as the last wave of the morning.

Four waves of attack brought the total attack to 617 carrier-based aircraft.

The intention of Ozawa Jisaburo in doing this is very simple, that is to use a large number of combat aircraft to destroy the air defense of the U.S. fleet in one fell swoop, and give the U.S. fleet a considerable blow preemptively.

After passing through the U.S. fleet, fly to Rota Island, Guam and other places to land and refuel and hang bombs to prepare for the next wave of attacks, and implement "shuttle bombing"

At the same time, Ozawa Jisaburo also asked the land-based combat aircraft groups in Rota Island, Guam, Ogasawara Islands and other places to give full support to carry out continuous large-scale air strikes against the US fleet.

After being beaten up in many naval battles, the Japanese Navy naturally realized painfully that modern naval warfare is already dominated by aircraft carriers.

In other words, in the absence of air supremacy, no matter how powerful the battleship group is, it cannot withstand the indiscriminate bombing of the carrier-based aircraft group, and can only fall into a unilateral massacre, and there will be no chance of battleship confrontation at all!

Therefore, what Ozawa Jisaburo has to do is to compete with the U.S. fleet for air power, consume the U.S. fighter jet fleet, and preemptively kill and sink the U.S. aircraft carrier as much as possible.

In addition, the kamikaze special attack team led by Guan Xingnan will be divided into two combat batches to join the second wave and the fourth wave of attack respectively. At that time, they will carry out an organized and premeditated "one aircraft for one ship" suicide attack !

Not long after Ozawa Jisaburo ordered the first wave of carrier-based aircraft to take off, the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which had nothing to do, sent a large number of combat aircraft to Guam and Rota Island to do things, bombing the Japanese airports on the two islands, Continue to clear the Mariana Islands of Japanese shore-based combat aircraft.

Of course, Fleet Commander Mitchell will not be too big, even if he has to deal with Mariana first, but the flight deck of the aircraft carrier still has enough planes to deal with Ozawa Jisaburo's attack at any time.

The Fifth Fleet has already defeated the Japanese aviation force on Saipan. Now as long as the Japanese aircraft on Guam and Rota are killed, even if the aircraft of the Ozawa Fleet successfully crosses the US fleet to Mariana, it will land at the same time. At that time, it was hit hard by the US aircraft.

I have to say that such offensive and defensive tactics are indeed very clever and predictable.

It's just that the plan is not as fast as the change, and Mitchell will soon find that they still underestimate the Japanese army.

The scale of this round of strategic decisive battle planned by the Japanese base camp far exceeded the expectations and judgments of the US military.

"Woo~woo~woo~"

Not long after the U.S. Fifth Fleet's combat fleet took off, it was detected by the Japanese radar station on Rota Island, and then a sharp air defense alarm sounded over Rota Island.

"Baga! The damn Yankee is here again!"

"Imperial air warriors, the time has come to decide the life and death of the Great Japanese Empire. For the sake of the eternal life of the Yamato nation, charge!"

"Empire warriors, God Amaterasu will definitely bless us!"

"Rush forward and tear these damned enemies to pieces!"

As the saying goes, "clay figurines are also three-pointed fire", "rabbits will bite people when they are in a hurry", these days the Mariana Islands have been crushed and beaten by the US carrier-based aircraft fleet, and bombed indiscriminately every now and then.

Saipan, as the key point of attack, has been bombed long ago and cannot take care of itself. Not to mention the complete loss of air supremacy, the most important airport has also been occupied by the US military.

This is not only the Japanese defenders stationed in the Mariana Islands who have already suffocated their anger, but also the newly arrived Japanese Air Force pilots are also burning with anger.

At this time, as soon as the air defense siren sounded, all the fighter pilots on Rota Island immediately took to the air to fight.

Since Saipan is already within the attack range of the US fleet, Rota Island is no longer safe, so those relatively cumbersome land-based bombers have been transferred to Guam dozens of kilometers away.

"Baga! The U.S. Air Corps has begun to attack Rota Island. Hurry up and pass my order immediately. All fighter jets in Guam will take off to fight immediately!"

"Imperial warriors, the Great Japanese Empire will win this battle, we must teach these rampant Yankees a lesson!"

"Baga! Die, die!"

Immediately afterwards, Guam, which was more than 50 kilometers away, also received a corresponding alert. The land-based fighter group that had been waiting for a long time took off from various airports at the fastest speed and went straight to Rota Island not far away.

Guam has a total area of ​​549 square kilometers and is about 162 kilometers away from Saipan. It is located at the southernmost tip of the Mariana Islands and is the gateway to the islands in the Western Pacific.

In 1898, the rising United States of America defeated Spain, a veteran colonialist who had long since declined, in the Spanish-American War. According to the treaty signed by the United States and Spain after the war, Guam was transferred to the United States by Spain.

Since then, the United States has built this place as the headquarters of its own Pacific Fleet.

The Americans established a colonial government and a naval shipyard on the island, built fortifications, installed 6-inch coastal defense guns, and deployed a seaplane force stationed in Guam for a long time. Marine Corps Air Force.

