Iron Cross

Can’t the Americans build a reconnaissance aircraft similar to the Caiyun Kai? Of course not. The U.S. aviation industry is much more developed than Japan. As long as there are drawings, you can imitate one the next day. However, the United States has problems with its aircraft design concept. Due to its strong engine manufacturing capabilities, designers generally design aircraft to be Too heavy, one-sidedly superstitious about the truth that "as long as the engine horsepower is strong, bricks can fly into the sky", and never optimize the range and aerodynamic performance. The empty weight of a single-seat F4U exceeds 5.6 tons, while the three-seat Caiyun changes when fully loaded. (With 2.1 tons of oil) less than 5.55 tons (the German improved version is a bit thicker than the original Japanese design, so it weighs more than 300 kilograms, and the range is correspondingly reduced by more than 400 kilometers).

In this way, the fully loaded Caiyun is lighter than the F4U, and its anti-strike performance is certainly not as good as that of the F4U. But why does a reconnaissance aircraft have such good anti-strike performance? Flying far and fast is the true meaning of a reconnaissance aircraft! Such a heavy F4U also limits its own take-off and landing capabilities. The Casablanca-class can only barely take off and land the F6F, and all F4Us are rejected (the F4U's take-off and landing performance is not good in the first place). Therefore, knowing that F4U is better as a fighter than F6F, the Navy has to use more F6F - without Essex class, F4U cannot fly at all, but now the Essex class is insufficient.

Therefore, the same strategy of fleet aircraft carriers and escort aircraft carriers is adopted. The US military cannot make the Essex class fully attack mechanized. It must arrange a batch of F4Us, which invisibly weakens the advantages of this tactic. Now Harr The two Essex-class ships in the West have a total of 36 F4Us, and the remaining 148 are all BTDs. However, this results in a low proportion of attack aircraft (only one-third of the entire fleet). The Casablanca-class must also carry Some SBDs - SBDs with an empty weight of less than 3 tons can take off with 1,000 pounds of bombs on the Casablanca class.

This situation troubles the fleet commander because the SBD is too slow, with a maximum speed of just over 400 kilometers per hour. Forcibly configuring them together will slow down the entire formation. Therefore, the attack is usually divided into two waves. The SBD takes off first, and the BTD takes off first. Then it flew, so McCain believed that if Halsey sent out more waves, many people would fall into the sea.

Grumman is also fully aware of the problem of overweight. The next generation after the F6F has developed two new models, the F7F and F8F. The F7F was originally used with the Midway-class aircraft carrier, and now the Midway-class is still locked in the safe of the Naval Construction Commission. Here, we don’t know when it will see the light of day again. Therefore, the F7F design project has been basically stopped, and we will focus on the F8F, trying to use this model to regain Grumman’s absolute advantage in the field of carrier-based fighter jets.

Compared with the F6F, the F8F designers learned a lesson. They used the captured Bf-219 and He-218 to inspire ideas. That's right, now it's American designers' turn to learn from the successful experiences of Japan and Germany. Originally, the American Ironic Zero was crispy in one hit. After being improved by Germany, it was still crispy by American standards, but at least the phenomenon of being crispy in one hit was gone. After using Do-412 and Bf-319, the Japanese and German ships were still crispy. The field of aircraft carriers once again has the upper hand and overwhelms the F6F. Only when the F4U is on board can it be considered comparable to Japan and Germany. The problem is that all Japanese and German fighters can take off from escort aircraft carriers. Their scope of application is much wider than that of the US F4U, and their number is much greater. .

Moreover, although the weight and defense strength that the F4U is proud of can better protect U.S. pilots when faced with anti-aircraft firepower, even the B-29\\B-17 cannot parry the Japanese and German fighter jets using rotating MG213 cannons. Not to mention a mere fighter jet? There is no way to blindly strengthen thickness and improve defense. Only by strengthening overall performance can there be an advantage.

Therefore, the F8F began to take the road of lightweighting, controlling the empty weight of the entire machine to 3.2 tons, which is almost a full ton lighter than the previous generation F6F! The engine horsepower is more powerful, directly using the 2200-horsepower engine of the R-2800. The designer believes that it can take off on the Casablanca-class deck even with an auxiliary fuel tank. At the same time, in response to pilots' complaints about the lack of firepower of their aircraft, they began to launch a 4-door With the new version of the 20mm cannon, it was too late to redesign the cannon. The Americans knew this very well and directly copied the British Hispano cannon - and finally stopped engaging in the "material processing" trade.

Just looking at the paper data, you can tell that this is a good aircraft. The Navy can't wait to sign a contract with Grumman, hoping to get the new aircraft as soon as possible and name it "Panda" according to convention. Unfortunately, Grumman said that time is very tight. Finalization and mass production could only be achieved in March 1945, and mass delivery could only be achieved in June. Fortunately, the F4U can still hold up for a while, and the naval authorities agreed. They only canceled the F6F-5 orders after March and converted all orders to F8F. As for the F7F, the navy did not mention a word about it, pretending not to know that this thing existed.

Necessary compensation will still be given to Grumman. Someone reminded Grumman to develop a two-seat reconnaissance aircraft based on the F8F. Most of the parts must be common to the combat type, and it must be able to carry radar. It is best to have a range of no less than 3,500 kilometers (when the auxiliary fuel tank is attached), Grumman fully agreed - who would think there are too many orders?

