Chapter 463 Caribbean Sea (5)

The night was getting darker and darker, and there was only the monotonous sound of engines on the sea. After confirming that there will not be an air attack by enemy aircraft today, Commander Tali, the mobile fleet flagship Shokaku, is conducting intense judgment and analysis of the enemy situation.

"Slow down the turbine speed, 23 knots is enough." Tsukahara sighed, "I'm afraid the turbine won't be able to handle it if we continue driving at the highest speed..."

"Hai!" A staff officer immediately went to deliver the order.

"Sir, judging from the current situation, the enemy seems to be preparing to give us a fatal blow tomorrow." Ryunosuke Kusaka frowned and said, "I just don't know which part of the fleet is coming."

Tsukahara nodded: "The enemy commander should have been replaced, otherwise he would not be so stable. I judge that the Puerto Rico airport has been repaired, but I don't know how many aviation forces are stationed."

"The sky is similar to that of Panama or Nicaragua, right? No matter how strong the engineering capabilities of the Americans are, it only lasts two days for emergency repairs." Ryunosuke Kusaka asked in confusion, "The water reconnaissance has repeatedly searched today, and no enemy has been reported. Fleet, why do you always judge that the enemy fleet has arrived?"

"That's because we are still far away from the enemy." Tsukahara suddenly laughed. "Originally, I was not sure whether the enemy fleet had arrived, but today the Americans uncharacteristically did not launch an air strike, so I thought they had arrived."

"What's the reason?"

The basis of Tsukahara's analysis sounds a bit mysterious: in the past two days, the Americans did not hesitate to lose troops and generals, but they tried their best to launch an attack in order to delay and leave the Axis fleet behind. Now they actually do not attack themselves. It clearly shows that a major change has occurred. If this kind of sacrifice is needed again, combined with the situation analysis, the possibility of such a change in the arrival of the U.S. main fleet ranks first.

Tsukahara's overall analysis is more conjectural than empirical, and Kusaka Ryuunosuke is doubtful about it, but he has always trusted the commander's intuition-luck and other things are sometimes much more important than logic, and Nagumo Chuichi is just too unlucky. , otherwise Midway would not have lost so many aircraft carriers at once.

"So we're going to be in big trouble tomorrow morning?"

"One thing is certain, at least the US military planes at the Nicaraguan airport will not come to cause trouble for us, and Panama's enemies should not have time to use this airport - this is the only comforting news."

"Sir, Tsukahara-kun sent a telegram. He hopes that we will continue to maintain the current course, travel at maximum speed, and change to the southeast after crossing the Aruba sea area in the early morning." Kusuka Ren said as he asked the staff Marking the simulated track on the chart, "In this way, we will be near Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, about 815 kilometers away from Puerto Rico in the early morning. In addition, he estimated that the enemy's main fleet has entered the Caribbean Sea, and the distance from the artillery formation is currently at least More than 600 kilometers.”

"What is the threat to my formation from the direction of Puerto Rico?"

"According to the Tsukahara Army's advance route, at 8:15 tomorrow morning, our fleet will be closest to Puerto Rico, which is about 770 kilometers. If we follow the current advance route, the closest distance will be about 620 kilometers."

Horikichi nodded: "He wants to use distance to minimize the enemy's advantage?"

"No, he wants to use the existence of the decoy fleet to make it difficult for the enemy to judge..." Kusaka Renichi reported Tsukahara's idea, "Tomorrow he will place the decoy fleet 820 kilometers away from Puerto Rico and about 300 kilometers away from the artillery fleet. position, and then hide the mobile fleet as much as possible, so that the first attack wave of the US military is mainly borne by the decoy fleet. If this is not possible, we must also delay the time for the enemy to obtain clear reconnaissance information - every hour of delay is quite beneficial to us. "

Horikichi knew that this was because Tsukahara wanted to stay to cover himself, and the four aircraft carriers of the light mobile fleet could easily escape: since the enemy did not launch an air attack today, if they really let go of their speed and escaped, the enemy would hardly be able to catch up with them early tomorrow morning. But he did not only consider his own safety, but still decided to stay and cover the artillery formation, which greatly touched Horikichi. He pondered for a moment and then said: "I agree with the suggestion, and the artillery formation will comply with it."

After receiving a call back saying "agree" from Horikichi, Tsukahara breathed a long sigh of relief and relaxed. Kusaka Ryuunosuke complained to him: "Why don't you tell your superiors all your plans?"

"His pressure is already great enough. Don't put any more pressure on him. We need to shoulder some responsibilities ourselves." Tsukahara put on a serious look, "This Panama operation was the commander's arbitrary decision to bypass the military headquarters. Although the strategic It is of great significance and has received cooperation and support from Germany. However, the risks we bear are not small. If the goal is achieved during the operation without any losses, the country will naturally have to hold its nose and ratify it. But in case of losses, all spearheads will Everyone will eventually point to the commander. Now that the fleet has lost Mutsu and Hiei, it is a huge loss in the eyes of some people who are ignorant of the past. However, because of the achievement of destroying the Panama Canal, it can barely be explained. But if the loss of the battleship is too large, , the follow-up situation is unimaginable.”

"With bureaucrats wielding power and plutocrats in power, when will Japan have hope?" Ryunosuke Kusaka cursed angrily, then lowered his voice and said, "What I saw and heard during my trip to Europe this time had a great impact on the minds of the officers and soldiers. Everyone is aggrieved for the commander - if the German naval general had the achievements and vision of the commander, he would have been the first general under the head of state, would he still be so constrained and restricted? "

Tsukahara sighed: "That's why the commander has been reluctant to go back. Instead of going back to his country and being criticized, it would be better to be free in Europe. It's a pity..."

At 11 o'clock in the evening, the lights in Washington's headquarters were bright. Everyone had different views on the situation and discussed the offensive routine for the next day, but there was one point that they agreed on. They must turn the situation around and destroy the main force of the enemy's fleet, otherwise the United States will be completely embarrassed.

Fletcher hoped to launch the first attack in coordination with the Puerto Rican land-based air force tomorrow morning, but the enemy situation must be discovered as early as possible. In addition, he proposed that Washington should clarify the authorization in two aspects: first, the Puerto Rican land-based air force should be directly commanded by the fleet, and second, given that the enemy fleet is distributed in three places with a distance of nearly 700 kilometers, it is difficult to strike at the same time. He hopes that Washington can clarify the priority order of attack. He personally does not advocate the division of troops, and strongly recommends that the enemy's four fleet carriers be listed as the top priority targets.

It was easy to reach a consensus on the first point: in terms of quantity, the aircraft carrier formation was more than twice the size of Puerto Rico's land-based aviation force; in terms of technology and capabilities, the carrier-based aircraft pilots were also better than the Army Aviation pilots temporarily transferred from the central states. Admiral King was very worried that these pilots who had hardly ever seen the sea would get lost along the way. Although Arnold vowed that he would send the most professional pilot aircraft and navigation officers, he was still skeptical about this.