Iron Cross

Spruance's intuition told him that it was strange for the Japanese to attack Panama at this time, but he had to be on guard. Considering that it was not easy for Nimitz and MacArthur to endure a day and a night, he proposed that he and Clark should be in charge tonight. Now everyone has basically understood that the Navy in the Joint Chiefs of Staff is a combination of Nimitz + Spruance, and the Army is a combination of MacArthur + Clark, and then Arnold. Although there are still some people who are members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they are actually useless.

After discussion, Nimitz and MacArthur thought that this was also okay. The war was still long and rotation was indeed needed. Considering that Spruance's injury had not yet healed and the weather in Washington in mid-October had begun to turn cold, Nimitz thoughtfully asked someone to prepare a duck down sleeping bag for him.

The last position reported by the Panamanian defenders before the sun set was that the main fleet of the Japanese army was about 950 kilometers away from Panama.

In the evening, the main force of the Combined Fleet continued to advance towards Panama, and each ship was ready to attack.

Tsukahara issued an order: "Tell Fuchida that since it is a feint tonight, he should not go there in person, and give more opportunities to the young people; all the leading officers should take good care of the troops, give the young people opportunities to train, and bring all the people back to me!"

During the Pearl Harbor air raid, the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet Mobile Force was Fuchida Mitsuo of the 52nd Marine Corps, and the captains of the various flight teams were Takahashi Kakuichi and Hashiguchi Takashi of the 56th Marine Corps, Shimazaki Shigekazu and Minami Masashi of the 57th Marine Corps, Itaya Shigeru, Egusa Takashige and Murata Shigeharu of the 58th Marine Corps.

That is, the flight captains of the main mobile force were a few of the 56th Marine Corps, the 57th Marine Corps and the 58th Marine Corps, while the captains of the various squadrons were a few of the 60th Marine Corps, most of the 61st to 64th Marine Corps, and a few of the 65th and 66th Marine Corps. According to the rotation rules between aircraft carriers, land-based and training flight teams, the commanders of the troops should be rotated in the second half of 1942. Therefore, in the South Pacific naval battle, the flight captains under Hori Teikichi were a small number of 58th and 59th batches (Egusa Takashige, Murata Shigeharu, Seki Mamoru) plus 61st-63rd batches as captains, and 66th-67th batches as squadron leaders. The older Shimazaki Shigekazu, Itaya Shigeru and others were all leading troops on land and did not participate in the war. Hori Teikichi was dissatisfied with this personnel promotion system based on the number of marines and hammock numbers, which was based on a rotation promotion of 1-2 years between aircraft carriers, land-based and training aviation teams. He believed that it was not enough to provide the strongest commander for the mobile forces in the fierce war of attrition. This command system can indeed ensure that in peacetime, when the size of the navy and command positions are relatively limited, sufficient promotion opportunities are provided to young officers as much as possible. However, as the size of the naval aviation force expands, it is no longer appropriate to insist on a system of rotation every year. In particular, the losses in the three major battles of the Coral Sea, Midway Island, and the South Pacific made the graduates of the Naval Academy trained under the elite policy completely stretched.

What's more ironic is that according to the promotion system, senior flight captains must leave the front-line command position to serve as staff officers after a certain number of years, and they can never be promoted in the flight team.

Although this ensures the quality of the staff, it greatly weakens the quality of the flight team - on the one hand, the backbone of the flight is lost in combat, and on the other hand, the backbone of the flight is transferred to the warship as a staff officer, which is equivalent to making the flight unit face double bleeding.

Hori Teikichi made two adjustments within his authority: first, concentrate all the best pilots in the carrier-based team as much as possible, even at the expense of the land-based team. Excellent land-based pilots such as Saburo Sakai were recruited by him to become carrier-based pilots, and the vacant land-based pilots were filled by the Army Aviation; second, send some excellent pilots to the training team and train newcomers regularly, while the land-based team lets the newcomers practice, which is equivalent to treating the land-based team as a reserve team for carrier-based pilots.

After the adjustment, the new Japanese naval aviation pilots began to follow the promotion system of training team-land-based team-carrier-based team, and the level of carrier-based aircraft pilots was forcibly guaranteed by weakening the land-based team.

As for the third adjustment, it was what Hori Teikichi had been calling for after returning from Europe but to no avail: breaking the rigid officer promotion system, not only preparing to allow aviation school graduates who are not marine graduates to become officers, but also hoping to make it clear that it is not only fleet or staff positions that can be promoted to senior military ranks. Both of these were firmly opposed by Prince Fushimi Hiroyoshi. In his view, this was digging into the corners of the fleet faction. He stubbornly insisted on one point of view-non-marine graduates cannot be officers, and non-fleet command or agency (staff) positions cannot be generals.

This stubborn style was eventually crushed under the Tiger tracks: Hori Teikichi advocated military merit first, and not only allowed aviation school graduates to become officers, he also began to promote generals from the flight team. Before Tsukahara led his team to the expedition, Fuchida Mitsuo was exceptionally promoted to major general as the commander-in-chief of the mobile force (the first major general of the 52nd term). His promotion speed even exceeded that of his former seniors, and also exceeded that of Genda Minoru, who had a higher hammock number and equally great military merit in the same period (of course Genda Minoru got a hint that as long as this battle was successful, he could also be promoted to general next spring). In addition to Fuchida Mitsuo being promoted to general, a group of flight captains were promoted to military rank, and senior lieutenant colonels such as Egusa Takashige and Murata Shigeharu were all promoted to colonels, only one step away from becoming generals.

