By the time the morning of December 17, 1941, the sun flag was flying over Lihue, the capital of Kauai. The Taiwanese Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army www.biquge.info, supported by two army aircraft carriers, occupied the area on the afternoon of the 16th.

Lieutenant General Paulus, head of the German military advisory group, who had been adrift at sea for more than 20 days, is now finally standing on solid and stable ground. At 10 o'clock in the morning of the 17th, he was taking his "royal photographer" Rudolph. Feng. Second Lieutenant Ribbentrop visits several Japanese Navy tanks parked on the pier.

Is there a tank with a "ship"? Of course, there is, and the Japanese Navy stipulates that their tanks are "one" and "two", not one and two. By the way, the tanks of the Japanese Navy are also called "combat vehicles", but "internal fire boats".

After seeing the Army aircraft carriers, Paulus and Ribbentrop Jr. now have their eyes back. However, it was not the naval tanks that opened their eyes - the army had aircraft carriers, which the Germans had not heard of, but it was common for the navy to have tanks. The current German Marine Corps is also equipped with a number of No. 3 tanks that have been eliminated by the army, and the General Directorate of Armaments has also issued an order to develop amphibious tanks.

But the brains of using submarines to transport tanks for a sneak attack still made the eyes of Lieutenant General Paulus and Second Lieutenant Ribbentrop shine.

The German Navy had a lot of submarines, 400 large and small! If they could be used to transport tanks to attack the British mainland, wouldn't they be able to send an armored division to the British mainland overnight!

However, the Japanese Navy did not have so many submarines and did not have so many tanks. There are now only 30 "inner fireboats" on Kauai, and they will travel in 15 submarines to attack the Kamehameha and Randolph batteries on Oahu.

According to the reconnaissance of Japanese intelligence services, the frontal defense of the Kamehameha and Randolph batteries on the coast of Honolulu was relatively "lax", no anti-tank trenches were dug and no anti-tank weapons were deployed.

Who would have thought of digging anti-tank trenches on the beach in front of the batteries with 14-inch and 8-inch cannons? As long as those cannons are not destroyed, it is impossible for the enemy's landing ships and landing craft to get close to each other. If even the armored batteries were destroyed, then the enemy must have had many powerful battleships, and what else could anti-tank trenches and anti-tank guns do?

Therefore, the idea of transporting tanks by submarine to the frontal landing of the Kamehameha and Randolph batteries was absolutely revolutionary.

And the special two-type internal fireboat that the Japanese used to realize this genius idea also looks quite good. Both the hull and turret are welded with steel plates, and the front and back plates are placed at an angle to increase the ballistic effect. The firepower of the special type 2 internal fireboat is not weak, with a 37mm tank gun and two 7.7mm machine guns. Compared to a light tank with a total combat weight of only 9.15 tons (on land) and 12.5 tons (on water, with pontoons), this is definitely not weak.

In addition, the pontoon tank of the special type 2 internal fireboat is also carefully designed. It can be detached and equipped with a pontoon, and the special 2 will become a small boat with tracks and load wheels, which can sail at a speed of 9.5 km/h and drive up to 140 km. If ashore, the maximum speed of the Type 2 fireboat is 37 km/h and the maximum range is 320 km.

And just as Paulus and Ribbentrop Jr. were carefully observing a Japanese Navy tank, someone suddenly shouted: "Air attack! Air raid! Hide ...... quickly."

Paulus and Ribbentrop Jr. could not understand Japanese, but they knew what was going on when they saw the Korean coolies unloading from two Japanese freighters and the Japanese soldiers guarding them rushing in the direction of the air raid trenches.

However, the two German military advisers did not go to the pit, but ran into a coconut grove not too far from the bay at the risk of being bombed, raised their binoculars and began to watch the bombing.

The number of incoming American planes was large, enough for one hundred and forty or fifty, and the arrival in a group gave people the feeling of covering the sky and the sun. However, there were not many Japanese planes intercepting incoming enemy planes in the air, only 10 Japanese Army Type 1 fighters. These one-type fighters are specially modified to take off and land on army aircraft carriers, and are actually a kind of army carrier-based fighters. And its performance is not much different except for the Zero aircraft, which is not as good as the Navy's range, and even the appearance is relatively similar, so that it is often confused by their enemies.

"10 Zeros, Major McBell, over to you!" Lieutenant Commander Ault, who commanded the attacking US fighters, also mistook the Japanese Type 1 fighter in the sky for the Type Zero, and he gave an order to Major McBell, who was the commander-in-chief of the fighter formation, through the airborne radio, and then began to observe the situation on the sea.

