Chapter 316

Under the blue blue sky, a huge fleet of masts and a large fleet is heading south on the seas of the South China Sea, and its size and strength are so powerful that wherever they appear, they will arouse the vigilance of the forces of neighboring countries.

The leading giant ship is long, with a simple bridge and a beautiful bulbous bow, but the most eye-catching thing is the nine 460 mm high cannons installed on the hull, which are definitely the strongest naval guns in the world's navies in 1940, when it fires a heavy bomb weighing two tons, it has the ability to tear through the armor of the thickest part of any battleship in service within 20,000 meters.

The battleship had a standard displacement of up to 62,000 tons and a full load displacement of 73,000 tons. Even with the largest displacement tonnage on the planet, the battleship has not yet been exhausted, and it still retains a great deal of design redundancy, and if necessary, more retrofitting and attachment can be carried out on the ship without compromising the design performance.

The battleship's name, the Yamato, was part of the Japanese Combined Fleet and the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet.

And another giant ship with a standard displacement tonnage of more than 45,000 tons that sailed parallel to him was the aircraft carrier named "Musashi". In this era when history is distorted by Yan zhòng, the Musashi War, which should have been born as a battleship

When the ship was launched for sea trials in May 1940, its identity became an armored aircraft carrier with more than 110 aircraft.

Because the cost of armored aircraft carriers is too high, and the number of carrier-based aircraft carried is too small compared to the number of them, only one aircraft carrier of this class was built, and it was replaced by the more cost-effective "Two Cranes".

Both the battleship Yamato and the aircraft carrier Musashi were by far the strongest warships of their class in 1940.

And the main culprit who has made history so distorted beyond recognition. He is now on the battleship Yamato, standing at the top of the highest mast of the ship, looking around at the other warships that surround him like a moon of stars.

The two aircraft carriers with a standard tonnage of 30,000 tons, the two carrier-based aircraft are between 95~100 aircraft, and in terms of unit cost, including the Musashi aircraft carrier. These three aircraft carriers, which can travel at a high speed of more than 31 knots, cost more per ton than the Yamato.

In terms of appearance, these three aircraft carriers have a strong "Zeppelin" style. Under Li Huamei's construction, the Japanese ship designers got a lot of experience and ideas about the design of the Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier through Guò Li Huamei at the beginning of the design, and even exchanged drawings with the Germans for the design of the ship. Although Xianghe Zuihe has the same name as the aircraft carrier of the United Fleet in history, they are two completely different warships in terms of performance and shape.

Escorting these three cutting-edge aircraft carriers are three other Kongo-class battle cruisers, which are relics of the First World War era, but their speeds of more than 30 knots can keep up with high-speed aircraft carriers.

In addition to this, there were ten destroyers and four air defense cruisers around it. and ten mixed passenger and cargo steamers, carrying Japanese soldiers and their equipment from the entire three divisions.

The purpose of this huge fleet is precisely Singapore, which is located at the easternmost tip of the Malay Peninsula.

Over the past 50 years or so, every time the Japanese Combined Fleet has been dispatched, when its escort ships are carrying troops, the mission to the destination has been an out-and-out "invasion" mission, but this time it is different.

At the invitation of the British government, they went to the Malay Peninsula to help their "allies" in accordance with the provisions of the treaty of the Second Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Carrying out the "just" mission of "resisting the spread of the red plague".

Whether it is the officers and men of the Japanese Combined Fleet, or the "army red deer" carried on the passenger ship they escorted. They were all full of joy at this mission, and many of the high-ranking officials in the combined fleet who knew the truth were the most happy.

The British, who think they are smart, are doing the stupid thing of opening the door and stealing it.

After the three Norwegian naval battles in 1940, as naval strength continued to recover, the entire Japanese Empire was eyeing Southeast Asia and planning an invasion with great ambitions. The British for the sake of the "balance of power" in Southeast Asia. Taking the initiative to lure the Japanese Navy in is simply shooting yourself in the foot.

Sumatra, an important oil-producing base in the Malay Peninsula and Southeast Asia, is separated by only a narrow waterway, and Japan is not an oil producer, and its oil is completely dependent on foreign imports, so it has long been coveted here. Let the Japanese military department get a telegram from the British inviting them to send troops to help the war. Both Emperor Takahito and the Prime Minister of Japan couldn't help but laugh out loud and shout God help me.

In early May, after Japan received an invitation from the British to "help in the war," the three Japanese armies, which had been secretly sharpening their knives for a long time, mobilized in an all-round way. After the completion of June, when the land campaign on the Western Front in Europe had come to an end, the British, having confirmed on the 17th that the French government was about to sign a surrender agreement with the Germans, once again rushed the Japanese to send troops.

The Japanese officials pretended to be unhurried and impatient on the surface, but secretly accelerated the speed of mobilization. Late at night on the 19th, the Japanese soldiers of the three divisions quietly boarded the port of Kago'er in southern Japan, and then sailed to Singapore at the eastern tip of the Malay Peninsula under the escort of several newly launched warships of the Combined Fleet.

