601 War of Aggression against Japan Eight preemptive strikes

The stars shine brightly over the undulating South China Sea, bringing up a little bit of silver.

A strange-looking, oversized canoe-shaped submarine was floating, rising and falling with the waves of the South China Sea, and on the barrel-shaped command cabin of the oval section, two submarine officers wearing black "colored" waterproof jackets were standing, one of whom was holding a large binoculars and looking at the sea to the southeast. The other man faced the bow of the boat, a lit cigarette in his mouth, and smoked a cigarette while chatting with the officer next to him without saying a word.

"Captain, it says that there is no sonar on the warships of the Japanese"

"Well, there should be no sonar." The officer holding the telescope turned out to be the captain of this submarine named Chen Ming, a graduate of the second phase of the submarine branch of the Changzhou Island Maritime School, and the first mate who talked to him was the first mate of this submarine, who also graduated from the second phase of the submarine branch, named He Rong, a Cantonese with a more witty personality and a very casual conversation.

"Hmph, I don't believe it, this must be a nonsense that a madman came up with to boost the morale of our submariners." He took a puff of cigarette and spit out a few more clouds of white smoke: "The Japanese are slamming the door, but they won't save this money, right?" It must be that Madman Zhang came up with the idea to deceive us, and we dry submarines are locked in a stuffy jar all day long, and we can't even tell the difference between day and night, and it is inevitable that we will be war-weary, so Commander Zhang came up with this idea to comfort us. It's still pretty clever to say, but it can't fool me. ”

Chen Ming glanced at his first mate, who had a lot of strange words, and threw the telescope in his hand to him: "Xiao Hezi, it's time for you to observe, keep an eye on it, I have to take a cigarette to refresh myself." As he spoke, he also took out a pitch-black pipe from his pocket, loaded it with tobacco, wiped it with a match, and took a beautiful puff, and just when he wanted to take a second puff, the first mate He Rong, who always spoke in a Cantonese accent, suddenly shouted: "Oh my God, it's a flashing light, I saw a flash on the other side, it must be a Japanese warship searching the sea." ”

Chen Ming hurriedly extinguished the pipe in his hand, took the telescope and followed the direction of He Rong's finger and widened his eyes to observe. In this era, radar has not yet been invented, and ships rely on searchlights to seek the enemy at night, but the searchlights cannot be turned on all the time, otherwise they will first "expose" themselves before discovering the opponent, and can only be turned on every once in a while. Suddenly, a flash of light streaked across the distant sea, and in an instant it disappeared without a trace, as if it had never been seen before.

"It must be the Japanese ship, they are looking for our warship" Chen Ming breathed a long sigh of relief: "Let's go down and inform the other submarines, now we have work to do"

Although I don't know how many ships there are on the other side and what kind of ships they are, one thing is certain, it must be a Japanese warship, and the northern part of the South China Sea has long been designated as a war zone, and the ships of neutral countries will not come here in the middle of the night to play with searchlights.

With a slight tapping sound, encrypted messages were transmitted through the endless night sky via radio waves. After receiving this radio wave, more than a dozen Chinese submarines left their predetermined search area and headed for the sea area where the Japanese fleet had been discovered at high speed.

……

The telegram from the submarine No. 015 woke up the Second Fleet of the Kuomintang Navy, which was floating in the waters north of the Dongsha Islands. Now the battlecruiser "Selim Sultan" has been transferred to the First Air Fleet, but the Second Fleet still has a lot of combat power, including one "Canton" class air defense cruiser, two "Königsberg" class light cruisers, five 1928 destroyers, six 1924 torpedo boats (a type of light destroyer called torpedo boats by the Germans), a total of 14 ships.

The main guns of these ships are insufficient, the largest caliber is only 150 mm, but they all have a speed of more than 35 knots, and they also have strong torpedo combat capabilities, especially the five destroyers and the six light destroyers known as torpedo boats, which are equipped with two quadruple 533 mm torpedo firing tubes and two 533 mm triple torpedo firing tubes, in addition to 16 submarines lurking under the surface waiting for the opportunity to surrender to the Japanese fleet.

