At 16:35, led by the launch of the Nagato 410mm main gun, the artillery formation carried out an unprecedented shelling of the canal zone at a distance of about 18,000 meters, and before that, several 203mm shore defense turrets of the US army had been destroyed. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info At the same time as the shelling, the attack aircraft group made a massive sortie, opening full fire on the beachhead and fortifications. Although the momentum and the scene were huge, Horikichi knew that the U.S. troops were already prepared, and now they could only destroy shore fortifications, airfields, and some forward positions at most, and if the casualties inflicted on the enemy could exceed 1,000, it would be considered a major result. After the air raid is over, the US ground forces will still wait for themselves in depth -- there is a place where naval artillery cannot hit them.

As for the Panamanian locks, he did not believe that they could be completely destroyed by carrier-based bombing -- it was not enough for such a key hub to be paralyzed for only 3-6 months, and the Americans would be able to repair it very quickly, and they were not at all sorry for their own hard work.

Of course, this is only his consideration from his own standpoint, and it is completely different from the US military: after the Pearl Harbor incident, the US military has been fighting wars for nearly a year and a half, although it has not fought much with the German army, but it has been many bloody battles with the Japanese army in the Pacific theater, and there has never been a moment of embarrassment when they were bombed and unable to fight back. Not to mention stubborn resistance on the beachhead, even to dodge shells in the rear line of defense.

Had it not been for Lieutenant General Roth's wise decision to retreat from the enemy, knowing that his troops were untested, the troops would have collapsed. But even so, the large-caliber naval artillery shells that rained down still hit him painfully, and the telegram for help was sent to Washington like snowflakes, which made Marshall and Admiral King sigh again and again, but they could not easily order a retreat, once such an order was given, the Panama campaign would really be irreversible. They could only keep cheering Ross up and asking him to resist: on the one hand, he was relieved that the Axis fleet could not land, and that his troops would be fine as long as they were far away; On the other hand, he told him that he had mobilized hundreds of planes for the Nicaraguan air base, that there would be enough planes to cover him early tomorrow morning, and that there would be planes on the third and fourth days, and that he would be backed up by a steady stream of reinforcements from the mainland.

Today's battle loss rate of up to 60 percent is really appalling, and they will not frown at all if they are asked to mobilize 1,000 planes, but the pilots are not cabbage after all, and most of the most combat-effective pilots of the US Army Aviation are in Britain, while most of the most combat-effective units of the Navy (land-based) are in the Far East, and there are not many pilots in China who can undertake long-distance searches, long-distance flights, and battles, except for flight instructors and carrier-based pilots. Today's more than 80 pilots (groups) have been transferred from the seven state air bases on the south side of the East Coast, but they still have to continue to fill this flesh mill, and tomorrow they are going to draw pilots from 11 states in the northeast of the East Coast -- Ingersoll reported that it will take at least three days for him to arrive in Panama, and everyone has no expectations about keeping the canal, and the greatest motivation for the Joint Chiefs of Staff to hold on is to annihilate the main force of the Axis Fleet.

After nightfall, Commander Tari's Horikichi looked at the map blankly, and the whole person fell into deep thought, and it was the first time that Kusaka had seen him in such a dilemma, and his expression was greatly nervous.

"Have the pilots been rescued?"

"Everything that can be found has been rescued, the comet that attacked last night rescued a total of 4 crews, and the zero battle of today's daytime battle saved a total of 5 people...... "Cao Lu Yi reported, "The pilots who were rescued are fine, and they can go into battle after a night's rest." There must have been a few pilots (groups) who parachuted into the hands of the US military after parachuting in last night's attack, but most of the pilots who were not found in the air battle this afternoon were missing. ”

On the vast sea, the disappearance is a euphemism for the dead, Horikichi sighed, this is already the best outcome: like the afternoon air battle, a total of 8 planes were shot down, the result was only 3 pilots, the US military losses far exceeded their own, although the casualties of last night's attack were a bit large, but from a tactical point of view it was completely worth it - if Panama's airfield was not paralyzed, there would be more planes today.

The overall casualties are still within the tolerable range, but how to fight him in the next battle is difficult, and he received two messages 15 minutes ago:

The first was sent by the landing force, reporting that due to the speed of the landing vessel, the first wave of landings could not begin until 4:30 a.m. tomorrow at the earliest, and it would take at least five hours to complete the landing. The report found that a large number of planes had landed at the US military airfield in Nicaragua, which was about 635 kilometers away from the Panama Canal Zone, and the specific defense situation of the airport was unknown.

