Chapter 1062 1944: Speed and Lightning (12)
The Canadians responded to the Americans' request and sent more than 50 SBDs with bombs and more than 30 TBFs with torpedoes as the main attack aircraft to cooperate with the US attack. Although they received the request for coordinated operations at 7 o'clock in the morning, they were in a hurry to prepare. In fact, they did not assemble and set off until more than 9 o'clock. The speed of the formation flight was slow. By 12 o'clock, they had not found the Kakuta fleet. At this time, all the US attack groups had returned, and no one led the Canadians to find the Japanese fleet!
The Japanese fleet was more than 800 kilometers southwest of Seattle. After taking off from Vancouver, this group of Canadian attack aircraft had been searching for more than 800 kilometers. The distance between the two sides was less than 90 kilometers at this time. The Japanese had seen the attack group flying on the radar. At this time, most of the air defense fighters had just landed to prepare for refueling and ammunition. There were only 12 planes in the air with the last bit of oil and ammunition left. It was the time when the fleet's air defense capability was the lowest.
Helpless, Kakuta was ready to let the two aircraft carriers disperse and break away at a speed of 31 knots. As a result, the Canadian commander directly announced on the radio: The enemy's main fleet has not been found yet, and it is estimated that it has been sunk by the US military. Because the fleet's fuel has been consumed by more than half, it is ready to return!
Half a minute later, he issued a second order: In order to speed up the return speed and reduce fuel consumption, all bombs and torpedoes must be abandoned! But they can't be thrown away in vain. There seems to be a suspected severely damaged Japanese cruiser (actually a destroyer) and some Japanese lifeboats floating on the sea - "All troops attack!"
Then this "Arashi" destroyer (Kagero class) became the most unlucky destroyer in the world. It was obviously hit by a 1,000-pound bomb in front and abandoned the ship. It had no ability to resist. As a result, it was surrounded and beaten by more than 120 planes. Bombs and torpedoes were thrown at it like they were free. Even before the last few bombs were dropped, the destroyer was blown to pieces and sank.
After completing the "actual combat exercise", the Canadian fleet returned home with a triumphant victory of "our army sank one enemy cruiser without losing a single one of its own" - this was the first Japanese warship sunk by the Canadian air force, a powerful counterattack against the invaders!
Kakuta and Arima Masafumi, who intercepted the other party's communication on the Yunlong and saw the other party turn around and leave on the radar screen, laughed so hard that their stomachs hurt, and shouted "Amaterasu Omikami bless you". Although they laughed, they still had a clear understanding of the current situation. Before the sun set today, the second carrier battleship could only run 1,100 kilometers at most, and was still within the coverage of the US heavy bombers. At least one more challenge would have to be faced, but after surviving this wave, they had full confidence - after calling all the spare aircraft, the fleet still had 57 fighters, and they were still able to fight! As for fuel, no one thought about it anymore.
However, the US military encountered difficulties in organizing the afternoon bombing. Although Arnold felt that the "results were brilliant", he was overwhelmed by the heavy losses reported by the Seattle and Portland Army Air Forces - there were less than 100 heavy bombers that could still attack, and the crews were so tired that they didn't even have lunch.
At the same time, due to the distance, the Navy Air Force could no longer attack, which meant that all the Army Air Forces would die next. What made him even more uneasy was the floating morale of the army. The Army Air Force here was not as elite as Hawaii, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other places, and there were only a few veterans who could attack over long distances. If he continued to fight, the entire army would be destroyed. Therefore, under the persuasion of his subordinates, he stated at the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Army Air Force had suffered heavy losses (it had long exceeded the standard of 150 crews per week), the personnel were too tired, and the losses were too great without escort - he proposed to let Halsey deal with it. After all, according to the "war report", the remaining Japanese troops were definitely not the opponent of the TF50 fleet.
Spruance disagreed, believing that the important value of Halsey's fleet was to escort the fuel back home, and hoped that the Army Air Force would continue to send people to attack. Not only the remaining aircraft in Seattle and Portland should attack again, but the more than 100 Army Air Force aircraft in Sacramento should also attack after the transfer.
The two sides argued in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and even Nimitz and MacArthur had their own opinions. Finally, under the mediation of Leahy, the two factions kicked the ball to Halsey and asked him to decide.
Halsey asked McCain: "Do you think we should fight this Japanese fleet?"
McCain asked back: "Do you think it is more important to safely deliver fuel or to destroy an enemy fleet in the current situation?"
Although McCain asked a rhetorical question, Halsey could hear that the answer was already in the question: protecting the fuel back to Pearl Harbor certainly solved the transportation problem this time, but as long as the Japanese fleet still exists, it will face the same problem in a few days. However, if the Japanese fleet can be solved once and for all - even if it is only the Kakuta fleet, Halsey also believes that the situation can improve. The conditions are very favorable now. The Japanese Kakuta Fleet has just suffered a "heavy blow" (Halsey believes that the results of the Army Air Force should be credible at a 70% discount), and the main fleet of the Japanese is still in the Mexican area. TF50 is stuck between the two Japanese fleets, and there are only more than 2 days to the Kakuta Fleet. It is completely in time to fight first.
