In the original history of World War II, Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi of the Japanese Navy first proposed the kamikaze attack of "one aircraft for one ship" in October 1944. The pen ~ fun ~ cabinet www.biquge.info tried to use crazy suicidal tactics to redeem the inevitable defeat prospect of Japanese militarism.

And in this time and space, Marshal Hesman, an old friend of Japanese militarism, although he repeatedly called for Japan to launch kamikaze attacks, was also responded to for a time. But this suicidal tactic was quickly abandoned by Japan's successive victories in the Pacific theater.

However, in September 1943, another form of "kamikaze tactics" appeared in the combat operations of the US Navy - instead of exchanging planes for warships, the Americans did the opposite, exchanging warships for planes!

Of course, it is not possible to change one ship for another, and local tyrants can't be such a loser, but a non-capital ship can be replaced with ten and eight aircraft, and Nimitz and Spruance are very satisfied.

Before the Battle of Christmas Island was launched, when Nimitz and Spruance formulated the "Hunter" plan, they set a target for replacing warships with aircraft -- one escort aircraft carrier (not including the carrier-based aircraft above) would not lose 10 Japanese planes, and a light air defense landing ship with a displacement of 1,500 tons (modified with a tank landing ship) would be considered as a cost, and a Fletcher-class destroyer with a standard displacement of 2,100 tons would need to be exchanged for six Japanese aircraft......

As for the exchange ratio of 1,365 F4U and F6F to Japanese aircraft (various aircraft play a total account), Nimitz and Spruance hope to achieve a 1:1 ratio.

As for the ratio of fuel consumption between the two sides, the American tyrants are willing to suffer a big loss, and they are willing to do it in exchange for the consumption of 3 tons of oil for the consumption of 1 ton of oil of the Japanese.

On the afternoon of September 26, 1943, Hawaii time, one of the most magnificent images of war was being staged in the Pacific theater east of Christmas Island. Hundreds of warplanes flew up and down in the sky, chasing each other, and from time to time planes were shot, dragging long columns of blue-black smoke toward the sea. Sometimes an umbrella flower blooms in the sky near the downing plane, and sometimes it dies together!

If you look closely, you will find that the combat in the air is clearly divided into two airspaces: high and low.

At an altitude of 6,000 meters to 8,000 meters, the American F4U and the Japanese wind fought each other. The speed of the F4U is significantly higher than that of the Blast, which can fly 668 km/h at an altitude of 6,000 meters, while the Blaster can only fly up to 600 km/h at the same altitude.

This speed is slower than that of the historical Hurricane, because the use of heat dissipation technology provided by Germany has increased the weight of the Ha-45 (Yu 21) engine, and at the same time, Japan's request for high-temperature alloy technology has been rejected by the United Kingdom and Germany.

Germany is willing to export the technology that can be copied to Japan, and the technology that cannot be copied cannot be easily provided. Therefore, Japan's Nakajima actually solved the problem of reliability of the 18-cylinder air-cooled engine by increasing weight and sacrificing performance (it was easy to catch fire before, and you could see Amaterasu when you fly).

In addition to the unsatisfactory maximum level flight speed, the high-altitude performance of the Hurricane fighter was also disappointing. This was also due to the poor performance of the Ha-45 engine. The Ha-45 engine has an output of only 1,300 horsepower at an altitude of 6,000 meters, and if it climbs further, the engine power will drop rapidly.

This is actually a consequence of the Japanese pursuit of an "all-round fighter". Japan's fighter design ideas are different from those of Germany, which pursues "airspace superiority" and focuses on high altitudes.

Japan, on the other hand, pursues an all-round fighter that requires good performance in all airspace, while at the same time emphasizing medium and low altitude combat performance. Therefore, they did not install a high-power supercharger on the Ha-45 engine (the high-power multi-stage supercharger is heavy and useless at low and medium altitudes), and as a result, the Ha-45 is underpowered at high altitudes.

Therefore, at an altitude of 6,000-8,000 meters, it is difficult to fight the F4U fighters who use the "hit and go" tactic. And if this fighter goes down to medium and low altitudes, its performance is not even as good as the Zero Type 52.

So in today's air battle, the wind is responsible for the opponent's F4U at medium and high altitudes, and the Zero Type 52 is against F6F at medium and low altitudes.

However, the Japanese Navy's Zero 52 also made the same mistake as the Army's Hurricane - pursuing all-airspace superiority, rather than going all out to improve low-altitude performance like Germany's Fokker Zero D.

With the use of a "separate thrust exhaust pipe" and an improved supercharger, the Zero 52 could fly at an altitude of 6000 meters to a speed of 565 km / h, while also gaining a maximum dive speed of 660 km / h by strengthening the body structure.

