The pilot couldn't figure out why the commander was so mysterious.
Doolittle deliberately let it slip: "Guess where we are heading?"
The aircraft carrier has just set sail. It is a long journey and there is plenty of time.
"China!"
The pilots shouted that they had known this for a long time.
Zhou Zhihan and Jack looked at each other and smiled.
"No." Doolittle drew a sun on the tactical board with chalk, and stabbed it with the chalk, "We are going to go here and bomb this place."
Bomb the sun?
The pilots were a little confused and didn't know what kind of medicine the commander was selling.
Doolittle drew an exploding bomb next to the sun: "Everyone, our trip is not to China to support the war, but to Japan. We will retaliate and bomb Japan."
"Oh...God..."
The pilots first looked at Doolittle with wide eyes, then looked at Zhou Zhihan who couldn't help nodding, and then stood up and cheered in unison.
"Beat them sons of bitches..."
"I will throw bombs on the enemy's heads and make them pay with blood..."
"God willing, it's finally our turn to fire..."
"Gentlemen!" Doolittle stretched out his hand to calm everyone down. "The Navy will send us as close to Japan as possible. We will take off from the deck at night. 13 will bomb Tokyo, and the other 3 will bomb separately. Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe, of course, this is an adventure and if anyone wants to quit, it’s still too late.”
"Sir!" The pilots were all determined, "This is the greatest honor in our lives. Only fools would choose to quit..."
"Good!" Doolittle was very satisfied, and no one showed any timidity. "These days, we eat, drink, and eat on the aircraft carrier. Except for Jack, all of us have to exercise every day and strictly control our weight."
"Yes, sir!"
The morale of the pilots was at its peak, and they were all grateful that they could survive Colonel Zhou's arduous training.
Suddenly, the buck-toothed Reid, who was as thin as a bolt of lightning, remembered something. He stared blankly for a few seconds and asked, "Colonel, I want to know how we landed on the aircraft carrier after we completed the bombing mission?" As he spoke, he looked at Xiang Zhou Zhihan, you taught us how to take off from an aircraft carrier, but you didn’t teach us how to land.
All the pilots were stunned when they heard this, and then they all looked at Zhou Zhihan. When they saw him smiling and saying nothing, they all looked at Doolittle.
"Didn't Colonel Zhou teach you a word of Chinese?" Doolittle said word by word in Chinese, "I am an American and I love China!"
Everyone seemed to understand.
Doolittle picked up the tea cup: "After we take off, the aircraft carrier immediately turns around and returns at full speed. All bombers fly at ultra-low altitude. After the bombing is completed, Colonel Zhou will lead us to fly to China and land."
"Us?" one of the pilots asked. "Colonel, are you taking off with us?"
Doolittle said humorously: "There are a total of 82 people here. Colonel Zhou will drive a Mustang to escort us. If I don't go, can you safely let Jack, who does not have a driver's license, pilot a bomber?"
Everyone laughed.
Zhou Zhihan said: "I will go with you to serve as air security for you. After the bombing is completed, I will lead you to China to land. These days, I have to work hard for you to exercise every day. When the mission is completed, I will take you to China to eat The best food, I promise to give you back the meat you lost."
Reid felt like he was losing weight. He heard about the delicious food and asked quickly: "Colonel Zhou, what kind of delicious food are there in China?"
"Right, right..." everyone asked one after another. They had long heard that there are many kinds of Chinese food.
Anyway, there was plenty of time, so Zhou Zhihan began to set up the delicious food dragon gate array: "Listen to me slowly..."
After half an hour, Zhou Zhihan handed out a piece of paper to everyone, and then magically took out more than a dozen piles of photos and divided them among them: "Look at it first, then identify where the places on these photos belong, and write them down. , the top three will be rewarded, and the bottom three will be punished by running to clean the toilet."
The photos in Zhou Zhihan's hand are of some important military bases in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe. Let the pilots become familiar with them in advance, which can increase the success rate during bombing.
