Iron Cross

Good wishes cannot replace cruel facts. On September 2, when Nimitz led the TF48 fleet to enter the 800-kilometer air defense circle of Perth Army Air Force after untold hardships, Tsukahara Jishizo led the main force of the Combined Fleet to attack Christmas Island.

Christmas Island, which is shaped like an axe, has two airports, one at the axe blade and the other at the axe handle, with a straight-line distance of 30 kilometers, both located within 3 kilometers of the coastline. Tsukahara did not attack from two places as the US military expected. He led the fleet to support in the center of Rex Bay, and the left and right wings fired synchronously, giving full play to the overall coordination advantage.

In terms of artillery, without radar, the US Navy would not be worthy of carrying shoes for the Combined Fleet. Tsukahara is an expert in air warfare, and he looks at artillery battles from the perspective of air warfare. The biggest advantage of firing in the center and slightly dispersed on the left and right wings is that air force and air defense formations can be used intensively. Because the Japanese army approached the artillery at night, although the Americans were evacuated, the power of the three-type bombs was still extraordinary, and one-third of the US aircraft were written off.

Only more than 100 of the more than 200 aircraft on Christmas Island were effective, but the close-range attacks of the island's naval aviation and the shuttle bombing proposed by Turner still caused considerable trouble and losses to the Combined Fleet:

In the bombardment formation, the light cruiser Noshiro and the heavy cruiser Mogami were hit by bombs and sank - at the insistence of Hori Teikichi, the Mogami, which was injured in the Battle of Midway, was finally repaired as a heavy cruiser instead of being converted into an incongruous aviation cruiser as in history, but it still could not change the outcome of being sunk.

The two heavy cruisers Myoko and Haguro were hit by 1,000-pound bombs, one of which was damaged in the bow and the other lost a turret, but there was no fatal threat;

The three super battleships Yamato, Musashi, and Shinano were thorns in the eyes of the US military. They were besieged by multiple aircraft and were hit by 1-2 bombs respectively, but they were all fine.

The US military also dispatched more than 40 BTDs equipped with torpedoes and some fighters to cooperate with the main Army Air Force in Pearl Harbor to attack the Japanese aircraft carrier formation that provided support from a distance. It was not that the US military did not want to attack the aircraft carrier formation, but because there was no fighter escort, the losses were too great and they focused on attacking the tankers. This time, at least the P-51 was available, and the situation improved, providing more offensive opportunities for the Army Air Force heavy bomber formation.

However, after the continuous loss of skilled pilots, the Army Air Force was in a state of shortage of manpower. Under the Japanese army's best efforts to intercept, the US aircraft that broke through the siege dropped a total of more than 1,100 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound bombs, but the hit rate was horribly low, less than 1% (general level bombing can reach more than 2%, and elite pilots can reach 3-4%), and only 10 were directly hit.

The results of these 10 direct hits were quite impressive:

The escort carrier Okitaka was hit by a 1,000-pound and a 2,000-pound bomb each and sank directly;

The escort carrier Taitaka, which had made many achievements in robbing Soviet aid materials and breaking up the trade with Musashi, was first hit by a 1,000-pound bomb and severely damaged. Before it could leave the battlefield, it was hit by a torpedo and sank;

The light cruisers Natori and Naka were each hit by a 2,000-pound bomb and sank;

The flagship Taiho was hit by a 1,000-pound bomb, but it was fine after taking it;

The heavy cruiser Yuno first took a torpedo for Taiho, and its speed was greatly reduced after taking on water. Seeing an opportunity, the US military hit it with two 1,000-pound bombs in succession, and finally sank after struggling.

After the ship sank, the left wing of the Taiho was exposed to a large gap, and Nishimura Shoji immediately ordered the Suzuya to fill it. The US military realized that bombs were useless against armored aircraft carriers like the Taiho, and used torpedoes to deal with the Taiho like crazy. As a result, the Suzuya, which was protecting it closely, had the same bad luck. It could only act as a cushion and took a torpedo for the Taiho, and then it was sunk by a 2,000-pound bomb.

So far, the four heavy cruisers of the Mogami class and the four ships of the Furutaka and Aoba classes were all buried in the hands of the US military. Looking at the heavy cruisers that fell one after another to protect themselves, Kakuji Kakuta, who was in charge of the Taiho, was so angry that he almost bit his steel teeth. After the B-17s and B-29s that had completed bombing retreated, Kakuta ordered some fighters to take off again to pursue, and killed 16 bombers of the US Army Air Force without fighter cover.

The last aircraft carrier to be hit by a bomb was the USS Béarn. This rebuilt fleet carrier was the slowest among all regular aircraft carriers, so the 1,000-pound bomb was aimed at it. After the violent explosion, the speed of the ship dropped sharply, and it was difficult to turn and evade, but it could still be saved. Unfortunately, it was hit by a 2,000-pound bomb 3 minutes later, and it lost all power and floated on the water, unable to struggle. The whole ship was shrouded in fire and smoke. Finally, the ship was abandoned under the command of the captain, who was born in a shrine. The captain refused his subordinates' advice to let him escape and sank with the ship in a smiling and praying posture.

This was the first regular aircraft carrier lost since the Combined Fleet launched the second Battle of Midway.

