Film and Television: Starting from the Journey to Guandong

Chapter 167

After the Pearl Harbor incident, Roosevelt decided to replace Kimmel with Chester Nimitz as commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. He told Nimitz:

"Go to Pearl Harbor to clean up the defeat, and then stay there until the war is won."

After Nimitz arrived, he quickly organized a fleet of only four aircraft carriers and their escorts.

This fleet attacked the Japanese troops on the islands in the central Pacific, and then implemented a shocking battle plan-the bombing of Tokyo.

1942年4月18日，从“大黄蜂”号航空母舰上起飞的16架B25式轰炸机飞临东京上空，投下炸弹和燃烧弹后顺风直飞华夏。

This air raid shocked the Neon government and opposition parties, and also stimulated Yamamoto, making him more determined to attack Midway Island.

On April 4, Yamamoto held a meeting of senior naval generals on his flagship "Yamato" giant battleship, and determined a specific operational plan to attack Midway Island: first send a fleet to attack the Aleutian Islands, and then attack Attu Island and Attu Island in the archipelago. Landing on Kiska Island used this as bait to draw the attention of the US fleet to the north, and then sent Nagumo Chuichi to command the main fleet to take the opportunity to seize Midway Island.

The combat date is initially set for early June. On May 6, the Neon Naval Command issued the "Bachelor Naval Order No. 5", officially approving the Midway Operation Plan, which was named "Operation Mi".

While Yamamoto was planning this operation, the Battle of the Coral Sea broke out on May 1942, 5. This was the first large-scale battle between aircraft carriers in human history.

The Neon Fleet was implementing its first step to occupy Australia - attacking the port of Moresby (the capital of Papua New Guinea). On the way, it encountered two U.S. aircraft carriers "Yorktown" and "Yorktown" led by Major General Frank Fletcher. Lexington", these two aircraft carriers were escorted by seven cruisers.

The Ugly Kingdom sank the neon aircraft carrier "Shōho" and seriously damaged the "Shōkaku", but lost the "Lexington" and the "Yorktown" was also severely damaged.

The Battle of the Coral Sea played a decisive role in stopping the Neon invasion of Australia, but also strengthened Yamamoto's determination to conquer Midway Island, where he wanted to establish an airfield as a strike against all ships coming from the Uprising's base.

Yamamoto analyzed his strategies and tactics from various angles.

First, a diversionary attack was carried out on the Aleutian Islands, far away from Alaska and controlled by the U.S., hoping to distract the U.S.'s entire fleet from focusing on Midway Island.

However, Ugly managed to intercept communications between Neon's senior commanders and discovered Yamamoto's plan. Therefore, Nimitz decided not to take any action against the Aleutian Islands, but sent 3 aircraft carriers and 8 cruisers to the midway island.

In close cooperation with relevant units in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, the "Magic" team of the U.S. Naval Intelligence Agency began to successfully decipher some of the codes of the Neon Navy's main communication system JN-25.

By early May, the coalition made a major breakthrough in cracking JN-25, and thus gained the ability to spy on the Neon Navy's plans.

JN-25 informed the coalition forces that the 'AF bearing' would be the Neon Navy's next attack target, but the coalition forces were unable to decipher the 'AF bearing' position.

The intelligence station in Hawaii, led by Major Joseph Rochford, believed that the 'AF Bearing' was Midway, but the Naval Intelligence Office in Washington insisted that it was the Aleutian Islands.

However, no matter how advanced the coalition's decoding technology is, it still cannot decipher the correct location of the 'AF position'.

While the top brass of the U.S. military were struggling, Rochford and his intelligence team members were looking through mountains of previously piled messages.

Rochford, who has an extraordinary memory, found a Japanese military telegram from early 1942 among a vast sea of ​​telegrams. The telegram requested seaplanes to take off from the Marshall Islands and fly to Pearl Harbor. The telegram also mentioned that attention should be paid to avoiding aerial reconnaissance from the AF... …

From the map analysis, AF can only be Midway Island.

And Jasper Helms, an analyst at the Hawaii Intelligence Station, came up with a clever idea to confirm whether the 'AF Bearing' was Midway.

He asked the commander of the Midway Naval Base to send a radio report to Pearl Harbor, saying that there was a problem with the desalination equipment on Midway Island, causing the entire Midway Island to face a water shortage crisis.

As a result, Rochford and his team members intercepted and deciphered a secret message from Admiral Yamamoto, commander of the Neon Navy Combined Fleet, sent from the sea to the Navy Department of Neon Base Camp: "It is reported that the 'AF' lacks fresh water, and the attack force has brought enough Freshwater." In this way, the 'AF bearing' was confirmed to be Midway Island, the next target of the Neon Navy's attack.

