Chapter 812: Such a Miserable Victory
March 17, 1943, 9:45 pm.
Eastern Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Ecuador, 180 nautical miles. The light of several dazzling searchlights pierced the dark night, like several lightsabers reaching into the sky.
A fully loaded Japanese fleet aircraft carrier with a displacement of more than 40,000 tons turns on its searchlights in an area near the Panama Canal where American reconnaissance planes and submarines are everywhere. This is almost like seeking death!
However, little Hersman, who was on the aircraft carrier at this time, knew that the commander of the First Mobile Fleet, Ozawa Jisaburo, really had no choice.
The losses of the First Mobile Fleet in this Panama Battle were too great...not just the two "Sangryu" class aircraft carriers, but also medium-sized aircraft carriers such as the "Sangryu" class and the "Unryu" class (an evolved version of the Soryu) It may take some time to build it by a Japanese shipyard, but if it is built by a European Community shipyard, 18 months from keel laying to completion will be enough.
Now that the UK has become a member of the European Community, the European Community's shipbuilding capabilities are very rich. It is not a problem to start construction of 10 or 20 ships at a time. The problem is just whether the Japanese are willing to part with money - after all, Germany is not a rich American, and cannot afford the Lend-Lease Act. It can only engage in "barter trade", so Japan must give something valuable in exchange...
Of course, money is not an issue when it comes to the survival of the country. So what Japan lacks now is not aircraft carriers, but pilots to fly carrier-based aircraft! In this Panama naval battle, Japan's biggest loss was not its two medium-sized aircraft carriers, but the pilots on the aircraft carriers.
Little Hersman didn't know what happened to other aircraft carriers, but little Hessman knew everything about the situation on the Akagi. This morning, there were 72 regular aircraft and 18 reserve aircraft on the Akagi, but now there are only 35 aircraft left on the aircraft carrier! Among them, there are only 10 carrier-based fighters left, 19 carrier-based dive bombers, only 6 carrier-based torpedo attack aircraft left as backup aircraft without crews, and there are also 2 Zero fighter pilots without aircraft ( There are still some pilots with parachutes).
In other words, there are still 41 crew members who have not returned, including Hersman's good friend Major Shigeru Itaya - he has now been confirmed as "a god" by the Akagi Air Force, but little Hersman thinks Itaya Mau would most likely end up in an American prisoner of war camp.
But this is irrelevant to Ozawa Jisaburo. For Ozawa, the crews of the Zero ship battle and the Comet ship explosion that have not returned have been lost... The Japanese Navy will not let seaplanes risk search and rescue after falling into the water. pilot. If only the captain with the highest value is counted, the losses so far have been as high as 182 people!
If all the Tianshan torpedo bombers that have not returned are abandoned, the loss will be as high as 290 people, which accounts for almost two-thirds of the number of carrier-based aircraft (aircraft carrier) captains in the First Mobile Fleet.
These are two-thirds of the most elite naval pilots in Japan! If Hessman Jr. is to evaluate, the value of these 290 people is definitely more than four Soryu-class aircraft carriers.
Moreover, Germany and the European Community can build aircraft carriers for Japan, but it is impossible to provide Japan with 290 elite pilots. Because Germany also had a limited number of elite pilots, and had to deal with the battles on the Atlantic battlefield and the Soviet-German battlefield, it was not very wealthy.
Therefore, when the Akagi took the risk and turned on the searchlight, all the hull decks on the sea were filled with people who were eagerly looking forward to the return of the fighter planes. There were also many Japanese soldiers muttering words, as if praying to Amaterasu.
"Your Excellency, Commander! The radar detected a group of aircraft flying from the southeast. There are more than 50 in number and the distance is 100 kilometers..."
Someone suddenly shouted on the bridge of the Akagi aircraft carrier. Ozawa Jisaburo, who was looking out of the bridge with his neck raised, immediately turned his head and asked: "Is it our plane?"
"Recognizing."
At this time, the aircraft all have identification friend or foe devices, which are actually a set of radio question and answer machines. The interrogation machines are installed on the ground/ships, and the transponders are installed on the own aircraft. After the radar detects the target, the interrogator on the ground/ship sends a coded signal, and the transponder on the aircraft can decrypt the signal and then answer. Such a set of systems is also present on Japanese aircraft and surface ships.
"It's our plane!" the radar officer on the Akagi shouted again after a while, "Commander, it's our plane... they are finally back!"
We are back, but not 108, but 56.
Although the 108 Tianshan attack aircraft dispatched by Ozawa carefully flew at ultra-low altitudes and avoided American radar, they happened to encounter the US military's own aircraft returning home. Therefore, the Americans were caught off guard and successfully blew up several airports.
