"It's not that the Japanese army is still capable of attacking!" Chichi replied, "It's that the Japanese have a different way of defending!" ”

"Oh!" Halsey looked at Zhang Chi with interest: "Their defense methods? ”

"Yes!" Zhang Chi said: "The most common saying of the Japanese is 'attack is the best defense', I don't know if the general has heard of it?!" ”

Halsey nodded, and after a pause, he shook his head and said, "I still don't believe that the Japanese dare to attack." ”

"More important is another point...... Zhang Chi said: "The Japanese fighters have a longer range than the US fighters, so now, the Japanese have two choices." The first is to sit and wait for the Sino-US coalition forces to occupy a small island along the coast and build an airfield to approach Rabaul step by step, and the other is to force the Sino-US coalition forces outside the combat radius of the Japanese air force, and at the same time, the Japanese army is making defensive preparations on the front line and even on the periphery of Rabaul. Which one did the general think the Japanese would choose? ”

After a moment of silence, Halsey nodded and said, "You're right, I'll choose the second one." I'm not going to sit back and wait for Rabaul to enter the combat radius of enemy planes before going to war! ”

"Yes!" Zhang Chi said: "So ......"

"So the Japanese will attack!" Halsey stood up: "Damn it! What am I doing? I'm also organizing an attack when Japan is thinking about attacking! ”

"Colonel!" As he spoke, Halsey shook Zhang Chi's hand and said, "You reminded me again, it's time for me to make some preparations!" ”

As he spoke, he saluted Zhang Chi and hurriedly walked out of the headquarters.

Halsey is like this, he is resolute in everything he does, although Zhang Chi has not had much contact with him, he has become accustomed to his character.

Zhang Chi was right, at this time Yamamoto 56 was actively organizing an attack, and Yamamoto 56 named this offensive plan "Operation I".

The "Operation I" plan to transfer 220 fighters from Japan's 11th Fleet and 200 fighters from the Third Fleet, and a total of 420 fighters to the area around Rabaul.

Yamamoto was well aware that the key to victory in the South Pacific theater was nothing else. It is air supremacy, which may be related to the victory or defeat of a battle or even the fate of a country.

Therefore, Yamamoto Isoroku hoped to mobilize the essence of the air force and have a decisive battle with the American army...... Yamamoto still had this unbelievable "Armageddon" mentality, believing that as long as the US air force was destroyed in one fell swoop, the United States would be defeated by Japan and would not be able to turn over, so it could only bow its head and surrender to Japan.

However, the cruel fact is that if the United States starts its machines in full swing, it can produce nearly 100,000 fighters a year. Even Isoroku Yamamoto, who is familiar with the United States, could not have imagined this kind of production capacity, and if he had known this, he would not have drawn up this "Operation I" plan aimed at defeating the US air force so that it would not be able to attack.

So, the battle plan itself was strategically problematic, and it was an unattainable goal from the start.

But there is another merit to this plan. That is, the "Operation I" plan disrupted the timetable of the US counteroffensive, allowing the Japanese to buy some time to make some defensive deployments around Rabaul.

However, it was not these that were the biggest failures of the "Operation Iraq" plan...... Fearing that the aircraft carrier would become a bombing target for the US air force on Kuah Island, Yamamoto decided to transfer all combat planes to the shore, such as Rabaul, Shortland, Baler, and Bouin, and then take off from the airfields on these islands to bomb Kuah Island.

The reason why he did this is, in the final analysis, because Yamamoto Isoroku was born in the navy, and all he cares about in his mind is aircraft carriers and warships. But I don't pay much attention to airplanes and pilots.

According to his idea: if the aircraft are transferred to the shore to attack the enemy, then the aircraft carrier will not need to be dispatched, and there will be no danger of being sunk, and at most this battle will lose some aircraft.

But this approach is clearly wrong. Not to mention the rest, it took more than three hours for the Japanese fighters to fly from Rabaul to the airspace over Kuah Island, and it took more than seven hours to return to Rabaul after the battle...... And during this period, the Japanese fighters had to be careful not to deviate from the course throughout the whole process. You can't do too much air combat and chase, otherwise you may have to make a forced landing at sea due to lack of fuel.

This is a nightmare for pilots, even if some of them make it back. It was almost dragged out of the engine room by other Japanese soldiers...... More than seven hours of high-intensity flight has long exceeded the limit of what one person can bear.

Although this battle plan was opposed by many, it was finally enforced...... This is the style of the Japanese army, and the order is not questioned by subordinates from top to bottom.

Later, many speculated that Yamamoto Fifty-six may have realized that there was something wrong with his battle plan at that time, but he still had to carry it out.

The reason for this is that the position of Yamamoto Isoroku as a commander has been challenged...... In addition to the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, which can be called a victory, the subsequent battles were all disastrous defeats without exception, and even the Japanese generals secretly said: "With him (referring to Yamamoto 56) involved in the battle, it is most likely to be lost!" ”

Some officers also said that this may be the reason why Yamamoto only plays chess and not Go.

When you play chess, you always want to be able to eat your opponent's move and then you can decide whether you win or lose. To play Go is to grab territory with the enemy and fight a protracted war.

There is some truth to this, because it is clear that the war in the Pacific is more like a game of Go to grab territory than a game of chess.

However, it was precisely because Yamamoto's position was challenged that he had to hold on, and if the plan was changed, his authority would soon be questioned...... This is contrary to the habits of the U.S. military, where American officers are often more respectable if they dare to take the advice of their subordinates, but in the Japanese military they are considered unassertive or inferior to their subordinates.

This is also why there are always some officers in the Japanese army who do not shed tears when they see the coffin, and do not listen to persuasion when they die, and their appearance is not only a problem of the character of these officers, but also the style of the entire Japanese army and even the habits of the Japanese.

As a result, the "Operation I" plan was soon launched.

It's just that what Yamamoto didn't expect was that this battle plan not only made the Japanese air force, which was already powerless, worse, but even lost his own life in the end.

(To be continued.) )