A long time ago, Zhou Changfeng, who had just been dug up by the navy from the forbidden army, had discussed Fort Drum with Yan Chenwu, and the two of them were in the staff office of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to study how to deal with it.

The history of Fort Drum can be traced back to the ninth year of Zhichang, when the Americans embarked on an ambitious construction project to build a fort on Elfrey Island, at the entrance to Manila Bay.

They razed almost the entire island to the ground and built a "battleship" out of reinforced concrete on the basis of it, which lasted for more than five years.

It is about 100 meters long and 40 meters wide, and it sits east and faces west, with the tip facing south, like the bow of a giant ship.

There is a good saying - you can do whatever you want with money. The Americans, who were inhumane in the trenches, pursued the ultimate and succeeded in creating what is now almost indestructible.

In order to ensure that the sea fortress was strong enough to withstand the name of "unsinkable battleship", architects and engineers designed a wall about 8 meters thick on all sides, and 6 meters thick at the top.

Historically, the British Royal Air Force used a giant aerial bomb weighing 5,400 kg, which could reach an ultra-high speed of nearly 1,200 km/h in the process of free fall after being dropped at a high altitude, so it could penetrate the 4.9 m thick reinforced concrete fortress.

This basically represents the most powerful penetration capability that humans can achieve at the current level of technology, but it is still unable to destroy Fort Drum, which is up to 6 meters thick at the top and has three layers of 76mm thick steel plates.

Theoretically, only the Gustav 800mm railway gun could deal with it, and whether it existed or not, it would be difficult to deploy it in place.

The military headquarters was not happy to slowly besiege this fortress - for a day that it existed, the Ming army would not be able to enter and leave Manila Bay for a day.

As a result, many plans had been prepared for Fort Drum, and now that the peninsula and Korrogidor Island had been captured, the fort had become a fish bone stuck at the entrance and exit of Manila Bay.

Perimeter Feng sent a telegram to the 3rd Marine Brigade asking if the special fuel shipment from the country had been in place and when the raid on Fort Drum would be launched.

The Army's Ordnance Research Institute uses a mixture of oleic acid, palm oil, and gasoline to adjust the specific gravity of various substances to obtain several special fuels with different degrees of thickening.

However, unlike the almost gelatinous napalm of later generations, these special fuels can only be called thickened gasoline – they are more like thick grease and have considerable fluidity than slimy gels.

The Shangqing freighter was one of many merchant ships requisitioned by the Ming navy, and for a month it had been traveling back and forth between Dagu and Lingayan Bay to transport military supplies to the troops.

The crew did not feel that wartime was much different from usual, and they had not encountered a single danger, but a few days ago, a destroyer in the fleet suddenly sounded a submarine alarm, which startled everyone, and later confirmed that it was nothing more than a piece of metal floating on the sea, which was mistaken for a periscope by the sailors.

This time, the crew thought that the supplies transported by the Shangqing were also unremarkable, but they did not know that the 100 gasoline barrels contained special fuel.

Because the landing operation against Moresby was temporarily postponed, Zhou Changfeng, who was quite idle, flew from Surabaya to Manila, intending to see a good show with his own eyes.

If you miss it, you'll regret it for a few years.

At 23:30 on November 6, Manila Bay fell silent in the darkness of night.

The officers and men of Company E of the 58th Coastal Defense Artillery Regiment of the US Army at Fort Drum were confused, and most of them were in a very low mood.

The whole of the Philippines has fallen, the 80,000-strong army trapped in the fortified area of Bataan has been destroyed, and the island of Korrogiedo, where Major General Wainwright is located, has also been captured.

Now, all of Asia is left with their lonely garrison, 4,000 kilometers from its nearest friendly forces.

The commander of Fort Drum, Major Edward, encouraged the group: "This ship will never sink, and we will hold on to it as much as possible." Day after day, week after week, until the end. ”

Fortunately, this battleship made of concrete gave everyone a sense of security - all kinds of supplies were quite abundant, the fortress itself was extremely strong, and there was no weapon in this world that could penetrate ten meters of reinforced concrete!

The Ming army also symbolically attacked Fort Drum in the past two days, and the 2nd Light Bombardment Detachment of the Air Force made a total of more than 30 sorties and dropped more than 100 250kg aerial bombs.

The air raids destroyed the birdcage masts and wooden camps on top, but did nothing for the fort itself, leaving only a few potholes.

At this time, the 2nd Marine Brigade had already sent two assault teams to approach Fort Drum under the cover of night.

