As if the Atwood had been decapitated, the bow of the ship had been torn open with a huge breach from below, and only a little bit of it was still attached.

The middle of the hull was also badly damaged, and the fragile civilian freighter was far more damaged than it could bear.

Just five minutes later, the Atwood had already seen a noticeable tilt.

"We're flooding! We're out of power too! ”

"Captain, we can't save this ship!"

The anxious first mate ran over and shouted for instructions.

The captain has been on the ship for five years, with many trips between Batavia-Moresby-Sydney-Honolulu-Los Angeles, and the Atwood carries many of his memories over the years.

After a while, the captain who felt sorry still gave the instructions to abandon the ship, "Give up the ship, put on a life jacket, and put down the life raft." ”

He walked over to the helm platform, touched the oak rudder, and then took the logbook from the cabinet next to it, and held the thick book in his hand.

As soon as the instructions were given, the sailors scrambled to the deck, took the life jackets from the boxes and put them on, and then worked together to untie the tethers of the life raft and throw it into the sea.

They climbed over the railing, crossed their hands over their chests, and then jumped into the sea one by one, and then swam to the floating life raft......

The Atwood is loaded with cargo that is in loose condition, an ocean-ready aircraft that can be assembled quickly at the aircraft assembly plant.

As the freighter capsized, 32 cutting-edge P-40B fighters and 11 BT-13 trainers sank into the deep sea south of the Fiji Islands.

A hundred meters underwater, the submariners inside the Lixia Jia-2 were holding their breath and not daring to make a noise.

Everyone's eyes were focused on the sonar soldier, and they were very eager.

"Well, it's the sound of sinking...... Gurgling and bubbling, and the steel frame deformed and creaked. ”

"It's done!"

"I can open it once on the way back, so it's not a loss."

"It looks like it's thousands of tons bigger, and it's estimated that it's going to deliver arms to the Australians."

The submariners lowered their voices and applauded again and again, only feeling that they were in a very happy mood.

The LS-16 flotilla paid for their paralysis, which, in the eyes of the Americans, was just an accident.

No one could have expected an ambush outside the dangerous area of the Ming army's submarine activity, and the merchant fleet could not always cruise in a zigzag anti-submarine manner, which would be too slow.

One of the four U.S. destroyers escorting the ship attempted to hunt down the Lixiajia II, but to no avail.

That night, the Lixiajia II sent a brief telegram reporting the speed, course, and coordinates of the merchant fleet, and summoned other submarines operating in the Coral Sea to intercept the big fish......

Looking at the vast and grand entire front, there are many trivial things that have happened day and night from last night to tonight, and they are too many to count.

In Holland Harbor in the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific, as soon as the destroyer USS John D. Ford left the port, it inadvertently triggered a mine, which broke on the spot, the whole ship lost power, lost power, killed and wounded more than 20 people, and was finally towed back to the dock by barge for repairs.

These mines were secretly laid by the Qingming-3 ocean-going submarine the night before.

Over the waters of Midway Island in the Central Pacific, a large Type 32 seaplane carrying out aerial reconnaissance missions was shot down by US fighters.

On the island of Kuah in the southwest Pacific, more than two dozen Type 36 bombers taking off from Rabaul once again carried out an air raid on the airfield that was about to be completed.

In northeastern Australia, an Australian motorized patrol trying to reconnoiter the Johnstone area and the 120th Regiment of the 40th Division of the Ming Army had an encounter and was forced to retreat.

In the direction of the South Asian subcontinent, the hundreds of thousands of British and Ming troops demarcated by the Brahmaputra River were as thunderous and rainy as ever. In total, the British fired nearly 2,000 artillery shells and dropped more than 200 aerial bombs; The Ming and Southern armies fired back more than 1,800 shells and rockets.

It looked like it was the same as before, as if it were just an ordinary day in war.

On that day, it was nine o'clock in the morning Hawaii time.

The once invincible Pacific Fleet is now rife with a strong sense of defeatism, and some have even proposed to withdraw the fleet to the west coast.

