Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 2271 Blind Fleet
The time from the discovery of the Japanese fleet to the shooting down of the seaplane was very short, and the content of the telegram sent was also very short. There was no detailed description of the Japanese fleet, and it was too late to send the specific location.

There is a general location, and the detection direction of the reconnaissance plane is very clear. Even if there is no detailed location, a lot of information can be inferred.

An hour later, a seagull reconnaissance plane belonging to the Indian Ocean Navy arrived at the area where the seaplane was shot down, but the Japanese warship had disappeared without a trace.

It doesn't matter, no matter which direction the Japanese joint fleet goes, the final destination must be Guam, and more and more reconnaissance planes and submarines are gathering in this area.

Another half an hour later, a "ghost submarine" belonging to the East India Navy issued an early warning and found a Japanese fleet about 900 kilometers northwest of Guam. The fleet contained large Japanese aircraft carriers and battleships.

This location is about 270 kilometers away from the location where the seaplane was shot down. In such a short period of time, the fleet that shot down the seaplane could not have traveled so far. Therefore, the staff judged that this might be a Japanese squadron.

Since the squadron included large Japanese warships, Tang Li immediately ordered the reconnaissance plane to go to this area for reconnaissance, and ordered the combined fleet on standby in Guam to leave the port for operations.

The "Seagull" still did not find the Japanese fleet when it arrived in the relevant sea area, and the "Ghost Submarine" also lost its target because of its insufficient speed.

At this time, night was gradually falling, and the pilot's field of vision was greatly restricted. An army aviation "Cheetah" fighter jet on patrol spotted a Japanese water reconnaissance plane.

After the aircraft carrier replaces the battleship as the core of the formation, who can first discover the location of the enemy fleet becomes the key to winning the naval battle.

This has already been demonstrated in previous military exercises in southern Africa.

The Japanese have also increased their emphasis on aircraft carriers.

But the degree of attention is not enough. .

After the successful attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese navy was full of confidence. The Japanese government declared that Japan had become the "powerful navy" and did not pay attention to the US, British and southern African navies. Lieutenant General Nagumo Chuichi, commander of the 1 Air Fleet, even claimed: No matter what the task is, I can complete it.

As a result, the First Air Fleet led by Chuichi Nagumo was attacked by frogmen from the Southern African Navy in Manila. Both "Akagi" and "Soryu" were sunk, and the strength of the First Air Fleet was greatly damaged. The famous "Xianghe" and "Ruihe" both went to battle, and the main force of the combined fleet came out in full force.

The fiasco in Manila did not change Nagumo Tadaichi's attitude. Up to now, Nagumo Tadaichi still firmly believes that the Japanese navy is superior enough to defeat the southern African navy, because the "Akagi" and "Cangryu" were not sunk on the battlefield, but by the southern Africa was wounded in a sneak attack, Nagumo Chuichi even had illusions about "Akagi" and "Cangryu", hoping to salvage "Akagi" and "Cangryu" and send them back to Japan for maintenance.

This must be a fantasy. Manila is now being attacked by the Southern African Air Force every day. The "Akagi" and "Cangryu" that are still sitting in Manila have changed beyond recognition. The Southern African Air Force is not even using the "Akagi" and "Cangryu" as attacks. target, because it has lost its attack value.

Throughout the night, the reconnaissance planes of the Indian Ocean Fleet and the Pacific Fleet were busy looking for the location of the Japanese Combined Fleet.

The same is true for the Japanese Combined Fleet. In addition to the four large aircraft carriers, the Japanese Combined Fleet also has four so-called "aircraft carriers" that can only carry seaplanes. The platform carrying the seaplane is called an "aircraft carrier".

According to this standard, all heavy cruisers and some light cruisers in the world can also be counted as aircraft carriers.

At 6 o'clock in the morning, an F600F carrier-based aircraft belonging to the Pacific Fleet spotted the Japanese combined fleet about [-] kilometers northwest of Guam, and a large number of Allied fighter jets swarmed in.

The first torpedo plane that arrived over the combined Japanese fleet was the torpedo plane that took off from the USS "Enterprise".

The Americans hated the Japanese, and the US commander who led the torpedo fleet launched a surprise attack on the Japanese fleet without air protection.

The result was very tragic. The Japanese combined fleet was a complete formation with very strong anti-aircraft firepower, and it was also protected by "Zero" carrier-based aircraft that took off from the aircraft carrier.

