On the morning of 17 March, the U.S. Task Force 19, led by the flagship heavy cruiser USS Wichita, was slowly moving west along the coastline of Panama at a speed of 12 knots. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The reason why the speed is so slow is that there are 3 Borg-class escort carriers in the fleet with a maximum speed of only 18 knots. Because of their presence, Task Force 19 could only move slowly. From leaving Panama City at 7 p.m. yesterday to 10 a.m. this morning, I walked only 180 nautical miles in 15 hours, and now I have just driven out of Panama Bay.

"Commander, the B24 has spotted the Japanese fleet, in the S1 sea, about 600 nautical miles from us."

At 10:12 a.m., the communications staff officer of Task Force 19 reported to the commander, Rear Admiral Smith, the information he had just received.

"S1 Sea?" Major General Smith looked at the charts, "It's almost Salvador...... What do the Japanese want to do? Go to El Salvador to fight the United Fruit Company? ”

The Republic of El Salvador is also one of the "banana republics" in Central America controlled by the United States, and although it participates in the Allied bloc, no one in the whole country really wants to go to war with Germany and Japan, and of course it is not armed. If the Japanese landed there, probably only the farms of the United Fruit Company would be able to resist - which, by the way, owned millions of acres of land in several banana republics, and also operated, railways, shipping, docks, telephones, telegraphs, broadcasting, publishing, power generation, beverages, sugar, wood processing, and so on, and mercenaries to defend all this wealth. In fact, it was the American version of the "East India Company", and if the Japanese were to land there, it would be this large fruit company that would fight them. But even if Japan wins the United Fruit Company, will they still be able to hold off the US military counterattacking from the Caribbean?

"It can't be El Salvador," said Task Force 19 Chief of Staff Stannap. Colonel Lin was a Navy pilot and once served as a wing commander of the Hornet's carrier-based aircraft, "probably to bomb the Panama Canal...... Now that they are only 700 nautical miles from the Panama Canal, the Japanese carrier-based aircraft have a relatively large range and should be able to attack. ”

700 nautical miles is almost 1,300 kilometers, whether it is the Zero Type 52, the Comet ship explosion or the Tianshan naval attack, it can basically be obtained.

Since the release of the P51, P47, F4U, and F6F high-performance fighters, the Japanese planes in the Pacific Ocean no longer have any performance advantages at all, and the only thing that is sure to overwhelm the American planes is about a larger range.

In addition, the low-altitude performance of the Zero type still has certain advantages. Except for the shore-based P51 and the carrier-based F6F, which can fight against the Zero at low altitude, other types of fighters are not opponents.

"But the Japanese will attack us first!" Major General Smith shook his head, "We are now targets, as long as the Japanese reconnaissance planes find us......"

I don't know if it was a crow's mouth, but as soon as Rear Admiral Smith's words fell, the radar officer of the Wichita reported loudly: "Sir, the radar has found enemy aircraft, the number is 1, and the height is 6000. ”

Major General Smith and Colonel Lin glanced at each other, and Colonel Lin said, "Major General, Japan has a very fast carrier-based dive bomber, and maybe their attack aircraft group will arrive in two and a half hours." ”

He was talking about the Comet carrier-based dive bomber, which, after being fitted with air-cooled engines of the BMW 801 series produced by the French company Aless, could still reach a maximum speed of more than 520 km/h when fully loaded with bombs. If the bomb is dropped, the Comet ship burst will reach a speed of up to 580 km/h, which is only 31 km/h slower than the American F6F, and even 15 km/h faster than the Zero-52.

Therefore, this kind of Comet carrier-based dive bomber with high speed has become another big trump card of the Japanese combined fleet after the Zero fighter. At 10:18 a.m. on March 17, it was discovered that the Japanese reconnaissance plane of the 19th US Task Force was also a Comet carrier-based crit plane (reconnaissance type).

"Your Excellency, the reconnaissance aircraft discovered the American aircraft carrier, near the Bay of Panama, 3 light aircraft carriers, 3 cruisers and 6 destroyers!"

Jizaburo Ozawa, who had a good night's sleep last night and is now full of energy, showed a disappointed expression when he heard the news.

Although the battle for Panama has not yet officially begun, there are unexpected things one after another.

The first was that an American fleet sailing into the Caribbean did not pass through the Panama Canal according to the Japanese schedule.

Then there was the fact that the U.S. forces in Panama did not send P51 escorts B-17, B-24 and B-25 to bomb according to the principle of "first spot, first attack" as Ozawa imagined...... At least not yet.

And now, Comet reconnaissance bombers have spotted 3 more American light aircraft carriers outside the Bay of Panama!

