On the starlit sea, the aircraft carrier "Hornet" of the 1st Task Force of the US Pacific Fleet seemed to have been kicked by something, and the rear half of the hull was scorched black, especially the stern part, which was full of twisted metal and traces of fire, and a large hole was even broken in the bottom of the stern cabin, and the sea water rushed into it and flooded several cabins in a row. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

If you look at it from a distance, you will find that the waterline of the "Hornet" aircraft carrier is high in front and low in the back, which is obviously caused by a large amount of water entering the stern. If you look closely, you can see that the waterline is still slowly sloping, indicating that there is still a lot of water pouring in.

Captain Captain Inspector Hardison of the USS Hornet and Captain Thomas Murphy of the Hornet. Captain White stood knee-deep in the boiler compartment. Colonel Hardison looked anxious and asked, "Thomas, how's it going?" ”

"It's bad."

White wiped the sweat from his forehead, spread his hands and said with a wry smile: "That damn suicide plane crashed through several decks in a row, and it didn't explode until it reached the lowest level of the ship's cabin, which not only caused a fire, but also broke the steam pipes, and the worst thing was that it opened a big hole in the bottom of the ship, which couldn't be plugged at all." Now, although the pipeline can be repaired to restore some of the power and the pumping machine can also work, several waterproof hatches were damaged in the explosion, and there is no way to prevent the seawater from pouring into the boiler room and engine room, and the pumping machine can only delay the speed at which the seawater floods the boiler room and the engine room. And once the sea floods one of these two compartments, then the 'Hornet' is finished. Colonel, let's be ready to abandon the ship. ”

"Damn it!"

Hearing that the "Hornet" was about to end, Colonel Hardison scolded fiercely, and the sinking of the Hornet meant that Task Force 1 had lost 20% of its combat capability at once, and it was at such a critical moment. The "Hornet" was so unlucky!

However, if Nagumo Tadaichi had known the current situation of the "Hornet," he would have thought that God was blessing the officers and men of the "Hornet." Because 4 of the 10 V3 manoeuvring bombs fired by the "Emperor Frederick III" crashed due to a malfunction during the "long" flight. One of the remaining 6 was shot down by the American F4F, another 1 was shot down by the anti-aircraft fire of the American fleet, and 2 were planted headlong into the water for unknown reasons during horizontal flight, and finally only 2 V3s with a dive attack mode broke through the anti-aircraft fire network of the "Hornet", but 1 changed the direction of flight at the last moment (I don't know if the pilot was afraid of death or some other reason) and also fell into the water, and only 1 missile hit accurately.

However, the V3 missile, which hit accurately, had the problem of "excess penetrating kinetic energy", not only easily penetrating the unarmored wooden flight deck of the Hornet, but also smashing the hangar in half, and then penetrating the sailor's cabin under the hangar, and then passing all the way to the bottom cabin of the Hornet (which is a warehouse for storing debris) before exploding. Although the power of the explosion of 800 kilograms of explosives was very amazing, it did not break the keel of the Hornet, but only blew a fatal hole in the bottom of the ship.

Therefore, although the aircraft carrier "Hornet" was severely damaged and difficult to save, it did not sink immediately, and the personnel on board had time to evacuate, so the casualties would not be too heavy.

And the reason for this is that the V3 missile is a secret weapon designed for a decisive battle of the fleet. Its armor-piercing warhead was used to penetrate the side armor of battleships, and the fuse used was also long-delayed, and now it is used to attack the unarmored aircraft carrier deck, of course, there is excess kinetic energy, and as a result, it will rush to the bottom of the ship all the way.

However, this V3 still caused great damage, the internal fire and the huge shaking caused the Hornet's control to completely fail, and it had to spin in place, and Vice Admiral Halsey also had to abandon the Hornet and quickly move with the remaining aircraft carriers. If there had been a few Type 97 torpedo attack planes to make up for the knife at that time, perhaps only 2 torpedoes would have been able to sink the Hornet. However, Nagumo Tadaichi's 1st Mobile Fleet chased for most of the day and did not close much distance (because the two fleets were about the same speed), and as a result, the attack aircraft group sent did not have enough time to find the American fleet, so the opportunity to strike at the Halsey fleet was missed.

However, the success of the Hornet aircraft carrier still fully proves the value of the V3 missile, and it has also attracted enough attention from the highest level of the Japanese Navy, and it is only a matter of time before it is improved and installed on a large scale.

……

"What do you think about the Hornet?"

