blood feud

The USS Enterprise and USS Hornet were sunk, and the entire Pacific Fleet surrendered. This was an epoch-making event.

When all the captured American officers and soldiers were gathered in Darwin, the final results of the battle were finally counted.

Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance's Task Force 16 lost all 2 aircraft carriers and all 158 carrier-based aircraft.

Colonel Murray, the captain of the USS Enterprise, and Colonel Mark Mitchell, the captain of the USS Hornet, refused to abandon the ship at the critical moment of life and death, and finally sank into the sea together with the 915 officers and soldiers who were killed.

Fortunately, when the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise was bombed by the first bomb, Major General Raymond Spruance had been "thrown into the sea" by the order of the captain, Colonel Murray, and finally survived. .

The heaviest loss should be the aircraft carrier USS Hornet.

Because 48 of the first batch of 144 6-ton high-explosive bombs of the 17 Nulong bombers hit the flight deck directly, the aircraft carrier Hornet was reduced to iron pieces on the spot.

At the same time, the 2th Division of the Australian Army was captured in Darwin, the 39000th Division surrendered on the troop carrier, and [-] battalions of the [-]rd Division were captured at the fortress base, with a total of more than [-] people.

The United States-Australia Joint Air Brigade at Darwin Airport, 1171 air crew, ground staff, and logistics personnel were all captured. 379 various fighter planes, 7 transport planes, and all airport equipment became the spoils of the air force of the "Jewish Republic of Papua".

MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific, and Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the US Southwest Pacific Fleet, did not know that the situation was over until Rear Admiral Fletcher, commander of the 7th Task Force, sent a telegram.

It's not that the general trend is gone, but the general trend is gone!

For the two commanders-in-chief of the army and navy, MacArthur, the commander-in-chief of the army, is in a better situation. At any rate, he still has more than 7 remnants of the Australian Army and more than 28 aircraft in the remaining 600 squadrons.

However, Nimitz, the commander-in-chief of the Southwest Pacific Fleet, is now the most thorough commander-in-chief!

No, there is also the Pearl Harbor Submarine Force, which has jurisdiction over the 7.1st Brigade, 7.2nd Brigade, and 7.3rd Brigade, with 19 submarines of various types.

However, the commander of the submarine force, Rear Admiral Robert English, is still cruising the North Pacific with his submarine, monitoring Yamamoto 56's joint fleet. He didn't even know that his boss, Nimitz, was about to hang himself.

In a word, there is still a certain amount of army and air force in Australia, but the navy has been wiped out.

If the Japanese monkeys pounced on them at this time, MacArthur and Nimitz believed that either we would go to the sea to feed the bastards together, or we would go to Antarctica to build snowmen together.In addition, there is no third way to go.

"Two generals, you don't need to be too pessimistic. I don't think things are too bad." The chief of staff of the Allied Command, Major General Sutherland knew that he was going to come forward: "Have you noticed that the South China United Front has been Did not speak, and concentrated all prisoners of war and warships in Darwin Harbour."

With a gloomy face, MacArthur stood at the window staring at the endless sea to the east, and the pipe in his hand was about to be broken by him.

A spark flashed from the corner of Admiral Nimitz's eyes, then he stared at Major General Sutherland and said, "Charlie, tell me your opinion!"

"Admirals and gentlemen, think about it carefully." Rear Admiral Sutherland pointed to the map and said: "They captured the entire fleet, and they should have quickly returned to their naval base for maintenance and reorganization. Then they rushed directly, we did not There's no escape, but they don't. Most importantly, look here in Darwin Harbor!"

"To the east is the South China United Front, or now called the Papua Jewish Republic, which controls the Moresby Peninsula, plus the Cape York Peninsula to the south, the combination of the two is like an iron gate, tightly strangling the Torres Strait , Blocked the east and west connecting passages of the Japanese army in the South Pacific."

"Darwin Port, which is connected with Yandena Island and Timor Island in the north, is also a formation of two ghosts knocking on the door, forming a second iron gate, so that the Japanese Pacific Combined Fleet will never be able to pass through. Possibly supporting the Japanese forces on Java Island."

"So I think that the South China United Front is not an ordinary guerrilla army, but a powerful regular army. They have an extraordinary strategic vision, and their goal is not Australia for the time being, but Java Island in the northwest! "

"It can be seen from this that the first target of the South China United Front should be the Japanese monkeys, not us. Combined with the two power-up statements of the South China United Front and the loss of our two aircraft carriers, we now know that they are going to Limited punishment for our rash actions does not continue to expand the war."

MacArthur finally took the pipe out of his mouth, his complexion improved a little, and it seemed that the cloud had turned sunny, but his words were still not yin or yang: "Charlie, according to your beautiful logic, the South China United Front There is still room for us, and you don't mean to kill them all?"

