At the time of departure, in the port of Panama, the 3rd Fleet of the US Navy's Pacific Fleet will board the bridge of the flagship "New Hampshire" and prepare to lead the team on the voyage.

The basic strength of the 3rd Fleet, which was formed in less than three weeks, includes:

Old Battleship 2 -

Connecticut-class 2 USS Vermont, USS New Hampshire (16.000 tons 412-inch gun, 18 knots).

Patrol 2——

Pennsylvania (Petersburg) class 2 Pueblo, USS Petersburg (48-inch guns, 14 6-inch guns, 22 knots).

Protective Cruiser 5 -

St. Louis Class 3 USS St. Louis, USS Milwaukee, USS Charliston (door 6-inch gun, 22/1904-1906 service).

Columbia-class 2 Columbia, USS Minnepolis (8,270 tons, 1 8-inch, 26, 84 guns, 225/1894-1896 service).

14 destroyers -

All of the Type 700 Paulding class (742, fuel powered, 32, 3 5-inch guns, 318-inch torpedo tubes).

There were also nine small inshore submarines of the "Holland" and "Holland-2 types", which were urgently transferred from the Norfolk base on the east coast shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor with two old battleships, because these submarines were really unsuitable for ocean-going voyages, and it is said that they were strung together by cables and towed by battleships to barely complete the 3,500-nautical-mile range.

As for the cruisers and destroyers, all of them were survivors of the Pearl Harbor disaster, and in fact, of the 21 cruisers assembled in Hawaiian waters on December 25 last year, only five failed to escape to the mainland. All 24 destroyers also lost 4, which is very fortunate and very comforting compared to the staggering loss rate of 12 of the 22 battleships destroyed and 4 damaged.

After personally experiencing the terrible air raid on Pearl Harbor, Vice Admiral Schroeder, who took office at the beginning of his tenure, took the strengthening of the fleet's air defense capability as the first fire; because anti-aircraft guns had to be given priority to the canal defenders, and the operation of installing anti-aircraft guns could not be carried out in Panama Port, which lacked ship repair facilities, Schroeder had to send people to search for machine guns, and concentrated on the ship's craftsmen to make a batch of self-made anti-aircraft gun mounts using the equipment of a forging workshop in Bana City.

With the support of the Commander-in-Chief of the Defense of Panama, Admiral Anderson. The 3rd Fleet quickly received almost 100 machine guns from the Army, and Vice Admiral Schroeder decided to add 6 cruisers and 2 destroyers to each battleship.

The sailors and craftsmen worked together to complete the entire work in just one week, while Schroeder contacted Fletcher's Navy Air Force and Mitchell's Army Air Force and asked them to send planes towing targets to assist the fleet in anti-aircraft firing training.

Fletcher feared that something would happen to his pilot, and he would only send out the plane when the weather was clear and windless. And no live fire is allowed, even if the target is a target towed one or two hundred meters behind the aircraft.

Mitchell offered reciprocal terms: he would use Martin's large four-engine aircraft to bomb warships, including dropping mock bombs with cork on them.

Schroeder agreed to Mitchell's request. What he could not understand was that the Army Air Corps was more eager to participate in naval battles than the Naval Air Corps......

Within two weeks, 600 crew members were trained in anti-aircraft fire, and 100,000 rounds of ammunition were fired.

The 600 crew members were divided into more than 200 firing groups and were responsible for operating more than 100 anti-aircraft machine guns on each ship, half of which were prepared to be replenished to the front line at any time.

In addition, additional anti-aircraft lookout posts were deployed, each of which was connected to the bridge by telephone lines and then transferred to various anti-aircraft firing positions.

The Mitchell Martin bombers worked so hard that sometimes they almost brushed the masts past the warship. The lookout posts on the mast were scared half to death, and with such enthusiastic friendly cooperation with the exercise, the sailors were naturally full of enthusiasm, and repeatedly amazed the brothers of the army in the live-fire tests.

Air defense is up. The main business of the fleet cannot be relaxed either.

Schroeder divided his forces into three groups, taking turns patrolling the mouth of the Gulf of Panama, and the ships that were not on duty were ready to fire at any time. The port's main shipping lanes are kept as clear as possible.

The "New Hampshire" was not on duty that day, but it had been agreed to coordinate the exercise with Mitchell's army aviation unit, and Schroeder would not miss such an opportunity.

"Plane found behind port side, single-plane, altitude 3000 feet), heading 010......"

The lookout's report came over the loudspeaker, and Schroeder climbed onto the open-air mast at the top of the bridge and raised his binoculars to confirm it with his own eyes.

"It's not like a Mitchell plane, it's flying too high, and the timing is not right......"

Mitchell's Martins are all four-engine big guys, Fletcher's Curtis is a twin-engine airship-type water plane, and the single-engine Schott S184 has a unique fusiform pontoon and rectangular fuselage, and Schroeder is all too familiar with them these days.

However, the plane in front of him was a single engine, and there was no pontoon boat underneath, but it was the same as the guys who appeared in the sky over Pearl Harbor in memory......

"Enemy, enemy, that Snitch is here again! Jack, go and send a telegram to General Anderson, no, pull the air defense siren first......"

At 257:33 local time on January [+Wind", the reconnaissance aircraft sent back a telegram: "Battleships 3,4 were found in the harbor, and the destroyer was cloudless. ”

A few minutes later, the plane added a report: "A water engine base was found in the harbor, and 15 planes were parked. ”

At about the same time, the fleet also received a report from a reconnaissance plane of the "Yunpeng": "An airfield was found 15 kilometers north of Panama City, with more than 20 aircraft.

The above was all the useful information obtained by the six reconnaissance planes sent to the north of the fleet.

The 4 reconnaissance aircraft sent to the west of the fleet found only a couple of fishing boats.

Aircraft sent to the east and south of the fleet encountered large areas of cumulonimbus clouds and were forced to return early.

740, the "Dapeng" lookout found a twin-engine water plane approaching from the north, and immediately sent a signal to the fighters on standby in the air, Lieutenant Dongfang Ming of the 501 Squadron put aside the wingman with engine failure, and attacked the enemy plane into a fireball at an altitude of 1,000 feet, opening the era of the fighter unit on the ship to shoot down the enemy plane in the air.

"It was discovered...... It's not easy to do......"

Liang Shuming watched the fireball fall slowly, and frowned unconsciously.

"The radio station didn't detect the anomalous radio waves, and it may not have had time to send an announcement." Lieutenant Colonel Wang Zilong, an intelligence staff officer who said this, obviously did not know that there was no radio station installed on the US plane.

"No matter what, you have to make up your mind - the order will go down, the first team and the Golden Falcon carrier aircraft are responsible for attacking the port, and the Saker carrier aircraft is responsible for attacking the northern airport of Panama City, and the first attack wave will be dispatched immediately!"