"It was a fearless attack, and the Japanese had clearly learned the tactics of the British." Inside the Pennsylvania, looking at Kimmel who was asking questions, Rear Admiral Fletcher frowned and said, "I don't think there will be only one such attack, and there will be more attacks in the future." ”

"Damn Japs!" Kimmel gritted his teeth and cursed, "We must not let them succeed in Hawaii, or they will definitely deploy a large number of dreadnought planes on the island of Hawaii...... How far are we from Hawaii Island now? ”

"About 20 nautical miles left...... It will be there in 1 hour and a half. Major General Fletcher said, "Then the batteries in Port Hilo will be able to cover us." ”

Hilo Harbor on the island of Hawaii is also considered a relatively important place in the Hawaiian Islands, so the harbor is guarded by batteries. Although only equipped with an outdated 12-inch cannon, it is still a significant threat to surface ships.

"In addition, the weather will be good tomorrow morning, there will be a thunderstorm in the Hawaiian Islands, and the Japanese planes will not be able to dispatch." Major General Fletcher then reported another piece of good news, "We can unload at least a few dozen P51s, so that by tomorrow afternoon, we will not be afraid of anything." ”

The Hawaiian Islands are tropical, and there are many thunderstorms, and according to the weather forecast, there will be a heavy rain tomorrow morning.

"Great!" Kimmel smiled with satisfaction, "It seems that God is still on our side......"

"Sir, the destroyer's radar has spotted an unknown ship!" At this time, the communications officer of the Pennsylvania suddenly shouted. "There are more than 10 ships in the direction of 280 degrees!"

The United States started radar research very early, but it lagged behind Britain and Germany in the issue of equipping radar. At present, only large surface ships are equipped with CXAM-type air-to-air search radars, and the armament of sea-to-sea search radars is even lagging behind, and although the development of the SG-type radar with superior performance has been completed, it has not yet been put into production, and only the destroyer USS Sams is equipped with a prototype. Now the destroyer, which is equipped with radar, is under the flag of the Pacific Fleet and has become a sentinel for the fleet's night operations.

"It's the Japanese fleet!" Kimmel glanced at Fletcher, "Send electricity to Oahu and ask about the situation." ”

Kimmel was asking how many Japanese battleships were shelling Oahu? The Pennsylvania had been questioned two hours earlier, and the Oahu side had reported that at least three Japanese battleships were shelling, two of which were identified as Nagato-class.

"Or 3 Japanese battleships, 2 of which are determined to be Nagato-class."

The telegram from Oahu was soon heard, and the news was a great relief. According to the information at the disposal of the Americans, in the Hawaiian zone there were 4-5 Japanese battleships, 2 of which were of the terrible Nagato-class!

Now that the Nagato class is still on Oahu, then there is nothing to fear. Because according to the information available to the United States, only the Nagato-class battleships of Japan had 410mm caliber guns, and the other eight battleships were all 356mm caliber main guns, just like the Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Nevada.

Moreover, the three ships of the Pennsylvania, the Tennessee and the Nevada are all of the "Iron King VIII" type, which is slow but well armored and very suitable for artillery battles. In addition, before the Pearl Harbor incident, the Pacific Fleet also conducted targeted training for night battles.

"Let the 3rd, 4th, and 5th destroyer detachments cover the transports and continue their voyage to Hilo Harbor, while the rest of the ships follow the battleship force to meet the Japanese fleet!"

After confirming that the two Nagato-class ships had not left Oahu, Kimmel immediately gave the order to meet them. But at this moment, he would never have dreamed that the world's strongest battleship, which was even more terrifying than the battleship Nagato, was in the northwest sea less than 20 nautical miles from the Pennsylvania at this time.

"Sir, the detectives have found a suspicious target!"

In the command tower of the battleship Yamato, the most powerful battleship in the world, everyone's spirits became nervous with the shouts of the electric detective Captain Isamu Uehara.

At this time, the battleship Yamato was already equipped with "electric reconnaissance", but it was not Japan's own equipment, but the Fumo23 radar provided by Germany after Yamamoto Isoroku's visit to Europe in the first half of the year (not the Fumo23-B on the "Emperor Frederick III" class, but the basic model with inferior performance). Due to the absence of a PPI display (such a display is already available on the Fumo23-B type) and the insufficient power of the radar, it is difficult for the Fumo23 type radar to detect more than 1 targets at the same time, and the accuracy is not high. Therefore, such a radar can only be used to detect targets, not for fire control.

However, Yamamoto Isoroku has another ace in his hand for night battles - cat's eye warriors!

This is a unique branch of the Japanese Navy, all of which are carefully selected for long-sightedness and night vision, and after enlistment, they eat eel and drink cod liver oil every day, and also take special vitamin A, the purpose is to maintain a pair of night-type farsighted eyes. Before tonight's engagement began, they had climbed the high watchtower and searched the vast sea for traces of American ships with a pair of "cat's eyes".

In addition to the "cat's eye warriors" on the lookout post, the Japanese Navy also sent the "cat's eye warriors" into the sky. After the "electric scouts" of the Yamato discovered the enemy ship, 3 seaplanes were immediately ejected into the sky. Each seaplane had a "cat-eye warrior" who would find the American battleship on the pitch-black water with the naked eye, and then the seaplane would drop flares. (To be continued.) )