Glorious Mission 1937

Chapter 660 Seven: Coral Sea Battle

Less than two hours after the US-Japan Coral Sea naval battle ended, the Japanese naval fleet, which had gained some tactical advantage, was ambushed by the Chinese Nanyang Navy on its way back and suffered heavy losses.

How did the Nanyang Navy know that Japan and the United States had a sea battle in the Coral Sea?There are still some original things that need to be explained. This is retroactively mentioning the Sino-Japanese naval battle half a year ago. In that battle, the Chinese navy defeated a Japanese army consisting of heavy cruisers and other ships with only one destroyer. Of the mixed fleet of seven warships, two were sunk, two were captured, and the rest were severely damaged. Only two warships successfully returned to the Japanese naval base in the Philippines.

Here lies the problem. The two captured Japanese warships had the complete code book of the Japanese navy. In addition, the new warships under Chen Feng's command were all equipped with on-board radars. As long as the Japanese navy's carrier-based aircraft flew together, The Nanyang Navy will be able to determine the approximate location of the Japanese Navy's aircraft carrier formation.

So this time, while the U.S. military deciphered the Japanese navy's code, the Chinese navy also immediately deciphered the Japanese army's telegram and learned of the Japanese army's combat plan.In addition, the Navy's radar also discovered another aircraft carrier formation equipped with a large number of carrier-based aircraft in the Coral Sea.

After research and analysis by Chen Shaokuan and others, it was determined that the other naval fleet was the Pacific Fleet of the US military, and its purpose was to intercept the naval fleet that was ambushing the Japanese army.Immediately, Chen Shaokuan decided to be a fisherman, preparing to come out to clean up the mess when the navies of the United States and Japan were battling each other.

于是乎，在陈绍宽的命令下。海军方面派出了由“塞北号”航空母舰和“陕西号”航空母舰为核心的航母编队，该航母编队除了2艘主战航母以外，还有2艘战列舰、4艘导弹巡洋舰、8艘051型导弹驱逐舰、8艘03h2型导弹护卫舰、2艘补给舰，由海军副总司令常志国少将指挥。

Originally, the strength of the Japanese naval fleet was not very strong. There were only 3 aircraft carriers, 6 heavy cruisers, 7 destroyers, and 4 troop carriers.However, in the battle with the US military, the Japanese army lost a total of 2 warships, including the aircraft carrier "Xiangfeng", another destroyer was sunk, and another aircraft carrier was damaged.In terms of strength comparison, it lags far behind the Chinese navy!

In addition, the warships of the Japanese Navy are all old things that were launched a few years ago, or even decades ago.Most of the warships of the Chinese Navy are new products launched in the past two years.In addition, there are a large number of new warships beyond this era, so the two sides are not opponents on the same level at all.

What's more, this battle was done mentally and unintentionally. When the newly victorious Japanese navy entered the Chinese navy's pre-arranged encirclement circle in an extremely loose formation, 224 Chinese carrier-based aircraft that were ready to go immediately took off from the aircraft carrier. .Pounce on the Japanese fleet.

15 minutes later.The Chinese Navy's carrier-based air fleet found that the Xianghe and Ruihe were heading northwest.The distance between the two aircraft carriers is 7 nautical miles, and each is escorted by three heavy cruisers and three destroyers. Among them, the speed of the Ruihe aircraft carrier is very slow.It looked like he was injured.

The buzzing sound of the Chinese fleet in the clouds caught the attention of the Japanese navy. The supreme commander of the Japanese navy, Lieutenant General Takeo Takagi, secretly ordered the carrier-based aircraft on the two aircraft carriers to take off to intercept the enemy.However, it was too late at this time. The Chinese naval carrier-based aircraft formation drilled out of the cumulus clouds and launched its first attack on the closely guarded enemy fleet's aircraft carrier.

The torpedo planes and dive bombers rushed towards the Japanese aircraft carrier frantically. Because they had trained thousands of times to bomb the aircraft carrier, the Chinese carrier-based aircraft group cooperated very tacitly. Most of the torpedoes did not deviate from the target. The bombers Some of the dropped bombs also hit the target.

Among them, Xianghe aircraft carrier was shot 47 rounds in the first round, and a fire broke out on the flight deck, causing all carrier-based aircraft to be unable to take off normally. Two of the Japanese Zero fighters took off forcibly, but failed due to deck problems. Flew directly into the sea.

The Ruihe aircraft carrier was seriously injured and moved slowly. It was simply a moving target. It was knocked out of power in the first round of bombing, and then the port side was hit by a torpedo into the water, and then it was hit by more than 70 bombs in a row. The bomb, the hull was severely damaged, and eventually lost the value of rescue, and sank half an hour later.

The naval battle lasted only one hour. When the Chinese naval formation entered the battlefield, the Japanese fleet was basically defeated by the carrier-based aircraft fleet. After entering the battlefield, a large number of Chinese naval fleets only had time to clean up the mess. The Japanese fleet of 1 battleships and troop carriers was wiped out.

The Japanese army lost a total of 19 warships in this battle, of which 11 were sunk, 9 were captured, and only 2 escaped from the battlefield early by chance.There were 10876 casualties, including 8658 from the army. In addition, the supreme commander of the fleet, Vice Admiral Takeo Takagi was killed, and the supreme commander of the aircraft carrier's aviation force, Rear Admiral Hara Tadashi, was captured.