However, the American anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns deployed near the canal locks played a role when the Japanese aircraft raided, causing heavy losses to the Tianshan attack aircraft flying at low altitudes to drop torpedoes!
It is no exaggeration to say that the four destroyed canal locks were purchased with the lives of Japanese pilots!
Naturally, the 52 Tianshan attack aircraft and the 156 crew members on board all became gods. So March 17th is really the day when the Japanese naval aviation became a god.
"233 captains...what a heavy loss!"
Seeing the last Tianshan attack aircraft landing safely on the deck of the Akagi, Ozawa Jisaburo turned his head and gave a wry smile to the chief of staff next to him, Furumura Keizo. He added: "Now, I am the sinner of the United Fleet and the Empire... With 2 aircraft carriers and 233 crews, the strength of the United Fleet has been greatly damaged!"
"No, Commander, you are a hero of the empire!" Furumura gritted his teeth and said, "No one will regard you as a sinner, because the Panama War is extremely difficult and dangerous. At the beginning of the war, Commander Yamamoto once predicted, Even if the surprise attack is successful, our initiative in the Pacific can be maintained for up to 12 months. This is caused by the gap in national strength and cannot be completely made up by vigorous fighting... But now our initiative has been maintained for more than 15 months. In September, Your Excellency, the Commander, now commanded the fleet to destroy the Panama Canal locks, allowing our initiative to be extended for another 6-10 months. With these 6-10 months, the defense of the Hawaiian Islands will be impregnable.
Therefore, all the heroes who became gods today have no regrets! "
Ozawa Jisaburo sighed softly. In fact, he made no mistakes in his command today, and he also successfully completed the task of blowing up the ship lock...if the pilots of the Tianshan ship attack did not lie.
Although the loss of the First Mobile Fleet was due to bad luck, the main reason was still due to the strength of the enemy!
"The United States is indeed as powerful as we imagined!" Ozawa Jisaburo smiled bitterly, "It seems that the bitter battle between the Combined Fleet and the Japanese Empire is about to begin."
"Immediately?" Gucun Qizang was stunned, "The Panama Canal has been destroyed..."
"But the United States still has two large aircraft carriers, at least four light aircraft carriers, and a large number of escort aircraft carriers in the Pacific." Ozawa sighed, "According to intelligence, most of the United States' escort aircraft carriers are in Seattle and Porter on the West Coast. Built by Lan.”
"But those are just escort carriers." Furumura Keizang said.
Ozawa Jisaburo's "grandma's face" wrinkled up and said: "Furumura-kun, don't you understand yet? In the eyes of Americans, aircraft carriers are just consumables, and what Americans are fighting with us now is consumption.
In today's air combat, the exchange ratio between us and American aircraft is likely to be less than 1:1, and the United States can equip and train an aviation force 10 times larger than ours! If you were the commander of the U.S. Navy, would you give up the opportunity to compete with us because the aircraft carrier is too small and thin? "
…
"233 crews, 2 aircraft carriers..."
On March 18, Hessmann, Chief of the General Staff of the German Wehrmacht, looked at the report sent by his son Hessmann Jr. using the radio on the Kaiser Friedrich III. Ed, Weaver, Redl and others smiled and said: "Fortunately we captured the British mainland in time, otherwise these American planes would use the British mainland as a base to deal with us sooner or later."
The outbreak of the Americans had actually been anticipated by Hessman. If the atomic bomb was not considered in World War II, it would have been an oil fight to put it bluntly! Both the Axis camp and the Allied camp actually have enough mechanized equipment production capacity. The question is, is there enough oil to operate them?
The United States now controls the largest oil production, about 260 million tons a year, the Soviet Union has more than 40 million tons, Germany also controls more than 40 million tons, and Japan controls about 8 million tons.
In other words, the Axis powers have 50 million tons of oil, and the Allies still have 300 million tons of oil!
The United States and the Soviet Union still have a 6-fold advantage!
If the British mainland had not knelt down in January, as long as the United States could increase the fighter exchange ratio with Germany to 1.5:1 or even 2:1, the United States would still have a fight in Europe.
Even now, the United States cannot say that it has no chance. As long as the Soviet Union can exhaust Germany enough, the United States will still have a chance to counterattack the European continent. It’s just that the losses will be greater, it will take longer, and most likely there will be no victory – after all, Germany will definitely have the atomic bomb by then!
So the question now is whether Stalin fell first or Japan's Emperor Hirohito became MacArthur's gray grandson first.
If the Soviet Union kneels down, the United States will not be able to fight the war even if it has several times more oil. Because at that time the United States was almost at war with the whole world. At that time, peace will be the only option for the United States.
If Emperor Hirohito kneels down first, then Hessmann's European Community will have a big headache in the future...