Chapter 473 Caribbean Sea (15)

"This time we found two new aircraft carriers of the US military. They are large in size and deck. They seem to be new models, and their combat effectiveness should be much higher than the previous models."

Tsukahara nodded slightly: "This is the Essex-class aircraft carrier. I heard that it can hold more than 100 aircraft carriers when fully loaded, and it has better anti-sinkability. There is currently another one in the Pacific."

Seeing the commander's calm demeanor, Mitsuo Fuchida expressed confusion. Minoru Genda quickly revealed the answer: There are at least 20 such aircraft carriers lying on the American slipway, and they will be put into service one after another this year and next.

"Twenty ships?" Fuchida Mizuo opened his mouth in surprise. Now he finally understood the profound connotation of Tsukahara's words just now: "There are still many enemy aircraft carriers, but you are the only pilots we have who can sink them." Not to mention the 20 Essex aircraft carriers, Japan may not be able to find qualified carrier-based aircraft pilots even if it adds two more Shokaku-class aircraft.

Nowadays, the loading requirements and combat ideas of carrier-based aircraft pilots have changed greatly. In the past, they could only carry as many pilots as backup aircraft, and sometimes it was not reached. Now the loading rate generally requires an excess of 25-30% (Japanese military standard) The standard is 50% overcrowding, but this has never been achieved, and HNA has strictly followed this standard). Two more Shokaku-class ships means 200 more qualified carrier-based aircraft pilots (groups). Among other things, the skill of flying the Comet to safely take off and land on the deck can stump a large number of new pilots.

He felt upset when he thought of the new pilots on Socotra who frequently crashed their planes - now that Germany is supporting the training of crashing planes for free, what will happen after returning to Japan? There are more than 20 active and reserve admirals in the Navy. Their combined annual salary is probably enough to pay for the Yamato's main gun to fire four rounds of shells. They can't even afford a Zero War, let alone one more expensive than the Zero War. Comet changes.

Thinking of this, he asked hesitantly: "Can the German side help us train a group of pilots? A few hundred a year will do."

"The chief and the special envoy of the head of state had a secret meeting before departure. There should be some cooperation, but unfortunately." Tsukahara sighed, "There are not even a few hundred qualified pilots who have completed basic carrier-based aircraft training, and there is not enough. With so many instructors, what’s the use of fertile soil and adequate cultivation without seeds?”

Mitsuo Fuchida knew the inside story. Before the war, he trained dozens of pilots a year, and the highest number did not exceed 100. Over the past decade or so, except for occasional flight or training accidents, there was no loss of pilots. On the contrary, the place was crowded and overcrowded. You even have to worry about promotion and placement. But once the war started, the problem was suddenly exposed. The pilots consumed in a battle (whether it was Coral Sea or Midway) were only trained a few years before the war. Even in a successful battle such as the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan 29 aircraft were also lost.

What's even more ironic is that pilots are so important, but many veteran pilots are not yet in the officer establishment, and they still raise their hands and salute when meeting other navy personnel who have just graduated from the Naval War School. Yamamoto Isoroku, Horikichi and Onishi Takijiro of the Naval Aviation Headquarters are all anxious about the status and treatment of naval aviation. They hope that the aviation force can have the status of an officer. However, the old system is not so easy to break. Many senior officials hold the idea of ​​"officer quanxian". The limitation of "system" is that it refuses to let go.

According to the Japanese system, to become an officer, you must first attend a sergeant school. After graduation, you can become a lieutenant (the navy is called a petty officer, and the army is called a general). This is a formal officer. Pilots are generally selected from ordinary soldiers or civilians and trained in aviation schools. They have basically never entered a non-commissioned officer school, so they can only be sergeants instead of officers throughout their lives. What happened to Akamatsu Sadaki is normal, and people like Mizuo Fuchida who are graduates of the navy and then study aviation are rare.

Salary is just a personal issue, and the command system is even more critical. Aviation officers are promoted from formal officers (that is, graduates of the non-commissioned officer school). Those who need promotion can enter aviation schools for further studies. Many officers even become aviation officers without ever entering aviation schools. Troop Commander. Neither Tsukahara nor Nagumo could fly a plane, but they eventually became the commander of the aviation force. It was okay for someone like Tsukahara to be knowledgeable, but it was a disaster for someone like Nagumo to be ignorant and hesitant.

Mizuo Fuchida is now Lieutenant Colonel. If an officer like him wants to command a mobile fleet in the future, if his official career goes smoothly, it will take at least 15 years. If not, it will be impossible in this life - after all, he is only the 52nd Marine, and The graduation ranking is not high, and the mobile fleet is still in the 36th class.

Mizuo Fuchida nodded: Socotra Island is a training school, and it is impossible to expect the Germans to do the basic training of pilots.

"Didn't you say it would be expanded eight times?"

"Yes, it has been expanded 8 times..." Ryunosuke Kusaka sighed, "It still cannot exceed 600. It has only been less than half a year. It will take at least half a year to see the results, and the pilot can fly no matter how hard he flies. Even if you can’t become an officer, the first choice for promising young people is definitely the Naval Academy.”

"Hey..." Mizuo Fuchida had nothing to say about institutional issues and national conditions, and could only sigh.

At 13:29, all aircraft completed supplies and prepared to attack.

Tsukahara explained: "This attack must annihilate all the US military formations while ensuring safety. Even the destroyers must not be spared. They usually salvage fallen officers and soldiers. They are the essence of the US Navy. In addition, the fleet's own air defense mission is very important. , I can only give you 16 escort aircraft.”

"That's enough. The enemy aircraft carrier formation has almost no aircraft left."

"Don't underestimate the enemy. What if they dispatch planes from Puerto Rico to perform escort missions?"

Ryunosuke Kusaka took out two He-218s and three Ju-98s from the reserve aircraft to supplement, so that the second attack wave of Mitsuo Fuchida reached 16 Bf-21218s and 66 Ju-98s, which was still a very terrible strike force.

Just as the second attack wave of the Axis fleet took off, Admiral Ingersoll, commander of the US Atlantic Fleet, was so angry that he jumped up and down in the command tower and cursed.

It turned out that the Japanese sea reconnaissance plane had been circling and tracking over the battleship formation, with no intention of leaving. At this time, the battleship formation did not have a fighter plane, and the anti-aircraft firepower could not shoot down the plane. Chief of Staff Turner was forced to order the ship-borne sea reconnaissance plane to launch a catapult to drive away the Japanese reconnaissance plane. As a result, the US sea reconnaissance plane was far from being a match for the Ar-372. It was slow and clumsy. After two were shot down, it dared not try again.