Chapter 453 Canal Zone (End)

Ps: Due to the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, I will take my eldest daughter out for a walk starting today until September 7th. During this period, the updates will be irregular and the number may also decrease. Please bear with me...

At 6:15, 60 of the 72 air defense fighters were separated and flew northwest at an accelerated speed, and the remaining 12 were covering the fleet to deal with emergencies.

Hori Teikichi narrowed his eyes and looked at the change in the number of planes in the air, and asked: "Do you plan to intercept first?"

Kusaka Ren nodded. With the radar, interception is no longer a particularly difficult task. It is very convenient to intercept the enemy aircraft group according to the radar guidance. This is also a good way to delay the enemy aircraft from launching an air strike, but when he heard the radar report that there were more than 120 enemy aircraft, his face became very solemn again.

There were a total of 124 US aircraft in the air strike, and Lieutenant Colonel Fister was still the commander-in-chief. The formation included 14 F4Us, 32 P-47s, 24 SBDs, 20 TBFs, 18 A-20 light bombers and 16 B-25 medium bombers. Major General Cohen summarized the battle situation yesterday and believed that the key to the success of the air strike was to let the fighter unit entangle the enemy and then open a channel for the attacking aircraft. But when he saw that there were many more enemy fighters coming to intercept than yesterday, Fister couldn't help frowning, and instinctively felt that today's battle would be equally difficult.

Tactics are improving day by day, and the US military will certainly not remain unchanged. Facing the Axis fighters coming to intercept, the 124-aircraft formation suddenly split into two camps of similar size, and spread out to the left and right wings respectively. The left wing was a combination of P-47, TBF and A-20, and the right wing was a combination of F4U, SBD and B-25. This strategy was proposed by Fister. He believed that the speeds of our aircraft were different. If they were all gathered together to fly, the slow ones would easily drag down the fast ones, and as a result, no one could fly fast. After adjusting the combination, the relatively fast TBF was placed with the A-20, and the relatively slow SBD and B-25 were placed together, making the formation more reasonable; another point was that there were more aircraft on our side, and it was easier to break through with a small formation after dispersing than with a group.

This tactical idea was accepted by Major General Cohen and recognized by most pilots. When facing enemy interception, it was implemented in this way. But what he didn't expect was that the Axis aircraft group was soon divided into two, turning to the left and right wings for interception, but the opponent was not evenly distributed: 40 Bf-219s were allocated to the left wing, and only 20 were allocated to the right wing.

Fister had no idea that the 40 fighters on the left wing were all Japanese pilots, while the 20 fighters on the right wing were all German pilots. The Americans' division of forces made it easier for the Japanese and German fighters to fight the enemy separately, reducing the pressure of coordination. The reason why there were only 20 fighters on the right wing was entirely because Major Voller of the German Navy Aviation, who served as the formation commander, had already seen that the enemy planes on the right wing were mainly twin-engine bombers and fighters. Except for SBD, he was too lazy to invest more power to deal with them - he was no longer a young man, and he had passed the age of boiling blood. Seeing the enemy fighters, he had to rush over and shoot them down to prove himself. All he had to do was to shoot down the SBDs.

The right-wing group where Fister was located quickly broke through the German interception while fighting and rushing, but the left-wing group complained bitterly - they had 70 planes, but had to face 40 Japanese fighter interceptions. The difficulty of breaking through was greater than yesterday, and the two sides soon collided fiercely.

The destroyers below, maneuvering at top speed and waiting to rescue people, could see clearly that the two sides of the air battle were fighting in a group, planes kept falling down, and pilots occasionally parachuted. Since these destroyers were busy retrieving pilots from both sides, the American fighters in the air did not want to attack them - it was better to be a prisoner than to drown in the sea.

Although the P-47 on the left wing was very fast, it had to cover the A-20 and TBF, so its advantage could not be brought into play. After paying the price of 14 P-47s, 7 A-20s, and 9 TBFs being shot down, the left wing group broke through the Japanese interception and rushed forward, but the Bf-219s that turned back continued to catch up and fight. As Fister gradually went away, he thought that at least 10 Japanese planes were shot down, but this was completely his illusion. The U.S. army on the left wing had lost a total of 30 planes, while the Japanese army had lost only 5. He saw that the "falling" planes were actually just the Japanese pilots taking advantage of the situation to dive after completing the attack, not really crashing.

The German fighter group on the right wing had a relatively difficult battle because of its smaller number, but they were quickly supported by the remaining 12 fighters covering the fleet, and the situation was reversed. A total of 4 planes were lost, and 6 P-47s, 8 SBDs and 2 B-25s were shot down. The exchange ratio of the two sides in the outer interception battle was 46:9. Considering that the difference in numbers between the two sides was slightly lower than yesterday, the U.S. military had actually made slight progress compared to the result of 50:8.