"No, no, no, no!" Rear Admiral Sutherland waved his hands, and then said with a smile: "Mr. Commander, I mean, they didn't want to fight us at all. Now put all the prisoners and warships in Australia territory, rather than getting back its own turf, then there is a lot of room for maneuver.”

Admiral Nimitz finally understood what Major General Sutherland meant: "Charlie, you mean we should start negotiations now, right?"

Major General Sutherland smiled and nodded: "If my judgment is correct, the South China United Front should be waiting for us to make a statement. At the same time, they have not announced the situation of the battle to the public. What does that mean? There is no doubt that they do not want the Japanese monkeys to know us It’s now at the end of the ropes.”

"This is not a general way of leaving room, but it is protecting us from the Japanese monkeys from the side. Based on this understanding, I think we have a common enemy with the South China United Front, and that is the Japanese monkeys! Since we have a common enemies, it means that there are common interests, so I judge that there is room for negotiation.”

"Well, even if your judgment is correct," MacArthur's face turned cloudy again: "Charlie, do we have the weight to negotiate? If we can draw a tie in this battle, then there is room for negotiation. But We no longer have any qualifications to raise conditions, how do you say we should negotiate?"

"Mr. Commander-in-Chief's worries are normal. This is where we are most passive!" Major General Sutherland's face was also a bit sad: "All the cards are in the hands of the South China United Front, and we have nothing in our hands. Now They put on a negotiating posture, but we don't know what conditions need to be met with them."

"If they open their mouths and exceed the bottom line of our tolerance, there is still no way to reverse the outcome. Therefore, the most urgent issue now is to find out as much as possible what the other party wants. Or, what the other party needs to achieve What is it?"

Admiral Nimitz twirled his hands behind his back and didn't speak for a long time. At this moment, he suddenly raised his head: "No, we still have to put forward our own conditions!"

"Gentlemen, don't forget that Wainwright and more than 4 soldiers are still in their hands! If we can get our people back through negotiations this time, gentlemen, that is a powerful force!"

MacArthur shook his head: "It's not enough to just go back to Wainwright, and the First Philippine Army also has a lot. There are also British, you know? There are more British in their hands!"

"British 18th Division, Australian 8th Division, Indian 11th Infantry Division, Indian 15th Independent Infantry Brigade, Indian 12th Independent Infantry Brigade, Malaya 1st Infantry Brigade, plus Dutch mercenaries and navy, local The guerrillas should have a total strength of more than 9 troops.”

Nimitz is the most outstanding representative in the modern history of the U.S. Navy, and the founder and pioneer of the U.S. "aircraft carrier strategy" and "nuclear strategy."He not only has a unique strategic vision, but also has a very outstanding tactical vision.

The "carrier arc-shaped battle group" that military fans of later generations are fond of talking about is that Nimitz completely overturned the "battle-type T-shaped horizontal head tactic", and then proposed a new "battleship battle formation", which specifically uses Carrier-based aircraft struck the flanks of the enemy fleet.

Today, this set of battleship formations has become the standard specification for navies all over the world.Of course, without an aircraft carrier, everything is empty talk.

The main core is to form an anti-arc defensive circle around the aircraft carrier.Battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines are all designed to protect the mobile airport of the aircraft carrier.

Bai Shujie was well aware of the pros and cons, so he never thought of having a "heroic" head-on confrontation with the fleet of Japanese little devils.

The most important reason why the little devil failed when he encountered Commander Nimitz's fleet was that the little devil didn't fully understand what an aircraft carrier is for!

During the entire World War II, the little devil had the most aircraft carriers and was sunk the most.When the little devils fully understand, their war potential has been exhausted, and they can only surrender.

It is precisely because Nimitz has a very strong strategic vision, so he quickly grasped the essence of the problem through a reminder from Major General Sutherland:

"Gentlemen, there is a huge problem and the biggest obstacle to our negotiations, that is, the Philippine government-in-exile, that is, President Manuel Luis Quezon, is still in our country!"

"So, before we find out how to deal with the Philippine government-in-exile, this negotiation will inevitably be caught off guard. After all, the entire Philippine archipelago is in the hands of others, and it is impossible for others to let it go."

"Also, the Brahman Islands and the Sulawesi Islands (Indonesia), which belong to the territories of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, are now in the hands of others. So, if you want to negotiate, I'm afraid you need to plan carefully. .”

"I don't think so." MacArthur shook his head: "Now this place is mainly composed of three forces, us, the Japanese monkeys, and the South China United Front. What kind of front is this? To put it bluntly, it is Bai Shujie. Filipinos, that doesn't count and doesn't have the right to speak."

"Therefore, as long as it can alleviate the plight of the United States, for the benefit of the entire United States, there is no need to consider other factors too much for the time being. Now that the war is imminent, if we cannot solve the problem of our fleet, once the Japanese monkeys react, they will find that we have no fleet. If not, we will all jump into the sea."

After all, what happens next, let's see the breakdown in the next chapter.