After the news that the Chinese navy had severely damaged the Japanese navy in the Coral Sea was announced by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it quickly aroused praise from people at home and abroad, and even the previous decline in the country was swept away. Citizens in Chongqing, Chengdu, Taiyuan, and Guisui took to the streets one after another. An anti-Japanese parade was held.

The governments of the United States, Britain and other countries sent congratulatory messages one after another. The combined Allied Forces achieved such a great victory in the Pacific battlefield. The US government even proposed to honor Major General Chang Zhiguo who commanded the battle.

The allied forces are certainly very happy, but the mood of the Japanese side is not so beautiful.The new Minister of the Navy, Shigetaro Shimada, was called to the palace by the emperor and scolded by pointing his nose, and was almost dismissed.In addition, the entire navy is losing its concubine and morale is low.

After this battle, the Japanese Navy suffered heavy losses, with 3 aircraft carriers, 4 heavy cruisers and 7 destroyers destroyed.However, the flames of the Japanese army's occupation of Australia were not extinguished, and the Japanese headquarters of the Navy immediately formulated a huge counterattack plan in an attempt to retaliate against the Chinese navy.

Japan is an island country, and the navy is the foundation of Japan's survival, so the Japanese navy is also the most powerful branch of the Japanese military. To a certain extent, the navy has represented Japan, just like Tiger tank + Hitler = Nazi Germany, Spaghetti+Mussolini is equal to Italy.

Despite the unprecedented fiasco, the Japanese side is still very confident in their navy. This confidence mainly comes from the navy's impressive record over the past century. The Japanese navy has participated in the Sino-Japanese War against the Qing government of China for a hundred years. The Japanese Navy wiped out the Qing Dynasty's Beiyang Fleet, which was sixth in the world and number one in Asia at that time, with a slight loss.Later, Japan also launched a duel with Tsarist Russia. As the main force of the navy, it almost wiped out the Russian Far East Fleet in the Tsushima Sea Battle. The British Royal Navy was scumbags in front of the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy, and was beaten to pieces.

In the eyes of Japanese naval officers and soldiers with such a proud history, a small failure disease cannot prove that the Japanese navy has declined.Moreover, there were objective reasons for this failure that could not be ignored. On the one hand, the fleet dispatched this time was not the main force of the United Fleet, not even a squadron.

而对手方面的实力却异常的强大，美国海军方面单单突击大队就有明尼阿波利斯号、新奥尔良号、阿斯托尼亚号、切斯特号、波特兰号5艘巡洋舰和费尔普斯号、杜威号、法拉格特号、艾尔温号、莫纳根号5艘驱逐舰。支援大队也有3艘巡洋舰（澳大利亚、芝加哥号、霍巴特号）和2艘驱逐舰（帕金斯号、沃尓克号），航空母舰特混大队也有2艘航空母舰和4艘驱逐舰，实力已经超过了联合舰队。

Nevertheless, the warriors of the Empire of Japan defeated the U.S. Navy. The reason for the subsequent tragedy was entirely due to the sneak attack of the cunning Chinese, and the direct cause of the destruction of the Imperial fleet was the bombing of the Chinese naval aviation, which caused the imperial The carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier cannot take off.

Based on the above reasons, the Japanese navy does not believe that this failure is a gap in the strength of the two navies. Even if there is a real gap, the Chinese navy is at a disadvantage, and the Japanese navy has an absolute advantage.

The Minister of the Japanese Navy, Shigetaro Shimada, was really angry this time. He had just taken office for less than three months, and he encountered such a thing. .Therefore, Admiral Shintaro Shimada personally sent a report to General Yamamoto, the commander of the United Fleet, ordering all of Yamamoto's United Fleet to be ready to go and execute the battle plan to capture Australia.

After receiving the order from the Ministry of the Navy, Yamamoto 56 did not act in a hurry. Although the strength of the Coral Sea naval battle did not attract the attention of the Ministry of the Navy, it made the admiral deeply disturbed.Although not many warships participated in this battle, the scale of the battle was not very large, and its intensity was not very high.But this naval battle was the first duel between aircraft carriers in the world, and the fleets of both sides fought outside the line of sight of both sides.

From a tactical point of view, the Coral Sea naval battle can be said to be slightly better than the Japanese army.Although the Japanese aircraft and casualties were more than those of the United States, they exchanged the loss of 1.2 tons of "Xiangfeng" and the sinking of several small ships outside Tulagi Island in exchange for the sinking of "Neosho" The USS Sims, and the 3.3-ton large aircraft carrier USS Lexington.

However, Yamamoto 56 confirmed that Japan had lost strategically, because this was the first time since the start of the war that the Japanese army's military expansion had been contained, and the plan to attack Port Moresby had to be postponed.

More importantly, China, which has always shown itself as a weak navy, was uncharacteristic this time, and even took the initiative to attack, and even wiped out the fleet of the Japanese Navy in one fell swoop.Combined with the disastrous defeat half a year ago, General Yamamoto believes that the Chinese Navy is no longer the Chinese Navy it was before. The sea power that the Great Japanese Empire contended with. (To be continued..)