"Commander, one of our seaplanes reported that an unknown fleet was found before they were lost, and was located in the waters of k15..."

"What? K15 waters? There is no," Lieutenant General Gormley, commander of the 9th Fleet and commander of the Southeast Pacific Command, was startled by the news that Major General Ralph Henkel had reported.

He hurried to the large chart hanging on the wall of the office. Major General Henkel also walked to the map and used a red pencil to draw a circle in a certain waters between the Clipperton Atoll and the Galapagos Islands on the map.

"It's right here," said Major General Henkel, "is about 1,200 nautical miles from the Panama Canal and 650 nautical miles from the Galapagos Islands."

"That seaplane... is missing? Was it shot down by an enemy plane?" Lieutenant General Gormley asked with a frown.

"It should have been shot down," said Major General Henkel. "The last telegram from the aircraft said that the radar detected unknown ships 60 miles away, more than 10 ships, one of which was a large ship over 10,000 tons, and it might be a Japanese aircraft carrier."

"1 Japanese aircraft carrier?" Lieutenant General Gormley thought, "Does the Pacific Fleet Command have information on this?"

"No," Major General Henkel said, "the submarines arranged in the Hawaiian Islands have not been found."

Now the Americans basically have no grasp of the deployment of the Japanese Joint Fleet. They only know that the Japanese Joint Fleet does not stay honestly in the local military port, but they don’t know whether they went to Rabaul in the South Pacific or Pearl Harbor.

Neither of these two places was a peaceful and open port, and American spies could not penetrate in at all. So they could only use submarines to wander nearby. However, the Japanese Navy learned a lot of real skills from the European Joint Transportation/Anti-Submarine Command led by Denitz. They could use Type 97 large boats to carry radars, searchlights, deep-water bombs and cat-eye warriors to idling over important waters. Therefore, American submarines did not dare to get too close to Pearl Harbor, and the reconnaissance was naturally not smooth.

Lieutenant General Gormley thought for a moment and said to Major General Henkel: "It was probably a feint, like those damn balloon bombs, they wanted to draw our attention to the Pacific direction to cooperate with Germany's attack in the Caribbean."

"Lieutenant General, it is also possible that Japan really wants to bomb the locks of the Panama Canal." Major General Henkel actually didn't think this could be great, but since he thought about it, he always wanted to mention it.

"It's also possible," Golim nodded, "so we must figure out the intentions of the Japanese devils... If it's just a feint, the Japanese fleet in the K15 waters should not be large in size. Our canal sluice cannot be destroyed by dozens of Japanese planes!"

Not to mention that the United States has deployed nearly 600 aircraft in the Canal Area and the Galapagos Islands (not including the aircraft of the 9th Fleet), just to protect the anti-aircraft guns and dams, as well as air balloons that are enough to invade enemy planes.

Therefore, dozens or even hundreds of fighter jets sent by one or two aircraft carriers will basically not succeed in attacking the Panama Canal.

If the Japanese really want to attack the Panama Canal, they will inevitably launch their aircraft carrier troops, which is an opportunity to severely attack the Japanese devils!

"But how do we figure it out?" Henkel asked in thought.

"Send a fleet to search and form the 19th Special Mixed Fleet." Gormley thought for a while and said, "Send three escort carriers including the Copahi, the Cole, and the Nassau, plus the Wichita heavy cruiser, the Memphis light cruiser, the Raleigh light cruiser and six destroyers. In addition, all long-range reconnaissance aircraft equipped with radar will be sent out tonight."

The rich are the rich, they just randomly dispatched three aircraft carriers and three cruisers!

Although the three Borg-class aircraft carriers are all escort aircraft carriers that cut corners, the three cruisers are all real, not "special ships" like the Japanese.

Now the United States not only treats aircraft carriers as dumplings, but also starts construction of light patrols and heavy patrols. As for destroyers and frigates, the total number of under construction and planned construction has exceeded 1,000, which is simply worthless.

...

"What? The Japanese aircraft carriers have all run to Panama to die? That's great, we must sink it!"

Halsey, a battleship Iowa, immediately started to scream after learning about the "suspected discovery of Japanese aircraft carriers". He has been angry with the Japanese since the outbreak of the Pacific War, and once sat on the bench because he was defeated by the Japanese. He had been very angry for a long time. Now, he has finally been in a state of service until a large number of dumpling ships are in service, so of course he must kill him when he sees Japan.

"Sir, this is mostly a feint from Japan," Major General Browning reminded Halsey, "The Japanese must have sent aircraft carriers to Panama in order to cooperate with the German offensive against the Caribbean."

