It seems that we can finally fight a battle with the Japanese at sea.

The Japanese formed a very strange formation. The battleship led by Yamamoto passed through the Osumi Strait and entered the East China Sea. Lieutenant General Ozawa led the third team, including five aircraft carriers, to continue south along the outside of the Ryukyu Islands. It seemed that the Japanese still did not understand the essence of naval aviation tactics and still expected to fight a battleship decisive battle.

Then come on!

Perhaps the plot of the battleship buried in the bones of each naval general was at work. Admiral Vermotz Yankel ordered the battleships that were shelling Okinawa to withdraw from the battle. Sa Shishun commanded the Tokuchi Air Fleet to deal with Koga Fengichi's aviation fleet, but he was preparing to command the battleship consisting of 15 battleships with General Marshall to fight Yamamoto.

Now these battleships are gathering near Kume Island and are heading north. It seems that Yankel is preparing to have a Jutland-style naval artillery battle with the Japanese.

15 to 8, Yankel is of course full of confidence. In terms of quantity, he has an absolute advantage. However, he always believes that the "Yamato-class" battleship is equipped with the 420mm naval guns claimed by the Japanese. If he knew that the two giant ships were equipped with 460mm main guns, he wondered if he would still be interested in a gun battle with the Japanese?

The submarine troops have been monitoring the movements of the Japanese. Several long-range bombers taken from eastern China have also wandered around Yamamoto's head for several times and dropped several bombs. These aviation bombs did not hit the targets sailing at sea, but made Yamamoto even more anxious.

Two battle fleets are heading towards each other, and Yankel's battle fleet is followed by nine aircraft carriers. If they are driving normally at the current speed, the two fleets will meet in about 10 hours. In this way, Yankel and Yamamoto, the two main opponents in this naval battle, will compete on the ocean surface about 500 nautical miles apart.

Yamamoto is fifty-five years old and a strong-willed and experienced naval general. However, he is not as versed in aviation tactics as the Japanese boast. In fact, Yamamoto has always used battleships and aircraft carriers separately. If Yamamoto's battleships operated together with Nagamo's aviation fleet in the Sumatra Navy, the Japanese Navy would not suffer such a great loss. After all, battleships can provide strong air defense fire support for aircraft carriers, and Axis pilots are much more difficult to attack Japanese aircraft carriers.

There will never be any if in this world. After losing five aircraft carriers, the Japanese Navy will actually no longer be the opponent of the Far East Fleet of the Axis Powers.

Now, Yamamoto's main fleet, including eight battleships and ten heavy cruisers. In addition, there are several light cruisers and destroyers, forming a huge fleet, breaking through the blue waves in the Osumi Strait. Among the battleships in his hand, two are the giant battleships "Yamato" and "Mushashi" with 70,000 tons. These two giant ships were secretly caused by violating the Navy's Treaty on Weapon Restriction and were equipped with 18-inch caliber cannons that had not fired at the enemy.

The Japanese hope to use these two secrets to reverse the entire battle situation.

In Yankel's fleet, only the two German battleships "United Forces", "Emperor Franz" and "Wilhem Marshall commanded by Admiral Marshall were equipped with 410mm naval guns. Due to the difference in the caliber of the main gun, the Japanese battleships could actually fight further. They were much more destructive.

In fact, comparing these things has no practical significance. Today, with the rapid development of naval tactics, these battleships have basically become useless. The aircraft on submarines and aircraft carriers pose a threat that can not be dealt with by those cannons. Therefore, in Yamamoto's view, everything still depends on Koga's air fleet that lures the enemy. As long as they lead the Axis fleet out of this sea area, he may be able to break into the Okinawa waters and use the giant cannons in his hand to bombard the transport fleets that are preparing to land in Okinawa.

The aircraft carrier commanded by the warlike Lieutenant General Ozawa has been dispatched. He headed south from Kyushu Island and headed towards Okinawa. In addition, more than 600 land-based combat aircraft of the Navy's First Air Force commanded by Kyushu, Lieutenant General Kakuda's First Air Force was also concentrated at the airport in southern Kyushu. However, what made Yamamoto worried was that the enemy soon discovered the whereabouts of the Ozawa fleet. The Japanese Navy formulated a very complex but not very useful tactic of luring the enemy, hoping to lure the Axis fleet to the range of the shore-based air force. The First Air Force and the Ozawa fleet carried out double-sided attacks to severely damage the enemy.

