For the commander of an air fleet, the most unfortunate thing in the world is probably that when the reconnaissance plane discovers the enemy aircraft carrier formation, there is not a single bomber and attack aircraft available in his hands!

And this is the situation that Jizaburo Ozawa is experiencing now. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

"Will American carrier-based aircraft be able to get hold of us?" Jizaburo Ozawa asked a question as he walked over to the chart.

Mitsuo Fuchida, a staff officer of the Fleet Aviation, had already measured the distance at this time, and he reported: "About 900 kilometers, according to intelligence, the combat radius of the American SBD dive bomber is about 700 kilometers, and the combat radius of the TBF is also about the same as that of the SBD." ”

"What if you go to San Salvador after the attack?" Jizaburo Ozawa asked again.

"900 plus 400...... 1300 km, that seems to be enough. Mitsuo Fuchida quickly came to a conclusion.

The people in the bridge of the Akagi suddenly became nervous, and the 3 large aircraft carriers ...... It should be the legendary Essex class created by a dozen, right? There should be 270 carriers on the three carriers, and at least 200 aircraft can be sent to attack the First Mobile Fleet.

And now there are hundreds of P51s trailing the first attack wave, which is 370!

"It's okay," Ozawa Jizaburo's "grandma face" has returned to calm, "Isn't it just 370 enemy planes, how many Zero fighters do we have available now?" ”

"There are 132 of them." Mitsuo Fuchida replied, "There are another 26 FW-190T, a total of 158 fighters that can cover the fleet, which should be enough." ”

Should...... If there is no P51, F4U and F6F, it will definitely be enough. But right now, it's really hard to say.

"Release all the carrier-based aircraft," said Ozawa, "and then put up an anti-aircraft formation, and now it's past 4 p.m., and if you hold out for another two hours, this battle for Panama should be a big victory." ”

There are two conditions for the victory of this "Mountain Operation": First, it will sink several US aircraft carriers and weaken the strength of the US Pacific Fleet; The second is to blow up the locks of the Panama Canal, delay the entry of US aircraft carriers into the Pacific Ocean, and gain time for the deployment of the Hawaiian Islands.

Now the first mission is completed, although most of the 3 sunken motherships are Borg-class escort carriers, but it is better than nothing. The second objective should also be achieved, and the 108 attack planes on the Tianshan ship, led by Tomanaga Shoza, have taken off (the second attack wave) and are now flying at ultra-low altitudes, preparing to attack the Panama Canal.

From the point of view of a sneak attack on the Panama Canal, it is actually advantageous for the Americans to send 100 P51s from the Panama Canal Zone to follow back the first attack wave, which will somewhat weaken the defense of the canal.

So Ozawa only needs to survive the crucial 2 hours, and victory is within reach!

However, these two hours were indeed very difficult for the Japanese. Because there are not 3 American aircraft carriers in the North San Juan Bay, but 5. About 550 nautical miles west of Ozawa's fleet is Task Force 16, commanded by Vice Admiral Spruance, which also has three aircraft carriers.

So Jizaburo Ozawa and his men will have to deal with 456 carrier-based aircraft of the general taking off from 8 American aircraft carriers, and 96 P51 fighters flying from the Panama Canal Zone.

By the time Ozawa learned of the presence of a U.S. fleet in North San Juan Bay in the Caribbean Sea, the attack aircraft groups sent by the U.S. 3rd and 16th Task Forces had already taken off.

Among them, 5 F4U fighters, 36F fighters, 90 SBD dive bombers and 90 TBF torpedo bombers took off from 5 aircraft carriers of the 6th Fleet, a total of 276 carrier-based, forming 2 attack waves.

And 36 F4U fighters, 24 F6F fighters, 60 SBD dive bombers and 60 TBF torpedo bombers took off from the 3 aircraft carriers of the 16th task force, a total of 180 carrier-based aircraft, which were also divided into 2 attack waves.

If you count those 96 P51s, Ozawa's fleet will have to withstand the attack of 552 enemy aircraft!

However, these 552 enemy planes did not fly over Japan's 1st Mobile Fleet at the same time, otherwise Jizaburo Ozawa would not have been able to cope with it even if he had three heads and six arms. Since it takes time for an aircraft carrier to release aircraft and formations, if a formation is too large, then the aircraft that took off earlier will consume too much fuel while circling and waiting. Therefore, carrier-based aircraft attacks in this era are generally divided into 2 waves.

In addition, Halsey and Spruance did not order the carrier-based aircraft to take off at the same time. This was because Halsey's 3rd Fleet arrived in North San Juan Bay one step earlier, while Spruance's 16th Task Force arrived a little later in attacking position.

