When the First Task Force left Apra Harbor in Guam, Liao Hanxiang mobilized a group of submarines to strengthen the surveillance of Pearl Harbor.

At that time, the US military set up a new antisubmarine network outside Pearl Harbor, and there were more than 100 antisubmarine patrol planes deployed at Pearl Harbor, and there were also more than 20 small destroyers responsible for antisubmarine patrols outside the harbor.

It is precisely for this reason that from April 25, special reconnaissance submarines were no longer arranged to carry out activities outside Pearl Harbor, but those submarines that had completed the combat mission of breaking the diplomatic relationship took turns to carry out patrol missions outside Pearl Harbor for 10 days to half a month when they returned home. Most of these submarines ran out of torpedoes during the mission of breaking the diplomatic mission (in fact, any submarine would have left a few torpedoes behind, mainly to deal with the enemy ships that might be encountered on the way back), but they still had enough supplies to go outside Pearl Harbor on the way back.

It was these submarines that Liao Hanxiang mobilized this time. At that time, at least one-third of the more than 100 submarines in the Pacific Theater were carrying out diplomatic missions in the waters east of the Hawaiian Islands, and they achieved brilliant results. From the end of '24 (the submarine base on Saipan was only built at that time, and the submarine could go to the eastern waters of the Hawaiian Islands to carry out combat missions after departing from here), to August '25, a total of more than 350 U.S. ships were sunk by submarines here, and more than 3 million tons of materials were lost. The submarines of the Navy of the Tang Empire also paid a heavy price, more than thirty submarines did not return to the base, as a result of which nearly 2000 officers and men were killed (if the submarine was sunk. Submarine officers and men were hardly spared).

By the night of the 19th, 12 returning submarines had received orders and adjusted their routes. Came to the waters off Pearl Harbor. Among them was a Type C submarine with the number 174. At the time, the submarine was just west of Pearl Harbor. It is about 40 nautical miles from Kauai Island. As a normal reconnaissance operation, the submarine lurks during the day, rises at night to recharge the batteries, replaces the air inside the boat, and does some simple maintenance. In the first half of the night on the twentieth. The submarine returned to its reconnaissance position, and after receiving a telegram from the theater command at about eight o'clock, it moved its reconnaissance position about 20 nautical miles east, that is, about 120 nautical miles west of Oahu.

The danger of a submarine in carrying out a reconnaissance mission is not much lower than that of a mission to break the diplomatic relationship, especially when carrying out a reconnaissance mission near an enemy's naval base, as long as it is discovered by the enemy's anti-submarine aircraft or destroyers, then the submarine is almost certain to be destroyed. Any captain knows this, so when carrying out reconnaissance missions, the submarine stays as much below the surface as possible.

It is not necessary, it will never float to the surface.

By twelve o'clock, the batteries on the submarine were half full. In another four hours, the submarine should have dived, and then at a speed of four knots, it should break out of the dangerous sea and go to the open sea to hide. For the officers and men on the submarine. Four hours is not a short time, and anything can happen during that time. Therefore, whenever the submarine is recharged, the officer will be responsible for watching and observing, and after discovering the threat, the submarine will immediately dive.

At half past twelve, a terrible siren sounded. By the time the captain rushed to the center of operations, the submarine was already making an emergency dive.

"What's going on?"

"Anti-submarine patrol aircraft, approaching!"

"Damn, don't the Yankees sleep? They didn't come here at night. The captain cursed in a low voice, "Immediately dive to 80 meters, keep quiet, maybe the enemy destroyer is also approaching!" ”

The submarine immediately fell silent, and several officers and men in the combat center held their breath and did not even dare to breathe. Soon, the sonar gave a signal that the enemy anti-submarine patrol aircraft had reached the sky over the submarine. The sound made by the anti-submarine patrol plane was very dull when it penetrated the sea water of several tens of meters and passed through the shell of the submarine, and when it reached the interior of the submarine. All the submarine officers and men who have encountered the US anti-submarine patrol plane can judge that it is the "Katarina" anti-submarine patrol plane that the US Navy is equipped with in large quantities, and the aircraft that poses the greatest threat to submarines!

