Chapter Seventy-One: The Fangs of War
The Hawaiian Islands are located in the North Pacific Ocean, about 3,800 kilometers away from the west coast of the United States in the east, about 6,000 kilometers away from Japan in the west, and about 7,000 kilometers away from the Philippines. The main island of the Hawaiian archipelago is Oahu, and Pearl Harbor is located at the lowest point between the Kolau and Whitenay Mountains in the southern part of Oahu, named for the oysters that are rich in pearls. With an area of about 25 square kilometers and an average depth of 12 meters, the Waipio Peninsula, Pearl City Peninsula and Ford Island in the harbor divide Pearl Harbor into four small bays that can accommodate 500 ships of various types at the same time.
The United States began the construction of bases in 1909, and successively built well-equipped large shipyards, dry docks, docks, oil depots and other facilities, and successively established submarine bases and aviation bases in 1919 and 1922. From 1933 onwards, in order to curb Japan's expansion, the United States further intensified its construction, making it a major U.S. naval base and an important logistics base in the Pacific. Since May 1940, the U.S. Pacific Fleet has been stationed at Pearl Harbor, and Pearl Harbor has become a thorn in the side of the Japanese army's southward advance.
The U.S. Pacific Fleet, stationed at Pearl Harbor, began to strengthen the defenses of the Hawaiian region. The U.S. Army established the Hawaii Garrison Command in February 1941 under the auspices of Walter Garrison Command. Lieutenant General Short served as commander and commanded the 24th and 25th Infantry Divisions, coastal artillery, and army aviation in the Hawaii area, totaling about 43,000 troops. It is precisely because of this containment policy of the US Government that the Japanese Navy will do everything possible to destroy Pearl Harbor and the US Pacific Fleet, and only in this way can the Japanese Combined Fleet become a real maritime power.
In the early hours of the morning, fog began to rise, and a thick fog rose on the sea, and the Japanese Combined Fleet, which was in battle formation, was hidden in this thick fog, and with the command of the flagship of the fleet, the six aircraft carriers turned on the deck indicators in turn, and under the command of Nagumo Tadaichi, the fighters participating in the first wave of attacks took off into the sky and rushed through the dense fog to Pearl Harbor.
If Zhao Zhi is a traveler who is familiar with history, he should know that the real time of the Japanese Navy's attack on Pearl Harbor in history should be December 7, 1941, but the appearance of Zhao Zhi delayed this world-famous attack for nearly half a year, and today, May 17, 1942, is the same time as Pearl Harbor in history, and it is also a Sunday.
On Sunday morning, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was shining with a sunny and mirror-blue sea, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet was stationed here, some of the officers and men were having breakfast, and some had already gone ashore for vacation. Ships are neatly moored in the harbor, planes are densely lined up on the seven airfields on Oahu, shirtless sailors are washing the deck of the aircraft carrier with water pumps, and even playing basketball directly on the deck.
But this time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor with Zhao Zhi's involvement, their results will be greatly expanded, and the three US aircraft carriers that did not appear in Pearl Harbor in history are also docked at the port at this time, and they received orders to set off to patrol the sea area in two days, which will be carrying supplies to the ship's hold.
Twenty-five miles north of Pearl Harbor, there is a working radar station, where Private Privates Joseph Rochat and George Elliott, who have just finished their night shifts, are waiting for a changeover. At 7:02 a.m., they spotted an unprecedentedly large moving bright spot on the radar screen, indicating that a large number of planes were heading toward Pearl Harbor. Direction north, 20 miles away. They followed up on the mysterious highlights and reported them to the officers on duty at the intelligence center.
"Don't get nervous, that's our own plane," the officer on duty said mockingly, telling them not to meddle. The officer on duty had already been informed that a convoy of US Air Force B-17 planes would fly from the mainland this morning, and the US Navy's Pacific Fleet was so powerful that no one in Pearl Harbor thought that anyone would dare to attack it.
The officer on duty put down the microphone, turned on the radio, and listened to the music with freshly brewed coffee, the officer on duty did not take the report of the radar station seriously at all, and judged for himself that the planes should be the B-17 bombers from California mentioned in the order. He said that there was no need to worry, it was his own family, but he was wrong, they were bombers that took off from Japanese aircraft carriers, and the take-off location was 230 miles north of Pearl Harbor, and the group shown on the radar screen at the observation post was actually 183 Japanese planes that took off from six aircraft carriers of the Japanese task force, and their targets were Pearl Harbor. The Combined Fleet secretly left Japan and sailed covertly at sea for 12 days to 230 miles from Oahu, where the attacking planes took off from an aircraft carrier and headed straight for Pearl Harbor. At this time, Mitsu Nakasa, the commander of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, had already flown over Pearl Harbor. Behind him were 49 horizontal bombers, 40 torpedo bombers, 51 dive bombers and 43 air superiority fighters.
