"Enemy swarms?" Yamamoto Fifty-six shouted at the communications soldiers, "What are you talking about enemy groups? How could a swarm of enemy aircraft appear here ?! ”

"Your Excellency, General!" The signal man replied: "Confirmed, it is the enemy's fleet, at least sixty of them!" ”

Yamamoto Fifty-six threw away the documents in his hand and rushed out of the cabin, and then he saw a black and oppressive field of warplanes in the sky not far away towards the Japanese aircraft carrier. Although it was difficult to see the logo on the plane because of the distance, it was obvious that it was not a Japanese Zero fighter.

Yamamoto Fifty-six couldn't help but be dumbfounded, he couldn't believe that all this was true, but the reality in front of him made him have to believe it.

At this time, Yamamoto Isoroku, who had studied in the United States for a long time and knew the United States very well, thought of a weak point of the Japanese Navy: radar.

Objectively speaking, naval battles between the United States and Japan, especially aircraft carrier battles, are often the result that US aircraft carriers are at a disadvantage but are able to defeat the Japanese army, which has a clear advantage over both aircraft carriers and warships, and this is not because the US Navy is particularly brave and capable of fighting, and in fact the US Navy is also a rookie who has not fought for decades, but on the contrary, the Japanese Navy is better trained and better in quality than the US Navy because it is actively preparing for war.

A large part of the reason for this is due to intelligence.

For example, in the Battle of Midway, the Japanese did not know that their radio code had been deciphered by the United States, so the deployment of Japanese troops was not a secret to the United States at all. Another example is Kuah Island at this time, the US Navy will use "coast monitors" to closely monitor the movements of Japanese aircraft, but Japan has no knowledge of US Navy aircraft.

Worse still...... At this time, the U.S. Navy was already equipped with an advanced radar system for this era, in which the SC was for air search, and the SG was for sea search, which allowed the U.S. Navy to find Japanese warships and fighters from a long distance, such as before the Japanese aircraft group attacked the U.S. aircraft carrier. The anti-aircraft radar on the "Enterprise" discovered the position and direction of the Japanese aircraft group when it was 88 nautical miles away from the US fleet and made preparations in advance, so that it was possible to lay a powerful anti-aircraft fire network on time and accurately before the Japanese aircraft group attacked.

On the other hand, although the Japanese army also had radar technology, the military leaders were obsessed with the traditional "bushido" spirit, and were not interested in new technology and considered it a defensive technology, preferring discipline, courage, and offense. They believed that they could overcome everything with a tenacious spirit of sacrifice, so they did not develop radar technology and apply it on a large scale in military affairs.

As a result, Japan's radar technology at this time was still quite primitive...... This so-called radar is more than 100 kilometers apart from each other, one end is the radio wave transmitter, the other end is equipped with a receiver, when the aircraft is in the radio beam between the two ends, the receiver will have abnormal signals, even the distance of the aircraft can not be measured, only know that there is an aircraft on this line.

The Japanese generals described Japan's radar at this time as follows: "Looking at the radar monitoring screen is like looking at an electrocardiogram, and the absence of enemy planes is a line. There are ups and downs when enemy planes are coming, but there is no way to know the location of enemy planes, and what is even more unbearable is that if enemy planes do not come from the end where the radar transmitter is installed, they cannot be detected...... It's scrap metal at all! ”

Therefore, in the Pacific theater, the lack of intelligence caused by the lack of attention to radar technology seemed to doom the Japanese Navy from the beginning.

This time it was the same, if the Japanese Navy's radar technology had been more advanced, it would not have been possible for this US aircraft group to suddenly appear over the Japanese fleet in a high-altitude way to engage the enemy without the Japanese Navy knowing about it......

It was the "Cactus" air force that appeared in the sky above the main group of Japanese aircraft carriers. Half an hour after the Japanese fleet took off, they almost flew out of the nest and flew in the direction of the main Japanese fleet to attack the Japanese aircraft carriers.

During the flight to the Japanese aircraft carrier, Smith was still a little worried, because there was one thing that made him difficult: if it was approaching the Japanese fleet at a high altitude. It is easy to be detected by the Japanese radar, and if it approaches at a low altitude, there is no room for dive when fighting with the Japanese Zero fighters.

In fact, Smith's two worries are unnecessary.

The first is that the Japanese army does not have a radar system as advanced as the American army, of course, Smith does not know about this, so even if it is approached at high altitude, it will not be detected by the Japanese radar.

Secondly. The Japanese Zero fighters simply did not have time to take off to meet the battle.

In the end, Smith still chose to approach at a high altitude, and the reason for this is that the American "Dreadnought" dive bomber is called a dive bomber, because its dive performance is even better than that of the fighter "Wildcat", and dive is precisely the weakness of the Japanese army.

After much consideration, Smith argues:

Approaching the enemy fleet at low altitudes can indeed be more stealthy. However, once there is a Japanese zero battle interception, it will be a nightmare for the US aircraft group, because at that time, all aircraft, including bombers and torpedo planes, must first climb to a certain height before they can fight the Japanese army, otherwise they will only be pressed and beaten by the Japanese fighters at high altitude, and climbing is precisely the advantage of zero war, so in the process of climbing, one after another will be destroyed by zero war.

Conversely, although high-altitude approach increases the risk of exposure to the fleet, what about exposure? Even if the Japanese sent Zero fighters to intercept them, fighters, bombers, etc., could easily break through their defensive circle and go straight to the Japanese fleet behind them with just one dive.

So after consulting with Manrum, the two agreed that approaching high altitude was the right choice.

They had long been prepared to be discovered by the Japanese on the road and fight the Zero, and it was because of this that Smith pulled all 25 Wildcat fighters on Kuah Island in one go to escort them, but they flew directly to the target area without encountering any interception along the way.

"Lieutenant Colonel!" This made Smith a little unconfident, and he asked Manrum, "Is there something wrong with our intelligence?" The Japanese fleet may not be in the area we are searching for? ”

"Why do you think so?" Manrum asked rhetorically.

"Because we didn't encounter any interceptions!" Smith said, "It's so abnormal, there's no movement at all!" ”

"Nothing is out of the ordinary, Major!" Manrum replied: "The carrier-based aircraft of the Japanese have already flown to attack our aircraft carriers!" ”

"But...... That's just part of their carrier-based aircraft! Smith replied: "There are only more than 70 Japanese planes attacking our aircraft carrier, and that is only the number of carrier-based aircraft of one Japanese aircraft carrier......

"Major, don't doubt it!" Manrum interrupted Smith: "Because I've seen the Japanese warships!" ”

(To be continued.) )