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Chapter 444: Capture of Alaska

Not long after, the fire of the USS Wasp carrier spread to the ammunition depot, and the US captain had to order a large amount of water to be filled into the ammunition depot, but the US sailors guarding the water filling valve fled because they were afraid of the explosion of the ammunition depot, causing the aircraft carrier to enter too much water, and the battleship sank rapidly at a speed that could not be saved, and the captain saw that he could not save it, so he could only order the ship to be abandoned. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

At the same time, the anti-aircraft fire of the US fleet also shot down more than 40 Chinese Emperor fighters, most of which were backward cat demon fighters.

When Lieutenant General Rhodes, commander of the main force group of the US forces in the other direction, learned that the Chinese Imperial Aircraft Carrier-based aircraft were attacking Fletcher's aircraft carrier battle group, he thought that the time had come, and dispatched the first attack wave at 6:17 a.m., totaling 327 fighter attack planes and 92 bombers. Half an hour later, a second attack wave was dispatched, totaling 127 fighter attack planes and 33 bombers, to attack the aircraft carrier formation of the Chinese Emperor.

At 6:50 a.m., the US plane squadron arrived 30 nautical miles from the "Helan Mountain" and was divided into several groups. By this time, the sky had darkened, and the sky was fiery red. The artillery guides of the anti-aircraft battleships of the Chinese Emperor had some difficulty observing enemy planes. The air defense fleet of the Chinese Emperor was in full swing, especially the two Aegis air defense cruisers with the most firepower, to protect the aircraft carriers from damage as much as possible.

The Imperial Chinese Navy formed a circular formation, with the "Helan Mountain" in the center, surrounded by nine warships, and intercepting and firing with heavy anti-aircraft fire.

Because the quality of the US pilots was much weaker than that of the Chinese Imperial Air Force, and because of the fierce artillery fire of the Chinese Emperor, all the US fighters were shot down before they could occupy the attack position by dropping torpedoes, and only a few bombers broke through and dropped bombs.

Three minutes later, 36 US planes were shot down, but due to the large number, US fighters finally broke through the fire network of the two Aegis air defense cruisers and began to dive bomb the "Helan Mountain" aircraft carrier.

At 6:55 a.m., the "Helan Mountain" aircraft carrier was hit by three 250-kilogram bombs, which destroyed two elevators, causing a fire that killed 72 people.

However, the aircraft carrier Lianhuashan in the other direction was unlucky. The main bomber group of the US military focused on taking care of the Lianhuashan, which was flying the flagship command flag. Although there were more than a dozen warships in the vicinity of Lianhuashan and two Chinese Aegis air defense cruisers doing their best to protect it, more than a dozen US fighters still broke through the anti-aircraft fire network and dropped torpedoes and 13 aerial bombs on Lianhuashan.

At 6:57 a.m., seeing that the last ray of light at sea level was about to disappear, the Lotus Mountain still failed to avoid the attack of the US military after dodging left and right. The broadside was hit by three torpedoes, and the floor was hit by seven aerial bombs. Cai Wei did not expect the US military to strike a desperate blow, thinking that he would be fine after dark, and when his ship was hit and tilted badly, he also regretted his carelessness.

At seven o'clock, although Cai Wei was very unhappy, he had to order the Lotus Mountain to be abandoned and all the troops retreated to other warships.

At the last moment of abandoning the ship, he ordered the group of attack planes that were about to return to the aircraft carrier to turn around and fly to Bermuda Air Base to avoid being unable to land because the aircraft carrier sank.

At 7:05, the aircraft carrier Lianhuashan sank, becoming the first aircraft carrier in the history of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

Five minutes later, the Helan Mountain aircraft carrier was also hit by a deadly US fighter plane, which detonated the anti-aircraft ammunition stacked on the deck, causing heavy damage to the battleship and cutting off the flight deck.

On the way back, the Chinese Imperial attack aircraft group learned that one of the motherships had been sunk and the other had been heavily damaged, and was forced to turn around and turn to Bermuda Air Base. When they flew to St. David's Air Base, because the pilots of many fighters were too tired, and many fighters consumed too much fuel in order to avoid the fire of the US fleet, they lost more than 30 fighters when they landed.

