The Rise of the Third Reich

"Christmas Island!"

Ito nodded to Yamamoto Isoroku and said, "In my judgment, the main target of the U.S. Pacific Fleet's attack is Christmas Island."

Christmas Island belongs to the Line Islands in the Central Pacific, located at 1°59' north latitude and 157°30' west longitude, 2080 kilometers away from the Hawaiian Islands. The island is the largest atoll in the Pacific, with a total area of ​​600 square kilometers, of which the land area is as much as 363 square kilometers!

The so-called atoll means a circle of coral reefs and coral islands with a lagoon in the middle. Historically, Japan's important anchorage in the South Pacific, Truk Atoll, has a land area of ​​only 100 square kilometers, less than one-third of Christmas Island. Although the Truk lagoon covers an area of ​​more than 2,100 square kilometers, it is much larger than the nearly 240 square kilometers of the Christmas Island lagoon.

But Christmas Island is more than enough as a departure base for American submarines and break-up aircraft carriers. If the Americans capture Christmas Island, the departure point of American submarines and escort aircraft carriers will be able to advance 5,000 kilometers westward!

This means that the U.S. aircraft carriers and submarines that break diplomatic ties can save at least tens of thousands of kilometers during combat, and the efficiency of breaking diplomatic ties will be greatly improved.

Moreover, the land area of ​​Christmas Island Atoll is very large, enough to deploy thousands of shore-based aircraft. Once it is operated by the United States, the 1,000 kilometers around Christmas Island will become a restricted area for the Japanese fleet. American long-range bombers deployed on Christmas Island can even bomb Oahu!

Therefore, Christmas Island is more important than Dutch Harbor. It is Japan's second key stronghold in the central Pacific after the Hawaiian Islands. It must not be missed.

"In addition, it is already September, and the climate in the North Pacific will soon deteriorate, which will not be conducive to landing and seizing the island." Ito Zhengyi then said another reason, "If the purpose of the US military operation is really to seize the island, If we want to attack the island instead of mobilizing our troops, then the target must be Christmas Island.”

What Ito said about "mobilizing our troops" was based on the analysis and judgment of the "fuel consumption tactics" that recently appeared in the Atlantic Ocean.

Although the U.S. Atlantic Fleet's series of actions since June have achieved little results and are not fun at all to a layman, when an expert like Ito Seiichi takes a look at them, he immediately breaks out in cold sweats.

The U.S. Atlantic Fleet is competing with the European Combined Fleet for fuel consumption! In June and July, the European Combined Fleet was led by the U.S. Atlantic Fleet in circles at sea for more than a month, and was forced to send additional troops to South Africa, Cape Verde Islands, Iceland, the Azores Islands and other places. . After working hard for a while, no less than 600,000 tons of fuel was consumed!

Although 600,000 tons of fuel is a lot for Germany, after all, they have more than 40 million tons of oil a year, which is not enough to vomit blood. But Japan only produces more than 6 million tons a year, of which less than 4 million tons are allocated to the navy. If 600,000 tons are wasted at one time and the country runs out of gas after a few trips, the country will be destroyed.

Therefore, after analyzing the Atlantic combat situation in June and July, Japan became determined to start a war with the United States in the Hawaiian Islands as soon as possible. It was against this background that the "Jie-1 Operation Plan" was proposed.

The Americans obviously have their own decisive battle plan, and the target of the attack is definitely not the impregnable Hawaiian Islands.

"But how can we be sure that the Americans really want to seize the island, instead of trying to take the First Mobile Fleet in circles?"

Nagumo Chuichi, who currently serves as the governor of the Yokosuka garrison, interjected and asked.

The commander of his garrison was to accumulate qualifications for the role of commander of the combined fleet. According to Yamamoto Isoroku's plan, General Chuichi Nagumo took over as commander of the combined fleet in early 44. So he is now considered a figure in the highest decision-making circle of the Japanese Navy.

"It's impossible to say for sure now," Ito said, shaking his head, "unless the Americans start attacking Christmas Island."

Nagumo Chuichi shook his head and said: "There are not many planes on Christmas Island... Once the Americans blow up the airport, 10 battleships will surround them and bombard them, and the Battle of Christmas Island will be difficult to fight."

"Deploy fighter planes from the Hawaiian Islands to Christmas Island!" Ito said. "There are several large airports on Christmas Island that can be used by 1,000 fighter planes, and there are also underground oil depots that can store large amounts of fuel."

The geographical location of Christmas Island is too important, so when the Japanese navy occupied Christmas Island, it was preparing for a decisive battle on Christmas Island. It spent a lot of manpower and material resources to build airports and oil depots, and also deployed the Army's 43rd Division, 47th Marine Guards, 48th Naval Guards, and the 1st Hawaii Special Marines on Christmas Island, totaling more than 33,000 people. People's ground forces have also deployed more than 50 light ships (mainly patrol boats, torpedo boats, gunboats, anti-submarine boats, etc.).

But the number of aircraft is not many, there are only 300 in total, and nearly 100 of them are seaplanes - they are not all on the main island of Christmas Island, but are scattered on various islands and reefs of the Line Islands. Search for U.S. aircraft carriers and submarines attempting to pass through the Line Islands.

