In the wee hours of the morning, Wake Island, the US military radio listening station. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Tall, with an angular face, Second Lieutenant Ron Wilson walked into a large room filled with strange equipment and cobweb-like wires, where a number of uniformed men were engrossed in the radio-like machines in front of them. Behind a small chair sat a shorter sergeant, a slender pencil twirling around his fingertips acrobatically, while his other hand pressed a pair of headphones against his left ear.

Wilson hung his hat on the hanger and greeted his partner in a very friendly tone, "Hi Goodwin, how was your evening?" ”

The sergeant shook his head, "Well, not good! Very bad! The Japanese are busy tonight, so I'm busy too! ”

"Haven't the Japanese been busy lately?" The burly Wilson pulled a chair from the side, sat down and changed his words: "Then did you intercept any important information tonight?" ”

The sergeant still shook his head: "A few copies have been sent to Captain Elba, but it seems that there is no result for the time being!" ”

"Oh!" Wilson looked left and right, and the others seemed to be busy, and then he looked at his watch again, "Goodwin, you go and rest, I'll keep an eye on this, how about you come back at 1 o'clock to pick up my shift?" ”

The sergeant didn't shirk either, he put the pencil on the table, and then handed the headphones to Wilson: "Deal!" I went to take a shower first, then went back to my room to take a nap, and came over at 5 o'clock to take over. What do you want for breakfast? ”

Wilson smiled, "Whatever, as long as you can eat it!" ”

The sergeant smiled tiredly, then turned to retrieve his hat. At this moment, the non-commissioned officer wearing headphones on a table next to him frowned and shouted, "There is a situation in the No. 4A band!" ”

The attention of the entire room was immediately focused, and only a moment later, the non-commissioned officer at the other table shouted in a similar voice: "The signal has also been intercepted in the No. 5A band!" ”

The sergeant's tired face suddenly became energetic, and he snatched the headset from Wilson, which had not yet been hot, and adjusted the knob on the telegraph device in front of him with his right hand with extremely small movements, and Wilson, who was sitting next to him, could even hear the intermittent rustling of the headset.

"There is also a situation in the No. 3 A-band, and there is always a real communication code for the Japanese!" The sergeant grabbed the pencil on the table and scribbled quickly on the scratch paper, a series of characters stretching under his pen.

The room was so quiet that only the rattle of various instruments was there. It wasn't until two minutes later that the first recorder took off his headphones, and soon the other stopped recording, followed by the sergeant, who looked up at his companions with a relieved smile in understanding. After a while, a captain officer gathered the paper numbers on which they had made a record. After placing the papers in a brown paper bag, he was escorted out of the room by another officer.

"Well done guys!" Wilson couldn't stop praising his peers, and that rank and seniority were not the ultimate measure of personal ability here, and that young people were often able to perform better than their predecessors.

Half an hour later, the Hawaiian Islands, Pearl Harbor, the US Atlantic Theater Command.

"Sir, it's from the Ministry of Intelligence!"

Being woken up from his sleep was not a pleasant thing for anyone, not even Edward Calbfors, but his spirits were lifted when he heard his lieutenant mention the word "urgent". After a curry glance at the document, which was marked "Top Secret" on the cover, the American admiral's expression changed again, and he instructed his adjutant: "Tell everyone to gather in the conference room at 8 a.m. and not to be absent for any reason." ”

Sending off the adjutant, Calbforth washed his face in cold water and sat down at his desk to read the intelligence documents carefully, not missing a single punctuation mark this time. After that, he took out a drawing from the drawer and studied it carefully by the light of the lamp......

At 8 o'clock and 10 minutes, the commanders of the 1st, 4th, and 6th task forces, the commander of the Atlantic Theater Air Force, and the commander-in-chief of the Army's combat forces were all seated in the conference room of the theater command.

Calbfors walked into the conference room and said straight to the point, "Sorry for bringing you here so early. This morning, at a quarter past 3 a.m. to be exact, the officer on duty sent me an urgent message, a vital intelligence document that had been intercepted and deciphered by our radio listening station on Wake Island, and the contents were astonishing! ”

"Could it be that the Japanese Combined Fleet is going to fight back to the Marshall Islands again?" Yanel, the decorated general of the Marshall Islands naval battle, was the first to answer.

