afterglow

Chapter 642: Big Trouble Little Beaver Squadron; Air Raid on the Homeland!
The U.S. military headquarters became anxious because they were unable to cut off the Ming army's logistics lines on Maui by gaining air superiority, and Lieutenant General Simon Buckner refused to take the initiative to attack until the Ming army showed signs of decline.

For this reason, they instructed the Pacific Fleet to take active action to disrupt the Ming army's supply to the greatest extent possible.

This is also the reason why the Alabama was ordered to join the Pacific Fleet.

Who could have imagined that she would be sunk in the pond in the back garden by the Ming army's aircraft carrier task force that had traveled a long distance.

This put the US military's offensive plan into a dilemma.

The victory in the Battle of Maui in April greatly boosted the morale of the U.S. Navy - after three years of repeated defeats, the Navy finally achieved a real victory.

The victories that were previously publicized were too hypocritical. Sinking a few warships was of no consequence. Since the war began, the Ming army has basically achieved the goals of every battle. From a strategic point of view, the US Navy has not won a single battle.

It was not until the Battle of Maui that the Ming Navy's goal of intercepting the U.S. military's counter-landing operation was truly stopped, which in turn thwarted the Ming army's intention to quickly seize Maui, and firmly tied down tens of thousands of elite ground troops, putting them in a dilemma.

President Franklin wrote to Chester Nimitz, praising this hard-won and valuable victory.

"…World history shows that there has never been an army that is invincible. Your work proves this. I am honored for this. I hope that the Pacific Fleet can achieve victory again in the future and bring glory to the United States."

The Pacific Fleet was able to regain confidence.

Since then until now in August, small-scale naval battles have never stopped between the Ming and American militaries around Maui, Kahoolawe, and the Big Island, with a small fight every three days and a large fight every five days.

The naval battles during this period were mostly clashes between screen ships, and the mission types basically revolved around defending and attacking transportation lines, with both sides going back and forth.

四个月的时间里不含明军航空兵斩获的3艘护航航母和大量飞机，水面舰艇部队总计取得了8艘驱逐舰、1艘轻型巡洋舰里士满号（CL-9）、3艘扫雷舰、3艘登陆舰、4艘潜艇、13艘鱼雷艇、14艘货轮、125架飞机的战果。

The US naval forces also sank more than 30 Ming army ships, some torpedo boats and minesweepers, as well as hundreds of aircraft.

The overall performance of the US military showed a trend of worse at the beginning and better later. Half of the results were achieved in the past month. Such a big improvement is basically due to the emergence of famous historical generals.

Nimitz wrote a letter of recommendation to the President.

"...In the past series of battles, Colonel Arleigh Burke has used his newly invented tactics to lead his squadron to great results. He is a very talented commander and undoubtedly an excellent naval officer. The President is realistic. I think he is qualified to be promoted to Commodore."

Later, at the President's instruction, the Navy Department conducted a review and discussion and approved the promotion of Colonel Arleigh Burke.

For a long time, due to the backward tactics of the US destroyer force and the mixture of old and new, many old destroyers still insisted on fighting on the front line. As a result, they were often at a disadvantage and suffered repeated setbacks when fighting with the Ming army destroyers, and the initiative was always controlled by the Ming army destroyers.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that the suppression power of the Ming army's Jinghai-class super destroyer was too strong.

In the history of the original plane, the US military faced a similar dilemma when fighting against the Japanese during the Battle of the Solomon Islands - poor torpedo performance, backward tactics, and poor training level.

Arleigh Burke carefully analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of both sides, and summed up a new set of tactics based on local conditions, which turned the situation around in one fell swoop.

Although the torpedo performance of the US military was far inferior to that of the Japanese, they were equipped with radar in large quantities and had the advantage of searching for the enemy. He designed tactics based on this advantage to play to one's strengths and avoid one's weaknesses.

First, they abandoned the traditional single-column formation, which was a long snake formation, and divided the formation into two groups, which coordinated with each other through constant maneuvers.

Under the cover of darkness, the enemy's visual search capability was significantly reduced, but this was not the case for our side. The first group of destroyers used radar to attack the enemy, and after a while they immediately withdrew from the battle.

By the time the enemy came to their senses and was preparing to retaliate, our second group of destroyers appeared from another direction that the enemy had not expected, and launched a surprise attack, catching them off guard and causing chaos.

Just when the enemy was beaten to a loss of direction, the first group of destroyers changed course and came back to attack again. These three consecutive attacks were enough to make the enemy confused and put them at a disadvantage.

