Heavy rain is coming, and the waters of East Korea Bay are a scene of dark clouds hanging low and waves rolling. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoOn the surface of the sea more than 100 nautical miles offshore, the large cruiser "Kirov" of the Soviet and Russian Navy is alone, and on its towering bridge, 40-year-old Colonel Stepan Kucherov stands side by side with 56-year-old Rear Admiral Mitchell Kane. The former was the supreme commander of the Soviet Russian warship, known for his quick wit, courage and skill, and the latter was a special adviser to the Soviet Russian government, the highest-ranking foreign personnel serving in the Red Navy, and at the same time the most experienced in command. He served under John Tovey and Andrew Cunningham, participated in four naval battles in the Battle of the Azores, and later in the war served as commander of the large cruiser "Brave", mainly in the North Sea and Barents waters, and in four months he had an outstanding record of sinking five enemy ships and capturing four.

As early as the end of 1941, this large ship with excellent performance joined the Pacific Fleet with Vladivostok as its home port along with a large number of ships of the Soviet Northern Fleet and the Baltic Fleet. During the months of their arrival in the Far East, Colonel Kucherov and his "British partner" worked tirelessly, often sailing on patrol ships and intelligence ships, and gained a fairly good understanding of the geography and hydrology of the Sea of Japan.

Based on the huge gap in strength between the Soviet and Russian Pacific Fleets and the Japanese Combined Fleet, their maritime strategy was the same as that of the British Home Fleet during World War II, using attack ships and submarines to carry out sea raid operations and threaten the sea transportation between the enemy's mainland and the theater of operations. As one of the two major attack ships of the Pacific Fleet, the "Kirov" has made three sorties since the Soviet Russian government declared war on Japan, and each voyage lasted no more than four days. With the assistance of Rear Admiral Kane, Colonel Kucherov took advantage of the "Kirov's" superiority in range and speed to win successive battles, and achieved a total of three sunk Japanese ships and damaged five ships, ahead of another Soviet-Russian attack ship, the "Gorky," which sank two ships and damaged two ships, forcing the Japanese Combined Fleet to dispatch a number of combat detachments to hunt and greatly disrupt the Japanese Navy's operational deployment, forcing the Japanese army to strengthen the escort force of the transport fleet, thereby reducing the efficiency of the Japanese army's sea transportation.

Returning to the port of Vladivostok for a short rest for two days, the "Kirov" began its fourth combat sortie under the command of Colonel Kucherov. Under the cover of night, it sailed through the mine array of the Amur Bay, disappeared into the depths of the vast sea at full speed, and entered the waters of the East Korean Gulf in the early morning. Because of the effective combat range of the Soviet and Russian naval and air forces, Japan's military transport ships and civilian ships have stopped setting foot in these waters since the beginning of the war, and in addition to patrol ships that often hang out, Japanese fighters are more likely to take off from the Korean Peninsula. In view of this, the "Kirov" under sail activated its anti-aircraft alert system, and the anti-aircraft guns all over the deck were erected like spikes. After the modification before and after the outbreak of the war, the initially limited air defense force was multiplied, and the six single 100 mm secondary guns were replaced by twin 85 mm anti-aircraft guns, the 10 single 37 mm and 45 mm anti-aircraft guns were replaced by four twin 37 mm guns and four four quadruple 20 mm guns, and six 12.7 mm large-caliber machine guns were deployed in various corners of the deck. It is worth mentioning that after the installation of the Ai-made shipborne radar, the air defense efficiency of this battleship has been greatly improved compared with pure manual observation, but neither the Irish, the Germans nor the Americans are willing to sell their fire control radars to the Soviet and Russian Navy, so that the Soviet and Russian warships still use the traditional inefficient fire control system, and the Japanese Navy, which was plagued by night battles in the Pacific War, completed the practical application of fire control radars as early as 1940.

"Attention! An enemy plane was found in the southwest! Sound the battle alarm! ”

People have the impression that such an alarm should come from a lookout post at the top of the mast, but on this Soviet and Russian assault ship, it was the radar room located at the base of the bridge that was the first to raise the alarm, and its warning time was also several minutes earlier than in the days of simple visual alert. This may seem like a difficult amount of time, but it is invaluable for a well-trained sailor. Before the enemy aircraft appears on the horizon, they can make the most of these few minutes to prepare for the enemy: adjust the staff, check the control of the artillery, stock up on temporary ammunition, and so on.

About five minutes later, a Japanese fighter plane with lead gray paint appeared in the crew's sight.

