Chapter 450 Canal Zone (Part 1)

In the Washington headquarters, Roosevelt and all the senior officials of the Joint Chiefs of Staff heard the anxious news: "The main force of the enemy fleet was discovered, including 9 large warships, suspected battleships, 6 medium-sized warships, suspected heavy cruisers, and several small warships. It is estimated that It is a destroyer. The center of the enemy fleet is currently located 160 kilometers northeast of Panama and is heading southwest at a speed of about 40 kilometers per hour. It is expected to launch an artillery attack on the canal zone at 4 o'clock this afternoon. Our army only has 14 existing aircraft and cannot afford it. Attack mission, request for reinforcements."

The staff officers immediately laid out the position of the Axis fleet on a large electric sand table, and then reported the distance of the air strike: "To attack from Nicaragua, the distance is about 650 kilometers, to attack from Florida, the distance is about 1,750 kilometers..."

The only way to attack the fleet from the mainland is to use the B-24, but the staff officer added in a low voice: "The Panama airport is still paralyzed. Small aircraft can barely take off and land, but the B-24 cannot."

"Where is the enemy aircraft carrier formation?" Admiral Jin asked with a frown.

"It has not been found yet, the search is still going on, and the number of reconnaissance aircraft is currently insufficient."

"The entire Nicaraguan bomber group was dispatched, and the local bomber group transferred to the Nicaraguan airport to replenish it, preparing to launch strikes the next day..." Although the priority target of the air attack was the aircraft carrier, the threat of the artillery fleet was close at hand, and Marshall made a difficult decision after weighing it. The decision was supported by Admiral Jin. The reason is obvious: even if the heavy bombers from the mainland can reach the distance, they will not have enough time. It is better to save their strength until the next day. Now the enemy gunboats are a greater threat than the aircraft carriers. Priorities must be adjusted.

Admiral Kim then added: "Inform the Atlantic Fleet of the latest news and we will strive to eliminate these scourges in the Caribbean."

At 13:35, the U.S. Army Air Forces deployed in Nicaragua dispatched an air strike formation, including 48 bombers including 24 B-25 level bombers, 12 torpedo-mounted TBF attack aircraft and 12 SBD dive bombers. On the 24th Under the cover of a P-47, they rushed toward the axis artillery formation menacingly. During the air strike, Nicaragua also called on the Panamanian defenders to attack together to increase the effect of the air strike. Lieutenant General Ross gritted his teeth and put all the remaining 14 aircraft-6 F4U and 8 SBD into the attack.

At 15:15, the radar crew on the Tirpitz, which was at the forefront, warned: "An enemy aircraft formation was found 125 kilometers away, and the number is expected to exceed 80." A few minutes later, other warships also alerted.

"German electric detectors are really good..." When he said this, Horikichi didn't know that British and American radars were slightly better than German radars. The reason for this sigh was because the Japanese products were really bad. However, the number of 80 aircraft still shocked him.

"The U.S. military should have a large air force base outside of Panama. It may be a little far away from Panama, otherwise it would be impossible to wait until the afternoon to attack us." Horikichi frowned and explained, "After the air strike, two reconnaissance planes will be sent to follow. Take a look at the situation and be careful, don’t let the Americans find out..."

However, even a 125-kilometer warning time was enough. The fleet's forward momentum remained unchanged and continued to approach the Panama Canal Zone. The air defense formation had become relatively tight. A few minutes later, a group of US military aircraft appeared in the fleet's field of vision, and anti-aircraft guns fired one after another. They opened fire in an attempt to break up the enemy formation, while the 36 Bf-219 fighter jets overhead for cover threw away their auxiliary fuel tanks and rushed forward to intercept the enemy.

"Discovery of the Strasbourg."

"Discovery of the Richelieu."

"Discovering the Tirpitz."

"Two Nagato-class ships were discovered."

Viewed from the air, the French battleship with its strange shape and front-mounted main guns is the easiest to identify, followed by the Tirpitz and the Nagato with the flagship logo. Faced with so many battleships, American pilots also had difficulties. They didn't know which one to bomb first. Finally, they reached a consensus and gave priority to dealing with the Tirpitz and Nagato, because these two warships not only had flagship markings, but also carried Carrying the flag of the admiral, it is also located at the core of the entire formation, which shows its most important position.

There are more than 80 US military aircraft in the fleet, but the experienced Japanese and German HNA pilots are not intimidated by this posture. Although the B-25 bomber is the largest and has the largest number, it can only carry out horizontal bombing, and the threat is really not great. On the contrary, TBF and SBD should not be underestimated. Especially the 12 TBFs, taking advantage of the opportunity of SBD, B-25, P-47 and F4U to attract anti-aircraft firepower, quietly fell behind and circled to lower their altitude, preparing to launch a sneak attack.

This little trick did not go unnoticed by Nishizawa Hiroshi. He greeted the trio and the other two German pilots immediately broke away from the formation and swooped down, focusing on dealing with these sneaky TBFs. The lead American aircraft in the group Before he could react, he shot him down with a beautiful cross cut, while the two German pilots dived directly towards the US formation at a high angle of about 70 degrees, aiming directly at the two TBFs below that could not dodge and fired violently, 20mm The aviation shell instantly penetrated the cockpit and the back of the aircraft from above. The pilot was killed on the spot. The poor rear seat gunner fell with the aircraft before he could react. The Bf-219, which is famous for its horizontal dogfights, was raped by the ace pilot. BZ tactics were used all the time.