"It should be Borg, or it could be Independent." Furumura Keizo said, "Your Excellency Commander, are you going to send carrier-based aircraft?" ”

Jizaburo Ozawa is a little worried, this time the Americans' behavior seems to be a bit strange!

"Did the enemy planes in other directions find it?" Jizaburo Ozawa sent not just one comet, but 18 comets to conduct a careful search for a radius of several hundred nautical miles around it.

"Nope." Furumura said, "However, the Comet planes heading northeast and due east were intercepted by US planes and returned in vain." ”

At present, the position of the Japanese First Fleet is relatively close to the coastline of Central America, and the distance in a straight line is only three or four hundred kilometers. So the Comet planes sent to the east and northeast to reconnoiter were intercepted by shore-based planes deployed by the United States in Nicaragua and Honduras.

"What plane intercepted it?" Ozawa asked.

"It's a P40," Furumura replied, "and it's supposed to be a U.S. Army plane." Your Excellency, Commander, would you like to send a few more comets? ”

Jizaburo Ozawa was silent for a moment and nodded, "Send 2 more planes to escort the Zero." I must search the west coast of the Caribbean so that I can rest assured. ”

The long and narrow Central American corridor separating the Caribbean Sea from the Pacific Ocean is a very special sea area in which the Japanese First Mobile Fleet is located, and the US fleet cannot come and go to and from both sides of Central America without going through the Panama Canal. But the American carrier-based aircraft can come, so Jizaburo Ozawa sent a comet plane to search for it this morning.

"Your Excellency Commander, are we going to send carrier-based aircraft to bomb American aircraft carriers now?" Furumura Keizo asked again.

"Now let's sail south for two hours at 25 knots." Jizaburo Ozawa said, "Then the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Air Groups will send two attack waves, the first attack wave will consist of the Comet Ship Explosion and the Zero Battle, and the target will be the American aircraft carrier; The second attack wave consisted of the Tien Shan naval attack, with 45% of the aircraft carrying torpedoes, 40% of the aircraft carrying bombs, and 15% of the Tien Shan naval attacks carrying flares, and the target was the Panama Canal locks! ”

At 25 knots, it would take 50 nautical miles to go south in two hours, and if the U.S. fleet were to stay put, the distance between the two sides would be reduced by up to 50 nautical miles, and the distance between the First Mobile Fleet and Panama would also be reduced by 50 nautical miles.

This will allow the 1st Attack Wave to fly 550 nautical miles (about 1000 km) to launch an attack on the American fleet. The second attack will fly 650 nautical miles (about 1,200 kilometers) to attack the locks of the Panama Canal.

In addition, time and weather are also factors considered by Jizaburo Ozawa. It's 10:20 a.m. If the 2nd attack wave is released after 3 hours (the 1st attack wave should start being released after 2 hours), taking into account the time of take-off and formation, when the 2nd attack wave flies to the Panama Canal, it will be almost 7 o'clock in the evening.

At 10-0 degrees north latitude, where day and night are more even, it is already dark. Therefore, the attack on the Panama Canal was a night attack -- it was difficult to find the canal's locks at night and fly at ultra-low altitude to drop bombs.

But in this time and space, the Japanese Navy did not suffer the fiasco of Midway and the attrition of Kuah, and most of the flight elites of the older generation are still there. This is the only way to blow up the canal locks.

Jizaburo Ozawa paused, and then said: "Inform Captain Hersman again, and ask him to arrange for JU288 to assault the Panama Canal Zone from a high altitude at about 6:30 tonight!" ”

The raid on the Panama Canal with JU288 was a plan that had been set for a long time, and the Japanese and German sides had already negotiated a specific plan. A brigade armed with JU288 bombers had long been deployed to Guyana and could go to the Panama Canal at any time. However, the bombing will definitely miss the target, because the Americans have deployed night combat models of P47 and P38 in the Canal Zone. Both of these aircraft have strong firepower and extremely superior high-altitude performance, which is not a small threat to the JU288, and can often force the JU288 to drop bombs and escape.

And Ozawa's request for the JU288 deployed in Guyana to attack immediately was actually the result of careful calculation.

According to the results of the war games conducted by the Combined Fleet Command, when the JU288 came to attack at dusk approaching night, the US forces in Panama would definitely send both the day P47 and the night P38 to intercept it.

And when the Japanese Tenshan attack aircraft attacked, it should be the time when the American P47 returned to land. At this time, most of the US military airfields in the Panama Canal Zone will turn on searchlights to help P47 land.

In this way, these airfields will become targets for Japanese Tien Shan attack aircraft coming from ultra-low altitudes! (To be continued.) )