Vice Admiral Jizaburo Ozawa's First Japanese Mobile Fleet was discovered by an American Catarina seaplane near noon on March 16, 1943. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

At this time, Vice Admiral Halsey's U.S. 3rd Fleet was 1,200 nautical miles (2,220 km) away from them, and carrier-based aircraft simply couldn't reach them. Vice Admiral Spruance's Task Force 16 was more than 600 nautical miles (1,110 km) away, a distance that was still too far for carrier-based aircraft.

Panama City and the Galapagos Islands are also 600-1200 nautical miles away from them, because the United States does not yet have remote-controlled gliding bombs such as HS293 and Fritz-X (the United States now has a radio-controlled guidance bomb codenamed VB-1, but this bomb cannot glide, and can only change the landing point by adjusting the tail of the bomb, which is more suitable for dealing with road facilities on the ground, and the effect on surface ships is not good, so the Americans will only use them as a wave in a series of attack waves, and not alone. In addition, the Americans have also developed remote-controlled B-24 and remote-controlled B-17, which are super killers to be used against surface ships, but they are still being tested), so the B-24, B-17, and B-25 bombers deployed in the Panama Canal Zone are not very suitable for bombing the Japanese fleet.

As for the 19th Task Force, which had just left the port on the evening of 16 March, it was naturally impossible for it to immediately engage the Japanese 1st Mobile Fleet.

So during the day on March 16, there was no further exchange of fire between the fleets and planes of the United States and Japan. In addition, reconnaissance planes and seaplanes of various types sent by both sides did not discover each other's ships again.

On the afternoon of March 16, a tense tranquility slowly passed.

However, as night fell on 16 March, dozens of B-24 Liberator heavy bomber/reconnaissance planes and Catarina seaplanes carrying airborne radars began taking off from airfields in Panama and the Galapagos Islands, whistling towards the sea where the Japanese fleet had been spotted at noon and the surrounding waters.

"Commander, a B-24 has found the Japanese fleet!"

At around 22:30 that night, the reconnaissance plane sent out made a discovery.

"The Japanese fleet is approaching the coast of El Salvador or Nicaragua and has already reached the waters of K13 with about 30-40 ships!"

Ralph. Major General Henkel reported the discovery of the reconnaissance plane to Lieutenant General Gormley, and then he analyzed with a frown: "The Japanese should not have gone to attack El Salvador or Nicaragua...... I guess their goal is the Panama Canal! They wanted to delay the entry of American ships from the East Coast into the Pacific Ocean by blowing up the canal's sluice gates and dams, which was probably the only way they could delay their demise. ”

Because the number of Japanese ships detected was as high as 30-40, Rear Admiral Henkel did not consider this a bluff operation now.

"Looks like there's going to be a big battle tomorrow!" Vice Admiral Gormley looked at the latest position of the Japanese fleet on the chart, "Ralph, how many fighters can we dispatch after dawn tomorrow?" ”

"It's hard to get airplanes on the Galapagos Islands, and the Japanese should have carefully calculated the route." "Unless all the planes are transferred to Panama," Henkel said, ......

"No, it won't work." Gormley immediately vetoed Hinkel's proposal, "It is not yet certain that the target of the Japanese is the Panama Canal...... The Galapagos Islands are also a highly valuable target. Once the Japanese occupy it, the Panama Canal will be bombed every day! ”

Henkel thought for a moment and felt that Lieutenant General Gormley's concern was justified. The Galapagos Islands are the gateway to the Panama Canal, and if the gateway is lost, the role of the canal will be reduced by at least half.

Moreover, because the US military has not been stationed in the Galapagos Islands for a long time, it has not had time to build batteries and forts on the islands, and there are not even many marines guarding the islands, so the main garrison force of the islands is more than 100 aircraft belonging to the Marine Corps.

"Lieutenant General, shall we dispatch the first attack wave early tomorrow morning?" Rear Admiral Henkel then made a proposal to launch an attack, "to allow Task Force 16 and Task Force 19 to move closer to the Japanese fleet, and at the same time to send B-24, B-17, B-25 and P51 ...... from the Panama Canal Zone"

Because traces of the Japanese fleet were found in the territory of the Southeast Pacific Command, Vice Admiral Spruance's 16th Task Force is now under the command of the 9th Fleet. However, Halsey's 3rd Fleet was not under the jurisdiction of Vice Admiral Gormley because it was still in the Caribbean.

Therefore, in the proposal put forward by Rear Admiral Henkel, there was no mention of the 3rd fleet.

"Let's ask Lieutenant General Spruance for advice," Lt. Gen. Gormley said. "How to deal with the Japanese, he has more experience than me."

Vice Admiral Gormley was self-aware, he was not a "fleet general" but a "diplomatic general". Before the fall of the British mainland, he was the head of the naval delegation to Britain.

