Chapter 63 Chapter 6 Coral Sea Aircraft Carriers Compete

Layton is the receiver and intelligence officer of the Pacific Fleet Command, and the intelligence station will hand over the deciphered telegrams to him for processing.He explained to Nimitz that Pearl Harbor hadn't happened because the intelligence stations were inefficient, but because the Japanese were too slippery. At that time, the Japanese Navy used codes that had not yet been deciphered, and in the telegrams that had been deciphered by the intelligence station, there was no mention of sneak attacks at all.A few weeks before the attack, the United Fleet even adopted a method of radio silence. Even if the occasional telegram was intercepted, it was all fake.

Nimitz suddenly realized that all his doubts disappeared, and whenever he encountered unsolved mysteries in the future, the first thing he thought of was the Hawaii intelligence station. It was Leiden who was in direct contact with the intelligence station.Leighton was nervous at first, because he failed to warn Kimmel before Pearl Harbor, let alone figure out where the Nagumo fleet was, which was an almost unforgivable mistake. Leighton thought he would be the first to be fired by Nimitz, and so did everyone else.Unexpectedly, Nimitz defied all opinions and kept Layton.Leighton then became the only officer other than Nimitz to work in the Pacific Fleet Command throughout World War II.

It makes sense for Nimitz to keep Leighton.Together with Rocheford, Leighton was sent to Japan by the Navy to learn the Japanese language and local customs.Nimitz was deeply impressed by his deep understanding of the psychological state of the Japanese and his grasp of the deployment and movements of the Japanese navy. Nimitz used Layton as an important staff member, and often encouraged him to stand in the position of Nagano and Yamamoto, and think from the perspective of a Japanese who gave orders, so that Nimitz could better understand and defeat each other. After grasping the key, everything becomes a matter of course.

Under the personal control of Rochefort, the intelligence station in Hawaii monitored and deciphered the radio of the Japanese military 24 hours a day.By the spring of 1942, the skills of intelligence personnel became more and more sophisticated. They could quickly identify who was sending the message just based on the speed of the operator's sending speed and the severity of fingering.For example, on Nanyun's flagship "Akagi" aircraft carrier, the operator's fingering is very heavy, which sounds like sitting on a keyboard and typing. Upon hearing such a signal, the intelligence station can immediately determine that the "Akagi" where.

By March 1, 1942, Rochefort had mastered the positions of most of the Japanese ships, with an error of no more than three or four hundred nautical miles.He forwarded the relevant content to Layton for processing every day, and in order to analyze the intelligence, he had to talk to Layton every day on a confidential phone. The cooperation between Layton and Rocheford is very tacit and efficient, but one thing Rocheford has always been puzzled about is that Layton sometimes overweights the numbers he provides.For example, Rocheford said that there were four Japanese aircraft carriers in operation, and when Leiden reported, he said that there were six.

Obviously four, but you said six, two extra ships out of thin air can be exchanged for candy?Rocheford was furious about it. In fact, Layton has his reasons for doing so.It was widely believed among combat officers at the time that intelligence personnel tended to exaggerate the enemy's situation, and Nimitz's staff also had this mentality. They always liked to subtract a third from the figures reported by Leiden. Layton grasped this rule, he knew that two of the six ships he reported would be cut off as water, and the remaining four ships were exactly the same as the original number.

At the same time, code-breaking also appeared dawn.The latest password of the Japanese Navy is the JN25 password system. This system includes three types of numbers, each of which has more than 40,000 numbers, each representing a different meaning. When sending a message, the operator will choose and add the message at will. Knowing the doorway is almost like reading a heavenly book. To crack such a complicated and obscure password system, one must first find the vine, and then touch the melon. As early as January 1942, the Japanese Navy sent the "I-124" submarine to lay mines in waters near Australia.On the way back, "I-124" encountered a US destroyer and three Australian submarine hunters.After a fierce battle, it was sunk to the bottom of the sea.

Nimitz then secretly transferred a diving mothership and sent skilled divers to dive to the bottom of the sea. After two days and nights of intense work, "I-124" was finally salvaged from the water. In the command room and telegraph room of "I-124", the U.S. military found what they dreamed of-strategic code book and technical code book. Based on these two sets of ciphers, Nimitz quickly established a special team of 24 top experts for code-breaking, led by "Magician" Rochefort. This team was later called the "Magic Team".By March and April 1942, the "Magic Team" made a major breakthrough. Among the intercepted secret messages, they were able to successfully decipher one group every three or four code groups, and every time a group was deciphered, the next group was deciphered. Deciphering a group is much easier.

Following the vine, I finally touched the melon. In mid-April 1942, according to the secret code deciphered by the "Magic Team", a Japanese transport fleet, escorted by an aircraft carrier formation, would soon enter the Coral Sea. The "Go South" portion of the Naval Operations Plan. Nimitz judged that the main goal of the Japanese army was to take the Port Moresby base in the Coral Sea.Because Port Moresby is the largest military port in southern New Guinea, U.S. aircraft can take off from this base, posing a direct threat to the Japanese army's southward movement.

New Guinea is the combat area commanded by MacArthur.MacArthur also attached great importance to Port Moresby. He is planning to build this port into an important military base, which can be used to prevent the Japanese army from attacking Australia and serve as a starting point for him to return to the Philippines. However, MacArthur is in great difficulty now. He only has 200 land planes in his hands, and the pilots are all land combat backgrounds, without the necessary training for maritime combat and identifying warships.If you want to block the Japanese army, you must use the carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier.

In this way, the task fell to Nimitz and the Pacific Fleet. According to the information provided by the "Magic Team", it not only clarified the main attack direction of the Japanese army's southward advance, but also gained insight into the number, number and exact date of departure of the Japanese fleet. After many days of patience, now he has finally found the opponent's flaw. Nimitz has always behaved steadily and calmly, but at this time he also showed a look of excitement. The only worry is whether I will be fooled. The Japanese are used to cheating.What if the real goal of Nagano and Yamamoto is to play Hawaii and the West Coast?Before the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, they played a lot of this kind of tricks. If these telegrams are still fake telegrams, wouldn't they be happy for nothing? With an attitude of preferring to believe in something rather than nothing, Nimitz ordered the entire Pacific Fleet to enter a state of first-level alert, and mobilized all mobilizable forces to the Coral Sea in advance. Nimitz's first choice was undoubtedly Halsey, but Halsey was still on his way back from Tokyo, and Nimitz first sent Major General Fletcher to lead his team to the Coral Sea. Aircraft carriers have long been the protagonists of naval battles.There are five aircraft carriers in the establishment of the Pacific Fleet. "Saratoga" is still undergoing renovations on the west coast of the United States. "Enterprise" and "Bumblebee" have not yet returned due to the air raid on Tokyo. Che went to the Coral Sea. On April 25, 1942, the Halsey fleet returned to Pearl Harbor.After five days of supplies and fuel replenishment, he was ordered to rush to the Coral Sea. For Nimitz, this is a decision that carries certain risks.What if Yamamoto feinted and then went to Hawaii and Pearl Harbor?