Therefore, Chen Si was not worried about fighting a night battle with the Japanese "Myoko" class heavy cruisers, his fourteen surface ships and sixteen submarines made the number of his own ships reach as many as thirty, and how many ships can the Japanese dispatch? It's impossible for them to leave battleships and aircraft carriers behind, right? If only four Myoko-class heavy cruisers had brought a few destroyers to fight themselves at night, it might have been a feat for the Second Fleet, and it was the daytime that really needed to be worried.

With the powerful firepower of 10 200 mm caliber guns, coupled with the excellent gunnery of the Japanese Navy, the four "Myoko" class ships can completely knock down all the ships of the entire Second Fleet with naval guns at a long distance, and at most they will give the submarine a few sneak attacks, and if they are lucky, they will not even lose anything. It seems that before the four "Polish Legion"-class armored ships enter service, the Chinese Navy will not have any artillery combat capabilities. Just as Chen Si squinted his eyes and imagined the powerful firepower of the 280-mm main gun of the "Polish Legion"-class, the sound of hurried footsteps came from behind.

"Report, received a telegram from submarine 015 that they spotted an unknown fleet approaching the waters where our fleet is located"

The voice of the communications staff officer suddenly made the air in the bridge tense, and Chen Si hurriedly walked to the chart and asked, "Where did you find it?" Can you be sure that the other side is the Japanese fleet? ”。

"Here."

The communications staff officer pointed to the Dongsha Islands: "It's about 40 nautical miles away from us, and their speed is very fast, probably more than 30 knots, and at most half an hour 015 can attack them, and in an hour we will encounter them." ”

"In addition, according to the report of Boat 015, they have called for other submarines to come, hoping that we can block the Japanese fleet, and the submarine force will be able to arrive in two hours at most."

"Two hours ......"

This time is neither long nor short, and it is not known how many ships the Japanese came, but the speed of more than 30 knots should be able to exclude battleships and battle cruisers, and the speed of the fastest Japanese battlecruiser "Kongo" class is not enough

However, due to the limited visibility and long distance at night, the 015 submarine only found a fleet that kept searching the ocean with flashing lights, and did not know the number and type of ships of the other side.

If all four Japanese heavy cruisers of the Myoko-class had arrived, these two hours would not have been easy. Of course, if these two hours had passed, the main merit of the current battle in the Taiwan Strait would have been the naval forces

"They're just in time"

Chen Si applauded, slightly relieved the tension of the people around him, and said with a smile: "It would be bad if little Japan hid in the deep sea and didn't 'show' its head, now that they have come out, we are not afraid that they will not sink as long as they survive for two hours, our submarine will arrive, and the guys who fly the plane until dawn will not let them go."

"The order was given to reorganize the ship, and the flagships 'Fuzhou' (replacing the 'Selim Sultan'), 'Hangzhou', and 'Changsha' were to be reorganized into the first squadron, five destroyers were to be assigned to the second squadron, and six torpedo boats were to be assigned to the third squadron."

"Order the 2nd and 3rd warbands to spread out ten nautical miles to the left and right flanks and lay in ambush, and wait until the 1st wargroup exchanges fire with enemy ships and then use torpedoes to surprise them."

"In addition, intelligence on the discovery of the Japanese fleet will be communicated to the Fleet Command and the 1st Air Fleet."

……

"Report No. 015 Telegram" In the command center of the aircraft carrier Nakayama, the communications officer shook the telegram in his hand and shouted loudly: "A Japanese fleet of unknown conditions is advancing at a high speed in the north-northwest direction near the Dongsha Islands at north latitude and east longitude. It is estimated that in an hour it will encounter the Second Fleet."

