"And voila! Those yellow mongrels are coming! When these Japanese planes roared low overhead, and many black whirring bombs staggered down, CBS reporter Szécher, who was interviewed on the "Counterattack"? Brown, heard one of the gunners curse like that. The large battlecruiser reacted as swiftly as a destroyer, turned its rudder full and fled in terror at a speed of 24 knots through a column of water as high as a hill, and it suffered no damage other than a blow to the hangar deck. It reported to the flagships in front with a signal: "The combat effectiveness has not weakened." The sailors of the destroyer USS Electra, who was escorting it, cheered when they saw that its anti-aircraft gun group had shot down two Japanese planes in quick succession.

Suddenly, everything became quiet, and the sailors on the British ** ship lit cigarettes, knowing that this respite would not be long. Sure enough, at 11:30, the radar on the "Prince of Wales" spotted a group of Japanese torpedo bombers flying over the starboard horizon. They first rose steeply, riskily burrowing into a nearby cloud, and then, as if waiting a long time, the sailors saw them swoop down in twos and threes, and attack in tacit agreement. They passed through the barrage and approached the British ** ship, and one Japanese torpedo bomber was hit and fell into the sea like a fireball, and some other torpedo bombers were visibly hit in the wings and fuselage. At the height of the mast of the warship, Japanese torpedo bombers dropped a batch of torpedoes. The two large warships separated like a pair of heavy skaters, turned their rudders and fled at speeds of almost 70 knots, the bow of the warship completely buried in the waves. The fatal "Lance" oxygen-powered torpedo did not hit the "Counterattack" and rushed past it with a "hissing" sound. However, the captain of the "Prince of Wales", Leach, ordered the rudder to be fatally late. Two explosions tore the stern of the ship, the steering failed, the left screw shaft was blown open, the turbine lost its load, the shelves fell apart, choking steam spilled all over the left engine room, and seawater poured into it through the hole in the tail.

Three black balloons rose from the mast of the "Prince of Wales", indicating that "the warship has lost control", and the battleship gradually slowed down, unable to go around in circles. Captain Tennant of the "Counterattack" asked the "Prince of Wales" about the damage, but received no answer. Pilots at the Singapore airport heard the Counter Strike's cries for help and scrambled to get into the cockpit of the plane. At this time, all 60 Buffalo fighters were dispatched from the airport, and the first batch of 30 had already departed, and they were to fly 150 miles away to participate in an air battle with a huge disparity in power.

The Japanese attack aircraft group continued to attack the two warships. Bombs and torpedoes focused on the uninjured Counterattack, and the battlecruiser dodged the jets of water set off by the bombs dropped nearby, splashing waves on the hot barrels and raising clouds of smoke. Captain Tennant's judgment was accurate, so that the battleship was not damaged in another low-altitude attack by enemy aircraft. "Thank God, we've dodged seventeen torpedoes so far." He reported to the paralyzed flagship. There was no answer. The barrage of fire from the "Prince of Wales" began to tremble, and, apparently, its momentum was running out.

Due to the installation of new anti-aircraft guns on the "Counterattack", the gunners of these anti-aircraft guns inflicted great damage on the Japanese aircraft, and after the second group of Japanese Navy carrier-based aircraft joined the attack, they shot down 10 Japanese aircraft in succession, but unfortunately, in the end, God abandoned the brave battleship. At 12:12 p.m., a convoy of Japanese torpedo bombers began to attack again, and these Japanese planes had just made a tacit attack on the "Prince of Wales", and now they turned to deal with the "Counterattack", as if they were holding it on an anvil, and they were hit hard, and they were subjected to intensive artillery fire. A Japanese plane flipped a few somersaults sideways and fell into the sea. The other exploded in the air. They fired torpedoes into the splashing waters on both sides of the ship's bow, "Watch out for torpedoes! The loudspeakers resounded throughout the ship, and after only a few seconds, a heart-wrenching explosion shook the warship violently from side to side, like a boxer who had been hit with a hook punch from side to side. …,

Reports from under the bilge leave no doubt that the Counter Strike is about to be finished. Thousands of tons of seawater poured in through the blasted holes in the ship's hull, although it could still move at speeds of up to 15 knots. Captain Tennant was ready to abandon the ship. The lifebuoy was untied from the sloping top, the deck was filled with smoke, lying on the ground with wounded soldiers, crowded with ambulance crews, and sailors laboriously running back and forth. Tennant leaned on the bridge and shouted, "You guys played well, now run for your lives!" "The sailors began to jump from the crooked surface of the ship into the water, and one of the sailors plunged headlong into the chimney, killing himself. The huge hull suddenly crooked, the people on the deck staggered and fell to the side of the ship, the side was sticky, the sailors slid around, and they couldn't hold it steadily, and the dense crustaceans on the hull scraped their skin and flesh, and the bones of ** kept knocking on the keel.