A detachment of the Boat Scouts came quietly in four powered kayaks, turned off their engines and switched to human paddling when they got closer.

The boat landed one after another, and more than 30 officers and men began to try to climb the vertical wall more than ten meters high in front of them, and they used cable launchers to fire lass at the remaining railing at the top of the fortress.

It's really difficult to do this kind of life in the dark, and it took a lot of trying to finally succeed.

The buildings and facilities on the top had been blown up by the air raids and artillery bombardment of the past two days, and the railings were mutilated and twisted, and the officers and men of the heavily armed scout team could only climb one by one, for fear that the twisted and deformed railings would not be able to withstand it.

The first to board was a corporal, and his excitement at the moment was indescribable.

Before departure, the brigade made a personal promise, and those who ascended first remembered the first credit! In the future, I will be able to return to my hometown with great energy!

But as soon as his excited heart was mentioned, it was as if he was being clenched by an invisible hand.

I saw three figures approaching from a distance, holding guns and talking, and one of them fumbled and took out a flashlight.

"Strange sounds are coming from here."

"Alan, ...... with a flashlight"

When the light of the flashlight shone in this direction, the corporal immediately opened fire, and there was no room for thought and reaction in such a close encounter.

Between the electric light and flint, the two gunshots of "bang" and "dada" resounded through the sky and sea, and the flash of the muzzle flame was particularly dazzling in the night!

The three sentries were knocked down by the corporal's Type 39 short automatic rifle in one shot, one of them hastily fired and missed, the other with a flashlight and no gun, and only one of the sentries fired and hit.

Four or five seconds later, another pacesetter came aboard, and he immediately fired at several sentries on the other side along with the corporal who had been shot and fell to the ground.

The two sides engaged in fierce firing at the top of Fort Drum, because Company E only had two three-person posts on the top, so it was impossible to rush for reinforcements in a short time.

When the first few people got on board, they found a new railing that looked stronger, tied it and dropped the knotted cable.

In this way, 39 officers and men of the boat scout team of the 2nd Marine Brigade climbed up one after another, and more than 20 men of E Company rushed out of the rear entrance and exit one after another, trying to drive the Ming army down.

The U.S. soldiers leaned on the wreckage of the collapsed birdcage mast and opened fire with all their might!

I don't know who fired the flares, the tiny flares fired by the flare guns were toys compared to the cannonballs, but they were enough to illuminate the upper decks of Fort Drum.

The two sides soon began throwing grenades at each other, and explosions and howls followed......

The U.S. soldiers were basically equipped with Springfield bolt-action rifles, and there were only two Browning automatic rifles, which could not withstand the dense automatic fire.

The few minutes of fighting resulted in heavy casualties among two squads of U.S. troops, and seven or eight bodies fell on the top of the potholed concrete.

"Lieutenant! They are approaching from the left! ”

"Colin has been defeated!"

"Attention! The grenade is coming! ”

Moreover, the officers and men of Company E are, after all, coastal defense artillery units, and the quality of individual soldiers cannot be compared with elite light infantry such as boat scouts.

"The situation is urgent, retreat, retreat!"

"Go, go, go, get back inside!"

Seeing that it was impossible to resist the advancing Ming army, the anxious Major Edward was forced to call the soldiers to retreat to the inside of the fortress, so as not to even have time to close the partition door by then.

After dozens of seconds, the gunfire finally stopped.

The flare slowly fell to the ground, and a wisp of green smoke floated out.

The scouts immediately surrounded the scouts, and stepped over the corpses to the prohibitively heavy steel gate.

"Report, there are more than a dozen corpses of the enemy, all of them have retreated to the bottom, and the iron gate is tightly closed."

"The turtle won't survive for a long time if it retracts, heh!"

After the successful capture of the upper deck of Fort Drum, several flares were lifted into the air, especially in the darkness of the night.

The generals who were waiting nervously on the shore all breathed a sigh of relief, and their hanging hearts finally relaxed.

Yan Chenwu said lightly: "Order, go!" ”

"Order!"

The corners of a lieutenant colonel's mouth rose, and he smiled: "Send the oil over and everything will be fine, come to a fire smoldering tank!" ”

"Let's take a good look at the wonderful idea of our 'General Zhou' today." The commander of the forty-third division waved his hand, "Come, bring wine to Lao Tzu!" ”

Several other officers nearby laughed and beckoned to have a drink while watching, and the camera had to be ready.

