The Combined Fleet of the Japanese Navy is the main combat force of the Japanese Navy. The fleet is full of cutting-edge warships that can fight from afar. Older warships are generally incorporated into the second-tier garrison fleet on the mainland.

After many years of heavy investment, the strength of the Japanese Navy reached its peak in early 1939. It has nearly 300 new and old combat ships of various types, with a total tonnage of an astonishing 1.4 million tons!

It is a complete miracle that Japan is able to have this level of strength, given its national strength. Of course, the Americans played a big part in this.

The Americans, who had long seen that the Japanese had great ambitions, generously gave the Japanese large-scale loans and various cheap supplies in order to cause trouble for the Ming Dynasty. Various low-interest, interest-free loans, combined with allowing the Japanese to peddle bonds in the United States, raised more than $200 million for the Japanese. In addition, various types of equipment and various raw materials such as steel are available at low prices. These are the basis on which the Japanese were able to complete a fleet of such a size.

In fact, the main reason why the Japanese were determined to preemptively launch a surprise attack on the Ming native fleet was that the terrifying construction capabilities of the major shipyards of the Ming Dynasty made it impossible for the Japanese to wait any longer.

Since the Japanese began to build the Yamato-class super battleships, it took countless efforts to build two of them, and the third is still on the slipway. And the new provincial capital-class battleships that the Ming Dynasty started in order to deal with the Japanese Yamato-class have been launched like dumplings in a row over the years, and twelve have been launched into service in a row! And there are four more on the slipway that are about to be outfitted for service!

The huge disparity in power between the two sides left the Japanese desperate and deprived of other options. There is almost no chance of victory in a head-to-head battle, and the only way left is a preemptive surprise attack.

The three most powerful fleets of the Ming Navy in the world are the Pacific Fleet, which deals with the U.S. Navy, the Mediterranean Fleet, which deals with the navies of European countries, and the Home Fleet, which guards the homeland as a strategic reserve.

Of these three fleets, the Mediterranean Fleet was too far for the Japanese to reach. The Pacific Fleet is stationed at Pearl Harbor. Powerful, well-guarded, and having to cross most of the Pacific Ocean, it's even more difficult to start. The only one left was the home fleet stationed in the Zhoushan Islands, and it was also the most powerful fleet that directly threatened the Japanese.

Vice Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, ordered his main operational staff officer, Kameto Kuroshima, to develop a detailed battle plan.

In the face of no chance of winning a head-to-head duel, Kuroshima proposed to use naval aviation to launch an air attack on the Zhoushan base in the early morning of the weekend rest day, when the officers and men of the Ming Navy were most relaxed at the time when their vigilance was most relaxed. Destroy the strength of the home fleet of the Ming Navy. It opened the prerequisites for the army to move south to occupy the islands of the South Seas, and even to the Australian mainland, which was regarded by all Japanese as a place of hope for the future.

The idea of the Japanese was simple: to crush the Ming native fleet, and then the army went south to attack the long-coveted Nanyang and Australia.

As for the powerful Pacific Fleet of the Ming Dynasty, the US Navy will contain it, and the Mediterranean Fleet will be contained by European countries. In the western Pacific waters, as long as the Ming native fleet can be defeated, the Japanese can have an advantage at least in the short term.

On the night of 16 June, the special attack fleet of the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet secretly departed from several naval bases, assembled in the Seto Inland Sea, and then headed south to the waters near Kagoshima. They managed to evade spy surveillance around the base. At the same time, because of the implementation of strict confidentiality measures. The moles planted inside the Japanese army did not receive any information.

After a day of wandering around the Japanese Inland Sea, the Japanese special attack fleet quietly passed through the waters between Tanegashima and Anami Island on the night of June 17. Then it quickly entered the East China Sea and headed for the Zhoushan Islands. In the early morning of 18 June, before dawn, nearly 200 fighters of the first attack wave flew from the waters 200 nautical miles away from the Zhoushan Islands and flew to the Zhoushan Islands.

The core of this special attack fleet was the First Air Fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Nagumo Tadaichi. Under the jurisdiction of the First Air Force, the capital ships are the aircraft carriers Akagi and Kaga, and the commander is Nagumo Tadaichi. The 2nd Air Force, the capital ships are the aircraft carriers Soryu and Flying Dragon, and the commander is Rear Admiral Tabun Yamaguchi, who is known as the best commander of the Japanese Navy and the future commander of the Combined Fleet. In addition, there is the Fifth Air Force under the Fourth Fleet. The capital ships are the aircraft carriers Zuizuru and Shozuru, and the commander is Vice Admiral Tadaichi Hara. Together, the six aircraft carriers have nearly 450 carrier-based aircraft.

It's not that the Japanese don't want to send more attacking forces. Rather, in the East China Sea, where shipping is busy, it is easy to detect if the fleet is too large. The only hope that the Japanese wanted to succeed was the suddenness of the attack. For this reason, they did not hesitate to bear the charge of undeclared war. Of course, the Japanese don't care about this reputation.

In order to deal with possible situations, Sanmoto 56 arranged four battle cruisers of the Third Fleet under the First Fleet, Kongo, Haruna, Kirishima, and Hiei, as escorts. They were chosen because the Japanese Navy had four of its own warships that could keep up with the speed of the aircraft carrier.

