Chapter 448 Panama (Part 2)

Seeing that the enemy planes did not rush to the canal locks as initially imagined but rushed to the airport, Lieutenant General Ross realized that something was wrong, but it was too late to adjust the response strategy. He could only watch bombs explode one after another on the airport, and occasionally planes hit by anti-aircraft guns fell from the air - even so, the crashed planes also caused damage to the airport.

At 5:15, a bomb dropped by a Japanese dive bomber hit the aviation fuel depot. The scene was like a volcanic eruption. The sky-high column of fire rose into the air, reflecting all the targets clearly, and even half of the sky was reflected red, which could be seen clearly more than 100 kilometers away. Relying on the guidance of the fire, all the remaining planes dropped their bombs and then left the battlefield as quickly as possible. Until the first attack wave left the battlefield, the dense anti-aircraft artillery fire below was still firing fiercely.

Lieutenant General Ross's heart was bleeding: in just over half an hour of air strikes, the airport in the Canal Zone was completely destroyed, and more than 70% of the aircraft in the airport and hangar were lost. Even if the remaining aircraft were not lost, they could not be used for the time being - the airport runway was completely destroyed and could not be used again without repair.

After receiving the news, Cao Lu Renyi excitedly reported: "Sir, the air strike was successful, and we paralyzed the airport."

"What about the losses?"

"I don't know yet, but it seems that most of them are back."

"Anti-aircraft fighters will take off to cover in 15 minutes."

At 6:30, bombers returning from the air strike landed one after another. The exhausted pilots were still describing the air strike scene to the ground crew, and the deck was full of the sound of "onboard".

In sharp contrast to the cheering scene below, Hori Teikichi's face was very ugly, and his heart was bleeding: for the first wave of assault, he sent out a total of 78 planes, and 19 planes did not return, including 5 German planes, and the rest were all Japanese pilots - these were not ordinary pilots, all of them were elite pilots with a bomb hit rate of more than 90%. It is no exaggeration to say that they were all made of gold, and it would be extremely painful to lose one. It has been more than 3 and a half hours since takeoff, and the aircraft fuel should be almost exhausted. If it can't return, it basically means that it can't return. One round of air raids has lost a quarter of the aircraft, and I don't know how much more will be lost next. The only good news is that the airport has been completely destroyed and planes cannot take off and land in the short term.

"Sir..." Cao Lu Renyi saw that he looked very bad, and reminded him, "The anti-aircraft fighters have taken off as required, and the sky has brightened. Do you need to send out the second attack wave immediately?"

"Not for the time being, increase the intensity of reconnaissance and search, let the returning pilots carefully describe the anti-aircraft firepower of the Canal Zone to other pilots, and at the same time speed up the promotion of spare aircraft to make up for the losses."

"Yes."

"How far is the bombardment formation from Panama?"

"More than 400 kilometers."

"Go straight ahead and prepare for bombardment. The first round of bombardment must be carried out before this afternoon... The aircraft carrier formation will stop at 200 nautical miles, and anti-aircraft fighters will also be sent to the bombardment fleet." After saying that, he added, "Eject two water reconnaissance aircraft to check the situation in the Canal Zone, and pay attention to safety."

These orders are obviously inconsistent with the combat plan originally formulated by Cao Lu Renyi: According to his idea, he should strike while the iron is hot and launch a second round of attack, instead of sitting around doing nothing like this. What is the commander worried about? Other enemy aircraft? Enemy fleet?

In the Washington headquarters, Admiral King and Marshall paid close attention to the developments at the front, but time was not forgiving. The two men were in their 60s. After working for more than 30 hours, they could no longer hold on and took a nap. They specifically ordered their adjutants to wake them up at dawn, but they did not expect to receive bad news from the front before dawn.

After confirming the news that the airport was destroyed and 70% of the aircraft were lost, Admiral King's face turned pale. He knew that the Axis' three axes were powerful, but he never expected that he would be chopped bloody in the first round. Roosevelt soon got the news. He frowned and asked, "Can we stop the enemy? Can the damaged airport be repaired urgently?"

Marshall hesitated and said, "It will probably take at least 6-8 hours to repair the airport. The problem now is that even if it is repaired, it will be useless. There are less than 30% of the remaining aircraft."

"The most urgent task is to find the enemy's fleet, and then let the Nicaraguan Army Air Force attack the ground - although the distance may be a bit far."

"Can we bomb from the mainland?"

The two shook their heads: Although they didn't know the exact location of the enemy fleet, the distance from Florida was at least more than 1,500 kilometers. The B-25's round-trip range was not enough. The B-24's range was enough, but it was a bit difficult for a 4-engine bomber to deal with the fleet. However, in order to prevent Roosevelt from worrying too much, Admiral King expressed it very tactfully: "If the Panama airport is repaired and the exact location of the enemy fleet is known, we can carry out the bombing mission from the mainland, and those bombers can land on the spot in Panama after completion."

"Gentlemen, don't be too pessimistic, at least the canal is still intact." Roosevelt comforted the two.

On the Nagato, Kusaka Renji was also trying to comfort Hori Teikichi: "Sir, what are you worried about? Wasn't the first attack wave very successful?"

Hori Teikichi shook his head: "Far from it, you know how fast the Americans repair the airport."

"I..." Kusaka Renji was speechless. At the beginning, the joint fleet bombarded Guadalcanal for a night and poured tens of thousands of shells. As a result, on the third day, the Guadalcanal airport took off bombers to retaliate against the defenders of Bougainville Island.

"In this case, should we immediately send out a second wave of attack to supplement the bombing and prevent the enemy from repairing the airport?"

"I've been waiting for the enemy's counterattack..." Hori Teikichi looked up at the wall clock and smiled, "It seems that their situation is not very good. It's already 9:30 and the first wave of counterattack has not come yet." Kusaka Renhe and his staff were stunned when they heard these words.

"Send a signal, prepare for the second attack wave, let Murata Shigeharu lead the Tianshan attack team to hang bombs and attack..."

Just as Hori Teikichi teased the US military's delay in counterattack, Lieutenant General Ross was also anxious: in the early morning, 8 F4Us volunteered to take off for combat, but one was hit by our own anti-aircraft artillery fire, and one plane really hit an enemy bomber as he said. I jumped out of the plane after the plane was damaged, but the other 6 planes could not find the enemy planes or the enemy fleet in the dark. Finally, they were required to hover over the airport to undertake air defense cover tasks. As a result, when the fuel was exhausted, the airport could not be repaired and landed, so they could only abandon the plane and jump out in a hurry, resulting in the loss of 6 fighters in vain.

At this time, Panama had only a pitiful 43 intact planes left.