Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 1030 Golden Waterway
"The commander-in-chief means that he wants to personally go out and clean up the remaining American warships?"

"The war between China and the United States is no small matter. It is related to the country's destiny. In the previous stage, the Pacific Fleet has successfully captured the island chain of the United States. How to arrange it is up to you, and I don't care. It depends on the Ministry of the Navy and the Supreme Command. I don't know whether the important task of attacking the west coast of the United States will continue to be carried out by the Pacific Fleet, but since it has reached this point, it is not reconciled not to hit the United States with a few shots before returning to the voyage. Come again, yours I'm very clear about what I'm thinking, but in fact, why don't I want to fight the U.S. Fleet with dignity? This is our last chance, let's seize it."

Chen Jinrong remembered that when he saluted, he was so excited that he knocked off his military cap.

What is Panama, what is throwing mines, attacking the military port and destroying enemy ships is the main job of the First Fleet. The Ministry of the Navy gave this mission the code name "Qianlong"!
The core of the blockade of the Panama Canal should be to destroy the enemy fleet guarding Panama!The first three waves of planes should all be equipped with torpedoes and bombs, and the enemy fleet should be wiped out, so what can they do?
The crux of the problem is that where the enemy fleet is, it will not just turn off the fire like Pearl Harbor and wait to be bombed in the harbor, right?
Port of Panama.

Commodore William Fletcher arrived early at the seaplane dock requisitioned by the Navy's [-]st Mixed Wing, ready to personally deploy the day's mission.

As a rare aviator in the U.S. Navy, Fletcher had already proposed that in future wars, the Chinese Navy would probably launch seaplanes from fast motherships to attack Pearl Harbor, but was dismissed as "delusional" by the naval leaders at the time. "

Probably because of the closeness to the water, Mahan’s sea power thought had a particularly profound impact on the U.S. Navy. The Americans did not hesitate to invest in the naval competition. Compared with other naval powers, the Americans focused more on battleships and aircraft carriers. However, little attention was paid to auxiliary ships such as cruisers and destroyers, so that construction of a new cruiser was never started, and most of the more than 80 destroyers built were small destroyers, which were hardly suitable for fighting in the vast and vast Pacific Ocean.

By the eve of the Pearl Harbor incident, the U.S. Naval Air Force had a total of 8 water jet squadrons, 18 of which were deployed at Pearl Harbor along with the "Jupiter".On the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the naval aviation base of Ford Island was smashed and burned in just a quarter of an hour, but the "Jupiter" moored in the north of Ford Island survived, carrying three squadrons of more than [-] soldiers. The pilots stumbled and fled back to San Diego.

The prophecy was verified by reality.Fletcher was not at all happy.

Fletcher didn't think that scolding those bureaucrats whose brains were harder than steel ingots could solve any problems. Before the remnant of the main fleet returned to San Diego, some people in Washington were clamoring to build [-] planes and fight all the way to the port of Panama.Airplanes are easy to build, but pilots are hard to train. Fletcher has less than a hundred pilots in total, and half of them are rookies who can fly at less than a hundred speeds per hour. When will it be possible to teach those [-] to [-] Qualified carrier-based aircraft pilot?

However, at such a stretch, the gentlemen in Washington suddenly paid attention to his stepmother's naval aviation, and asked him to bring the best squadron to Panama to help defend.

Fletcher had no choice. The order was given to him by Lieutenant Admiral Sims, the prestigious chief of naval staff, and specifically stated that this was also the meaning of the president.Since you can’t go against the President’s wishes, let’s go. The 3rd Squadron brought along is equipped with the latest Curtiss and Short seaplanes, but the most experienced pilots stay at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola. , hundreds of naval cadet pilots need their hands-on instructor.

The sky was twilight, and there was a line of uneven white belly between the mountains and the sky in the east. Fletcher saw that the pilots on duty that day had arrived one after another, and began to assign tasks.

"Huck, Anderson, your group is in negative territory today, keep your eyes wide open. We have six warships patrolling there, two cruisers, and four destroyers. Don't get me wrong."

"George, Nick, you don't have our ships there today, if you see a fleet, I want to congratulate you, get back to me and report before you get smashed, and if you still have a breath by then, I'll buy you a drink A glass."

"Robin, Steven, look, there are two submarines there, have you seen them in the port of Cologne, right? Don't get confused, our submarines have white circles on their backs, will the enemy's submarines I don't know, but if you find something other than a sub, well, congratulations to you too"

In the port of Panama, Vice Admiral Schroeder, commander of the 3rd Fleet of the US Navy's Pacific Fleet, boarded the bridge of the flagship "New Hampshire" and prepared to lead his team to sail.The basic strength of the 3rd Fleet, which was established in less than three weeks, includes: 2 old battleships, 2 patrol cruisers, 5 protected cruisers, 14 destroyers, and nine small near-shore submarines. The battleships were urgently transferred from the Norfolk base on the east coast, because these submarines were really not suitable for ocean voyages. It is said that they were strung together with cables and towed by the battleships to barely complete the voyage.