Holding a high-powered telescope to observe for a moment, Major General Kane said: "It is a Japanese twin-engine bomber, with an effective combat radius of more than 1,000 miles, which can carry aerial bombs and aerial torpedoes, and the maximum speed when flying with bombs is only 200 miles per hour. ”

Colonel Kucherov could speak English, but only for simple communication. After Major General Kane finished speaking, he said half-jokingly: "It's a pity that I'm not very good at unit conversion, how many kilometers is a mile?" ”

As an old-fashioned Englishman, Major General Kane replied solemnly: "One mile is equal to 1,609 meters, or about 1.5 versts." ”

Colonel Kucherov, as usual, raised the corners of his mouth with a wicked smile. Although the air defense alarm was sounded on the ship, it was almost impossible for a land-based Japanese twin-engine bomber to pose a real threat to his "Kirov", and its role should be to conduct reconnaissance at sea on a large scale -- it was three or four hundred kilometers away from the nearest Japanese base, and although ordinary single-engine planes could fly so far, their endurance was not enough to support them to conduct a large-scale air search, and a heavy bomber with a long range and a high-power radio station was undoubtedly more suitable for such a task.

Without waiting for the enemy planes to approach, the 100-millimeter secondary gun on the "Kirov" was the first to sound, and this kind of shipborne artillery unique to the Soviet and Russian navy has the characteristics of long range and great power. Used as an anti-aircraft artillery, although the chance of hitting the target from a long distance is small, it can form a flake barrage, disrupt the flight formation of the enemy aircraft group, and cause damage to some enemy aircraft.

The Soviet and Russian warships opened fire early, and the Japanese pilots knew that the other side was fully prepared, so they gave up their attempt at close reconnaissance, circled twice at a high flying altitude, and then flew in the direction of the Korean Peninsula. During this time, the "Kirov" intercepted the radio signals sent by enemy planes, and it was inferred from the call sign that it was a combat aircraft belonging to the Japanese Army Air Corps, and if nothing else, the Japanese Navy should have received this information several hours later.

Based on this judgment, Colonel Kucherov ordered the battleship to sail north at full speed, and by the afternoon it was raining heavily on the sea. Although the crew had to endure the bumps of the wind and waves, it was a good weather for the commander of the battleship who did not plan to return empty-handed, to cover their whereabouts. The Kirov then turned around again and sailed westward at a speed of 22 knots along a route roughly parallel to the northern coast of Korea, and when night fell, the battleship once again adjusted its course and headed for Wonsan, the busiest port in the eastern part of the Korean Peninsula and one of the bases of the Japanese army.

On a rainy night, the Japanese second-class destroyer "Su" and the coastal defense ship "Kiyotsu", which were cruising at sea, swayed and undulated in the waves. The so-called second-class destroyers, that is, small destroyers built in the early days, are limited by range and sea trial performance, and usually undertake patrol and alert tasks at medium and close ranges, while coastal defense ships are inferior to second-class destroyers, and are generally only equipped with small-caliber naval guns.

Such a small patrol fleet was not a search force sent by the Japanese Navy when it learned that the Soviet Russian Kirov cruiser had sailed to the waters of East Korea Bay, but an anti-submarine patrol ship routinely dispatched by the Wonsan Port Garrison Command. As in the past, the "Su" was in front and the "Kiyotsu" was behind, and the two old ships were only going eastward at a speed of 12 knots. Out of the need to search for enemy submarines, the two ships sometimes sailed with their lights off, and sometimes turned on their searchlights to search the sea surface. The sailors on duty were like wild cats, staring wide in the dark and pricking up their ears, but no one expected that it would be a behemoth much larger than a submarine that would eventually break into their patrol area!

At dawn, the "Kirov" arrived in the waters northeast of the port of Wonsan, where it encountered a weak but unnegligible Japanese patrol fleet. Rear Admiral Kane's suggestion was to use radar to avoid them and carry out long-range artillery bombardment of Wonsan Port from 20 kilometers away, so as to achieve the purpose of destroying Japanese ships and damaging port facilities in the harbor, and then use the cover of the rain curtain to quickly retreat, so that the Japanese Navy could dispatch a large number of warplanes and ships to conduct a futile search.

Colonel Kucherov initially had this idea, but the communications corps soon intercepted the encrypted telegrams from the enemy ships, but unfortunately failed to decipher the contents, which made him worry that the Japanese ships were equipped with radar warning planes. If this is the case, they will already be aware of the situation when their shipborne radars detect them, and in this case, even if they use their speed advantage to force their way around, they will become a stumbling block for the Kirov to quickly evacuate after attacking Wonsan Port. After weighing the situation, the colonel decided to take out the two Japanese ships quickly, and then use the range advantage of the naval guns to attack Wonsan Harbor, so as to deter the Japanese navy with this strong move. In addition to containing Japanese aircraft and ships, the best outcome would be for the Japanese military to suspend maritime shipping between the mainland and the Korean Peninsula.

As a result, the "Kirov", with a displacement of nearly 10,000 tons, rushed straight to the two Japanese ships with a combined displacement of less than 1,500 tons, like a fierce war elephant. At a distance of more than 500 meters from the enemy, the "Kirov" suddenly turned on its searchlight and locked onto the "Su" and "Kiyojin" under sail with a bright pillar of light. During the battle, which lasted about 10 minutes, they were both torn to pieces by the ferocious artillery fire of the "Kirov......

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