Chapter 719 Coral Sea-The Japanese Want to Leapfrog
The Coral Sea, like a piece of blue silk, rises and falls with the gentle sea breeze. A large cotton-like cloud slowly floats in the sky. In the distance, several coral islands that have emerged from the sea (according to the standards of the Japanese Empire, an area as large as two tables above the sea is an island) are flying up and down, chasing and playing with each other. However, such a pleasant and harmonious scene did not make Vice Admiral Chuichi Nanyun relax his brows.
Because his fleet has been wandering in the North Coral Sea for several days, but has not found any trace of the US Pacific Fleet aircraft carrier that he wants to destroy.
This is really a bit anxious. Although the attack on Australia is progressing smoothly, not only has Port Moresby been successfully captured, but even New Caledonia is about to be captured. However, the most important stronghold on the US-Australia route is New Zealand. As long as New Zealand cannot be captured, the US-Australia route cannot be said to be blocked.
Now the purpose of the British and American Allied Forces to abandon the outer strongholds one after another must be to concentrate troops to guard the most critical territory, and New Zealand must be among them.
Therefore, the Southern Army has been cautious about capturing New Zealand so far. If the Navy wants to cut off the US-Australia route without being able to control New Zealand, then destroying the four main aircraft carriers of the US Pacific Fleet is the only option.
But for several days, there was no trace of the US aircraft carriers!
Nanyun Chuichi, who was a little impatient, decided to expand the search range yesterday and sent two air fleets (the 10th Air Fleet and the 11th Air Fleet) with seaplane carriers as the core to the Coral Islands and Norfolk Island, and then sent Zero-type sea reconnaissance to search.
If there is no discovery, it may mean that the American aircraft carrier is really not nearby. Then Nanyun Chuichi is ready to suggest that General Yamamoto Gosho give up the decisive battle in the Coral Sea and send a landing force to take New Caledonia Island.
Just when Nanyun Chuichi was waiting impatiently, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly sounded. Nanyun looked back and saw that it was his chief of staff, Major General Kusaka Ryunosuke, walking quickly.
"Commander, the 10th Air Fleet broke the silence and sent an urgent message."
"Oh?" Nagumo Chuichi raised his eyebrows.
Now the 1st Air Fleet is in radio silence, and its subordinate squadrons are naturally silent. The 10th Air Fleet, with the "Chiyoda" seaplane carrier as its core, suddenly broke the silence, and must have made an important discovery!
"They were discovered by an American seaplane!" Kusaka Ryunosuke's words disappointed Nagumo Chuichi.
"But the Type 2 Sea Fighter sent by the Chiyoda shot down the American Catalina seaplane." Kusaka Ryunosuke continued.
The Type 2 Sea Fighter is actually a "magic version" of the Zero fighter, which changes a carrier-based fighter into a fighter that can take off and land on the water, and carries 4 aircraft on the "Chiyoda" seaplane carrier.
"Oh." Nanyun nodded, "But the position of the 10th Air Fleet is still exposed?"
"It is probably exposed." Kusaka Ryunosuke said, "Before shooting down the US seaplane, the radio station of the Chiyoda detected the radio signal... But this is also an opportunity."
"Opportunity?" Nanyun thought for a while, "Kusaka-kun, do you think the US aircraft carrier may also be looking for us?"
"It is very likely!" Kusaka Ryunosuke said, "There are only two possibilities now. One is that the US aircraft carrier is not nearby; the other is that the Americans have seen through our strategy of luring the enemy, so they ignore the two Yamato-class ships and search for our 1st Air Fleet."
Nanyun Tadashi nodded. There are indeed only these two possibilities now. If the US aircraft carrier intends to attack the 1st Fleet where Yamamoto is, it would have launched the attack long ago.
Kusaka Ryunosuke said, "If the American aircraft carriers are near the Coral Sea, they are very likely to be attracted by the 10th Air Fleet. Commander, this is our chance."
"Then let's go south too!" Nagumo Chuichi thought for a moment and said, "The 1st, 2nd and 5th Air Fleet will disperse southward and expand the search range as much as possible. We have 6 large aircraft carriers, and the Americans have only 4 at most, so as long as we find them, we will definitely be able to destroy them!"
"Hai!"
...
When Nagumo Chuichi's 3 main air fleets spread out in formation in the northern Coral Sea and moved south in unison. In the southern Coral Sea, Halsey's 2 air fleets were moving northward, targeting the coral islands where the Japanese 10th Air Fleet was discovered. Moreover, Halsey also asked his 2 fleets to carefully approach the east coast of Australia, and the P38 fighters deployed in Brisbane were always on standby, ready to attack and support Halsey's fleet at any time.
