Before the terrible thoughts in the minds of the Black Island Turtle Man had been dispelled, a staff officer of the Central Pacific Front Fleet sent him even more unexpected news: the electric scouts on Diamond Hill had discovered that dozens of enemy ships were approaching Oahu!

"What? Are the Americans really going to attack Oahu? The Black Island Turtle Man exclaimed, "Don't they care about the dead and wounded?" ”

The Sanchuan army on the side snorted coldly: "Even if the Americans don't care about casualties, Oahu is not something they can capture...... The fortress of Oahu, enough to withstand 1 million, no, 10 million American troops! ”

The Black Island Turtle Man, who had a little gaffe just now, also came back to his senses at this time, nodded heavily, and said: "What Commander Mikawa said is extremely true, the fortress of Oahu Island is impregnable, and if the US army dares to attack, even if there are tens of millions, they will be killed and wounded!" ”

He and Mikawa now don't regard the "million enemy" as a large number that can flood the Hawaiian Islands, because the American troops who are now attacking Hawaii are measured in square nautical miles, and the number must exceed 1 million. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Now that the surface ships of the Americans have come, the Kuroshima Turtle Man and the Mikawa Gunichi naturally cannot watch the battle leisurely. The two immediately returned to the war room of the Central Pacific Front Fleet Command. At this time, the sick Takasu Shiro had also arrived, and was sitting on a chair listening to the report of the fleet's first staff officer.

Seeing Kuroshima and Mikawa walking in, Takasu Shiro asked, "Kuroshima-kun, Mikawa-kun, what's the situation outside?" ”

"Your Excellency, the Americans launched a suicide attack on the first airfield of the Navy, and their suicide plane seemed to hit the oil depot and caused a fire."

The Black Island Turtle Man reported with a frown. The runway was blown out of a few big craters, and Black Island didn't care, because there are 4 large airports on Oahu that can take off and land Me264. In addition, there are many Japanese sappers and Korean and Taiwanese soldiers on the island, and the big hole can be quickly filled.

But the oil depot was blown up but it was distressing, the oil depot of the First Navy Airport stored tens of thousands of tons of aviation gasoline, burned out but the loss was too great - in fact, the oil depot was fine, the fire that Kuroshima saw was caused by napalm, a full 9 tons of napalm and BQ-7 suicide planes crashed into an anti-aircraft artillery position, burning hundreds of Japanese artillery alive.

"Baga!" Takasu Shiro didn't know that the oil depot was fine, so he also scolded in a low voice.

Mikawa said worriedly: "Your Excellency, just now the telegraph discovered that dozens of US ships are approaching Oahu, and it is very likely that they will blockade Pearl Harbor with mines, and if they succeed, the 8th Fleet will not be able to get out." ”

This time, Mikawa guessed correctly, one of the purposes of Halsey's night attack tonight was to imprison the Japanese 8th Fleet at Pearl Harbor, so that Niihau Island would be easy to attack. In order to achieve this goal, dozens of "Little Shark" class submarines will be laying mines outside Pearl Harbor tonight!

The target that has now been detected by Japanese detectives is actually Ali. The Gridley-class fast destroyers commanded by Burke to cover submarine operations carried 16 533mm torpedoes on each destroyer and four 127mm guns, which were used against Japanese destroyers or destroyers.

If Mikawa Junichi's fleet were to go to sea now, it would not only be attacked by dozens of US "heavy mine ships," but also US submarines under water would also attack, and the losses would certainly be very heavy.

"Don't worry," Takasu Shiro said, "send minesweepers and submarine destroyers and anti-submarine patrol planes in the East China Sea after dawn to clear the outer seas, and then the 8th Fleet will be able to leave port safely." ”

There was nothing wrong with Takasu's calculations, warships were very valuable to the Japanese navy, and they could not be taken lightly. However, he ignored the huge numerical superiority of US warships, and there were 51 US "Little Shark" class submarines that were mineed outside Pearl Harbor this night (at this time and space, because the control of the Pacific and Atlantic seas were in the hands of the enemy, the Americans began to build submarines on a large scale in 1942, and the Little Shark class built more than 300 submarines as the main submarine), and each "Little Shark" carried 10 Mk-15 torpedoes and 40 mines.

In other words, 51 submarines can lay 2,040 mines in one night, and these mines are not traditional triggered mines, but non-triggered magnetic mines. Rather than lying on the surface of the water, the mines sank to the bottom of the water, and as soon as Japanese ships passed nearby, they would detonate them because of their magnetic properties - these mines were invented by Germany, Japan's ally, and were put into battle at the beginning of the war in 1939, sinking many British ships. However, there are also a few magnetic mines captured by the British (this is unavoidable, because magnetic mines are laid in shallow seas, so there is a problem of high tide and low tide, some mines are thrown in the water when the tide is long, and the tide will show their true colors as soon as the tide goes out), and then the British copied the magnetic mines and gave them to the United States.

And the magnetic mines imitated by the United States are now being used in the battle of the Hawaiian Islands. Not only was Pearl Harbor completely blocked by these mines, but the nearby port of Honolulu was also blocked as a dead port.

