Can't the United States make a reconnaissance plane similar to Caiyun? Of course not, the American aviation industry is much more developed than Japan, as long as there are drawings, you can imitate one the next day, but the United States has a problem in the concept of aircraft design, due to the strong engine manufacturing strength, so that designers generally design the aircraft too heavy, one-sided superstition "as long as the engine horsepower is strong, the bricks can also fly into the sky" truth, never optimize the range, aerodynamic performance, A single-seat F4U has an empty weight of more than 5.6 tons, while the three-seat Caiyun is less than 5.55 tons when fully loaded (with 2.1 tons of oil) (the German modified version is a little larger than the original Japanese design, so it weighs more than 300 kilograms, and the range is correspondingly reduced by more than 400 kilometers). Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In this way, the fully loaded Caiyun is lighter than the F4U, and the anti-strike performance is certainly not as good as the F4U, but what does a reconnaissance plane do with such good anti-strike performance? Flying far and fast is the true meaning of a reconnaissance plane! Such a heavy F4U also limits its own take-off and landing capabilities, and the Casablanca class can only barely take off and land F6F, and all F4U are rejected (the F4U take-off and landing performance is not good). Therefore, knowing that the F4U is better as a fighter than the F6F, the Navy has to use more F6Fs - without the Essex class, the F4U cannot fly at all, but now the Essex class is insufficient.

Therefore, the same strategy of using fleet aircraft carriers with escort aircraft carriers, the US military cannot make the Essex class fully attack mechanized, and must arrange a batch of F4U, which invisibly weakens the advantage of this tactic, and now Halsey has a total of 36 F4U in the 2 Essex class, and the remaining 148 are all BTD, but this leads to the proportion of attack aircraft is too low (only one-third of the whole fleet), and the Casablanca class must also carry some SBDs - The SBD, which weighs only 3 tons empty, can take off with 1,000 pounds of bombs on the Casablanca class.

This situation made the fleet commander very troubled, because the speed of the SBD was too slow, the maximum speed was more than 400 km / h, and the forced configuration would drag down the speed of the entire formation, so it was usually divided into two waves of attack, the SBD took off first, and the BTD flew later, so McCain thought that if Halsey wanted to send more waves, many people would fall into the sea.

Grumman is also fully aware of the problem of overweight, F6F after the next generation of development of F7F \ F8F two new models, F7F was originally used with the Midway-class aircraft carrier, and now the Midway class is still locked in the safe of the Naval Construction Committee, I don't know when it will see the light of day, so the F7F design project is basically launched, focusing on the F8F, trying to use this model to regain Grumman's absolute superiority in the field of carrier-based fighters.

Compared to the F6F, the F8F designers can learn well, and they use the captured Bf-219 and He-218 to inspire ideas. That's right, now it's the turn of American designers to turn their heads and learn from the successful experience of Japan and Germany. Originally, the American sarcastic Zero was a dozen crispy, after being improved by Germany, it was still brittle according to American standards, but at least the phenomenon of a dozen was gone, and after the use of Do-412 and Bf-319, Japan and Germany once again gained the upper hand in the field of carrier-based fighters and overwhelmed the F6F, knowing that the F4U was on a ship to be on par with Japan and Germany, the problem is that all Japanese and German fighters can take off from escort carriers, and the scope of application is much wider and more numerous than the US F4U.

Moreover, although the weight and defensive strength of the F4U can better protect American pilots in the face of anti-aircraft fire, in the face of Japanese and German fighters using rotating MG213 cannons, even B-29\B-17 can't parry, let alone a mere fighter? There is no way out by blindly strengthening the thickness and improving the defense, only by strengthening the overall performance can there be an advantage.

Therefore, the F8F began to take the road of lightweight, and the empty weight of the whole machine was controlled at 3.2 tons, which was almost 1 ton lighter than the previous generation F6F! The engine horsepower is more powerful, directly on the 2200 horsepower engine of the R-2800, the designer believes that even if the auxiliary fuel tank can be hung on the Casablanca-class deck, it can take off on the Casablanca-class deck, and at the same time, in response to the pilot's complaint about the defect of the lack of firepower of his aircraft, he began to launch a new version with 4 20mm cannons, and it is too late to redesign the cannon.

Just looking at the data on paper, we knew that this was a good plane, and the Navy couldn't wait to sign a contract with Grumman, hoping to get the new aircraft as soon as possible and name it "Panda" according to convention, but Grumman said that the time was very short, and it could only be finalized and mass-produced in March 1945, and mass delivery could be achieved in June. Fortunately, the F4U can still hold up for a while, and the naval authorities also agreed, only canceling the F6F-5 orders after March and all of them were converted to F8F, as for the F7F, the Navy did not mention a word, pretending not to know that there was such a thing.

The necessary compensation will still be given to Grumman, someone reminded Grumman to develop a two-seat reconnaissance aircraft on the basis of the F8F, most of the parts should be common to the combat type, it should be able to carry radar, and the range should be no less than 3500 kilometers (when hanging auxiliary fuel tanks), Grumman promised with a mouth - who would be afraid of too many orders?