During this process, in order to avoid the threat of powerful enemy torpedo attacks, the destroyer should not adopt the traditional broadside fire engagement, but face the enemy head-on to reduce the exposed area.

Historically, the "Little Beaver" destroyer squadron led by Arleigh Burke participated in 22 battles in four months, achieving an impressive record of sinking or damaging 10 Japanese warships, 1 submarine, and about 30 aircraft.

However, the Ming army was not the Japanese army after all. The Ming army destroyers were equipped with sea search radar and radar warning equipment, so they would not be caught off guard.

In addition, the Ming army's destroyers also relied more on naval guns rather than relying solely on torpedoes.

Colonel Arleigh Burke now naturally formulates tactics based on local conditions, which is different from history.

The second group responsible for the raid from another direction will adopt a dense formation close to each other, preferably overlapping with the Ming fleet, so as to reduce the radar echo and make the Ming army mistakenly believe that there are only one or two warships in this direction.

At the same time, pay attention to controlling the distance and maintaining a relatively long engagement distance, because the Fletcher-class destroyers are equipped with Mk4 fire control radar in addition to the SG search radar, while the Ming army destroyers only have search radars, and actual aiming and attacks still rely on visual and optical instruments.

This new tactic of the US military caused considerable trouble to the Ming army's destroyer forces, and the Ming navy's destroyer forces, which were new to this tactic, suffered several losses as a result.

During this period, the Ming army tried to set a trap and attempted to ambush with light cruisers, but the US troops immediately fled at high speed after noticing something unusual.

Against this backdrop, the U.S. Navy feels it has done it again.

Therefore, they planned to organize a powerful strike fleet consisting of several high-speed battleships to attack the Ming army's transport fleet transit point in the western bay of Lanai at night, and to retaliate against the Ming army in its own way. Just as the Ming army fleet bombarded the US military airport at night, they would also raze the airport on Lanai to the ground.

Because the USS Washington was damaged by an aerial mine laid by the Ming Air Force last month, it was forced to return to the West Coast for repairs and is temporarily unable to participate in the war.

Therefore, the Pacific Fleet only had a few high-speed battleships available, namely the North Carolina, South Dakota, and Indiana, so the Alabama was ordered to join, but it was inexplicably sunk halfway.

Raymond Spruance admired the Ming army's tight organization and efficient operations, and believed that his own side was far inferior to them. He then proposed to temporarily shelve the battleship formation's night attack plan - now three against three (Yongle, Xuande, Kaihuang) had no advantage at all.

Nimitz naturally wanted to agree, but the instructions from Washington put him in a dilemma. Although there were dissenting voices in the political circles, the mainstream opinion mostly agreed with the president's idea - to end the Pacific War in a decent way within six to twelve months. Therefore, the deadlock on the front line must be broken.

However, there were too many constraints in the Hawaii campaign, and Nimitz was unwilling to continue the fight. Although both sides may have played a lot of tricks in tactics, they seemed too rigid in strategy.

It just so happened that the Army Air Force was planning a bold ultra-long-range air raid, which gave everyone an idea.

波音公司斥巨资研发的XB-29重型轰炸机已经基本定型，陆航早在几个月前就急不可耐的订购了40架尚处在试验阶段的XB-29，如今又一口气下单了950架基本定型的B-29超级空中堡垒。

The purchase price of the XB-29 was shockingly high, reaching a whopping $89; now that the B-29 production line is gradually being rolled out, Boeing's offer has dropped to $70.5.

Even so, one Superfortress was equivalent to twelve Mustang fighters or fifteen Sherman tanks.

As early as the beginning of the year, the Army Aviation proposed the idea of ​​using this long-range bomber to carry out air strikes on the Ming mainland and made a detailed assessment.

Because the Aleutian Islands were under the control of the Ming army, the US military lacked available departure bases.

Some people suggested starting from Indus and flying over the mountains to attack Yunnan. Considering the tight situation in Indus, British Indus had to provide supplies to the British mainland and maintain a large ground force, and it was probably unable to bear more burdens.

Another proposal is to start from Alaska, fly over the Bering Sea and Kamchatka, and then attack the Sakhalin oil fields. This seems more feasible. Although Alaska is sparsely populated, it is close to Canada and the United States.

After confirming the technical indicators of the XB-29, the Army Aviation began to select a departure base. The first one considered was naturally Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska. However, the one-way direct flight from there to the oil fields in the north of Sakhalin Island was 3950 km away, which was extremely difficult even for a powerful aircraft like the Super Fortress.

The XB-29 can carry 9 tons of bombs when in heavy load mode, but if it is to fly so far, it can probably only carry 0.5 tons.