As the movement was exposed, Company E stationed at Fort Drum began to maneuver its artillery to return fire, flares flying diagonally from the gun emplacements, illuminating the sea as bright as daylight.

The 150mm field guns arranged in the four corners opened fire on anything suspicious, and more than 20 small boats responsible for transporting special fuel, each loaded with 3~4 200-liter oil drums, were naturally targeted.

Shells kept falling into the sea, blowing up large waves that made the dinghy sway and undulate in the waves.

Even if there is no direct hit, the shock wave of the 150mm high-explosive bomb and the water column can cause great damage to the fragile sampan.

At least seven dinghys sank during this time, but sixteen still arrived safely.

Only half of the four pumping machines and generators were ashore, and the soldiers pushed the oil drums ashore and laboriously piled them up.

The full oil drums weighed more than 300 catties, and the soldiers were in groups of four, and one after another the oil drums were hung and pulled up......

The barbecue dinner that the officers were looking forward to was still too idealistic after all, and the preparations continued until the second half of the night, and everyone was a little sleepy.

At 3:48 a.m. the next day, the officers in the observation post were drowsy, and some were already napping on the backs of their chairs.

Suddenly, someone shouted, "Look! Flares! ”

I saw a shiny yellow flare rushing into the night sky in the distance.

After several hours of hard work by the officers and men, more than 50 oil drums were all hoisted, and then a pumping machine and a hose were connected to inject more than 10,000 liters of thickened gasoline into the four vents that had been found.

They also moved the remains of some steel frames of collapsed birdcage masts and sealed them in front of the heavy steel gate.

After doing all this, the boat scouts quickly withdrew, and they hoisted the four fallen comrades one by one with cables underneath, and then rappelled down one after the other.

The only ones left at the top were a second lieutenant and two non-commissioned officers, who were ready to run away while pulling out the latch of the incendiary grenade.

"Okay, okay? Do it! ”

"Let's go!"

The grip bounced off the ground with a crisp sound, quite clear in the hazy moonlight.

The servant ran wildly, rushed to the cable, reached out and grabbed the rope, turned and jumped down.

When they turned around, they saw a huge fire gushing out of the vents like fountains of flames.

Seeing that everyone had boarded the power kayak, the gasoline engine in the stern roared, driving everyone away from this place of right and wrong.

On the bumpy boats, the officers and men stared intoxicated at this masterpiece of concerted efforts-

Flames erupted from all over the fortress, the top vents spewed flames like fountains, and the 150mm field guns fired flames from the gaps in the emplacements.

The oil barrels left on top were also ignited, and Fort Drum was enveloped in flames that lit up so much that even the stars in the bright night sky seemed much darker.

Under the scorching heat, the fire door of the ammunition depot on the second floor of the fort gradually became unbearable.

At dawn, the compartment where the 356mm armor-piercing projectile cartridge was stored first deflagrated, which soon triggered a series of explosions.

The earth-shattering explosion seemed to be the end of the world, and its nearly 70-ton twin-mounted 356mm turret was overturned, falling into the sea and splashing a large wave.

Several war correspondents were taken aback, but the generals remained very calm.

Zhou Changfeng only felt refreshed, and this feeling was really comfortable, like going home to take a shower and drink a sip of cold soda in the summer heat.

[Picture]

"Okay, the last stronghold has been pulled out!"

"Cheers!"

"A toast to all of you, long live!"

The results here are the good news of the Ming people, and the corresponding sad news of the Americans.

Several enthusiastic war correspondents wrote articles overnight and returned the film, and soon such good news as "Wang Shi Pursued with Victory, Besieged and Annihilated the Remnants of the Enemy" and other good news were flooded with the accounts of many newspapers in the north and south of the river.

The next day, countless telegrams flew like snowflakes to Melbourne, Hawaii, and Washington.

"Mr. Commander, there has been no reply to all communications from Fort Drum, and the result is certain."

The Pacific Fleet command in Honolulu was silent, and more than a dozen officers of all ranks were silent.

It was only after a few moments that Admiral Hasben Kimmel broke the silence with his words, "Its fall is an inevitable end, and it will not affect our decision-making. ”

Hasburn was urgently transferred to the command of the Pacific Fleet only a month ago, and by the way, he was directly promoted to four-star admiral.

The upright commander was historically dismissed from his post after being accused of dereliction of duty in connection with the attack on Pearl Harbor.

"Sir, the available intelligence can confirm that the Chinese operation against Papua will come soon, and we cannot wait any longer." A major general said in a deep voice.

(End of chapter)