I still have a little understanding of the battles on the European Combined Fleet and the Arctic Circle route, and I don't know anything about the Japanese devils in the Pacific.

Spruance had previously served as chief of staff of the Pacific Fleet, and after Halsey's bad luck, he became the front-line commander of the Pacific Fleet, personally commanding escorts and breaking diplomatic operations.

"No, we can't get close to the Japanese fleet for the time being."

On the Enterprise, Vice Admiral Spruance immediately said to his chief of staff, Colonel Murray, after receiving a telegram from the Southeast Pacific Division: "I can't risk the Enterprise, the Yorktown, and the Independence, let Task Force 19 do it." ”

"Commander, do you want to let the 3 Borg-class aircraft carriers of Task Force 19 act as bait?" Colonel Murray immediately guessed Spruance's intentions.

Compared to the USS Enterprise and USS Yorktown, the value of the Borg-class escort aircraft carrier is much lower. And most of the Borg-class and its successor, the Casablanca-class (which has already been built one by one) were built in Seattle and Portland on the West Coast. Even if the Panama Canal is temporarily destroyed by the Japanese, the Borg-class and Casablanca-class can still be launched in batches - although the combat effectiveness of the escort aircraft carriers is far inferior to that of large fleet carriers such as the Enterprise, it cannot withstand the production of twenty or thirty ships a year (according to the plan, 10 ships of the Borg-class will be built in 1943, and 19 ships of the Casablanca-class will be built)!

And although the escort aircraft carrier is a bit "watery", the F6F and F4U carried on it are genuine.

Spruance pondered, "We can let Task Force 19 get close to the K13 sea area and send P51 from Panama to cover after the radar detects the Japanese fleet...... When the 19th Task Force and the Japanese planes were fighting, we approached from the north and launched a shuttle bombing. ”

The so-called shuttle bombing is a method of fighting in which planes are dispatched and no matter what they are called. After the carrier-based aircraft took off from the USS Enterprise, USS Yorktown, and USS Independence, the three aircraft carriers immediately withdrew north. After completing the attack mission, the plane went directly to the airfield in Nicaragua or El Salvador. So that no matter what the result of the air raid was, Spruance's three aircraft carriers would not be sunk by the Japanese.

"Your Excellency, the detectives have spotted another enemy plane." In the bridge command center of the aircraft carrier Akagi, this night was also a scene of facing a great enemy.

According to the repeated reports of the No. 21 and No. 13 telegraphers on the ships of the First Mobile Fleet, the discovery of enemy planes shows that the Americans have mastered the exact location of the First Mobile Fleet.

And now it must be the US military reconnaissance plane with radar installed that is running to harass endlessly!

Seeing that the officers in the command center were a little nervous, Ozawa Jizaburo looked very relaxed, and said with a smile: "We are in the tiger's den, but if we don't enter the tiger's den, how can we get the tiger?" ”

As he spoke, Ozawa turned and walked towards the hatch. His chief of staff, Furumura, hurriedly followed and asked, "Your Excellency, commander, where are you going to inspect?" ”

"Inspection?" Ozawa shook his head and smiled, "This is the Akagi, do you still need to inspect it?" The officer went back to the cabin to sleep. ”

"Sleep? But ......"

"But what?" Ozawa smiled, "Could it be that American planes can still come and bomb at night?" ”

Of course, this is impossible, the current radar technology can only allow American aircraft to detect the Japanese fleet, but it is impossible to support the American aircraft to launch an attack, otherwise it would be the United States to counterattack Hawaii.

"Your Excellency, Commander, the first attack wave ...... tomorrow"

"Cancel!" Ozawa waved his hand and said, "Air defense with all your might, let the Americans come first." ”

"What? Let the Americans attack first? Furumura was taken aback by Ozawa's words.

Ozawa shrugged, "It's inevitable, we haven't spotted the enemy's aircraft carrier yet, but the enemy already knows our exact location." So tomorrow morning, they will definitely attack first. But...... There is nothing to worry about, because we are not too close to Panama now, in a position just enough that the American P51s and their medium bombers can attack. But neither their SBD nor TBF can reach us, so we just took the opportunity to consume their P51 and at the same time attract American aircraft carriers to come and engage us.

As long as we can exhaust all the P51s in the Panama Canal Zone, we can at least destroy the canal's locks. ”

As a result of the surrender of the British mainland, the Japanese now understood the characteristics of most American fighters and were therefore able to develop targeted battle plans. In Ozawa's view, among the fighters currently equipped with the US military, the most threatening is the P51 series of aircraft. The ultimate range of this aircraft is almost the same as that of the Zero, and it also has a strong land-to-sea attack capability, and can be equipped with bombs as a fighter-bomber (in fact, there are also dive bombing models). Moreover, the performance of medium and low altitude combat and medium and high altitude is very average, and it is definitely the enemy of the Zero fighter and the combined fleet! (To be continued.) )