"This is the arsenal of Kobe..."
"This is the shipyard in Osaka..."
"This is the flight academy and training base in Nagoya..."
"This is Tokyo's military dock..."
...
Just the day before the [Hornet] set off, another aircraft carrier formation [the USS Enterprise] had set sail ahead of schedule. It was also escorted by 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers and a supply ship. They would wait for the arrival of the B25 in the designated sea area. .
On April 9, the two fleets turned on the radio to determine the rendezvous point.
Japanese Combined Fleet.
An intelligence officer handed an intercepted telegram to Yamamoto Isoroku: "Reporting to your Excellency, Commander, we have intercepted telegrams sent from the [Hornet] to the [Enterprise] and Pearl Harbor. The content of the telegram Unbreakable.”
Yamamoto received the telegram and was overjoyed after seeing the positions of the two aircraft carriers when the telegram was sent, but he handed it to his chief of staff calmly.
Ugaki Matoi took the telegram handed over by Yamamoto and pondered for a moment: "Judging from the position of the US aircraft carrier fleet, 80% of them are coming towards us."
Hearing this, a rare smile appeared on Yamamoto Isoroku's face: "The American fleet is coming west, and their only destination is Tokyo." Yamamoto said and returned to his usual expression, "This is really God helps the Empire, the U.S. aircraft carrier formation that was not found at Pearl Harbor actually arrived at our doorstep in person.”
Ugaki walked to the combat map, held a ruler and calculated for more than ten seconds, then said: "Judging from the range of the US carrier-based aircraft, if they want to bomb Tokyo, the carrier-based aircraft must be within 400 nautical miles of Tokyo from the aircraft carrier. Take off, otherwise the carrier-based aircraft will not be able to return." He put down the ruler and looked at Yamamoto, "Sir, will the Americans take off from the aircraft carrier at a long distance, so that the carrier-based aircraft will not fly back to the aircraft carrier."
The reason why Ugaki Matoi asked this was because in the plan to attack Pearl Harbor, there was also a plan for the aircraft carrier to quickly retreat after the imperial carrier-based aircraft took off. Therefore, he believed that since the U.S. military had come to Japan, he believed that , it is possible to carry out a suicide mission.
"Won't."
Yamamoto replied decisively, "The Americans don't have the courage. They are far less courageous than the Imperial pilots."
Ugaki Matoi nodded: "Then give them a head-on blow."
"No!" Yamamoto said, "It would be difficult to completely annihilate these two aircraft carriers that way. We can set up a pocket to let the enemy get in without attacking. We will first block their retreat route in a roundabout way, and then wait until the enemy aircraft carrier reaches the carrier. Before the aircraft took off, we first dispatched a large number of zero fighters to suppress their carrier-based aircraft and prevent them from taking off.
At the same time, all land-based bombers were dispatched to follow up the bombing, and second, third, and fourth waves of ship-to-ship attacks and ship-to-ship attacks were launched until all two aircraft carrier formations were sunk. "
After the Marshall Islands, Gilbert Islands, and Wake Island in the Western Pacific were air raided by the US military, Yamamoto Isoroku was very angry.
In order to prevent the US military from retaliating, Yamamoto deployed a fan-shaped defense front after Pearl Harbor, expanded the original 350-nautical-mile early warning and defense line to 700 nautical miles, and transferred back the [Shokaku] aircraft carrier commanded by Nagumo Chuichi and the repaired The aircraft carrier Zuikaku strengthened the air defense on the east coast and sent out many warning ships to prevent sudden attacks by the US military. Now, the Americans came to their door automatically.
Yamamoto's calculations were very accurate, and his response was perfect, but despite all his calculations, Yamamoto never calculated that the American aircraft carrier would actually carry the B25 instead of the Dreadnought carrier-based aircraft, which is only more than a thousand kilometers short of legs.
