"Sir, the Americans have surrendered. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ”

As soon as the Yamato's guns fired a few rounds, a sharp-eyed staff officer saw a white flag hoisted in the direction of Midway, and everyone immediately cheered.

"Stop shelling...... Prepare to go ashore and be surrendered. ”

"But ......," Ryunosuke Kusaka, the new chief of staff of the Combined Fleet, shook his head, "the landing force is still more than 400 kilometers away." ”

In order to prevent the US shore fortifications and aviation forces from attacking the landing force, it was agreed that the artillery of the artillery fleet would go first, and then the army would advance, intending to take it in one fell swoop at dawn tomorrow, but now it was just after 7 o'clock, and the Americans surrendered.

"Let the army continue to attack according to the original plan, send destroyers to organize sailors to go ashore, beware of the Americans' deception, and continue to aim the naval guns."

At about 8 o'clock, four destroyers with more than 100 sailors and Yamada Shaoza landed on Midway Island, although there were powerful super battleships behind them, but more than 100 sailors only had rifles and machine guns, not even a tank, so he swaggered to surrender, he also thought it was funny.

Speaking fluent English, he asked, "You're going to surrender?" ”

"Yes. Are you the Japanese Army or the Japanese Navy? ”

"Navy!"

The other side was visibly relieved: "We surrender and hope that you will give us humanitarian treatment in accordance with the Geneva Treaty." ”

Britain and the United States both know that the reputation of the Japanese Navy is much better than that of the Japanese Army, and they generally do not treat prisoners harshly, and they will go to the rescue when they see British and American pilots fall into the water, and they are familiar with English and communicate more conveniently. All in all, there is a little less psychological pressure to surrender to the Navy.

Yamada Shaoza was still very proud, indicating that the navy was relatively famous, and since the Americans were so cheerful, he also told the truth: "Our landing force has not yet come up, so we have to wait for the official acceptance of surrender, according to the usual practice, can you hand over your radio station, roster, and military flag to me first?" Then tell your men not to destroy any facilities, weapons, and supplies? ”

"This one is okay, but it's a bit ......"

Yamada took the people around, and soon learned that the other party wanted to stop talking: the most important fuel depot on the island had been put into the sea by the defenders, except for a few oil barrels, there was no oil at all, and now there was a thin layer floating on the sea surface that was the masterpiece of the Americans, and then the planes were basically gone.

"Report to the chief, the Americans confessed that the instructions given to them by the rear were to destroy all the fuel, take away the planes, and then they could surrender with dignity."

Ryunosuke Kusaka frowned and asked, "Have other facilities and equipment been damaged?" ”

"No, including the radio, fresh water, food, vehicles, artillery, tanks, etc., all of them are intact except for those that were damaged by the three types of ammunition just now."

Because of the threats made by Japan and Germany in the Battle of the Horn of Africa and the Battle of Newfoundland, the Americans were given complete prisoner treatment only when the armament was intact, so the Americans retained the equipment to the greatest extent.

"Report, the mobile fleet sent a battle report, the US military once again attacked our transport formation, sank 1 oil tanker, 1 landing ship, Nagara light cruiser was heavily damaged, and many other ships were lightly damaged, our army shot down more than 60 enemy planes, and lost 9 of its own, and the rest are the same."

"Americans are very smart......" Tsukahara two-four-three sighed, "oil is the lifeblood of the fleet, without oil, no matter how powerful the warship is, it can't do anything." Now the Americans are desperately attacking the oil tankers, and we dare not only concentrate all our defensive forces there, otherwise what if one day the opponent suddenly changes his thinking and attacks the aircraft carrier formation? ”

Kusaka Ryunosuke nodded: Chief Tsukahara's reminder is still very necessary, if you really adjust the focus of your forces according to the suggestions of some staff officers, it will be difficult to ensure that the aircraft carrier will have an accident. Fuel, although precious, is not comparable to aircraft carriers.

Someone asked: "How many planes can they use to do this?" Our pilots can at least be rescued after falling into the water, and the enemy ......"

"Americans can produce 100,000 planes a year." Kusaka Ryunosuke also frowned at this, "If we continue to fight like this, we will be in big trouble." ”

"Forget it, if you want to open a point, it will be consumed in the battle, and it was expected to take a day." Tsukahara waved his hand, "Occupy Midway first, and then think about the rest, a sunken tanker is always better than a sunken aircraft carrier." ”

On August 24, the confused Kuribayashi Tadamichi led the 2nd Guards Division to finally land on Midway Island. Why did the Yamato end it after a few shots?

However, since they didn't fight the Americans to the death, they couldn't hate each other, but they thought that the American infantry was quite funny, and it would be nice to be such an enemy. However, the US air force was not able to do it, and it did not have the grace of a bushido at all, and it attacked freighters, oil tankers, landing craft, and other units that had little combat effectiveness, and the transport unit lost another oil tanker that morning -- the Combined Fleet had already lost four oil tankers due to lightning strikes, and nearly 30,000 tons of fuel oil had been donated to the Pacific Ocean without much use, and in addition, there was no crude oil at Midway, and the energy problem suddenly became tense.

