Captain Huo Xishan, the gunnery officer on the cruiser "Yinhu" at the very front of the line, vividly recalled: "I could clearly see the shells exploding on the warship, bursting into a stream of flames, tearing off the top of the turret, and when they burrowed into the heavy armor plates, they would shoot out red-hot melted steel." ”

Ignoring the heavy artillery fire of the Chinese fleet, the heavy cruiser again rushed to the torpedo attack position, and fired another 10 torpedoes at the battleship "Minu" on the other side. During this period, the "Haguro" was hit by heavy shells, a fire broke out under the bridge, and the No. 3 and No. 4 main gun towers were also destroyed. However, because the heavy cruiser was too far forward, it was caught by the radar of the Chinese cruiser "Chenlong", and as a result, it was bombarded by 280-millimeter shells like raindrops, and was hit by 11 rounds in succession.

The "Atago", which began to stagger and retreat, was soon caught up by the "Yinhu" and hit two guns, and after a column of water rose under the engine room on the starboard side, the heavy cruiser began to tilt, followed by a series of explosions, and finally disappeared into the sea, killing 232 officers and men, including Kondo Nobutake.

Shimura Tori, the first to turn around, saw the destruction of the Atago: "Our ship was almost unsailable, and not long after, the Atago exploded so loudly that the whole ship erupted like a volcano, illuminating the sea clearly. In the raging flames, the mainmast of the Atago finally collapsed. Soon the hull tilt reached 45°, and the officers and men on board finally began to abandon the ship, but most of the sailors had no time to escape, and two minutes later the heroic warship finally capsized and began to sink in the stern. There are only 10 survivors on the whole ship......"

At this time, the cruiser "Chenlong" suddenly discovered that a torpedo had crossed the bow of the ship, and hurriedly reported the news of the approaching torpedo to the flagship of the fleet; Rear Admiral Li Xianyang had already heard of the power of the long-range torpedo, and he hurriedly ordered the fleet to retreat to the north. But at this moment, two 406-mm shells fired by the battleship "Nation" hit the "Shima", and the "Shima", which was already seriously damaged, could no longer withstand such a blow, and with a violent explosion, the "Shima" quickly disappeared into the sea.

At this time, six large Chinese cruisers and two battleships fired a total of more than 400 shells, and no one can accurately count how many shells hit the warships in this burst of flames, but the sinking of five heavy cruisers is a fact.

After the waves gradually subsided, and after the artillery fire on the sea fell silent, the Chinese cruiser began to rescue the seriously damaged battleship "Reading Power", marking the end of the "Dragon Triangle" naval battle.

As the Chinese fleet sailed out of the "Dragon Triangle", the sky also became brighter.

"Our plane has arrived."

On the bullet-riddled battleship "Fuxi", Zhang Enming pointed to the appearance of Chinese Navy carrier-based fighters in the sky and said to Chu Yangwei.

"It's good to come, it's good to come." Chu Yangwei said in a hoarse voice and nodded, "Now that we meet Yu himself again, we will really be in trouble." ”

"Yes! I really don't want them to see us like this. Zhang Enming looked at the surface of the ship where the smoke had not yet dissipated, and smiled bitterly.

The pilots of the Chinese Navy's air force in the sky were also amazed when they looked at the huge warships with bullet scars slowly moving on the sea at this moment.

Fighter pilot Hu Sigui recorded what he saw on the sea as follows:

"At the beginning of 1943, I joined the Naval Air Corps as a tail machine gunner and radio communicator on a 'Javelin' carrier-based attack aircraft, and our squadron was attached to the aircraft carrier 'Dragon'."

"After the battle of the 'Dragon Triangle' began. Our initial news of the enemy's fleet had been intermittent, and our pilots were very conflicted, and we hoped that we would have gathered all their broken warships sooner rather than later, and then land on our own soil to end this damned war; But we are also a little afraid, and there is no doubt that a bad battle awaits us, and there will definitely be people who will die for it. ”

"That morning, the squadron leader summoned us for a mission briefing, and the words were extremely brief, summed up in one sentence: sink the enemy ship. At 10 o'clock in the morning, hundreds of aircraft taking off from 12 aircraft carriers formed a huge group and flew to the target. I kept checking the machine guns and ammunition, and I was extremely nervous. But when I saw so many of our planes and so many brothers around me, it gave me a lot of confidence. ”

"At about 12 noon, the squadron of dive bombers reported that they had spotted the Flotilla. Soon after, we saw this very uncoordinated fleet, with the largest warships and the smallest very different, and many warships that were almost ignored around a huge battleship, which was our target, the battleship 'Yamato'. ”