Because it was very time-consuming to obtain information from JN-25, Admiral Chester Nimitz, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, had to wait until the last minute to obtain reliable information that could be used to ambush the Neon Fleet.

He immediately recalled the aircraft carriers Enterprise and Hornet in the southwest Pacific, as well as the Yorktown, which was undergoing major repairs at Pearl Harbor due to its participation in the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Major General Raymond Spruance was appointed to command Task Force 16 to replace the ill Lieutenant General Halsey.

Nimitz prepared to use three Yorktown-class aircraft carriers as the main force, plus about fifty support ships, to ambush in the northeast of Midway Island and attack the Japanese fleet heading for Midway Island.

When Yorktown returned to Pearl Harbor after being seriously damaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea, it looked like she would be in need of major repairs for several months.

After seventy-two hours of non-stop repairs, her flight deck has been resurfaced, new steel support frames have been installed inside, and carrier-based aircraft have formed a new carrier-based fleet.

Admiral Nimitz went to great lengths to violate numerous naval regulations in order to achieve his goal of allowing the Yorktown to accompany him. Just three days after the Yorktown entered port, she miraculously rushed to Midway Island with the US fleet (Task Force 17) to launch her last combat mission.

In addition to the preparation of physical combat forces, Nimitz appointed Major General Raymond Arms Spruance to command Task Force 16 in place of Lieutenant General William Halsey, who was unable to fight due to illness at the time. .

Nimitz used all the aircraft carriers available at hand as the main force, plus about fifty support ships, waiting northeast of Midway to ambush the Neon Fleet headed for Midway.

There are about 2,100 people in the 6th Marine Garrison Battalion on Midway Island, and about 1,500 people at the Naval Air Station, including pilots and auxiliary personnel.

At the same time, the Neon Navy's aircraft carrier Zuihe, which participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea, was waiting for a new batch of carrier-based aircraft at its base in Truk; the injured Shokaku was undergoing repairs at the base.

If the Neon Navy had not thought that the U.S. military would only send two aircraft carriers, the Enterprise and the Hornet, to attack the Soryu, Hiryu, Akagi, and Kaga, then the Battle of Midway might have had a very different ending. Because the Japanese army mistakenly underestimated the miraculous maintenance capabilities of the US military, the Neon Navy believed from the beginning to the end that only the USS Enterprise and the USS Hornet could be put into battle.

Neon's headquarters had already decided on this next phase of operations in its order on May 5.

The plan drawn up by the Combined Fleet Command is extremely grand and detailed, but it lacks flexibility.

几乎整个霓虹海军都被用在这次作战中。一共差不多动用了200艘舰艇，其中包括8艘航空母舰、11艘战列舰、22艘巡洋舰、65艘驱逐舰、21艘潜艇。协助它们的还有600多架飞机。

main plan

For the main Midway operation, the Neon Men used a total of:

(1) An advance submarine force, divided into three lines of patrol, with the intention of destroying the U.S. Navy’s confrontational actions;

(2) An invasion force was commanded by Lieutenant General Kondo, using 12 escorted transport ships, carrying 5000 troops, and 4 heavy cruisers were responsible for close support, while a longer-distance covering force was 2 battleships, 1 light aircraft carrier and 4 other heavy cruisers;

（3）南云中将的第一航空母舰部队，包括4艘舰队重型航舰一搭载飞机250架以上一由2艘战列舰、2艘重型巡洋舰和1队驱逐舰担负护航的任务；

(4) The main fleet under the direct command of Admiral Yamamoto includes 3 battleships, plus a destroyer barrier and 1 light aircraft carrier. One of the battleships is the recently completed giant "Yamato", which has a displacement of 1 tons and is equipped with nine 7mm triple main guns. It is Yamamoto's flagship.

For the Aleutian operations, the forces allocated by the Neon people were:

（ 1） 1支侵入兵力由3艘有掩护的运输船组成，搭载部队2400人，加上1个由2艘重型巡洋舰所组成的支援群和一支包括2艘轻型航空母舰的航舰部队；

(2) A covering force consists of 1 older battleships.

On Ugly's side, Admiral Nimitz could barely muster a total of 76 ships, and 1/3 of them belonged to the North Pacific and had never participated in the battle at all.

凌晨，霓虹第一波攻击机群36架俯冲轰炸机、36架水平轰炸机和36架零式战斗机开始从4艘航空母舰上同时起飞，108架舰载机在友永丈市海军大尉的率领下出发攻击中途岛。

Lieutenant General Nagumo ordered the reconnaissance aircraft to search the east and south waters. The second wave of attack aircraft was raised on the flight deck, preparing to attack the Ugly fleet.

