Chapter 7 black eyes

Hirohito is not in Tokyo at this time, but is resting in Nikko Palace.When they first heard the news that the U.S. military landed on Guadalcanal, everyone didn't know what it meant. Others panicked, and Hirohito panicked too. He told his entourage that he would return to Tokyo immediately and hold the relevant personnel accountable. The emperor said things like this, and the entourage had to suffer for no reason, so he secretly notified the base camp. The Emperor wants to be held accountable, who is to be held accountable?Who can get rid of the people in the seat?Everyone was sweating profusely. After deliberation, it was immediately decided that Nagano would drive to Nikko to meet the emperor.

During the meeting, Yong Ye reported the judgment of the base camp to Hirohito, telling him that the consequences were not as serious as imagined, and that addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, there was already an account at the base camp, and the emperor just had to sit at home and watch the good. Yu Ren didn't know what to do. He was terribly afraid at first, but now he heard that nothing happened, and he was at ease. Hirohito is safe, but Nagano cannot.How can I bear this tone after trying to be strong in front of the army all my life, not only falling behind in the end, but also having to pretend to be my grandson back and forth?He immediately called Yamamoto and instructed the United Fleet to take the recapture of Guadalcanal Island as the first goal, and other actions may not be considered for the time being.

The army was lost at Midway Island, and Guadalcanal Island was snatched from his hands. Yamamoto was also in a state of desperation, and the idea of ​​fighting the U.S. military to the death again came to him spontaneously.He spread out the combat map in the South Pacific, and slammed his fists hard at Guadalcanal: "Sanchuan, attack me!" On the afternoon of August 7th, at the order of Mikawa, 51 land-based bombers of the 25th Air Force took off from Rabaul in an emergency and headed straight for Guadalcanal Island and Tulagi Island.The commander who led the team was very smart. He let all the planes fly at low altitude above the water to avoid radar.

After arriving over Guadalcanal, the Japanese pilot Saburo Sakai found a group of American planes not far ahead.Judging from the appearance, it should be a "Wildcat" fighter jet. There were eight of them in total. Including Sakai's, there are four "Zero" planes around, which are only half the number of American planes. Formation, then hula la rushed over. Sakai is an ace pilot. In terms of technical and tactical level and record, he can rank among the top few in the Japanese Naval Air Force. He has always been above the top, so he took the lead in the charge.According to his judgment, as long as the U.S. planes kept flying as they were, he could shoot down at least two of them with one shot.

As the distance got closer, Sakai suddenly realized that he had been fooled.These American planes are not "Wildcat" fighter jets, but TBF "Avenger" torpedo planes that began to emerge at Midway Island.Sakai did not participate in the Battle of Midway, so he was mistaken for a "wild cat".During the Battle of Midway Island, only six "Avengers" appeared on the scene, and no major military achievements were made, but their performance has been fully affirmed.After that, the U.S. Navy eliminated the TBD "destroyer" with relatively backward performance, and began to equip a large number of "Avengers".

The Japanese machine thought that they were unnoticed, but in fact, the coastal watchmen of the Allied forces had already discovered their traces. The "Avengers" are all from the aircraft carrier formation located in the south of Guadalcanal Island. They received the alarm and rushed to intercept and kill them. The reason why they acted ignorantly just now was to lure the enemy to take the bait. Of course, tightening the formation is not to hurry , but ready to take the chopsticks to put the meat in the bowl and eat the vegetables. The TBF "Avenger" torpedo aircraft being mounted with torpedoes.As a new generation of torpedo aircraft replacing TBD, TBF's performance has been greatly improved. In addition to carrying an aviation torpedo, it can also carry multiple bombs and is equipped with machine guns suitable for air combat. Its attack capability is quite powerful. .Since the First World War on Midway Island, it has proved with its actions that the role it played on the Pacific battlefield is by no means the type that will have no way out after being popular for a while.

Eight "Avengers", each with two machine guns in the rear seat, a total of 16 machine guns pointed at Sakai.When Sakai saw this situation, Zai Yigao was bold, but at this time his feet were already soft as if they were stepping on cotton. Immediate descent or turning back is not allowed in time; if turning or somersaulting, the belly of the aircraft will be exposed to the guns, and the eight machine guns will sweep over, and it will definitely end up as a briquette.Anyway, it was a dead end, so Sakai had no choice but to increase the gas pedal, bit the bullet and continued to rush upwards.

