After occupying the two small islands to the west and seizing the Aleutian Islands, Horikichi rejected the staff officers' proposal to go straight to Oahu and the main island of Hawaii in one go, and based himself on fighting slowly.

It's not that he doesn't want to be fast, but he is bound by a lot of objective conditions, and the firepower on Oahu alone is a big problem, and after continuous reconnaissance of the enemy and the accumulation of pre-war intelligence, this has been made relatively clear (the picture below shows the fortified defense of Oahu after 1943):

In the face of such a dense deployment of firepower like a spider's web and the number of defenders as high as 100,000 in the entire Hawaii, a rash landing on the beach is bound to be a dead letter, and in order to remove the threat of the coastal fortifications to the landing force, it is necessary to send three Yamato-class naval artillery groups to bombard it, and even if the loss of battleships is not taken into account, the loss of materials is a very headache. The Yamato-class 460mm main gun has more than 1 ton of shells in one shot, and if 3 ships fire a salvo, it may break 1,000 tons in a few rounds. And even if the cost of this 1,000-ton artillery shell is not considered, the complexity and difficulty of transporting it from the Japanese mainland thousands of miles away must be considered.

If this 1,000 tons of capacity is converted into food, it can last 100,000 people for 12 weeks; If this 1,000 tons of capacity is converted into aviation fuel, the fighter can make about 2,000 sorties. Now that command operations have taken a back seat, these staff officers can complete it, and Horikichi is completely like a company chairman thinking about more long-term things: how much is his own cost, how to maintain cash flow (material flow), whether there is any profit after occupying the market (Oahu), and what to do if a competitor (U.S. military) counterattacks? What if the United States still refuses to give in to Hawaii? In addition, a major earthquake has just occurred in China, and a large number of disaster areas and a large number of factories and facilities have been affected, and the navy still gritted its teeth and pulled out part of its strength to carry out the rescue under the already very tight transportation capacity, which made it even more difficult.

In order to prevent the morale of the army from wavering, Hori Yiyoshi even asked people to suppress the news about the Tokai earthquake, except for the generals and the cronies and staff officers around them, the other officers and soldiers did not know the situation in the country.

This is a very serious and realistic problem, it is absolutely impossible to run out of fuel for the sake of pleasure like Tsunoda, as the commander of a large army, with the most powerful combined fleet in the world, how can Horikichi fight in waves?

In the end, he came to the conclusion that he would attack Rai Island, cut off the American forces, demoralize the enemy, isolate the defenders of Oahu, and force them to abandon the battle and surrender.

Another point that cannot be overlooked in making this decision is that although Pearl Harbor and other islands have suffered serious damage and the open-air fuel depots have been completely destroyed, because there are still a lot of aviation gasoline reserves in the underground fuel depots on other islands, and the first batch of submarines have been successfully smuggled, by early December, Doolittle can still calmly send the planes at hand to fight the Japanese army, and the operation of the Army Aviation Flight Division also shows this: they have been fighting with the US military for half a month, and although the strength of the opponent is constantly declining, it is far from the point of exhaustion.

"Sir, Tsunoda has just sent a telegram informing them that they have sunk a submarine and captured a number of American officers and soldiers, and according to the explanation, they are carrying out the smuggling of supplies."

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After learning more about what happened, Horikiyoshi's face became solemn: If the United States continues to transport by submarine, even if it is only 400 tons per ship, it will add up to a figure that cannot be underestimated.

"It looks like we're going to step up anti-submarine warfare." Kusaka Ryunosuke sighed, "Water reconnaissance and destroyers must expand the search area, this is still a transport submarine, what if there is a group of troops like German submarines?" Wouldn't that even the main fleet be finished? ”

The staff officers nodded, although the specific performance characteristics of the Type 21 and Type 23 submarines are still unknown, and there is no intelligence showing that the US military has the same level of equipment, but everyone has learned the horror of German submarines, and this is not a move to make up for the loss.

"Sir, good news," Chiaki Matsuda said happily, "the German side has telegraphed, saying that it will do its best to provide us with assistance, the army equipment will first provide a batch of British tanks and Spitfires, and the navy will provide the planes and fuel we need. ”

"Good!" Everyone cheered loudly.

