Chapter 917: Still Defeat 9
"At least 50 American transport ships and landing ships of various types were sunk and damaged! More than 100 enemy planes were shot down, which was a great victory..."
"The air force is really powerful!"
"Many American devils should have drowned now, right?"
"It seems that the US Pacific Fleet can be completely wiped out this time!"
At 3:22 pm on September 26, 1943, Hawaii time, the first attack wave sent by the Japanese army on Christmas Island sent back a preliminary statistical battle report. The battle report only showed the results of the battle, but no losses.
The results of the battle were of course great, with more than 30 American ships sunk and damaged (actually 31, of which 13 were T2 tankers and 5 were escort aircraft carriers), and more than 100 American planes shot down (actually only 53 American planes were shot down). However, the faces of Onishi Takijiro, commander of the 10th Fleet, and Kameto Kuroshima, chief of staff, were extremely solemn.
Because they also knew how large the scale of the US fleet was!
"There are still hundreds of ships!" Kuroshima Kameto whispered to Onishi Takijiro, "and the main battleships are not damaged, the Americans will continue to approach Christmas Island. Even if they cannot launch a landing, they will use the battleship's naval guns to raze Christmas Island to the ground."
Japan's current construction capabilities cannot be compared with the United States. Japan does not have any mechanized construction equipment, so it is really not easy to build infrastructure on Christmas Island, which is more than 4,000 nautical miles away from the mainland. If the Americans raze it to the ground with a cannon, it will take at least several months to build again.
"And the underground oil depot on Christmas Island can't withstand the bombardment of battleship cannons!" Kuroshima Kameto then raised a question that made Onishi Takijiro headache and tremble with fear.
In order to fight the U.S. military on Christmas Island, the Japanese built a large underground oil depot, which stored tens of thousands of tons of precious aviation gasoline and various engine oils. Aircraft are also fuel-guzzling. For the most fuel-efficient Zero 21, one hour of horizontal flight requires about 35 gallons of fuel (Imperial), or 116.3 kilograms. And for a single attack, a Zero aircraft consumes at least nearly 600 kilograms of gasoline. There are now thousands of aircraft on Christmas Island, and you can imagine how much fuel it consumes. That's why the Japanese built an oil depot on Christmas Island to store so much gasoline. If the American artillery was blown up, Onishi Takijiro would be so distressed that he wouldn't be able to eat for weeks.
"Commander, send a signal to the First Mobile Fleet and ask them to attack the U.S. fleet carrier with all their strength," Kuroshima Kameto thought for a while and suggested.
Now the first attack wave sent by Christmas Island has been completed, and the anti-ship firepower of the second attack wave is mainly torpedoes, with only a small number of dive bombers carrying armor-piercing bombs, which are used to create chaos to cover the torpedo planes to attack the damaged American ships. If they change their targets to attack the main US fleet with strong anti-aircraft firepower, they will definitely die in vain. So Kuroshima thought of the First Mobile Fleet.
"Okay, send a message to the First Mobile Fleet." Onishi Takijiro nodded. Now is not the time to consider face. The "unsinkable aircraft carrier" of Christmas Island cannot have any problems, otherwise Japan will lose hundreds of shore bases (it is estimated that there are no more than 1,000 now), and the next battle will be difficult to fight.
…
"Sir, the fire is getting bigger and bigger. Those 13 T2 tankers seem to be finished."
"Dispose of them!"
Just when Onishi Takijiro was heartbroken for the possible loss of tens of thousands of tons of gasoline, his opponent Spruance ordered the "disposal" of 13 T2 tankers carrying nearly 200,000 tons of various fuels without blinking an eyelid!
"There are still 17 ships. If we lose them all, our second phase of operations may be..." Major General Browning reminded with some concern.
One T2 can hold 16,000 tons of oil, and 30 T2s can hold a total of 480,000 tons of oil, which can be used by the 58th Task Force at sea for up to 30 days. If all the T2s are lost, then Spruance's fleet can only return home early.
"Send a telegram to the Pacific Fleet Command and ask them to quickly organize an oil tanker fleet to provide support," Spruance said lightly, "Send 30 tankers to sea first."
This is another 480,000 tons of oil! If we count the fuel carried by each ship and the oil used in a refueling at sea a few days ago, Spruance's trip will burn up the fuel quota of the Japanese Navy for more than half a year!
And this large-scale "burning oil war" is just the beginning!
By mid-1944, the size of the Pacific Fleet will be more than doubled. At that time, two "58th Task Forces" will take turns to "burn" Japan with oil!
At the same time, there will be at least 4 aircraft carrier cracking formations and 200 submarines operating in the Western Pacific and the South Pacific Islands.