"Maybe it was a feint, maybe it was the Japanese devils who were really crazy and were about to die!" Halsey gritted his teeth, "I have been fighting with these lunatics in the Pacific for more than half a year, and I know them best. By the way, I found out where they are? Can our carrier-based aircraft be obtained?"

“In the waters of k15, there are 1,200 nautical miles away from us,” said Major General Browning. “We cannot get them at all, and we cannot pass through the Panama Canal. That would take too much time and could delay the battle in the direction of the Caribbean.”

Now the entire US commander is confused by Kesering, who has arrived in Guyana. The me262 that was suddenly exposed and the main force of the European Combined Fleet disappeared from Gibraltar. No one realizes that the person who is pretending was the German, and the person who is responsible for the main attack was the Japanese. Halsey, who is yelling to kill Japan, is no exception. He has never thought of driving the 3rd Fleet across the Panama Canal to chase the Japanese Fleet in the Pacific.

However, this US lieutenant general who hated the Japanese still wanted to find an opportunity to attack the Japanese fleet. He and Browning went to the chart table together, looked carefully for a while, then stretched out his finger and poked the North San Juan Bay near Nicaragua on the chart.

"How about going near North San Juan Bay?" Halsey said, "It's less than 1,000 nautical miles from the waters of K15."

"It's still not reaching the K15 sea area." Browning said.

"I know," Halsey grinded his fists, "but it would be better to be closer to those damn Japanese. What if they were really crazy? Then we have a chance, we have 5 aircraft carriers and 360 carrier-based aircraft!"

...

"K15 waters...Japanese aircraft carrier?"

At the same time, Spruenz, the commander of the 16th Special Mixed Fleet, also received a report. However, his courage was much smaller than Halsey. The first thing he thought of was not the chance to kill the Japanese, but the possibility of being killed by the Japanese was not to keep them.

"Then they are very close to us!" Spruins looked at the chart and immediately became nervous.

His 16th Special Mixed Fleet is now carefully moving south along the Mexican territorial waters. Mexico was pulled into the Allies by the United States when the Soviet-German War broke out in June 1942. However, the Mexicans were not very enthusiastic about participating in the war and did not really send troops to fight the Axis Group. Besides a few fighter squadrons being trained, there was no preparation for the war. So now it is impossible to provide air cover for Spruins' 16th Special Mixed Fleet.

"We are almost 1,200 nautical miles away from San Diego!" Spruins said again, "So we cannot expect San Diego planes to support us. If the Japanese are the main force in the K15 waters, then we will be a little dangerous..."

The 16.5 aircraft carrier brigade under his command had only three carriages, namely the Enterprise, York City and the Independence. Among them, the Enterprise and York City carried 79 common carrier-based aircraft, and the Independence carried 30 common aircraft.

The three aircraft carriers have a total of 188 commonly used aircraft and 18 reserve aircraft, which is a bit weak. However, because the 16th Special Mixed Fleet has completed the replacement of carrier-based fighter jets, it now has 56 commonly used f6fs (28 each of Enterprise and York City) and 24 commonly used f4u (6 each of Enterprise and York City, and 12 independent aircraft), so its air defense capabilities are still quite powerful, and it is not without the power to fight.

So although Spruins was nervous, he could not turn around immediately and flee back to San Diego, otherwise he, the commander of the special fleet, would not be able to survive.

"Change courses," Spruins ordered, "we go to the waters near Clipperton Atoll to standby, and send reconnaissance planes and seaplanes to seek enemies."

Spruins decided to find out the situation of the Japanese fleet and then make the decision to fight or leave. At the same time, Jisaburo Ozawa also decided to send enemy search aircraft to search the surrounding 400 nautical miles of water.

"Send seaplanes and comet aircraft to search," said Ozawa Shinda Mizunosaki, the aviation staff of the First Mass Fleet. "It is necessary to search every inch of the sea! In addition, the six motherships Akagi, Kaga, Aolong, Feilong, Ruizhu and Shozuki must be ready to dispatch a squadron of comet dive bombers, a squadron of Tianshan torpedo attack aircraft and a squadron of Zero fighters at any time."

"Hiss Commander," Mizuo Fujita wrote down Ozawa's orders and asked again, "Does the carrier-based aircraft want to attack the ship?"

"Yes!" Ozawa Shisaburo nodded, "It is an attack on the ship... The Panama Canal is the throat of communication between the two American fleets. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a dragon, a pond and a tiger's den, so there must be a bloody battle. Tell all pilots that our imperial country is in full swing, and in this battle, I hope you will work hard!"
Chapter completed!