"The Japanese fleet is so fast?" After listening to the communications officer's report, Zhao Zheng stood up suddenly, and the First Air Fleet was still in radio silence at this time. Although Zhao Zheng already knew that Zhang Yiming had changed his plan and sent the Second Fleet to set up an ambush in the waters north of the Dongsha Islands, he did not break the radio silence to stop it. Because he was unwilling to expose the First Air Fleet; Second, he also felt that the probability that the Japanese would find the Second Fleet at night was not very high, and if it was daytime, covered by shore-based aircraft, the Second Fleet would naturally be safe. I didn't expect this small probability event to really happen now, but is this Japanese fleet the main force of the Japanese? Do you want to use aircraft carriers to strike?

"Commander Zhao?" Seeing Zhao Zheng's tightly knit brow. Lu Shiyan, the German affairs advisor and the president of the Naval University, felt very strange, he stood up and walked to Zhao Zheng's side and said loudly: "What's the matter? Now that we know the enemy's whereabouts, we should quickly turn around and rush over. ”

"Teacher." Listening to the other party's words, Zhao Zheng slowly shook his head: "But we are not sure that this is the main force of the Japanese fleet, maybe it is just a few light cruisers and destroyers, and it may even be the bait of the Japanese, if we want to bomb them after dawn, we will have to sail about 120 nautical miles to the northeast, so that we may be within the strike range of the Japanese aircraft carriers." Speaking of this, he paused: "Teacher, I think you also know that the battle between aircraft carriers emphasizes the first strike, and the key to victory is to find out first. By early tomorrow morning, the Japanese will certainly also send carrier-based aircraft and seaplanes to search for us, and it is quite possible that both sides will find their opponents at the same time...... If we send out planes to attack the Japanese battleship formation, it is very likely that we will lose the opportunity to strike at the Japanese aircraft carriers, and if we let the Japanese aircraft carriers seize the opportunity to strike first, we will lose the aircraft carriers, which is precisely what we cannot afford. Zhao Zheng expressed his concerns in one go.

"Hehe, General Zhao. I know what you mean" Listening to Zhao Zheng's words, Lv Shiyan smiled: "At present, aircraft carriers and planes are far from being mature, and in the various exercises we have conducted in the past two years, seven or eight out of ten aircraft sent by aircraft carriers have failed to complete their tasks, and there will always be all kinds of accidents, after all, both sides of the war are moving at a speed of more than 50 kilometers per hour, while the speed of the aircraft is only more than 200 kilometers per hour. If the distance between the two sides is about 300 kilometers...... That means that it will take at least an hour and a half for an aircraft to take off from an aircraft carrier to reach the target, and if you count the time for preparation and take-off, then it will take at least two hours, during which time the enemy aircraft carrier can move a full 100 kilometers, perhaps already out of the range of the opponent's carrier-based aircraft. Therefore, it is very likely that in this naval battle in the Taiwan Strait, our two aircraft carriers will not be able to achieve any results. Speaking of this, he glanced at Zhao Zheng meaningfully: "This big war will determine the key development direction of the Navy in the next five to ten years, so aircraft carriers need to prove themselves with achievements."

After listening to Lu Shiyan's explanation, Zhao Zheng nodded slowly, and at present, there are three small groups within the Kuomintang Navy: the so-called "fleet faction", "aircraft carrier faction" and "submarine faction". Well, the old "hair" of the Chinese is sick, and it will not change because of someone's crossing.

Now it seems that the aircraft carrier faction has the upper hand, but the aircraft carrier itself has not achieved any results in this war, and the previous naval battle in the Bohai Bay relied on shore-based aircraft to defeat the Japanese Navy, which can only prove the value of the aircraft, but not the aircraft carrier...... So Zhao Zheng is anxious for aircraft carriers to behave in this battle in the Taiwan Strait.

