From the outset, the Battle of Kuah Island was divided into two battlefields - land and sea.

Of course, for Japan and the Americans, the distribution of land and sea aviation has divided the sky early.

In the original history, the most notable thing about Kuah Island was the battle for the island. And the most striking thing about this time and space is the naval and air battles between the two sides.

Although Vice Admiral Mikawa Gunichi in the previous life also participated in this battle, the protagonist on the Japanese side was not him, but Yamamoto Isoroku, who had changed the private inflection point and had not yet been shot down.

The Americans have only just begun to exert their forces in the Pacific Ocean and have not yet occupied the strategic advantage at this time in their previous lives. Yamamoto Fifty-six is still alive and jumping around.

Although he did not board the ship directly, he was based in Rabaul and had control over the operations of the entire Japanese fleet.

The island of Kuah he chose was undoubtedly very beneficial to the Japanese.

After the loss of Australia, the main forward base of the Japanese in the southwest Pacific was changed to Rabaul.

Rabaul in its previous life has always been a strategic point of contention between the Japanese and the Americans, where the Japanese rebuilt the city and port, as well as a large number of factories and tunnels, and even a brothel of 2,000 people.

Because of Australia, the construction of Rabaul was slow, but the scale of the Japanese troops stationed here also exceeded 100,000.

Most importantly, it is possible to carry out partial repairs to the ships, and there is also a large air force, and the combat radius of the fighters taking off from Rabaul can cover the vicinity of Kuah Island. This meant that the Japanese Navy's fleet received air support not only for the fighters stationed on Kuah Island, but also for the reinforcements that took off from Rabaul.

The Japanese abandoned Tulagi Island, the administrative center of the British Solomon Islands, as a base for their advance and rebuilt Honiara on Kuah Island, considering that the alluvial plain in the northern part of Kuah Island was more suitable for the construction of an airfield.

The convenient conditions also allowed the Japanese to have a large-scale airfield on Kuah Island, which could provide more services for fighters. This means that although the Japanese lack aircraft carriers, they can rely on the airfield on this island to drop more fighters in the air, provide air cover for the Japanese warships, and even attack those American warships.

Only for battleships, of course. As with the reasons for the entire strategic defeat of the Japanese in the original history, the Japanese still rarely attacked supply ships.

One reason is that they have always paid little attention to logistics.

The rise of the Japanese was accompanied by the idea of saving the whole country for the sake of war. Perhaps in order to cover up this embarrassment, the Japanese army's combat methods, such as the single-shot burst fire of the 38 Dagai, and the emphasis on bayonet hand-to-hand combat, and even the food were supplemented by looting, in short, there was little pressure on logistics.

Even the Japanese Navy, which spent a lot of money. is also extremely economical in terms of ammunition, otherwise there would not be the sentence of Heihachiro Togo, a cannon with 100 rounds is better than a cannon with 100 shots.

Whether it is facing the Americans in the previous life, or the Chinese vanguard army in this time and space, the Japanese are indescribably envious. But the thin national strength could not support them such luxury, so they could only eat grapes and continue to carry forward the spirit of bushido and their stinginess.

Used in battle, that is, they are not willing to consume ammunition needlessly. Don't say that those expensive torpedoes, even ordinary bombs, will be calculated and used.

In their eyes, those battleships that have been built at an expensive cost have valuable targets at this time, and every time they destroy one, they can weaken the enemy's strength. Let the enemy feel pain and pain, and finally be forced to the negotiating table.

It's a pity that they miscalculated their opponents, and in the eyes of the Americans, those battleships towed out of the assembly line are just some consumables.

And those undefended supply ships lose more than just those personnel. And those supplies. It's not that the Americans lack these, but the time it takes to send supplies from thousands of miles before the Hawaii base is perfected and there is a lack of enough supply points. Even the demoralization of those young master soldiers brought about by the lack of supplies, and the possible defeat caused by it. …,

The Americans paid more attention to the adverse effects of the collapse of logistics than to the Japanese.

However, the Japanese spared these supply ships, and both the warships and the fighters in the air aimed at those warships. The bigger the target, the more it attracts the Japanese who are fighting for honor and military exploits.

With the support of the Kuah airfield, the air support of Baular and Port Moresby at the same time, plus the Japanese warships swimming around the island, made the Americans not very good.

And at this time, the shortcomings of the lack of supply points for forward bases near the Americans were exposed.