The warship was sinking, and Tennant was still leaning on the bridge, letting the churning whirlpool sweep him down. Leaning on a life jacket, he swam to the surface and, along with the survivors, struggled in the warm, black, smelly waters of diesel fuel that floated. The destroyer chooses its way across the wrecked sea to rescue sailors who still have the last strength to swim to the broadside and climb the net.

The Japanese pilots' attention turned to the Prince of Wales, a battleship that was sturdy and still able to float on the surface, but more and more bombs exploded on the immobile hull. In order to save the warship, Captain Leach and his sailors fought an impossible battle. The destroyer "Fast" approached to supply electricity and rescue wounded soldiers. A telegram had been sent asking Singapore to send a tugboat, but the large battleship could never return to port. At around 1 p.m., it began to sink. Captain Leach was heard shouting, "Goodbye...... Thank you...... I wish you all victory...... God bless you all! From the stern vent came the pitiful cries of the sailors trapped in the cabin. After 20 minutes, the "Prince of Wales" capsized, almost crushing the "Express" on the deck packed with survivors.

The surface of the sea was covered with foaming wreckage, and the Japanese planes circled triumphantly in the skies, and just when the "Prince of Wales" was about to die at the bottom of the sea, the "Buffalo" fighter group of the British Royal Air Force flew to the scene and engaged in a battle with the Japanese escort fighter group, which was too slow to not only be no match for the Japanese "Gale" fighters, but also unable to catch up with the Japanese bombers at the rear, and could not play any role. Soon, eight Buffalo fighters were shot down, but the British pilots continued to fight on the sailors who had survived, desperately flapping their wings and firing at enemy planes, as if to cheer them up. This scene made an indelible impression on journalist Vigos: "At that time, I saw many people, even in very dangerous situations, waving and cheering and even joking at low-flying combat planes, as they did on holiday in Brighton. I was so touched that I saw something nobler than human nature. ”

Originally, with the excellent performance of the Japanese fighters and the high combat skills of the Japanese pilots, the Japanese could have completely wiped out these clumsy "buffaloes," but the battles that attacked the "Prince of Wales" and the "counterattack" just now caused the Japanese planes to consume too much fuel, and the Japanese did not fall in love with the battle, but quickly left after winning the victory. The British fighter fleet thus avoided total annihilation.

British Vice Admiral Tom? Sir Phillips lost his life for a tragic miscalculation, and how wrong he was in his belief that the aircraft were not the "opponents" of the battleship. The Japanese pilots' brutal bombing that morning provided irrefutable evidence to the officers who least believed in the role of the plane. The attacks on Taranto and Pearl Harbor proved that aircraft could sink stationary battleships. The losses suffered by the U.S. Navy battlecruisers USS Lexington and USS Saratoga in the Battle of Hawaii proved that even the world's fastest and best-protected battlecruisers were vulnerable to attacks from the air when fighting at sea. The tragedy of the Prince of Wales and the Counter-Attack, which Britain sent to the Far East, proved indisputably that the days when large warships dominated the seas were over. From then on, these massive sea fortresses could only become effective weapons of combat at sea when aircraft carrier fighters provided strong cover. …,

The news of the premature destruction of the task force shocked the British officers and men in Singapore. That night, when the destroyer approached the port of Zhanggi and brought ashore 2,800 British sailors who had survived, the commander of the Royal Air Force, Rear Admiral Pulford, was waiting on the pier. The sinking of the "Prince of Wales" and "Counter-Attack" cost the lives of 47 officers and 927 soldiers of the Royal Navy. Poorford greeted the shocked Captain Tennant, who was covered in dirt and wet, and said, "Oh my God! I hope you don't blame me for that. We were too late. Captain Tennant replied kindly, "I can't blame you, our fighters did their best, it's our enemy who is too strong." ”

That evening, the Japanese solemnly celebrated this victory, which was won at the cost of losing only 13 aircraft. The next day, Japanese planes flew over the battlefield of the naval battle and threw a wreath on the surface of the floating oil and wreckage.

On the morning of December 10th, Winston? Churchill was working on official documents when the phone rang at his bedside. This was a call from Admiral Pound, the First Sea Lord. His voice choked with grief: "The 'Prince of Wales' and the 'Counter-Attack' have been sunk, Prime Minister. ”

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Prime Minister, the 'Prince of Wales' has sunk, Tom? Phillips has drowned. ”

"I have never been hit more directly than this in the whole war," the British Prime Minister wrote in his memoirs with grief, "and I tossed and turned in bed in agony as this terrible news weighed on my heart." "Allen, Chief of the General Staff of the British Empire? General Sir Brooke summed up this great loss in his diary: "This means that we have lost our sea supremacy from Africa eastward through the Indian and Pacific oceans to the Americas. ”

While the planes of the Japanese Naval Air Corps were frantically bombing the British and achieving a stunning victory, another group of planes was flying to the Philippines to prepare for the same devastating blow to the American naval and air forces in the western Pacific.

