Chapter 972: Japan's Great Victory?

"Great victory, great victory!"

On March 6, Tokyo time, the victory news of the Hawaiian Islands reached the headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.

"Your Excellency, the Hawaiian Front of our Imperial Army attacked the US fleet in the waters south of the Hawaiian Islands with powerful air combat power yesterday, and achieved an unprecedented victory! After repeated verification, it was confirmed that 2 aircraft carriers, 1 heavy cruiser, 2 light cruisers, and 6 destroyers were sunk. Among them, one of the 2 aircraft carriers sunk was an Essex class, and the other was an Independence class..."

The Deputy Chief of the Army General Staff, Ishihara Kanji, was reporting to Prime Minister Hideki Tojo at the headquarters meeting on the results of the Hawaiian Islands naval battle the day before.

"How much did we lose?" Prime Minister Hideki Tojo interrupted Ishihara's report and asked about the losses.

"A total of 111 Hiryu and Tunryu were lost, and 56 Hayate fighters were lost. This accounts for 23.8% of the total number of aircraft in the attack fleet, which is much better than the situation during the Christmas Island Battle. In addition, some of the pilots on the lost aircraft were successfully rescued. So the actual loss is much smaller than this number."

Even large aircraft such as "Hiryu" and "Tunryu" are not particularly valuable to Japan and cannot be compared with pilots. There are many spare aircraft on Oahu now, including more than 200 spare aircraft for "Hiryu" and "Tunryu".

So as long as the crew is successfully rescued, the Army Air Force on the Hawaiian Islands will not actually lose combat power.

Hideki Tojo nodded his big bald head with satisfaction. It is obviously not a loss-making deal to exchange 167 aircraft for 2 aircraft carriers, 1 heavy cruiser, 2 light cruisers and 6 destroyers. Moreover, the Navy also reported that it sank 1 light cruiser and 8 destroyers, and its own losses were only 38 aircraft. If we consider that many pilots from both the Army and Navy were rescued, and that the U.S. military also lost at least 100 fighter planes, then the battle on March 4, Hawaii time, was indeed a great victory for the Imperial Army.

"It seems that the comprehensive upgrade of fighter planes has achieved real results," said Tojo Hideki, "A great victory in the Hawaiian Islands Battle is expected."

After saying this conclusion, Tojo looked at the two big leaders of the Japanese Navy, Yamamoto Isoroku and Nagano Osami.

The faces of the two naval leaders were not very good, because the results reported by the Navy's Central Pacific Fleet were too embarrassing compared to the Army. Only one light cruiser and eight destroyers were destroyed, and the Army's results report... Yamamoto Isoroku, who had been in battle for a long time, knew that the results reported by the Army were unreliable. It cannot be said that Yamashita Tomoyuki deliberately falsified the results, but the statistics of naval battle results are very complicated, and in many cases, they have to rely on evaluation to infer.

For example, the Essex-class aircraft carrier of the United States was hit by a torpedo, and photos were taken. In the eyes of the Army, the aircraft carrier must have been destroyed. But in fact, this aircraft carrier is probably fine and can continue to fight. At most, a few compartments are flooded, which slows down the speed.

However, Yamamoto and Nagano dare not say such cold water. If they say it, will the navy and the army still fall out? Tojo Hideki is a petty guy. If he really falls out, he will find a chance to make things difficult for the navy.

Moreover... although the army's results are exaggerated, the losses cannot be faked. The crash rate of less than 24% and the actual loss rate of less than 20% show that the battlefield survivability of new fighters is relatively high and can withstand a long-term war of attrition.

And using the Hawaiian Islands to consume the US military, isn't it what was envisioned in "Operation Jie No. 1"?

As long as the US carrier-based aircraft pilots can be fully consumed, what does it matter if the army falsely reports some results?

Although the real result of the battle on March 4 was that the Japanese lost more aircraft, the value of shore-based pilots and carrier-based pilots is different. The shore-based aviation force can go into battle with 100 hours of flight time.

According to the Japanese military's standards, carrier-based pilots must have more than one year of shore-based aviation service experience, plus three to four months of rigorous training... If converted into flight time, 500 hours is the minimum (only the easier-to-fly Zero, if you want to fly a heavy aircraft, 1,000 hours is also necessary), otherwise you will definitely fall off the deck on an aircraft carrier.

So using shore-based aircraft to consume carrier-based aircraft is actually using pilots with 100 flight hours to consume pilots with 1,000 flight hours (the flight time of US carrier-based aircraft pilots is far more than 1,000 hours), which is definitely a good deal.

However, it is impossible for such a war of attrition to continue, because the Hawaiian Islands are now surrounded by the US military. The transportation between the Hawaiian Islands and the Japanese mainland, the Gilbert Islands, and Wake Island is because Midway Island and Johnston Island (located in the southwest of the Hawaiian Islands, also a sesame-sized island, abandoned by the Japanese because it could not be defended, and occupied by the US military on March 2) are all occupied by the US military.

