The Indian Ocean was brightly lit, and three wounded Axis aircraft carriers rushed to repair damaged warships overnight. Having moved away from the battlefield, having never been attacked by Japanese submarines, and anxious to recover part of the combat strength of the damaged battleship, the commanders made two mistakes here: first, they did not control the lights during the night voyage; Second, the anti-submarine formation was not maintained in strict accordance with the regulations and the routine Z-shaped anti-submarine navigation at sea was carried out.

This gave the Japanese I-68 submarine a conspicuous sea target and enough time to prepare.

It was not until the two torpedoes passed through the bottom of the destroyer "Jiujiang" on the right side of the "Guangxi" that accompanied the aircraft carrier and headed straight for the aircraft carrier that they were discovered by the observers on duty on the destroyer.

"Torpedo! Torpedo spotted! …… Captain, the port side found a torpedo, passed through the bottom of our ship, and is heading towards the aircraft carrier! The surveillance post on the "Jiujiang" suddenly shouted|excellent|excellent|small|said|more|new|most|fast|www.uuxs.cc|.

Immediately afterwards, the officers and sailors on duty on the bridge shouted together and sounded the alarm for attack.

The terrible sound of battle sirens suddenly sounded on the silent sea, and the destroyer fired flares into the night sky on the left and right sides, and the searchlights on the bridge turned to two torpedoes, which were then spotted passing behind the warship. The torpedo was sailing rapidly, and four white wakes were stirring up behind it, and it was rapidly approaching the brightly lit "Guangxi" aircraft carrier.

Sa Shijun, who was chilling outside the bridge and chatting with the captain, heard a shout two kilometers away on the starboard side, turned around, and also saw the track stirred up by the approaching torpedo.

The captain of the ship, Colonel Chang Kuan, rushed into the war room quickly, grabbed the microphone and shouted: "Right full rudder!" ”

He wanted the warship to turn around and use its bow directly at the incoming torpedo, either to avoid the torpedo or to avoid the starboard side, which had already suffered heavy damage.

"Left helm, sir! Full rudder left! The helmsman's answer came from the earpiece.

"Be quick!"

The huge aircraft carrier began to make a clumsy turn, and almost in front of the warship, two shiny phosphorescence lights pierced the dark and calm waters, almost clinging to the bow and speeding outward.

It's a close call!

Sa Shijun, who had been paying attention to the situation on the sea, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but then a chaotic shout sounded on the deck of the warship again, and then, boom! Rumble! Two loud bangs! The entire warship shook violently.

There was a fire on the starboard side, and the night was as bright as day.

The thunderous sound tore through his eardrums, and he fell heavily to the steel plate of the bridge with a violent shock, and then struggled to his feet. The whole hull of the ship staggered and staggered like a derailed train. To make matters worse, the hull suddenly tilted, which was even more terrible than a burning fire!

The whole sea was suddenly chaotic, the destroyers turned on their searchlights and scurried around on the sea, and several escort warships, realizing that the fleet had been attacked by submarines, were speeding in the direction where the torpedoes had been discovered, searching for the location of the enemy's submarines with sonar, and then dropping depth charges into the sea without hesitation.

The "Guangxi" was still shaking, as if it had hit a reef, and the flames had already jumped onto the deck from the starboard side. Sa Shijun picked up the microphone and strode through the war room to the starboard side of the warship, which had been damaged again. He was taken aback by the heat that came his face. It was as if the door of the fiery hearth had been opened, and the entire aft deck was filled with blazing fire, illuminating the surrounding waters orange-red in the dark night.

Another explosion! The deck shook beneath his feet. In the boiler room at the rear of the ship, a stream of black heavy oil was constantly emerging from under the seawater, like an erupting oil well. The boiler room in the rear exploded due to water ingress and damaged the steam pipes leading to the engine room, causing the entire warship to lose most of its power, and the warship began to stall sharply, and most of the power supply was also interrupted.

Seawater continued to pour into the cabin from the large hole in the hull that had been blown up, and the entire aircraft carrier continued to tilt to the right, and the inclination had exceeded 15 degrees.

At present, the pumping speed of the pumping machine can no longer catch up with the speed of the sea water inflow, and can only temporarily delay the roll speed of the warship. The "Graf Zeppelin-class" aircraft carrier has a reserve buoyancy of about 6,000 tons, plus the aircraft carrier is not fully loaded, and still has a deadweight tonnage of 4,000 tons, which is actually able to withstand about 7, 8000 tons of water ingress. But the problem is that all the parts of it were injured on the starboard side, and even though the port side of the ship was constantly filled with water, it was no longer able to stop the entire warship from rolling.

