At noon, a group of ships with sixteen sun-rise flags sailed away from the Port of Manila in a column. On the bridge outer corridor of the light aircraft carrier of the Japanese Navy "Hozuki" light aircraft carrier, Mitsumi Kiyomizu, the commander of the 2nd Corps of the Southern Fleet, looked back at the Manila Bay behind him with concern. Some of the ships injured during the night attack have already been docked at the dock for repair, while some are still stranded. Although Manila is a fully equipped port with sufficient materials and manpower at present, it has become the front line for fighting with the US military. If it is subject to US air strikes again, the ships left here may be in danger.

Because he accidentally fell off the escalator during the US air raid, the Japanese navy general had tape on his face and a strap hanging on his left hand, looking very embarrassed. Even so, after receiving the order from Keno Kurita, the commander of the Southern Fleet, he resolutely led the 14 ships of the 2nd Team to meet the combat conditions and embarked on a journey of uncertain future.

The coastline of Luzon gradually disappeared from the perspective of vision. The vast sea can make people feel open-minded and disorientated. Soon after, the "Hozuki" began to take off and land regularly for patrol and reconnaissance, which is a task that light aircraft carriers should undertake. However, in the eyes of the fanatical and conceited senior Japanese Navy, light aircraft carriers are both fast-moving scouts and agile assassins. When the decisive battle is at the moment, they must play the role of pioneers, defenders, supporters, etc., not only heroic and tenacious, but also sacrifice.

The fleet had been leaving Manila for more than two hours. Kiyomi Mizumi was temporarily vacating his cabin to rest. His adjutant, Kiyoichi Fujimoto, came to report: "Sir, the Fleet Command sent a secret message to us to go to the seas of 3 degrees north latitude and 129 degrees east longitude to meet the 1st team."

Kiyomi Kiyomi leaned over to look at the map at the table, and then pondered: "That location is on the edge of the range of long-range reconnaissance aircraft at the US military base in New Guinea. It seems not very beneficial for us to intercept the US fleet there!"

Fujimoto made a comment: "To be precise, that location is 624 nautical miles away from the US military's Carmela base. Excluding the possibility of communication leakage, the possibility of US patrol aircraft discovering that our fleet is assembled should be very low!"

“624 nautical miles?”

Mitsumi Kiyomi frowned and thought for a while, saying, "At the International Aviation Expo last year, Ireland launched a large seaplane with an activity radius of 800 nautical miles and equipped with electric reconnaissance equipment, priced at 2.15 million marks. It is said that the reconnaissance efficiency is ten times higher than that of previous seaplanes. However, the Admiralty Department thought that this aircraft was too slow and expensive, so it did not purchase it. It is said that the Americans are very interested in this aircraft. Although Ireland belongs to the European Allies, it has always liked to collude with Americans. Maybe the US team has already obtained this aircraft, but it is for military purposes and is secretly informed of the transaction. If that is the case, the prospects for our trip will be difficult to make people optimistic!"

Without outsiders, Fujimoto said: "I think Commander Kurita may have too high expectations for the three new aircraft carriers to which the 1st Team belongs, and thinks that they can indeed fight against two or even against three. However, judging from the current intelligence, the performance of the new aircraft carrier of the US Navy does not seem to be much worse than our Yunlong class."

Mitsumi Kiyomi kept silent about this. Although he felt that Keno Kurita was too cautious, he never commented on his boss. As for the three main aircraft carriers of the first team, "Katakaya", "Izuma" and "Asu", they are indeed the most elite and most powerful weapons of the Japanese Navy. Their standard displacement reaches 37,300 tons, with a full load of nearly 43,000 tons, and a load of 1,026, that is, 102 standing aircraft and 6 reserve aircraft, except for Scherber, Germany.

The active aircraft carrier with the largest number of aircraft outside the Kyu-class. In order to maximize the attack efficiency, the Yunlong class adopted a novel design of bombers taking off from the upper flight deck and fighters taking off from the lower ejection orbit. The overall release speed of carrier-based aircraft has been increased by 75. Moreover, these Yunlong class aircraft carriers have also given priority to the installation of the fourth-type "Liefeng" carrier-based fighter jets and the third-type "Meteor" carrier-based bombers. Based on these factors, the Japanese Shipbuilding Headquarters stated that it can "counter two" in a head-on decisive battle.

In modern times, the level of weapons and equipment is certainly an important factor affecting the balance of war, but the users of weapons are the key to determining the outcome of the war. From the familiarity and mastery of weapons by grassroots officers and soldiers to the understanding and application of tactical strategies by commanders at all levels, they often have a greater influence than the weapon itself. Since 1939, although the Japanese Navy has participated in war many times, it is nothing more than the blockade of the opposite strait, support to land, and anti-submarine escort. In the true sense, maritime operations are only encircled and annihilated the Soviet Navy's "Kirov" cruiser. Usually,

There were only various confrontational drills within the navy. In contrast, the United States has not only built a large number of new ships in recent years, but also maintained close military exchanges with European powers. Especially after the Japanese army launched the war of aggression against China again, Western allies gradually lifted the military constraints of the armistice agreement on the United States. Among the active officers and soldiers of the U.S. Navy, 70% of the U.S. Navy officers and soldiers had experience in visiting Europe, and nearly 90% of the officers went to Europe for long-term and short-term training or exchanges. The two sides even conducted military confrontation drills in various ways. This was beyond reach for Japan, which was subject to comprehensive sanctions by the League of Nations.

Just as the 2nd Japanese Southern Fleet Fleet departing from Manila and the 1st Army departing from Jakarta each sailed to the pre-determined assembly area, the 1st US Pacific Fleet commanded by U.S. Admiral William Frederick Halsey still sailed to eastern New Guinea as originally planned. There is a U.S. largest naval base in the Southwest Pacific. It is a product of the 1939 US-Japan Armistice Treaty, which was originally inconspicuous.

The outpost quickly became a modern large military base as the Japanese army launched another war of aggression against China. Not only did the US Navy station fleets, but Western allies also stationed troops here in the name of peacekeeping, which affected the situation in Australia across the sea. Therefore, Port Carmela was regarded as a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh. The Japanese Army clamored to turn this place into the second Singapore, and the Japanese Navy formulated a combat plan to wipe it from the map with shells and bombs.

After successfully attacking Manila, the Halsey fleet was counterattacked by Japanese land-based aviation forces several times. Many ships were injured and the carrier-based aircraft suffered a lot of losses. It seemed that they were going to go to Kamela Port to rest and rest, but there was another plan. "Manniu" was brave and had no dull mind. Although his fleet had 9 aircraft carriers and was strong enough to crush Japan's naval forces in the South Ocean, the main forces of the Japanese Navy's southern fleet were deployed in Jakarta and Manila. Both places were strongly managed by the Japanese army, with complete facilities and strict guards. If you attack blindly, it would be more than worth the loss. You would take the initiative to give in to lure the main force of the Japanese southern fleet to intercept, so that the enemy's living forces could be wiped out at the sea!

Through intelligence, it was learned that the two Japanese fleets had left Jakarta and Manila respectively. Halsey knew that the big fish had already followed the smell of bait, but victory was definitely not easy for the fishermen. Although the US military had a 9-4 advantage in the number of aircraft carriers, none of these aircraft carriers could be compared with the Japanese Navy's Yunlong class. In particular, the four "enterprise", "wash", "**" and "Langli" were highly anticipated. The standard displacement of the first generation of new aircraft carriers after the war was only 26,500 tons. According to World War II standards, it can be classified as large aircraft carriers. By the 1940s, it was only considered a medium-sized aircraft carrier, and its overall design was in accordance with the rules, and its technical and tactical standards remained in the 1930s. In comparison, the second batch of "America", "Princeton", "Oliscar" and "Washington" built benefited from the following:

The military cooperation of Western allies has greatly improved its combat performance, but the standard displacement of 33,080 tons and the 924 carrier aircraft configuration are still not enough to fight against Japan's Yunlong class. In addition, although the "Wild Cat" is loved by US Navy pilots, as time goes by, these air combat blades are no longer as sharp as when they first entered service. From various intelligence, the new Japanese ship battles were significantly ahead of the "Wild Cat" and the Irish 39, which is a top-notch work comparable to the German new generation of carrier-based fighter aircraft 90. In the air strike against Manila and later resisting the counterattack of the Japanese aircraft group, Halsey's pilots did not encounter a "strong wind", which made it impossible for the US commanders to infer the comprehensive strength of the aircraft carrier formations of both sides, and added difficulty to their rear deployment.

"Sir, please contact the Joint Operations Command Telecommunications. According to the interpreted Japanese communication, the Japanese Southern Fleet is preparing to intercept us at sea, and the main force of the Joint Fleet seems to be gathering in the local waters. It seems that after the Tokyo explosion, the response speed of the top Japanese troops was indeed much slower than before."

In the command room of the USS Enterprise, Halsey listened quietly to the report of the staff officer Major Hassen, and then ordered: "Contact the Carmela base and tell them that for the next week, no matter the weather, the long-range reconnaissance aircraft must maintain full attendance, with the focus on reconnaissance in the fourth zone."

"I understand, sir!" Major Hasson replied.

Halsey thought for a moment: "After it was dark, we turned east and then turned north after 20 hours. We notified the Joint Operations Command to launch the blue plan. Three days later, we will send planes to bomb various Japanese strongholds in eastern Luzon, so that the Philippine resistance organizations can provide ground confirmation signals. According to previous information, the Japanese army had three large strongholds, seven medium strongholds and 30 small strongholds on Luzon. Our target this time is medium and small strongholds. It is enough to dispatch 18 squadrons to them. After that, we need to invest at least 10 squadrons of fighter jets to deal with the attacks of Japanese aviation forces."

Major Hasson quickly recorded it in the notebook and asked by the way: "Don't we carry out a second air strike on Manila?"
Chapter completed!