In just one encounter, 5 of the 12 TBFs were shot down. The US torpedo aircraft formation dispersed in fright, but how could the slow and clumsy torpedo aircraft escape the pursuit of the light and agile fighter jets? The five people became more and more courageous as they fought, and in less than 3 minutes, all the torpedo planes were sent into the sea. Except for one torpedo plane that dropped torpedoes in a panic and was eager to escape, the other planes failed to even successfully drop torpedoes. After shooting down these enemy planes, the five aces did not dare to stay and quickly climbed up to deal with other enemy planes.

The US military fleet is led by Lieutenant Colonel Pfister, who is sitting in the back seat of an SBD and taking command. Just now, the new SBD-5 dive bomber accurately dropped a 1,000-pound high-explosive bomb onto a King Kong ship. On the rear deck of the battlecruiser, he couldn't help but feel proud of himself. When the pilot struggled to pull the aircraft up and break away, he subconsciously scanned the sea and found that it was empty, not even a torpedo plane. Looking more carefully After searching again, I still didn't see any torpedo planes.

He called hard several times on the radio, but there was only a bunch of noisy exclamations:

"Damn, he hit me, he hit me..."

"Ah, ah...I fell, fell..."

"Jimmy, Jimmy, there's a Japanese plane biting your tail!"

"Skydive quickly, skydive quickly."

But there was no reply from the torpedo plane pilots, and he couldn't help but exclaimed: "Were they all shot down?" When he called the SBD squadron again, he received very few replies.

This was not his illusion. In the air attack just now, 12 TBFs were wiped out, 9 of the 12 SBDs departing from Nicaragua were lost, 5 of the 8 SBDs taking off from Panama were lost, and 6 F4Us were shot down 3 Of the 24 P-47s, 11 were shot down, and only the B-25, which was heavy and least noticed, was shot down only 3 times.

The U.S. military's results at such a heavy price were pitiful: the Kirishima was hit by a bomb on the rear deck, the Tirpitz was hit by a bomb in the main turret, and the king of near-misses, the Mutsu, was hit by two near-misses. , the other warships were unscathed, especially the Nagato, which was heavily besieged by B-24s. Under the control of Captain Kuso Yonejiro, it circled left and right and maneuvered around. It was so flexible that it was not like a 43,000-ton battleship. In the end, it was safe and sound. . Only 7 of the 36 Axis fighters were lost, and the battle loss ratio between the two sides reached an astonishing 43:7.

After the bombing was completed, the US fighter jets covered the remaining bombers and fought and retreated. The Axis fighters continued to attack without mercy, and shot down 3 P-47s, 1 F4U and 3 more at the cost of one being shot down. SBD finally set the overall result at 8:50.

Looking at the smoke and fire on the rear deck of the Kirishima, Horikichi asked with concern: "How are the injuries of the Kirishima and Tirpitz?"

"It looks a bit ugly, but it's nothing serious. The 1,000-pound high-explosive bomb cannot penetrate the main armor belt. The two ships just responded and it will not affect the subsequent artillery battle."

"That's good!" Horikichi nodded, "The destroyer will fish out the pilot as soon as possible..."

The U.S. air strike delayed the fleet for 15 minutes. At 4 o'clock, the lookout post on the top of the mast cheered. The Panama Canal Zone was in sight. At this time, the distance was about 50 kilometers. The fighter jets covering the fleet were rotated again. Re-reached the scale of 36 aircraft.

"Prepare for bombardment! Please give General Machar unified command."

After the news of the failure of the first attack wave came back, the Washington headquarters fell into a deathly silence: the enemy seemed to be very experienced, and although the B-25 had a large bomb load, it was obviously not good enough to deal with a fleet with high maneuverability, so The enemy planes did not bother to deal with them, and the losses were not significant; but the SBD and TBF, which could really destroy the fleet, were the key targets of the enemy planes, resulting in heavy casualties, especially the lightning strike aircraft that could cause fatal damage to the battleships were wiped out. Although the officers and soldiers of the Army Aviation have high morale and high spirits, they do have insufficient experience in dealing with the fleet. Although more than 100 support aircraft were transferred from Florida to Nicaragua in the afternoon, if the exchange ratio is still the same tomorrow, I am afraid that they will not be able to stop the Axis Fleet, and enemy ship bombardment is right in front of them. Even if they continue to launch attacks, it will not help.

At that moment, Marshall was almost shaken, but Admiral Jin insisted: "Today we hit at least 3 enemy ships and shot down more than 10 enemy aircraft. I don't believe they were unscathed. No matter what, tomorrow's air strike must persist. The United States has tens of thousands of aircraft and pilots, but the enemy's main battleships and aircraft are only these. Whoever can grit their teeth and persevere will win the final victory."

Roosevelt agreed with General King's view - this is a world war, and there must be no kindness to women!