Chapter 714 Coral Sea-George Bush

October 30, 1942.

In the early morning, when the sun jumped out of the sea east of the Japanese archipelago, the red flag of GCism was slowly lowered from an aircraft carrier of more than 10,000 tons on the Pacific Ocean 1,500 kilometers away from the Japanese archipelago.

At the same time, George Herbert Walker Bush, who had just turned 18, took off from the deck of the aircraft carrier in a brand new TBF "Avenger" torpedo bomber.

This torpedo bomber produced by Grumman and entered the mass production stage in 1942 is likely to be the carrier-based aircraft with the strongest anti-ship capability during this period. Compared with its "predecessor" TBD "Destroyer" torpedo bomber, the performance of TBF has been significantly improved. It has a high-powered Wright R-2600-8 14-cylinder air-cooled engine (which can output 1,700 horsepower), the cockpit is equipped with bulletproof glass, and the bulletproof armor of the fuselage is unprecedentedly strong.

Moreover, the flaps of the TBF torpedo bomber are equipped with speed brakes, which makes this torpedo bomber have the same dive attack capability as a dive bomber. In the fleet decisive battle, this function may be a bit useless (TBF is too big and easy to be hit by the anti-aircraft guns on the ship), but when performing the mission of breaking the commerce, this function is very practical.

When dealing with Japanese freighters, four 500-pound bombs are definitely more reliable than one Mk13 torpedo with poor performance - there are not so many harsh requirements for dropping bombs, and low-tech bombs do not have as many faults as high-tech torpedoes.

So now Bush's TBF torpedo bomber is not equipped with torpedoes, but with four 500-pound bombs.

"Four 500-pound bombs... are enough to kill a ship of Japanese devils!" The 18-year-old young pilot was excited when he thought of the screaming and struggling Japanese all over the sea.

"Guys, I'm Captain James Watt!" A gruff voice came from Bush's headset, "Today's air raid commander."

Captain James Watt is the captain of the Independence's torpedo bomber squadron and Bush's immediate superior.

"Guys, today we are going to carry out a real combat mission!" Captain Watt continued, "This is also the first battle in most of you! It may be a little dangerous, but I promise that after this battle, you will all become real men, and you will also like the feeling of killing Japanese, because every one of them deserves to die! May God bless you! Bless America!"

"Kill all the Japanese, bless America!"

Bush heard a warm cheer from his headset, and he cheered along.

At this time, Captain James Watt's voice came again: "Guys, pull up to 4,000 meters, follow me, we will find the Japanese troop transport ship!"

The Japanese troop transport ship had been discovered long ago, otherwise Colonel Mitchell would not have sent out 9 TBF torpedo bombers and 9 SBD dive bombers early in the morning.

The Japanese ship was discovered by a "Heavy Toothed Tai" class submarine operating in the waters between Saipan and the Japanese archipelago. This is a large submarine with a surface displacement of 1,450 tons and a long endurance, so it can operate in waters near Japan. It did not carry torpedoes, but carried mines to lay mines in Japan's Bungo Channel.

Now the mine-laying mission has been completed, but the submarine did not return immediately, but conducted reconnaissance in the waters 200-500 nautical miles from Saipan. Last night, the submarine discovered a transport fleet consisting of a large cruise ship, four cargo ships and two armed merchant ships (special gunboats), sailing from north to south.

The large cruise ship in this fleet is the Dayo Maru with a standard displacement of 14,458 tons. It was originally a cruise ship built by Germany before World War I. Later, it was delivered to Japan as war reparations and became one of the few high-end cruise ships owned by Japan. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, this cruise ship was immediately requisitioned by the Japanese Army as a troop transport ship.

Now on board are the headquarters of the 17th Army of the Japanese Army and the headquarters of the 6th Division under the 17th Army, as well as the communications team, field hospital and a comfort station of the 17th Army and the 6th Division, as well as some military journalists and engineering and technical personnel (who are going to work in the arsenal in Rabaul), a total of more than 1,500 people.

In addition, the ship is loaded with more than 2,000 tons of supplies, mainly communication equipment, medical equipment and medicines, including more than a dozen anti-tank guns purchased from Germany at a high price.

General Tani Hisao, commander of the 17th Army, and Lieutenant General Kanda Masatane of the 6th Division are naturally on this luxurious troop transport ship.

General Tani Hisao is taking a leisurely walk on the stern veranda at this time, doing some stretching exercises from time to time. This trip south by boat is a long journey, with a straight-line distance of more than 2,500 nautical miles, and an anti-submarine route will add 60%, which is more than 4,000 nautical miles. At a speed of 12 knots, it will take about 2 weeks. If I don't exercise, I'm afraid I won't even be able to walk when I reach Rabaul.

