United States. The war in the Pacific
November 26, 1941, the US, seeing in the ambitions of the Pacific power threat to its security, declare Japan an ultimatum: to leave already almost conquered China, Indonesia and Korea.
In response, on December 7, 1941, Japanese aviation strikes at the base of the US Navy in Hawaii (Pearl Harbor, «Pearl Harbor», roughly in the middle of the Pacific Ocean). 2400 people are being killed, four battles of the First World War, four destroyers, 188 planes are sinking. Twenty-three submarines and, note, six aircraft carriers, the main strike force of the US Navy, which left shortly before the open ocean, remain intact. Losses of the Japanese side – 29 aircraft, 55 crew members, 9 submariners from five sunken ultra-small submarines. Further, the Japanese bombard the Philippines and begin an invasion of US protectorates: Burma, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, are selected even to Australia. The course of the war in general: the Americans seize the islands near Japanese possessions and build airfields for strategic bombers. So, on March 9, 1945, 300 «flying fortresses» carrying 6 tons of bombs fire a plywood Tokyo with napalm: in the fire, from one hundred to three hundred thousand Japanese perish. In some cases, to warn the civilian population, American planes scatter leaflets.
The largest, pivotal battle of this war, the confrontation of advanced technology, a kind of Kursk arc on the ocean – the battle of Midway Atoll.
The Japanese command is expanding the protective perimeter of its islands. American cryptographers hack into the Japanese naval code and find out that the next attack of the Imperial Navy will be made on the US base Midway atoll. The forces of the parties are concentrated at this point.
Japan – 4 heavy, 2 light aircraft carriers, about 300 planes of deck-based fighter-bomber aviation, 16 seismic reconnaissance planes, 30 large ships (cruisers, battleships, destroyers), the main armament of which is artillery. There is no information on the number of submarines.
USA – 3 heavy aircraft carriers, 240 decked aircraft, 130 – ground based, 23 combat surface ships of various classes, 16 submarines.
On the afternoon of June 3, 1942, 9 B-17 bombers strike the first blow. However, the «Flying Fortresses» are more or less suitable for the destruction of targets the size of a European city, and they do not inflict any damage to the transport vessels of the Japanese grouping.
On the morning of June 4, the attacking group, 108 Japanese aircraft attack the ground American base and inflict significant damage on it. Ten bombers and torpedo bombers of the United States, without fighter cover, have time to fly up to this. They find aircraft carriers of the Land of the Rising Sun, they are trying to attack, but almost all die under the machine-gun fire of the Japanese «Zero».
Americans are desperately trying to rectify the situation, they are sending to the Japanese fleet all the new waves of «classic» bombers «Boeing B-17», dive-bombers «Windicator» and «Dontless» torpedo bombers «Divasteyor», but time after time they fail. Aircraft either do not find aircraft carriers in the proper place, or they suffer a catastrophe from the fire of antiaircraft guns and enemy fighters. Nevertheless, the pilots show enviable courage… do not leave the line of attack under any circumstances, and this their behavior makes an impression on Fortune.
On the same hot morning of June 4, the aircraft carriers «Yorktown» and «Enterprise» are sent to fight the remaining dive-bombers «Dontles». Groups of aircraft are divided, lose goals, they are found again – but some reasonable initiative allows to smooth out all these roughnesses. Somehow, the beginning of the attack from a great height, in the conditions of some cloudiness passes unnoticed for the samurai. Anti-aircraft artillery is inactive. The huge Japanese ships are already turning to the wind, to facilitate take-off hundreds of equipped, densely standing on the decks of bombers.
And, at this very moment, tons of American bombs fall on their decks.
Carriers «Akagi», «Kaga» and «Soru» get catastrophic damage. According to some information, in one of these ships (information of Americans and Japanese is contradictory) two hours after the attack of aviation produces three torpedoes of the US submarine «Nautilus». Anyway, on the evening of June 4 – the morning of June 5, the aircraft carriers who played the battle in the morning were so good at sinking.
The only now Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu still has 18 equipped dive bombers Val and 6 Zero. Samurai fiercely attack «Yorktown». Seven dive-bombers break through to the US carrier ship and achieve three hits. 5 dive-makers and 1 fighter are returned back.
Now 10 torpedo bombers are ready to take off. Five surviving aircraft manage to achieve two hits.
The dying Yorktown is towed to Pearl Harbor. On June 7th, a Japanese submarine is drowned by an aircraft carrier and a destroyer covering it.
The vigilant Enterprise and Hornet teams are assembling a group of aircraft for the last attack. There are no more torpedo bombers from the Americans, but there are 41 more dive-bombers. To repel the attack, «Hiryu» has only the 6th something like the newly commissioned «Zero» fighters. Americans lose three planes, but achieve four exact hits with 450-kilogram bombs. Teams of vitality pass before the numerous fires in the holds. On the morning of June 5, the Japanese command orders the flooding of the heroic «Hiryu».
Lightweight Japanese aircraft carriers, a group of «cannon» and transport ships in the battle of participation do not accept. The main groups of Japanese go to the West (to Japan), American aircraft, as far as possible in the conditions of worsened weather, cause them damage.
Losses of the parties:
Japan – 4 aircraft carriers, heavy cruiser, 250 sea-based aircraft, 2,500 personnel
USA – heavy aircraft carrier, destroyer, 150 aircraft, 300 people irrevocably.
…Loss in advanced technology can still be compared. The damage in people, though, it may be wrong to say so, is small in comparison with the population of both countries. Japan and the United States still have a long, tough struggle for the territory of Indochina, Korea and the numerous islands of the Pacific Ocean. The point in this war will put the entry into the Game of the Soviet Army and (formally – ensuring the «rescue of the person» of the Japanese before, as they say «circumstances of irresistible force») atomic bombings.
The industry of Japan is experiencing a shortage of materials, especially fuel, which is sufficient only for single kamikaze attacks. By the end of the Pacific War, the country of the Rising Sun is losing 350,000 soldiers and officers, 1.5 million civilians (including victims of nuclear bombing) and 1,200 units of aircraft (aircraft carriers, battleships, submarines, cargo ships). Losses of the USA and Great Britain – the data vary, from 40 to 250 thousand people, there is no general information on aircraft and ships.
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