"There will be an emergency replenishment today, and the ships will fill up the fuel and then store the fuel in a section of Midway -- beware of sabotage and warehouse gaps." Ryunosuke Kusaka made arrangements one by one, "The captured American officers and soldiers will be sent back at an accelerated pace, but they will not be able to send them all, and some hostages must be left to resist the bombing of American planes." ”

Kuribayashi Tadamichi proposed: "Midway is too small, 3,000 people are enough, and it is completely cumbersome to put the entire Second Division on it!" In the event that the enemy also came to the battleship to shell it, how many people would die in one shot? Or are we going to hit Pearl Harbor? ”

Tsukahara shook his head: "Pearl Harbor can't be fought, but it's not a good idea to let the Second Division hoard such troops on Midway Island, I'm going to take you to see the warship birds." ”

"Frigate Bird?" Kuribayashi Tadamichi was stunned, "What is this?" ”

"Sir's going to Kiribati!" "Although the frigate bird is distributed on many islands, the warship bird in Kiribati is the most famous, with a wingspan of more than 2 meters, a top speed of 400 km/h, and a dive predator. I wonder if the dive bomber was inspired by it, but now it's certainly not as good as the airplane. ”

The staff officers immediately looked at the charts, and the commander obviously had a purpose in trying to hit Kiribati, saying that it was a joke to see the warship birds. Although Kuribayashi did not understand the geography of the Pacific Ocean, he knew it after looking at the charts: Midway Island is located 2,400 kilometers northwest of Hawaii, and Kiribati is located more than 2,000 kilometers due south of Hawaii. The island covers an area of more than 300 square kilometers, has a lagoon in the middle, at least 2 airfields can be arranged, and the terrain is more complex than Midway.

"I am ready to put the main forces of the 2nd Guards Division in Kiribati, so that there are three benefits." Tsukahara listed, "First, Kiribati is the only way to transport supplies from the west coast of the United States to Australia and New Zealand, and if it is stuck here, it will also be stuck in this route, I don't care if it is completely cut off, but at least the enemy army will have to go around a large section; Second, the island is located in the southern part of Hawaii and is large enough to deploy more army and air forces, which is a great threat to Hawaii. Third, it is conducive to confusing the enemy into thinking that we are going to surround Hawaii on all sides and eventually seize it, and Hawaii, no matter how strong it is, is just an archipelago. The Americans can hit our tankers, can't I hit his transport fleet? ”

"How many enemies are there on the island? Will the enemy rush out of Hawaii when we land? ”

"It's better to rush out." Tsukahara smiled slightly, "Just enough to wipe out the remnants of the Pacific Fleet, I don't know how much strength they still have." As for the ground forces, I don't know the situation, I guess 10,000 is the most, right? ”

"Okay, can you take us to see the frigate birds."

The news of the occupation of Midway Island also spread to Japan, and when he heard that it had taken little effort to occupy this sad island of the navy, the staff officers of the base camp all reveled, but Horikichi frowned, and the feeling that the American army had sunk four oil tankers uncharacteristically made him very uncomfortable.

"Do you have any other telegrams from Tsukahara-kun?"

Yes, he plans to rest at Midway Island for three days, then attack Kiribati, and then send some cargo ships and empty tankers to carry some American prisoners back home. He begs you to prepare him with 20 more tankers and 150,000 tons of fuel. ”

"Too little." After reading the charts, Horikichi knew what to expect, and waved his hand, "Prepare 40 oil tankers and 300,000 tons of fuel." ”

"Sir." The logistics staff officer in charge of dispatch said in embarrassment, "There are not so many spare oil tankers at hand now, even if the supplies given to us by the British are in place in advance, we will not be able to get so many oil tankers." ”

"Part of the gap asked the Germans to buy, and part of it sent the newly built escort aircraft carrier, how many were sent!" Horikichi thought about it for a moment, "I'll communicate with the army once tomorrow to see if they can provide some." ”

The escort aircraft carrier is a warship that Japan put forward in the "Marushin Plan" according to the special TL type 10,000-ton wartime standard tanker, with a maximum speed of 18.5 knots and more than 8,000 tons of fuel, and more importantly, it is also laid with an aviation deck of more than 120 meters long, which can accommodate 10 fighters (deck mooring) and 2 water reconnaissance, and undertake anti-submarine, expelling, and transportation tasks, and the Marushin plan stipulates that 48 ships will be completed in 3 years, and by August, the first batch of 4 ships have all been put into service, and it is expected that 2 ships can be put into service in September. Horikichi plans to play all this card!

"The idea that we are preparing for a long-term maneuver with the enemy in the Pacific and that we are going to do it all at once is wrong." Horikichi explained to everyone, "When the German army takes South Africa, it will start to deliver the materials and troops for the Guinea deal, and then the Americans will know what the problem is, and now they must go all out to meet Tsukahara-kun's needs, and the best troops, fuel, and planes must be selected!" ”