On the morning of 17 March, the U.S.
Task Force 19, led by the flagship heavy cruiser USS Wichita, was slowly moving west along the coastline of Panama at a speed of 12 knots.
The reason why the speed is so slow is that there are 3 Borg-class escort carriers in the fleet with a maximum speed of only 18 knots.
Because of their presence, Task Force 19 could only move slowly.
From 7 p.m. last night when I left Panama City to 10 a.m. this morning, I had only traveled 180 nautical miles in 15 hours, and I had just left Panama Bay.
"Commander, the B24 has spotted the Japanese fleet, in the S1 sea, about 600 nautical miles from us."
At 10:12 a.m., the communications staff officer of Task Force 19 reported to the commander, Rear Admiral Smith, the information he had just received.
"S1 Sea" Major General Smith looked at the chart, "It's almost El Salvador, what do the Japanese want to do to go to El Salvador to fight with the United Fruit Company?"
The Republic of El Salvador is also one of the "banana republics" in Central America controlled by the United States, and although it participates in the Allied bloc, no one in the whole country really wants to go to war with Germany and Japan, and of course it is not armed.
If the Japanese landed there, probably only the farms of the United Fruit Company would be able to resist which, by the way, the United Fruit Company of the Americans, which owned millions of acres of land in several banana republics, also operated, railways, shipping, docks, telephones, telegraphs, radio, publishing, power generation, beverages, sugar, wood processing, and so on, and there were mercenaries to defend all this wealth.
In fact, it was the American version of the "East India Company", and if the Japanese were to land there, it would be this large fruit company that would fight them.
However, even if Japan wins the United Fruit Company, they will still be able to hold off the US military counterattacking from the Caribbean "It can't be El Salvador," Commander Colonel Stanaplin, chief of staff of Task Force 19, is a Navy pilot and former commander of the carrier-based aircraft wing of the Hornet, "it should be to bomb the Panama Canal, and now they are only 700 nautical miles away from the Panama Canal, and the Japanese carrier-based aircraft have a relatively large range, so they should be able to attack." ” 700 nautical miles is almost 1,300 kilometers, whether it is the Zero Type 52, the Comet ship explosion or the Tianshan naval attack, it can basically be obtained.
Since the release of the 51, 47, F4U, and F6F high-performance fighters, the Japanese planes in the Pacific no longer have any performance superiority at all, and the only thing that is sure to overwhelm the American planes is about a larger range.
In addition, the low-altitude performance of the Zero type still has certain advantages.
Except for the shore-based 51 and the carrier-based F6F, which can fight against the Zero at low altitude, other types of fighters are no match.
"But the Japanese will attack us first" Major General Smith shook his head, "we are now on target, as long as the Japanese reconnaissance planes find us" I don't know if it was a crow's mouth, but as soon as Rear Admiral Smith's words fell, the radar officer of the Wichita reported loudly: "Sir, the radar has found enemy aircraft, the number is 1, and the height is 6000. ” Major General Smith and Colonel Lin glanced at each other, and Colonel Lin said, "Major General, Japan has a very fast carrier-based dive bomber, and maybe their attack aircraft group will arrive in two and a half hours." ” He was talking about the Comet carrier-based dive bomber, after installing the imitation or the air-cooled engine of the BW801 series produced by the French company Landshen, the maximum speed of this aircraft in the case of a full load of bombs can still reach more than one kilometer hour, and if the bomb is dropped, the speed of the comet ship-to-ship explosion is as high as 580 kilometers and hours, which is only 31 kilometers and hours slower than the American F6F, and even 15 kilometers and hours faster than the Zero 52.
Therefore, this kind of Comet carrier-based dive bomber with high speed has become another big trump card of the Japanese combined fleet after the Zero fighter.
At 10:18 a.m. on 17 March, it was discovered that the Japanese reconnaissance plane of the 19th US Task Force was also a Comet carrier-based crit plane, and it was a reconnaissance type.
"Your Excellency, the reconnaissance aircraft discovered the American aircraft carrier, near the Bay of Panama, 3 light aircraft carriers, 3 cruisers and 6 destroyers" Jizaburo Ozawa, who had a good night's sleep last night and is now full of energy, showed a disappointed expression when he heard the news.
Although the battle for Panama has not yet officially begun, there are unexpected things one after another.
The first was that an American fleet sailing into the Caribbean did not pass through the Panama Canal according to the Japanese schedule.
Then there was the fact that the U.S. forces in Panama did not send 51 escorts B17, B24 and B25 to bomb according to the principle of "first spot, first attack", as Ozawa imagined, at least not yet.
And now, Comet reconnaissance bombers have spotted 3 more American light aircraft carriers outside the Bay of Panama "It should be Borg, or it could be Independent."
