Chapter 898: The Battle of the Solomon Sea

Author: Dragon Spirit Knight

Just as the Soviet Union was gathering almost all its armored strength to the south, preparing for a life-or-death struggle with Germany’s main force, G Army Group, the largest-scale naval battle in human history, the Battle of the Solomon Sea, had quietly begun.

Make no mistake, this was indeed the largest naval battle in human history, surpassing the scale of any previous fleet engagement. It was more brutal than the Battle of Jutland in the First World War, and bloodier than the recently concluded Anglo-German Battle of the English Channel.

Yamamoto had few forces left. The battleship Fusō was currently on a mission in the Philippine Sea and could not come to his aid for the time being. So, the only ships in Yamamoto’s fleet that could be deployed were the Ise-class battleships Ise and Hyūga, plus the two treasures of the Combined Fleet, the battleships Nagato and Mutsu.

Of course, another Kongō-class battlecruiser was currently on its way back to the home islands and was not a reinforcement that Yamamoto Isoroku could count on. So, the only ships the Japanese Navy could afford to squander this time were these four battleships.

Let’s take a look at the level of these four battleships: the senile Ise and Hyūga were both antiques. Their combat effectiveness was very limited, and they were both rather pitiful old-fashioned designs, with a full six main gun turrets crammed onto their decks, still with the classic Fusō-class battleship design of boiler, magazine, boiler, magazine. To count on these two battleships to do anything, Yamamoto himself knew, was not very realistic.

And so, he decisively played the trick of luring the enemy in deep. He used the two old battleships as his bait, placing them in the very center of the entire fleet. The responsibility of this bait fleet was to attract the attack of the U.S. Navy fleet. As long as they could lure away two waves of American attack aircraft, it would be a great success.

And he himself, leading the two most elite battleships of the Japanese Navy at present, that is, the Nagato and the Mutsu, with a host of heavy cruisers and destroyers, would cut into the center of the American carrier fleet from the flank and decide the outcome of this naval battle with a gunnery duel.

In other words, the Japanese Navy had set up a crescent formation in the Solomon Islands. Relying on the nearby islands to hide their movements, the fleets on the two flanks were the real killing blow. The fleet in the middle was a huge bait—a bait that, if the United States were to bite, would break its teeth.

Yamamoto had prepared two insurance policies: his own assault fleet, and on the other side, Nagumo Chuichi’s air fleet, which was hidden until the very end. As long as one of these two fleets had an opportunity to attack, then they could pose a fatal threat to the American fleet.

In fact, the only thing in the current Japanese Combined Fleet that could threaten the American forces was the two large carriers under Nagumo Chuichi’s command, that is, the Kaga and the Akagi, and a slightly smaller carrier, the Hōshō. These three carriers were held in Nagumo’s hand, ready to launch an attack on the American fleet after the battle had begun.

Yamamoto Isoroku, who wanted to exchange two old battleships for the greatest possible combat result, could be said to have calculated every move. And this time, he had not gotten the order wrong. He had not made the brain-dead move of using carriers as bait and battleships for the assault. And so, the Combined Fleet had laid out its “eight-gate golden lock formation” in the Solomon Islands, waiting for the U.S. Navy to take the bait.

A Japanese Type 95 floatplane was flying somewhat leisurely in the sky. This plane had taken off from a base on one of the Solomon Islands to carry out some routine patrol and reconnaissance missions for the Japanese Combined Fleet.

As the war drew closer to this area, carrying out such long-range reconnaissance missions had become more and more of a life-or-death affair. After all, the quality and quantity of the American carrier-based fighters were no longer comparable to what they had been at the beginning of the war.

As one plane after another failed to return, the Japanese Navy had basically stopped this practice of wasting its forces. But with the war clouds gathering over the Solomon Sea, this kind of reconnaissance was once again being forcibly carried out. After all, the Japanese Navy lacked the means for long-range search and could only rely on this clumsy method of casting a net to catch fish.

“Kagawa-kun, don’t you think this is just forcing us to our deaths? We know that the two planes that took off yesterday without an escort didn’t return to base, and today they’re sending the two of us out,” the young pilot, Akagi, in the driver’s seat complained.

As the war progressed, the Japanese soldiers who had originally flown floatplanes had all been transferred to the fighter units. And new pilots like Akagi, who were young and not very skilled, were mostly sent to these reconnaissance units to get some training.

The Japanese soldier named Kagawa did not lower his binoculars. As he observed the wide expanse of the sea, he shouted, “For the future of the Great Japanese Empire, for His Majesty the Emperor… even if we have to give our lives, isn’t that what we should do?”