If you are lucky, you can first eat up the Japanese fleet in the north and then turn around to deal with the Japanese fleet in the south.
Halsey gritted his teeth and said: "I want to destroy this fleet! Let the transport fleet circle for us and the main fleet of the Japanese army first, and wait for me to destroy the northern fleet and then go south, even if we die together with the enemy fleet in the south... We will see what they will fight in the future after we have used up the main force of the Combined Fleet!"
At 1:39 p.m., he sent a telegram, agreeing to change direction to pursue the Tsunoda fleet, and only requested assistance from the Army Aviation: one would send a reconnaissance aircraft to report the final position of the Tsunoda fleet, and the other would send a powerful fleet to cover the more than 400 troops still outside Los Angeles. Transport fleet waiting at kilometer.
Overjoyed, Arnold agreed to the request. Spruance wanted to send another telegram to persuade Halsey to change his mind, but was stopped by Nimitz, who said nothing but silently added: "Lu Hang has to guard other places..."
Spruance suddenly remembered the intelligence he had received at noon today: the main force of the German-Italian Axis Fleet had poured out of the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean in large numbers. He could only sigh and say nothing.
After nightfall, Tsunoda and others, who were focused on escaping, knew that they were safe, and then they began to think about the fuel problem. In the evening, the Musashi reported that "the remaining fuel of the ship is less than 1,100 tons." Time was running at a high speed and something went wrong, so he ordered to slow down, changing the route to the southwest, and reducing the highway from 27 knots to 18 knots, and prepared to go to Horikichi north of Pearl Harbor to replenish fuel.
"Sir, we can't make contact here. We should still be on radio silence."
"It's okay. Let's go to a safe area and wait until we are contacted before talking to the commander." Tsunoda said, "After dawn tomorrow, we will conduct a search. As long as there is no enemy main fleet around, our army will be safe. If there is only a small fleet, we will Just eat him!"
Arima Masabumi smiled for a moment, Tsunoda had just escaped and then suddenly said that he wanted to eat the US fleet. This temper...
They did not know that the TF50 fleet had turned around and rushed north. Although Halsey was not fast, only 16 knots, his number of aircraft carriers and aircraft exceeded the Tsunoda fleet several times. The routes of the two sides are not completely opposite, and there is an angle between them, but they are still approaching the center at a speed of about 35 kilometers per hour.
When the sun rose on October 25, the Seattle Army Air Force reported that it could not find the Japanese fleet. At this time, the Tsunoda Fleet was already more than 1,500 kilometers away on the west coast. However, the U.S. Army Air Force taking off from Mexico found the Tsukahara Fleet. It is more than 600 kilometers southwest of Baja California Sur (Mexico territory), almost 2,000 kilometers from Los Angeles, and the overall speed is 18 knots.
While Arnold notified the intelligence, he hurriedly mobilized the Southern Army Airlines. After receiving the returning crews from China, his strength had recovered somewhat, but due to continuous consumption, even with some replenishment, the skilled crews of the Army Airlines fell again. After breaking through the 3,000 group mark, there are only more than 2,600 groups left.
Both Tsunoda and Halsey sent out several waves of reconnaissance planes during the day, but the distance between the two sides was more than 1,700 kilometers. Although there was some overlap in the detection ranges of the two reconnaissance planes, neither side found the other, so they were all on their way. Halsey was worried about the safety of the transport fleet, so he sent a telegram to Arnold three times a day: I will help you with the task of annihilating the Tsunoda fleet. If you go wrong with covering the transport fleet, I will never finish it with the Army Aviation when I come back!
Arnold had to deal with the incoming German and Italian troops as well as the war on the west coast. He also had to work hard to convince Halsey. He felt that he was exhausted both mentally and physically and was on the verge of collapse. His eyes were straight. My whole body was stiff and I was stumbling when I walked. In the past two days, I flew to Los Angeles first, then flew back to Washington non-stop. After the meeting today, I flew to Seattle to check the damage of Boeing and cooperate with Truman to appease the people. It was already 11 o'clock in the middle of the night when I flew to Los Angeles to deploy defense work. Even the plane was strong. Next, he was helped down by the adjutant.
He felt that if he continued to endure it any longer, let alone the Commander-in-Chief of the Independent Air Force, he would be completely ruined. When he arrived at the headquarters, everyone saw that he was in a very bad state, and his face was all black, but he still managed to finish listening. After reporting on the defense situation and asking his subordinates to monitor carefully before going to bed, it was already 1 a.m. After lying down, Arnold gasped and told his adjutant: "Please help me book a ward in the Army Hospital. It's best to be close to General Marshall." Get closer...If this continues, I will have to report to the hospital sooner or later!"
Just when he fell asleep, Horikichi had led a huge support fleet to arrive more than 600 kilometers north of Pearl Harbor without anyone noticing. While approaching, he completed the final preparations for the attack.
The "Jie No. 1" operation is finally about to be launched. Just like the last battle of Pearl Harbor, the Americans still have not discovered the arrival of the Japanese fleet...