That Time When I Was Suddenly Reincarnated in a Fleet Battle

Chapter 89 - We Won, But...

Even though the American fleet had been annihilated, it didn't mean that all the battles had come to an end. The First and Second Fleets, under the umbrella of Zero fighters, leisurely approached Truk Atoll and surrounded the area. The American air forces on Truk had already suffered considerable losses due to a surprise attack by the Saiun. A few surviving fighter planes and bombers attempted to counterattack the Third Fleet, but they were swiftly dealt with by numerous Zero fighters.

"All ships, commence bombardment."

Amidst the quiet command of Vice Admiral Itō, the commander of the First Fleet, battleships such as Yamato and Musashi opened fire. Ten battleships, excluding the damaged Nagato and Mutsu from the gunfire exchange between battleships, and twelve heavy cruisers systematically fired massive shells at predetermined targets. Troublesome entities, including coastal artillery, had been eliminated in advance by bombings and strafing from Zeros.

Furthermore, the air groups of the Third Fleet actively hunted down stranded merchant ships and small vessels within the atoll, including larger targets such as floating docks and engineering ships. These were prioritized for bombing and torpedo attacks. Ten battleships and twelve heavy cruisers left about 20% of their necessary ammunition for self-defense and unleashed the rest on the land of Truk. Additionally, the Third Fleet, using dive bombers carried by small aircraft carriers or seaplanes from escort vessels, actively engaged in submarine hunting. They discovered and sank two of the five submarines lurking in the vicinity of Truk.

Meanwhile, the tally of achievements from the fleet battle had already been calculated. Seven regular aircraft carriers of the Essex-class, five smaller aircraft carriers of the Independence-class, and twenty escort carriers were sunk. Simultaneously, an estimated 1.400 to 1.500 carrier-based aircraft were lost. On the surface strike force side, nine obsolete battleships, twelve cruisers, and exactly one hundred destroyers were sunk.

The regrettable part was that the Americans had not proceeded with a landing operation. If they had transitioned to a landing operation before the arrival of the 1st Mobile Fleet, they could have annihilated the transport convoy, its escort vessels, and even the landing forces. However, due to the remarkably swift response of the 1st Mobile Fleet, they ironically missed that golden opportunity. Therefore, expressing their frustration in this way against the American forces at Truk was indeed inflicting further damage on the enemy, albeit with a sense of irony.

. . .

"It's safe to say that there won't be any American invasion for the rest of the year."

Vice Admiral Ozawa, who had somehow survived the battle for the fate of the Empire in the Marianas, spoke to me with a relieved expression.

"In this battle, the Americans lost tens of thousands of soldiers and even thousands of pilots at once, so there's no mistake about that. No matter how superior the United States is in terms of talent development and supply capacity, recovering from such human losses in just half a year or so is impossible."

While nodding in agreement with Vice Admiral Ozawa's statement, I was thinking about something else. The Imperial Navy's greatest enemy, the Essex-class aircraft carriers, had sunk a total of eleven in the Marianas battle and the previous year's Third Battle of Midway. However, in reality, there should have been orders for 32 of these aircraft carriers. So, in fact, only about a third had been destroyed. Alternatively, to compensate for the aircraft carrier losses far exceeding the original timeline, they might have placed additional orders for carriers of the same class. Considering the United States, they might readily do so.

Moreover, starting next year, aircraft carriers of the 45.000-ton displacement, surpassing the Essex-class carriers, would be commissioned. To sink such a massive carrier, which boasted enhanced underwater defense distinct from previous carriers with its flight deck armor and wide hull, I couldn't even imagine how many Tenzan or Suisei would be needed.

While it's unclear where the bottom of the US military's talent supply capability lies, when it comes to the construction of regular aircraft carriers, it's safe to say that they have an almost limitless force remaining. How to defeat over 20 Essex-class carriers and even the very large carriers? Additionally, the imminent appearance of new carrier-based aircraft like the F8F Bearcat, or the undeniable threat of mass-deployed B-29s and submarines, is a threat. Above all, the new bombs that brought devastation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the most terrifying.

Certainly, we won this battle.

However, facing such a monumental task, I couldn't find it in me to feel joy in victory.