At this time, although the battleship Yamato had the ability to go to sea for artillery warfare, in fact, the overall project completion was about 98 percent, and there were still some small details inside that needed to be adjusted.

However, time waits for no one, except for Li Huamei, no one in Japan thought that Britain and France would end up in Western Europe so quickly, let alone encounter a "good thing" that the British would take the initiative to invite the Japanese army into the Malay Peninsula.

In order to deter the two American battleships anchored in Singapore from making any changes - the battleship Pennsylvania and the battleship Arizona. The Combined Fleet decided to send all the new warships to participate in the operation. As a result, the battleship Yamato, which had not yet been fully completed, and the three aircraft carriers that still needed to be run in with personnel ships, appeared as the main stars under such circumstances.

The reason why the battleship Yamato was exposed to the world so early was entirely Li Huamei's opinion. In Li Huamei's view, once the battleship Yamato appeared in front of the world, its super-large tonnage and huge naval guns violated the "London Naval Treaty". It will inevitably cause a new round of storms in Britain and the United States, especially the United States.

Stimulated by the battleship Yamato, the Americans are likely to put the historically aborted Montana-class battleship in the dock, causing a mistake in the tech tree.

In addition, there is another possibility: the Iowa-class battleships are still in the drawing design stage, and stimulated by this, the Americans may also directly stop building the Iowa-class battleships. Straight up to the Montana level.

No matter which choice the Americans make, it is what Li Huamei wants to see.

The Pacific Theater is the world of battleships, this is a fact proven by history.

However, for the unscientific existence of the ship soul and the ship spirit, the weapon that can give full play to its maximum combat capability is not an aircraft carrier but a battleship. At this point, the soul of the ship is the least like the era of "aircraft carriers".

After the three Norwegian naval battles, Li Huamei and Hannah, as well as German and Japanese naval war experts, realized this after repeated discussions and deductions.

In Li Huamei's view, once Japan starts a war against the United States. In order to bleed more of the Americans, what the Japanese Navy needed was not to build more aircraft carriers, but to have more battleships like the Yamato.

And the reason is: half of the time in this world is night, and night is the world of ship spirits.

This is also the reason why Japan has now decided to build the second ship of the Yamato-class battleship, since the original battleship Musashi has been turned into an aircraft carrier, so the name of the second ship has been replaced and changed to "Shinano".

After this huge fleet was dispatched, it passed through the Taiwan Strait and brushed the Philippine coastal area in the South China Sea. It was soon spotted by a P40 fighter flying cruising at sea.

The pilot of the P40 was shocked when he saw such a large fleet entering the South China Sea. He flew over the Japanese fleet. I want to take a photograph.

Under the guidance of Li Huamei, four Zero fighters took off from the aircraft carrier Musashi in time, and then surrounded and expelled the intruding American fighter.

Since the United States and Japan have not yet declared war, the two sides are fighting in the air, and the two sides do not fire, but only bite each other's tails. After encountering multiple zero-type encirclement, interception and warning. The pilot of the P40 fighter had to retreat after taking a few aerial photos from afar, but he also sent the news of the arrival of the Combined Fleet back to the headquarters in Manila.

Soon, the three US armed forces stationed in Manila were all stirred up by this information, and the US fleet stationed in Manila Harbor and Singapore raised the alarm of emergency operations with an interval of less than 20 minutes.

It was June 22, 1940. At 10 a.m. Tokyo time, it was still late at night in London.

At this time, the Americans thought that the Japanese wanted to turn around and send troops to raid Southeast Asia, but this misunderstanding was quickly clarified.

The person who cleared up the misunderstanding was the commander of the British fleet and the commander of the fortress in Singapore.

Due to the almost complete range of capital ships on the mainland, the British were forced to transfer their naval forces all over the world to strengthen their defenses, and now their Far East Fleet in Asia is nothing more than an empty shell, with only a few broken ships, and the so-called Far East Fleet has long been a joke.

The news of the arrival of the Japanese navy had long been known to the British Supreme Commander of the Singapore Fortress, and he had deliberately concealed it from the Americans in order to keep it a secret. According to the plan, the British government was supposed to announce this information to the world on the 22nd, and at the same time inform the Americans.

But what the British didn't expect was that the Japanese, who had been dragging their feet and looked reluctant, would move so quickly. Before the news was announced, their naval and army armies were already on the way, which caused a heavy oolong incident, which almost caused a misunderstanding between the United States and Japan.

The "misunderstanding" between the United States and Japan was "resolved" due to the timely clarification of the commander of the British forces at the Singapore Fortress. But after knowing the truth, the entire US Navy had a feeling of swallowing a dead mouse at that time.

After the news reached Washington, the cactus president of Ghana, who knew about the situation, felt even more hot at that time, as if he had been slapped more than a dozen times.

"Damn British fatty! What do the people in the intelligence department do to eat, and we don't know anything about such an important thing in advance? Send me a telegram to Churchill asking him, what does this mean? ”

On June 22, after receiving an "invitation briefing" from the British government, Cactus Garner angrily smashed a water glass in his room.

