Chapter 512 Tiger! Tiger! Tiger 16

"Commander, 36 B-17s, 36 B-25s, and 16 P51s are ready and can take off to bomb Kaohsiung at any time."

Inside the US Far East Command building in Manila, Lieutenant General MacArthur was smoking a corncob pipe while listening to the staff report on the preparations for bombing Kaohsiung.

Because the approximate time when the Japanese launched the war was known long ago, and it was expected that the Japanese army would attack the Philippines first, MacArthur had sufficient troops on December 8, 1941. There were 313 commonly used aircraft alone, including 36 B-17s, 36 B-25s, 64 P51s, 64 P40s, 32 F4Fs, 27 SBDs, 27 TBDs, and 27 PBY-5A Catalina seaplanes. So MacArthur had the power to fight back!

Now the first to be bombed was Pearl Harbor. Because of the time difference, it was still 2 a.m. in the Philippines when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and it was difficult for Japanese planes to bomb Clark Airport and Cavite Military Port at the same time. So until 7 a.m. on December 8, Philippine time, the Japanese bombers had not arrived. Therefore, MacArthur absolutely took the initiative and sent the B-17 and B-25 from Clark Base to bomb Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

"Well," MacArthur waved his hand, "Go out now to bomb the Japanese airport in Kaohsiung, tell the brothers of the air force to teach the Japanese devils in Taiwan a lesson!"

MacArthur's order was quickly sent to Clark Airport, and the B-17, B-25 and P51 aircraft that had completed the take-off preparations immediately rushed into the blue sky one after another, formed a bombing formation in the air, and then roared towards Taiwan.

At the same time, 220 nautical miles north of Oahu, the eight aircraft carriers of the Japanese First Mobile Fleet also began to sail against the wind at full speed, using the fierce deck wind to release 183 carrier-based aircraft that formed the third attack wave - because 49 aircraft were lost in the first and second attack waves, the scale of the third and fourth attack waves was reduced.

"Major General, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the third wave of air strikes!"

On the flagship of the Second Task Force, the USS Ranger, Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher received news of the third Japanese carrier-based aircraft attack on Pearl Harbor at 12:35 local time in Hawaii.

"Have the Japanese planes arrived at Pearl Harbor?" Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher wanted to confirm the specific location of the Japanese planes. Because there are air search radars on Oahu, the incoming enemy planes can be discovered 30-45 minutes in advance.

"Yes, it has arrived at Pearl Harbor." Commander Henry, the captain of the USS Ranger, replied.

Rear Admiral Fletcher glanced outside the bridge, and the narrow flight deck was full of planes ready to take off. The "Raider" is a small-tonnage aircraft carrier, with a standard displacement smaller than the German "Seydlitz" class. However, this aircraft carrier, like other American aircraft carriers, adopts the luxurious deck mooring method to load aircraft, and the folding wings of American aircraft are also better, so the "Raider" can carry 72 regular aircraft plus 9 spare aircraft.

Now there are a total of 64 regular aircraft and 8 spare aircraft on this aircraft carrier, of which 20 SBDs, 18 TBDs and 12 F4Fs have been arranged on the flight deck-this is the "full deck assault" tactic commonly used by American and Japanese aircraft carriers. All aircraft to be deployed are placed on the deck in advance, so that the release of carrier-based aircraft can be completed in the shortest time.

Now, as long as Fletcher gives an order, 50 aircraft can be launched in a maximum of 10 minutes.

"Send the first attack wave now!" Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher suddenly issued an order for carrier-based aircraft to attack.

"Rear Admiral," Commander Henry, the captain of the Ranger, was stunned when he heard this and quickly reminded, "We haven't found the location of the Japanese aircraft carrier yet."

"No, we don't need to know the location of the Japanese aircraft carrier now. We just need to let the carrier-based aircraft follow the Japanese carrier-based aircraft back home." Frank Fletcher said, "The Germans used this tactic in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Battle, which resulted in the British losing many excellent carrier-based aircraft pilots. Now we have to use the same method to deal with the Japanese."

He thought for a while and said, "After the carrier-based aircraft are released, we will immediately move south away from the battlefield."

"Away from the battlefield?"

"Yes," Frank Fletcher nodded and said, "The Japanese have at least 6 aircraft carriers, and we only have 1...so we can't confront them head-on."

"So how do the carrier-based aircraft return?"

"Let them go to Pearl Harbor after bombing the Japanese," Frank Fletcher said thoughtfully, "and take off from Pearl Harbor and return to the aircraft carrier tomorrow morning, so that we can continue to deal with the Japanese tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Will these Japanese not leave tomorrow?"