On the other hand, the U.S. military also failed to get the advantage, and all three aircraft carriers in Fletcher's hands were sunk, and Fletcher himself was seriously injured. However, when the large-scale attack plane group sent out by Lieutenant General Rhodes returned home, there were only more than 100 planes left, and the sky was dark, and the US military had no experience in recovering fighter planes at night, so two-thirds of the planes landed in the sea.

To add insult to injury, Rhodes had to order the aircraft carrier to slow down in order to recover the plane, but he forgot that the surrounding waters were full of attack submarines of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

At about 8 o'clock in the evening, the 17th Submarine Formation of the Imperial Chinese Navy discovered the Rhodes aircraft carrier battle group during patrol, and seven submarines quickly attacked, sinking three US aircraft carriers. Rhodes then had to order the remaining three aircraft carriers to speed up, and during the maneuver, because the course of the American aircraft carriers was always changing, the American planes could not land, and eventually most of the planes fell into the sea because of the fuel exhaustion.

Eventually, Rhodes safely took the three aircraft carriers out of the Imperial Chinese Navy's submarine attack zone. And the Chinese Imperial Transport Fleet has already safely sent supplies to Bermuda, and most of the tactical tasks have been completed.

The sea

The ratio of the main forces dispatched by China and the United States is: aircraft carriers 2:10, battleships 0:12, cruisers: 22, destroyers 30:101, the US planes are almost four times more than the Chinese Emperor, but the Chinese Emperor was sunk an aircraft carrier, a cruiser, a destroyer, and a loss of 90 aircraft. The U.S. military lost six aircraft carriers, one was heavily damaged, and lost 417 aircraft. Not only did the attempt to annihilate the Caribbean aircraft carrier group of the Chinese Emperor not materialize, but also the goal of capturing Bermuda was not accomplished. It can be said that the US military was completely defeated in this naval battle. The reason for this was that the US military used aircraft carriers for the first time to fight, lacked experience, coupled with a lack of understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Chinese Empire's aircraft carrier formations, neglected the protection of the fleet's anti-aircraft firepower, and even made the mistake of carrying out combat missions at night, which ultimately led to heavy losses for the US military.

In the Pacific Theater, the Chinese Emperor launched the Alaska Campaign, the third part of the Pacific Campaign, on May 3.

The name "Alaska" derives from the Aleutian word "", which means "a large landmass." Due to the long-term all-out Cold War between China and the United States, the United States was panicked in the face of the rise of the Chinese Empire, so Alaska, which was originally inconspicuous, officially joined the United States in 1914 and became the 49th state of the United States.

Alaska is bordered by Canada's Yukon and British Columbia to the east, the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Sea, the Bering Strait and the Chukchi Sea to the west, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. Originally belonging to Russia, the Crimean War broke out in 154, and Russia was also afraid that the Alaska colony would be taken away by the British, so it proposed to sell Alaska to the United States. Finally, on March 29, 7, the United States and Russia agreed to pay $7,200,000 including a processing fee.20

000 deals. The deal became the largest in the history of land transactions in the world, with an average unit price of only two cents per acre. However, the U.S. Secretary of State in charge of the land purchase, William ? Henry bought the icy Alaska for a lot of money, which made many Americans feel that it was not worth much.

In fact, because the intermediary was a Russian, the Russian tsarist government did not receive $7.2 million, and the Americans did not pay the gold on time as agreed, but delayed and paid a check. This Russian traitor was later mysteriously killed. One of the reasons why the Americans paid was that Russia had sent an ocean-going fleet to American waters to rescue the United States, and at the expense of human and material resources, the United States had not paid a penny at that time.

The presence of gold in Alaska has long been known, but the real formation of the gold rush came after the discovery of gold by the JE Army and Rirdrri. Hundreds of gold prospectors flocked to the golden city that would later be named after Juneau. Gold was also discovered in the Dike River in Canada in 197, and about 100,000 gold diggers rushed there. The 19-year-old gold rush hotspot turned to the nearby beach, which overnight was lined with tents.

By 1917, 1,032 ships had brought in nearly 13,000 gold prospectors. Gold draws the world's attention to Alaska.