However, the takeoff time of two reconnaissance planes of the heavy cruiser Tone was delayed for half an hour due to catapult failure, and a reconnaissance plane of the Chikuma had an engine failure and returned midway (this plane should have been searching the sky above the US task force). ), laying the foundation for the Neon Fleet's disaster.

At dawn, the "Catalina" reconnaissance plane dispatched from Midway sent back a report of the discovery of the Japanese aircraft carrier. Rear Admiral Spruance immediately responded and prepared to attack the Japanese aircraft carrier (actually Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher was responsible for this operation commander, but Spruance launched the air attack first).

Because the Ugly Fleet has cracked the communication code of the Neon Navy "JN-25", it knows the enemy's plan well.

In the early morning, Neon carrier-based aircraft launched a fierce attack on Midway Island. All US military fighter jets stationed at Midway Island also took off to meet the invading Neon fighter jets. U.S. bombers, including B-17 bombers, also launched a counterattack against the Neon Fleet.

At 7 o'clock, Captain Tomonagajo led the first wave of attack aircraft to prepare to return, and sent a telegram to Lieutenant General Nagumo that a second attack was needed.

At 7:06, 117 fighter planes, consisting of fighters, torpedo planes, and dive bombers, took off from the Hornet and Enterprise of the 16th Task Force led by Major General Spruance, and headed for the 200 nautical miles away. Nagumo Fleet.

At 7:10, the first batch of 10 US torpedo bombers taking off from Midway appeared over the Nagumo Fleet.

U.S. military aircraft lined up in a single file and pounced on the Japanese aircraft carrier.

Under the interception of Japanese fighter jets and the fierce fire from Japanese ships, 7 were quickly shot down.

Tomonaga's report and the attack by U.S. aircraft convinced Lieutenant General Nagumo that Midway Island's defenses were still strong, so he decided to change the aircraft originally intended to be used against U.S. ships to conduct a second bombing of Midway Island. At this time, he still had not discovered the US fleet.

At 7:15, Nagumo ordered Akagi and Kaga to send the aircraft with torpedoes on the deck down to the hangar, unload the torpedoes and replace them with high-explosive bombs for ground attack.

At 7:30, Nagumo received a telegram from a reconnaissance plane that delayed Tone's takeoff for half an hour, and found 240 American warships in the sea about 10 nautical miles away from Midway Island.

Nagumo ordered the reconnaissance aircraft to continue to find out whether the enemy fleet had an aircraft carrier, and at the same time ordered a suspension of reloading of torpedo planes.

While Nanyun was waiting for the reconnaissance plane's reconnaissance results, the alarm sounded again in the sky.

More than 40 U.S. B-17 bombers and dive bombers taking off from Midway Island pounced on Nagumo's fleet. Since the US bombers were not escorted by fighter jets, they were quickly repelled by the Zero fighter jets sent by Nagumo.

At 8:15, Nagumo finally received a report from a reconnaissance plane: There was indeed an aircraft carrier in the US fleet. Nagumo ordered each ship to stop loading bombs, and the aircraft were sent back to the hangar to refit the torpedoes. The deck of the Japanese aircraft carrier was in chaos. In order to buy time, the unloaded bombs were piled on the deck.

At 8:30, the first attack wave of the air raid on Midway Island returned and flew over the Neon Fleet.

There are also those fighter jets protecting the aircraft carrier that also need to land for refueling.

Nagumo was in a dilemma. Rear Admiral Yamaguchi, commander of the Second Aircraft Carrier Group, suggested to Nagumo "immediately order the attack force to take off."

The second batch of assault aircraft have not yet been equipped with torpedoes. If an attack is launched immediately, there will be no fighter escort.

Moreover, the runway on the ship is occupied by take-off aircraft, so the first wave of attack aircraft with empty fuel tanks will fall into the sea.

Nagumo decided to postpone the attack, first recovering the aircraft that attacked Midway Island and intercepting US bombers, and then reorganized his forces to attack the US task force.

At 8:37, returning planes began to land on the flight decks of the four aircraft carriers.

8时40分，15海里以外的弗莱彻少将率领的第17特混编队的约克城号航空母舰上起飞了35架战机。

At 9:18, all aircraft operations were completed. Nagumo ordered the fleet to sail northeast at a speed of 30 knots, approaching the U.S. task force, in order to avoid the U.S. aircraft from Midway that would attack again, and prepare to attack the U.S. task force with all its strength.

(End of this chapter)