However, improvements aimed at improving medium- and high-altitude capabilities will inevitably come at the expense of some of the performance or improvement potential at medium- and low-altitude levels. Therefore, although the Zero Type 52 has gained the ability to maneuver around the F4U at medium and high altitudes, it has lost the possibility of crushing the F6F at medium and low altitudes.

The wrong design idea was reflected in the result of the Battle of Christmas Island, which was that the Japanese Hurricane and Zero Type 52 were caught in a bitter battle. They were faced with the F4U and F6F, which were no less powerful than themselves and more numerous-because some planes were assigned to chase the Japanese torpedo bombers (because it was the first wave of attack, all the torpedo planes were loaded with bombs) and dive bombers, and some fighters were also assigned to cover the aircraft carriers, so in the confrontation of fighters, the ratio of the number of American and Japanese fighters was about 2:1, and they soon fell into an all-out bitter battle. Of the downed planes, the Japanese Zero Type 52 and Hurricane accounted for the majority!

While the Zero Type 52 and the Hurricane were in a bitter battle, the Japanese torpedo bombers and dive bombers began to make a difference.

"Boom! Bang! There was a loud bang, followed by high droplets of water or fireballs. The shots were all landed ships and transport ships, and in a short period of time more than 30 ships caught fire or sank into the sea.

However, the victory of the Japanese aircraft was not without cost, and the first to inflict losses on them was the F6F and F4U chasing behind them. Although the escort Hurricane and Zero tried desperately to block it, there were too many American planes, and there were still hundreds of fighters chasing Japanese torpedo planes and bombers in the sky. Soon dozens of "Comets", "Tien Shan" and "Meteors" were torn apart by the powerful fire of American fighters.

After paying a certain price, the remaining 100-odd Japanese torpedo planes and bombers finally stormed into the US fleet's anti-aircraft fire circle -- according to the regulations of the US Naval Air Force, US fighters cannot rush into their own air defense fire circle during an engagement, they can only circle outside the air defense fire circle and wait for the Japanese fighters to flee before chasing and killing them.

However, temporarily evading the pursuit of US fighters does not mean that US surface ships can be slaughtered wantonly, even if those are only escort aircraft carriers, landing ships, and transport ships, but they are also protected by the "dumpling king" Fletcher-class destroyers with strong anti-aircraft firepower and other destroyers with enhanced anti-aircraft firepower.

And all American transport ships have anti-aircraft artillery installed, and the American landing ships that appear on the battlefield today are again "anti-aircraft type". Instead of infantry and tanks, 8 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns (4 twins) and 10 20mm Erikon guns were installed, and the anti-aircraft fire was almost comparable to that of an old destroyer. The US escort aircraft carriers are also equipped with two 127-mm single-barreled guns, 10 twin 40-mm guns, and several 20-mm guns, and their anti-aircraft firepower should not be underestimated.

Therefore, the more than 100 Japanese torpedo planes and bombers suddenly seemed to rush into a sea of fire, and Takahashi Heyi, who was piloting a "Meteor" dive bomber, only saw countless orange-red rays of light passing by at an extremely fast speed on both sides of the cabin cover. It's a scalp-tinging scene!

However, Takahashi still mustered up the courage to dive towards a 10,000-ton escort aircraft carrier in his own plane, and was very lucky to drop two 250-kilogram bombs - if he had carried out a torpedo today, he would probably not have been so lucky. Although the current US surface ships have greatly strengthened their air defense, the number of 40mm antiaircraft guns is still somewhat insufficient, and the 20mm machine guns cannot pose a huge threat to dive bombers. So in the battle for Christmas Island, the losses of Japanese dive bombers were still bearable.

After a loud "boom", a huge fireball rose from the amidships of the Borg-class aircraft carrier with a standard displacement of more than 11,000 tons.

"Onboard!" Seeing the aircraft carrier on fire, bombardier Koizumi shouted excitedly, but Takahashi's brow was tightly furrowed. Because he has already discovered that the anti-aircraft fire of American surface ships is unusually strong!

The sky was full of fast-flying rays and black smoke that exploded, as well as Japanese planes dragging black smoke into the sea.

Although Takahashi wisely chose a formation of landing ships and transport ships with weak anti-aircraft fire to attack. But the losses were still more than he imagined! The most tragic fate was the desperate blocking of the eye-catching Hurricane Fighter and the Zero Fighter, which were frantically chased and killed by the F4U and F6F, which far outnumbered them, and lost nearly half of them in a very short period of time! And the fate of dive bombers and torpedo bombers was not much better, with heavy losses under the attack of American fighters and anti-aircraft artillery of surface ships!

"What a loss!"

When the first attack wave of the Japanese planes receded, Miles. Major General Browning's somewhat trembling voice rang in Spruance's ears. From the telescope of the chief of staff of Task Force 58, at least 30 huge columns of smoke appeared on the surface of the sea, indicating that at least 30 American ships had eaten the bomb!