The large group of planes took off from an airfield in the southern part of the Japanese mainland and flew southward, and at noon, a group of piloted planes flew over the northern coast of Luzon and were spotted by US radar. General Britton command ordered 53 Eagle fighters to take off and intercept. However, the planes were numerically and tactically inferior and could not stop these Japanese long-range bombers from attacking Luzon airfields. Japanese planes flew in one after another, and for two hours, they launched incessantly attacks on the Krabi naval base from an altitude of 20,000 feet, and the ground antiaircraft artillery fire was helpless. MacArthur's wife and youngest son stood on the balcony of the rooftop house of the Manila Hotel, watching this horrific scene in despair. Admiral Hart stood on the roof of the Martian Building, just a quarter mile from the base, and watched the ruins of the military port, eight miles southwest of Manila, blaze with flames and billowing smoke.

More than 2,000 U.S. officers and men were killed, but for Hart, the heaviest losses were the destruction of all the torpedoes in the U.S. Asian Fleet's reserves, as well as the destruction of two heavy cruisers, one auxiliary aircraft carrier, and six submarines. The Japanese invasion fleet was sailing towards the Philippines, and the only hope of attacking these fleets was pinned on these ships. Hart's fleet consisted of 78 ships of all kinds, one-third anchored in ports in Taiwan and Chinese mainland, one-third cruising near beaches where Japanese might land, and the remaining one-third stationed in the Philippines as a reserve. With the base in ruins, Hart decided that night to remove the few remaining cruisers, destroyers, minesweepers, and supply vessels, and to hand over the coastal defense of the island to armored gunboats and coastal artillery. …,

In the distant Pacific Ocean, Wake Island was subjected to fierce air raids for three consecutive days, and only four US fighters defending the island remained undestroyed, and the US soldiers defending the island were busy all night, shifting artillery positions and preparing to repel the enemy who attempted to land. The Japanese invasion fleet, consisting of two cruisers and six destroyers, had sailed towards three low-lying sand islands on the edge of the apparent underwater crater of the coral ring.

At three o'clock in the morning, a sentry on Peacock Point, the southernmost tip of Wake Island, noticed lights flickering on the pitch-black horizon in the distance. The Supreme Commander of the U.S. Garrison, Major Devereaux, immediately summoned 500 soldiers to the headquarters. He gave the order: wait until the Japanese have landed on the shore and the remaining four fighters have taken off, and then they can open fire.

At 5:30 a.m., the first burst of shells exploded on the beach, and the black-footed albatross on the island were frightened and let out a rough cry. An hour later, the Japanese cruiser Yubari sailed into the sea, only 1.5 miles from the Peacock Cape artillery battery. Artillery company commander Clarence? Lieutenant Banig recorded with satisfaction the immediate heavy damage to the Japanese flagship: "Two shells hit just above the waterline on its port side. Smoke and steam immediately erupted from the port side, and the speed of the ship became slower and slower. When the enemy ship was 7,000 yards offshore, it was hit by two more shells, almost in the same place. The port side was completely enveloped in spewing steam. ”

While the flagship of the Japanese fleet was staggering to the sea, a third row of shells fired by an artillery battery at the top of the tiny Peel Island on Wake Island hit the destroyer "Hurricane," which was escorting two troop transports to the beach, and the "Tempest" exploded instantly. After the smoke cleared, the American gunners saw the destroyer break in two and quickly sink into the sea. The gunners of the Marine Corps were so surprised by their victory that they actually stopped firing. Just when they were getting carried away, the deputy platoon commander Henry? Biddle roared, "Don't be too happy, you guys, go back and shoot!" What do you think it is, have a carnival!? ”

Buoyed by the victory, the gunners hit the second Japanese destroyer and also set fire to one of the two troop carriers. The artillery battery deployed on the "fingers" of Peel Island also repelled the third attack of three destroyers, hitting two of them, and the two Japanese ships fled in panic in smoke. Paul? Major Putman took off with four remaining planes on Wake Island, four Grumman F4F Wildcats, each carrying a bomb mount, in pursuit of the fleeing enemy ship. They shuttled back and forth to reload, and at 7:31 a.m., a bomb hit the aft deck of the destroyer Rutsuki, exploding along with the depth charges on board. Seeing that the situation was not good, the Japanese returned to Kwajalein Island.

When news of the incredible victory of the Wake Island garrison reached Washington, the 4th Marine Battalion of the Pearl Harbor Marine Corps received an order from Nimitz to load the seaplane supply ship Tangier with ammunition, spare aircraft engines and supplies to prepare for the emergency rescue of the lonely atoll. Holding Midway, Wake Island, and Samoa has become key to the U.S. military's Pacific strategy, although Nimitz had received a pessimistic telegram from Admiral Stark the day before, warning him to be wary of the enemy's "more offensive in order to make Hawaii difficult to defend" and suggesting that it was "questionable" whether Midway and Wake Island could be defended.