After the large-scale aircraft group intercepted and dispersed, they began to fight individually. The US aircraft group carried out fierce bombing on the beachhead positions according to the pre-agreed targets. A large number of aerial bombs poured down, and the beachhead was suddenly engulfed in a sea of ​​fire. Shrapnel was flying everywhere, wantonly harvesting the lives of officers and soldiers of the Marine Brigade. However, Fister soon noticed the problem: the bombing scene looked very fierce, but in fact the soft sandy land had a buffering effect on the bombs. Many bombs did not explode when dropped, and even those that exploded absorbed a lot of impact. In addition, when the aircraft group intercepted just now, the German officers and soldiers had consciously dispersed and lay down on the spot, so the bombing effect was not as good as expected.

Disappointed, he decided to temporarily adjust his strategy, let some planes turn around to attack the fleet on the sea, and then let the fighters be responsible for strafing the ground. In a sense, the fierce firepower of the P-47's eight 12.7mm aircraft machine guns when sweeping the ground may be more effective than bombs. Although the scene was in chaos, he still thought clearly that the bombs on hand were not enough to deal with the enemy battleships, so he asked the attack planes to bomb the landing craft and transport ships - destroying these can also curb the enemy's subsequent landing forces.

Just before the U.S. military broke into the landing site, Tsukahara on the Shokaku also received accurate intelligence: "Enemy planes have arrived in the Panama Canal Zone..."

"All attack, rush to the battlefield as quickly as possible, and start the battle according to the plan agreed last night."

With his order, the 34 Bf-219s that were originally on standby quickly rushed to the landing site - he grasped this opportunity very well. In case the enemy planes rushed to the mobile fleet, these 34 reserve teams could play a role in interception and containment. Only when he was sure that all the enemy attack aircraft groups stayed over the landing site could he send out this last force.

Although other aircraft were required to bomb the landing ships as much as possible, the experienced Fister himself did not want to waste the 1,000-pound bomb in the belly of the aircraft on a landing craft of only a few hundred tons. He wanted to find a big target to start with, so the pilot chose the nearest Mutsu and dived down quickly. The attack was so sudden that no fighter interfered with his actions. In the end, the SBD successfully broke through the anti-aircraft fire interception of the warship, successfully dropped the bomb and hit the rear deck of Mutsu.

In fact, without watching carefully, Fister knew that he had definitely won the prize. He waved his fist happily and wanted to shout to the pilot, "Return home..." What caught him off guard was that just when the SBD had just leveled and was about to disengage, the Mutsu, which had dodged bombs many times and was known as the king of near misses, suddenly erupted in a violent shock. The impact force from the warship blew the SBD in the air and shook. Its violent power made everyone unbelievable.

That's not all. Fister was stunned to see that the No. 3 turret of the ship actually flew up in the blast wave - it was a big guy weighing 360 tons, and then the turret quickly fell down again, smashing the bow of a Japanese destroyer next to it that was unable to dodge in time. The unfortunate destroyer sank into the sea, and the panicked sailors jumped into the sea like dumplings. Looking down from the air, a large gap suddenly appeared on the rear deck of the Mutsu, and thick smoke billowed.

"Hahaha!" Fister and the pilot laughed wildly, happier than winning the first prize.

What happened? Not only did he not understand, but everyone who witnessed the scene did not understand.

Kusaka Renji cursed loudly: According to the defense capability and armor thickness of the Mutsu, this should not have happened at all. Not to mention a 1,000-pound ordinary bomb, even a 1,000-pound armor-piercing shell could not penetrate the main horizontal armor belt, but the reality is so cruel, the most impossible thing actually happened.

A few minutes later, Hori Teikichi received an accurate report of the situation: the bomb penetrated the armor belt and caused the ammunition depot of the No. 3 turret to explode. Under the combined action of the bomb and the shells and ammunition, a tragic explosion occurred. The shock wave of the explosion not only swept away all the facilities, equipment, and personnel near the No. 3 turret, but also destroyed the boiler in the power compartment below. The Mutsu, which was originally maneuvering at a high speed of 25 knots, suddenly dropped to only 17 knots. As for why a mere 1,000-pound bomb could penetrate the armor belt, no one could tell.

No one knows that the current experience of the Mutsu is much stronger than the real history - that time the entire warship sank due to the explosion of the No. 3 turret in the port!

From yesterday to this morning, the Mutsu carried out multiple bombardments, and nearly 50% of the ammunition has been used, so the power of the secondary explosion has been greatly reduced compared to the real history. Even so, the quality risks left over from the rush work have always existed and were eventually exposed on the battlefield, and the scene was extremely ugly. Several SBDs and TBFs saw that Mutsu was seriously damaged and wanted to take advantage of it, and they all dropped their bombs. The speed of the Mutsu, which was greatly reduced and panicked, suddenly became the target of public criticism. As a result, it was hit by a 1,000-pound and a 500-pound bomb within 2 minutes. However, the luck of the American bombers who dropped the bombs was not very good. After dropping the bombs, they were shot down by the fighters that arrived later, but the bombs they dropped also fell into the big hole created by the explosion just now, causing another violent explosion, and the speed further dropped to only 15 knots.