The Rise of the Third Reich

"Sank or damaging at least 50 U.S. transport ships and landing ships of various types! Shooting down more than 100 enemy planes is a great victory..."

"The aviation force is indeed amazing!"

"A lot of American ghosts must have drowned by now, right?"

"It looks like we can completely annihilate the U.S. Pacific Fleet this time!"

Hawaii time, September 26, 1943, at 3:22 pm, the first attack wave sent by the Japanese army on Christmas Island sent back a preliminary battle report. The battle report only contains results, not losses.

Of course, the results were great. More than 30 American ships were sunk or damaged (actually there were 31 ships, 13 of which were T2 tankers and 5 were escort aircraft carriers), and more than 100 American aircraft were shot down (actually there were only 53. American plane was shot down). However, the expressions of Commander Onishi Takijiro and Chief of Staff Kameto Kuroshima of the 10th Front Fleet were unusually solemn.

Because they also know how large the US fleet is!

"There are still hundreds of ships!" Kurojima Kameto whispered to Onishi Takijiro, "and the main ships have not been damaged. The Americans will continue to approach Christmas Island. Even if they cannot launch a landing, they will use battleships The naval guns razed Christmas Island to the ground.”

Japan's current construction capabilities cannot be compared with those of the United States. Japan does not have any mechanized construction equipment, so it is not easy to build infrastructure on Christmas Island, which is more than 4,000 nautical miles away from the mainland. If the Americans were to flatten it with a cannon, it would take at least several months to build again.

"And the underground oil depots on Christmas Island can't withstand the bombardment of battleship cannons!" Kuroshima Turtle Man then raised a question that gave Onishi Takijiro a headache and a frightening situation.

In order to fight the U.S. military on Christmas Island, the Japanese built a large underground oil depot, storing tens of thousands of tons of precious aviation gasoline and various engine oils. Aircrafts are also oil tigers. The most fuel-efficient Zero 21 In theory, one hour of horizontal flight requires about 35 gallons (imperial) of fuel, which is 116.3 kilograms. For a sortie, a Zero aircraft consumes at least nearly 600 kilograms of gasoline. There are now thousands of planes on Christmas Island, so you can imagine how much fuel they consume. That's why the Japanese army built an oil depot on Christmas Island to store so much gasoline. If the American artillery were to blow up, Onishi Takijiro would be so distressed that he would not be able to eat for weeks.

"Commander, give the First Mobile Fleet power and let them attack the U.S. fleet aircraft carrier with all their strength," the Black Island Turtle thought for a while and suggested.

Now that the first attack wave sent by Christmas Island has been completed, the anti-ship firepower of the second attack wave is mainly torpedoes. There are only a small number of dive bombers carrying armor-piercing bombs, which are used to create chaos and cover the torpedo planes to attack the damaged United States. Of a ship. If they are allowed to change their targets and attack the main formation of the US military with strong anti-aircraft firepower, their lives will definitely be in vain. So Hei Dao thought of the First Mobile Fleet.

"Okay, let's generate electricity for the First Mobile Fleet." Onishi Takijiro nodded. Now is not the time to consider face. The "unsinkable aircraft carrier" on Christmas Island must not go into trouble, otherwise Japan will be short of hundreds of aircraft. (It is estimated that there are no more than 1,000 of them now) Based on the shore, the battle below will be difficult to fight.

…

"Sir, the fire is getting bigger and bigger. It seems that the 13 T2 tankers are finished."

"Dispose of it!"

Just when Onishi Takijiro was heartbroken over the possible loss of tens of thousands of tons of gasoline, his opponent Spruance ordered the "punishment" of 13 ships carrying nearly 200,000 tons of various oils without blinking an eyelid. T2 tanker!

"There are still 17 ships. If all are lost, our second phase of operations may..." Rear Admiral Browning reminded with some worry.

One T2 can hold 16,000 tons of oil, and 30 T2s can hold a total of 480,000 tons of oil. These oils can be used by the 58th Task Force at sea for up to 30 days. If all T2s are lost, Spruance's fleet will have no choice but to return home early.

"Give the Pacific Fleet Command power and ask them to quickly organize an oil fleet to support them," Spruance said calmly. "First send 30 oil tankers out to sea."

This is another 480,000 tons of oil! If you count the fuel carried by each ship itself and the oil used in a maritime refueling a few days ago. Spruance's trip almost burned up the Japanese Navy's fuel usage quota for more than half a year!

And this generous "oil-burning war" is just the beginning!

By mid-1944, the size of the Pacific Fleet would be more than double its current size. At that time, the two "58th Task Force" will take turns to "burn" Japan alive with oil!

At the same time, there will be at least 4 aircraft carrier cracking formations and 200 submarines operating in the Western Pacific and Southeast Asian islands.

In short, the current approach of the Americans is to use their own resources to hurt others... Instead of fighting a war of annihilation, they will fight a war of attrition, consuming little Japan alive and bringing it down.