Frank Fletcher shook his head, "It's hard to say! Maybe the Japanese want to occupy Hawaii!"

"Occupy Hawaii!?" Lieutenant Colonel Henry was shocked, "They will drag more than 3,200 nautical miles of transportation lines to occupy the Hawaiian Islands? What's the point of this?"

Frank Fletcher frowned, "This will make us very uncomfortable, very, very uncomfortable... This reason is enough!"

...

"Enemy plane! Enemy plane found, 11 o'clock direction, 500 meters above!"

Mitsuo Fuchida heard the bombardier/radio operator Yasuda, who was sitting behind him, shouting loudly. He quickly looked in the direction indicated by Yasuda and saw forty or fifty small black dots approaching him at a very fast speed!

"Akagi, Kaga, Zuikaku fighter squadrons, fight the enemy planes!" Mitsuo Fuchida immediately divided three fighter squadrons (not full, with only 40 Zero aircraft in the three squadrons) to fight the oncoming enemy planes. Then he ordered: "All dive bombers and torpedo bomber squadrons, immediately move towards the designated targets, and wish you long-lasting military luck!"

According to Genda Minoru's arrangement, the Type 97 torpedo bombers, Type 99 dive bombers and "Comet" dive bombers participating in the third attack wave all carried high-explosive bombs for destroying airport runways and 250 kg armor-piercing bombs for attacking oil tanks. There were no torpedoes and 500 kg and 800 kg armor-piercing bombs to deal with battleships. Therefore, the target of the third attack wave was the oil depot and airport in Pearl Harbor.

The oil depot area was bombed first. When the Japanese planes arrived, the fire there was still blazing.

Although the Pacific Fleet Command and the Hawaii Army Command had tried their best to mobilize the fire brigade, there were too many oil tanks on fire. The central control pump of the Pearl Harbor oil depot had no time to pump the fuel from the bombed oil tanks, and the leaked fuel burned around the oil tanks.

Now the firefighters can only spray water to cool down the oil tanks that have not been blown up, and reinforce the earth pile to prevent the burning heavy oil from leaking out and affecting other oil tanks. At this time, the two divisions of the Hawaii Army also sent engineers with mechanized engineering equipment to help pile up the earth, which temporarily controlled the fire.

But at this time, the damn Japanese bombs fell again, blowing up seven or eight intact oil tanks, and killing many firefighters and engineers who were fighting the fire. As a result, the fire burned more and more fiercely.

Then the airport in Pearl Harbor was also affected, although the thick smoke from the oil depot fire obscured the airport to a certain extent. However, the Japanese pilots took the risk of lowering their flight altitude and risking being shot down by fierce ground fire, but still found three of the four main airports, and then dropped more than a hundred bombs, destroying some hangars and bombing some runways into potholes.

Bombing the runway was not a problem for the Americans. The Pearl Harbor base had been under construction for the past few decades, so there were many engineering teams on Oahu, as well as many engineering machinery. The construction force was sufficient, and the bomb craters made by the Japanese could be repaired in just one night.

However, there were many damaged but repairable aircraft in the bombed hangars! Now Pearl Harbor is not short of pilots, but aircraft, because many pilots' aircraft were bombed in the first and second waves of Japanese air raids. The mainland of the United States is more than 3,000 kilometers away from Oahu. Except for long-range bombers such as B-17 and B-24, most American aircraft, especially fighters, do not have such a long range, and it is impossible for them to fly to Oahu by themselves. Even the range of the US military transport aircraft C-47 is not enough.

So how to replenish aircraft to Oahu became a key factor in the Hawaiian operation. After Admiral Kimmel saw the report on the losses caused by the third and fourth waves of Japanese air raids, he immediately asked the Navy Department for additional aircraft. Now the number of fighters on Oahu is less than 30, and even if the fighters that can be repaired are counted, there are less than 40. If Japan launches a few more waves of attacks, there will be no fighters available on Oahu.

And Nanyun Chuyi, who had just woken up after a nap, also heard a piece of news that made him nervous.

"What!? There are dozens of American planes following the returning fourth wave of fighters?" Nanyun Chuyi immediately became nervous, "Baga, the Americans are so cunning that they actually want to find our position by following them."

"Commander," Genda Minoru, the aviation staff of the First Mobile Fleet, thought that Nanyun Chuyi was going to learn from the British in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Battle and abandon the returning fourth wave of assaults, and hurriedly reported: "All direct-cover aircraft are ready, and air defense is no problem... and in the four waves of assaults, we lost at least 69 aircraft, and more than 100 imperial pilots have been killed on the battlefield!"