Horikichi's face was very exciting, and he was also very helpless, nodded slightly and said, "Let Tanaka-kun arrange the escort, and send it directly to Christmas Island or Midway!"

After most people stepped back, Tsukahara two-four-three asked, "I see that your mood is not very high."

"The German side's support is a bit difficult to ride, in fact, you and I both know what the other party's true intentions are, and this kind of 'good intentions' is really a pity that Japan cannot afford to bear."

Tsukahara 243 knew that Horikichi was bent on peace, and he persuaded: "Sir, there is no way to achieve your wish for the time being, so I can only hope that the Americans can defeat us once and let the red deer sober up, but unfortunately the Americans don't know what they are doing now."

"Don't think about it, let's knock down the island of Rai first, if the United States doesn't agree, the entire Hawaii will be fortified on the spot after the occupation, all the residents will be driven away, 200,000 troops will be stationed, 3,000 planes will be hoarded, and a few more will be built at the level of the German air defense tower, so that the Americans can gnaw slowly." Horiyoshi rarely showed a hideous face, "Can't I afford to fight if I can't get along?" ”

At the same time that Horikichi was sharpening his knife and preparing to make a move on Rai Island, the Washington Joint Chiefs of Staff had been working on the next stage of the war discussion, and in view of the fact that the war in the Hawaiian direction could not think of any solution for the time being, and could only rely on submarine transportation, the focus of everyone's current discussion and attention was the South African campaign.

At this time, Bradley, the commander of the South African campaign, was also floating at sea with a group of people such as the South African leader Shi Mozi, and the only good news was that they sent a telegram to confirm that they were safe, which made Washington feel a little relieved. Although Bradley was defeated in a mess, at least the top of the Army and the Joint Chiefs of Staff didn't think he had any fault to play like this. Dewey also said that the queen would let Bradley continue to lead the troops.

In view of the current special circumstances, both Congress and the federal courts have adhered to the efficiency of "special affairs" and completed the referendum and the presidential inauguration ceremony as quickly as possible, and Dewey was officially sworn in on December 9, and after he officially became president, the first question he asked was thought-provoking: "How do you plan to deal with Germany's new tactics?"

"There is no doubt about the continued increase in investment in rocket projects. In addition, we also have several relatively mature products for helicopters, such as R5

6 helicopters, I believe they will be able to make a difference" MacArthur scratched his head in distress, "Now the key is to seize air supremacy, without full and powerful jets, we are struggling, it is said that the Germans used a new generation of jet fighters in the South African theater, and the maneuverability is very strong, and they can already play tactical maneuvers with traditional propeller fighters"

In 1939, Igor Sikorsky succeeded in building the VS300 helicopter, and when it wanted to mature, the design category and shape were almost exactly the same as those of later generations, and the United States made the R5 unhurriedly based on this basis

6. Although they were all engaged in the war, they only undertook light auxiliary tasks such as reconnaissance, vertical transportation, and rescue, and never considered that they could play a decisive role in treetop killers and vertical maneuvering like the German army.

MacArthur and Clark immediately noticed the value of helicopters, and like their German counterparts, they immediately made a request to develop more and better helicopters, both transport and combat, and at the same time requested that helicopter units be assigned to the army

However, MacArthur is also to the point, without the power of the jet to control the whole field, it is useless to have a helicopter alone, it is completely a live target of the opponent, to solve the problem, in the final analysis, it is necessary to grasp the air supremacy!

Although the name of the ME262 is terrifying, both Germany and the United States know that this jet is aimed at interception, and the starting point is to strike at the bomber group or transport cluster of the US military large formation, and the ME262 and P47 alone are fighting, the former is too clumsy, even if the P47 cannot win the battle, it is completely possible to play the opponent.

But the single-engine TA183 is different, the speed is faster than the ME262, and the flexible maneuverability is better, although it is not comparable to the traditional fighter, but at least with the unparalleled speed, this maneuverability is very exaggerated, and then 1vs1 or 4vs47 is at a disadvantage.

Failure to have superiority in fighter aircraft means that there is no superiority in air supremacy, and failure to grasp air supremacy means being passively attacked, so the Air Force and the Army are scratching their heads very much about this, and they cannot find a solution in a short period of time.

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