Based on these two pieces of news, there were several paths in front of him, but he couldn't find the best option after thinking about it, so he fell into deep distress:

The first way is to let the mobile fleet approach Nicaragua tonight and launch a night attack on the US airfield, striving to paralyze the airfield for 6-8 hours, but Tsukahara 243 strongly opposed, believing that the pilot losses in the implementation of this plan will exceed a quarter or even reach a third, for two reasons: one is that a night attack on the Panama Canal Zone was carried out last night, and the enemy must have been prepared for the same tactics, which increased the difficulty of the surprise attack; Second, the Panama Canal Zone is at least a world-renowned landmark, the relevant situation is public, and there are also photos for reference, and the night raiding troops can better grasp the direction and objectives, but now they are completely blind to the rest of the situation, except for the general knowledge of the location of the US military base in Nicaragua, and the air raid effect will certainly not be good. Horikichi can't afford a quarter of the loss, let alone a third, so the road doesn't work.

Tsukahara proposed a second way, not to carry out night raids, the landing force to land normally, and let the artillery fleet withstand another round of air raids tomorrow morning, but a staff officer immediately questioned: What if the US bombers do not come to the air attack fleet and specifically attack the landing force? And this is almost impossible to circumvent, the light air attack on the beachhead landing force is still second, what if the spearhead is aimed at the transport fleet? Today, the transport fleet is far away, and the US military has not found it, and tomorrow morning it will be on the beachhead, and if you don't see it again, you will be blind. So the road was shelved by Horikichi.

A staff officer proposed a third way: Taking advantage of the current firepower advantage of the shelling fleet, it is enough to secretly send dozens of sappers up at night to blow up the locks, and then the fleet will withdraw overnight, so that there is no need to risk landing or exposing the fleet to the US air raid the next day. However, most of the staff officers objected, saying that the US military has stationed tens of thousands of troops in the Canal Zone, and the locks are the most important thing, and although they are temporarily retreating, it does not mean that the US forces have completely abandoned combat and defense, and it is impossible for a few dozen engineers to infiltrate them alone. Take 10,000 steps back and say, even if it infiltrates? Dozens of sappers can carry hundreds of kilograms of explosives in the sky, which is simply not enough to deal with canals and locks.

The German generals, led by Marshall, proposed a fourth way: find two random ships to sink in the canal, bombard the locks and the canal area with naval guns, use up at least half of the ammunition, and then withdraw overnight. Horikichi knew that this was the easiest option to succeed in, and that if done properly, it could paralyze the canal for at least 9-12 months. But he didn't want to let the Americans go so easily, and he was going to paralyze the canal for two or even three years -- to make the Americans think that there was no way to repair the canal before the war ended.

He raised his head, showed a bitter smile, and said to Kusaka, "Now that I finally understand Yamamoto-kun's difficulty in facing Midway, why not Panama now?" ”

Caolu Yi comforted him: "Sir, don't put so much pressure on yourself, we can fight the first time in Panama, and we can fight the second time in the future......"

"There's no second chance!" Horikichi shook his head, pointed to a circle of islands around the Caribbean Sea and sighed, "Now the Americans only have airports in Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and Panama, and then we were caught off guard by two in a row, I bet you that if you come back next year, all the islands here will have American planes and troops - in the future, the Caribbean Sea will be a big cage, you can't get in or out." ”

The metaphor of the "cage" is so vivid that even the grass deer frowns - given the astonishing pace of construction shown by the Americans on Kuah Island, he has to admit that this concern is real - how close the Caribbean Sea is to the mainland of the United States!

After pondering for three minutes, Horikichi suddenly made a decision: "Send a telegram to General Marchar and the German Marine Brigade asking if tomorrow the landing force needs to bear half of the casualties to complete the mission, will it be accepted?" I then sent a telegram to Tsukahara, and I was going to consider the second option, asking him what strategy he had to do to reduce the damage from the air raids. ”

"This ......," Grass Deer was taken aback, "Sir, are you not thinking about it anymore?" ”

Horikichi looked at the wall clock: "There is not so much time, I have to make a decision as soon as possible, hesitation will only lead to greater losses." ”

Three minutes later, Machar's call back came: "Acceptable if necessary." ”

Five minutes later, a telegram from the Marine Brigade came: "This brigade will fight to the last man to complete the mission!" ”

Fifteen minutes later, a telegram from Tsukahara 243 came: "There is a strategy, if the enemy planes attack the wave within 120 planes, they can ensure the air supremacy of the landing, but the shelling fleet needs to share part of the risk, and it may lose 1-2 capital ships." ”

In the evening, everyone was waiting for the final order to be issued. Is it waiting? Is it running? The shelling of the Canal Zone gradually eased up, and only a few heavy cruisers still fired a few guns from time to time.

At 10:15, all combat units received an order: carry out case B! Landing operation, storm the Canal Zone! (To be continued.) )