"Our squadron dropped all the torpedoes. It's a pity that only 1 hit. After returning to reload, we participated in the third wave of attacks on the Yamato. By 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the "Yamato" was gone, and the squadron leader flew a long distance with our 3 "Javelins", and then, like a textbook example, one after the other, lined up one after the other to throw torpedoes at one of the enemy's cruisers. It was the biggest target we could find at the time, and '1,2,3,4' I counted slowly, and the four torpedoes trailed towards the enemy ship. 'All hits!' We did a great job! The cheers of the squadron leader were heard over the intercom, but I still regretted that our squadron did not become the gravedigger of the Yamato. ”

“…… After the battle in the entire 'Dragon Triangle' area, it is customary for us to take pictures of the effects of the attack with the cameras on the planes. So, we flew slowly to a low altitude closer to the surface of the sea battle, and I found the bodies of countless Sailors floating on the sea, as well as many survivors struggling in the sea, a scene that I will never forget. ”

"From the photographs that were later printed, I found that many of the sailors who fell into the water looked about the same age as me. If there had been no war, maybe I would have been friends with them, playing ball together, drinking together. However, the warlords have made us enemies and killed each other......"

At about the same moment, Kato Yansuke, who was standing on the bridge of the battleship "Shinano", looked at the warships of Yomoto moving forward on the sea, and his heart fluctuated.

"It was a wrong battle at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and in the wrong enemy. The cost was greater than any other battle in this war. ”

"The state of the Military Command Department is the most powerful proof of the poor and unsatisfactory intelligence work. Until the eve of the battle, the military command had miscalculated and informed the troops who were on their way to the battlefield that the Shina fleet was fighting in the Solomon area, thus strongly suggesting that the enemy had not yet discovered that the Zamoto fleet was about to attack the Shina mainland. The intelligence work of the combined fleet was not much better. The Combined Fleet Command, while noticing the unusual activity of the enemy in its home waters, did not see the situation as a serious sign that the enemy was preparing to deal with it and needed to warn the other forces. ”

"Another fundamental reason for the defeat in the battle of the Dragon Triangle was that the basic plan of the operation itself was wrong. The most prominent and glaring mistake in this regard is the improper deployment of various naval forces. The decision-makers of the battle plan had followed their proud move, but this time it became a fatal one, which was to disperse the deployment of forces. Instead of organizing its forces into an unprecedentedly large mobile force, the Combined Fleet adopted the policy of dispersing its forces, with the result that the strength of each unit was relatively weak. Strategically, the dispersed forces deployed in Hawaii were not important, as the purpose of such forces was solely to destroy U.S. military installations there and occupy the islands. From a tactical point of view, the purpose of the Combined Fleet's operation is to divert the enemy's attention from the main attack on the mainland, but it is undoubtedly inappropriate to sacrifice the definite advantage of concentrating forces in exchange for the uncertain advantage of containing the enemy. If you want to contain the enemy, you may not be able to contain it, but in fact, it does not achieve this goal. Moreover, the dispersion of troops is not limited to the division of troops into two routes, and the lack of concentration of troops is a basic tactical weakness in land, sea, and air operations. In the Dragon Triangle, this weakness provided convenient conditions for the enemy's offensive, since the troops were far away and could not function at all. Once Nagumo's aircraft carrier was annihilated, the weakness of the Japanese side due to the dispersion of troops caused the army to almost completely lose its combat effectiveness. On the contrary, the deployment of troops on the Chinese side has been very compact and powerful. In this operation, the troops on the Chinese side were concentrated from beginning to end, and they were able to concentrate their forces to the maximum extent possible, both in attack and defense. ”

"To give a concrete example, the battle could have had been a different outcome if forces had been deployed wisely, such as if the main force had acted with Nagumo's forces, and Admiral Yamamoto's several large battleships covering the aircraft carriers, which would have greatly strengthened the forces. The tremendous firepower of the battleships and escort ships will repel many of the incoming enemy planes, and will undoubtedly attract some attacking enemy planes away from the hapless aircraft carrier. In addition, Admiral Yamamoto was in direct control of the battle, and he couldn't control the situation because he was too far away. If the battleship had been used well, it would have been possible to play its true role and power in battle. ”

"Another mistake in the battle plan was that the focus was not firmly on the central goal of the operation - the annihilation of the enemy's carrier fleet and not the battlefleet. The annihilation of the enemy's aircraft carrier fleet should be unequivocally set as the primary objective of this operation, and everything else should be subordinated to this goal. And the Combined Fleet refused to do so because of its excessive emphasis on the annihilation of the battleships of the Chinas. ”

"Because of these serious deficiencies in the basic operational plan, the commanders of our troops suffered two great losses at the beginning. Even so, if they had not made mistakes in their tactical command, it seemed certain that the results would not have been so disastrous. It has been said that in a battle both sides make mistakes, and victory belongs to the side that makes fewer mistakes. In the Battle of the Dragon Triangle, it is self-evident which side made more mistakes. Indeed, if we study the situation of the two sides, we cannot but admit that all the mistakes made in this operation were the original aspects. ”