"Head, the plane is leaving, we shouldn't have been spotted!"

The captain let out a sigh and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "How much is the battery charged now?"

"It's just over halfway through to get us back to the open sea." The first mate immediately replied. "Do you want to return?"

"Wait a minute, don't you think it's a little weird?" Several officers and soldiers next to the captain of the boat glanced at it, "Yankee's anti-submarine patrol planes never fly so far at night, what are they doing?" ”

"Maybe it's just coming out to scare people."

The captain laughed. "Well, there must be big fish in the back. Get the torpedo ready, damn it, it's not that easy to scare us. ”

"Then should you go up and charge it first, at least you should use a snorkel."

"No, there's no time, now we have to hide!" The captain vetoed the proposal, "Wait and decide whether to attack or not, if we can't hit it, then we will hide, anyway, our first task is reconnaissance, not to launch the last four torpedoes." ”

The captain's words touched everyone's hearts, if it weren't for the temporary receipt of this reconnaissance mission, they would have almost arrived at Saipan by now, and they no longer had to worry about the enemy's anti-submarine patrol planes and destroyers. Moreover, the submarine has already carried out three combat missions in a row, according to the regulations, the crew has a month's vacation, and many people have planned to go home to visit their families, but now, they have to stay on this dangerous battlefield. Not only did the captain himself not want to take risks, but none of the officers and men on the submarine wanted to take risks, and their task was only to reconnoiter and report back the intelligence on the discovery of the enemy fleet, and as for whether to fire a few torpedoes, that was another matter.

Submarine No. 174 remained below the surface for two hours, during which time it sailed another 8 nautical miles east at a speed of 4 knots.

"Sonar contact, damn it, a lot of warships!"

The sonar is heard. The captain immediately rushed over and grabbed the spare headphones.

He could immediately hear the cacophony coming from a large fleet, and it must have been a fleet sailing at high speed. And not a slower transport fleet.

"Coming towards us."

"Urgently dive to 120 meters and be ready to be bombed!"

The battle sirens sounded. There is no time for submarines to evade, and now all that everyone can count on is that the destroyer above runs a little faster, so that the sonar on the destroyer will not be able to detect the submarine in the sea, or it will not be turned on at all.

Soon, the officers and men in the submarine heard the sounds coming through the hull of the submarine. The sound of agitating seawater when the propeller rotates at high speed is very special, and experienced officers and soldiers can directly judge the speed of the propeller based on the frequency of these sounds, and judge whether it is a warship or a merchant ship, as well as the approximate speed of the ship.

"Damn, there must be a capital ship, and we really caught a big fish this time." The experience of the first mate is second only to the captain on the submarine, "Head, do you want to go up and do a vote?" ”

"I don't want to go back." The captain glanced at the first mate, "This must be the Fifth Fleet, we have to make sure to send the news out." Can you send Spruance a couple of torpedoes, we'll talk about that later. ”

Passing over the head of the No. 174 submarine was Task Force 51, and it was Task Force 51, which was sailing at high speed. Spruance did not consider the threat of submarines. After the fleet left Pearl Harbor, he let the fleet move at a speed of 31 knots to test whether the aircraft carrier's ground power system could function properly, and. Spruance also did not expect that there was a submarine just below the fleet.

For the next fifteen minutes, dozens of officers and men on the submarine had a terrifying feeling that the enemy's battleship was right above their heads, and as long as one destroyer's sonar spotted them, then several, if not a dozen, destroyer would drop depth charges on them.

"The enemy fleet is leaving, we are not detected."

