In fact, Admiral Nimitz, commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Fleet, knew that the general trend had gone after hearing the surrender of the 24th Division and the Japanese army's capture of the first coastal fortress, and once lamented, "I never thought that I would become the first admiral to be captured in the history of the US military."

However, a U.S. submarine captain saved Nimitz and several other senior officers in the command with his wit, and his submarine had just returned to port when the Japanese bombed before, and was preparing to go ashore for a holiday (at that time, the Pacific Fleet had not yet entered a state of war, and the life of submarines at sea was particularly difficult, so there would be a long vacation after each docking, in fact, the same is true for the current submarine force). However, they heard a buzzing sound from the sky, and the officers and men of the submarine, who had always regarded the aircraft as their natural enemies, suddenly changed color.

At this time, the captain did not think about escaping ashore, but immediately ordered his subordinates to control the submarine to sink to the bottom and turn off the engine, pretending to be sunk, in order to save the submarine, after all, the submarine has no air defense capability, and minimizing the damage was the only thing he could do at that time. And their luck was not bad, because it was not yet dawn at that time, several destroyed and stranded huge ships not far away attracted the enemy's attention, and the Japanese army did not choose to land directly at Pearl Harbor, but only continuously sent a group of planes to drop bombs in the sky, so it was impossible to look too carefully, after all, they did not notice the abnormality, and were fooled by it.

Since this submarine is an old-fashioned ship-type submarine with a very slow underwater speed, it is impossible to drive to a safe area by submersible alone. In order to avoid meaningless losses, the captain, who thought that the enemy would retreat after blowing up the ships in the harbor, decided to hide underwater until the Japanese troops withdrew.

After dawn, the passive sonar on the submarine did not hear any more major movements for an hour, and the captain who thought that the Japanese had retreated breathed a sigh of relief and ordered the submarine to float, but after getting out of the submarine, he saw that there were less than 10 of the original dozens of various ships in Pearl Harbor that had not sunk because they were grounded, and the sound of guns and explosions on the island also told the US officers and men on these submarines a cruel fact -- the enemy's offensive was still not over

So, in order to avoid being discovered by the enemy again, the submarine had to hide back under the water honestly. And the captain gradually realized the seriousness of the situation. If Oahu is really lost, then this submarine will definitely become a prisoner of the enemy if it continues to stay in the harbor, but it is not easy to escape, and it will not be able to leave without refloating. But by this time it was already dawn. The patrol range of the aircraft is too large. If you rush to the surface and leave Pearl Harbor, you will be caught nine times out of ten. Just as the captain was struggling, the seabed, which had been calm, made him suddenly realize that the enemy seemed to be in a blind spot in his thinking. They may have thought that all the U.S. warships in Pearl Harbor had been sunk or blown up, so they would no longer send planes over, so that as long as they stayed up until night, the submarine could float and leave, and although the airborne radar could also detect the submarine sailing on the surface, the ability to identify targets was far from being comparable to that of the naked eye, and the enemy's pilots would miss it if they were distracted

But after nightfall, the captain, who was about to give the order to leave, suddenly realized another problem: if he finally held Oahu, wouldn't he flee without a fight? So, thinking that there was night cover anyway, after the submarine surfaced, he ventured ashore to inquire, and learned that the Japanese army had captured a number of key fortress batteries, and the American troops defending the island could not even suppress the rioting Japanese residents of Hawaii, and immediately understood that the island could not be defended no matter what

However, after learning that the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Admiral Nimitz, was still in the headquarters, the captain's mind suddenly became lively again, and he immediately went to the headquarters not far away to persuade Nimitz and the others to leave on his submarine. When Nimitz heard that there was still a submarine that had survived, he was overjoyed, and after giving several orders to the remnants of the island, he took several senior officers from the headquarters to follow the captain to the submarine, and drove directly out of Pearl Harbor at night without sinking

Although historically, the U.S. military generally chose to surrender after being in a desperate situation, but this is not necessarily because of fear of death, but mostly because of Western values. Although Nimitz and others fled by submarine on the way to cover the night, but now the Japanese planes are also equipped with airborne radar, once they collide, there is still a high possibility of finding this submarine, if it is just to survive, in fact, Nimitz directly surrendered to the Japanese is the wisest choice. Perhaps because of this, Nimitz, who left his subordinates and fled back to his homeland, was not only not punished for this, but was also comforted by the U.S. government.

US President Roosevelt could not help but be terrified after asking about the situation, and there had never been an admiral in the history of the United States who had fallen into the hands of the enemy, and if Nimitz had really been captured by the Japanese, it would undoubtedly be an extremely heavy blow to the morale of the US military, and at the same time, it would also put him, the president, under unprecedented pressure from public opinion. Therefore, in order to express his gratitude to the captain, and in order to create a hero to boost the morale of the country and the army, Roosevelt personally ordered him to be commended and rewarded in an unprecedented way, and the captain has been prosperous since then, and even became the US Secretary of the Navy for a time after the war, and under the instruction of the White House, Hollywood has also repeatedly edited and adapted this story into a number of classic film and television works that have been passed on to future generations, making it famous, and earning tens of millions of dollars through books after retirement. Many later generations called him one of the biggest winners of life during World War II

Before Nimitz escaped from Pearl Harbor, he wanted to order the destruction of ammunition to avoid financing the enemy, but considering that the main ammunition depot on Oahu and even the ammunition depots of each battery were set up inside the mountain, once detonated, the entire American army on the mountain would be killed. (To be continued......)