There was a blockade in front and a pursuer in the back, and this battle was definitely a battle as a nest in all the wars that Teragaki Inozo fought, and even so far, they have not found the shadow of the enemy. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

For a time, all the warships turned on the lights, some to detect the surrounding situation, and some to the sky, but this is not used for air defense, but for discovering the black smoke in the air, so as to judge the general direction of the enemy, there are not many conditions that can be used in night operations, so any way, as long as there is still a little possibility, they must do their best to use it.

"Report to the general, no enemy troops were found, but based on the direction of the torpedoes, we speculated that the enemy ships were on the right side of the formation."

Teragaki Inozo knew that the range of the Chinese's torpedoes was far beyond their imagination, but after learning that the fleet had not searched the enemy's position, he was instantly a little surprised, so can it be said that the enemy ship was at least five kilometers away? Or ten kilometers away?

If you are in that position, this battle is really difficult to handle, the larger the range, the more difficult it is to attack, as long as the opponent does not turn on the lights, they can only fight blindly, that is, blind fighting, the hit rate is needless to say, if you can hit one, it will be considered to burn high incense.

Therefore, no matter how he plans to fight this battle, the first task is to find the other party, and then he can fight.

But there is no doubt that there are not many options left for Teragaki Inozo, and it can even be said that there are no options at all. The only thing he could do was to lead the fleet to rush over and kill the enemy to keep the troop carriers as safe as possible.

And looking at the Japanese army that fell into the sea like a dumpling, Teragaki Inozo was speechless for a while, yes, what else could he do besides being speechless?

'......Boom'

There was another violent explosion, a burst of fire, but this time the explosion was not behind them, but directly in front of them, that is, in the direction of the port of Okinawa.

With the faint light of the fire, Teragaki Izo could see a small 100-ton torpedo boat blown into the air, and the seafarers on it could only ask for more blessings.

This was damn embarrassing, the sound of battle outside the channel attracted the attention of the Japanese troops in the port of Okinawa, and through observation, they knew that it was the enemy who was sneaking up on their fleet, but the fleet stopped there and did not enter the harbor. The Japanese troops in the harbor thought that the fleet might not be too familiar with the shipping lane, so they sent a guide ship and a torpedo boat to guide the fleet into the harbor.

After all, after entering the harbor, they will be much less threatened, but in order to ensure their own safety, and they are familiar with the waterway, even if they close their eyes, they can pass smoothly, so the guide boat and a torpedo boat implemented light control, and as a result, the unlucky torpedo boat accidentally hit a mine.

How can a torpedo boat, weighing only a few hundred tons, be an opponent of mines? How could his petite body withstand the wanton rubbing of mines? As a result, the torpedo boat was tragically thrown out of the water, and the entire front half was almost blown to pieces.

After realizing that mines were laid on the channel, the Japanese troops in the port realized why the fleet did not enter the port directly, but the question is, when were these mines arranged? It doesn't seem to be there before dark, and how can the enemy know the course so well? Can you so skillfully place mines here at night, and then withdraw safely?

The guide ship had no choice but to turn on the lights on the ship, and under the guidance of the lights, it was possible to dodge one mine after another, although it was not a big deal to guide the ship to avoid these mines, but the warships and those thousand-ton transport ships were not so lucky, and it was difficult for them to dodge these mines here.

The guide ship was directly ordered to approach the Mikasa battleship, and the person on board who was most familiar with the sea situation was also pulled into the control tower, and at this time, Teragaki Inozo was almost crazy, hundreds of troop carriers had been sunk Almost nearly twenty, and there were about ten more than ten ships with various problems, Teragaki Inozo knew very well in his heart that he must not let the situation develop like this, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.

And after seeing that there was still a guide ship safe and sound, Teragaki Inozo's mind also began to be active.

Yes, Japanese warships have not been to the port of Okinawa, and there are detailed charts on the shipping lanes here, but they generally only follow the charts and use their own charts after leaving the port channels. And this channel is about nearly twenty nautical miles, but that is only for civilian ships, Teragaki Zhuzo knows that this channel is actually only about ten nautical miles, and at this time they are in a position of about five nautical miles, this position is extremely embarrassing, dilemma, and there are so many ships, it is difficult to even turn the direction.

"The enemy is there, but now that we can't see them, I order you to find a passage through the fleet at once, and we must rush over and destroy them as soon as possible." Teragaki Zhuzo didn't even have the heart to say hello to people, and directly opened his mouth to order.