Now that the fire on the warship has been brought under control, if it is offshore, it may be possible to sail the warship into the harbor or sink in the shallows, waiting to be salvaged again.

Unfortunately, it is now sailing in the depths of the Indian Ocean, and although it is located in the shallow ridge area of the seabed, the whole depth is also more than 600 meters. Members of the fire brigade dragged light fire trucks and water pipes around on the deck, and their figures could be seen moving in the skylight of the fire, and the glittering water column stirred up clouds of orange steam.

Damage reports were constantly reported to the command room above, and the four boilers at the front of the warship could still provide some steam, but it could no longer make it to the nearest shore anyway.

"Hey, Sa, how are you doing now?" The voice of the fleet commander, Rear Admiral Kruger, came over the intercom between the fleets.

"Sir, General Kruger wants to talk to you!" The communications officer walked outside the war room and said to Sa Shijun, who had been paying attention to the situation on the deck.

Sa Shijun returned to the war room and picked up the microphone: "Hey, I'm Sa Shijun......"

"Oh, friend, it doesn't look like you're doing well!" Admiral Kruger's voice came from the loudspeaker, and the captains of the fleet never called code names on the phone, regardless of the rules and procedures of communication.

"That's true, the roll of the warship has been intensifying!" Sa Shijun said, "What fucking bad luck! ”

"From my point of view, man, you need to retreat immediately!" Admiral Kruger's voice continued, "The lives of these experienced sailors are the richest, and you Chinese have a saying--keep the green mountains in the ......."

"I understand, hold on for a while, and if it doesn't work again, I'll start evacuating immediately!" Sa Shijun interrupted Kruger's speech.

"Well, good luck!"

While Sa Shijun was on the phone, Captain Chang Kuan, who was inspecting the situation outside, returned to the combat command room. He wore a steel helmet on his head, and his square face was stained with soot and sweat. Although the fire of the warship is no longer spreading so rapidly, and the main bulkhead is exposed, the roll and the sinking of the stern continue, especially the stern, which has sunk very badly.

"Sir, the warship is very dangerous now, please leave the ship first, and I will continue to command the rescue here!" Chang Kuan said with a deep heart, the time has actually come for the warship to give up.

"Alright, let's order the crew to start evacuating!" Sa Shijun waved his hand and glanced at the roll meter on the dashboard, now the warship's roll has reached 21 degrees, and the entire deck is also tilting back, and it is indeed powerless.

The order to abandon the ship was then given.

Sa Shijun didn't leave, he descended from the bridge to the heavily sloping flight deck, which was full of black ankle-deep oil and seawater, and a foul smell. Except for the deck pumps and firefighters, the crew of the lower compartments had begun to evacuate, and there was no way to save the aircraft carrier.

On the foredeck of the aircraft carrier hung a dozen cables, one end was fixed to the railing of the flight deck, the other was lowered into the sea, and the others lowered the lifeboat. The aircraft carrier had almost completely lost power and was quietly floating on the sea, with a cruiser and several destroyers leaning not far away, also lowering their lifeboats and urgently picking up the crew of the aircraft carrier.

There were several officers on deck registering the evacuees and distributing life jackets to the evacuees, and the evacuation was proceeding in an orderly manner.

Most of the crew descended into the water from the inclined starboard side. A row of lifeboats with hundreds of meters of swimming and full loads of people was left on the surface of the sea. With the exception of a cruiser and a destroyer, all the other warships were on the starboard side, following the flow of people and pulling them out of the water as best they could.

About an hour later, Sa Shijun took one last look around at the empty building, the mess of the battleship, and the captain Chang Kuan and the last of the evacuees descended down the thick brown rope into the dark tropical waters.

He let go and jumped into the water.

Soon he was picked up on the cruiser "Jiujiang". The destroyer "Fuzhou" was ordered to fire four torpedoes at the aircraft carrier, which was still struggling and burning on the surface of the sea, and with four loud bangs, it struggled in agony at the end, and then slowly capsized.

At 4:37 a.m., the "Guangxi" turned over and capsized under the sea, and the bow of the ship was raised high, causing a large splash, and then with a huge whirlpool, the whole disappeared into the water.

At this time, the eastern sky had already revealed the white of dawn, and there was silence on the "Jiujiang", Sa Shijun saluted the place where the battleship sank, and his right hand was unwilling to let go for a long time, as if he was feeling the whistling sound of the whirlpool of the sea engulfing the warship and the final desperate wail of the battleship. R1152