"The fast fleet is in danger!" He yelled, "That's the fleet of little Japan...... Hell, how did they sneak here. ”

At first, his partner thought he was joking, but when he looked down, he exclaimed, "Oh God...... What is that? The whole combined fleet is coming? ”

"Quick...... Fast...... Telegram, telegram ...... "White did not have time to look at the number and type of fleet below, and immediately turned around and ran back, reminding his companions to send a telegram immediately as he ran.

At this moment, Zero Zhan, who was in charge of covering the sky above the fleet, also discovered this probe patrol plane, and immediately divided four and pounced on it.

"The main Japanese fleet was discovered, located 300 nautical miles south-southeast of Socotra, and repeated, 300 nautical miles south-southeast of Socotra."

When the confidential staff officer delivered the telegram to Cunningham, who was looking around from the railing of the deck of the Warweary, he was so shocked that he almost fell headlong into the sea, muttering to himself: "This is impossible, this is impossible......

George Patton, who was standing next to him, was in the same boat with him and was still chatting just now, and looked at his face and asked with concern, "What's wrong?" Which damn ship went wrong again? ”

These days, they are in a hurry to get on the road, and they have been tormented to death by an endless stream of ship engine failures.

"No!" Cunningham roared suddenly.

"What the hell is going on?" Patton had never seen Cunningham so out of shape, and the other party had always been a confident and mild-mannered senior officer.

"George, listen. We had encountered the superior Japanese fleet, and now the situation was very critical...... "Although Patton was not very good-tempered, Cunningham made friends with him. The two talked very well, so instead of the American battleship Massachusetts, Patton boarded Cunningham's flagship, the USS Warweary, "We need to make a decision immediately." ”

He turned his head to the confidential staff officer next to him and said, "What are you still doing in a daze, immediately let the Raider prepare to go out to cover the group, and then go to bomb them......"

"Yes!" The staff officer ran off the ground.

"Oh...... Superior fleet, the situation is critical, covering the fleet ...... Wait a minute. You're talking about Japan? Barton's eyes widened suddenly, revealing a look of disbelief, "Did I hear me right?" This is the Horn of Africa. It's more than 10,000 kilometers away from Asia, and they flew here? ”

"That's right, they're coming, and I've got reconnaissance intelligence from Socotra."

"They can't be mistaken, can they?"

"They may be mistaken about the type of ship. But it is impossible to mistake the number of fleets of such a size...... And I can't verify it again. I can't take that risk. ”

"What now? Can we beat these yellow-skinned little? Barton asked, not worried.

"I don't know the specifics, but I don't think the size of the Japanese fleet that dares to break through into the Indian Ocean will not be small." Cunningham said anxiously, "If the intelligence is true, we are only more than 200 nautical miles from their position, which is only an hour's flight of bombers, and if they have spotted us, planes will come in an hour, if not." Maybe there's still a little more chance. ”

"Sir, the order to take off has been given. At present, the Raider is taking off fighters at the fastest speed, and priority is given to arranging fighter takeoffs. But the patrol plane that sent us the telegram is now unreachable, and neither can the ground control tower on Socotra...... Most likely, it has been shot down. ”

Upon hearing the bad news from the confidential staff officer, Cunningham and Patton's faces turned blue - this meant that the enemy had spotted the plane and shot him down.

"Can we get through as fast as we can?" Barton asked.

Cunningham shook his head, pointed to the huge transport fleet behind him, and said bitterly: "Battleships may be okay, but these defenseless transport ships certainly can't." ”

Patton's brow furrowed deeply: "Where is the nearest airport?" Is it too late to call in other planes for support? ”

In the clouds, a Type 2 water scout skillfully used the dense clouds as a cover, and always maintained contact with the fast column, and the telegraph operator tried to discern the total number and type of ships on the sea, and at the same time methodically took a telegram: "The enemy fleet has been discovered, the center is located at 52 degrees 08 minutes east longitude, 9 degrees 24 minutes north latitude, 5 large ships, suspected battleships; 1 light air carrier; 3 medium ships, suspected heavy cruisers; More than 70 light cruisers, destroyers, and transport ships of various types......"

"Sir, Unit 6 reported that they had been found, and they were only 195 nautical miles away...... "Commander Tower, Shozuru, the flagship of the Mobile Fleet, Ryunosuke Kusaka excitedly reported the good news to Tsukahara 243.

Tsukahara was overjoyed, waved his fist fiercely, and after four days of laborious searching, he finally caught the big fish today -- "The whole fleet left 48 covering fighters, and the rest were divided into two echelons, and the whole army attacked...... Defeat them in one fell swoop! ”

"Enemy reconnaissance plane......" There was a sudden exclamation on the deck of the war-weary, and finally a sharp-eyed sailor spotted the plane hiding in the clouds, and the anti-aircraft guns immediately opened fire fiercely, Cunningham and Patton tried to raise their heads to look at the sky, and there was a plane in the distant sky desperately fleeing, although they couldn't see the sign or the model clearly, but the officers who were familiar with any type of type of the Royal Navy knew that this was definitely not their own plane, if it was their own plane, would they need to escape?

