March 21, Chiraza, Java.

Located in the South Seas, the weather here is already hot, with daytime temperatures reaching as much as 30°C.

An American freighter named Easter Angel is slowly mooring into the dock, and many people are standing on the dock.

Local indigenous dock workers in short-sleeved shorts lazily prepared to unload their cargo, while uniformed Dutch and Indian Army officers gathered in the shade of a nearby shed.

About a decade ago, the Dutch began to seriously and carefully consider the defense of the Far Eastern colonies, the most important of which was naturally the island of Java, the essence of Dutch East Indo.

Despite the fact that there are so many islands in the South Sea, Java is home to about 70% of the population and most of the manufacturing and processing industries, and the main defense force is certainly deployed here.

And the two port cities of Batavia and Surabaya are located in the northern part of the island of Java, and if the imaginary enemy takes control of the northern seas, will the island of Java be cut off from the outside world?

So the Dutch set their sights on the southern port city of Chiraza and began to build it vigorously.

The original Chiraza seemed to be secluded, secluded and isolated, with only the occasional merchant ship coming here to replenish fresh water and coal.

The port city does not even merge into the main railway lines of Java and has little maintenance capacity, providing only minimal maintenance.

Through the half-flickering and half-coercive operation of the pit and abduction, a large number of Javanese natives invested in the construction work. Four new 150mm shore defense batteries were built in Chiraza, and navigation lights, buoys, cranes and a large number of supporting facilities were added.

Just a few days ago, a 1,500-ton and a 4,000-ton floating dock were towed from Batavia, giving it some capacity for ship repairs.

"Oh, our fighters have finally arrived, and they should be able to deal with the Chinese planes."

"There are only two finished planes, the rest are parts, and we have to assemble them as soon as possible."

"Is the flatbed at the train station ready?"

Several Dutch and Indian Army Army officers had high hopes for the fighter jets that had just arrived, hoping that they would help defend the colony.

Although the United States has not taken a position at this time, it has already shown the image of a cunning warmonger in actual actions.

Twenty days ago, this batch of 30 CW-21 fighters was still being unloaded leisurely at the San Francisco train station, and the Dutch, who were burning their eyebrows, wanted to deliver them as soon as possible, and the Americans immediately agreed to this request.

The federal government gave the green light, and the fighters were loaded onto the freighter in just a day and a half, pulled anchor and set sail at breakneck speed.

Next, the two finished fighters will be delivered directly to the fighter squadron, and the remaining fighters in the condition of parts will also be transported to the Dutch and Indian Army aircraft repair plant in Bandung for assembly.

The authorities of the Dutch East Indo-Indo-Dutch colony then continued to place orders for 42 CW-21 and 15 B-18 bombers.

The CW-21 is a lightweight, all-metal fighter jet developed by Curtis last year, equipped with an 850 hp Wright Tornado Star engine.

There is no armor protection and no self-sealing fuel tank, so the empty weight is only 1380kg, and it has a climb rate of up to 23m/s at low altitude, setting a record, and its maximum level flight speed is also 500km/h.

Its maneuverability is very good, but it lacks basic protection measures and its firepower is relatively thin, so the US Army Aviation does not like this light fighter nicknamed "Demon".

The CW-21's name as a demon is completely in vain, it is as brittle as porcelain, and it may even be weaker than the Zero.

Later in the day, the submarine KVIII also slowly entered the harbor and was guided by a barge to its berth.

The Royal Dutch Navy and the Dutch East Indo-Dutch Colony Navy were independent of each other, but the former was supposed to be able to manage the latter in wartime.

For a long time, the Dutch naval forces stationed in the Far East suffered from a shortage of men, and some ships had to be mothballed due to a lack of sufficient manpower.

In order to increase their defense strength, the Dutch racked their brains to recruit useful soldiers, including but not limited to training Javanese with a high level of education, recruiting foreign retired sailors, and so on.

The submarine KVIII was overhauled after being released from mothball, sent to the Sunda Strait for stability navigation tests, and then to Ciraza for delivery to naval combat units.

Major Gerd was ordered to take command of the submarine, and he did not dare to slack off, and flew to Ciraza overnight.

The submarine, which had entered service 19 years ago, had a quota of 31 personnel, but until now Major Gerd had only cobbled together a total of 22 people, and the dozen or so pilots of the submarine were people from the Surabaya Naval Base, and they left by train after signing the handover.

