On March 9, a patrol of the Chinese Marine Corps reached the southeast coast opposite the landing position, and the news of the seizure of Sado Island was not officially announced until March 17. To this end, Shen Honglie issued a special communiqué: "The battle on Sado Island has ended, and all organized resistance has ceased. The small army still put up a stubborn resistance in the cliffs, but it will soon be wiped out by our army. The battle on Sado Island was extended for 26 days, and the cost of the battle was great: "The army lost 41,200 people. The Chinese army suffered 3,126 casualties, the highest number of any Pacific campaign, with 625 missing and 17,658 wounded. "In order to annihilate the Chinese army on the island, the Chinese army dropped 80,000 tons of bombs and shells. The last two paragraphs of the communiqué summarize the battle: "From March 16, Chinese pilots used the Chubu airfield on Sado Island. A few days ago, the southern airfield had become a stopover for the bombing of the Chinese 'Hongyan' bomber group from the three eastern provinces. ”

In early March 1946, Task Force Fu had just returned to the Mariana Islands from Leyte Island and anchored in the lagoon of Ulysi. Ulyssi Island is similar to the main reef described earlier, and there is nothing special about it. At that time, this reef was also used as a "temporary base" like Yakushima or Majuro Island. In addition to some necessary ship maintenance and supply facilities, there are also resting places for soldiers on the island. After Fu Renxuan's task force fleet dropped anchor, the crew began to rest according to the order. Boat boats come and go on the blue lagoon waters, transporting soldiers to the beach and to the bar. The island's bars are covered with palm fronds and are the same size as those in Hollywood. As soon as the customers arrived, they were told that there was not a drop of alcohol in the bar, not even a beer, and that there was no woman in sight. Still, there are plenty of people who come to this notoriously famous entertainment venue to spend a few hours away from the ship. Take a sunbath on the boat, go ashore to the prefabricated clear water bar for a few hours, and watch a movie on the boat in the evening, and the day is over. The soldiers were very cautious when they talked about war, but they thought a lot. Rumors of the departure were endless, but after a few days, the speculation became more and more concrete, and everyone thought that the next target of the expedition would be Okinawa.

On the evening of 10 March, there was a scene of peace on Ullicsi Key. During the day, the sun is shining, and in the evening, the setting sun leaves a fiery red afterglow on the horizon. The tropical sunset turns into a starry night scene in an instant. On the island, people still work by the light of searchlights. Ships moored in the lagoon are subject to "light control" in principle, and lights can be seen flickering on movie screens through the wide middle cabins of aircraft carriers and the decks of many other ships. Ships that do not show movies are allowed to watch movies on other ships. On that day, the aircraft carrier "Lord Bismarck" (belonging to the "Xingtian" class fleet aircraft carrier, which was modified from the hull of the German warship "Marquis Bismarck" during World War I, and was named to commemorate the victory) was screened. The middle deck of the hangar was packed. In the middle of the movie, the audience seemed to feel that the aircraft carrier was shaking slightly, and in an instant, a huge explosion drowned out the speech of the characters in the movie. The people present roared up. The conversation on the screen was still going on as if nothing was going on, but now no one cared to listen to what was being said. The siren whistle sounded, and everyone ran to their combat posts. There was a fire on the flight deck, and several explosions rang out at the stern, but none as loud as the first. From other ships, the fire on the aircraft carrier could be seen reflected in the dim water. All crew members should be called back to their respective combat posts. From the noisy discussions, it is clear that it was a malfunctioning plane that unfortunately crashed and crashed on the "Lord Bismarck".

The fire on the "Lord Bismarck" was extinguished, the alarm was lifted, and the crew dispersed. The next morning, after the stern of the "Lord Bismarck" had cooled down, he looked at it and found that it was the wreckage of the plane and its pilot. This is the pilot of the "kamikaze special attack team" who took off from the Dadong Islands and flew 800 nautical miles before crashing his plane into a Chinese aircraft carrier that was "resting."

Fu Renxuan's task force set sail for Okinawa at 7 o'clock in the morning of March 14. The weather was clear, the sea was calm, the fleet was lined up in columns, and the destroyers sailed at the front. The task force now includes 10 heavy aircraft carriers, 6 light aircraft carriers, 8 battleships, two brand-new heavy cruisers, 24 light cruisers, plus 40 destroyers. In addition, there were "amphibious forces" and a bombing unit that joined the task force in the ocean of Okinawa. To detail this huge fleet one by one is not so simple. For example, the "Xia Yu" aircraft carrier (belonging to the "Xuanyuan"-class fleet aircraft carrier) specializes in carrying night fighters (equipped with radar) and night-flying torpedo planes; during daytime operations, it belongs to the 4th Squadron of Fu Renxuan's Task Force, and at night, together with its escort "barrier", it becomes the 5th Squadron of Fu Renxuan's Task Force, under the command of Rear Admiral Gu Shaolong. The supreme operational command was given to Rear Admiral Lu Zhishen. Fu Renxuan's task force set sail for the Ryukyu Islands, where Okinawa is located, to attack airfields on neighboring islands, and the attacking force approached Okinawa at the same time; Then, the bombing was supported by a task force.