All 12 U.S. torpedo planes were shot down, and most of the torpedo planes didn't even get a chance to launch torpedoes. Only three torpedo planes stared at the frantically chasing "Zero" and the overwhelming anti-aircraft firepower to launch torpedoes, but they didn't hit any. Target.

The second wave of torpedo planes arrived on the battlefield. The commander who led the team did not know the tragic fate of the last wave of torpedo planes. After arriving on the battlefield, they also directly attacked the Japanese fleet.

The pilots of the "Zero" carrier-based aircraft were extremely happy.

The speed of the torpedo plane carrying the heavy torpedo is not fast. In order to ensure the attack effect, it has to fly close to the sea surface. The biggest advantage of the "Zero" lies in the low-altitude combat. This kind of fighting method that the gourd baby saves grandpa has no effect on the Japanese combined fleet. any threat.

At 6:15 in the morning, the "Cheetah" that took off from Saipan finally arrived at the battlefield and started a fierce air battle with the "Zero".

The "Cheetah" has a performance advantage, and the "Zero" has the help of the anti-aircraft firepower of the Japanese combined fleet. The battle was unprecedentedly fierce. "It fell directly into the sea, and the pilot didn't even have the chance to parachute.

Parachute jumping is useless. Don't expect the Japanese army to abide by the "Personnel of War Convention" and give prisoners of war treatment that matches their status, even if it is very difficult to train and expensive fighter pilots.

The Japanese can even kill American prisoners with impunity, and the same is true in southern Africa.

As time went by, more and more "Cheetahs" arrived on the battlefield, and the situation began to be unfavorable for the Japanese army.

When the "Zero Type" is fighting against the "Cheetah", it must also pay attention to dealing with the dive bombers and torpedo planes that are constantly attacking the fleet.

A "Zero" was accidentally shot down by its own anti-aircraft artillery fire while chasing a "Seagull" bomber. Instead of pulling up the nose, it crashed directly into the Japanese aircraft carrier "Hyryu" which was taking off fighter jets.

The "Seagull" hit the flight deck of the "Flying Dragon", and the deck of the "Flying Dragon" burst into flames instantly, losing its combat capability in a short time.

Don't expect too much from the Japanese army's damage control capabilities. In another time and space, the American "Yorktown" was badly damaged during the Coral Island naval battle, and returned to Pearl Harbor with a [-]-mile-long oil stain. In three days and three nights, the fighting ability will be restored.

The "Xianghe", which was also severely damaged in the naval battle of Coral Island, missed the ensuing naval battle of Midway Island.

This time and space is the same, "Chicheng" and "Canglong" have not been fished out yet, and most of them will lose their maintenance value if they are fished out.

Repairing is not easier than rebuilding a ship. The key is value. The Japanese acquire the steel needed to build warships by purchasing ships that are about to be demolished from the United States. How strong can these remelted steel be.

Southern Africa and the United States never do this. If the ship is scrapped, it is more likely to be sunk as a target ship in military exercises.

At 7.30 in the morning, the "Goshawk" fighters from the Indian Ocean Fleet and the F6F carrier-based fighters from the Pacific Fleet also joined the battle. At this time, the ratio of the Japanese carrier-based fighters above the battlefield to the coalition fighters reached 1:3. The fleet doesn't even have torpedo planes and bombers yet.

To dispatch torpedo planes and bombers, the position of the coalition fleet must first be found.

The Japanese did not pay enough attention to reconnaissance aircraft, and they didn't even have professional reconnaissance aircraft. The fleet's reconnaissance missions were carried out by battleships and seaplanes carried by heavy cruisers.

Seaplanes lack attack capability and protection, and they can't fly high or fast. Although the range is not bad, they will die if they encounter coalition fighter jets.

Moreover, the number of seaplanes is seriously insufficient. Battleships can carry at most three, and most heavy cruisers can only carry one. With this number of seaplanes, finding the location of the coalition fleet in hundreds of square kilometers of sea area is similar to finding a needle in a haystack.

Even if the location of the coalition fleet is found, if the Japanese torpedo planes and bombers want to attack the coalition fleet, they must first break through the interception of coalition fighter jets and the air defense firepower network of the coalition fleet.

The attack aircraft currently used by the Japanese army is the 97 carrier-based attack aircraft. This aircraft was developed by the Japanese army in 1935. It is an old model close to ten years ago. Although the Japanese side has upgraded the 97 ship attack aircraft, its performance is still seriously insufficient. .