In other words, there are only more than 200 aircraft that can actually be used for combat on Christmas Island, half of which are fighter jets, and the rest are one-type land attack aircraft. The purpose of deploying one type of land attack aircraft on Christmas Island is to attack nearby aircraft. The U.S. has broken diplomatic ties with its aircraft carriers and more than a hundred long-range one-type land and sea attack aircraft (which can fly 2,500 kilometers when carrying bombs or torpedoes) carrying torpedoes to launch a saturation attack, which is still very threatening to the small formation of U.S. ships.

However, this tactic of using large twin-engine aircraft to conduct torpedo attacks basically means rushing to reincarnate the large U.S. Navy formations with strengthened air defenses - the reincarnation rate may not be 100%.

Therefore, the Japanese aircraft on Christmas Island were actually unable to deal with the approaching U.S. fleet. They had to send a large number of "Comet" dive bombers, "Meteor"/"Tianshan" torpedo bombers, Hayate fighters and Zero fighters from the Hawaiian Islands. It is possible to independently resist the main force of the US Pacific Fleet.

"How much is the transfer?" Nanyun Zhongyi asked after thinking for a while.

"It's best to transfer as many as there are!" Ito Zhengichi said, "We should transfer all the 'Comet', 'Meteor', 'Tianshan', 'Hast Wind' and Zero type in the Hawaiian Islands to Christmas Island! About More than 800 aircraft!”

"Ah!?" Tadashi Nagumo was stunned, "What about the Hawaiian Islands? If the Americans target the Hawaiian Islands, how can we defend them?"

Japan has more than 1,000 aircraft of various types on the Hawaiian Islands, but not all of them are high-performance single-engine combat aircraft. There are also many seaplanes, long-range attack aircraft, long-range bombers, and night fighters - because the Hawaiian Islands-Aliu The waters between the Shen Islands are also an important channel for the United States to break diplomatic ties and move its aircraft carriers westward. To intercept and search for U.S. aircraft carriers breaking diplomatic ties, long-range reconnaissance aircraft and attack aircraft are needed. Therefore, the Japanese Navy had to deploy nearly 200 long-range aircraft on the Hawaiian Islands to deal with U.S. aircraft carriers breaking diplomatic ties.

However, it should be mentioned that the exchange ratio of Japan's long-range aircraft when attacking the US aircraft carrier that has broken diplomatic ties is not ideal, because these long-range aircraft attack the US aircraft carrier without escort. Faced with the powerful combat power of F4U and F6F, they often have to pay a high price to sink or severely damage an American aircraft carrier.

After American aircraft carriers have suffered several losses, they often adopt formation penetration tactics. Two or three "independent" class ships are grouped together, and there are usually large aircraft carriers to escort or greet them. They often attack Japan's one-piece land attack. Integrated lighter...

"Isn't there 200,000 troops on the Hawaiian Islands?" Ito smiled and said, "And there are hundreds of large-caliber shore defense artillery, more than 2,000 medium and light guns and hundreds of tanks imported from Germany (mainly (T-34 and KV-1 tanks), and countless fortifications have been built. Even if there are millions of US troops, it is impossible to capture it, so what is there to worry about? "

If the defenses on the Hawaiian Islands were placed on the mainland, the Americans would flood them with a sea of ​​M4 tanks, but the Hawaiian Islands are located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The offensive forces must travel more than 3,000 kilometers by sea to land. Although the United States has amazing industrial capabilities, it currently does not have the ability to send the "sea of ​​M4 tanks" to the beaches of the Hawaiian Islands.

Therefore, there is no other way to seize the Hawaiian Islands. The only way is to use battleships to "pile up firepower" and use powerful naval guns to cover the landing troops and compete with the Japanese army inch by inch.

However, the United States lost too many battleships in large-scale battles such as the Battle of the Hawaiian Islands and the later North Atlantic Night Battle. Now it can only muster 10 battleships in the Pacific, which are difficult to fight against the Japanese shore defense artillery on the Hawaiian Islands, let alone Said to fight against the terrible Yamato.

Therefore, before defeating the Japanese combined fleet, the commander of the US Navy would not consider attacking the Hawaiian Islands as long as he was in his right mind.

However, Chuichi Nagumo still shook his head repeatedly, obviously very hesitant to spare the time for high-performance fighters in the Hawaiian Islands.

Ito set his sights on Navy Minister Yamamoto Isoroku. Although he is now the Navy Minister in charge of military affairs, his reputation as "Military God" is too great. Therefore, whether it is military affairs or military orders, the big idea is Yamamoto. take.

"Deployment!" Yamamoto Isoroku chuckled, "Not only do we need to mobilize aircraft, but we also need to mobilize at least 200 more tanks to Christmas Island. In addition... let Onishi Takijiro go to Christmas Island and serve as the commander of the 10th Fleet to provide unified command. Naval and Army operations in the direction of the Line Islands.

In addition, the Taiho aircraft carrier immediately completed its sea trials and joined the combined fleet. The aircraft carriers Kaga and Akagi must complete all projects before October 15th, join the First Mobile Fleet and participate in the Christmas Island Operation, striving to defeat the invading U.S. Pacific Fleet in one fell swoop! "