After the fleet left port, the entire crew was officially informed of the course. The training exercise began. Dive bombers pounced on the sea towing targets, and anti-aircraft guns fired at the aerial towing targets. The officers and men of the entire fleet took this last training very seriously. Everyone felt that conquering Okinawa was an uphill battle. Radio has repeatedly claimed that the closer the Chinese army gets to the defense line on its own territory, it will encounter more and more intense resistance, and will eventually be annihilated. This is not just a lie. The defense capability of Sado Island can be seen in the defense. Now, the navy and air force can operate in the vicinity of their bases. There are rumors that the army will use suicide planes in large numbers.

Although Okinawa is 950 nautical miles away from Tokyo (460 nautical miles from Nagasaki), it is still part of the mainland, and the island is 180 kilometers long, ranging from 38 kilometers wide to 6 kilometers narrow. According to pre-war estimates, there were 300,000 inhabitants on the island (there are two large cities, one with 60,000 inhabitants and one with 30,000 inhabitants). The Chinese believe that by March 1945, there were 60,000 troops stationed on the island. Judging by the photographs taken by reconnaissance aircraft, there are five airfields on the island of Okinawa.

On 16 March, the task force met the tankers on the surface of the ocean, and the ships were immediately refueled. The sky is overcast and the sea is choppy. The crew of the oil tanker and the crew of other ships chatted with each other across the boat, looking up at the sky from time to time. After the tankers departed, the fleet formed a formation and headed for the Ryukyu Islands at a speed of 25 knots. A common concern on this huge fleet is: "Will we be exposed before the aircraft carriers attack the airfield?" ”

The Chinese call the black shadows that appear on the radar phosphor screen "ghosts." At 21:40 on 17 March, a loudspeaker sounded in the room of the brightly lit "Xia Yu" intelligence command post. The room immediately fell silent, and a flat voice sounded over the loudspeaker: "'Ghosts' appear at 142°, 72 nautical miles away." Two telephone operators sat in front of the switch, changing the plug in the same motion: "'Ghost' appears at 142°, 72 nautical miles away." The typist began to take notes on a silent typewriter. An officer walked out of the room. It was dark outside, and the sentries could only vaguely see the closest ship to the "Xia Yu" in the fleet. In the darkness of the night, the radar detected three planes and determined that the distance of the planes was more than 130 kilometers. A few minutes later, another group of "ghosts" was found. Interrogators (identical friend or foe on radar) identified the aircraft as their own aircraft. The task force may have been spotted.

"Xia Yu" immediately responded in accordance with the new function of a "night aircraft carrier". In the early days of the war, few of the soldiers of the "Xia Yu" thought that a squad of fighters might take off in the dark of night, but now it has become commonplace. Nothing stimulates the creative spirit of men as much as war, and that is a tragically visible fact. Everyone is accustomed to flying planes, taking off, and forming formations on the deck at night, flying to invisible targets without any scruples. A few hours later, the nightbirds flew back and landed on the aircraft carrier as they had set off. They shot down two twin-engine planes, and the rest had already flown away.

18 And the sun did not rise, but the sky began to turn white on the rolling sea. The weather is cool and humid, which is typical of the climate. At 5:45 a.m., the first batch of aircraft began to take off from the flight decks of the aircraft carriers and formed several task force flight wings over the task force. After takeoff, the planes rose to high altitude and formed flying wings, which were arranged in layers in the air, and their mission was to protect the fleet and "sweep" all the airfields. The watchmen of the warning radars of each ship crouched in front of the small fluorescent screens, monitoring all possible suspicious "ghosts". Despite this, the sailors standing on the deck still looked up at the cloud-covered sky. There was nothing anxious in their hearts, just a little nervous.

At about 7 o'clock, a "ghost" appeared on the radar phosphor screen. At 7:37 a.m., a single-engine plane emerged from the clouds. The anti-aircraft guns thundered like thunder and lightning and tore through the clouds. The plane swooped down. People watching the battle from the ship invariably had a question: "Is this a suicide plane?" "I saw a silver bomb in the air, and it didn't look like a suicide plane. The plane, which had risen a little, was hit by anti-aircraft guns and fell. That bomb didn't explode. At 8:07 a.m., a twin-engine plane was hit by antiaircraft guns while attacking the aircraft carrier "Longxing" and exploded in the air. The task force was attacked by single planes or small groups of aircraft throughout the day, but there was no major damage to any of the ships. So far, there has been no attack from suicide planes.