So until now, Halsey has only relied on F4U-P to carry out reconnaissance, and the results of the reconnaissance reported to him remain the same every day - no enemy information has been discovered! Fortunately, the Japanese fleet did not send an attack group against him in the past two days, which made Halsey believe that the Japanese army was still far away from him, and he could only "see it but not hit himself", which made him feel somewhat relieved.

Faced with the new reconnaissance situation, Chiaki Matsuda laughed: "Sir, the commander of the US army is very cautious, only adjusted the course, slightly accelerated the speed, and did not rashly organize rapid troops to press over, your strategy of luring the enemy was not successful!" ”

Horikichi said lightly: "If you can't make a plan, you can only use another plan, and organize a bait formation to connect with Kakuda." ”

"Really? This has become the initiative of our army to divide troops. ”

"Yes, there is no other way to lure the other party into taking the bait." Horiyoshi explained, "With so many enemy aircraft carriers mixed together, the losses of our army will not be small if they attack rashly, and it is more beneficial for us to lure them into dividing their forces to catch up!" ”

"What if the enemy doesn't eat the bait and focuses on chasing us after the division of our forces?"

"No, after the division of troops, we can run 29 knots at the earliest, unless the Americans send out a fast formation, they can't catch up with us, if they really sort, I still have confidence in using 2 Yunlong-class + 1 Chitose-class against 2 Essex-class......"

Chiaki Matsuda subconsciously sighed: "It's nothing else, I just feel that the warships acting as bait fleets are weaker, and they will not be the opponents of the US fast column......"

Horikiyoshi, who had his back to Chiaki Matsuda, had a sad face, but when he turned around, his expression was firm, and he didn't show the slightest hesitation: "I have no other way but to sacrifice them in order to win, I hope everyone will take care of them, and in the future, under the nine springs, I will make amends with them one by one." ”

At 9 a.m. on October 29, Horikichi issued three orders in a row:

1. Xinxiang Yingcheng Zhongzuo led 29 elite crews to implement cross-platform tactics and reinforce the Tsunoda fleet more than 1,300 kilometers away;

2. After vacating the deck, replenish all aircraft on the aircraft carrier to the combat sequence;

3. The fleet was temporarily reorganized, the entire fleet was divided into two, the three-air war system was temporarily abolished, and the three regular aircraft carriers Katsuragi, Kasaki, and Chitose were organized together into five air battles, and the rest of the warships that looked like aircraft carriers, including the escort aircraft carrier Goshawk, four escort aircraft carriers, two aircraft transports, and some destroyers and torpedo boats formed a decoy fleet, and Rear Admiral Hero Yano led the team to carry out the task of luring the enemy.

Yano Hero is a naval soldier in the 43rd period, originally a diplomatic negotiation attaché of the naval arms treaty, counted as a treaty cadre, knows staff business, served as the captain of the Nagato during the Battle of Pearl Harbor, and has an average level of aviation combat command, but his navigation ability is very strong, and Hori believes that he can complete the task of luring the enemy.

"Yano-kun, your mission is two, the decoy fleet looks like there are a total of 7 aircraft carriers, disguised as the main force of our army, to attract the enemy to take the bait: if the enemy is hooked, use the air defense fighter to weaken the enemy's combat effectiveness as much as possible and close the distance with the enemy; If the enemy does not take the bait, fuel supplies will be provided for the second air battle...... If it is the latter, then accept the command of the Second Air Battle! Horiyoshi explained, "Your aircraft carrier is currently equipped with all air defense fighters, and if you find an enemy attack group, you can repel it, and you can keep as many as you can." ”

"The department understands!"

Horikichi bowed deeply to him: "Tell the officers and soldiers of the ships, I, Horikiyoshi, am sorry for them, if the warship is lost, it will be lost, and there are still in the country, I hope they will take care as much as possible, never sacrifice lightly, and wait for me to come back and rescue them after the fight." Those who unfortunately died in battle, under the Nine Springs in the future, I will apologize and explain them one by one. ”

"The sir's words are serious, as an imperial soldier, I have long had the consciousness of dying on the battlefield, and it is the supreme honor of my generation to serve the commander!" Hero Yano bowed and saluted, "I will lead the whole army to complete the task, and I will be crushed and killed!" ”

At 9:20, 29 planes left 3 regular aircraft carriers for the Tsunoda fleet;

At 9:57, 27 planes were extracted from the transport ship and replenished for the Fifth Air Battle;

At 10:35, the decoy fleet parted ways with the Fifth Voyage Battle, taking a 45-degree course and heading straight for the Tsunoda Fleet, the Fifth Voyage still maintained a 0-degree course, the speed increased, and the overall speed increased to 21 knots.

With the reinforcement of 29 aircraft from Tsunoda, the total number of aircraft owned by Horikiyoshi's fleet dropped to 237: 68 on the decoy fleet and 169 on the three regular aircraft carriers.

When the two fleets separated, all the warships that joined the decoy fleet brushed up on the flag: "Let's go first!" I wish the chief a long martial arts! Combined Fleet onboard! ”

Standing on the deck, Horikichi stood for a long time and waved goodbye......