Finally, after multiple evaluations, the Army Aviation chose the northwest town of Nome as its departure base, which is several hundred kilometers closer to Sakhalin Island.

Nome is quite famous. It first rose due to the gold rush, but then gradually declined.

More than a decade ago, diphtheria suddenly broke out in Nome in the winter. This small town, which was almost isolated from the outside world in the winter, was about to suffer heavy casualties. In order to save the lives of local residents, the governor ordered the formation of a dog sled team to do everything possible to deliver the anti-toxin serum.

So 20 sled drivers and 150 sled dogs took turns in relay, traveling day and night in the extreme cold of -50℃, braving the blizzard and crossing 127 km of snowfield and frozen lake for 1085 hours, and successfully delivered the anti-toxin serum.

Since May this year, the Army Aviation has begun to expand the Nome Airport, and thousands of engineers have entered the town, more than the local residents.

The US military dismantled the bulldozers, transported them over by transport planes, and then reassembled them on site. The progress was slow, and it took three months to complete the expansion. This inefficiency is unimaginable in other places.

Now Nome Airport has an 8000-foot main runway and a 3000-foot taxiway, which are sufficient to ensure the takeoff and landing of the B-29.

The Ming army traveled thousands of miles to attack Baja California and sank the unprepared San Jacinto and Alabama. This was undoubtedly a great humiliation for the U.S. Navy. Capitol Hill was also extremely angry, ridiculing the U.S. Navy for "winning a rare victory (the Battle of Maui), but now it has been beaten back to its original form, it is simply a circus army."

The U.S. Army was eager to steal the limelight and immediately threatened to retaliate at any time - launching a strategic bombing on the Ming mainland.

On September 9, the 7th Bombardment Group began its first bombing mission after intensive pre-war preparations.

The operation was kept highly secret. The pilots initially thought they were going to bomb Dutch Harbor. It was not until the night before that they learned that they were going to fly directly to Sakhalin Island to carry out the attack. Everyone cheered.

一共有30架XB-29参与行动，每架仅挂载4枚250磅通常航弹和8枚100磅燃烧弹，空出来的弹舱安装上临时油箱，这样总共可加注9363加仑（3.54万升）航空汽油。

At 9:8 a.m. on September 7, dozens of giant aircraft slowly took off after taxiing. The XB-30 weighed more than 29 tons when fully loaded. During the test flight last year, some people said that it was impossible for this thing to fly. After landing, the test pilot commented: "It's incredible, it flew."

In this way, under the leadership of the formation commander Lieutenant Colonel Hall, the silver-glittering fleet of aircraft swooped towards Sakhalin Island more than 3,000 kilometers away.

Fly over the Bering Sea, fly over the Kamchatka Peninsula, fly over the Sea of ​​Okhotsk...

【Picture】

That afternoon, after more than eight hours of long-distance flight, the formation approached Sakhalin Island.

During this period, because the turbocharger equipped with the Wright R-3350 engine was extremely unreliable, three aircraft caught fire and crashed, and four aircraft were forced to return. In fact, only 3 XB-4s flew over the target.

The Ming army radar detected these planes, and more than 20 fighter jets from the second team of the 9th Fighter Brigade of the Air Force stationed in the northern part of Kuwu Island took off one after another.

The US bombers immediately changed into a javelin formation, standing close to each other. This dense formation was helpful for defense, and the 12 12.7mm self-defense machine guns on each aircraft together wove a fire net.

The intense firepower from hundreds of machine guns greatly hindered the attack of the Ming army fighter planes. The huge fuselage of the Super Fortress was too redundant, and the destructive power of the large-caliber aviation machine guns was obviously insufficient.

The Ming army fighters could only try to aim and shoot at the engines on the wings, but a dense barrage of bullets was pouring down on them.

The American bombers that were hit and caught fire burst into flames and fell into the sea, dragging thick black smoke, or their wings were burned off and they rolled down in the air.

The blue-gray painted Ming army fighter planes also suffered heavy losses, with several being shot down. Almost all of the fighter planes that took off to intercept were damaged, and many fighter planes ran out of bullets in the fierce fighting.

"Sir! It's like a swarm of wasps stinging us!" someone shouted.

"Shut up!" Lieutenant Colonel Hall ordered through his telescope, "We are approaching the target. Look at those oil wells and refineries. Bombardiers, get to your posts and get ready."

On the distant land, there are dozens of oil wells standing and operating, and a little further away there is an oil refinery emitting black smoke.

【Mid-term 36-style, E-type.】

(End of this chapter)