Not only could the cruisers and destroyers of the 8th Fleet not leave Pearl Harbor, but even the small ships sent out to clear mines and drive away submarines were sunk by 8 in a row!

At the same time, from mid-February 1944, U.S. submarines sent to Japan's coastal waters and the islands of the South Seas began to lay bottom-sinking magnetic mines or anchor mines in various channels with shallow water levels to blockade Japan's foreign trade.

……

"It's a magnetic mine!"

When the news of the bombing and sinking of minesweepers and submarine destroyers belonging to the Central Pacific Front Fleet reached Japan, Yamamoto Isoroku immediately knew what was going on.

Because in the Atlantic theater, the Americans and Europeans have long competed with each other with magnetic mines, and even developed acoustic mines and hydrostatic mines on the basis of magnetic mines.

Although the United States has not used magnetic mines much in the Pacific theater, Yamamoto Isoroku, who is very concerned about the Atlantic theater, still noticed the situation of mine warfare in Europe and the United States. The Japanese naval mission to Germany was also instructed to find ways to crack magnetic mines.

In fact, there is no good way, one is the demagnetization of ships; One is to use electromagnetic minesweepers to detonate - the former is a big project, and it is too late to do it in wartime, so you can only demagnetize professional minesweepers first. The latter is also very troublesome, and it is necessary to make a lot of towed electromagnetic minesweepers, and the electromagnetic minesweepers may be damaged and must be replaced at any time.

In addition, the method of using electromagnetic minesweepers to detonate mines is not 100 percent successful. After all, the Americans and Europeans have been harming each other with magnetic mines for almost two years, and they have also figured out some ways to deal with electromagnetic minesweepers.

Therefore, mine-clearing operations are a task that requires a lot of manpower, material resources and patience.

"Your Excellency Marshal, there have recently been many incidents of ships being damaged and sunk by mines in the vicinity of the Bungo Suido, Kii Suido, Sagami Bay, and Tokyo Bay, and the Strait of Malacca." Tsunichi Ito, vice secretary of the Navy's Command Department, said to Yamamoto with some concern, "In addition, the submarine activities of the Americans are becoming more and more rampant, and if effective measures cannot be taken, I am afraid that there will soon be a shortage of resources in the mainland." ”

Yamamoto Fifty-six shook his head, to ensure the smooth transportation of local resources, in fact, there is no good way, that is, to invest more resources in the navy.

First of all, it is necessary to invest more destroyers and anti-submarine patrol ships, and now the United States has put into the western Pacific and the islands of the South Seas an estimated number of several hundred! It can't be dealt with by a few dozen old destroyers in any case, and it is necessary to invest several times as many escort destroyers.

Secondly, it is necessary to invest in a sufficient number of minesweepers and destroyers - not only in the construction of wooden-hulled ships and electromagnetic minesweepers, but also in the training of personnel.

According to the experience of mine warfare and submarine warfare in Europe and the United States, if the enemy invests in one submarine to lay mines, it needs at least three minesweepers to clear mines in order to ensure safety.

Moreover, the mine-laying submarine is in charge of the initiative, and the minesweeper is passive. In order to ensure the absolute safety of the shipping lanes, it is necessary to maintain a certain number of minesweepers in each area that may be mined.

As far as Japan is concerned, it is indispensable to deploy thousands of wooden-hulled minesweepers, and in addition, it must be equipped with a sufficient number of submarine destroyers to protect the minesweepers from being sunk by submarines.

And escort destroyers are even more important, and the number must be increased to at least three hundred or more in order to ensure the suppression of the increasingly rampant American submarines.

But where did so many minesweepers, submarine destroyers, destroyers, and qualified naval officers come from?

Yamamoto Isoroku, the Minister of the Navy, also felt a little helpless!

"Passive defense is not always an option," said Shuseki Nagano, the head of the Navy's Command Department, shaking his head, "and being proactive is the only effective way to overcome the lack of national strength." As for the increasingly rampant US submarine activities, the only way to do this is to transfer troops to Australia after the victory of the 'Jet-1 operation', so as to force Australia to expel the US military and negotiate peace with our empire. ”

This is indeed a solution that can not only solve the headache of American submarines, because at least more than half of them are based in Australia. Moreover, it can solve the problem of possible US strategic bombing of the oil fields in the South Seas, which is indeed once and for all.

"First airlift a few sets of Type 5 electromagnetic minesweepers (just been copied) to Oahu." Yamamoto also knew that what Nagano said was the only solution - Japan could not fight like Europe and the United States, and could only win first and then seek perfection.

"Besides...... Yamamoto pondered and added, "the American attack on Oahu has indeed put us in a dilemma. ”

As he spoke, he glanced at Ito, the deputy head of the Military Command Department, as if he was asking for his opinion. "What the Army is worried about now is that the Americans are destroying the airfield on Oahu using the tactics of night attacks by suicide planes and artillery strikes by battleships...... The 1st Navy airfield was seriously damaged last night, and since the Americans have successfully blockaded Pearl Harbor, they may send battleships tonight! ”