The 97 ship attack can carry torpedoes, because it lacks the ability to dive, it can also carry bombs for horizontal bombing.

The fastest speed of the 97 ship attack is only 377 kilometers per hour. Under the current standard of [-] to [-] kilometers per hour for fighter jets, as long as it is spotted by fighter jets, it will be a dead end.

As for the battleships, the battleships of the Midway Island in another time and space, the battleships of the Japanese Combined Fleet, had super large-caliber main guns, and had no chance to be used from the beginning to the end. Even the anti-aircraft firepower proved to be unsuitable for aircraft carrier operations. .

This time is also the same. While the coalition aircraft carrier formation is fighting fiercely with the Japanese aircraft carrier formation, the main Japanese fleet attacking Guam is still 200 nautical miles away. According to the fastest speed of "Yamato" at 27 knots, it will take about seven and a half hours to reach the battlefield. Hours, when "Yamato" arrived, the day lily was cold.

Even if it can arrive in time, "Yamato" can't catch up with the aircraft carrier's starting speed of 30 knots.

As soon as the battle broke out, Nagumo Chuichi sent a telegram to the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet Yamamoto 56 for help.

Yamamoto 56 did not reply to Nagumo Chuichi. The main fleet he led was still advancing towards Guam. As long as "Yamato" arrived in Guam, it would be able to destroy all the Guam military port and island defense facilities.

This is destined to be an extravagant hope. The coalition forces have much more fighters than the Japanese estimated before the war. Even if half of the fighters are allocated to deal with the fleet led by Nagumo Chuichi, there is still room to deal with the main fleet led by Yamamoto 56.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, a "Seagull" reconnaissance plane spotted the main Japanese fleet led by Yamamoto 250 56 nautical miles west of Guam.

The two "City" class aircraft carriers "Elizabeth" and "Salisbury" and the "Nyasaland" aircraft carrier took the initiative to meet them.

The three aircraft carriers carry a total of 350 fighters.

The main fleet led by Yamamoto 56 has only two seaplane carriers, carrying a total of 50 seaplanes.

At 10:50, the "Goshawks" of the three fighter squadrons took off from the three aircraft carriers respectively. After completing the formation above the fleet, they marched towards the main Japanese fleet led by Yamamoto 56.

This order was too cautious. The Japanese fleet did not have any fighter jets to protect it. The poor attack power of the seaplanes could be dealt with by the "Sea Harrier" itself.

In other words, the "Sea Harrier" does not need the protection of fighter jets at all when it attacks.

There are a total of 36 "Goshawks" in the three fighter squadrons, and their opponents are 50 seaplanes with backward performance.

There were no surprises in the result of the battle. Only one "Goshawk" was lost during the battle, and all the seaplanes that the Japanese army took off were shot down.

The Japanese army only took off less than 40 seaplanes, and the remaining seaplanes did not dare to take off at all.

Even if they all take off, it's useless. We can only give honor to the "Goshawk" pilots. This time, the Indian Ocean Fleet gave birth to two ace pilots.

These two ace pilots had accumulated three shooting down results before joining the battle. During the battle, the other pilots cooperated very well and tried to leave the chance of shooting down to these two pilots.

The two lucky guys lived up to expectations. After the battle, the results accumulated to five and six respectively, and they were successfully promoted to ace pilots.

By the way, before the outbreak of the Guam naval battle, the Southern African Indian Ocean Fleet already had 45 ace pilots.

The only regret is that among the 45 aces, only 37 were shot down the most, which is incomparable with those famous aces that cost hundreds.

Southern Africa is different from Germany. Germany has a small number of pilots, so the results of the ace are terrible.

There are many fighters in southern Africa, and there are opportunities for pilots to participate in the battle. Most of the time, there are more wolves and less flesh. Pilots want to become "aces". In addition to their own strength, they also need the cooperation of other pilots.

The Japanese main fleet without air protection was even worse than the air fleet led by Nagumo Chuichi.

When the air fleet is facing an attack, it can also release the "Zero" to resist. When the "Yamato" is facing an attack, it can only rely on its own air defense firepower to carry it.

The latest red-headed torpedoes in southern Africa have a range of more than 20000 meters. In order to ensure the attack effect, bomber pilots usually launch torpedoes within 10000 meters, which is beyond the visual range of Japanese observers.

By the way, the Japanese warships have not yet installed radars.

It's not that I don't want to pretend, but that I don't have it at all.

(End of this chapter)