So until now, Halsey can only rely on F4U-P to conduct reconnaissance, and the reconnaissance results reported to him remain the same every day - no enemy situation discovered! Fortunately, the Japanese fleet has not dispatched an attack group to deal with him in the past two days, which makes Halsey believe that the Japanese army is still far away from him and can only "see but cannot hit him", which somewhat comforts him.

Faced with the new investigation situation, Matsuda Chiaki laughed: "Sir, the US military commander was very cautious. He only adjusted the course and slightly increased the speed. He did not rashly organize fast troops to press over. Your strategy of luring the enemy did not succeed!"

Horikichi said calmly: "If the first plan fails, we can only use another one. Let's organize a decoy formation to join Tsunoda."

"Really? This is our army's initiative to divide its troops."

"Yes, there is no other way to lure the opponent to take the bait." Horikichi explained, "With so many enemy aircraft carriers mixed together, the loss of our army will not be small if they attack our army rashly. It is more beneficial to us to lure them to divide their forces to pursue them!"

"What if after we divide our forces, the enemy refuses to eat the bait and focuses on chasing us?"

"No, after dividing our forces, we can run up to 29 knots at the fastest. Unless the Americans dispatch a fast formation, they will not be able to catch up with us. If they do dispatch, I would still use 2 Unryu-class ships + 1 Chitose to deal with 2 Essex-class ships. Confident..."

Matsuda Chiaki subconsciously sighed: "There's nothing else. I just feel that the warships acting as the decoy fleet are a little weaker. They will not be the opponent of the US military's fast column..."

Horikichi, who had his back to Matsuda Chiaki, looked sad, but when he turned around, his expression was firm, without any hesitation: "In order to win, I have no other choice but to sacrifice them with pain. I hope everyone takes care, and in the future , I apologized to them one by one."

At 9 a.m. on October 29, Horikichi issued three orders in a row:

1. Lieutenant Colonel Hidejo Shingo led 29 elite aircrews to implement cross-platform tactics to reinforce the Tsunoda fleet more than 1,300 kilometers away;

2. After vacating the deck, add all aircraft on the aircraft transport ship to the combat sequence;

3. Temporary reorganization of fleet formation, the entire fleet is divided into two, the three-ship battle system is temporarily abolished, and the three regular aircraft carriers Katsuragi, Kasagi, and Chitose are combined into five-ship battle, and the remaining warships that look like aircraft carriers include The escort aircraft carrier Goshawk, 4 escort aircraft carriers, 2 aircraft transport ships and some destroyers and torpedo boats formed a decoy fleet, allowing Rear Admiral Yano Hideo to lead the team to perform the task of luring the enemy.

Hideo Yano is a member of the 43rd Marine Corps. He was originally a diplomatic negotiator of the Naval Arms Treaty. He is considered a treaty general and knows the staff business. He served as the captain of the Nagato during the Battle of Pearl Harbor. His command level of aviation operations is average, but his navigation ability is very good. Strong, Horikichi believes that he can complete the task of luring the enemy.

"Yano-kun, your mission is twofold. The decoy fleet seems to have a total of 7 aircraft carriers, disguised as the main force of our army, to attract the enemy to take the bait. If the enemy takes the bait, use air defense fighters to weaken the enemy's combat effectiveness as much as possible and bring them closer. distance from the enemy; if the enemy does not take the bait, we will provide fuel supplies for the second aviation battle... If it is the latter, we will accept the command of the second aviation battle at that time!" Horikichi explained, "All of your aircraft carriers are currently equipped with anti-aircraft fighters. , just find the enemy attacking aircraft group and repel them, and retain as many as you can.”

"The staff understands!"

Horikichi bowed deeply to him: "Tell the officers and men on each ship that I, Horikichi, am sorry for them. If the warship is lost, it will be lost. There are still some in the country. I hope they take care of themselves as much as possible and never sacrifice lightly. Wait until I come back after the battle." Rescue them. Those who unfortunately died in the battle will be apologized to me one by one in the future."

"Sir, your words are serious. As a soldier of the Empire, I have long had the consciousness to die in battle. It is my greatest honor to serve you!" Hero Yano bowed in return, "In this humble position, I will lead all the soldiers in the army to complete the mission, and die in pieces! "

At 9:20, 29 aircraft left three regular aircraft carriers and headed for the Tsunoda Fleet;

At 9:57, 27 aircraft were extracted from the transport ship and replenished for the fifth aviation battle;

At 10:35, the decoy fleet parted ways with the Fifth Fleet, taking a 45-degree course and sailing directly toward the Tsunoda Fleet. The Fifth Fleet still maintained a 0-degree course, speeding up, and the overall speed increased to 21 knots.

After the reinforcement of Tsunoda's 29 aircraft, the total number of aircraft owned by Horikichi's fleet dropped to 237: 68 on the decoy fleet, and a total of 169 on the three regular aircraft carriers.

When the two fleets separated, all the warships joining the decoy fleet hoisted their flags: "Let's take the first step! I wish you long military luck, sir! Combined fleet onboard!"

Horikichi stood on the deck for a long time, waving goodbye...