After the signing of the Anglo-American Washington Accord. The British colonial interests in Asia have long been the territory of the President of Ghana, but he never dreamed that the British government would come to this hand at this time, and it was played after the United States of America gave the gift package of the "Lend-Lease Act". 、

The Lend-Lease Act ensured that Britain could order almost unlimited quantities from the United States for any much-needed supplies needed for the war effort in Europe. The cost of one qiē was paid by the United States' own money printing machine. However, what Cactus Garner never dreamed of was that less than a month after the gift package was given, Churchill gave him this hand.

What made Cactus Garner even more angry was that on the day of receiving the British briefing, Washington received news from the U.S. Fleet in the Philippines that a large Japanese fleet consisting of four battleships, three aircraft carriers, and more than 30 auxiliary ships formed a large Japanese fleet. Philippine waters are passing through the South China Sea.

Obviously, this was a long-planned and heavy military operation, and the entire United States of America, which has always regarded itself as the "master of the Pacific," knew nothing about it.

His secretary flipped through the text and reminded the Ghanaian president: "The British should have been premeditated, and the Washington agreement we signed with them does not include the Malay Peninsula." At that time, we did not want to step into the quagmire of land war too early, and the British saw through this and deliberately left this flaw in the agreement. ”

The President of Ghana snorted coldly: "That fat British man who thinks he is smart is playing with fire." ”

Britain has played a continental balancing trick for hundreds of years. As the "little cousin" of Britain, how can the Americans not see it. However, with the British in the Western European theater of war from sea to land a series of crushing defeats. The United States of America is more "confident" today than it was at the same time in history. In their view, the little trick of the British was nothing more than disgusting to the United States of America. In the eyes of the proud and arrogant cactus President Ghana, Japan is nothing more than a bug in the face of the great United States of America. Although the British forced him to the table, the U.S. Navy could chase them away like flies with a wave of their hand.

"The yellow-skinned dwarfs to the west. They're not flies, they could be scorpions! ”

However, the arrogance of the President of Ghana only lasted for the afternoon of the second day, when Secretary of State Hull brought a telegram he had just received to the President of Ghana, who was chatting with him at the White House for afternoon tea, and looked at the number "60,000 tons" on the telegram. Ghana's face changed.

"Those yellow-skinned dwarfs in the west, they are not flies, they may be scorpions!"

However, the arrogance of the President of Ghana only lasted for the afternoon of the next day, when Secretary of State Hull brought a telegram he had just received to the President of Ghana, who was chatting with him at the White House for afternoon tea, and looked at the figure of "60,000 tons" on the telegram, the face of the President of Ghana changed.

"Those yellow-skinned dwarfs in the west, they are not flies, they may be scorpions!"

However, the arrogance of the President of Ghana only lasted for the afternoon of the next day, when Secretary of State Hull brought a telegram he had just received to the President of Ghana, who was chatting with him at the White House for afternoon tea, and looked at the figure of "60,000 tons" on the telegram, the face of the President of Ghana changed.

"Those yellow-skinned dwarfs in the west, they are not flies, they may be scorpions!"

However, the arrogance of the President of Ghana only lasted for the afternoon of the next day, when Secretary of State Hull brought a telegram he had just received to the President of Ghana, who was chatting with him at the White House for afternoon tea, and looked at the figure of "60,000 tons" on the telegram, the face of the President of Ghana changed.

"Those yellow-skinned dwarfs in the west, they are not flies, they may be scorpions!"

However, the arrogance of the President of Ghana only lasted for the afternoon of the next day, when Secretary of State Hull brought a telegram he had just received to the President of Ghana, who was chatting with him at the White House for afternoon tea, and looked at the figure of "60,000 tons" on the telegram, the face of the President of Ghana changed.

However, the arrogance of the President of Ghana only lasted for the afternoon of the next day, when Secretary of State Hull brought a telegram he had just received to the President of Ghana, who was chatting with him at the White House for afternoon tea, and looked at the figure of "60,000 tons" on the telegram, the face of the President of Ghana changed.

"Those yellow-skinned dwarfs in the west, they are not flies, they may be scorpions!"

However, the arrogance of the President of Ghana only lasted for the afternoon of the next day, when Secretary of State Hull brought a telegram he had just received to the President of Ghana, who was chatting with him at the White House for afternoon tea, and looked at the figure of "60,000 tons" on the telegram, the face of the President of Ghana changed.

However, the arrogance of the President of Ghana only lasted for the afternoon of the next day, when Secretary of State Hull brought a telegram he had just received to the President of Ghana, who was chatting with him at the White House for afternoon tea, and looked at the figure of "60,000 tons" on the telegram, the face of the President of Ghana changed.

"Those yellow-skinned dwarfs in the west, they are not flies, they may be scorpions!"

However, the arrogance of the President of Ghana only lasted for the afternoon of the next day, when Secretary of State Hull brought a telegram he had just received to the President of Ghana, who was chatting with him at the White House for afternoon tea, and looked at the figure of "60,000 tons" on the telegram, the face of the President of Ghana changed. (To be continued......)