Chapter 804: Decisive Battle in Panama - Entering the Tiger's Den
Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's First Mobile Fleet was discovered by an American Catalina seaplane near noon on March 16, 1943.
At this time, Vice Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet was 1,200 nautical miles (2,220 kilometers) away from them, and the carrier-based aircraft could not reach them at all. Vice Admiral Spruance's 16th Task Force was more than 600 nautical miles (1,110 kilometers) away from them, which was still too far for carrier-based aircraft.
Panama City and the Galapagos Islands are also 600-1200 nautical miles away from them. Since the United States currently does not have remote-controlled gliding bombs such as Hs293 and Fritz-X (the United States now has a radio-controlled guided bomb code-named VB-1, but this bomb cannot glide and can only change the landing point by adjusting the tail of the bomb. It is more suitable for dealing with ground road facilities, but not very effective against surface ships. Therefore, the Americans will only use them as one of a series of attack waves, rather than attacking alone. In addition, the Americans have also developed remote-controlled B-24 and remote-controlled B-17, which are super killers to deal with surface ships, but they are still being tested), so the B-24, B-17 and B-25 bombers deployed in the Panama Canal area are not very suitable for bombing the Japanese fleet.
As for the 19th Task Force that attacked from Panama City, it had just left the port in the evening of March 16, and naturally it was impossible for it to immediately fight with Japan's First Mobile Fleet.
Therefore, during the daytime of March 16, there was no more exchange of fire between the fleets and aircraft of the United States and Japan. In addition, the various types of reconnaissance aircraft and seaplanes sent by both sides did not find the other side's ships.
The afternoon of March 16 passed slowly in a tense and extremely quiet atmosphere.
However, when the night of March 16 fell, dozens of B-24 Liberator heavy bombers/reconnaissance aircraft and Catalina seaplanes carrying airborne radar began to take off from the airports in Panama and the Galapagos Islands, roaring towards the sea area where the Japanese fleet was discovered at noon and the surrounding sea areas.
"Commander, a B-24 has found the Japanese fleet!"
At around 22:30 that night, the reconnaissance aircraft sent out made a discovery.
"The Japanese fleet is approaching the coast of El Salvador or Nicaragua, and has now reached the K13 waters, with about 30-40 ships!"
Major General Ralph Heinkel reported the reconnaissance plane's findings to Vice Admiral Ghormley, and then he frowned and analyzed: "The Japanese should not attack El Salvador or Nicaragua... I think their goal is the Panama Canal! They want to delay the time for American ships to enter the Pacific Ocean from the east coast by blowing up the canal's gates and dams. This is probably the only way for them to delay their demise."
Because the number of Japanese ships discovered is as many as 30-40, Major General Heinkel no longer thinks this is a bluffing action.
"It looks like there will be a big battle tomorrow!" Lieutenant General Ghormley looked at the latest position of the Japanese fleet on the nautical chart, "Ralph, how many fighter planes can we dispatch after dawn tomorrow?"
"The planes on the Galapagos Islands are difficult to reach, and the Japanese should have carefully calculated the route." Heinkel said, "Unless all the planes there are transferred to Panama..."
"No, this won't work." Ghormley immediately rejected Heinkel's proposal, "It is not certain that the Japanese target is the Panama Canal... The Galapagos Islands are also a very valuable target. Once the Japanese occupy it, the Panama Canal will be bombed every day!"
Heinkel thought about it and felt that Lieutenant General Ghormley's concerns were justified. The Galapagos Islands are the gateway to the Panama Canal. Once the gateway is lost, the role of the canal will be reduced by at least half.
And because the US military has not been stationed in the Galapagos Islands for a long time, there is no time to build artillery and fortresses on the islands, and even the number of Marines guarding the islands is not large, so the main garrison force of the islands is more than 100 aircraft belonging to the Marine Corps.
"Lieutenant General, shall we launch the first attack wave early tomorrow morning?" Rear Admiral Heinkel then proposed to launch an attack, "We can let the 16th and 19th Task Forces approach the Japanese fleet, and at the same time send B-24, B-17, B-25 and P51 from the Panama Canal Zone..."
Because the traces of the Japanese fleet were found in the jurisdiction of the Southeast Pacific Command, Vice Admiral Spruance's 16th Task Force is now under the command of the 9th Fleet. However, Halsey's 3rd Fleet is still in the Caribbean Sea, so it is not under the jurisdiction of Vice Admiral Ghormley.
Therefore, the 3rd Fleet was not mentioned in the proposal made by Rear Admiral Heinkel.
"Let's ask Vice Admiral Spruance for his opinion," Vice Admiral Ghormley said. "He has more experience than me in how to deal with the Japanese."
Vice Admiral Ghormley is self-aware. He is not a "fleet general" but a "diplomatic general." Before the fall of the British mainland, he was the head of the naval delegation to the UK.