After two days of fierce fighting on September 2-3, the Japanese warships suffered heavy losses, and the US Army and Navy suffered equally heavy losses - all 140 naval aircraft on Christmas Island were written off, and the Army and Navy lost 367 B-17s or B-29s at Pearl Harbor, and an additional 64 P-51s.

In the interception operation, the Japanese lost 43 fighters and 36 attack aircraft in the ground attack. Together with the losses in the previous stage, a total of 138 combat aircraft have been lost (half of the pilots were rescued), and the aircraft loss rate exceeded 22%. However, due to the loss of one regular aircraft carrier and several escort aircraft carriers, the space available for carrier-based aircraft has been greatly reduced, and the mobile fleet with five fleet aircraft carriers is basically full.

On September 4, Kuribayashi Tadamichi commanded the Second Guard Division to launch a landing battle. After continuous bombing and shelling, the resistance of the US military on Christmas Island was greatly weakened. In addition, after the airport was destroyed by the Japanese army, the Pearl Harbor reinforcement aircraft had no aviation power. The wounded army, navy and aviation could no longer launch large-scale continuous operations, and the Japanese army had an overwhelming advantage. In this way, Kakuta's mobile fleet can take a breather.

"In the Christmas Island air battle, we paid a great sacrifice and achieved good results." Looking at the worried Truman, Turner reported, "Our army sank 3 Japanese aircraft carriers, shot down more than 100 enemy aircraft, and sank 6-7 enemy cruisers, 3-4 freighters, 6-8 landing craft and at least 4 destroyers. In addition, in the previous stage of fierce fighting, we destroyed at least 7 tankers and 180,000 tons of ships of the enemy... In the past two weeks, we have destroyed nearly 400,000 tons of Japanese ships. At this consumption rate, they have no chance to occupy Hawaii before the Combined Fleet bleeds dry."

"How long do you think Japan can hold on to consumption?"

"It may be feasible to support until the end of October." Turner sighed. Although the Japanese army was sunk by many tankers, they still have at least 20 tankers in their hands. Moreover, after sinking a batch of warships and shooting down a batch of aircraft, the fuel consumption has also been reduced invisibly.

"I heard that the Japanese are robbing tankers everywhere." Donovan added.

Truman's eyes lit up: "The Japanese can no longer sustain it?"

"I'm not sure, but the plunder of oil tankers is true." Donovan reported all the news he had received:

9 days ago, the Japanese-controlled Nanjing government handed over all 4 oil tankers in its hands to Japan, with a total load of 27,000 tons;

8 days ago, Japan sent notes to Italy and Germany respectively, hoping to buy oil tankers, and did not use Germany's best 15,000-ton or 25,000-ton military tankers, but 7,000-10,000-ton civilian tankers;

7 days ago, Japan and the Chongqing government reached an agreement to use arms and fuel oil to As a condition, Japan traded 3 tankers with Chongqing, with a total load of 21,000 tons;

4 days ago, the British side heard that Japan hoped that Britain could convert all the tonnage of ships it should deliver into tankers. Originally, tankers accounted for only a quarter of the 1.2 million tons. Japan proposed that if the tankers were delivered in stock, 1 ton of tankers could be used to offset 3 tons of ordinary cargo ships. The British considered using the T2 tankers originally assisted by the United States to offset them;

3 days ago, the Bolsheviks heard that Japan proposed to buy 6 tankers from Stalin with food or other living supplies, and the Russians seemed to agree!

"Assholes, we must stop the Chinese, British, and Russians from selling tankers to Japan! Send them a note and strongly protest."

"It may be useless."

"Whether it is useful or not, we must let them know our determination!" Truman slammed the table and said, "This tanker war of attrition is our basis for fighting the Japanese to the end. I don't care how many reasons they have. Whoever gives Japan tankers is the enemy of the United States."

"Comrade Stalin, the Americans have protested and asked us not to sell tankers to Japan."

"Protest?" Stalin raised his eyebrows, "The American Stilwell borrowed a passage from us, and the US government has not compensated him. What right do they have to protest? The Japanese exchanged the Soviet Union's most needed food and daily necessities for tankers. What did the Americans give?"

"Then..."

"Comrade Khrushchev, tell me, do you want to listen to the Americans' advice?"

"Of course not." Khrushchev raised his head and said, "Japan has tankers, The more time they have to fight the Americans in the Pacific, the less likely they are to attack us, and the less military pressure on the Soviet Union. Why not let them continue to fight? "

"Look, Comrade Molotov and Comrade Khrushchev have learned dialectics very well." Stalin waved his hand, "Give the Japanese oil tankers, give them 8! Pick the worst ones, anyway, the Japanese can't care about these now."

Almost at the same time, someone in Chongqing was cursing: "Damn it, the Americans are too much, not only do they support the Communist Party in the civil war, but they also point fingers at us. Stilwell just got out, and Wedemeyer is not a good guy either, don't pay attention to him. Sell it anyway! Anyway, I don't know! This is a civilian ship, how can the government interfere?"

The black cat smiled when he saw the note: "It's okay not to sell it, let the Americans drive the Liberty Ship to offset the difference... Don't want to? Then why should I agree? This is Pakistan's ransom! The less you can pay, the better."