So these 552 American planes arrived in 5 waves (the 96 P51s of the Panamanian sortie were also a wave). And Ozawa Jizaburo was lucky today, the first to arrive was the first attack wave sent by Halsey - if the 96 P51s sent by Panama arrived first after the returning Japanese planes, it would be a big problem.

"The target is in the direction of 8 o'clock, the altitude is 6000, and the US military fleet is in the air!"

Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, who was tall and thin and looked so haggard that he didn't look like a pilot, heard the voice of squadron leader Nakajima Shosa from his headphones. The ace pilot of the Tainan Wing was transferred to the aircraft carrier along with his former boss Sasai, but he was assigned to a different squadron.

During the battle on March 17, his fighter squadron remained on the aircraft carrier Kaga to take cover.

At 5:12 p.m., the first American planes arrived from the southeast.

"At least 100 planes! Looks like I'm going to have a lot of success today! ”

"Mixi, the American ghost beast came to send it to death, today I shot down 2 enemy planes!"

"Shoot them all down, and you can't put them back!"

Nishizawa's headphones were filled with the light-hearted and cheerful conversations of his comrades, and despite repeated warnings from the Germans, many of the top brass of the Japanese Navy recognized that the era of the Zero's dominance over the Pacific was likely to be over with the advent of new American fighters.

But most of the pilots of the Japanese naval aviation were unaware of the demoralizing information — the naval officer pilots could have known more bad news, but the soldiers and noncommissioned officer pilots were less aware of it.

They only knew that they had to avoid fighting the new aircraft of the Americans at altitudes above 7,000 meters, and at the same time, they could not use dive tactics to get rid of the opponent's pursuit, and they had to tremble as much as possible.

Nishizawa didn't know that American planes were already very powerful, and he was happily thinking about shooting down a few American planes like everyone else, so that he could consolidate his trump card position again.

Amid cheers, Hiroshi Nishizawa's squadron had collided with 12 F6F Hellcat fighters. A fierce fight ensued between Zero 52 and F6F Hellcat.

Hiroshi Nishizawa also found an F6F and began to fight each other, and after the two planes faced each other for a moment at the same altitude 800-1000 meters apart, they began to climb at a large angle at the same time, both trying to occupy a favorable altitude and fire first.

But Nishizawa soon discovered the problem, and the F6F climbed faster than his Zero 52!

After determining that he could not use the speed of climb to defeat his opponents, Hiroshi Nishizawa did not dare to continue to increase altitude, because the Zero was never an aircraft that could dominate at high altitudes. So Nishizawa adopted the tactic of luring the enemy, giving up the pull and choosing to dive and escape. The F6F was fooled, and immediately stopped climbing and began to dive - "climbing-diving-attacking-disengaged" is the only way to fight the Fokker Zero on the European battlefield, and almost all British and American pilots can. However, it is not easy to hit the Zero with a dive attack, because the Zero is very flexible, as long as the British and American pilots with poor marksmanship will miss.

Sure enough, Nishizawa's Zero was not hit by the first round of strafing from the F6F's six 12.7mm machine guns. Nishizawa took the opportunity to pull up the plane and change it to horizontal flight, because biting Nishizawa's tail, the F6F was not willing to give up. Nishizawa knew that his opportunity had come, and he manipulated the plane to make a stunt that climbed and flew in an instant, and immediately reversed the situation and bit the tail of the F6F in front.

"Haha, you're done!" Hiroshi Nishizawa laughed and hooked the trigger of the machine gun and the button of the cannon, firing both 20mm shells and 7.7mm machine gun bullets.

But at this moment, something unexpected happened to Hiroshi Nishizawa. The F6F in front of it made a sharp right roll and slid down the moment before the bullets and shells were about to hit it. He actually escaped from under the muzzle and muzzle of Nishizawa's gun. After escaping, the F6F quickly rose sharply again, as if it wanted to occupy a high-altitude position again and dive attack.

"It's really difficult!" Nishizawa, who was the ace, muttered, he now finally knew that the Great Japanese Empire was in trouble now!

The climb, speed, and dive performance of this new aircraft of the American ghost beast surpass that of the Zero Type 52, and the maneuverability is actually not bad, not to mention the firepower and solidity. It doesn't seem like it's going to be easy to knock them down!

Nishizawa was in a hurry, and Ozawa, who was watching the battle on the Akagi, also found that the future of the Great Japanese Empire was somewhat uncertain.

Because the battle in the air is extremely difficult! The number of fighters sent by his side is obviously superior (Ozawa did not send out all the fighters that were directly covered, only sent 60 Zeros to fight with US fighters, and also sent 26 FW-190T to expel the SBD and TBF hiding in the sky), but they could not fight an overwhelming victory in the air battle, but played an evenly matched, and from time to time Zero planes were beaten into "turkeys" and fell from the sky! (To be continued.) )