Intuition told Spruance that it was strange for the Japanese to fight Panama at this time, but they couldn't be unguarded, and considering that it was not easy for Nimitz and MacArthur to stay up for a day and a night, he proposed that he and Clark be in charge tonight. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info Now everyone basically understands that the Navy in the Joint Chiefs of Staff is a combination of Nimitz + Spruance, the Army is a combination of MacArthur + Clark, and then Arnold. Although there are still some people who have the name of members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they are actually useless.

After discussion, Nimitz and MacArthur decided that this would be fine, that the war was still long, and that rotation was indeed needed. Considering that Spruance's injury had not yet healed, and the weather in Washington had begun to cool down in mid-October, Nimitz kindly asked Spruance to have a duck down sleeping bag ready for Spruance.

The last reported position of the Panamanian defenders before the sun set was that the main Japanese fleet was about 950 kilometers from Panama.

In the evening, the main forces of the Combined Fleet continued to advance towards Panama, and the ships were ready to attack.

Tsukahara began to give orders: "Tell Fuchida that since it is a feint tonight, he will not go in person, and give the young man more opportunities; In addition, the commanders of the leading forces should take a good look at the troops, not only to give young people the opportunity to exercise, but also to bring back a lot of people to me! ”

"Hello!"

At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the chief captain of the Combined Fleet Mobile Force was Mitsuo Fuchida of the 52nd Marine Unit, and the captains of each flight team were Koichi Takahashi and Joe Hashiguchi of the 56th Phase, Shigekazu Shimazaki of the 57th Phase, Shigeru Itaya, Takashi Ekusa, and Shigeharu Murata of the 58th Showa of South America.

At this time, the flight captains of the main mobile forces were a small number of 56 periods, with 57 and 58 periods, and a few 60 periods, an increased part of 61-64 periods, plus a small number of 65 and 66 periods, served as the captains of each detachment. According to the rotation pattern between the aircraft carrier-land-based and training flight teams of the Combined Fleet, the commanders of the troops should be rotated by the second half of 1942, so in the South Pacific naval battle, Hori Tsukichi was the flight captain of a small number of periods 58 and 59 (Murata Shigeji, Sekie and Shingo Hideshiro) plus the main period 61-63 as the captain, supplemented by the detachment leader of the 66-67 period. The older qualifications of Kakahashi Heichi, Shigekazu Shimazaki, Namin Masa, and Shigeru Itatani all led troops on the land base and did not participate in the battle.

However, the situation changed dramatically when Horikichi expressed dissatisfaction with the 1-2 year rotation and promotion system between air-carrier-land-based training aviation units based on the number of naval units and hammock numbers, believing that this was not enough to ensure the strongest commander for the mobile unit in a fierce war of attrition.

This chain of command does ensure that in peacetime, as far as possible in the relatively limited size and command positions of the Navy, there are sufficient opportunities for promotion for young officers. However, as the size of naval aviation has expanded, it has become anachronistic to insist on a system of annual rotation. In particular, the losses after the three major battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, and the South Pacific completely overstretched the graduates of the naval academy trained under the elite military policy.

What is even more ironic is that according to the promotion system, senior flight captains must leave their front-line command posts to serve as staff officers after reaching a certain number of years, and they will not be promoted in the flight team.

Although this practice ensures the quality of the staff officers, it greatly weakens the quality of the flight team -- on the one hand, the flight backbone passes through the operation, and on the other hand, the flight backbone is transferred to the warship to serve as staff officers, which is tantamount to making the flight unit face double blood loss.

Horikichi made two adjustments within his terms of reference: first, to concentrate all the best pilots as possible into the carrier-based team, and even at the expense of weakening the land-based pilots, such as Saburo Sakai and other outstanding land-based pilots were recruited to become carrier-based pilots, and the vacant land-based ones were filled by the army; Second, sending some outstanding pilots to the reserve training team and training new personnel on a regular basis has been maintained, while the land-based team allows newcomers to practice, which is tantamount to treating the land-based as a reserve training team for carrier-based pilots.

As a result of the readjustment, all Japanese naval pilots will follow the promotion system of training teams, land-based teams, and carrier-based teams, and ensure the level of carrier-based pilots by weakening the land-based teams.

As for the third adjustment, Hori has been calling for it since his return from Europe, but it has not been effective: to break the rigid system of officer promotion, and not only to prepare for the appointment of graduates of aviation schools who are not graduates of the navy, but also to make it clear that only fleet or staff posts can be promoted to senior ranks. Both of these were firmly opposed by King Hirohiroshi Fushimi, who saw this as a corner of the fleet faction, and he stubbornly insisted on the idea that no officer should be an officer unless he graduated from the navy, and he could not be an officer unless he was a commander of the fleet or a staff officer.

This stubborn style was finally crushed under the tiger tracks: Horiyoshi advocated military merit first, not only let aviation school graduates become officers, but also began to promote generals in the flight team, before Tsukahara led the team to go out, Fuchida Mitsuo was exceptionally promoted to major general as the commander of the mobile unit (the first major general in the 52nd period), and the promotion speed was even higher than that of Minoru Genda in the same period and his combat achievements were also not small (of course, Minoru Genda also got a hint that as long as this campaign is successful, he can also be promoted to general in the spring of next year), in addition to Fuchida Mitsuo as a general, A group of flight captains were promoted to military ranks, and senior lieutenants such as Takashi Ekusa and Shigeharu Murata were all promoted to Dazuo, and they were only one step away from the generals.

