Chapter 768: The Fighting Nation

Everyone has had such a helpless experience or encounter. You wait for twenty minutes, not wanting to go to the bathroom, and then just as you finally meet your blind date, you suddenly have an unbearable urge to go. You’ve meticulously prepared a super creative plan for three years, but your boss never condescends to ask about it. You finally slack off for one day, and that’s the day the company decides to do a surprise inspection…

The Japanese Combined Fleet had waited for the Americans at Midway for 20 days, but the Americans had not taken the bait. Yamamoto Isoroku also felt that Nimitz was clearly playing the turtle, so he had no choice but to lead his warships south to attack “the Axis’s Australia.” The result was that not long after Yamamoto left with the Combined Fleet, the U.S. Navy launched an attack on Midway.

Ando on Midway was not an incompetent either. The airfield under his command still had a full 110 fighter planes and 90 bombers. However, their quality could only be described as average. If used as part of the force to assist the Combined Fleet, these planes would definitely be a force to be reckoned with. But if they were to act alone, these planes were really not enough.

The mainstay of the American carrier-based aircraft was the improved P-40 fighter. This fighter was a new type that had been developed with the German Navy’s carrier-based Fw-190 and the Japanese Navy’s Zero as its opponents. Its performance was slightly better than the P-40 used by the U.S. Army Air Corps. But it seemed to be more than enough to deal with the Type 97 fighters in the hands of the Japanese Army Air Arm.

In fact, the Japanese Army also had its own “Zero” fighter. This plane was very similar to the navy’s real Zero and was named the “Hayabusa” (Peregrine Falcon). However, these new land-based fighters were all deployed in the Japanese home islands and some other important areas. Midway only had a pitiful 10 of them, which were of no use at all.

In terms of strength, they were inferior to the American forces. But in 1939, Japan was a true fighting nation. The combat quality of their soldiers was high, and their determination to fight to the death was something other warring nations could not envy. One of the direct effects of the Bushido spirit, which had developed after being combined with the ideas of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, was that it made the Japanese soldiers treat life and death as a child’s game.

In the sky above, the invading American fighters were already entangled with the Japanese fighters that had taken off to meet them. The two sides were locked in a dogfight. From time to time, a plane would be shot down, trailing thick smoke as it fell to the ground. In the beginning, the Japanese infantry on the ground would raise their rifles and cheer, but later, these cheers became fewer and fewer—because nine times out of ten, the planes that fell were Japan’s own Type 97 fighters, while very few American planes were shot down.

To be honest, in this era of war, where they were being forced to “upgrade” by the German Air Force, new planes were being test-flown or entering service almost every month. In just one short year, Britain had produced two types of planes, the Hurricane and the Meteor. American planes, on the other hand, had used British engine designs to improve their original quality. The newest P-51 fighter was already in the test flight stage, and it was said that its various performance aspects could already be on par with Germany’s Fw-190D fighter.

And the Japanese air units were still using planes designed in 1936. Although these planes were indeed very effective and advanced at the time, as world fighter technology developed, Japan’s stretched technological reserves became more and more apparent.

Although an exceptionally outstanding design like the Zero fighter had been born, it was a completely wrong choice in terms of development direction. After bringing the Japanese Navy a brief period of glory, the Zero, due to its obvious lack of room for improvement, could no longer keep up with the times. Now, with a gap in Japanese fighter design, the entire Japanese military world was very worried.

“Quick! Send a telegram to Marshal Yamamoto! Tell him the Americans are attacking Midway! We need the support of the Combined Fleet! Quick!” Ando said, watching the battle in the sky gradually become one-sided. He quickly ordered his “face-slapping” aide to contact the only person who could save him. He didn’t know if there was enough time, but as a commander, he had to do everything possible to win the war.

Ring ring ring! The phone on the desk rang. Ando walked over and picked up the receiver. He heard the person on the other end shouting in a panic, “Your Excellency, General! The airfield has been attacked by the Americans! The bombs have destroyed the runway. We are trying our best to repair it, but there are too many American fighters. I think the Americans will soon take control of the air over Midway.”

“Ono-kun, you must take off your fighters and fight to the death. I have already contacted Marshal Yamamoto. The navy will come to our support immediately and launch a pincer attack on the American fleet. So you must pull yourself together. Victory will surely belong to the Great Japanese Empire. Long live His Majesty the Emperor!” Ando had no good solution now. He had only contacted the Combined Fleet after the Americans had begun their attack. It was impossible to have a plan confirmed so quickly. The reason he said this was purely to give the airfield units under Ono’s command a false hope.