"There were also serious mistakes in the command arrangements for the 'Dragon Triangle' operation, and this mistake was caused by the tradition of the Navy, that is, the commander should be on the front line in person during the operation. So Admiral Yamamoto hung his admiral's flag on the 'Yamato' and sailed to the sea to boost the morale of the combat troops. Obviously, this outdated concept is not in keeping with the requirements of modern warfare at sea. It is far more important for the commander to be aware of the overall situation and to be able to inform and maintain control over the entire army under his command, which is far more important than any morale issues involved. The people of China knew and understood this problem, so the headquarters of the Navy of China was always located ashore during the war. Since Yamamoto was on the Yamato, he was unable to communicate with his subordinate fleets due to the weather until the last moment. So he could not exert any control over the operation in time. If the Combined Fleet Command is located ashore, and it is located in Tokyo, which is located in the transportation and intelligence center, leaving the Dragon Delta sea where the use of radio is restricted, he will not only be able to inform his troops of the latest developments in the war situation and the enemy situation, but will also be able to maintain a firm grip on the situation of the war. ”

"The outdated opinions about the 'old school' naval personnel and their battleship supremacy were among the main reasons for the defeat in battle. Spending huge manpower and material resources to build super battleships such as the Yamato, Musashi, Shinano, and Mino was a huge waste of resources and dealt a great blow to those who were enthusiastic about aviation. ”

"Neither the development of science and technology, nor the changes in the mode of warfare brought about by the development of science and technology, until much later, were unable to influence the thinking of the battleship supremacists. As early as the thirties and the period of the First Sino-Chinese War, it became clear that in modern warfare aviation must be regarded as a real force. In the first few months after the start of the Pacific War, the remarkable results achieved by the air force completely confirmed and strengthened this view. However, the diehards still belittle the role of aircraft in combat. They believe that these initial victories were pure fluke. They insisted that the fundamental nature of aircraft carriers is that they are too unable to withstand attacks, and that shore-based air forces have a limited range and cannot play an important role in the vast Pacific Ocean, so the final victory or defeat in a war at sea still depends on battleships as in the past. These advocates believed that the firepower of a modern battleship was sufficient to enable it to defend itself against air attacks by enemy aircraft. ”

"At the other end of the scale are those who advocate the omnipotence of aviation, who take the initial gains in the air as proof that battles and wars can be won by aircraft and aircraft carriers alone. This view is also terrible, because it completely does not take into account the role that battleships were supposed to play in the war. As a result, the pilots generally regarded the battleship unit as completely useless and made a joke of it, ridiculing the battleship force as the 'island flotilla'. ”

"Naval aviation has indeed taken the place of battleships as the decisive naval strike force. In the early days of the war, the ship-based and shore-based aircraft of the Navy's ship-based and shore-based aircraft annihilated the battleship forces of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor and the battleships of the British Far East Fleet in the Malayan Sea convincingly proved this point. It is worth noting that after the China Army pointed to the homeland, carrier-based aircraft and shore-based aircraft were also used in the offensive operations to defeat the country. ”

"The use of battleships by the China Navy is a very vivid example. The prominence of naval aviation and aircraft carriers does not mean that the battleships of China, which have powerful guns, have nothing to do, and can only vaguely hope that they will be able to fight a battle in a big way. On the contrary, before attacking the island, the battleships of China skillfully shelled the outpost strongholds of the island, and they hit them fiercely, as any of the defenders of the island who were still alive could attest. The China Navy also made good use of battleships to cover aircraft carrier forces. The powerful anti-aircraft fire network of these battleships effectively prevented the aircraft from approaching and attacking the China aircraft carrier. ”

"It's not that the head of the Navy is unaware of the changes that have taken place in the war at sea, but they seem unwilling to face reality. For example, Rear Admiral Takijiro Onishi was transferred back to Tokyo from the Southern Front, and on the way reported to the Combined Fleet Command on operations in the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies. He emphatically talked about the change in the emphasis on areas in the engagement with the enemy, and explained that surface artillery warfare has taken a back seat to air warfare and air-to-sea warfare. Onishi's opinion was met with a cold reception. This can be seen in the reaction of the Chief of Staff of the Combined Fleet, Rear Admiral Ugaki, who said that it is too early to draw conclusions on such a fundamental issue based only on the local operational situation on the Southern Front. The account in Ugaki's Chronicle of the Heavens can illustrate the thinking of the upper echelons of the Tsunamo Navy on this issue at that time. He said: 'In the vast oceans, shore-based aviation can only be used on a small scale. In my opinion, aircraft carriers alone cannot provide sufficient aviation for offensive operations. …… Everyone agreed that battleships were valuable tools of warfare. Unless we have another way to subdue the enemy's battleships, we must maintain our battleship strength. This is the firm view of the battleship supremacists. ”

(To be continued)