"Christmas Island" Ito nodded at Yamamoto and said, "According to my officer's judgment, the main target of the US Pacific Fleet is Christmas Island. ” Christmas Island belongs to the Lane Islands in the Central Pacific Ocean, located at 1 degree 59 minutes north latitude and 157 degrees 30 minutes west longitude, 2080 kilometers from the Hawaiian Islands.
The island is the largest atoll in the Pacific Ocean, with a total area of 600 square kilometers, of which 363 square kilometers are land The so-called atoll means a coral reef coral island surrounded by a circle of coral reefs and a lagoon in the middle.
Historically, Truk Atoll, Japan's important anchorage in the South Pacific, has a land area of only 100 square kilometers, less than one-third of Christmas Island.
Although Truk's lagoon covers an area of more than 2,100 square kilometers, it is much larger than the nearly 240 square kilometers of the Christmas Island Lagoon.
But Christmas Island is more than enough as a departure base for American submarines and carriers.
If the Americans seize Christmas Island, then the starting point of American submarines and escort aircraft carriers will be able to advance 5,000 kilometers to the west This means that the United States can save at least 10,000 kilometers of distance when it breaks diplomatic relations with its aircraft carriers and submarines during operations, and the efficiency of breaking diplomatic relations will be greatly improved.
Moreover, the land area of Christmas Island Atoll is very large, enough to deploy thousands of shore-based aircraft.
Once it is run by the United States, the 1,000 kilometers around Christmas Island will become a forbidden area for the Japanese fleet, and American long-range bombers deployed on Christmas Island can even bomb Oahu Therefore, Christmas Island is more important than Holland Harbor, and it is Japan's second most critical stronghold in the central Pacific Ocean after the Hawaiian Islands.
"In addition, it is already September, and the climate in the North Pacific will soon deteriorate, which will not be conducive to landing and seizing the island."
Ito went on to say another reason, "If the purpose of the U.S. military's operation is really to seize the island and not to mobilize our troops, then the target must be Christmas Island." ” Ito's "mobilization of our troops" is based on the analysis and judgment of the "fuel consumption tactics" that have recently emerged in the Atlantic.
Although the series of actions of the US Atlantic Fleet that began in June did not achieve any results, and in the eyes of laymen, it was not fun at all, but when an expert like Ito Junichi saw it, he was immediately shocked into a cold sweat one after another.
In June and July, the United European Fleet was led by the US Atlantic Fleet to go around the sea for more than a month, and was forced to send additional troops to South Africa, Cape Verde Islands, Iceland, the Azores, and other places.
It took a long time to survive, and no less than 600,000 tons of fuel was consumed Although 600,000 tons of fuel is a lot for Germany, after all, people have more than 40 million tons of oil a year, and they will not vomit blood.
However, Japan only has more than 6 million tons a year, of which less than 4 million tons are distributed to the navy.
If you waste 600,000 tons at a time, you will have to "run out of oil and the country will die" after a few runs.
Therefore, after analyzing the situation of the Atlantic operations in June and July, Japan was determined to start a war with the United States in the Hawaiian Islands as soon as possible, and the "Jet-1 Operation Plan" was also put forward against this background.
And the Americans apparently had their own plans for a decisive battle, and the target of the offensive was certainly not the impregnable Hawaiian Islands.
"But how can we be sure that the Americans really want to seize the island, and not want to go around in circles with the 1st Mobile Fleet" Nagumo Tadaichi, who is now the governor of Yokosuka Town, interjected and asked.
His prefect of the town guard was to accumulate seniority as commander of the Combined Fleet, and according to Yamamoto Isoroku's plan, Nagumo Tadaichi took over as commander of the Combined Fleet in early 44.
So he is now considered a figure in the highest decision-making circle of the Japanese Navy.
"It's impossible to know for sure now," said Ito, shaking his head, "unless the Americans start attacking Christmas Island." ” Nagumo Zhongyi shook his head and said, "There are not many planes on Christmas Island, once the Americans blow up the airport, 10 battleships will surround and bombard, and the battle of Christmas Island will be difficult to fight." ” "Bringing fighter planes from the Hawaiian Islands to Christmas Island," said Ito, "there are several large airfields on Christmas Island that can accommodate 1,000 warplanes, and there are underground oil depots that can store large quantities of fuel." ” The geographical location of Christmas Island is too important, so the Japanese Navy is preparing for a decisive battle on Christmas Island while occupying Christmas Island.
A lot of manpower and material resources were spent to build airfields and oil depots, and more than 330,000 ground troops such as the Army's 43rd Division, the 47th Naval Garrison, the 48th Naval Garrison, and the Hawaii 1st Special Marine Corps were also deployed on Christmas Island, and more than 50 light ships, mainly patrol boats, torpedo boats, gunboats, anti-submarine and so on.