Calbfors slapped the papers on the table, stood and looked around, and then said, "No, it's not the Marshall Islands, they want to launch a surprise attack while we are focused on the Marshall Islands, and the target of the attack is us, Pearl Harbor!" ”

Lieutenant General Moore, who was in charge of air defense in the Hawaiian Islands, said: "Ha! Are they crazy? More than 1,500 combat planes and 200 combat ships have been deployed throughout Hawaii, a series of high-power radar stations have been set up, and there is a complete and strict guard and patrol system. Besides, with the current strength of the Japanese Combined Fleet, wouldn't attacking Pearl Harbor be a weak attack on the strong and a soft on the hard? ”

Instead of answering directly, Kalbufors asked, "Some of you may have heard the name Yamamoto Isoroku. ”

Isoroku Yamamoto was no stranger to the United States, a Japanese naval officer who was ordered to study at Harvard University in the United States from 1919 to 1921, and served as naval attaché at the Japanese Embassy in the United States in 1925 until his return in 1928. Correspondingly, some Americans, especially naval officers, had an impression of this Japanese officer with a distinct personality. Task Force 6 Commander Ernest Joseph King answered Calbforus's question.

Cal Bufors analyzed and explained: "According to credible information, this man was transferred from the Japanese Navy Vice Admiral to the post of Chief of Staff of the Combined Fleet and Commander of the Air Force, and his task should be to reorganize the Air Force, which had suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Marshall Islands, and if the information we receive is true, then it is likely that the plan for the attack on Pearl Harbor was devised by this Isoroku Yamamoto." ”

Admiral Yanel, who commanded the U.S. naval battle group to win the Battle of the Marshall Islands, argued: "But I think the cable intercepted by the radio detection department is probably a decoy." Within half a year, the Combined Fleet would not be able to attack Pearl Harbor, but Wake Island would most likely become their target, and their ultimate goal would not be to occupy Wake Island, but to use it to win a duel at sea, a duel between battlefleets. ”

Kim immediately offered a different opinion: "Abandoning advanced tactical concepts and reusing outdated battleship fleets for duels?" If General Yanel had been the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, such an extremely risky action would have been possible, but Mitsumasa Yonei was a cautious and sensible man and was unlikely to have chosen such a gambling action. ”

Yanel was very firm in his judgment: "If it is not Minai but Yamamoto who dominates the combined fleet at the moment, this situation is possible, because from the Battle of Hawaii to the Battle of Marshall, the Japanese Navy lost a lot of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft, but the main warships lost less." Although Yamamoto is an expert in aviation warfare in the Navy, he can only accept the reality and find ways to use the existing forces to turn the situation around. ”

"No, it won't." Kim made his point clear with a resounding answer.

"Arbitrary!" Yanel showed no signs of weakness.

Among the generals present, the most senior was Calbforus, who couldn't help but interrupt the two of them: "Well, two, your argument not only does not solve my troubles, but makes me even more confused. Ever since I received the information from the radio listening station, I have been wondering whether the enemy really wanted to attack Pearl Harbor or whether it was deliberately misleading us so that we could make a wrong judgment. According to normal thinking, after just experiencing a setback, the Japanese navy should temporarily turn to the defensive, why is it so anxious to launch a counterattack, could it be that something has happened in Japan, or that there is an abnormal situation in other battlefields? ”

It's a pity that no one can give an answer.

"Our original plan was for Task Forces 1, 4, and 6 to rest in Hawaii for three to four weeks and wait for 80 percent of the damaged ships to be repaired before they were deployed, while deploying Task Forces 2 and 5 south of Wake Island to support the Marines in capturing the islands and reefs of the Marshall Islands one by one. General King, you will lead Task Force 6, plus the aircraft carriers 'Tarawa' and 'Clover', which have been temporarily transferred from Task Force 4, to the waters near Wake Island to carry out combat alert. Karl Bufors ordered.

"Yes!" Kim took on the task without hesitation.

Seeing that there was no objection from everyone, Karl Bufors continued to order: "General Blake, I need you to send all the submarines that can be dispatched at present to the west and southwest of the Hawaiian Islands to carry out vigilance patrol duties, send submarine supply ships, and extend the mission period of those active submarines as much as possible; Colonel Wyef, I need your long-range reconnaissance aircraft to carry out aerial reconnaissance at the maximum range of the flight, rain or shine, and if possible, arrange for a seaplane with radar on board every day for night reconnaissance. ”

The two senior officers whose names were called did not obey.

All the countermeasures he could think of were arranged, but Calbfors still felt as if something had been left out by himself, but he couldn't think of what it was, he looked at Harry Yanel, the admiral who was very close to him in age and seniority, and made an eyebrow-sucking expression, meaning that he could only look as he walked.

(End of chapter)