Good intentions are no substitute for the cruel facts, and on September 2, when Nimitz finally led his troops into the 800-kilometer air defense circle of the Perth Army Air Force under the leadership of the TF48 Fleet after much hardship, Tsukahara 243 led the main force of the Combined Fleet to attack Christmas Island in full swing. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

There are two airports on Christmas Island, one at the edge of the axe and one at the handle of the axe, 30 kilometres apart, but unfortunately both are located within 3 kilometres of the coastline. Tsukahara did not divide his troops into two places as the U.S. military had envisioned, but he led the fleet to respond in the center of Rex Bay, synchronized artillery bombardment, and gave full play to the overall coordination advantage.

In terms of artillery, if there is no radar, the US Navy is not worthy of lifting shoes for the United Fleet, and Tsukahara is an expert in aviation warfare, and he looks at artillery warfare from the perspective of aviation warfare. The biggest advantage of centering artillery and slightly dispersing the left and right flanks is the intensive use of aviation forces and anti-aircraft formations. And because the Japanese troops arrived at night to bombard, although the Americans evacuated, the power of the three-type ammunition was still extraordinary, and one-third of the US planes were reimbursed.

So only about 100 of the more than 200 planes on Christmas Island were effective, but the close range attacks of the HNA and the shuttle bombing proposed by Turner still caused a lot of trouble and losses to the Combined Fleet:

In the artillery formation, the Noh light cruiser and the Mogami heavy cruiser were hit by bombs and sunk -- at Hori's insistence, the Mogami, which was wounded in the Battle of Midway, was repaired as a heavy cruiser instead of a nondescript air cruiser, but it still did not change the outcome of the sunk.

The two heavy cruisers Myoko and Haguro were hit with 1,000-pound bombs, one was damaged in the bow, and the other lost a turret, but there was no mortal threat;

The three super battleships Yamato, Musashi, and Shinano were a thorn in the side of the US military, and they were besieged by many planes, and they each ate 1-2 bombs, but they were all fine.

The U.S. military also dispatched more than 40 torpedo-mounted BTDs and some fighters to cooperate with Pearl Harbor's main force army aviation to attack the Japanese aircraft carrier formation that provided support from afar, not that the U.S. military originally did not want to attack the aircraft carrier formation, but it was because there was no fighter escort The loss was too great, this time at least the P-51 could be used, and the situation improved, providing more offensive opportunities for the army aviation B-29\B-27 formation. Under the vigorous interception of the Japanese pilots, all the US planes broke through the encirclement and dropped a total of more than 1,100 bombs weighing 1,000 pounds and 2,000 pounds, but the hit rate was so low that it did not even reach 1% (the average horizontal bombing can reach more than 2%, and the elite pilots can reach 3-4%), and only 10 directly hit them.

Of course, the results of these 10 direct hits are still very impressive:

The escort aircraft carrier Chongying was hit by 1,000 pounds and 1 bomb of 2,000 pounds and sank directly;

The escort aircraft carrier of the Great Eagle, which had been repeatedly captured in the robbery of supplies to aid the Soviet Union and the breaking of diplomatic relations between Musashi, was first hit by a 1,000-pound bomb and was seriously damaged, and before it could leave the battlefield, it was hit by a torpedo and sank;

The light cruisers Natori and Nako each hit one 2,000-pound bomb and sank;

There is a 1,000-pound bomb in the flagship Dafeng, which is no different after being carried hard;

The heavy cruiser Yuno first carried a torpedo for the Taiho, but after entering the water, the speed was greatly reduced, and the U.S. military saw that there was an opportunity, and was hit by two 1,000-pound bombs in a row, and finally struggled to sink.

After the ship sank, the left flank of the Taiho exposed a lot of gaps, and Nishimura Shoji immediately commanded the Suzuya to make up for it, but it was used to realize that the bomb was useless to an armored aircraft carrier like the Taiho, and the U.S. military was crazy and generally used torpedoes to deal with the Taiho, and as a result, Suzuya, who was closely protected, was also very unlucky, so he could only act as a meat pad and stubbornly resist 1 torpedo for the Daiho, and then was sunk by a 2000-pound bomb.

At this point, the 4 heavy cruisers of the highest rank were the same as the 4 ships of the Furutaka \ Aoba class, all of which were buried in the hands of the US military, looking at the heavy cruisers that fell in succession to protect themselves, Kakuji Tsunoda, who was sitting on the Taiho, was so angry that he almost didn't bite the steel teeth, and after the B-17 and B-29 who had completed the bomb dropping under the cover of the P-51 retreated, Tsunoda ordered some fighters to take to the air again to pursue, and forcibly fought out 16 bombers of the US Army Air Force.

The last to be hit by the bomb was the aircraft carrier Bayan, the rebuilt fleet aircraft carrier was the slowest of all regular aircraft carriers, so the 1000-pound bomb found him, after the violent explosion, the ship's speed dropped sharply, and it was difficult to turn to avoid it, but it could still be saved, but unfortunately 3 minutes later, it was hit by a 2000-pound bomb, the power was all lost, and it was almost impossible to struggle on the water, and the whole ship was shrouded in fire and gunsmoke, and finally the ship was abandoned under the command of Captain Osa, who was born in the shrine, The captain refused the advice of his subordinates to let him escape, and sank with the ship with a smile and a prayer.

It was also the first regular aircraft carrier to be lost by the Combined Fleet since the Second Battle of Midway.