"2 aircraft carriers!" He immediately spotted two Japanese Army aircraft carriers on the sea, "two light aircraft carriers, dive bombers went up first, then torpedo bombers!" Let's sink them! ”

Lieutenant Commander Ault himself was the pilot of the SBD Dreadnought dive bomber, and he assigned several squadrons of dive bombers and torpedo attack planes to his squadron, and then took the lead and swooped down on the Japanese Army aircraft carrier "Akitsu Maru" with a squadron of SBDs. In just 3 minutes, 18 SBDs completed the bomb drop, smashing 3 1000-pound armor-piercing shells on the poor army aircraft carrier. All three bombs penetrated the wooden flight deck, and one exploded in an empty hangar (all the fighters on board the aircraft carrier had been transferred to Lihue airfield). Another burrowed into the engine room and blew the ship's diesel engine to shreds. The last one fell to the bottom of the bow, and as a result, a large hole was made in the bow of the "Akitsu Maru". The uncontrollable surging of the sea, the 11,800-ton aircraft carrier soon sank into the sea at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Three minutes later, bad luck befell the "Shenzhou Maru", the 8,000-ton army aircraft carrier was hit by two 1,000-pound bombs and two torpedoes, and the hull broke into two and sank into the Pacific Ocean.

After the US planes cleanly killed the two army aircraft carriers, dozens of black spots appeared in the northeast sky, which were supposed to be carrier-based planes sent by the Japanese aircraft carriers. Lieutenant Commander Ort, who had just made a great contribution, thought that the credit for sinking the two aircraft carriers was enough, and there was no need to risk any more for the transport ships and oil tankers on the sea, so he gave the order to retreat. All the American planes in the sky that had not yet dropped their bombs dropped their bombs and torpedoes and fled before the arrival of the Japanese Zeros.

An air raid ended in less than 10 minutes, and the dream of an aircraft carrier for the Imperial Japanese Army was completely shattered.

……

"Baga! In 10 minutes, 2 aircraft carriers were lost, army red deer! ”

Inside the "Yamato Hotel," as soon as General Yamamoto heard that two army aircraft carriers had been blown up and sunk by the Americans, he immediately burst into a loud scolding.

This army aircraft carrier is also an aircraft carrier! Although the carrier-based aircraft is a little small, as long as it is modified, it can still be used as an escort aircraft carrier. It is unforgivable that it was so easily blown up and sunk by the Americans like this!

The chief of staff of the Combined Fleet, Ugaki, also said with some resentment: "Good army, what kind of aircraft carrier to build, isn't this nonsense?" If the Army had been willing to hand over these two aircraft carriers to our Navy, there would have been no end like this. ”

Yamamoto nodded approvingly, the army is just a bunch of fools who can only mess around, and this kind of thing really depends on the navy to fight a war!

"Where is the First Mobile Fleet?" At this time, Yamamoto asked again, "Can you get an American aircraft carrier?" ”

Now the main forces of the 1st Mobile Fleet and Yamamoto have acted separately. Nagumo left two light aircraft carriers into Yamamoto's First Fleet, plus the original light aircraft carrier of the First Fleet, and there were three light aircraft carriers under the First Fleet. And the 1st Mobile Fleet has only 6 large fleet aircraft carriers left.

"Commander, the 1st Mobile Fleet is northwest of Kauai, about 80 nautical miles from Kauai."

"Then let Nagumo pursue the American fleet as soon as he finds it!" Yamamoto paused, and then said, "Order the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd submarine forces to immediately go east of Hawaii Island, and report immediately if they find a U.S. convoy!" ”

"Hay!"

……

"What? Bombed and sank two aircraft carriers of the Army? Nanyun Zhong was also taken aback when he heard the news, "Aren't there 24 planes on Kauai Island?" Why is it still playing like this? ”

"Commander, how can army aviation be compared with our naval aviation?" Genda explained on the side, "They don't have the consciousness to cover the aircraft carrier at all. ”

"That's right!" Nanyun Zhong gritted his teeth, "What kind of aircraft carrier are these stupid army army engaged in, it's really stupid......" He looked back at Gentian, "We must avenge the army aircraft carrier now!" Send out all the 'comets' and be sure to find the American aircraft carriers. ”

Minoru Genda immediately said: "Commander, four Zero fighters have been sent to follow the US aircraft group, and we should be able to find the location of the US aircraft carrier very quickly." ”

The 4 Zeros sent by Genda were a 4-plane formation led by Hirschman Jr., who had just taken to the sky to serve as a direct cover, and was sent by Genda to Kauai Island, not to let them fight with American planes in the air, but to let them quietly follow to find American aircraft carriers.

"Okay, great." Nan Yunzhong thought for a while, and then said, "But the radio stations on those Zero planes are not very useful, so we are still sending three more 'Comets' to follow them." (To be continued.) )