The commander of the 6th Division, Kanda Masatane, followed behind Tani Hisao and also stretched his chest and arms. He was an expert on Soviet issues in the Japanese army and spent his whole life studying how to fight the Soviet Union (Russia) and establish the hegemony of the Empire of Japan on the continent.

But I didn't expect to command the 6th Division to conquer Australia... To be honest, the Japanese Army really didn't know anything about Australia as a continent. They looked through the General Staff Headquarters and the Naval Command Department and even found a military map of Australia. None can be found. In the end, I could only get some travel maps and make do with them.

Another thing that makes the Japanese Army Deer of Kanda's level feel a little uneasy is that there are not enough transport ships available.

Now the Japanese Empire has become very large, expanding to the Burma-India border and Malacca in the west, taking over the Aleutian Islands and Hawaii in the east, expanding to the Solomon Islands in the south, and actually controlling Manchuria in the north.

Such a vast and scattered maritime empire must be maintained with a large number of transport ships. Resources from all corners of the empire needed to be transported to the Japanese mainland by ship, and the troops that maintained the empire's rule in various places also had to be transported by ship. In addition, Japan's local economy and industry also require merchant ships to transport supplies.

However, the Japanese Empire only had about 6 million tons of merchant ships before the war. In the 11 months after the war began, some merchant ships were completed one after another. Of course, many merchant ships were sunk by British and American submarines and destroyers. . If the current inventory is too large, it is about 6.2 million tons.

To be honest, it is already difficult to maintain the current territory with these ships. If we want to go south to Australia, it is really a bit unpopular.

But the problem is that now the Americans are unwilling to sign an armistice treaty with Japan. They have not finished transporting troops to Australia, making it clear that they will counterattack from there! If we don't take advantage of the fact that the U.S. military strength in Australia is not sufficient and the U.S. shipbuilding plan is not completed, we can conquer Australia in one go. Then when the Americans counterattack, the military destiny of the Japanese Empire will not last long.

When Kanda Masane was about to discuss with his boss Hisao Tani about where to land in Australia, the air raid siren suddenly sounded.

"Air strike! Air strike!"

Kanda heard a trembling voice shouting, that person was obviously a frightened sailor, if it was the Army, it would not be scared.

"Air raid? Baga, isn't this within the absolute national defense circle?" Hisao Tani, who was walking in front of Kanda Masane, cursed when he heard the siren, "Who is sending the siren indiscriminately? Is this to disturb the morale of the military? "

Before he finished speaking, someone behind him shouted: "Plane! It seems to be an enemy plane!"

Hisao Tani turned around a little angrily to see who the bad guy was that disturbed the morale of the army, but found that the man was actually Lieutenant General Kanda Masane, the commander of the 6th Division.

A dignified lieutenant general, yelling like this, undermines the majesty of the imperial army... Just when Hisao Tani was about to say something ordinary, the sound of machine gun fire came to his mind.

This time, the Admiral also knew that something was wrong. He quickly raised his neck and looked around, and saw two groups of blue-painted single-engine planes suddenly appearing in the sky. They were flying from the sky behind the Daiyo Maru. The two leading planes Suddenly the nose of the plane dropped and it rushed down towards the Dayang Maru, as if it was about to hit the Dayang Maru.

"Baga! American plane!" Hisao Tani shouted now, "We were deceived by the navy, it's not safe here at all!"

"Kill all the Japanese and protect America!"

George Bush yelled, pressed down the control stick hard, and followed Captain James Watt's plane in front to plunge towards a ship of more than 10,000 tons on the sea 3,000 meters below.

There were three crew members on his plane, one of whom was responsible for dropping the bomb. So Bush only needs to aim the nose of the plane at the Japanese ship below, and then rush at a 60-degree angle. When the bomb indicator light in the cabin lights up, the bombardier sitting behind him will drop the bomb.

Then Bush could pull up the plane hard while praying in his heart to Almighty God.

boom! boom!

Just as the TBF torpedo bomber driven by Bush rushed high into the sky, two loud noises were heard from the sea below.

"Hit! God! The Japanese ship exploded," the shouts of rear gunner Mike came immediately. "It's so beautiful. This is the most beautiful scene I have ever seen in my life! I took it down, Then put it in the frame..."

"This is the first Japanese ship I've blown up!" Bush thought to himself. "I'll have to ask Mike for a photo to keep as a souvenir for my son."