Aviation-Centric Combined Fleet

Chapter 19 - Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet

"That's an extremely difficult opponent indeed."

The war had already begun.

Nevertheless, despite that fact, Admiral Husband Kimmel, the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, still couldn't understand what the Japanese Navy was thinking.

While the Japanese Navy was recognized as having the third-largest military strength in the world, its actual composition was a strange navy focused on aircraft carriers. Among the main fleet of battleships and aircraft carriers, there were only two battleships, the Nagato and Mutsu, while they boasted as many as twelve aircraft carriers.

The heavy cruisers, which possessed artillery capabilities second only to battleships, numbered twelve, but one-third of them were originally reconnaissance cruisers of the Furutaka or Aoba classes, colloquially known as 10.000-ton cruisers, lacking the firepower to compete with their counterparts. The remaining Myōkō and Takao classes, although impressive heavy cruisers, had reduced their main guns from ten to eight to enhance anti-aircraft firepower, clearly inferior to American heavy cruisers equipped with nine to ten guns. Regarding surface strike vessels with large-caliber guns, the Japanese Navy might be inferior not only to the United States and Britain but also to Germany and Italy.

On the other hand, the aircraft carriers, with eight Amagi-class carriers and four Kongō-class carriers, were exceptionally well-equipped, making them the largest in the world in terms of sheer numbers. However, the Amagi-class carriers had a standard displacement of 16.800 tons, smaller than the American Yorktown-class carriers. Military attaches from the embassy who had the opportunity to see them in person reported that they were noticeably smaller than the Lexington-class and Yorktown-class carriers. Moreover, the Kongō-class carriers, originally battlecruisers, were not only smaller than the modified battlecruiser Lexington-class carriers but even smaller than the Eagle of the UK or the Béarn of France. From this, it was estimated that the Amagi-class carriers carried around 50 aircraft, and the Kongō-class carriers had about 30 to 40 aircraft, according to the intelligence department.

The problem lay in the four main vessels that the Japanese Navy was constructing under the Circle 3 Project. Initially, there was a debate about whether these four vessels were battleships or aircraft carriers. However, thanks to the diligent efforts of the intelligence department, it was revealed that they were aircraft carriers, specifically armored carriers with steel-plated flight decks. Armored carriers generally had high defense but needed to reduce their decks to avoid being top-heavy, making it impossible to significantly increase the ship's internal volume. In fact, the British Illustrious-class armored carriers had a larger displacement than the Yorktown-class carriers but carried only 36 aircraft.

The Japanese Navy's carriers under the Circle 3 Plan were estimated to have a displacement of at least 30.000 tons, larger than the Illustrious-class carriers. This meant that they would carry a minimum of 40 aircraft. If, hypothetically, the Japanese Navy had already commissioned the carriers constructed under the Circle 3 Plan, the Pacific Fleet would have to face at least 160 aircraft, possibly up to 200 additional aircraft as part of the existing forces. Currently, the US Navy has deployed all carriers except the Hornet which was still undergoing training to the Pacific. To counter the successive reinforcement of the Japanese Navy's carrier capabilities, they have advanced the deployment of cutting-edge aircraft such as the F4F Wildcat fighter and SBD Dauntless dive bomber, increasing the fighter squadrons from six to nine, a 50% increase.

On the other hand, the battleships deployed in the Pacific Fleet consisted of only five ships, the Colorado-class and Tennessee-class battleships combined. Considering that the Japanese only possessed the battleships Nagato and Mutsu, the higher-ups in the US Navy probably believed that having five battleships was more than sufficient.

So far, the flames of war have not reached Hawaii. However, the situation was extremely unfavorable for the Allied forces. The US Army Air Forces defending the Philippines suffered a devastating blow from carrier-based aircraft launched by Japan's mobile fleet at the beginning of the war. Guam has already fallen into the hands of the Japanese military. In Malay, the state-of-the-art British battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Repulse were easily sunk by land-based attack planes, and they are reportedly losing ground in ground battles as well.

Of course, the United States did not underestimate the possibility of war with Japan. Rather, war was deemed inevitable, and they took every possible measure, deploying B-17 Flying Fortresses as airborne fortresses in the Philippines and deploying fighter planes to Wake Island and Midway Atoll. While it's inevitable for Japan, with the ability to determine the timing of the war, to gain some advantage, Admiral Kimmel did not anticipate the situation becoming this dire so quickly.

There were, however, aspects that went as expected. The fact that the Japanese Navy concentrated its forces on capturing resource-rich areas in the south and did not directly attack Hawaii was one such aspect. Although there were warnings within the intelligence department about a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by carrier-based aircraft at the beginning of the war, that did not materialize.

"What we're fortunate about is that the Japanese Navy dispersed its carrier forces. The mobile fleet that attacked the Philippines is said to have four carriers. On the first day of the war, Iba and Clark Field each received air raids from nearly 100 Japanese carrier-based planes. Given the numbers, the carrier force in the Philippines likely belongs to one of the carriers of the large-capacity Amagi-class. In that case, on the Pacific front, there are only four Amagi and Kongō class carriers each. Even if the carriers under the Circle 3 Plan were already operational, they are all armored carriers, so their aircraft capacity shouldn't be that high. Even if the armored carriers joined the battle, the total number of carrier-based planes would not exceed 600. On the other hand, we have six carriers here, carrying nearly 500 aircraft, including reserve aircraft. With this kind of difference, we should be able to compensate easily with aircraft performance and the skill of the pilots."

Aware of the convenience of this emotional bias, Kimmel consciously shifted to a positive mindset and gazed down at Pearl Harbor. The sight of the warships preparing to depart soon for the rescue of Wake Island was there.