With the Japanese fleet originally stationed in Pearl Harbor appearing in the waters near the German landing fleet, the biggest mystery of the Hawaiian campaign has finally been revealed. With a vigilance system consisting of airships, reconnaissance planes, and radar, the German convoy successfully intercepted the Japanese fleet's air raid and inflicted heavy damage on the Japanese Navy's first aircraft carrier, the Hosho, the former German Navy aircraft carrier Super Duck Mother. Two hours later, because the aircraft carrier was too badly injured and could not be towed, the Japanese reluctantly sank it with torpedoes, and after the so-called Pacific Fleet Hawaiian Squadron lost this aircraft carrier, the entire air force of the entire fleet was the few water reconnaissance planes on those battleships.

The Japanese fleet retreated, but the commander of the German convoy with the "August" as its flagship, Heino. Feng. Vice Admiral Schbal, however, did not think that the rest of the voyage would be smooth sailing. The Japanese fleet was not so much retreating as evading the powerful attacks of German carrier-based aircraft during the day, because the loss of one aircraft carrier was not enough for the Japanese commander to willingly lead the fleet back to its homeland. Admiral Schbal felt that the Japanese had made close-range naval combat at night a major subject of their daily training, as warned by the German navy's top brass, and regarded this tactic as a "killer weapon" for the Japanese navy.

In the traditional sense, night naval warfare relies on the first to discover the enemy and quickly launch an accurate attack, and the torpedo has become a major uncertain factor in addition to the strength of the two sides, and it is entirely possible for a torpedo boat of several hundred tons to sink a large ship of thousands or even tens of thousands of tons, in addition to accidental hits and collisions between its own ships. In the case of the warring parties, the stronger side will usually choose to avoid night battles, while the weaker side will hope to turn the tide of the battle through night battles.

According to the assessment of the German intelligence department, the Japanese navy is indeed more trained in night combat than the German navy, but the German army is not unprepared, and in addition to the night drills in peacetime, the ship-borne radar and ground equipment has also greatly improved the German navy's night combat capability. At present, more than half of the ships in the Sbal fleet are equipped with the Hawkeye series of shipborne radars, including the "August", "Kaiser Fiteri III", "Bavaria", "Hindenburg" and "Hesse". There are also Boxer-class heavy cruisers, Schlieffen-class cruisers, Guardian-class light cruisers, and Medallion-class destroyers.

Even if there was a night battle in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the German fleet was not frightened.

After sending a telegram to the Darkville Assault Fleet, which had arrived in the Hawaiian Islands, General Schbal ordered the entire landing fleet to turn southwest and take another route, and ordered 18 Fish-class destroyers, 6 Bayonet-class destroyers, and 36 submarine hunters to disperse within 10 nautical miles of the fleet in a combination of one destroyer and two submarine hunters to stand on guard.

A quarter of an hour later, von. Admiral Dalvik sent a telegram saying that he had sent a fast cruiser consisting of the battle cruisers "Wools", "Count Spee", "Luzzo" and two light and heavy cruisers to reinforce the escort fleet. Dalvik's side is also a little less of a threat - the current distribution of forces of the Japanese Navy is that more than half of the ships are concentrated in the Sea of Japan in Sasebo and Niigata to maintain absolute superiority over the German Hipper fleet and the Speese fleet, which is also the only way to ensure that the home port is not harassed by German surface ships; The remaining half of the ships of the Japanese Navy are deployed in the direction of Southeast Asia and the Pacific defense line in the form of a division of the ground, and Southeast Asia sends a fleet based in Singapore to counter the German-Turkish combined fleet operating in the Indian Ocean waters, and the Japanese army has a very obvious disadvantage in this direction, and the Pacific Fleet is based in Hawaii and Tahiti, with the main force in Hawaii to prevent the German landing, and the attack fleet composed of fast cruisers and auxiliary cruisers is stationed in Tahiti, Germany's shipping routes in the Pacific and military bases on the west coast of the Americas were their targets; In addition, the Japanese army also retained an Oceania dispatch fleet in Oceania. But after weighing the importance of the homeland and the colonies. The Japanese Navy Headquarters had reduced the strength of this fleet to a minimum, and now they had to face the allied fleet that hated the enemy.