Fuchida looked down from the porthole, and the clouds were so thick that he couldn't see the sea. What will happen under Pearl Harbor? He was in a hurry. Suddenly, he listened to Hawaiian music playing on Honolulu Radio through his headphones, followed by the weather forecast for the Honolulu area:
"Half-eyed, cloudy on the mountain, 3,500 feet high, good visibility......"
"Great!" Fuchida laughed happily.
"Report, the coast has been spotted ahead!"
"Report, I saw Pearl Harbor!"
Fuchita's headphones rang out with the wolf-like cries of the pilots, and through the clouds, Fuchida finally saw the warships anchored in Pearl Harbor and the planes at Oahu's airfield. "Start attacking!" Fuchida shouted, and then, with a sharp push of the joystick, the plane swooped down, and the Japanese group of planes roared down in the clouds, the machine guns spewed flames, and the bombs fell like locusts.
According to the pre-arranged procedures, the targets of the fighters were the US fighters parked at the Oahu airport, the targets of the dive bombers were the US shore artillery positions, and the torpedo bombers were the protagonists of the attack, and they were responsible for bombing the US aircraft carriers and large ships. The roaring fighter jets rushed towards the Oahu airfield like wolves, and the machine guns used in air combat on the fighters were used as machine guns by them at this time, and the large-caliber bullets tore the American fighters parked at the airport to pieces like tearing pieces of paper, and large clouds of smoke and fireballs continued to rise from Oahu.
"Attack, attack" The dive bombers began to circle around the shore artillery positions on Oahu, and the bombs that kept falling dispersed the US shore artillery units that had just been spontaneously assembled again, and Oahu, which had lost its shore artillery defenses, was more like a lamb to be slaughtered, leaving them only to cry out in pain, shout and cry weakly. The Japanese dive bombers with their fangs wide open tore at every shore artillery defensive position, and they were even so generous as to use two bombs to bombard the same target, and under this density of bombardment, the American shore artillery positions on Oahu completely lost their proper role.
A torpedo with a wooden stabilizer attached to the tail fell from the torpedo bomber and pounced on the carrier and capital ship docked in the harbor with a long water streak. The Japanese pilots who participated in the attack spent three months identifying the U.S. ships in the photographs, and with such good visibility, they could not mistake the ships that were about to be bombed. The three aircraft carriers of the US Pacific Fleet bore the brunt of the target and target of the torpedo bombers, and the Japanese army itself also had aircraft carriers, so they knew where the weak points of the aircraft carriers were, and the locust-like Japanese torpedo bombers threw the torpedoes they brought out of the engine room one by one, regardless of the return fire from the ship's machine guns on the warship.
"Boom, ......Boom, Boom," With the sound of loud explosions, billowing fireworks rose from the airfield on Oahu, and the water column around the warships in the harbor soared into the sky, and the US officers and men were stunned! Air raid! Air raid! "It wasn't until they saw their own ships on fire that the officers of the fleet command seemed to wake up, and this was not" special exercise "! In an instant, Pearl Harbor was enveloped in the smoke and flames of war. Fuchida Nakasa sent a predetermined signal for the success of the surprise attack: Torah! Torah! Torah! (Tiger!) Tiger! Tiger! Yamamoto Isoroku, who was sitting on the flagship of the "Nagato" in Hiroshima, thousands of miles away, received this signal, and he was a little complacent, and his face turned red with excitement.
"Go, go" With the officer's order on the deck of the aircraft carrier, the first attack of the Japanese planes carried out about half an hour, 171 Japanese planes that carried out the second attack took off again, and after the fighters knocked out the vast majority of the US fighters and shore artillery positions on Oahu, all the dive bombers and torpedo bombers sent by the Japanese combined fleet this time were all sent by them, and their targets were only those US ships in the harbor.
"It's our turn, don't let those guys flying in the sky laugh at us" The submarine force responsible for intercepting the escaped American ships has not fired, they are waiting for the best time, as the fighter jets that have run out of ammunition withdraw from the battlefield, the US Navy gathered in the harbor began to react, several ships docked on the outside are anchoring to get out of the battlefield. The Japanese submarines, smelling blood, began to show their sharp claws, and they would not allow any American ships to escape from here, and the Japanese submarines that were quietly dormant slowly adjusted their angles and opened the ejection hatch of the torpedo.