The order given by the naval command is to set sail at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning and conduct combat patrols between the Makassar Strait and the Sulawesi Sea, first to the southeast and then to the northeast.

After an afternoon's hard work, Gerd had almost broken his leg and had broken his tongue, and finally he had six more sailors from the colonial naval units, barely enough men.

Although these people are even entering the submarine for the first time, they are already thankful to God for finding sailors at the moment.

In order to unite these shrimp soldiers and crabs as soon as possible - even the most superficial wine and meat brothers, Gerd took great pains.

He took them to the largest bar in Ciraza and called a group of girls and dancers out of his own pocket.

"Hooray!"

"Woohoo! We will definitely teach those Chinese people a good lesson! ”

"For the Netherlands!"

Such an approach was a clear violation of the regulations of the Royal Dutch Navy, after all, no one could expect a group of drunken sailors to have their mouths tightly sealed.

But between strict secrecy and cohesion, Gerd chose the latter.

To be sure, he didn't like this either, but he had no choice now, otherwise a plate of loose sand might start in the middle of the process.

The warblers and swallows laughed and flirted, and then they looked for a place to enjoy half the night.

Under such circumstances, it seems that such a group of improvised sailors really initially merged into a decent group?

“…… Fuel refueling completed; The torpedoes were loaded, ten in all; The food is for two months, and fresh vegetables and fruits should be eaten within two days. ”

"Two days?"

The next morning, the quartermaster was briefing Major Gerd on the supply situation.

The latter was amazed at the short period of time for fresh fruits and vegetables, which he used to last for about a week when he was on the mainland.

The lieutenant shrugged his shoulders and handed over the handover papers, "Mr. Major, don't forget that this is not the North Sea. ”

Gerd took out his pen and signed his name on it, then looked back at the loose and casual sailors, and said with mixed feelings: "Guys, let's go." ”

Facing the rising sun in the east, this old submarine embarked on a journey with an uncertain future under the manipulation of a group of patchwork sailors.

The blue waves are vast, and the morning light makes the sea glow with crystal light.

Due to the late arrival of some supplies and the unfavorable weather conditions in the Karimata Strait, the Ming army slightly delayed the launch of Operation Bloody Paralysis.

After patiently waiting until 24 March, when everything was ready, the Ming Army, Navy and Air Force were full of confidence and high morale before they officially launched the operation.

Of course, they weren't the only ones acting at the same time.

As the Ming army began to move, the Lanfang Defense Army also ended the month-long sit-down war and began to take the initiative.

Previously, they had been staying in the fortified area of the border line and confronting the British and Dutch armies on the opposite side.

The Air Force, which had launched from three launches, bombarded the British positions, and four Wehrmacht infantry battalions were engaged in battle, heading straight for Kuching in Sarawak.

The reconnaissance aircraft of the Dutch East Indo-Dutch Army Air Force (ML-KNIL) and the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Force (MLD) are very active these days, always visiting Changi Naval Base and Songbai Harbour at dawn and evening.

Fighters of the Daming and Lanfang air forces and naval aviation intercepted and pursued some of them, but the rest of the fish that slipped through the net undoubtedly succeeded in sending back the aerial reconnaissance photos.

Even in the later stages of the war, when radar technology was more mature, there were often omissions in detecting enemy planes in time and guiding them to intercept them, let alone now.

At 11:19 a.m. on March 24, visibility was excellent, with only a few puffy clouds in the blue sky.

A PBY Katerina seaplane belonging to the KLNA's Fourth Squad spotted something strange at the junction of the sky and the sea—a series of small black dots.

The navigator took a closer look at the northwest direction with his binoculars, then stretched out his hand and said, "I saw some ships, most likely the Chinese fleet." ”

The plane slowly turned, and after making a large circle, came to the right rear of the unidentified fleet.

I saw dozens of warships and transport ships sailing at a constant speed in the southeast direction, and the gray-black plumes of smoke emitted by the latter's oil-coal mixed boiler were soaring diagonally into the sky, and the red flags hoisted by each ship could be identified at a glance.

The pilots tried to steal the planes with the help of the clouds, while the rest of the people quickly identified the types of ships against the ship type identification manual.

At 11:47 on this day, the command of the Dutch Indian Army stationed in Dara Gen received a telegram from this Katarina, and everyone instantly became nervous.

