That Time When I Was Suddenly Reincarnated in a Fleet Battle

Chapter 86 - Almost There

I was so drained of magic power due to my excessive use of magic yesterday, such as drilling holes in the flight decks of a total of 12 carriers of both the Essex and Independence classes, that I fell asleep as soon as I returned to the Taihō and ate a meal, and soon fell into a deep sleep. After that, I woke up after midnight local time. Well, it's natural to wake up at this time since I had already fallen asleep when the sun was high. With sufficient sleep and nutrition, my magical energy had completely recovered. By the way, what I ate was the Taihō special curry. To be honest, I wanted to eat an omelet, but the chef in charge of the Combined Fleet flagship's kitchen had skills, and the taste was no less than what I had in the Yamato.

From what I heard when I woke up, the First Fleet is urgently pursuing the remaining enemy mobile fleet, and the Second Fleet is pressing the enemy escort carrier fleet. It's just a matter of time before they locate and capture them. However, the enemy still retains the means to counterattack. The potential enemy forces that might launch an attack consist of about 120 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers and B-24 heavy bombers dispatched from Truk, carrying approximately 120 to 180 aircraft. Of course, submarines are a concern, but with the rapidly evolving anti-submarine equipment and tactics developed over the past two years, a blunder like the OTL Battle of the Philippine Sea should not happen.

Regarding TBF and B-24, the former is not much of a problem. Despite being a sturdy aircraft, TBF Avenger is ultimately just a single-engine carrier-based torpedo bomber. Moreover, providing sufficient escort for the torpedo bombers without fighter cover in the escort carrier fleet where the fighters are likely depleted would be challenging. The torpedo bombers have learned enough from previous battles about the fate of unescorted torpedo bombers, so they are unlikely to attempt anything reckless.

In addition, the Third Fleet plans to allocate a total of 204 aircraft from each carrier's air group to provide air cover over the three fleets. It can be said that TBFs performing torpedo attacks after penetrating this defense network is nearly impossible. As for the other threat, the B-24, it is heavily deployed on Truk and is expected to sortie to support the retreat of the friendly fleet. For the direct air cover squadrons of 204 aircraft, B-24 is more troublesome than TBF. However, I have a plan for that.

The attack squadrons of each carrier were already preparing to sortie. Nearly 250 Zero fighters with 250 kg bombs, along with about 110 Tenzan equipped with aerial torpedoes, would sortie at dawn to strike the escort carrier fleet. It might be a bit short of firepower to sink all 20 escort carriers and 40 destroyers, but the Second Fleet should handle the finishing blow. Before the start of the battle, the Third Fleet had over 900 carrier-based aircraft, including reserve planes. However, the current operational aircraft has drastically decreased to about 600. Especially, Tenzan, which daringly carried out close-range torpedo attacks on enemy carriers by breaking through anti-aircraft fire, has seen its numbers drop to less than half.

Still, perhaps for the sake of winning, the crew members were all high-spirited and enthusiastic. The decrease in operational aircraft does not mean many were lost; it just indicates that they are unusable due to severe damage. Of the lost 300 aircraft, less than 100 were unrecovered, meaning that the number of crew members killed was not high in proportion to the aircraft losses. On the contrary, if these were Zero Model 21 or B5N, which were deployed at the start of the war, most of them would have been unrecovered. Defense is crucial. A fighter without any defense against even a 7,7 mm machine gun is by no means a good aircraft. No matter how fast and long-ranged it is, an aircraft like a torpedo bomber that explodes with a burst of machine gun fire has no practical value.

While thinking about such things, I greeted Vice Admiral Ozawa and other Third Fleet headquarters staff and left the bridge. My destination is the Saiun parked on the flight deck. I will become an airborne person, giving words of encouragement to the overnight maintenance crew. The long battle is still ongoing, but one final push remains. Until the victory of the largest fleet decisive between Japan and the United States, the Battle of the Marianas, is achieved, we are just one step away.