"Teacher, you are right, our First Air Fleet cannot have any performance in this war" Zhao Zheng took a deep breath, looked at his watch, and said with a smile: "It's 2 o'clock in the morning, and in four hours our planes will be able to be dispatched" He ordered loudly: "Direction northeast xx, speed 31 knots, forward"

……

On the battlecruiser "Zhenming", Vice Admiral Takuzo Kobayashi looked up at the dark and oppressive sky, and his brows tightened a little.

"Where is the Nagumo detachment?"

"It has broken into the waters around the Dongsha Islands and is searching this area, and the China fleet has not yet been found."

Kobayashi's fingers swiped across the chart and found this tiny archipelago in the northeastern part of the South China Sea.

This area is considered to be one of the two most likely locations for the appearance of the Shina aircraft carrier, and the Japanese Second Fleet of Takumi Kobayashi was ordered to draw out the heavy cruisers "Myoko" and "Nachi", the light cruisers "Yura" and "Kinu", and two destroyers to form an advance detachment, with the captain of the "Myoko" Nagumo Tadaichi as the commander of the detachment, to search the waters of Dongsha The battlecruiser rushed to the battlefield.

In order to hurry up to the waters of the Dongsha Islands to support the "Nagumo Detachment", Kobayashi simply threw down the Yamashiro and only took the Zhenmei battle cruiser to speed through the waves of the South China Sea at a high speed of 27 knots.

"Your Excellency, several radio signals of unknown origin have been detected."

The voice of the chief of staff suddenly sounded in Kobayashi's ears. Kobayashi was stunned for a moment: "Can you confirm where the radio waves are coming from?" ”

"It is impossible to determine the specific direction, but it is certain that they were all sent from the waters near the Dongsha Islands, either the submarine of the China people, or the fleet ...... of the China people."

Without waiting for the chief of staff to finish speaking, Kobayashi Jizao interrupted him and hurriedly said, "Has the Nanyun detachment found out?" ”。

"Searching, but it's night, visibility is too poor, and it can't take too long to turn on the searchlights."

Kobayashi sighed. Although the Japanese Navy's night combat level in this era was claimed to be the best in the world, it still relied on two eyes to fight night battles, rather than using radar, which had not yet been invented. It is very difficult to find a target in the dark with your eyes, and you have to use a searchlight as a last resort, but when you turn on the searchlight, you will also "expose" yourself......

……

At this moment, on the pitch-black ocean near the Dongsha Islands, the six warships of the Nanyun detachment were still flashing their searchlights and "chaotic" around like headless flies, and suddenly a bright and dazzling ball of fire suddenly appeared in the sky on the right side of the Nanyun detachment.

For a moment, it was as if someone had suddenly stuffed a high-wattage light bulb into a dark room, and almost all lookouts felt that their eyes had been flashed by something, and for ten seconds, nothing could be seen except this dazzling flare

"Enemy attack" Nagumo Zhongyi's heart sank suddenly, he didn't expect that it was the Japanese Navy, which was the world's first in night battles, to be discovered first, and there was only one possibility in this situation

"Turn on all searchlights, there are submarines nearby"

"Boom ......"

Almost at the same time as Nagumo shouted, three cruisers hidden in the night began to fire, and since the distance was less than 10,000 meters, the water column kept surging around the leading cruiser.

Nan Yunzhong raised the binoculars, and in the distance it should be three cruisers firing, a total of 27 150 mm naval guns aimed at the "Yura" light cruiser in front at the same time pouring shells, it seems that the opponent has seized a favorable T-shaped position, can concentrate all the naval guns at the same time to fire. After just a few rounds of salvo shooting, the "Yura" was beaten to the point that it was difficult to parry.

"Turn the gun to the left and determine the direction of the target" Nagumo Tadaichi already knew that the leading Yura would not be able to support it for long, and the other party did use the submarine and the fleet to fight a beautiful ambush, but that was the end of it. The 27 150-mm guns of only three light cruisers were no match for the 20 200-mm guns of the Myoko class, and as long as the position was adjusted, the outcome of the battle could be decided in a few minutes at most

601 War of Aggression against Japan Eight preemptive strikes

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