Since Halsey and Chuichi Nagumo made the decision at almost the same time, the five carrier battle groups of both sides also began to move towards the Coral Islands at about the same time, around 2:00 p.m. on November 5, 1942. However, since Halsey had no battleships to escort him, and even a few heavy cruisers, the two American carrier battle groups stopped moving in the evening of the 5th and lingered in the sea about 250 nautical miles northeast of Brisbane.
And Chuichi Nagumo's four squadrons went south overnight. By the early morning of November 6, they had crossed the Coral Islands and arrived in the middle of the Coral Sea. The three main squadrons were located between the Coral Islands and Norfolk Island, and the 10th and 11th seaplane carrier squadrons were still near the Coral Islands and Norfolk Island. The 1st Fleet, where Isoroku Yamamoto was located, left the vicinity of New Caledonia on the night of November 5 and began to approach southward.
At this time, the northern and central parts of the Coral Sea were full of Japanese warship formations! Such a high-density deployment naturally could not escape the night reconnaissance of the American Catalina seaplane equipped with radar.
So by the early morning of November 6, Vice Admiral Halsey already knew that at least 6 large Japanese fleets appeared in the Coral Sea!
However, since the Catalina aircraft was used for night reconnaissance, it relied on "electronic eyes" rather than naked eyes, so Halsey did not know the composition of these 6 Japanese fleets. Admiral MacArthur in Brisbane and Admiral Nimitz in San Diego also had no idea what ships the Japanese fleet that was marching southward was composed of.
"Admiral, a telegram from Admiral MacArthur." Spruance, with red eyes and having not slept for a long time, walked quickly into the combat command center of the Pacific Fleet, holding a telegram from MacArthur in his hand - he had just exchanged views with MacArthur via a telegraph.
"He thinks the Japanese may land on the east coast of Australia!"
As soon as Spruance's words came out, Nimitz was stunned.
"Landing? Now?"
"Yes, Admiral MacArthur judged so." Spruance said, "The Japanese captured Moresby on the 30th, and then bombarded New Caledonia for several days, completely paralyzing the island. Last night we found 5 new large Japanese fleets... Rabaul's fleet may have been out in full force! Moreover, there may be landing fleets among them. Admiral MacArthur believes that the Japanese army is likely to skip the strongholds in northeastern Australia and land directly near Brisbane!"
"Land directly in Brisbane? Is this possible?" Nimitz is an admiral and doesn't know much about land warfare.
"Admiral MacArthur thinks it is feasible." Spruance said, "He called this tactic 'leapfrog', which means letting go of the heavily defended front-line strongholds and directly using the advantage of the sea to attack our rear strongholds, thereby isolating our front-line strongholds."
MacArthur himself suffered this in the Philippines. The Japanese took out all the Allied strongholds around the Bataan Peninsula before finally conquering the Bataan Peninsula. If Roosevelt hadn't helped MacArthur become the commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces in the South Pacific, he would probably be carrying bricks in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp to lose weight!
So he learned a lesson in the battle to defend Australia. After determining that the navy could not beat the Japanese, he formulated a defensive strategy to shrink the front-line strongholds. Port Moresby, Guadalcanal Island and New Caledonia were all "virtual defenses", and heavy troops were piled in New Zealand and Australia.
This approach is definitely right. The US Pacific Fleet has no battleships now, and the carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier are not the opponent of the Japanese Zero for the time being. If a war really starts in the Solomon Islands, it will definitely be defeated by Japan.
However, there is also a problem with piling up the main force in the old nest, that is, the Japanese can go straight to Huanglong! This is also the reason why MacArthur asked for an armored division from the mainland. With an armored division in Brisbane and Sydney, MacArthur can quickly counterattack when the Japanese army launches a landing battle. At the same time, the A-36 (dive bomber type of P51) transported by the FS06 fleet was also allocated to the Australian Army Air Force for counterattack.
If the 4th Armored Division and 200 A-36s were all there, it would be difficult for the Japanese to leapfrog in Brisbane or Sydney.
But the problem was that the 4th Armored Division was still unloading the ship, and the 200 A-36s were still on the way. If the Japanese really landed near Brisbane, MacArthur would still be very troubled - MacArthur's troops were limited and it was impossible to set up defenses everywhere along the long eastern coastline of Australia.
In fact, most areas were undefended, and the Japanese would definitely succeed in landing. If MacArthur had no way to counterattack in time and let the Japanese gain a foothold near Brisbane and take over a few small ports, things would be troublesome.
"So Admiral MacArthur asked Halsey's fleet to deal with the Japanese in the Coral Sea?" Nimitz already understood what MacArthur meant. Seeing Spruance nod, Nimitz sighed softly, "In December, we will have 1 Essex-class and 2-3 Independence-class... So Halsey must keep 2 of the 4 large aircraft carriers. In this way, we can send out the FS08 fleet in December."
"I understand, sir."