The Rise of the Third Reich

The Coral Sea is like a piece of blue silk, rising and falling with the gentle sea breeze. A large piece of cotton-like clouds slowly floats by in the sky, and there are several coral islands emerging from the sea in the distance (according to the standards of the Japanese Empire, there are two An island the size of a table is exposed out of the sea. Several unknown water birds are rising and falling, chasing each other and playing. However, such a pleasant, harmonious and picturesque scene did not make Lieutenant General Nagumo Chuichi relax his brows.

Because his fleet has been wandering around the North Coral Sea for several days, but there is no trace of the US Pacific Fleet aircraft carrier that he wants to destroy.

This is really a bit impatient. Although the attack on Australia is progressing smoothly now, not only has Port Moresby been successfully captured, but New Caledonia is also within sight. But the most important stronghold on the US-Australia route is New Zealand. As long as New Zealand cannot get it, the US-Australia route cannot be said to be blocked.

The purpose of the British and American Allied Forces to abandon their peripheral strongholds one after another must be to concentrate their forces to defend the most critical territory, and New Zealand must be among them.

Therefore, the Southern Army so far still maintains a cautious stance on capturing New Zealand. If the Navy wants to cut off the US-Australia route without controlling New Zealand, then annihilating the four main aircraft carriers of the US Pacific Fleet is the only option.

But for several days, there was no trace of the American aircraft carrier!

Nagumo Chuichi, who was a little impatient with waiting, decided to expand the search scope yesterday and sent two aviation groups (the 10th Aviation Group and the 11th Aviation Group) with seaplane carriers as the core to go to the Coral Islands and Novo near the island, and then sent out a Zero water reconnaissance to search.

If it is not found again, it may mean that the American aircraft carrier is really not nearby. Then Chuichi Nagumo was going to suggest to General Isogyo Yamamoto to give up the decisive battle in the Coral Sea and send landing troops to take over New Caledonia.

Just when Nagumo Chuichi was impatiently waiting, a burst of rapid footsteps suddenly sounded. Nagumo looked back and saw that it was his chief of staff, Major General Kusaka Ryunosuke, walking quickly.

"Your Excellency, Commander, the 10th Air Force broke the silence and sent an urgent message."

"Oh?" Nan Yunzhong raised his eyebrows.

The 1st Air Fleet is now in radio silence, and its subordinate battle groups are naturally silent as well. The 10th Air Force, with the "Chiyoda" seaplane carrier as its core, suddenly broke the silence. It must have made an important discovery!

"They were discovered by an American seaplane!" Ryunosuke Kusaka's words disappointed Nagumo Tadashi.

"However, the Type 2 water battle sent by the Chiyoda shot down the American Catalina seaplane." Ryunosuke Kusaka continued.

The Type 2 water battle is actually a "magically modified version" of the Zero fighter. A carrier-based fighter was changed into a fighter that can take off and land on the water. Four of them were carried on the "Chiyoda" seaplane carrier.

"Oh." Nagumo nodded, "But the position of the 10th Air Force has still been exposed?"

"It has probably been exposed." Ryunosuke Kusaka said. "Before shooting down the US seaplane, the Chiyoda's radio detected a radio signal... But this is also an opportunity."

"Opportunity?" Nanyun thought for a while, "Kusalika-kun, do you think the American aircraft carrier may also be looking for us?"

"It's extremely possible!" Ryunosuke Kusaka said, "There are only two possibilities now. One is that the American aircraft carrier is not nearby; the other is that the Americans saw through our plan to lure the enemy, so they ignored the two Yamato-class ships and Searching for my 1st Air Fleet."

Nan Yunzhong nodded. There are indeed only these two possibilities now. If the US aircraft carrier planned to attack Yamamoto's 1st Fleet, it would have launched an attack by now.

Kusaka Ryunosuke added: "If the US aircraft carrier is near the Coral Sea, it is very likely to be attracted by the 10th Air Force. Your Excellency, Commander, this is our opportunity."

"Then let's go south too!" Tadashi Nagumo thought for a moment and then said, "The 1st, 2nd and 5th aviation battles spread out and go south to expand the search area as much as possible. We have 6 large aircraft carriers, and the Americans only have 6 aircraft carriers at most. 4 ships, so as long as we find them, we will definitely destroy them!”

"Hai!"

…

Nagumo Chuichi's three main aviation groups spread out in formation on the North Coral Sea and marched southward in unison. In the South Coral Sea, Halsey's two aviation groups were advancing north, targeting the Coral Islands area where the Japanese 10th Aviation Group was discovered. Moreover, Halsey also asked his two teams to advance carefully close to the east coast of Australia. The P38 fighter jets deployed in Brisbane were always on standby, ready to attack to support Halsey's fleet.