"Ascend to periscope depth, call the communications officer over, and prepare to send a telegram." The captain immediately gave the order, "Damn, get the torpedoes ready, and if the Americans turn, we'll give them a few torpedoes!" ”

When the periscope of the No. 174 submarine stretched out of the sea, the 51st Task Force was already 2 nautical miles away, and the periscope only appeared on the surface of the sea for less than two minutes, and the captain immediately let the submarine dive to a depth of 80 meters after judging that there were several aircraft carriers in the enemy fleet, and then began to maneuver to the northwest, waiting for the 51st Task Force to turn. As long as Task Force 51 turns, then they have a chance to launch torpedoes. Of course, the captain did not forget one more important thing, which was to send a telegram before firing a torpedo.

As a result, Task Force 51 did not turn, but kept heading northwest, and the four torpedoes on submarine No. 174 also remained in the torpedo tubes. At half past three, when the submarine maneuvered to a safe area, floated to the depth of the snorkel again, and recharged the battery, the telegram was sent.

The telegram was first received by the submarine base on Saipan, then forwarded to the Theater Command, and finally forwarded by the Theater Command to the First Task Force, and Tan Renhao received the telegram at about 3:50 p.m.

"This must be the Fifth Fleet!" Hao Dongjue became excited as soon as he read the telegram, "Spruance is really setting off tonight, it seems that he is rushing over at full speed." ”

Tan Renhao pondered for a while and said, "It is impossible for the Fifth Fleet to sail at a speed of more than 30 knots all the time, even if we can't do it, perhaps, Spruance is just testing the power system of the battleship." ”

"Anyway, he's going to be there on the 21st, or the 22nd." Hao Dongjue shrugged his shoulders, "Then we will have enough time to destroy the US military airfield on Gardner Island." ”

Tan Renhao walked to the chart table, and the staff officer had already marked on the chart the location, course, speed and other important data of the Fifth Fleet when it was discovered. Tan Renhao lay on the chart table and looked at it carefully for a while, and measured it with a scale, and then he laughed too.

"What are you laughing at?"

"It's nothing, I just think that Spruance's action this time was a bit hasty, maybe, this is our chance." Tan Renhao dragged the barstool over, "Perhaps, we can take advantage of this." ”

Hao Dongjue nodded slightly. "Spruance is a tough opponent and if we can take advantage of his shortcomings, it will be easier to beat him."

Tan Renhao called the navigation staff over. "The fleet is heading a little south, and is trying to reach the sea west of Gardner Island this evening."

"Then we'll have to go through about 80 beavers east of Lysan Island."

"No problem, you can arrange it." Tan Renhao nodded, and then looked at Hao Dongjue, "Advance the time for bombing Gardner Island by half an hour, the second batch of bombers does not need to arrange escort fighters, leaving two squadrons of fighters to be responsible for fleet air defense, is there a problem?" ”

Hao Dongjue frowned slightly. "I'll arrange it immediately, you're going to raid Gardner Island?"

"It's not a raid." Tan Renhao sat down, "We didn't bomb Lysan Island during the day, Spruance must know that our next target is Gardner Island, and the U.S. Air Forces on Gardner Island will be ready to meet it." However, Spruance and Nimitz probably didn't expect us to bomb Gardner Island so quickly, so we moved the time forward half an hour, and the first batch of bombers arrived on Gardner Island at six o'clock, and the escort fighters seized air supremacy, so that the American fighters could not take off. The second group of bombers arrived on their heels and completely destroyed the American airfield. If the bombers of the American army had departed before the arrival of our group, then the two squadrons of anti-aircraft fighters that we left behind would have been useful. ”

"Okay, I'll go adjust the bombing mission now." Hao Dongjue took two steps, and then stepped back, "Is the fleet too close to Gardner Island?" ”

"If we don't get closer, how can our fighters patrol over Gardner Island for a few minutes?"

Hao Dongjue shook his head with a smile and didn't say anything more. To let the escort fighters wait until the second group of bombers arrives on Gardner Island, then the distance between the fleet and Gardner Island can only be 150 nautical miles at most, and this distance is really a little too close.

After Hao Dongjue went to the aviation operations center, Tan Renhao also calmed down. He was not worried about the threat of the U.S. air force on Gardner Island, the only thing he was worried about was what kind of threat Spruance brought back to his old adversary!