Rota Island is the southernmost island of the Northern Mariana Islands, located in the middle of Saipan and Guam, with a land area of ​​85 square kilometers and 135 kilometers away from Saipan.

Rota Island is 2500 kilometers west of Manila, Philippines.From Saipan Airport, you can take a small plane to Rota Island, the flight time is about 30 minutes.

Soon, more than 700 Japanese fighter groups, mainly Rafale fighters and Thunder interceptors, took off on Rota Island and Guam, completing several formations in the air.

Immediately afterwards, they aggressively attacked the US fighter formation consisting mainly of F6F Hellcat fighter jets, supplemented by P-51D Mustang fighter jets and P-47N Thunderbolt fighter jets.

Despite Yang Fan's "fueling the flames", the United States has been able to industrially mass-produce P-61C Black Widow fighter jets and P-47N Thunder fighter jets, and has already put them into service in large quantities.

However, these two fighter jets are not only expensive, but also have limited production capacity. Most of them are currently equipped on the European battlefield.

At the same time, because their bodies are too bulky, especially the empty weight of the Black Widow fighter jet has reached 10900 kilograms, which is completely equivalent to a medium bomber, making it more demanding for take-off and landing conditions.

Basically, it can only be taken off on an aircraft carrier, but it is difficult to recover on an aircraft carrier.

Therefore, these two most advanced fighter jets are more suitable for land-based operations, and it is difficult to deploy them in large numbers on aircraft carrier groups with limited space.

Chapter 1600 Time passes and circumstances change

F6F战斗机是二战美国海军的标准舰载战斗机，由美国格鲁曼公司于1938年开始研制，1942年6月26日首飞，1943年9月服役，二战时期总共生产约12272架。

Its performance data are mainly as follows:

It has a crew of 1, a length of 10.24 meters, a wingspan of 13.06 meters, a height of 4.11 meters, a maximum take-off weight of 6991 kilograms, a maximum flight speed of 612 kilometers per hour, a practical ceiling of 11369 meters, and a maximum range of 2462 kilometers.

The F6F was not the fastest WWII fighter, but was able to reliably launch from an aircraft carrier and was instrumental in the massive carrier offensives launched by the U.S. Navy during WWII.

Since the F-6F fighter jet officially participated in combat, 75% of the victories achieved by the U.S. Naval Air Force in the Pacific Ocean are thanks to this aircraft.

By playing the death game of "cat and mouse" with Japanese aircraft at low altitude, they successfully suppressed the Zero fighter jets and gained air superiority.

The F-6F was heavily armed and capable of inflicting far greater combat damage than other models of its time.

据战后统计，F-6F在空战中以损失270架的代价共击落5200架敌机，其中相对于零式战斗机的损失比率为1比13。

In addition to the advantages of the airframe, this success is also due to a certain extent to the decline in the quality of Japanese pilots and the appropriate strategy of the US military.

It is also because of this that F6F has bred the most ace pilots in the United States, with a total of 306.

F6F also has a good record in ground attacks, dropping a total of 6503 tons of bombs and destroying quite a few ground military targets.

Among the many fighters of World War II, F6F created an unparalleled record:

In less than 2 years, a total of 5155 enemy aircraft were shot down, accounting for 6477% of the 80 enemy aircraft shot down by the US Navy and Marine Corps!

As a fighter specially designed to fight against Japan's first-class Zero aircraft, it lived up to expectations and gave full play to its advantages.Although the F6F is a bit cumbersome, it is strong, durable, and has few failures, making it one of the best fighters of the US Navy in World War II.

It's just that something is different in the current time and space. The Devil's Type Zero fighter has been suffering continuously in Yang Fan's hands for a long time.

After some painful lessons, Japan not only stepped up the research and development of new fighter jets, but also obtained a large amount of advanced fighter production technology data through transactions with Germany.

Therefore, as early as 2 years ago, Japan developed more advanced Rafale fighters and Thunder interceptors, and even Japan's more advanced fighters are about to be released.

As a result, this fighter, which was originally designed to fight against Japan's first-class Zero aircraft, did not shine as brilliantly as in another time and space.

It's just that he showed his glory in the half a year or so after serving, and beat those Zero fighters that were about to be eliminated to the ground.

However, with the gradual mass production and service of the Japanese Rafale fighter jets and Thunder interceptors, the F6F fighter jets have become more and more difficult, and it is difficult to take too much advantage.

It's just that after a large number of excellent Japanese pilots were consumed, and the output of new combat aircraft could not keep up with the consumption, the US Fleet Aviation Corps became stronger and stronger, and still firmly held its dominant position.

Also because of these factors, although the main carrier-based fighter jets of the US Pacific Fleet are still F6F fighter jets, market demand determines output.

Without taking too much advantage, the demand for F6F fighter jets is naturally not so strong, so its output cannot be as crazy as in another time and space.

On the contrary, the P-51D Mustang fighter and the P-47N Thunder fighter are frantically expanding their production, and the proportion of fleet configuration is growing rapidly.

"Yosie, the damn Yankee finally found it!"

"Aerial warriors, climb up immediately!"