He had some knowledge of the battles on the European Combined Fleet and the Arctic Circle route, but he knew nothing about the Japanese in the Pacific.
Spruance had previously served as the Chief of Staff of the Pacific Fleet, and after Halsey's misfortune, he became the front-line commander of the Pacific Fleet and personally commanded escort and commerce-breaking operations.
"No, we can't get close to the Japanese fleet for the time being."
On the Enterprise, Vice Admiral Spruance immediately said to his chief of staff, Colonel Murray, after receiving the telegram from the Southeastern Pacific Command: "I can't take risks with the Enterprise, Yorktown and Independence, let the 19th Task Force take risks."
"Commander, are you going to let the three Borg-class aircraft carriers of the 19th Task Force act as bait?" Colonel Murray immediately guessed Spruance's intention.
Compared with the Enterprise and Yorktown, the value of the Borg-class escort aircraft carrier is much lower. Moreover, all the Borg-class and its successor, the Casablanca-class (which has been started one by one) are mostly built in Seattle and Portland on the West Coast. Even if the Panama Canal is temporarily destroyed by the Japanese, the Borg-class and Casablanca-class can still be launched in batches - although the combat effectiveness of the escort aircraft carrier is far inferior to that of a large fleet aircraft carrier like the Enterprise, it cannot withstand the production of 20 to 30 ships a year (according to the plan, 10 Borg-class ships will be built in 1943, and 19 Casablanca-class ships will be built)!
And although the escort aircraft carrier is a bit "watery", the F6F and F4U on it are genuine.
Spruance thought: "We can let the 19th Task Force approach the K13 waters, and send P51 from Panama to cover after the radar finds the Japanese aircraft group... When the 19th Task Force and the Japanese aircraft are engaged in a battle, we will approach from the north and launch a shuttle bombing."
The so-called shuttle bombing is a method of sending aircraft without taking them back. After the carrier-based aircraft took off from the Enterprise, Yorktown and Independence, the three aircraft carriers immediately retreated north. After completing the attack mission, the aircraft went directly to the airport in Nicaragua or El Salvador to land. In this way, no matter what the result of the air raid is, Spruance's three aircraft carriers will not be sunk by the Japanese.
"Commander, the radar has found another enemy aircraft." In the bridge command center of the Akagi aircraft carrier, this night was also a scene of facing a great enemy.
According to the repeated reports of enemy aircraft found by No. 21 and No. 13 radar detectors on the ships of the First Mobile Fleet, the Americans have already grasped the exact location of the First Mobile Fleet.
And now the endless harassment must be the American reconnaissance aircraft equipped with radar!
Seeing that the officers in the command center were a little nervous, Ozawa Jisaburo seemed very relaxed and laughed: "We are in the tiger's den, but if we don't enter the tiger's den, how can we get the tiger cub?"
As he spoke, Ozawa turned and walked towards the cabin door. His chief of staff Furumura hurriedly followed and asked: "Commander, where are you going to inspect?"
"Inspection?" Ozawa shook his head and smiled, "This is the Akagi, is there any need for inspection? I'm going back to the cabin to sleep."
"Sleep? But..."
"But what?" Ozawa smiled, "Can American planes still bomb at night?"
This is of course impossible. The current radar technology can only allow American planes to discover the Japanese fleet, but it is impossible to support American planes to launch an attack, otherwise it would be the time for the United States to counterattack Hawaii.
"Commander, tomorrow's first attack wave..."
"Cancel!" Ozawa waved his hand and said, "Focus on air defense, let the Americans come first."
"What? Let the Americans attack first?" Gucun was shocked by Ozawa's words.
Ozawa shrugged, "This is inevitable. We haven't found the enemy's aircraft carrier yet, but the enemy already knows our exact location. So tomorrow morning, they will definitely attack first. But... there is nothing to worry about, because we are not too close to Panama now, and we are in a position that allows the US P51 and their medium bombers to attack. But their SBD and TBF can't reach us, so we just take the opportunity to consume their P51, and at the same time attract US aircraft carriers to fight.
As long as we can use up all the P51 in the Panama Canal Zone, we can at least destroy the canal's sluice gates."
Due to the surrender of the British mainland, the Japanese now understand the characteristics of most US fighters, so they can also formulate targeted combat plans. In Ozawa's view, among the fighters currently equipped with the US military, the most threatening is the P51 series of aircraft. The maximum range of this aircraft is almost the same as that of the Zero, and it also has strong ground and sea attack capabilities. It can be equipped with bombs as a fighter-bomber (in fact, there is also a dive-bombing model). Moreover, its performance in low-altitude combat and high-altitude combat is very average, which is definitely a formidable enemy of the Zero fighter and the Combined Fleet!