As for the cruisers and destroyers, they were all survivors of Pearl Harbor.

After personally experiencing the horrific air raid on Pearl Harbor, Lieutenant General Schroeder made strengthening the fleet's air defense capabilities the first priority when he took office. Since the anti-aircraft guns should be allocated to the canal defenders first, and the installation of anti-aircraft guns cannot be done without repairs. The Panama port where the ship was installed, Schroeder had to send people to search for machine guns, and gathered craftsmen on board the ship. Using the equipment of a forging workshop in Pana City, Schroeder made a batch of anti-aircraft gun mounts.With the support of Admiral Anderson, the commander-in-chief of Panama's defense, the team quickly obtained part of the heavy machine guns handed over by the army. Lieutenant General Schroeder decided to install 2 more for each battleship and cruiser.

At the same time, Schroeder contacted Fletcher's Naval Air Force and Mitchell's Army Air Force and asked them to send planes to tow flying targets to assist the fleet in air-to-air shooting training.

Fletcher was worried about his pilot's accident, so he was only willing to send the plane when the weather was clear and calm, and he was not allowed to shoot with live ammunition, even if the target of the shooting was a flying target towed one or two hundred meters behind the plane.

Mitchell proposed reciprocal conditions: he would use Martin's large aircraft to conduct bombing drills on warships. The drill included dropping simulated bombs wrapped in cork on warships.

Schroeder agreed to Mitchell's request.What he couldn't understand was that the army air force was more eager to participate in the naval battle than the naval air force!

Within two weeks, all personnel received anti-aircraft shooting training, and a full 10 bullets were destroyed.The team members are divided into more than 200 shooting groups, responsible for more than 100 anti-aircraft machine guns on each ship, and half of the groups are used as reserves, which can be added to the front line at any time.In addition, additional anti-aircraft lookout posts were sent, and each lookout post was connected to the bridge through telephone lines, and then transferred to the air-to-air shooting positions.

Mitchell's Martin bomber cooperated very hard. Sometimes the plane almost brushed the mast and passed the warship, scaring the lookout post on the mast plate to death. With such enthusiastic friendly forces to cooperate with the drill, the sailors were naturally very motivated. In the live ammunition test, the brothers in the army have been greatly praised.

With the air defense up, the main business of the fleet cannot be relaxed.Schroeder divided his troops into three groups, and patrolled the mouth of the Bay of Panama in turn. Off-duty ships were on standby at all times, and the main channel of the port was kept as clear as possible.

The "New Hampshire" was not on duty that day, but it had agreed to conduct a joint exercise with Mitchell's Army Aviation Force. Schroeder would not miss this opportunity.

"There is an aircraft behind the port side, single aircraft, altitude 5000 feet, heading 010" came the report from the lookout through the loudspeaker, Schroeder climbed onto the open-air mast on the top of the bridge, raised his binoculars and confirmed it with his own eyes.

"It's not like Mitchell's plane, it's flying too high, and the time is wrong." Mitchell's Martin plane is a big guy, Fletcher's Curtiss is a double airship type water plane, and the Short plane is a The unique shuttle-shaped pontoon and rectangular fuselage, these days Schroeder has been dealing with them every day, and he is too familiar with them.But there is no floating boat under the plane in front of him, and it is very similar to those guys who appeared above Pearl Harbor in his memory.

"Enemy, it's the enemy, those snitches are coming again! Jack, go and send a telegram to General Anderson and sound the air defense siren"

The reconnaissance plane replied with a telegram: "There is a water plane base in the port, and 15 planes are parked."

At about the same time, the fleet also received a report from a reconnaissance plane: "There is an airport 15 kilometers due north of Panama City, with more than 20 aircraft.

The above is all the useful information obtained by the six reconnaissance planes sent to the north of the fleet.Four reconnaissance planes sent to the west of the fleet found only a few fishing boats.The planes sent to the east and south of the fleet encountered large cumulonimbus clouds and were forced to return early.

The "Huangshan" air-to-air lookout post found a twin water plane flying from the north direction, and immediately sent a signal to the fighter planes on standby in the air. Lieutenant Lin Weicheng of the [-] Squadron left aside the wingman with a malfunctioning engine, and single-handedly attacked the enemy plane. Formed into a ball of fire, it was the first time for carrier-based fighter jets to shoot down enemy planes in the air.

"It's hard to be discovered." Chen Jinrong frowned unconsciously as he watched the ball of fire slowly fall. The first step of the "Hiding Dragon" project encountered trouble. What should we do?Now that they were discovered, they had no choice but to temporarily change the plan and change the siege into an active attack. If they hesitated a little, they would lose the initiative in the war.

"The radio station did not detect any abnormal radio waves, and it may not have time to send a report." The intelligence staff officer who said this obviously did not know that the downed US plane did not have a radio station installed.

"In any case, we have to make up our minds and send orders. The Huangshan carrier aircraft is responsible for attacking the port, and the Hengshan carrier aircraft is responsible for attacking the North Airport of Panama City. The first attack wave is dispatched immediately!"

(End of this chapter)