Since Halsey and Nagumo Chuichi made their decisions at almost the same time, the five aircraft carrier teams of both sides also began to advance towards the Coral Islands at about 2:00 pm on November 5, 1942. However, since there were no battleships to escort Halsey, and not even a few heavy cruisers, by the evening of the 5th, the two U.S. aircraft carrier groups stopped advancing and wandered about 250 nautical miles northeast of Brisbane.

As for Nagumo Chuichi's four teams, they headed south overnight. By the early morning of November 6, they had crossed the Coral Islands and arrived in the middle of the Coral Sea - the three main teams were located between the Coral Islands and Norfolk Island. , the other two seaplane carrier groups, the 10th and 11th, are still near the Coral Islands and Norfolk Island. The 1st Fleet where Yamamoto Isoroku was located left the vicinity of New Caledonia on the night of November 5 and began to approach south.

At this time, the northern and central parts of the Coral Sea can be said to be filled with Japanese battleship formations! Such a high-density deployment naturally cannot escape the night reconnaissance of the American Catalina seaplane equipped with radar.

So by the early morning of November 6, Lieutenant General Halsey already knew that at least 6 large-scale Japanese fleets appeared in the Coral Sea!

However, because Catalina aircraft were used for night reconnaissance, relying on the "electronic eye" rather than the naked eye, Halsey did not know the composition of these six Japanese ship formations. Admiral MacArthur in Brisbane and Admiral Nimitz in San Diego also had no idea what ships were composed of the Japanese fleet that was heading south aggressively.

"Admiral, a telegram from Admiral MacArthur." With red eyes, Spruance, who had not slept for an unknown amount of time, quickly walked into the combat command center of the Pacific Fleet, holding the telegram from MacArthur in his hand - —He had just exchanged views with MacArthur using the telegraph machine.

"He thought the Japanese might be landing on Australia's east coast!"

As soon as Spruance's words came out of his mouth, Nimitz was stunned for a moment.

"Login? Now?"

"Yes, that's what Admiral MacArthur judged." Spruance said, "The Japanese captured Moresby on the 30th, and then bombarded New Caledonia for several days, completely paralyzing the island. . Last night we discovered 5 new huge Japanese ship formations... Rabaul's fleet may have already moved out! Moreover, Admiral MacArthur believes that the Japanese army is likely to skip them. A stronghold in northeastern Australia, landing directly near Brisbane! ”

"Land directly in Brisbane? Is that possible?" Nimitz was an admiral and didn't know much about land warfare.

"Admiral MacArthur thought it was feasible," Spruance said. "He called this tactic 'leapfrog,' which means to let go of heavily defended frontline strongholds without attacking them, and directly use the maritime advantage to attack our rear strongholds. Thus, our frontline strongholds were isolated.”

MacArthur himself suffered this hardship in the Philippines. The Japanese wiped out all the Allied strongholds around the Bataan Peninsula before finally attacking the Bataan Peninsula. If Roosevelt hadn't helped make MacArthur the commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces in the South Pacific, he would probably be lifting bricks to lose weight in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp!

So he learned his lesson while defending Australia. After it was determined that the navy could not defeat the Japanese, a defense strategy of shrinking frontline strongholds was formulated. Port Moresby, Guadalcanal, and New Caledonia are all "virtually defended", and heavy troops are piled in New Zealand and Australia.

This approach is definitely correct. There are currently no battleships in the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and the carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier are no match for the Japanese Zero for the time being. If a war were to start in the Solomon Islands, Japan would definitely be defeated miserably.

However, there is a problem with piling the main force in the old nest, that is, the Japanese can go straight to Huanglong! This is also the reason why MacArthur asked for armored divisions from the mainland. With an armored division stationed in Brisbane and Sydney, MacArthur could quickly counterattack when the Japanese launched a landing battle. At the same time, the A-36 (the dive bombing version of the P51) transported by the FS06 fleet was also allocated to the Australian Army Air Force for counterattack.

If the 4th Armored Division and 200 A-36s arrive, it will be difficult for the Japanese to play leapfrog in Brisbane or Sydney.

But the problem is that the 4th Armored Division is still unloading ships, and the 200 A-36s are still on the way. If the Japanese really landed near Brisbane, MacArthur would still have a huge headache - MacArthur's troops were limited and it was impossible to fortify everywhere on Australia's long eastern coastline.

In fact, most areas are undefended, and the Japanese will definitely succeed if they want to land. If MacArthur could not counterattack in time to allow the Japanese to gain a foothold near Brisbane and seize several small ports, things would be in trouble.

"So Admiral MacArthur asked Halsey's fleet to deal with the Japanese in the Coral Sea?" Nimitz already understood what MacArthur meant. Seeing Spruance nod, Nimitz sighed softly, "12 We will have 1 Essex class and 2-3 Independence class in March...so Halsey must keep 2 of the 4 large aircraft carriers so that we can send the FS08 fleet in December."

"I understand, sir."