Lieutenant General Jisaburo Ozawa's first Japanese maneuver fleet was discovered by an American Katarina seaplane near noon on March 16, 1943.

At this time, Lieutenant General Halsey's 3rd Fleet was 1,200 nautical miles (2,220 kilometers), and the carrier-based aircraft could not reach the other side at all. Lieutenant General Spruins' 16th Special Mixed Fleet was more than 600 nautical miles (1,110 kilometers), which was still too far for carrier-based aircraft.

Panama City and the Galapagos Islands are also 600-1200 nautical miles away. Since the United States currently does not have remote-controlled gliding bombs such as HS293 and Fritz-x (the United States now has a radio remote-controlled guidance bomb code-named VB-1, but this kind of bomb cannot glide, and can only change the landing point by adjusting the bomb's tail wing. It is more suitable to deal with the ground road facilities and is not effective against surface ships, so the Americans will only use them as one of a series of attack waves, rather than attacking alone. In addition, the Americans have also developed super killers such as remote-controlled B-24 and remote-controlled B-17 to deal with surface ships, but they are still under test), so bombers such as b-24, b-17 and b-25 deployed in the Panama Canal area are not very suitable for bombing the Japanese fleet.

As for the 19th Special Mixed Fleet attacking from Panama City, it had just left the port on the evening of March 16, it was naturally impossible to fight with Japan's First Mobile Fleet immediately.

Therefore, during the day on March 16, there was no fire exchange between the fleets and aircraft of the United States and Japan. In addition, the various types of reconnaissance aircraft and seaplanes sent by the two sides did not discover the other's ships again.

On the afternoon of March 16, a tranquility that was extremely tense was slowly passing away.

However, when night fell on March 16, dozens of B-24 Liberator heavy bombers/reconnaissance planes and Catalina seaplanes carrying airborne radars began to take off from airports in Panama and the Galapagos Islands, whistling towards the sea where the Japanese fleet was discovered at noon and the surrounding waters.

"Commander, a b-24 has found the Japanese fleet!"

At around 22:30 that night, the reconnaissance plane sent out was discovered.

"The Japanese fleet is approaching the coastal areas of El Salvador or Nicaragua. It has reached the waters of K13, with about 30-40 ships!"

Major General Ralph Henkel reported the discovery of the reconnaissance plane to Lieutenant General Gormley, and then he frowned and analyzed: "The Japanese should not be attacking El Salvador or Nicaragua... I think their target is the Panama Canal! They want to delay the time of American ships entering the Pacific from the East Coast by blowing up the gates and dams of the canal. This is probably the only way for them to delay the time of destruction."

Because the number of Japanese ships discovered was as many as 30-40, Major General Henkel no longer thought this was a bluffing action.

"It seems there will be a big battle tomorrow!" Lieutenant General Gormley looked at the latest position of the Japanese fleet on the chart, "Ralph, how many fighter planes can we dispatch after dawn tomorrow?"

"The planes on the Galapagos Islands are hard to reach, and the Japanese should have carefully calculated the route," Henkel said. "Unless all the planes there are transferred to Panama..."

"No, this won't work." Gomli immediately rejected Henkel's proposal. "It is not yet certain that the Japanese target is the Panama Canal... The Galapagos Islands are also an extremely valuable target. Once the Japanese occupy it, the Panama Canal will be bombed every day!"

Henkel thought about it and felt that Lieutenant General Gormley's concerns made sense. The Galapagos Islands are the gateway to the Panama Canal. Once the portal is lost, the role of the canal will be reduced by at least half.

Moreover, because the US troops have not been stationed in the Galapagos Islands for a long time, they have not had time to build forts and fortresses on the island, and there are not even many Marines guarding the islands, so the main garrison of the archipelago is more than 100 Marines.

"Lieutenant General, will we send the first attack wave early tomorrow morning?" Major General Henkel then proposed to launch an attack, "You can get the 16th and 19th special-mix fleet to approach the Japanese fleet, and at the same time send b-24, b-17, b-25 and p51 from the Panama Canal District..."

Because traces of the Japanese fleet were found within the jurisdiction of the Southeast Pacific Command, Lieutenant General Spruins's 16th Special Mixed Fleet is now under the command of the 9th Fleet. However, Halsey's 3rd Fleet is still in the Caribbean Sea, so it is not under the jurisdiction of Lieutenant General Gormley.

Therefore, no mention of the 3rd Fleet was mentioned in Major General Henkel's suggestion.