"Found the Chinese fleet, about 20 transport ships. The combat ships were 7 destroyers, 3 light cruisers, 1 heavy cruiser. The coordinates are 8°2' north latitude, 117°3' east longitude, course 125, speed 13 knots."

This fleet was none other than the detachment responsible for the capture of the Dalagan oil field, which carried the 2nd Landing Brigade and the 2nd Paratrooper Regiment.

Darragan was not within the scope of the airborne raid, and Balikpapan was the target of the 2nd Paratrooper Regiment, but they would use Dalagan as an airborne departure point.

The local Dutch and Indian Army and Air Force immediately dispatched all available bombers, and nine B-10 bombers quickly loaded bombs, and then took off one after another with a roar.

The B-10 designed and built by Martin in the United States was a product of the early thirties, when the concept of "fast bombers" was popular all over the world - as long as my bomber flew faster than your fighter, then I had the full initiative.

There is quite a bit of bomber invincibility, and the B-10 is a product of this concept. It is worth mentioning that the B-10 bomber was also purchased by China in the original history, and two of them were the ones that "bombed" Japan with leaflets.

However, these bombers were now really difficult to pose a threat to the Ming fleet, and the hit rate of horizontal bombing was extremely low.

Black-and-gray smoke clouds continued to bloom behind the group, and the shock wave of the explosion made the planes tremble up and down, and the fragments cut through the all-metal fuselage.

The Ming warships on the sea fired countless shells at the Dutch and Indian bombers in the sky, and the blue sky seemed to be polluted by those black smoke clouds.

The Dutch pilots obviously did not have the spirit of boldness and fearlessness, and they flew quickly past the Ming fleet at an altitude of 900 meters, hurriedly dropped the bombs they loaded, and then accelerated away.

One after another, the bombs fell into the water and exploded, splashing up columns of white water one after another, but none of them hit.

However, the ineffective air raid had an indirect result - a medic lieutenant of the destroyer Pingyao was so startled by the explosion that he could not stand still, his head hit the table, bleeding profusely, and he received several stitches.

At noon the next day, the detachment approached Daraghan.

During this time, the fleet was subjected to three more rounds of air raids, but it seemed that even God did not protect the Dutch - two bombs were hit, the first killing only a few people, and the second was still a dud.

But it was also at this time that the submarine KVIII was patiently waiting for the best opportunity to ambush.

"The enemy fleet is heading 265 and the speed is 14 knots, sir, which target should we choose?"

"A transport ship, of course."

After a rapid voyage of three days and two nights, the KVIII arrived at the predetermined sea area in the early morning, and immediately received an order from the naval command to find an opportunity to attack the Ming fleet.

Battleships passed in front of the submarine, and everyone held their breath and nervously until the transports were about to enter the rendezvous.

"Launch."

"Yes, torpedo fire."

"Dive to the maximum depth."

"As you wish, sir."

Four 450mm thermodynamic torpedoes burst out of the launch tubes one after another and headed quickly into the distance.

The distance of 800 meters takes nearly a minute for a torpedo to reach, and the obvious track of a thermodynamic torpedo is difficult not to be detected.

"Port side! Spray! There are torpedoes! ”

"The right side of the rudder is full!"

However, the clumsy transport ship could not be compared to the nimble battleship, and the crew could barely watch the four torpedoes approach quickly.

"Boom! Boom! ”

Two huge shocks in a row caused the crew and the officers and men of the 2nd Marine Brigade to stagger.

The power of the 450mm torpedo is less than that of the ship's 533mm torpedo, and if it were a battleship of the same tonnage, it might not have to worry about sinking, but this transport ship could not hold on.

The captain ordered the abandonment and distress flags to be hoisted, and then the Marine infantry on board was sent to the deck.

The fleet immediately responded with the standard - one of the ships went back and forth to the spot where the torpedo had just tracked, and the rest of the ships switched to zigzag maneuvers.

The depth charges dropped by the destroyer exploded into a column of water that was several stories high, and it was a spectacular sight.

The old KVIII was hiding at a depth of 80 meters, and everyone shuddered with the popping sound of the depth charge falling into the water, the slow sinking roar, and the huge vibration of the explosion.

Major Gerd was undoubtedly a commendable and qualified officer, and he did the best he could, but he could not reverse the inevitable decline on a macro scale.

Yesterday I drove a night of high-speed, and it has not been updated until now.

There's one more shift tonight.

(End of chapter)