"Sir, the radar has detected enemy planes. The defense level is 280, the altitude is 5000, the number exceeds 200, and the distance is 120..."

Just as the U.S. destroyer launched torpedoes at the oil tanker shrouded in fire, the fleet staff once again reported the radar detection of the Japanese attack group.

"It's the second attack wave on Christmas Island." Major General Browning frowned and said, "It seems that the scale will not be smaller than the first attack wave. There may be thousands of planes on Christmas Island!"

"There will be none soon." Spruance now looked a little proud, because in the just-concluded sea-air battle, the losses of American carrier-based aircraft were completely within his acceptable range.

Only 63 F4Us and F6Fs were lost in total (53 were shot down by Japanese aircraft, 8 were accidentally hit by own artillery fire, and 2 were damaged during landing). Because the fighting airspace was over our own fleet, the number of pilots killed and missing was only 44. This number is still declining, and the final loss is estimated to be no more than 30.

Moreover, Americans are now very familiar with the tactics of Japanese naval aviation, which is usually a "two-wave flow". The first wave is dominated by bombers (dive bombers and torpedo planes with bombs), and the second wave is dominated by torpedo planes. .....And torpedo planes are much easier to deal with than dive bombers! Therefore, as long as the Japanese attack the first wave, the gains in the second wave of operations will be greater.

If the current situation continues, the Battle of Christmas Island will drain the blood of Japanese pilots!

…

"Baga, how is this possible!?"

The person who made this exclamation was Commander-in-Chief of the second attack wave dispatched from Christmas Island, Lieutenant Commander Katsumi Masaru.

The scene that made him exclaim was the American F6F and F4U fighter jets that filled the sky!

The two attack waves launched from Christmas Island were carefully planned. The first attack wave and the second attack wave were very closely connected and would not give the U.S. carrier-based aircraft time to land on the ship to refuel and add ammunition before taking off.

Therefore, Lieutenant Commander Nanmi was very surprised when he saw the densely packed American fighter jets in the sky - according to the normal aircraft carrier aircraft configuration standards, fighter jets accounted for 40% of the sky. Just now, the first attack wave reported encountering at least 500 fighter jets, and now it seems that there are still 500 fighter jets here.

So how many carrier-based aircraft are there in the invading US fleet? 2,500? How many aircraft carriers should be used to carry this?

However, he was surprised. Lieutenant Commander Nan Mei showed no intention of being timid and immediately assigned an attack mission. Like Takahashi Kazuichi before him, Nanmi also ordered the escorting Hayate and Zero to block the enemy fighters, while the dive bombers and torpedo bombers pounced on the escort aircraft carriers and various transport ships that were burning and smoking.

A fierce battle ensued in the air, although the Hayate fighter jets and Zero 52 fighter jets were not as good as their opponents in terms of overall performance and were also at a disadvantage in terms of numbers. But judging from the air combat scenes between the two sides, the Japanese fighter planes were not far behind.

This is because most of the Japanese pilots participating in the battle today are elites trained before the war. Most of them have participated in actual combat and have very rich experience. There are too many novice pilots in the United States. Although everyone has flown at least thousands of hours and is extremely skilled, their combat experience is still lacking.

However, as the fighting between the two sides continued, Japanese fighter pilots still found it difficult to cope. Their relatively rich combat experience can make up for the difference in aircraft performance, but American aircraft also have a numerical advantage.

This time the Americans assigned more fighters to fight against the Japanese fighters, and their numerical advantage increased to 2 times. In other words, every Japanese fighter plane has to fight against an American two-plane formation, and the result is that one after another will fall down.

It seems that today is the day when the Japanese airmen become gods again!

However, Lieutenant Commander Nanmi did not wait for the fighter jets to fight to determine the outcome before leading the torpedo bombers and dive bombers to attack. In that case, he would most likely have to escape in despair with the torpedo bombers and bombers.

Just as the fighters on both sides were fighting to the death, he made a decisive decision and led the "Comet" dive bomber, "Meteor" torpedo bomber and "Tianshan" torpedo bomber to launch a dive attack.

Regardless of whether the American aircraft came down from high altitude to block it or came up from low altitude to attack the nose of the aircraft, the Japanese torpedo bombers and dive bombers kept charging with their heads covered.

After paying the price of more than thirty aircraft being shot down, they finally broke into the dense fire net set by American surface ships.

This time the Japanese attack fleet launched a desperate attack on the sea where the US aircraft carrier fleet was concentrated! Although the Americans' anti-aircraft firepower was very intensive, they still could not stop the charging Japanese planes. The losses of the American aircraft carrier soon appeared!

At 4:05 p.m., with a loud "bang", an 800-kilogram aviation torpedo dropped by a "Meteor" torpedo bomber penetrated the port side of the escort aircraft carrier USS Brayton, exploding a huge breach, and the sea water suddenly surged. Come in!