Although enough supply ships were prepared. However, after Isoroku Yamamoto resolutely retreated to Kuah Island, the resistance battle or encounter battle expected by the Americans turned into a long confrontation war.

At this time, the Americans did not have enough supplies.

Fiji and New Caledonia were still in the hands of the Japanese, and although the main warships had gone to Kuah Island to participate in the decisive battle, the remaining destroyers and even torpedo ships were still a threat to the long supply lines.

Although the main target of the Japanese is not on the supply ships, it is not that the Japanese are stupid and will not let go of the fat that comes to their mouths.

In the absence of enough battleship targets, sinking a supply ship is also a feat.

Small- and medium-caliber shells for naval guns, or even just a few machine guns, can get good supplies for ship trophies.

As a last resort, the Americans, in addition to sending warships and even escort aircraft carriers to join the task of escorting supply ships, also reduced the size of the ships remaining in the Coral Sea.

At least in the early stage, because of the existence of Japanese warships, it was not possible to talk about shelling the islands or landing, and the long-distance contact between the two sides did not rely on naval guns, but on fighters.

While the 2 battleships retreated, preparing to gain a foothold in the rear first, the Coral Sea carriers became the main force of the attack.

The Americans sank 3 battleships through the Coral Sea, and only then did they have a deeper role with aircraft carriers, realizing that they did not need the participation of battleships, and they could still rely on aircraft carriers to level the opponent, or even directly level super battleships.

In the ensuing battle, they increased their air power, which also forced the Japanese to continuously invest more air power.

In this seemingly small air battle around Kuah Island, because of the fierce fighting that lasted for more than three months, the Japanese continued to invest more than 2,000 fighters.

Even though the Americans sent three more aircraft carriers during the period, nearly one-third of the fighters on the aircraft carriers participating in the war were still replaced.

On American aircraft carriers, there are more and more Hellcats, and in the face of Japan's main fighter Zero or even Super Zero, they have greater air superiority. But the new fighters of the Japanese have already appeared in advance.

The appearance of the Hurricane and Purple Electric fighters caused the Americans to suffer a lot, but the small number of advanced fighters could not influence the entire situation of the war.

The correct use of tactics can easily become one of the decisive factors in a battle.

The Japanese were not willing to be pressed and beaten by the Americans around Kuah Island, and Yamamoto Isoroku keenly aimed his attack on the aircraft carrier, which was the soft underbelly of the Americans' air war.

Compared with the fact that the Japanese built three more temporary airfields on Kuah Island and turned Kuah Island into an unsinkable aircraft carrier, the aircraft carriers of the American expedition do not seem to have such a great ability to resist strikes. As long as the aircraft carrier is sunk, or even just a few bombs are dropped on the runway of the aircraft carrier, it is possible to paralyze the attack power of the aircraft carrier and make those goshawks in the sky become rootless.

On November 9, the Japanese launched a counterattack on the American aircraft carriers.

In addition to the concentration of advanced fighters such as Hurricane and Purple Den, which tried to contain the Americans' escort fighters, the spontaneous Japanese suicidal tactics reappeared.

This frantic attack dealt a heavy blow to the Americans. The dense air defense nets of the surrounding cruisers and even battleships could hold back the Japanese torpedoes and bombers, but it was difficult to stop this indomitable suicidal onslaught.

On this day, 3 aircraft carriers were heavily damaged, and 1 of them was sunk by subsequent torpedo machines. Because of the damage to the aircraft carrier, the loss of 72 fighters also made the Americans extremely painful.

They were saddened not by the fighter planes that could be replenished at any time, but by the loss of the 34 pilots who had been lost with them.

In fact, it should be the Japanese who should be more heartbroken.

In the battle with the Japanese, the Americans attached great importance to the protection of the pilots, although the number of fighters lost a lot, the entire battle of Kuah Island lost more than 400 fighters, but most of the pilots survived, even if those parachuted on Kuah Island and became prisoners of the Japanese, they did not commit suicide, but also laid the foundation for maintaining future combat effectiveness.

And the jade spirit of the Japanese made those pilots who fought until the last moment also become consumables.

Compared with the total loss of more than 1,400 fighters in the battle of Kuah Island, they lost more than 600 pilots in this battle, including many elite Hainan Airlines pilots and a few aces.

This finally lived up to Meng Xiang's long-term planning.