For these reasons. The only one that could threaten the German attack fleet and landing fleet in the Pacific Ocean was the Pacific Dispatch Fleet commanded by Mukai Yaichi.

For the rest of the day, General Schbal's reconnaissance planes and airships did everything possible to track the movement of the Mukai fleet, but in the middle of the afternoon a large abominable rain cloud obscured the sight of the German aerial reconnaissance troops, and the Mukai fleet lost its track more than 500 nautical miles from the German landing fleet.

More than 500 nautical miles is not short, but for a high-speed fleet, it is about 20 hours away, on the other hand, on the side of the German landing fleet, there are many kinds of warships, transport ships, mail ships, and all kinds of landing ships, in order to take care of these ships with different speeds to advance in a formation suitable for vigilance, the entire fleet has to move forward at a slow speed of 10 knots. In other words, there are at least 40 hours left in the Hawaiian sea, and how many unexpected situations will occur in these 40 hours, even General Schbal himself cannot say.

A calm day was spent in such a calm atmosphere, Dalvik's attack fleet had spent the last dozen hours plowing the Japanese targets on the island of Hawaiʻi with artillery, and the more than 1,000 marines accompanying the fleet landed on the beach south of the island and consolidated the beachhead before dark. Deterred by German large-caliber naval guns, the remnants of the Japanese on the island launched only a very limited counterattack at 10 midnight. However, the German marines and the German destroyers waiting near the coast did not leave the Japanese a chance, and the Japanese eventually left hundreds of corpses behind and retreated to the mountains of central Oshima and the northern ports in a panic.

On this day, the air force of the German attack fleet was not idle, and the naval warhawks took off from the aircraft carriers on the nearby sea again and again, and dropped bombs and incendiary bombs on the heads of the Japanese troops who were gradually losing resistance, and such a high frequency of sorties soon completely destroyed the Japanese anti-aircraft fire in the south of Oahu, and the Japanese targets on Oahu and several other islands were also subjected to air attacks of varying degrees.

After nightfall, a rain cloud crept upon the German landing fleet and dropped some raindrops, and the already cool air became a little cold, but for the German officers and men in the cabin, it was very comfortable to sleep in such weather. Most of them slept until dawn.

The 1,050 officers and men of the 1st Battalion of the 4th Regiment of the 2nd German Marine Division were surprised to find that their stern commander had not urged them to go to the deck in batches to run laps today, but some of the soldiers got up at 6 o'clock on time and came to the deck of the Cool Breeze Xixi, and they soon found Captain Adolf on the foredeck of the cruise ship, who was sitting on a wooden box in contemplation.

"Captain, don't you have to run laps today?" A senior second lieutenant officer asked very strangely.

Adolf's eyes were still fixed on the sea in front of him, and he said in a calm tone: "Well, no need, let's have a good rest today!" The order has already been given from above. The flotilla is expected to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands tomorrow morning, and after sunrise we will attack as the first landing force! ”

"Oh? We were incorporated into the first wave of landing forces? That's great! The second lieutenant clenched his fists excitedly and made a "yes" gesture, knowing that there were two Marine Divisions participating in the Hawaii Campaign, both of which were veteran units that had experienced many battles, among which the regimental and battalion-level units that were awarded honorary grenadiers (this was modeled after Lao Xi's practice back then, that is, to strengthen the sense of honor of officers and soldiers with the name of the local arms in the Prussian era), it is no wonder that the second lieutenant was so excited to be able to stand out among these units and be incorporated into the first wave of landing troops.

Adolf never turned his face, nor did he let the excited ensign see his slightly melancholy expression, because the German High Command had devised a strategy for a quick victory for the Pacific Raiders. Therefore, the preparation of fire before the landing on Oahu was only three days of air strikes plus two days of artillery bombardment. It is undeniable that the fire preparation of the attacking fleet is very strong, but the resistance of the first landing force to rush to the beach will still be very strong, and casualties will be inevitable in this case.