The Chinese Empire had been looking at Alaska for a long time, partly because Alaska produced 75 tons of gold a year, and partly because of the abundant fishery resources in the Alaska-Aleutian Islands fishing grounds, 20% of which came from the Aleutian fishing grounds during World War I. Relations between China and the United States have deteriorated due to the presence of large numbers of fishing vessels in the Bering Strait and near the Aleutian Islands, which have led to frequent skirmishes and clashes between China and the United States over fishermen in the region.

Of course, there is also the most important reason, that is, in addition to the Japanese archipelago, the Philippine archipelago, and the Hawaiian archipelago, which are the three forward positions of the US military in the Asia-Pacific region against the Chinese empire, Alaska is also an important military base for the United States to defend itself against the enemy.

Since the U.S. state of Alaska borders the northern part of the Chinese empire, the U.S. military had to prevent the Chinese emperor from directly sending troops from the northern region to cross the Bering Strait and attack Alaska.

The U.S. military has built a base complex in Alaska. The strategic purpose of this base group is to suppress and defend the northeastern corner of Eurasia, hold the Bering Strait, and control the air routes of the Imperial Chinese Air Force through the Arctic Circle into the North American continent.

The main bases of the US military in the region are Elmendorf Air Force Base, which is located in Anchorage, south of Alaska, and is the station of the 13th Air Wing of the US Air Force, with 17,000 air force personnel stationed there, equipped with 300 camel fighters, and after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the US military supplemented the US military in Alaska with 1,200 Newport fighters, 100 British Handley 00 bombers, 20 water planes, 30 trainer planes, and an airport runway 1,000 meters long. The U.S. military at the base is tasked with air defense and air superiority in the Alaska region, as well as supporting various emergency operations in the area of responsibility of the Pacific Command of the Base Group in Hawaii.

The other base is the Eielson base. It is located in central Alaska, about 46 kilometers from Fairbanks City. The 35th Air Wing of the U.S. Pacific Air Force is stationed with 2,700 air force personnel, equipped with 200 camel fighters, 30 Handley bombers, 300 Renault-17 tanks, and 230 artillery pieces.

In addition, the U.S. military stationed a cruiser fleet in Port Anchorage, six light cruisers and a dozen old destroyers, which belonged to the 11th Detachment of the Pacific Fleet. Since the fleet patrolled the Bering Strait all the time and rarely returned to Pearl Harbor, it was able to survive the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In order to seize Alaska and eliminate the Alaskan defenders of the US army, the Chinese Empire not only collected a large amount of information on the climate, geography and humanities of Alaska before the war, but also launched the Chinese diaspora in Alaska for the first time to secretly collect US military intelligence.

Of the 440,000 people in Alaska, only one-third of them are Americans, and most of them are military and military dependents. The Chinese Empire had 50,000 Chinese diasporas in Alaska, as well as British, Russian, Japanese, and indigenous populations.

The Chinese diaspora in Alaska was dominated by gold diggers, road builders, and fishermen. The gold mines were the site of early Chinese immigrants. The first gold mines were scattered along the banks of rivers, and people used rudimentary tools to pan for gold from the sand. Later into underground mining caverns. After 1913, the extractive industry of the Chinese Empire entered a period of rapid development, and even the gold mines in Alaskana also experienced a technological revolution, using many advanced machinery and equipment, which led to a sharp increase in gold production. Of course, the early gold diggers lived and worked very hard, and they made very little profit.

Regardless of whether these overseas Chinese were living in Alaska or living in poverty, after learning that the Chinese Empire had started a war against the United States, on the one hand, these overseas Chinese and Chinese people provided intelligence to the Chinese Emperor, and on the other hand, they armed themselves one after another, and in the name of workers' pickets, they actually secretly obtained the weapons and equipment secretly transported in by the Chinese Empire, and formed a quasi-army with a certain combat effectiveness.

Before the Battle of Alaska began, the Chinese armed forces in Anchorage began to sabotage the city's electricity, communications, running water, markets, city halls and other facilities and targets, inciting local panic and causing panic among the people in Anchorage. The people fled in large numbers, and the agents of the Chinese Empire and the local Chinese overseas Chinese carried out terrorist attacks everywhere, and the local ruffians and gangsters took advantage of the fire to rob, which soon caused Anchorage to fall into the White Terror.