Chapter 51 Chapter 6 Many small fish were born in the belly of the whale

Aircraft carriers also have weak links. Theoretically speaking, as long as they are good at surprise attacks, even an aircraft may suppress the aircraft carrier.But theory is not equal to actual combat. In actual combat, no matter how the Japanese planes launched a sneak attack, they could not cause even slight damage to the US aircraft carrier. Just when Koga was at a loss, the military command took the initiative to send a battle plan, the chief writer of which was Minoru Genada, who was the chief staff officer of Nagumo and is now the naval staff officer of the military command. Genda participated in the formulation of the plan to attack Pearl Harbor. He believed that after the deployment of the 58th Task Force, it would be difficult for the combined fleet to attack and intercept it from the front, given that the combined fleet's combat strength is not as good as it used to be.If you can't hit the front, you can try the back.

Genda imagined that when Task Force 58 returns to the Marshall berth, it will attack its core aircraft carrier formation.According to the experience of attacking Pearl Harbor, at this time, the U.S. carrier-based fighter jets will hardly be dispatched at all, and there are no large land bases nearby. The hit rate of Japanese bombing and torpedo attacks is relatively high.Taking a step back, even if the sneak attack fails, it will not suffer too much loss, and there is still time to turn around and escape. Although it was a stealthy style of play, Genda gave himself a majestic name - "Xiong Zhan Zhan".After the plan came out, Genda made a special trip to the Combined Fleet Headquarters to sell it to Koga.

It's a pity that the plan of "Operation Xiong" did not get explicit approval from Koga.It's not that Genda's plan is not clever, nor is it that Koga has no idea about it at all. In fact, since Togo Heihachiro won the so-called epic victory in the Battle of Tsushima, the thinking of "full service in one battle" has been deeply rooted in the United Fleet , even Koga, who is calmer and more conservative than Yamamoto, is no exception. But decisive battles require capital.Yamamoto was able to successfully attack Pearl Harbor because of the powerful Nagumo Mobile Force at that time. After Koga took over the Combined Fleet, even the two flying teams of the First and Second Aviation Battles, which had been supplemented many times, were disabled. It is difficult to gather aviation troops to perform tasks.It's like playing chess. Even if you come up with an excellent number of moves, but there are no chess pieces on the board, or there are chess pieces, but they are all pawns and cannot move as much as you want, you still can't move on.

Obviously, for any combined fleet master, the number of moves is second to none, and the important thing is to have chess pieces that can be used in battle.The Japanese Navy did not realize this problem today. As early as July 1943, they had formed a new First Air Force Squadron. Lieutenant General Kakuji Kakuda served as the commander of the new battle, so it is also called "Kakuda Force".Kakuda’s operational staff officer is Mitsuo Fuchida, who returned from injury after the Midway Island War. The ten air teams he belongs to, from the commander to the flight captain, are all flight experts from aviation or selected ace pilots. "God" Ekusa Takashige served as the captain of the dive bombing and torpedo attack team.Most of these people, like Fuchida, have served in the mobile unit since the attack on Pearl Harbor. Their military exploits made some onlookers who could not be selected full of envy and jealousy—they almost hated, they called this aviation unit "Fuchida Family".

The Kakuda Army is regarded as the hope of the future decisive force. In order not to be transferred to the battlefield in the middle of the training, it was kept as a direct army under the headquarters at the beginning of its formation.Halsey regained the Solomon Islands, and Nimitz launched offensives in Gilbert Island and the Marshall Islands. No matter how urgent the front line was, they could not get the permission of the headquarters, and no one could call the Tsunoda troops. It has been stepping up training in the interior of Japan. Despite receiving special care, Kakuda, Fuchita and others are also workaholics, but Kakuda's troops are still unsatisfactory from formation to training: financial constraints and lack of raw materials prevent Xinyi Air War from obtaining good-performance aircraft in time; The pilots outside the "Fuchida Family" are all new graduates who have just finished learning all kinds of trainer aircraft. It is indeed very difficult to learn the actual combat aircraft from the beginning, and it is a new model that has come off the production line.

The Kakuda Force was formed in July and barely completed training in August. There should have been another half-year improvement period, but the appearance of the 58th Task Force and the need to defend Mariana made it impossible for the headquarters to hide it in the boudoir.Finally, the Kakuda Force was incorporated into the Combined Fleet and launched towards the airfields in Mariana and Caroline. Although Tsunoda's troops had already arrived at the front line, Koga believed that their training was not enough, and some of the ten air teams to which they belonged were also incorporated later. These air teams were not strong enough to fight.Some people also suggested that, in this case, it is better to reduce the scale of the "Heroic Operation" and only attack the large US aircraft carriers that are parked, so that only two to three capable flying teams can handle it.

Koga may be able to meet the narrowed conditions, but the question is whether the flying team used for the sneak attack can reach the Marshall berth as expected.You must know that today is different from the past. The Pacific Ocean is full of isolated islands besieged by the US military. Maybe the flying team was exhausted before reaching Marshall. Koga is a very cautious commander. He is keen on decisive battles, but he does not have the courage and determination to gamble like Yamamoto. In addition to this battle plan that was not adopted, Koga himself also prepared a decisive battle plan, namely "Operation Z".Specifically, with Mariana as the center, the north-south island line formed by this connection will be used as the decisive battle line. Koga solemnly named it "Koga's steadfast decisive line" after his own surname.

This "death line" includes not only the Mariana Islands and the Caroline Islands in the north, but also the Waked, Biak and other islands in the south. According to "Operation Z", the Japanese army will concentrate land-based air forces on the islands to Make up for the shortage of its aircraft carrier forces. It is said that Koga had predicted that he would find his final destination on the "death line", and believed that Yamamoto's death was "just in time" and worthy of "envy".Later facts proved that Koga did "get what he wanted", but in what way he "got what he wanted" was beyond his imagination.