Adolf was not afraid of death. But when everyone else was proud of the glorious attack mission, he had already seen the hard battle and bloody battlefield ahead, and saw that the comrades-in-arms who got along day and night would leave him one by one, or leave them himself......

After the sun rises, it is another day of calm on the surface but hidden undercurrents.

The reconnaissance airships and long-range reconnaissance planes sent by the German landing fleet were still searching the vast sea, but the Japanese fleet that had taken refuge in the rain clouds yesterday afternoon disappeared as if it had evaporated. Under these circumstances, Admiral Schbal sent his eight Medal-class destroyers to a distance of 40 nautical miles from the landing fleet in order to use the Hawkeye IIE radar on these destroyers to extend the fleet's alert range as much as possible.

At 10 a.m., the fast cruiser fleet that had arrived from the attack fleet finally appeared in front of the landing fleet, and their addition greatly increased the strength of the escort fleet. However, the Japanese fleet knew nothing about this, and the information on the German escort fleet in their hands still relied on the pitiful reports transmitted by the few fighters that desperately broke into the sky above the German fleet division.

At 3 p.m., a German reconnaissance plane spotted the battleship "Ise" faltering about 400 nautical miles northeast of Hawaii, escorted by two destroyers, which was originally the flagship of the Japanese Pacific Dispatch Fleet, but had been damaged by bombs dropped by German carrier-based bombers during an attempt to sneak attack on the German landing fleet the previous day. Neither going to Pearl Harbor nor Tahiti is realistic.

After dinner. The officers and men of the German landing fleet went to the decks, bridges, acrosses, and other places where the sea breeze could blow, and after continuous sailing, they had reached a place only 150 nautical miles from Hawaii, and when the fighters of the German attack fleet appeared above them in groups, most of them relaxed their vigilance, and almost no one would have expected that part of the "missing" Japanese fleet had circled to their southeast at high speed!

As night fell, the Japanese fleet, led by the battlecruisers Atago and Kongo, swooped down on the German landing fleet at a speed of 30 knots at a distance of 200 nautical miles. As one of the strongest Amagi-class battle cruisers in Japan and the world, the "Atago" has a full load displacement of 47,000 tons and the powerful firepower of 10 410 mm guns. With a displacement of 32,000 tons and eight 356-mm guns, the 15-year-old battlecruiser in the Japanese Navy is still the world's first-class battle cruiser even today.

Behind the two high-speed warships, the 10,000-ton heavy cruisers Kinugasa and Myoko, as well as the light cruisers Yura, Natori, and Kiso, formed a cruiser fleet that could not be underestimated.

Attacking in this direction from thousands of miles away, Mukai Yaichi could be described as well-intentioned, knowing that attacking during the day would only expose his fleet to the powerful German air force. In order to increase the certainty of a night attack on the German fleet, he let the slower battleships "Hyuga", "Satsuma", and "Settsu" in the fleet approach the German landing fleet from the north, to put it bluntly, let them serve as "bait", and when the main force of the German escort fleet pounced on the "bait", his cruiser fleet could rush into the German landing fleet composed of aircraft carriers, transport ships, and some light ships, and the result would be like a pack of wolves rushing into a flock of sheep.

Mukai Yaichi did his best, but he underestimated the wisdom of the commander of the German fleet and the strength of the German fleet. When the alert destroyers discovered the Japanese fleet consisting of three Japanese battleships north of the landing fleet, General Schbal divided the three battleships and four battle cruisers in his hands into two parts, the flagship "August" led the other two battleships plus the battle cruisers "Hindenburg" and "Lützov" to form the attack fleet, and the remaining two battle cruisers remained near the fleet as mobile forces, of which the "Count Spee" was in front of the landing fleet and the "Wools" was in the rear of the landing fleet. The light and heavy cruisers and destroyers of the escort fleet were half sortie and half remained. The direction of the assault chosen by the Xiangjing cruiser was precisely the battle position of the best German battle cruiser, the "Wools".