However, the number of planes is not large, there are only 300 in total, and nearly 100 of them are seaplanes, and they are not all on the main island of Christmas Island, but are scattered and deployed on various islands and reefs in the Lane Islands to search for US carriers and submarines that are trying to pass through the Lane Islands.
That is to say, there are only more than 200 planes that can really be used to fight on Christmas Island, half of which are fighter planes, and the rest are a type of land attack.
However, this tactic of using large twin-engine aircraft to carry out torpedo attacks is basically a rush to reincarnate in a large formation of the US Navy that has strengthened its air defense, and the reincarnation rate is 100.
Therefore, the Japanese planes on Christmas Island could not actually deal with the US fleet that might be approaching, and it was necessary to send a large number of "Comet" dive bombers, "Meteor" and "Tien Shan" torpedo bombers, Hurricane fighters, and Zero fighters from the Hawaiian Islands in order to independently resist the main force of the US Pacific Fleet.
"How much" Nan Yunzhong thought about it and asked again.
"It's best to have as many comets as you want," said Ito, "and there are about 800 comets, meteors, Tenshan, Tempest, and Zero from the Hawaiian Islands that should be transferred to Christmas Island."
"Ah" Nanyun Zhong was stunned one by one, "What about the Hawaiian Islands, in case the Americans' target is the Hawaiian Islands, what will we use to defend them?"
Japan has placed more than 1,000 aircraft of various kinds on the Hawaiian Islands, but not all of them are high-performance single-engine combat aircraft, and many are seaplanes, long-range attack aircraft, long-range bomber aircraft, and night fighters, because the waters between the Aleutian Islands of the Hawaiian Islands are also an important passage for the United States to break diplomatic relations with aircraft carriers to advance westward.
In order to intercept and search for the US aircraft carriers, it is necessary to have long-range reconnaissance planes and attack planes, so the Japanese Navy has no choice but to deploy nearly 200 long-range planes on the Hawaiian Islands to deal with the US carriers.
However, it should be mentioned that the exchange ratio of these Japanese long-range planes in attacking the US aircraft carrier is not ideal, because these long-range planes attack the US aircraft carrier without escort.
Faced with the formidable combat power of the F4U and F6F, they often have to pay a high price to sink or cripple a US aircraft carrier.
However, after suffering several losses, US aircraft carriers often adopt the tactic of breaking through the defense in formation, and two or three "independent" class ships are grouped together, and usually they are escorted or greeted by large aircraft carriers, and they often turn Japan's land attack into a lighter "Isn't there 200,000 troops on the Hawaiian Islands," Ito said with a smile, "and there are hundreds of large-caliber shore defense guns, more than 2,000 medium and light guns, and hundreds of tanks imported from Germany, mainly T34 and KV1 tanks, and countless fortifications have been built.
If the defense of the Hawaiian Islands was placed on the mainland, the Americans would have submerged it with 4 tank seas, but the Hawaiian Islands were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The attacking forces had to travel more than 3,000 kilometers by sea to land, and although the United States had an astonishing industrial capacity, it did not now have the ability to send the "four tanks sea" to the beachhead of the Hawaiian Islands.
Therefore, there was no other way to seize the Hawaiian Islands than to use battleships to "pile up firepower" and use powerful naval guns to cover the landing force to fight the Japanese inch by inch.
However, the United States had lost too many battleships in naval battles such as the Battle of the Hawaiian Islands and later the Night Battle in the North Atlantic, and now it was only possible to muster 10 warships in the Pacific Ocean to fight the Japanese coastal artillery on the Hawaiian Islands, let alone the terrible Yamato.
Therefore, before defeating the Japanese Combined Fleet, the commander-in-chief of the US Navy would not consider attacking the Hawaiian Islands as long as he had his right mind.
However, Nagumo Tadaichi still shook his head repeatedly, obviously very hesitant to evacuate the high-performance fighters of the Hawaiian Islands.
Ito Junichi set his sights on the Minister of the Navy, Yamamoto Fifty-six, although he is now the Minister of the Navy in charge of military affairs, but the name of the "God of the Army" is too loud, so whether it is military politics or military orders, the big idea is Yamamoto.
"Transfer," Yamamoto smiled, "not only to transfer planes, but also to send at least 200 tanks to Christmas Island."
In addition, Onishi Takijiro was sent to Christmas Island as the commander of the 10th Fleet, and unified command of naval and army operations in the direction of the Lane Islands.
In addition, the aircraft carrier Taiho immediately ended sea trials and joined the combined fleet.
The aircraft carriers Kaga and Akagi must complete all work by October 15, join the 1st Mobile Fleet and participate in the Christmas Island operation, and strive to inflict heavy damage on the invading U.S.
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