"I'd better ask Lieutenant General Spruins for his opinion," said Lieutenant General Gormley. "How to deal with the Japanese is more experienced than me."

Lieutenant General Gormley was self-aware. He was not a "fleet general" but a "diplomatic general". Before the fall of the British mainland, he was the head of the naval delegation in the UK.

I have a little understanding of the battles on the European Combined Fleet and the Arctic Circle route, and I have completely disgraced the Japanese devils in the Pacific.

Spruins had previously been the chief of staff of the Pacific Fleet. After Halsey was unlucky, he became the front-line chief of the Pacific Fleet, and personally directed the escort and breaking war.

"No, we cannot get close to the Japanese fleet for the time being."

On the Enterprise, Lieutenant General Spruins immediately said to his chief of staff Colonel Murray after receiving a telegram from the Southeast Taishu: "I can't take the Enterprise, York City and Independence to take risks, let the 19th Special Mixed Fleet go."

"Commander, do you want the three Borg-class aircraft carriers of the 19-special fleet to act as bait?" Colonel Murray immediately guessed Spruins' intention.

Compared with the Enterprise and York City, the Borg-class escort aircraft carriers are much lower. Moreover, all the Borg-class and its subsequent ships Casablanca (which has been opened one by one) are mostly built in Seattle and Portland on the west coast. Even though the Panama Canal was temporarily destroyed by the Japanese, the Borg-class and Casablanca can still be launched in batches. Although the combat effectiveness of the escort aircraft carriers is far less than that of large fleet aircraft carriers like the Enterprise, it cannot withstand the production of twenty or thirty ships a year (according to the plan, the Borg-class will be built in 1943, and the Casablanca class will have to build 19 ships)!

Moreover, although the escort aircraft carrier is a bit "watery", the f6f and f4u on it are real.

Spruens said: "We can get the 19th Special Fleet to the K13 waters, and after the radar discovers the Japanese aircraft fleet, we will send P51 from Panama to cover it... When the 19th Special Fleet fights with the Japanese aircraft, we will get closer from the north and launch a shuttle bombing."

The so-called shuttle bombing is to just send the plane without regulating the way of retrieval. After the carrier-based aircraft took off from the Enterprise, York City and Independence, the three aircraft carriers immediately retreated north. After the aircraft completed the attack mission, they directly landed at the airport in Nicaragua or El Salvador. In this way, no matter what the result of the air strike, the three aircraft carriers of Spruenz will not be sunk by the Japanese.

"Your Excellency Commander, the detective discovered another enemy plane." In the bridge command center of the Akagi aircraft carrier, there was also a scene like a big enemy this night.

According to the repeated reports of the No. 21 and No. 13 detectives on each ship of the First Maneuver Fleet, the discovery of enemy aircraft showed that the Americans had mastered the exact location of the First Maneuver Fleet.

And now the one who is coming to harass the situation must be the US reconnaissance aircraft equipped with radars!

Seeing that the officers in the command center were all nervous, Ozawa Jisaburo seemed very relaxed and laughed: "We are in the tiger's den, but if we don't enter the tiger's den, how can we get a tiger's son?"

As he spoke, Ozawa turned around and walked towards the cabin door. His chief of staff, Gucun, hurriedly followed and asked, "Hiss Commander, where are you going to inspect?"

"Inspection?" Ozawa shook his head and smiled, "This is Akagi, and it's still necessary to inspect it? I went back to the cabin to sleep."

"Sleep? But..."

"But what?" Ozawa smiled, "Can American planes still come to bomb at night?"

Of course this is impossible. Current radar technology can only allow American aircraft to discover the Japanese fleet, but it is impossible to support American aircraft to launch an attack. Otherwise, the United States will now counterattack Hawaii.

"Hiss Commander, tomorrow's first attack wave..."

"Cancel!" Ozawa waved his hand and said, "Go to defend the air with all your might, let the Americans do it first."

"What? Let the Americans attack first?" Koicun was startled by Ozawa's words.

Ozawa shrugged, "This is inevitable. We have not discovered the enemy's aircraft carrier yet, but the enemy already knows our exact location. So tomorrow morning, they will definitely launch the attack first. However... there is nothing to worry about, because we are not too close to Panama, and are in a position that can allow the US P51 and their medium bombers to attack. But their SBD and TBF cannot reach us, so we just take the opportunity to consume their P51 and attract US aircraft carriers to fight.

As long as we can exhaust all p51 in the Panama Canal area, we can at least destroy the canal's sluice."
Chapter completed!