While the U.S. Pacific Fleet battleship formation led by King was engaged in a fierce artillery battle with the Chinese Guam garrison, the remnants of the Japanese Combined Fleet led by Yamaguchi Bunta and the U.S. Pacific Fleet aircraft carrier formation led by Le Mei finally met in the waters south of the Palau Islands in the Pacific. .
The Americans encountered a sniper attack so quickly. Neither Yamaguchi nor Ozawa were fools. The two of them used their brains a little and immediately figured out the "trick". Before being attacked by the Chinese Pacific Fleet, the two of them would definitely have fought again. It was a big fuss, but now, because they realize that unity has a chance of survival, even though the two of them hate the Americans to the point of their teeth, they dare not mention it.
On the Japanese side, they were waiting for the rendezvous with grim faces. On the American side, Li Mei was also in a bad mood. "Smartness leads to cleverness." Regardless of whether Li Mei had heard of this Chinese proverb before, now he was profoundly aware of it. Realizing the essence of this, the current situation of Americans is the standard "losing their wives and losing their troops".
Yamaguchi and Li Mei are both great strategists, and they were really impressed by Chen Ce and Bai Chongxi yesterday. Therefore, even though the rendezvous was imminent, they still did not dare to relax their vigilance and sent out reconnaissance planes to conduct reconnaissance long ago to avoid It was attacked by the Chinese fleet again.
Soon, fighter planes from both sides discovered the Chinese fleet in the waters near the Palau Islands in the Pacific. This discovery made Yamaguchi and Li Mei almost despair. Whether it was the Japanese combined fleet or the US aircraft carrier fleet, for them, What they need most now is to rest and recuperate, to find a port to dock and repair damaged warships, especially aircraft carriers. And because the coastal strongholds and bases along Papua Island were almost completely destroyed by the Chinese fleet, the Philippines became their The only hope is that the Chinese seem to have thought of this a long time ago and actually blocked their road.
"What should we do now? If we force a breakthrough, without air power, the chance of success will be very low. Yamaguchi-kun, I don't know why, but I just can't trust the American General Jin. I always feel that his judgment is too far-fetched." , if the Chinese fleet still has enough ammunition, then our forced breakthrough is likely to lead to death." Ozawa.
Yamaguchi also did not believe in Jin's judgment. He pondered for a while and said: "It seems that we can only ask for tactical guidance from the headquarters. If Yamato Soul can participate in the war and gather the strength of the Americans, we may not have no hope of success."
Ozawa smiled bitterly: "Do we still have a choice now?"
Yamaguchi asked Koizumi Minichiro for help. Considering the current situation of the Japanese army in Southeast Asia, this was actually a very irresponsible act.
Koizumi Minichiro's life was not easy. The release of American prisoners of war led to the conclusion of a secret treaty between Japan and the United States. In Koizumi's own opinion, this was the most successful "midas touch" since his time travel. However, because of the ensuing land war, Land battles are not possible, naval battles are not possible, and Japan's situation does not seem to have changed at all. Gradually, he began to doubt whether his original decision was correct. For a commander of his level, this is not good for the entire Japanese army in Southeast Asia. The impact brought about can be said to be fatal.
Originally, in Koizumi Toshiichiro's idea, as long as Singapore's industrial base could be preserved, it would be acceptable even if the combined fleet lost part of its combat power and even had to shrink back. However, the problem now is that the combined fleet not only It is just a matter of damage to combat power but the possibility of being completely "sinked", which is not within the scope of his acceptance.
China's South China Sea Fleet launched a high-profile expedition, which was another blow to Koizumi. He knew very well that when the combined fleet's combat power was greatly damaged and would even be forced to remain silent for a certain period of time, this small Chinese fleet appeared on the Malay Peninsula. What bad consequences will this nearby bring to the Malan war situation?
"Misfortunes never come singly. It's true that misfortunes never come singly." His attention was originally dominated by the poor situation of the United Fleet, but now he had to be distracted by thinking about the next step of the Malan Battle.
Yamaguchi did not know that before the water reconnaissance plane he sent out discovered the Chinese fleet, Koizumi had already known the information about the Chinese fleet appearing near the Palau Islands. Not only that, on the chart in front of him, the specific details of the Chinese fleet were The position had been marked, and by observing the charts, he had an insight into the motives of the Chinese fleet earlier than Yamaguchi.
Chen Ce and Bai Chongxi's original plan was to seize advantageous terrain and prevent the U.S. and Japanese fleets from joining together. However, God's calculations were not as good as God's calculations, because there was a slight deviation when calculating the position of the U.S. aircraft carrier formation, which resulted in the current situation. That is to say, the Chinese fleet arrived in the waters of the Palau Islands in the Pacific Ocean ahead of the US and Japanese fleets, while the US and Japanese fleets were blocked to the south of the Palau Islands waters in the Pacific Ocean.
This mistake in calculation could have been fatal. Fortunately, Huang Tianxun's raid fleet was able to fight and cripple the US aircraft carrier formation. As a result, Chen Ce and Bai Chongxi calculated and found that they had the ability to fight against the US and Japanese fleets at the same time. At this time, the two people immediately changed their strategies and simply divided their troops into three groups. They no longer tried to divide and annihilate them, but began to implement delaying tactics.
It was absolutely a huge irony for Jin. He thought that the Chinese fleet would run out of stored ammunition and materials and would no longer be able to continue fighting. Little did he know that his opponents were thinking about how to drag down his aircraft carrier formation.
"Many colleagues have mentioned that if General Koizumi Toshiichiro, the leader of the Japanese army in Southeast Asia at the time, used the Yamato Spirits to fight against the Chinese fleet, it might be possible to rewrite the outcome of the Palau naval battle. In this regard, I can only say that they overestimated The strength of Japan's Yamato Spirit Team is that the Japanese special attack troops did perform amazingly in the battle against the United States, especially against the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and almost influenced the outcome of the battle. However, it must be emphasized that they When facing the Chinese, they almost never achieved victory, so my point of view is that regardless of whether the Japanese and Japanese teams participated in the Battle of Palau, it would not actually affect its final result. In other words, in the Chinese fleet After the successful air attack on the Japanese combined fleet, and the Chinese air fortress cluster and raiding fleet successfully calculated on the US aircraft carrier formation, the outcome of the Palau naval battle was already doomed..."
The above paragraph also comes from the relevant discussion of the Second Pacific War by Steming, an American and Chinese military historian.
Closer to home, Koizumi Toshiichiro was worried that the emergence of China's South China Sea Fleet would affect the final outcome of the Malan Battle, so he decided to use the Yamato Spirit Team to contain the Chinese fleet. And his decision, for Yamaguchi and Ozawa, It was tantamount to cutting off their last glimmer of hope.