Kagawa was a traditional Japanese man with old-fashioned ideas. In his heart, to give his life for His Majesty the Emperor seemed to be a beautiful thing. A few days ago, Marshal Yamamoto Isoroku had inspected their floatplane base and had encouraged Kagawa with a few words. He was still savoring that moment that had made his blood boil, so his mind was filled with words of loyalty and duty.

Knowing it was useless to say anything, Akagi, piloting the old Type 95 floatplane, gritted his teeth and flew towards the designated sea area. This old floatplane, designed in 1933 and entering service in 1935, was a decent aircraft for its time. But now, compared to the high-quality American fighters, it was the kind of junk that couldn’t fight and couldn’t run.

So to use this kind of plane to reconnoiter the movements of the U.S. Navy was, to put it bluntly, to send the soldiers to their deaths. Unfortunately, in the vast ocean, to find the location of the enemy fleet was the prelude to an attack. Although he knew it was certain death, Yamamoto Isoroku still sent out batch after batch of reconnaissance planes. After all, this was the biggest gamble of his life.

Through the somewhat sparse clouds, the engines of four American fighters roared as they dived down from a high altitude. Akagi was so scared he quickly yanked the control stick in his hand, trying to dodge the American fighters’ attack. But his plane’s agility in the air was clearly affected by its floats, and he was not successful in shaking off their pursuit.

“This is Recon 04! This is Recon 04! We have spotted American fleet aircraft!” In the back seat, Kagawa was loudly reporting his discovery. Just as he was transmitting his radio signal, the American fighters opened fire.

Rat-tat-tat! A burst of bullets struck the biplane’s left wing, in front of Kagawa. A dense pattern of bullet holes stretched along the wing, almost turning it into a sieve. The U.S. Navy, in order to deal with the Zero, had not installed large-caliber cannons on its planes like the German fighters, but had generally used 12.7mm machine guns, to take down the agile Zero with a dense curtain of fire.

So in the Pacific, one rarely saw the scene of a single cannon shell blowing an enemy plane to bits. On the contrary, the air combat here was longer, but just as bloody, just as cruelly despairing.

Kagawa, on his end, was repeating everything he saw into the radio. He knew those were four very skilled P-40 naval fighters, and an improved model with a better engine at that. Because the nose of this type of plane was rather distinctive, it was very easy to recognize. He continuously repeated everything he saw, letting the enemy’s planes pepper everything around him with their machine guns.

A heavy machine gun bullet pierced the plane’s thin skin, then a single shot hit the pilot, Akagi, passed through his head, then through his seat, and then, for some unknown reason, the engine began to emit black smoke, making it impossible for Kagawa to see what was happening in front.

“Long live the Great Japanese Empire! Long live His Majesty the Emperor! This is Kagawa! My plane has been hit! I am going down!” He looked around and saw that the angle of the horizon in the distance was already very strange. Then he felt the plane hit the sea, and then an endless darkness came from all directions.

“Your Excellency, Marshal! News has come from the floatplane base on Island Number Seven. One of their floatplanes has spotted the American carrier fleet’s aircraft, in the area 70 kilometers north of the Solomon Islands,” a staff officer reported from behind Yamamoto Isoroku, delivering the precious intelligence from the reconnaissance unit.

Yamamoto Isoroku nodded, signaling to his staff officer that he had heard the report clearly. Then Yamamoto remained silent, as if waiting for some news. 70 kilometers was still too far for him. He had to wait longer, until the U.S. Navy fleet had bitten onto the fleet composed of the two battleships Ise and Hyūga. That would be his chance to strike.

“Wait a little longer! A little longer! Wait for the Americans to engage the Ise first! There’s only one chance!” Yamamoto stood on the bridge of the battleship Nagato, looking at the calm sea in the distance, and muttered, “Nagumo-kun, I cannot send you a radio to confirm your position. I hope everything is going smoothly on your end as well. The future of the Great Japanese Empire rests on this one battle!”

On the flagship of the U.S. Navy fleet, 70 kilometers away, Admiral Halsey gave his attack order. “Since we’ve already spotted two Japanese battleships, then let’s not be polite… launch the planes and begin the attack!”

At his command, on the decks of the U.S. Navy’s carrier fleet, the propellers of two attack planes, already loaded with bombs, began to spin. The entire carrier fleet sailed into the wind, and the fleet began to disperse.

Halsey looked at the horizontal bombers that had taken off and had formed up in an attack formation in the sky and said with a smile to his men, “Gentlemen, the Battle of the Solomon Islands has begun!”

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