It's been discovered! -- The last trace of luck was shattered, and everyone's hearts sank to the bottom.

At the moment of the great enemy, the situation was dangerous, but Cunningham calmed down and regained his true character as a famous general. After careful consideration, he issued an order to the staff officers without haste:

First, notify the Kenyan escort command to immediately coordinate all the planes of our army in the direction of Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia to take off and assemble in the current position of the fleet, with fighter planes covering the fleet, and the rest of the aircraft to be under command;

secondly, to inform the Socotra Air Brigade to immediately dispatch all aircraft to attack the enemy fleet, with the primary objective of striking aircraft carriers;

Third, notify the slow fleet in the distance to immediately stop advancing, report the direction and distance from the fleet, and escort the aircraft carrier fighters to prepare for takeoff;

Fourth, the fleet was immediately divided into two echelons, operational and transport, with the operational echelon under the direct command of the commander and the transport echelon under the command of British Rear Admiral Bale, with a course turned to 275 degrees and prepared for a beach landing.

"Login? Why don't we retreat south? Barton asked, puzzled.

"The principle of retreating to the south is the same as advancing to the north, no matter how fast you are, you can't fly an airplane -- a steamer can drive for one hour, and an airplane will only take five minutes." Cunningham said to Patton sincerely, "George, what follows may be very difficult, but I hope you can hold on, and you take them to the nearest beach to land -- whatever the location, as long as they can land, don't care if the ships run aground, don't care if the equipment can be unloaded, as long as you get the people up safely." These supplies and ships are just a drizzle for the United States, but the soldiers are the most valuable treasure, you must keep them, please! ”

"I see! But what about you? Won't you come with us? ”

"No, I'm going to attack these yellow-skinned monkeys in a different direction - they're disgusting."

Patton understood what Cunningham meant: the other side was prepared to sacrifice himself in exchange for a greater chance of escape for the landing force.

He held Cunningham's hand tightly: "Take care, if you can't beat it, run back immediately!" One day we will teach them a hard lesson. ”

"I will!" Cunningham watched Patton leap onto a lifeboat with his hands and feet, and then quickly run towards the destroyer, and he silently muttered to himself: Goodbye, my friend!

Although Cunningham had made a quick decision, the huge fleet was not mentally prepared at all, and when he heard the order that the Japanese fleet was attacking and the fleet was divided into two echelons and acting separately, everyone was stunned and did not know what to do. Then, the captains of the ships who reacted rushed in to issue orders, as if they were each suffering from hysteria.

In the chaos, the destroyer Wilkes collided with a transport ship that was turning, and after a tooth-aching metal crash, both ships were seriously damaged, and the sea water rushed in frantically.

"Turn around and attack the Japanese fleet!"

"Sir......" Rear Admiral Peters, chief of staff of the fleet, advised him, "to rashly attack without knowing the enemy's situation is almost tantamount to suicide." ”

"I know, but I have to cover them......" Cunningham said resolutely, looking at the two echelons that were splitting in the distance, "as a warrior, I must fall in the way of charging the enemy." ”

Peters was speechless, so he could only immediately rush to arrange and adjust the formation - Japanese planes could appear at any time, and the fleet's wheel-shaped anti-aircraft array had not yet been set up.

Inside the Musashi Command Tower, everyone was on high tension.

"Sir, the enemy fleet has been discovered, they have probably received information about our appearance, and have begun to take off combat planes with their might, and General Tsukahara reports that he has ordered the whole army to assault."

"The command of the main fleet was handed over to Vice Admiral Kondo, and the course turned to the enemy fleet. Ordered the commander of the 3rd Sentai Force, Takagi Takeo, to lead 4 Kongo-class, 7th Sentai 4 heavy cruisers, and 2 destroyers to kill the transport ships at maximum speed...... Don't care about fuel loss. ”

"Transports?" Cao Lu was stunned, "Sir, I heard you right, right?" Shouldn't this be to hit the capital ship? ”

"When they run to the capital ship, will it still be there? And there are Musashi, Nagato, and Mutsu enough to clean them up! Hori said domineeringly, "But you have to be quick to hit the transport ship, the enemy will flee, and there are ghosts and beasts on it, don't you want to send them to the sea to avenge the defenders of Munda Island and Lae?" There are 30,000 people, to say the least. ”

"Yes!" Cao Lu fanatically dictated the message, and at the end of the sentence, he added without authorization, "Destroy them all, don't take them prisoner......"

Horikichi's eyebrows jumped, as if he thought it was inappropriate, but he didn't say anything to stop it. (To be continued.) )