"No, General, it can't be. There were reefs all over the front, and the torpedo boats of small tonnage were able to pass smoothly, which was absolutely impossible for battleships to pass. The captain of the guide ship hurriedly shook his head, this was simply going to die.

Anyone who has been dealing with the sea all year round knows that the farther you get to the shore, the more dangerous it is, because it is near the continental shelf, the water is not deep, and there are a large number of reefs, and if you touch it, the ship will be knocked into the water, and it will be difficult to get back on the beach.

The situation in the waters near Okinawa is particularly complicated, if the battleship runs aground somewhere and sits on the beach, then unless it is completely repaired, and its weight is reduced as much as possible, so that his waterline is lower, only in this way can it be opened smoothly, if it is not repaired and wants to drive out, then it can only be hehe, the channel that can let you pass through before may not be able to pass after the hull sinks.

It is for this reason that most ports around the world are equipped with guide vessels and buoys placed on the waterways to remind incoming ships to pay attention to safety and avoid running aground. And no one of those ships is going to run around outside the waterway, and if they hit the rocks, they will be doomed.

Although the port is also constantly detecting and recording the water ripples near the port, but to be honest, no matter how much the port is investigated, no matter how careful, there is not as much as the local fishermen know, and the Japanese have also asked the local fishermen in Okinawa to learn about the information, but the information obtained is not particularly accurate, and most of them are oral legends, in other words, these fishermen through these dangerous areas, all they rely on is feeling.

"You just have to find a waterway, and our waterline is 13.2 meters." Teragaki Pig stared at the captain of the guide ship: "It's not that I'm forcing you now, but the warriors of the empire are making senseless sacrifices, if you want to just watch them drown in the sea one by one, then you don't have to do anything." ”

"The 13.2-meter waterline needs at least 15 meters of water depth to be able to pass relatively safely, and if you want to be absolutely safe, it must be at least 17 meters or more, which is simply impossible, Your Excellency General, I can't find such a channel." The captain of the guide ship felt like he was going crazy.

Although he did know that there was a route that could guarantee the passage of the fleet, but that route was not safe, and it was not a straight line, the area that could be passed was too narrow, in addition, the middle needed to be turned, if he was still sixty or seventy percent sure that he would lead the fleet through during the day, but this was at night, there was not even a reference, and if the fleet forced to pass, there would be a high chance of hitting the rocks.

And even if you don't hit the rocks, there are all kinds of creatures and algae underwater, and if these things get entangled in the propellers, you will really not be able to recover.

The captain of the guide ship refused to lead the fleet to a relatively close shipping lane, and even sternly denied that he knew such a shipping lane.

Teragaki Zhusan was also depressed and couldn't do it, but there was no way to do it, and on the other side, the troop carriers were constantly hit, then exploded, and then sank, as an escort fleet, they had nothing to do about it, they could only watch these troop carriers be sunk, and then one by one the army fell into the sea, and the nearby ships didn't even have the mind to rescue, one by one they seemed to be crazy, running around like a headless fly.

The attack lasted about an hour, and an average of one ship was hit every minute, and those brightly lit ships were more like fixed targets, and the opponent could accurately hit them without even moving or looking closely.

The Mikasa battleship of Teragaki Inozo could only watch like this, and then quietly waited for the end of the attack, there was no way, a large number of troop carriers blocked the channel, and now the Mikasa battleship could not retreat even if it wanted to. During this period, the battleship Asahi was also hit by two torpedoes, and tragically could only move towards the area outside the channel, and then took the initiative to sit on the beach to avoid the fate of sinking.

The battleship Mikasa was lucky, although the lights were bright, but not a single torpedo found them, and the attack of about an hour made Teragaki feel hopeless.

Of the seven convoy escorts, except for the battleship Mikasa, two other cruisers and a destroyer, which were not injured, the battleship Asahi was forced to sit on the beach, and the other cruiser and destroyer were directly sunk. Of the 131 troop carriers, 74 were sunk, and 24 ran aground in a panic, 11 of them could not be salvaged and sank, and 13 were a little more fortunate and successfully beached.

The Japanese did not see their opponents at all in this battle, but the entire fleet suffered heavy losses, and it is an exaggeration to say that the whole army was annihilated, but in fact it was almost the same.

According to post-war statistics, the Japanese troops of the three divisions directly reimbursed two divisions, and there were even more floating corpses on the sea, and the scene was very scary. (To be continued.) )