After two consecutive days of fierce fighting on 2 and 3 September, the Japanese army suffered heavy losses on its warships, and the losses of the US army and navy were also not small -- all 140 or so HNA planes were reimbursed on Christmas Island, 367 B-17s or B-29s were lost by the Pearl Harbor Army and Navy Airlines, and 64 additional P-51s were lost; in the interception operation, the Japanese lost 43 fighters and 36 attack planes in the ground attack, and in addition to the losses in the previous stage of operations, a total of 138 combat planes were lost (half of the pilots were rescued) , the rate of loss of aircraft exceeded 22%. However, due to the loss of one regular aircraft carrier and several escort aircraft carriers, the position of carrier-based aircraft that can accommodate them has also been greatly reduced, which means that the mobile fleet is basically still full.

On September 4, Kuribayashi Tadamichi commanded the 2nd Guards Division to launch a landing battle, and after continuous bombing and shelling, the will of the US troops to resist on Christmas Island was greatly weakened, and after the destruction of the airfield by the Japanese army, the Pearl Harbor reinforcement planes had no air power, and the scarred army and navy could no longer launch large-scale sustained operations, and the Japanese army occupied an absolute overwhelming advantage. In this way, Tsunoda's mobile fleet was able to take a breather.

"In the air battle on Christmas Island, we made great sacrifices and achieved good results." Looking at the worried Truman, Turner persuaded, "We sank 3 Japanese aircraft carriers, shot down more than 100 aircraft of the other side, and sank at least 6-7 cruisers, 3-4 freighters, 6-8 landing craft and at least 4 destroyers of the enemy, and in the previous stage of fierce fighting, we also destroyed at least 7 oil tankers and 180,000-ton ships of the opponent...... In the past two weeks, we have eliminated nearly 400,000 tons of Japanese ships, and at this rate of attrition, they will not have a chance to strategize Hawaii until the combined fleet has dried its blood. ”

"How long do you think Japan will be able to hold on to consumption?"

"At this pace, support may be feasible by the end of October." Turner sighed, although the Japanese army had sunk many oil tankers, they still had at least 20 oil tankers in their hands, and after sinking a number of warships and shooting down a number of planes, the fuel consumption also dropped invisibly.

"I heard that the Japanese are looting oil tankers everywhere." Donovan added.

Truman's eyes lit up: "The Japanese are unsustainable? ”

"I don't know, but it's a matter of looting tankers." Donovan reported all he had got:

Nine days ago, the Japanese-controlled Nanjing government handed over all four oil tankers to the Japanese side, with a total load of 27,000 tons;

Eight days ago, Japan sent notes to Italy and Germany, hoping to buy oil tankers, and instead of Germany's best 15,000-ton or 25,000-ton military tankers, only 7,000-10,000 tons of civilian tankers;

Seven days ago, Japan and the Chongqing government reached an agreement to obtain three oil tankers from Chongqing with a total load of 21,000 tons on the condition of arms and fuel oil;

4 days ago, news came out from the British side, Japan hopes that Britain can convert all the tonnage of the ship it should deliver into oil tankers, the original 1.2 million tons of medium tankers accounted for only a quarter, Japan proposed that if the delivery of oil tankers spot, 1 ton of oil tankers can be used to offset the tonnage of 3 tons of ordinary cargo ships, and the British considered discounting the T2 oil tankers that we originally aided;

Three days ago, news came out from the Bolshevik side that Japan offered to buy 6 oil tankers from Stalin with grain or other household supplies, and the Russians seemed to agree!

"Bastards, the Chinese, the British, the Russians must be organized to sell oil tankers to Japan! A note and a strong protest were sent to them. ”

"It probably won't work."

"Whether it works or not, we must let them know our determination!" Truman slapped the table and said, "This war of attrition of oil tankers is the basis for us to fight the Japanese to the end, I don't care how many reasons they have, whoever gives the Japanese tankers is our enemy." ”

"Comrade Stalin, the Americans protested and begged us not to sell oil tankers to Japan."

"Protest?" Stalin raised his eyebrows, "The American Stilwell borrowed the way from us, and the US government has not given decent compensation, why should they protest?" The Japanese exchanged the most urgently needed food and living supplies from the Soviets for oil tankers with us, and what did the Americans give? ”

"That ......"

"Comrade Khrushchev, tell me, do you want to listen to the advice of the Americans?"

"Of course not." Khrushchev held his head high and said, "With oil tankers, Japan can continue to consume the Americans in the Pacific, and the less likely it is to attack us, the less military pressure it will put on us, why not let them continue to fight?" ”

"You see, Comrade Molotov, Comrade Khrushchev is very good at dialectics." Stalin waved his hand, "Give the Japanese tankers, give them 8!" Pick the difference, anyway, the Japanese don't care about these now. ”

Almost at the same time, there were also people in Chongqing who scolded: "Niang Xipi, the Americans deceive people too much, they support the Communist Party to fight the civil war, not to mention, they still point fingers at us, Stilwell just got out, Weidemeyer is not a good thing, ignore him." Sell it! I don't know anyway! This is a civilian ship, how can the government interfere? ”

The black cat who saw the note smiled: "It's okay if you don't let it be sold, and let the Americans drive the Freedom Wheel over to offset the difference...... Won't? So why should I overpay? It's a ransom for Pakistan! It is a little to be able to pay a little less. ”