In the carrier-based flight squadron, Hori Teikichi also tried every means to set up a second command echelon (or reserve echelon), that is, under the captain, there were four major flight squadrons, namely, carrier battle, carrier attack, carrier bomber, and carrier reconnaissance (including water reconnaissance), and then set up flight squadrons. At the same time, the flight squadrons were broken from the subordinate relationship of the aircraft carriers. The pilots only belonged to the flight squadron, and the flight squadron only belonged to the air battle squadron. All pilots should be familiar with each aircraft carrier for takeoff and landing. In case the original garrison aircraft carrier sank during the battle, they would not be at a loss after returning from the attack.

Shimazaki Shigekazu was the commander of the second attack wave in the Battle of Pearl Harbor. This time he was appointed as the deputy captain-general with the rank of colonel (Fuchida reserve). For example, the carrier bomber under the command of Egusa Takashige and the carrier attack under the command of Murata Shigeharu had reserve commanders. This time, the feint attack was commanded by the reserve commander, with the only exception being the carrier battle. On the surface, the more senior Itaya Shigeru (the chief of the 58th Marine Corps) was the captain, and Akamatsu Sadaaki was his reserve, so the latter should go. But in fact, Itaya Shigeru stayed in China before the South Pacific naval battle. He was one of the few flight captains who did not travel to Europe. His new combat experience and leadership skills were not as good as Akamatsu Sadaaki. Therefore, he led the battle squadron to attack, and Akamatsu Sadaaki led the rest to cover the fleet.

The feint attack on Panama was a strategy set by Tsukahara. It not only had the effect of echoing and confusing the US military, but also had the significance of live-fire training. After the reorganization of the mobile fleet in June, one-third of the main force was assigned to novices (who only trained and did not participate in an actual battle). Considering that the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Christmas Island were not stressful, he decided to let some veterans take the novices to Panama to explore the situation, especially to fly a night attack - training and actual combat are not the same after all.

According to the arrangement of Mitsuo Fuchida, the carrier-based attack and bomber aircraft dispatched this time did not carry bombs, but only enough auxiliary fuel tanks and self-defense bullets. The overall formation of about 180 aircraft rushed forward, first conducting night flight combat, then conducting low-altitude sea combat, and finally teasing the US military before returning.

If this kind of luxurious combat exercise was put in the past Combined Fleet, people would scold it as a prodigal behavior, but Tsukahara thought it through very well. Anyway, the fuel was supplied by Germany for free, so it would be a waste if it was not burned. Where can such a good training opportunity be found?

At about 1 a.m., about 700 kilometers away from Panama, all the attack groups participating in the actual combat took off and flew towards Panama in a mighty manner.

Although the novices were in a hurry at first, they finally adapted to the rhythm and atmosphere, and played their best. One by one, they followed the lead aircraft to lower the altitude of the aircraft to no more than 30 meters above the sea surface, and the auxiliary fuel tanks were regarded as torpedoes and bombs by them.

At 2:30 in the morning, the entire formation arrived at a place only 130 kilometers away from Panama. Shimazaki Shigekazu issued an order through the headset: "Attention, all formations, attention, prepare to climb, prepare to climb, the altitude is 2500 meters! After climbing, double the gap!"

Two minutes later, the alarm of the Panama radar station sounded loudly. The radar soldiers looked at the large group of light spots that suddenly appeared on the screen and reported hurriedly: "Enemy aircraft group was found, the altitude is 1800 meters, the heading is 35 degrees, the speed is about 400 kilometers, and the number of aircraft is expected to be 200!"

"Finally here!" Major General Peterson, the commander of the Army Aviation, whose eyes were red and drowsy, shouted, "According to Plan No. 1, attack!"

In order to prevent the Japanese army from attacking, Peterson not only arranged more than 80 night fighters with radars, but also let a large number of aircraft stand by, ready to take off at any time to prevent being bombed by the enemy in the hangar and runway.

The US military responded quickly. The first plane took off half a minute later, and then a large group of aircraft took off.

But then they found that something was wrong. After flying for more than 10 minutes, the Japanese fleet began to change its course to 160 degrees, that is, to the south of Panama, and gradually escaped from the tracking of the US radar. This puzzled Peterson, but he did not dare to neglect it. He ordered the planes to patrol over Panama while sending night fighters to see if they could intercept them effectively.

At 3:24, another radar station reported that the fleet of aircraft appeared east of Panama and began to fly over again. Peterson, who was furious, could only pull the fighter team back. Before the plane arrived at the designated location, the Japanese fleet in the east changed its direction and continued to disappear from the radar screen...

From more than 2 o'clock to more than 4 o'clock, the Japanese relied on the advantage of auxiliary fuel tanks to fly a big circle around Panama. At the closest time, it was only 75 kilometers away from Panama, but it never broke in again, but adjusted its direction and left.

After a night of commotion, the Japanese aircraft fleet finally left without any results, except for the thousands of rounds of ammunition that the searchlights and anti-aircraft artillery units nervously poured into the air. Of course, they did not achieve any results - to be precise, there were no active results, but there were some passive results. At night, four American planes collided with each other and crashed, and another nine were lost during landing due to panic and fatigue.

After daybreak, the harassing aircraft fleet returned smoothly. Except for one plane that made a mistake during landing, the rest were all safe and sound.

"Very good..." Tsukahara was very satisfied with the performance of the fleet, "Keep a distance from Panama and see if the Americans will come out to fight!"