Keizo Furumura said, "Your Excellency Commander, are you going to send carrier-based aircraft?"
Jizaburo Ozawa was a little worried, and the behavior of the Americans this time seemed to be a little strange "Have you found any enemy planes in other directions?"
Jizaburo Ozawa sent not only one comet, but 18 comets to conduct a careful search for a radius of several hundred nautical miles in the surrounding area.
"Nope."
Furumura said, "However, the Comet planes heading northeast and due east were intercepted by US planes and returned in vain." ” At present, the position of the Japanese First Fleet is relatively close to the coastline of Central America, and the distance in a straight line is only three or four hundred kilometers.
So the Comet planes sent to the east and northeast to reconnoiter were intercepted by shore-based planes deployed by the United States in Nicaragua and Honduras.
"What kind of plane was it intercepted?"
asked Ozawa.
"It's 40," Furumura replied, "it should be an aircraft of the US Army."
Your Excellency, Commander, do you want to send a few more Comets?"
Jizaburo Ozawa was silent for a moment and nodded, "Send 2 more planes to escort the Zero."
I must search the west coast of the Caribbean so that I can rest assured. ” The long and narrow Central American corridor separating the Caribbean Sea from the Pacific Ocean is a very special sea area in which the Japanese First Mobile Fleet is located, and the US fleet cannot come and go to and from both sides of Central America without going through the Panama Canal.
But the American carrier-based aircraft can come, so Jizaburo Ozawa sent a comet plane to search for it this morning.
"Your Excellency, Commander, are we going to send carrier-based aircraft to bomb the US aircraft carriers now?"
asked Furumura again.
"Now let's sail south for two hours at 25 knots."
Jizaburo Ozawa said, "Then the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Air Groups will send two attack waves, the first attack wave will consist of the Comet Ship Explosion and the Zero Battle, and the target will be the American aircraft carrier; The second attack wave consisted of the Tien Shan naval attack, with 45 aircraft carrying torpedoes, 40 aircraft carrying bombs, and 15 Tien Shan naval assault carrying flares, targeting the Panama Canal locks" At 25 knots, it would take 50 nautical miles to go south in two hours, and if the U.S. fleet were to stay put, the distance between the two sides would be reduced by up to 50 nautical miles, and the distance between the First Mobile Fleet and Panama would also be reduced by 50 nautical miles.
In this way, the 1st attack wave flew 550 nautical miles and about 1000 kilometers to launch an attack on the American fleet.
The second attack will fly 650 nautical miles and about 1,200 kilometers to attack the locks of the Panama Canal.
In addition, time and weather are also factors considered by Jizaburo Ozawa.
It's 10:20 a.m.
If the 2nd attack wave is released after 3 hours, the 1st attack wave should start to be released after 2 hours, taking into account the timing of take-off and formation, when the 2nd attack wave flies to the Panama Canal, it will be almost 7 o'clock in the evening.
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At 100 degrees north latitude, where day and night are relatively average, it is already dark at this time.
Therefore, the attack on the Panama Canal is considered a night attack, and it is difficult to find the canal's locks at night and fly at ultra-low altitude to drop bombs.
But in this time and space, the Japanese Navy did not suffer the fiasco of Midway and the attrition of Kuah, and most of the flight elites of the older generation are still there.
This is the only way to blow up the canal locks.
Jizaburo Ozawa paused, and then said: "Inform Captain Hersman again, and ask him to arrange for JU288 to surprise the Panama Canal Zone from a high altitude at about 6:30 this evening."
The raid on the Panama Canal with JU288 was a plan that had been set for a long time, and the Japanese and German sides had already negotiated a specific plan.
A brigade armed with JU288 bombers had long been deployed to Guyana and could go to the Panama Canal at any time.
However, the bombing will definitely miss the target, because the Americans deployed 47 and 38 night combat models in the canal zone.
Both of these aircraft have strong firepower and extremely superior high-altitude performance, which is not a small threat to the JU288, and can often force the JU288 to drop bombs and escape.
And Ozawa's request for the JU288 deployed in Guyana to attack immediately was actually the result of careful calculation.
According to the results of the war games conducted by the Combined Fleet Command, when the JU288 attacked at dusk approaching night, the US forces in Panama would definitely send the daytime 47 and the nighttime 38 to intercept at the same time.
And when the Japanese Tien Shan attack aircraft attacked, it should have been the time when the American 47 returned and landed.
At this time, most of the US military airfields in the Panama Canal Zone will turn on searchlights to help 47 land.
In this way, these airfields will become targets for Japanese Tien Shan attack aircraft coming from ultra-low altitudes t1706231537: