The Coral Sea, like a blue silk, with gentle sea breeze rising and falling, a large cloud like cotton in the sky slowly floated by, and a few coral islands that emerged from the sea in the distance (according to the standards of the Japanese Empire, two tables were exposed to the sea and the island was the island) on the other side, chasing and playing. However, such a pleasant and harmonious scene did not allow General Tadashi Nagato to relax his eyebrows.

Because his fleet had been wandering in the Northern Coral Sea for several days, but he had not found any trace of the US Pacific Fleet aircraft carrier that he wanted to destroy.

This is really a bit urgent. Although the attack on Australia is progressing smoothly, not only has it successfully seized Port Moresby, but even New Caledonia can be obtained. However, the most important stronghold on the US-AU route is New Zealand. As long as New Zealand does not get it, the US-AU route cannot be said to have been blocked.

Now the British and American Allies have given up their peripheral strongholds one after another, which is definitely to concentrate their forces to guard the most critical territory, and New Zealand must be among them.

So far, the Southern Army has remained cautious about seizing New Zealand. If the Navy wants to cut off the US-AU route without controlling New Zealand, then annihilation of four main aircraft carriers of the US Pacific Fleet is the only option.

But for several days, the US aircraft carrier was gone!

Tadaichi Nagamo, who was a little impatient, decided to expand his search yesterday and sent two aviation teams with seaplane motherships as the core (the 10th Air Force and the 11th Air Force) to the Coral Islands and Norfolk Island, and then sent Zero-type water reconnaissance to search.

If it is not discovered again, it may mean that the American aircraft carrier is really not nearby. Then Tadaichi Nagamoto was about to suggest that the 50th general of Yamamoto give up the decisive battle in the Coral Sea and send landing troops to take down New Caledonia.

Just as Natsuyu Tadashi was a little impatient when he was waiting, a burst of rapid footsteps suddenly sounded. Natsuyu looked back and saw that it was his chief of staff, Major General Kusato Ryunosuke, walked quickly.

"His Excellency Commander, the 10th Air Force broke the silence and sent an urgent call."

"Oh?" Natsuki raised his eyebrows.

Now the 1st Air Fleet is in radio silence, and the teams under its jurisdiction are naturally in silence. The 10th Air Fleet with the Chiyoda seaplane mothership as the core suddenly broke the silence, and it must have made an important discovery!

"They were discovered by an American seaplane!" Kusato Ryunosuke's words disappointed Natsumoto.

"But the Type 2 water battle sent by Chiyoda shot down the American Caterina seaplane." Kusato Ryunosuke continued.

Type 2 water war is actually a "magic revision" of the Zero fighter. It changed a carrier-based fighter into a fighter that can take off and land on the water surface, and carried four on the Chiyoda seaplane mothership.

"Oh." Nanyun nodded, "But the position of the 10th Air Force is still exposed?"

"It's probably exposed." Kusato Ryunosuke said, "Before shooting down the US seaplane, Chiyoda's radio station detected the radio wave signal...but this is also an opportunity."

"Opportunity?" Nanyun thought for a while, "Caolujun, do you think the US aircraft carrier may be looking for us?"

"It's very likely!" Kusato Ryunosuke said, "There are only two possibilities now. One is that the US aircraft carrier is not nearby; the other is that the Americans have seen through our plan to lure the enemy, so they ignore the two Yamato-classes and are searching for my 1st Air Fleet."

Nagashi Yun nodded. There are indeed only these two possibilities now. If the US aircraft carrier planned to attack Yamamoto's 1st fleet, it would have launched an attack long ago.

Kusato Ryunosuke also said: "If the US aircraft carrier is near the Coral Sea, it is very likely to be attracted by the 10th Air Force. Commander, this is our opportunity."

"Then let's go south too!" Natsushi Nagato thought for a while and said, "Air War 1, 2 and 5 will go south to expand the search range as much as possible. We have 6 large aircraft carriers, and the Americans have only 4 at most, so as long as they are found, they will definitely be able to annihilate them!"

"Hayi!"

...

Tadichi Nagamoto's three main aviation teams spread out their formations on the North Coral Sea and headed south together. In the South Coral Sea, two aviation teams of Halsey were heading north, and their targets were the Coral Islands where Japan's 10th Air Force was discovered. In addition, Halsey also asked his two teams to move carefully to the east coast of Australia, and the p38 fighters deployed in Brisbane were on standby at all times and were ready to attack and support Halsey's fleet.

Since Halsey and Tadukkaku Nagamoto made the decision almost at the same time, the five aircraft carrier teams of both sides also began to advance towards the Coral Islands at about 2 pm on November 5, 1942. However, because Halsey had no battleships escorts around him and there were not even a few heavy cruisers, in the evening of the 5th, the two US aircraft carrier teams stopped moving forward and hovered at sea about 250 nautical miles northeast of Brisbane.

The four teams of Tadichi Nagamoto went south overnight. By the early morning of November 6, they had already crossed the Coral Islands and arrived at the three main teams in the central Coral Sea. The 10th and 11th seaplane carrier teams were still near the Coral Islands and Norfolk Island. The 1st fleet where Yamamoto Irosaki was located left near New Caledonia Island on the night of November 5 and began to approach south.

At this time, the northern and central Coral Sea were covered with Japanese warship formations! Such high-density deployment naturally could not escape the night reconnaissance of the American Catalina seaplane equipped with radar.

So by the early morning of November 6, Lieutenant General Halsey had already known that at least six Japanese ship formations of considerable size appeared in the Coral Sea!

However, since it was a Catalina plane for night reconnaissance, it relied on "electronic eyes" rather than naked eyes, Halsey did not know the composition of these six Japanese fleets. Admiral MacArthur, who was in Brisbane and Admiral Nimitz of San Diego, also did not know what ships the Japanese fleet heading south were composed of.

"Admiral, General MacArthur's telegram." Spruins, who had red eyes and had not seen much time, quickly walked into the combat command center of the Pacific Fleet, holding the telegram sent by MacArthur in his hand, he had just exchanged views with MacArthur on a telegram.

"He thinks the Japanese might be landing on the east coast of Australia!"

As soon as Spruenz said, Nimitz was stunned.

"Login? Now?"

"Yes, this is how General MacArthur judged." Spruins said, "The Japanese captured Moresby on the 30th, and then bombarded New Caledonia for several days, completely paralyzing the island. Last night we discovered five new and huge Japanese fleets... Rabaul's fleet may have been in full swing! Moreover, there are probably landing ships. Admiral MacArthur believes that the Japanese army is likely to jump over the strongholds in Northeast Australia and land directly near Brisbane!"

"Log in Brisbane directly? Is this possible?" Nimitz is an admiral and doesn't know much about land warfare.

"General MacArthur believes it is feasible," said Spruins. "He called this tactic a 'leapfrog', which means letting the front-line strongholds be deployed without attacking, and directly using the maritime advantage to attack our rear-line strongholds, thus making our front-line strongholds isolated."

MacArthur himself suffered this in the Philippines. The Japanese pulled out all the Allied strongholds around the Batan Peninsula and finally defeated the Patan Peninsula. If it weren't for Roosevelt's help and MacArthur became the commander-in-chief of the South Pacific Allied Forces, he would probably have moved bricks and lost weight in Japanese prisoners of war camps!

So in the battle against Australia, he learned his lesson. After confirming that the navy could not defeat the Japanese, he formulated a defensive strategy to shrink the frontline strongholds. Port Moresby, Guadacanal Island and New Caledonia were all "fair defenders", and heavy troops were piled up in New Zealand and Australia.

This style of play is definitely correct. The US Pacific Fleet now does not have battleships, and the carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier is not the opponent of Japan's Zero. If they really start a war in the Solomon Islands, they will definitely be defeated by Japan.

However, there is also a problem with putting the main force in the lair, that is, the Japanese can directly attack Huanglong! This is also the reason why MacArthur asked the local armored division. There was an armored division in Brisbane and Sydney, so MacArthur could quickly counterattack when the Japanese army launched a landing war. At the same time, the A-36 (the dive bombing type of P51) transported by the S06 fleet was also used for the Australian Army Air Force to counterattack.

If the 4th Armored Division and 200 A-36s arrive, it will be difficult for the Japanese to jump into the frog in Brisbane or Sydney.

But the problem is that the 4th Armored Division is still unloading operations, and the 200 A-36s are still on the way. If the Japanese really landed near Brisbane, MacArthur was still very troubled. MacArthur's troops were limited and it was impossible for him to defend everywhere on the long eastern coastline of Australia.

In fact, most areas are unprepared, and the Japanese will definitely succeed if they want to land. If MacArthur cannot counterattack in time, let the Japanese gain a foothold near Brisbane, and take down a few more small ports, then things will be troublesome.

"So Admiral MacArthur asked Halsey's fleet to deal with the Japanese in the Coral Sea?" Nimitz had already understood what MacArthur meant. Seeing Spruins nodding, Nimitz sighed softly, "In December we will have one Essex class and two-3 independent class... So Halsey must keep two of the four large aircraft carriers. In this way, we can send the S08 fleet in December."
Chapter completed!