In short, the Americans' current approach is to hurt others with their own... If they don't fight a war of annihilation, they will fight a war of attrition and wear down the little Japanese.
"Sir, the radar detected enemy aircraft, defense level 280, altitude 5000, number over 200, distance 120..."
Just as the American destroyer fired torpedoes at the burning tanker, the fleet staff once again reported the radar detection of the Japanese attack aircraft group.
"It's the second attack wave of Christmas Island." Major General Browning frowned and said, "It seems that the scale will not be smaller than the first attack wave. There may be thousands of aircraft on Christmas Island!"
"It will be gone soon." Spruance now looks a little proud, because in the sea and air battle that just ended, the loss of American carrier-based aircraft is completely within his acceptable range.
The total number of lost F4U and F6F is only 63 (53 were shot down by Japanese aircraft, 8 were mistakenly hit by their own artillery fire, and 2 were damaged during landing). Because the airspace of the battle was over the fleet, the number of pilots killed and missing was only 44, and this number is still decreasing. The final loss is estimated to be no more than 30.
Moreover, the Americans are now very familiar with the tactics of the Japanese naval aviation, which is usually a "two-wave flow". The first wave is mainly bombers (dive bombers and torpedo planes with bombs), and the second wave is mainly torpedo planes... and torpedo planes are much easier to deal with than dive bombers! So as long as the Japanese attack wave, the harvest in the second wave will be greater.
According to the current situation, the battle of Christmas Island will exhaust the blood of Japanese pilots!
…
“Baga, how is this possible!?”
The one who exclaimed was Lieutenant Commander Kusami Masa, the commander-in-chief of the second attack wave sent from Christmas Island.
The scene that made him exclaim was the sky full of American F6F and F4U fighters!
The two attack waves sent from Christmas Island were carefully planned. The first and second attack waves were closely connected, and there would be no time for American carrier-based aircraft to land, refuel and take off again.
So Lieutenant Commander Kusami Masa was very surprised to see the dense American fighters in the sky - according to the normal configuration standard of aircraft carriers, fighters account for 40% at most. Just now, the first attack wave reported that it encountered at least 500 fighters, and now there seemed to be another 500 fighters here.
So how many carrier-based aircraft did the invading American fleet have in total? 2,500? How many aircraft carriers should be equipped with this?
However, although he was surprised, Lieutenant Commander Kusami Masa did not have any intention of being afraid of fighting, and immediately arranged the attack mission. Like Takahashi Kyoichi before, Kusume Masaru also ordered the escorting Hayate and Zero to block the enemy fighters, while the dive bombers and torpedo bombers rushed to the escort aircraft carriers and various transport ships that were on fire and smoking.
A fierce battle then took place in the air. Although the Hayate fighters and Zero 52 fighters were not as good as their opponents in overall performance and were also at a disadvantage in terms of numbers. However, judging from the scenes of the air battle between the two sides, the Japanese fighters were not at a disadvantage.
This is because most of the Japanese pilots participating in the battle today were elites trained before the war, most of whom had participated in actual combat and were very experienced. There were too many novices among the American pilots. Although everyone had flown for at least a thousand hours and was extremely skilled, they still lacked combat experience.
However, as the battle between the two sides continued, the Japanese fighter pilots still felt difficult to cope with. Their relatively rich combat experience could make up for the difference in aircraft performance, but American aircraft still had an advantage in numbers.
This time, the Americans allocated more fighters to fight against the Japanese fighters, and the number advantage increased to 2 times. That is to say, each Japanese fighter plane had to fight against a two-plane formation of the United States, and the result was naturally that one after another fell.
It seems that today is the day for the Japanese air force to become a god!
Lieutenant Colonel Kusami Masaru did not wait for the fighters to fight and win before leading the torpedo bombers and dive bombers to attack, otherwise he would probably have to escape with the torpedo planes and bombers.
At the moment when the fighters of both sides were fighting to the death, he immediately led the "Comet" dive bombers, "Meteor" torpedo bombers and "Tianshan" torpedo bombers to launch a dive attack.
Regardless of whether the American planes came down from high altitude to block or from low altitude to face the nose of the plane, these Japanese torpedo bombers and dive bombers kept charging with their heads covered.
After paying the price of more than 30 planes being shot down, they finally rushed into the dense fire net fired by the American surface ships.
This time, the Japanese attack aircraft group launched a desperate attack on the sea where the American aircraft carrier fleet was concentrated! Although the Americans' anti-aircraft firepower was very intensive, it still could not stop the brave Japanese planes, and the loss of the American aircraft carrier soon occurred!
At 4:05 pm, with a loud "boom", an 800-kilogram aerial torpedo dropped by a "Meteor" torpedo bomber penetrated the port side of the escort aircraft carrier Breton, creating a huge hole, and the sea water immediately rushed in!