In the carrier-based flight team, Horikichi tried every means to build a second command echelon (or reserve echelon), that is, under the general captain, four major flight teams were set up: ship battle, ship attack, ship explosion, and ship reconnaissance (including water reconnaissance), and then set up a flight team, and at the same time broke the subordination of the flight team to the aircraft carrier, the pilots only belonged to the flight team, and the flight team only belonged to the air team, and all pilots should be familiar with each aircraft carrier in order to take off and land, in case in case of combat because the original garrison aircraft carrier was sunk, they would not be at a loss after returning from the attack.

For example, Shigekazu Shimazaki was the commander of the second attack wave in the Battle of Pearl Harbor, and this time he was appointed as the deputy commander (Fuchida's reserve) with the rank of Osa, and there are reserve commanders such as the shipburst under the command of Takashi Egusa and the shipattack under the supervision of Shigeharu Murata. Therefore, this feint attack was commanded by the reserve, with the only exception being the ship battle, and the ostensibly older Itaya Shigeru (the chief of the 58th phase of the navy) was the captain, and Akamatsu Sadaaki was his reserve, and the latter should go. However, in fact, because Shigeru Itaya had stayed in China before the naval battle in the South Pacific, and was one of the few flight captains who had not traveled to Europe, and now his new combat experience and proficiency in leading the team were not as good as Akamatsu Sadaaki, so the ship combat detachment was led by him, and the rest was led by Akamatsu Sadaaki to be in charge of the fleet's direct cover.

The feint attack on Panama is a strategy set by Tsukahara, which not only has the effect of echoing back and forth and confusing the sight of the US military, but also has the significance of live-fire training. After the reorganization of the mobile fleet in June, the main force was divided into one-third of the novices (who had only been trained and had not even participated in a single actual battle), and considering that the pressure of the battles of Midway and Christmas Island was not great, Tsukahara was determined to let some of the old birds take these novices to Panama to find out the situation, especially to fly a night raid on the field -- after all, training and actual combat are not the same.

According to Mitsuo Fuchida's arrangement, the ships that were dispatched this time did not carry offensive weapons, but only enough fuel tanks and self-defense firepower bullets, and rushed forward in a large formation of about 180 planes as a whole, first carrying out actual combat at night, then carrying out actual combat at low altitudes and skimming the sea, and finally returning home after teasing the US troops.

If this kind of extravagant actual combat drill had been placed in the previous Combined Fleet, it would have been scolded as a loser, but now Tsukahara has figured it out, anyway, the fuel is supplied by Germany, no money, no white or burned, where to find such a good training opportunity.

At about 1 o'clock in the morning, about 700 kilometers away from Panama, all the training groups participating in the actual combat took off and flew towards Panama.

Although the novices were in a hurry at first, they finally adapted to the rhythm and atmosphere, and played more to the level, one by one following the lead plane to reduce the altitude of the plane to a height of only more than 30 meters above the sea surface, and the auxiliary fuel tanks were regarded by them as torpedoes and bombs.

At 2:30 a.m., the entire formation arrived only 130 kilometers from Panama, and Shigekazu Shimazaki issued an order through a headset: "Attention formations, attention to formations, prepare to climb, prepare to climb, altitude 2500 meters!" Double the gap after climbing! ”

Two minutes later, the alarm sounded at the Panamanian radar station, and the radar soldier looked at the large ball of light that suddenly appeared on the screen and hurriedly reported: "A group of enemy planes has been discovered, with an altitude of 1,800 meters, a course of 35 degrees, a speed of about 400 kilometers, and an estimated number of 200 aircraft!" ”

"It's finally here!" Major General Peterson, the red-eyed and lethargic commander of the Army Aviation, roared, "According to the No. 1 plan, attack!" ”

In order to prevent a surprise attack, Peterson not only arranged for more than 80 night fighters with radars, but also put a large number of planes on standby, ready to take off at any time, in case they were blown up by enemy forces on hangars and runways.

The U.S. military responded quickly, and the first plane took off half a minute later, followed by a large group of Hula planes.

But then it was discovered that the situation was wrong, and after flying for more than 10 minutes, the Japanese plane group began to change its course to 160 degrees, that is, to the south of Panama, and gradually broke away from the tracking of the US radar. This made Peterson a little puzzled, but he still did not dare to slack off, and while ordering the planes to patrol over Panama, he asked the night fighters to come out to see if they could effectively intercept them.

At 3:24 a.m., another radar station reported that the group had appeared east of Panama and was now starting to pounce again, and Peterson, who was so angry, could only pull the fighter group back. Before his plane could reach the designated position, the Japanese group in the east flew north again, and then continued to disappear from the radar screen......

From more than 2 o'clock to more than 4 o'clock, the Japanese army flew a whole circle around Panama by virtue of the advantage of auxiliary fuel tanks, and when it was close to Panama only 75 kilometers away, it never broke in again, but adjusted its direction and left.

After a night of uproar, nothing was caught except searchlights and anti-aircraft artillery units nervously pouring thousands of rounds of ammunition into the air, and the Japanese planes finally patted their butts and left, of course, they did not achieve any results -- to be precise, there were no active results, there were still passive, four US planes crashed into each other during the night, and at the same time, they lost nine more planes due to panic and fatigue during landing.

After the sky cleared, the group of raiders returned smoothly, except for one that made a mistake when landing, all the others were unharmed.

"Very good......" Tsukahara was very satisfied with the performance of the fleet, "close the distance with Panama and see if the Americans can come out to fight!" ”