After receiving the telegram that Horiyoshi "do it again", Tsukahara 243 was also happy and immediately deployed. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

That night, Peterson was once again mad, not only did the Japanese fleet turn around again in the evening, but a large number of Japanese planes pounced in the early morning, and the exhausted fighter pilots just tried to deal with it, and the Japanese aircraft group "brushed" and began to turn again, and then continued to toss and turn for the night. The only difference is that last night it went around Panama counterclockwise, and tonight it went around Panama clockwise.

At dawn, the Japanese fleet retreated again into the distance, and Peterson, whose eyes were red and panting, now even had the heart to kill, but when the staff officers asked him if he wanted to deploy a counterattack, he hesitated again when he wanted to put the Japanese troops to death: this decision was not easy to make.

After thinking for a long time, he waved his hand and gave up dejectedly, of course, on the surface he couldn't show weakness, and ordered: "Closely monitor, make comprehensive preparations, and attack once the Japanese army runs into the range of 800 kilometers!" ”

So the two sides spent a long time in the confrontation with big eyes.

After receiving the information that the Japanese army teased the Panamanian defenders for the second time, Washington became more and more convinced that the Japanese army was drawing its own attention, and now the situation is obvious, the Tsukahara fleet is stuck in a position of about 1,000 kilometers, neither retreating nor advancing, just waiting for the American planes to attack, this posture makes the joint staff up and down is similar to swallowing a fly, both uncomfortable and disgusting to death, and finally can only order "strict control, ignore it for the time being!" ”

On the other side, the Tsunoda fleet disappeared again, and the joint staff meeting was still a little nervous at first, but after receiving the news that Halsey reported that "it is expected that the repair of the Wasp will be completed tomorrow, and the fleet will attack at night", everyone made up their minds and first thought about sending forces to Newfoundland.

The Army transported two divisions by air, the Army Aviation gritted its teeth and dispatched more than 200 planes from various parts of the East Coast, and Mitchell led the main force of the Atlantic Fleet out of Pisacek Bay, which had just completed sea trials, to prepare for the northeast coastline to assist in the defense and response. After deploying these, everyone's hearts were settled.

In the early morning of October 20, the third attack group of the Tsukahara fleet was released, this time the planes carried under the auxiliary fuel tanks, but swarthy bombs, not only the Ju-198 attack planes carried three 250 kg bombs or eight 75 kg incendiary bombs, but even the escort Bf-319s carried a 250 kg bomb.

Tsukahara sent more than 260 planes, and after takeoff, they were arranged in a very compact formation, and they still looked like about 200 planes, and they flew towards Panama in the same way.

"Sir, the Japanese are here again!"

"Pay attention to it, and report it as soon as there is a situation."

After two days and two nights of torment and high mental tension, the US pilots were also exhausted to a certain extent -- the Japanese aircraft carriers still had 50 percent of the personnel that could be rotated, and the US military did not have such a good deployment, and after losing nearly a quarter of their crews on the first day, the remaining pilots had to perform more tasks.

"Sure enough, it's still an old trick, please, can you think of something else?" Peterson saw the trajectory of the Japanese on the radar approaching 80 kilometers and then turning again, and waved his fist viciously, "Cowards! Die, all of you! ”

"Attention formations, attention formations, last inspection, last inspection."

Hearing the order of the chief captain, the flight captains immediately instructed the team members to do the final inspection.

"Maximum speed, all-army assault!"

"Brushing" the ground, the Japanese formation, which was still swaying at a speed of 400 km/h on the periphery just now, instantly collectively increased its speed to more than 500 km/h and rushed towards the Panamanian defense center. When the panicked radar soldier woke up the drowsy Peterson and told him that the Japanese formation had rushed into the 40-kilometer core, Shigekazu Shimazaki had already taken the lead in throwing flares, opening the passage for the follow-up attack echelon and guiding the target.

When Peterson jumped and hurriedly ordered the night fighter to intercept and the airfield stranded planes to take off, the Japanese bombs and incendiary bombs had already been dropped, and the gunners of the anti-aircraft gun positions woke up like a dream and began to fire fiercely, but then they were frantically suppressed by the Japanese troops, and the Gale fighters, who were the first to complete the bomb dropping, began to strafe the ground, and there were volleys of fire chains and screams everywhere.

"Boom" explosions were heard one after another, and even incendiary bombs burst open and formed a ball of flames on the ground, detonating US planes, fuel, ammunition, and even all kinds of vehicles, tires, and other flammable materials. At about 3 o'clock, the US military's central aviation fuel depot was detonated, and there was a loud "boom" that not only swept away the crowd within a radius of 400 meters, but also raised a huge mushroom cloud in its place, and the violent air shock wave even shook and tossed up and down the Japanese attack planes flying at an altitude of more than 1,400 meters.

"It's over......" Peterson was stunned to see the signs of a fire outside, and the crackling sound seemed to mock him - you idiot!