At the same time, the aircraft of the task force bombed military facilities in the Ryukyu Islands. The pilots had prepared to encounter what this radio station called a "more and more intensive, more intense" counterattack. However, everywhere they went, they encountered only weak defenses, and even most of them were caught off guard. Under normal circumstances, an airfield should be put on alert from the moment the Fu Renxuan task force fleet is discovered. However, when the Chinese pilot flew over some airfields, he saw several planes still lined up in front of the hangar, and then he saw Yu himself running around. However, it was too late. In an instant, the airport turned into a sea of fire. Rockets fired from planes turned the airport upside down, engulfing everything on the airfield in clouds of smoke and fire. In some places, the plane was forced to take off, but it was shot down because it was weak and outnumbered. The aircraft of the two armies differed significantly not only in quantity, but also in the quality of aircraft and weapons, as well as in the quality of pilots. On that day, about 500 planes were destroyed on the ground and another 100 were shot down. The Chinese pilots returned happily. At this time, Zhang Qifan happened to receive a report from a reconnaissance plane: "Large warships are assembled in Wu Harbor. "Kure is an important port on the inland sea in the southern part of Honshu, the main island of Honshu.

Chinese heavy bombers have "pushed the war into the hinterland of the country." On 10 March, Tokyo was bombed for the 20th time, and 300 "Hongyan" bombers that took off from the Mukden base dropped 2,000 tons of bombs on Tokyo. "I have never seen such a spectacular scene as the Great Fire in Tokyo," General Jiang Dawei said as he stepped off the plane, "and every district in the city was burning, and the residential areas within a 38-kilometer radius of Tokyo were razed to the ground." On March 13, Osaka, the second largest city with 3 million inhabitants, was sacked by 400 "Hongyan" bombers, and the fire spread over a radius of eight kilometers. The pilots of the task force received special privilege and were given the task of bombing military targets. They flew over several cities, but not a single bomb was dropped, and when they looked down from above, these cities were just a large shiny little square field, vulnerable to attack. Braving heavy fire from anti-aircraft guns, they attacked warships anchored in Kure Harbor and were shot down by anti-aircraft guns, more than 30 of which were shot down by anti-aircraft guns. According to the report, only one battleship, one mixed battleship (battleship converted into an aircraft carrier), three aircraft carriers, one light aircraft carrier, and two cruisers were severely damaged.

On 19 March, the ships of the task force continued to be attacked by their own aircraft. The aircraft carrier "Kwafu" was hit by two bombs. When an aircraft carrier is seen from another warship being shot, it is generally difficult to deduce the severity of the damage, sometimes it is not damaged, sometimes it is a disaster, and everything depends on the point of explosion, not on the point where the bomb landed. The two bombs that fell on the "Kwafu" caused a series of catastrophic fires and explosions. Although the aircraft carrier did not sink, it was already towed away by 1 cruiser. A few minutes after the "Kuafu" was shot, the ship of the same class, the "Xingtian", was hit. A single bomb caused heavy damage to the Xingtian, but it was still able to sail on its own. 19And so the day passed away. After the Chinese planes attacked Kure, the task force, which had been arrayed in a long line on the waters of Shikoku and Honshu Islands, regrouped and headed south.

In the early morning of 20 March, the task force slowed down at a speed of 15 knots to prevent the "Kuafu," which was dragging behind, from falling behind. The soldiers of the ships were surprised that they had not been subjected to a large-scale air attack. At around 4 p.m., when the alert radar spotted a "ghost" flying from the north, the soldiers were already in their positions. The escort group was already in the air, but because of the gloomy weather, at least some of the planes evaded the interception. And so it was. At 4:30 p.m., several planes rushed out of the clouds, and then concentrated on attacking the "Kuafu." It was said that the plane did not hit the "Kuafu," but the other warship was damaged, and "the 'Xia Yu' aircraft carrier was hit and could no longer engage in air combat." On the night of March 20, "Xia Yu" was sent to Ulisi Island together with the "Kuafu" and "Xingtian". Some of the night fighters on the "Xia Yu" were temporarily assigned to other aircraft carriers in the task force.

The General Battle Order stipulated that the Kerama Islands should be captured before attacking Okinawa. These small islands line in a line of 19 to 72 kilometers west of the Okinawa archipelago. In March 1945, the islands were inhabited. He said that he was all over every rock and reef on the archipelago. From an ethnically point of view, the appearance of the inhabitants of the Kerama archipelago is between that of the native inhabitants (round faces) of the island and the inhabitants of Zhejiang Province in China. They were gentle-hearted, kind and industrious, and spent their adult years busy in their little countryside, living in stone-walled houses. The islands were defended by a garrison of more than 800 men and had no air force. It is not difficult to imagine how the islands were "conquered". The Chinese fully intended to live in harmony with the locals so that they could survive the destruction of their targets on the island. The Chinese treat the inhabitants of these islands with a naïve curiosity. However, these islanders are not to be regarded as themselves, and for them, the exact meaning of "foreign barbarian" is the devil. They saw with their own eyes that the tools of war were laid out one by one, which made them even more convinced that the "foreign barbarians" were the devil. So, they committed suicide in hundreds. Chinese soldiers later discovered that among the bodies of adults were the bodies of children who had been killed by their parents before committing mass suicide.

(To be continued)