Perimeter support for the assault fleet was eleven destroyers and one light cruiser. Three submarines served as lead alerts. When they approached the Zhoushan Islands at night, they did not encounter any ships sailing at night. The patrol planes at the Zhoushan base all set off after dawn. By the time the patrol planes at the Zhoushan base took off to sea, the first attack wave of the Japanese had already arrived.

The Ming native fleet has long been located near the safe mainland. And it has not yet entered a wartime state, and the defensive psychology is very poor. This surprise attack by the Japanese went very well.

The Japanese, due to their lack of resources, were not able to train pilots on a large scale. Under these circumstances, the Japanese, who had pinned their hopes on a quick victory, concentrated their efforts and trained a group of very good pilots through rigorous and brutal training. Although they have little real combat experience. But each of them is a brave man who has a long flight time and has been brainwashed by the spirit of bushido. Most of these excellent pilots focused on the qualifications of this attack.

The first attack wave, led by the captain of the flagship Akagi, Mitsuo Fuchita, was bathed in the golden light of the rising sun, and swooped down on the Zhoushan Islands like a lightning speed. The Daming fishermen, who were fishing in the nearby sea, watched in horror as the group of planes with plaster marks on their wings roared towards the mainland. They desperately sent a telegram to warn, but unfortunately it was too late.

When Mitsuo Fuchida looked through the hatch at the large number of warships quietly moored in his berth, bathed in the sun, he excitedly sent a "tiger!" to the Akagi. Tiger! Tiger! ’

The 183 planes of the first attack wave pierced through the clouds and fog and raided the Zhoushan Naval Base in the morning light. Groups of 99 and 97 ships attacked and wantonly dropped bombs and torpedoes in the midst of the artillery fire in the sky. Out of thin air. The whistling bombs pierced the battleship's weak horizontal armor and destroyed the mighty battleship from within. And a torpedo with a deadly tail line is a killer weapon for those stationary battleships.

The provincial capital-class battleship Guiyang, the flagship of the Continental Fleet docked on the outermost periphery, was the first to be attacked, and ten minutes later the ammunition depot exploded, causing the battleship to capsize and sink, becoming the first battleship to be sunk after the start of the war.

The aircraft carrier Qinghai Lake, which was regarded as the primary target by the Japanese, was hit by multiple bombs one after another, and the ship caught fire, capsized and sank in the subsequent torpedo attack. Then three old super-dreadnought battleships Huashan. The Kunlun Mountain and Taishan were also sunk one after another. Although the Ming navy, which responded in a hurry, put up a heroic resistance, it did not achieve any practical results.

Under two successive waves of Japanese air raids, the four battleships staying at the berth and the aircraft carrier Qinghai Lake completely became targets and were sunk. In addition, three heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and three destroyers were also sunk in their berths during the attack.

At the same time, more than 100 shore-based planes parked on the tarmac at the Zhoushan base were also destroyed. More than 20 Fighting Falcons that forcibly took off were besieged by a large number of Japanese planes, and all of them were eventually shot down. The naval repair plant, two oil storage tanks, a dock area and even a naval hospital at the Zhoushan base were all attacked.

In this air attack, which lasted only more than two hours, the Ming native fleet suffered more than 6,000 casualties. Twelve battleships and one transport ship were sunk, and four were wounded. Counting the carrier-based aircraft on the Qinghai Lake aircraft carrier, more than 200 aircraft were lost. The powerful native fleet soon lost its combat effectiveness.

The Japanese submitted the declaration of war to the Ming Dynasty half an hour after the attack, which was a typical undeclared war.

After receiving the news, the Ming Navy, which fell into a rage, quickly mobilized the forces in its hands and launched a counterattack. Fighter planes that had taken off from all over Zhoushan swooped into the vast sea, trying to find traces of the Japanese. Eventually, the Navy's shore-based forces stationed on Jeju Island spotted the Japanese fleet retreating at full speed 120 nautical miles southwest of Kagoshima. And quickly attacked.

It was only by this time that the Japanese fleet had already entered the protection of shore-based aircraft in Kyushu. Coupled with the strong air defense of the fleet itself, the fierce attacks launched by the shore-based forces of the Daming Navy from Jeju Island and the Ryukyus did not achieve any substantial results. Only the Kaga was slightly damaged by two near-misses.

In fact, the new fighter planes secretly developed by the Japanese were officially put into use at the beginning of the year, and they were first equipped with naval aviation units. This is because this year is the year 2600 of the Japanese chronicle. Therefore, the fighter called the Zero is very good. Fierce battles with the war falcons equipped by the Ming Navy were on par with each other.

In the midst of the attack, which lasted about two and a half hours. The Japanese lost only less than sixty aircraft. But they managed to sink four battleships, one aircraft carrier and three heavy cruisers at their berths.

Although it can be salvaged and repaired because it is in a shallow water berth, it is an indisputable fact that the local fleet of the Ming Dynasty has lost its combat effectiveness. Moreover, even if it is salvaged in the future, no one knows whether there is any value in repair. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation and monthly pass. Your support is my biggest motivation ......)

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