At about 4 o'clock, the Japanese planes, which had finished dumping ammunition, returned to their homes satisfied. Since Tsukahara did not intend to capture Panama, he did not let the battleship unit go up to make up for the sword -- the reconnaissance plane made it very clear that the Panama Canal would take at least another year to repair (the Japanese side judged that the actual US demand was June 1945), and there was still time to fight, so the attack group did not bother with the Panama Canal repair project, but mainly poured ammunition on the American troops.

During this attack, the Japanese shot down 17 American planes with the loss of 19 aircraft (most of them were shot down by ground anti-aircraft fire). The losses in the air looked good, but the losses of the American troops on the ground were terrible, and the Panamanian Army Airlines lost a total of nearly 400 planes and more than 100 crews (most of them died in forced takeoff), and most of the dead were skilled crews, but the helpless and unresponsive novices honestly hid in bunkers and did not try to take off and survive.

The fire burned for a whole day and night, and was not extinguished until the evening, and the Panama base, oil depot, tower, anti-aircraft guns, and radar stations were all destroyed by the Japanese army, and the ground troops also suffered a catastrophe, with a total loss of more than 1,800 troops, and all facilities were ravaged.

Hearing the news of Panama's beating, all the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff turned bitter but could not say a word, accusing Peterson of negligence and obviously being unkind, and the Japanese obviously did not want to occupy Panama, but just wanted to take advantage of it and left.

After a long time, MacArthur let out a long sigh: "Let the Panamanian defenders hurry up to rest and replenish their troops, it is estimated that this time the Japanese fleet really intends to leave." ”

Arnold, who had returned to Washington from the West Coast, had a straight eye and didn't know what to do.

In the evening, Hoffman, who was inspecting the "Thunderbolt 1944" (Blitzkrieg 2.0 special exercise) on the island of Madagascar, also learned about the feat of the combined fleet "three dozen Panamas" and commented with a smile: "The Americans were molested by the Japanese, and I don't believe that they can bear it." If you want to fight, the next battle between the two sides will be as tragic as Mars hitting the earth! ”

"It's good to be miserable, the tragedy shows that there is still room for struggle, and the other party like us doesn't even have room for struggle, isn't it despair?" Keitel suddenly remembered something, and reported, "Marshal Machar sent a telegram to inform him that the second batch of South American troops had officially departed from Italy, and that it would arrive early next month, if not surprisingly. ”

Hoffman nodded: "Very good, how is the preparation for the South African campaign?" ”

"The regular forces are basically in place, the special forces are still a little close, and other supplies and supplies are 85% in place, mainly because the transportation of those new missiles and launch vehicles has delayed time, and I think the attack can be launched on time on November 15."

"Don't worry, let's take a look at the results of the exercise first, and then say, if there is anything that does not conform to the plan, we can also use this time to adjust and give the South African military a decent and elegant way to die."

"Decent?" Keitel laughed dumbly.

"As the world's first blitzkrieg 2.0 actual combat attempt, if it can't be implemented with thunder, it's like killing a cow with a blunt knife, and the cow will of course die, but the process is not dignified and elegant." Hoffman shrugged, "Why would I spend so much money and energy organizing an exercise in Madagascar, essentially to find fault - I wonder if you remember how the British and French laughed at us when the march to Vienna was full of broken down tanks No. 2 and No. 3?" ”

Keitel quickly recalled, nodded yes, and said with heartfelt emotion: "They don't dare to laugh at us now, and even admire us very tightly, and the French have tentatively asked if they can introduce rocket technology......"

"Absolutely! I don't think there is anything wrong with the transfer of a batch of V2 technology and 12 live ammunition, which also reflects the rapprochement and friendship between France and Germany. However, as a key weapon of the country, the pricing of rocket technology is definitely not cheap, and the package price is 14 billion marks, what do you think? Hoffman smiled, "The French have a lot of Mark bonds in their hands, and Germany, as a responsible power, must not play white strips on its allies, right?" ”

Keitel was happy: the price of the yuan is really not low, 14 billion marks is more than the total amount allocated to the development of all rocket projects at the Penemünde base over the years, about the cost price of 50,000 Tigers or 140,000 No. 4 tanks. Moreover, the Peneminde base includes all the V series rockets and air defense, air-launched, anti-radiation, anti-tank and other products, and now a V2 is disassembled and sold for 14 billion, which is the price, tsk!

However, Keitel does not think it is very expensive, after all, the V2 has been painstakingly researched by Germany for many years and has been tested in actual combat, and France will definitely need to invest a lot of money and take the necessary time to achieve the same level. Of course, this is not the key, the most important thing is that the current rocket technology is only available in Germany, and there is no other semicolon for the rest, and it makes perfect sense to sell it expensively.

"Report to the Führer, Chief of the General Staff of the Supreme Command, the German 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rocket assault battalions are ready for test launches, please approve it!"

"Agreed."

Hoffman strode to the best viewing position in the bunker area and sat down, with high-powered telescopes already placed in front of him, and behind him was crowded with marshals, generals, and foreign representatives, and several lieutenant generals did not even have benches, but still stood on tiptoe with binoculars and watched intently.

"Ready, upright!"

The audience fell silent......