But the enemy refused to be fooled and continued to hover in the southeastern waters of Okinawa, maintaining a combat radius of land-based combat aircraft taking off from Japan. Kakuda had no choice but to barely send air reinforcements to Okinawa, but suffered heavy losses under the enemy's attack.

Ozawa commanded the fleet and kept wandering around the Tugala Strait. According to the order, he had to lead the enemy's aviation fleet to the northeastern waters of the Daidong Islands before the early morning of June 5, creating conditions for Yamamoto's fleet to raid Okinawa. But the question was whether he could complete such a task, the staff of the Navy Command did not consider it at all, or were unwilling to think about it.

The enemy established an indestructible maritime barrier in the Okinawa waters, with a total of 18 aircraft carriers, while Ozawa only had 6 aircraft carriers. Even if the two modified aircraft carriers, Chiyoda and Chitose, were half the number of enemies. The number of carrier-based aircraft on both sides was even larger. The Axis Fleet had more than 1,500 combat aircraft, while the Japanese Fleet had a total of 430 combat aircraft. Faced with such a powerful enemy, the hope of winning was very slim.

But the joint fleet had no choice but to force the battle. If the Axis forces allowed to occupy the Okinawa Islands easily, the entire Japanese land would be covered by the enemy's aviation force, and then Japan would not be far from failure.

If you die early and die late, you will die anyway. Now the joint fleet can only give up.

On the other side, Lieutenant General Sa Shishun, who was opposite Ozawa, was quite sure. In fact, even among the naval generals of Germany and Austria, there were not many people who had such rich experience in naval aviation combat like him. Several experiences in sea and air wars made him realize that the first discovery of the enemy and attacking the enemy in sea and air wars sometimes played a decisive role in the result of naval combat, which also made him very cautious and cautious, and never approach the attack range of the Japanese land-based aviation force on Kyushu Island.

Anyway, the landing forces of the Axis powers are launching an attack on Okinawa Island, and the only thing they are anxious about will be the Japanese.

Okinawa is the largest island in the Ryukyu Islands. Its total length is 108 kilometers, with a widest place of about 30 kilometers, but its narrowest place is only 4 kilometers. The southern part of the island is an open and flat hilly area suitable for landing, while the northern part is mountainous. In order to enhance the defense of Okinawa, the Japanese army previously expanded the original Kadena Airport on the island, and also built two airports in Fuya and Yonahara. At the same time, it also built an airport on Amami Oshima and Kawabo of Okinawa Island, Okinawa, which can accommodate more than 1,000 fighter jets in total.

The Japanese garrison troops on Okinawa were the 19th Army of the Army, with two divisions and two mixed brigades under their jurisdiction, and some other naval ground garrison troops, with a total force of about 90,000. The commander of the 19th Army of the Japanese was Lieutenant General Man Ushima. With the attack of naval guns and the loss of air cover, he was forced to retreat to the mountains between Guotou and Nago in northern Okinawa, in order to "stay for a long time."

On June 4, the day after the Japanese joint fleet was dispatched, the landing formations of the Second Marine Division of the Chinese Marine Division and some Austro-Hungarian Second Marine Division arrived at the landing waters near Lishou under the transport of more than 30 landing ships and 48 tank landing ships. At 3 a.m., the assault troops began to transfer to landing crafts. After more than an hour of fire preparation, at around 6 o'clock, the first three landing regiments landed on more than 50 landing crafts, more than 300 amphibious landing vehicles and amphibious tanks began to launch assaults on the landing beachhead with a front width of about 7 kilometers.

The landing troops only encountered slight resistance. At 7 a.m., the first landing troops went ashore one after another and began to advance in depth. After clearing the remaining enemies near the coast, the first landing troops began to advance in depth under the cover of armored vehicles. News of the landing of the Chinese and Austrian troops in Okinawa reached Tokyo, and the base camp ordered the joint fleet to attack immediately. Ozawa finally left the protection area of ​​the land-based aviation force and headed towards the direction of Ododo Island. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!