Therefore, the three aircraft, Zero, Shiden, and Hayate, cannot be directly transferred to the Hawaiian Islands. Although pilots can be transported by long-range transport aircraft, after the inventory of fighters on the islands is used up, only transport fleets or aircraft carriers can be used to transport aircraft - fortunately, there is no problem at the moment, because there are a lot of "Hayate" and "Shiden Kai" stored on Oahu, with a total of more than 1,200 (spare aircraft), enough to sustain continuous consumption for more than a month.

"The first battle in the Hawaiian Islands was a victory," said Isoroku Yamamoto, "Now we just need to stick to the established consumption tactics, and the final victory is expected!"

Tojo Hideki was very satisfied with Yamamoto's conclusion - he wanted to regard the initial battle in the Hawaiian Islands as a great victory. Regardless of whether there was water or not, it would boost the morale of the people and be beneficial to the ongoing negotiations between Britain and Japan and Russia and Japan. Now that Yamamoto Isoroku has approved it, there will be no problem.

"Then," Tojo said, "in the name of the base camp, let's report it to His Majesty the Emperor and inform the people and friendly countries."

As soon as he finished speaking, a staff officer from the base camp shouted a report at the door of the conference room, then walked in and handed a telegram to Ishihara Wanji with both hands.

Ishihara Kanji read the telegram and reported to Tojo: "Your Excellency Prime Minister, the Hawaiian Army reported that early this morning, the Americans attacked Niihau Island with fighter planes and naval guns, causing serious damage."

"Is it Niihau?" Yamamoto Isoroku laughed when he heard the news. "It seems that the Americans still dare not attack Oahu directly!"

Sugiyama Gen said: "Yesterday's victory must have let the Americans know that without enough shore-based aircraft, they could not win in the Hawaiian Islands, so they had to take Niihau Island first. However... there are elite imperial troops on Niihau Island The 106th Division, even if the US military suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties, would not be able to capture it.”

Yamamoto Isoroku nodded, thinking: Killing hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops is just a fool's boast, but losses of more than 100,000 are inevitable. It seems that the Battle of the Hawaiian Islands is still on the path of consuming human lives. This is also what "Operation Czech No. 1" envisages.

A great victory in the Battle of the Hawaiian Islands is indeed expected!

…

"2 aircraft carriers, 1 heavy cruiser, 3 light cruisers, 14 destroyers..." Hessmann read and read the success report sent by the Japanese, and finally asked Naval Aviation Commander Richthofen with a smile. , "Marshal, how important do you think this battle report is?"

Richthofen shook his head and said: "I don't know, we haven't used dive bombers and torpedo bombers to attack the American fleet for a long time... Their air defense is too powerful, and they can only attack with Hs293 and Fritz-X . But the effect is not very good, because the American disposable Spitfire aircraft and 127mm anti-aircraft guns are too big a threat to the Ju288. "

General Ernst Udet, director of the Air Force Armament Directorate, who is responsible for the manufacture of all aviation weapons, told Hersmann at today's meeting: "Marshal Reich, we have to wait until the 'Reaper' air-to-ship missile is actually equipped with troops before it can be re-introduced." Gain advantage over the U.S. main fleet."

The so-called "Reaper" air-to-ship missile is actually an improved version of the "Silver Reaper". The "Silver Death" is a "suicide jet" developed by combining the top technologies of Britain and Germany. If the "artificial intelligence" is replaced by a TV camera remote control system, then the "Silver Death" will become a real of missiles. That is the "Reaper" air-to-ship missile!

Of course, there are differences between the "Reaper" air-ship island missiles and the real missiles of later generations. The main reason is that instead of using a rocket engine, a jet engine with a higher safety factor is used.

This is because the current solid rocket motor technology is immature, and the liquid rocket motor technology is not very safe. If a missile as big as the "Silver Reaper" uses a liquid rocket motor, the aircraft will be destroyed if not careful - later used Liquid-fueled rockets are filled with fuel before launch. This method cannot be used on the "Reaper" missiles carried by aircraft. There are no conditions for filling rocket fuel on the plane, and rocket fuel itself is very unsafe, and it is too easy for accidents to be carried by planes in large quantities.

So now Henschel and Rolls-Royce are simply sparing no expense and using jet engines to drive anti-ship missiles. Although the anti-ship missiles created in this way are expensive, they are safe and effective and can allow the Ju288 to drop bombs at a relatively safe height and distance.

Air Marshal Richthofen said to Hessmann: "Before the 'Reaper' ship-to-air missiles were equipped to the troops, the 200 'Silver Reapers' we handed over to Japan must be the most powerful anti-ship weapons. So Japan is Victory in the Hawaiian Islands is a high probability event. Even if they fail to win in the end, the Americans will suffer heavy losses. I estimate that the Americans will lose thousands of naval aviation pilots in the Hawaiian Islands, and their carrier-based aircraft units will be in Hawaii. If we can deal with the Soviet Union before the U.S. carrier-based aircraft force regains its strength after the Battle of the Islands, then the Caribbean operation will be possible."