While Sakai was shooting, all the U.S. planes also fired, and the sound of the guns overwhelmed all other sounds.For a moment, it seemed that the whole world was exploding.The "Zero" piloted by Sakai was shaken, his head was seriously injured, and he was blind in one eye. After all, it was the trump card. In the case of several times of trance, Sakai struggled and flew back to Rabaul, creating a miracle in air combat.When the plane landed, the fuel gauge was almost at zero. This attack was quite a failure for the Japanese planes. They were attacked intensively by carrier-based planes and escort warships. A total of 19 planes were shot down and destroyed.The U.S. military crew kept seeing a Japanese plane hit and catch fire, and then plunged into the sea with orange flames.

The Japanese planes lost troops and failed to harvest. The embarrassing results directly pushed Yamamoto to the crater. That was anxious and uncomfortable.He issued an order to Sanchuan from Zhudao anchorage, telling Sanchuan not to send anyone else, but to come in person! At dusk, Mikawa decided to lead the Eighth Fleet into battle.When Yamamoto reorganized the United Fleet, he considered that the South Pacific might become the main stage of the US-Japan war in the future, so the Eighth Fleet was equipped with strong personnel, and the staff around Mikawa were all top-notch talents in the Japanese naval system.Before departure, Sanchuan used the meal time on the flagship to convene a meeting of the think tank.While eating, the staff talked a lot: "It seems that the mechanical power of the United States is indeed powerful. It is said that they use bulldozers to build the airport ten times faster than Japan."

There is a reason for the staff's words. Before the Pacific War, the Japanese did not know what a bulldozer was.After capturing Wake Island, in order to repair the airport, the Japanese army ordered the captured American officers to find 300 captive soldiers to participate in labor. After the officer figured out that he was going to repair the airport, he replied: "It doesn't need three hundred, three is enough." The Japanese didn't believe it at first, but when they saw the three men driving a machine installed on a large car, only three hundred would be enough. In just one day, the airport was repaired.

This is a bulldozer. Compared with shovels and pickaxes, its efficiency has been increased by more than ten times, but more than a hundred times. The Japanese soldiers who watched were all surprised. There was only one bulldozer, the one on Wake Island, which was later transported to Guadalcanal Airport.The Japanese are known for their ability to imitate, but they fought so well at that time that they had forgotten themselves, and no one thought of sending the bulldozers back to China to produce a batch of imitations. It was too late when I thought of it-as the US Marine Corps occupied Guadalcanal Island, this bulldozer was also returned to its original owner, and it was relying on it that the Marine Corps created the magical speed of repairing the airport. The strength of the United States is of course not only bulldozers, but also other ordnance. This has left a deep impression on the Japanese Navy since the Battle of Midway Island.To fight against such a powerful enemy, one must pay attention to strategy. After discussion, everyone agreed, that is to use one's own strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses. The Eighth Fleet is good at night-time ship-to-ship artillery and torpedo warfare, and pre-war training is often conducted in bad weather and dark conditions.For the needs of night battles, the fleet is also equipped with Nissan's high-quality telescopes, highly reliable flares, and the extremely destructive cyan killer-"spear" torpedoes.It is from this that Sanchuan and his staff saw the hope of winning: "We can only make a big fuss about vision. 'Blue eyes' are powerless in the dark, while 'black eyes' can see clearly at night, so , there is no other way but to practice night warfare." "Blue-eyed" refers to Americans, and "black-eyed" refers to themselves. The "black eyes" discussed the battle plan overnight, and decided to use night battles to destroy the US ships. The time was set at midnight on the 8th. In the early morning of the 8th, Sanchuan sent five seaplanes for aerial reconnaissance.At noon, two of them returned and reported that in addition to the transport ships, there were still a large number of US cruisers and destroyers gathered in the Gulf of Guadalcanal. There are many American ships, which means that there are many prey.Sanchuan was very excited about it, and he ordered the fleet to go south without hesitation to capture "Blue Eyes". From Rabaul to Guadalcanal, you need to pass through the Bougainville Strait, and the biggest risk of night raids is here: in broad daylight, it is very difficult for a fleet to be undetected on the open sea thing. It was indeed difficult. From the time the Japanese ships assembled to passing through the strait, the U.S. military had at least three opportunities to discover the movements of the Eighth Fleet, but they failed to attract sufficient attention.The third time was particularly lamentable-the pilot did not report to the command in time due to the consideration of radio silence. The Eighth Fleet crossed the Bougainville Strait, getting closer and closer to Guadalcanal.