“Since Your Excellency, General, already has a plan, then Ono will naturally fight to the death and do his utmost for the future glory of the Great Japanese Empire,” Ono replied firmly on the phone. Japan was not on the decline now. On the contrary, they were still winning battle after battle on the surface. So most Japanese soldiers still believed in the high command’s rhetoric of certain victory. They were also willing to believe that they would definitely help their country win this war.

In the hearts of the Japanese, they were unwilling to admit defeat. Because by relying on continuous risk-taking and victories, they had achieved their current powerful state. They longed to gamble for their future, a typical robber’s logic. But at least these Japanese generals all believed that they could win this war and continue the glory of their gambler predecessors.

“May your fortunes of war be long-lasting!” After saying this, Ando hung up the phone. He didn’t want to waste his time at a moment like this. From the number of U.S. naval aircraft, the probability of an American landing within the next day was over eighty percent. He had to order his troops to prepare for battle, to meet the United States Marine Corps.

Thinking of this, he picked up the phone again and got through to the command post of a regiment near the beach. “This is Ando. You should have seen the American fighter attack… Yes… you must step up your defensive work. If the U.S. military launches a landing, you must drive the Americans back into the sea… Yes, for His Majesty the Emperor, not a single American is allowed to set foot on Midway!”

“Hai!” On the other end of the line, the officer in charge of the beach defense answered loudly, “Long live His Majesty the Emperor!”

In the waters east of Midway, the fierce U.S. Navy carrier commander, General Spruance, was deploying his forces. Nimitz had chosen him as the frontline commander for the American counter-attack on Midway. And this time, in addition to the three remaining carriers, the United States also had its repaired battleships and the hastily launched new carrier, the USS Wasp. It could be said that they had come out in full force, and the number of their main carriers had, for the first time, reached the scale of four that the Japanese Navy often used.

In fact, the U.S. Navy had planned to play the turtle until the new carriers entered service. But the fatigue and weakness of the Japanese Navy had made the astute Nimitz sense an opportunity. He planned to take advantage of the Japanese Navy’s southern advance to retake the strategically important Midway Island and seize back the initiative in the Pacific theater.

After all, President Roosevelt, who supported him, was not in a good situation now. The war in the Middle East was a complete mess, and the losses in the Atlantic were also causing some pain at home. At this time, the United States needed a large-scale victory to boost the nation’s fighting spirit. Since it was a bit troublesome to win against the Axis, then they would start with Japan.

And so, the American intelligence agencies began to operate at full power and finally confirmed the location of Yamamoto Isoroku and his fleet. An American spy had photographed Yamamoto on an inspection tour in the Marshall Islands, and the Australian side had also reported the news of the strengthened Japanese attack. All this intelligence had strengthened Nimitz’s determination to find some self-respect from the Japanese.

This time, the U.S. Navy had almost come out in full force. Taking advantage of Yamamoto Isoroku’s southern advance, they immediately launched this massive Battle of Midway. It was General Spruance’s first time commanding four carriers, and the mission was relatively simple, so he did not panic.

Standing on his flagship, the carrier USS Saratoga, he gave the order to continue the attack on Midway. “Order the second wave of attack aircraft to begin taking off, to suppress the enemy’s air force and airfields. The third wave will then conduct an air raid on ground targets in preparation for the landing!”

“Let’s show these Japanese pigs what we’re made of!” With a roar from an American naval commander, the great guns of a battleship simultaneously began to suppress the Japanese beachhead positions on Midway. Huge flames spewed from the gun barrels, and then a sky-blotting cloud of thick smoke rose from the beaches of the island.

The Japanese forces, which had always held a maritime advantage, had rarely experienced the pain of being suppressed by naval gunfire. After all, this was one of the tactics they played best. So when the U.S. Navy truly bombarded the beachhead, the Japanese Army finally knew that the simple fortifications they had built were nothing in the face of the navy’s great guns.

Ando, who had just arrived at the last line of defense on the beachhead to observe the battle, had not even had time to sit down in his chair before he witnessed the scene of the U.S. Navy’s naval guns devastating his beachhead positions. Watching his soldiers being blown into the sky by the blast waves and his positions being completely destroyed by the huge explosions, Ando finally realized what a difficult situation he would be facing.

“Quick! Send another telegram to Marshal Yamamoto Isoroku! Just say that Ando requests him to head north immediately to rescue the tens of thousands of soldiers of the Great Japanese Imperial Army on Midway! Quick! We don’t have much time!” Ando said to his aide, his voice filled with the utmost sincerity.

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