Now that Hawaii's southern gateway is wide open, the Ming army, which is still sharp, is fully capable of taking the southern route and coming straight to Hawaii through the Gilbert Islands.

After personally inspecting the docks at Pearl Harbor, Chester Nimitz, who had just been promoted directly from rear admiral, boarded the battleship Colorado.

He formally assumed the post of commander of the Pacific Fleet on the aft deck of the ship, and immediately addressed the officers and men present.

“…… We lost the previous two naval battles, in Torres and in Tarawa, but the outcome of the war is not yet certain, and our duty is to fight together and get through this difficult time. ”

In fact, according to Chester's temperament, he didn't want to make a long speech at all, at most he explained the direction of the future in a few words, so that the whole fleet could strengthen their convictions.

However, there was already a large group of reporters who came to find a gimmick, and he had to compromise for it.

In terms of appearance, Chester is not the focus of the media like Mak, he doesn't like to be in the limelight, dresses more casually, and lacks iconic words and actions that can make people impress.

His speech was also bland and straightforward, like boiled water.

The reporters who wanted to hear the rhetoric were disappointed, shouldn't the new commander cheer for the officers and men of the fleet who were demoralized? How can a demoralized army win?

Such an unsentimental speech was far less than expected, and the reporter of the "Daily News" complained: "This commander is a very frank man, but he doesn't seem to know how to motivate his subordinates." ”

Chester, who had just arrived, was rather cautious and restrained, he was not recognized by others, and there were more than two dozen admirals more senior than him, and in a sense he could be regarded as a favored servant of the American version of the lucky one.

Lieutenant Colonel Evan, a staff officer in the Naval Air Corps, described the new commander to his colleagues in a tone of disappointment as a timid, quiet, passive old man.

At dinner time that day, a surprising piece of news came out.

"Did you hear that? The old man wanted to abandon Wake Island and Midway, and he wanted the Saratoga to be repaired as soon as possible to defend against the Chinese! ”

The officers who were eating were surprised to hear this, and their hands holding forks froze, and their chewing mouths stopped.

Since the outbreak of the war, the U.S. military has been sending a steady stream of reinforcements to Midway and Wake Island to consolidate defenses.

Today, these two important islands have gathered a considerable number of troops, adding up to about 3,000 men, more than 70 aircraft, and more than 50 artillery pieces.

Admiral Chester-Nimitz decided that the Ming Navy would not be able to meet the Ming Navy in a short period of time, because the Saratoga had to be repaired and the Enterprise had to rest, and during this time the Ming Army could attack Midway and Wake Island with impunity.

In that case, these forces would be lost in vain -- they could not effectively stop the Ming army, and they could not delay for a few days, for example, the US garrison stationed at the Tarawa Atoll a few days ago only held out for more than 30 hours in the face of the Ming Army's Second Marine Brigade.

Therefore, it is better to abandon the two, shrink the forces, and concentrate all forces to defend the Hawaiian island of Oahu, leaving only a small number of aircraft on these two islands to monitor the movements of the Ming army.

The vast majority of people agree on this.

Facts have proven that after losing the superiority of the sea and air, it is impossible to hold the islands.

But "hurry up and repair the Saratoga and prepare for defense" surprised the officers.

This was immediately questioned - the Battle of Tarawa, orchestrated by Admiral Hasben Kimmel, had already buried three aircraft carriers, and now both the Saratoga and the Enterprise were extremely valuable.

If the only two remaining aircraft carriers are also sunk, the long window period will allow the Ming Navy to do whatever it wants, and there is almost no hope for this war, so everyone might as well pack up and go back to the mainland for a vacation now.

Major General Spruance also disagreed, and he was more sensible and felt that the current course of action was the best policy.

First, our own aircraft carriers are at an absolute disadvantage in terms of numbers; Second, their own carrier-based aircraft cannot effectively destroy enemy armored aircraft carriers.

To sum up, even if you successfully ambush and seize the opportunity to sink or severely damage many enemy aircraft carriers, you will not be able to break the enemy's armored aircraft carriers, which will put your own side in the danger of being counter-killed at any time.

Despite the many opponents, Chester's idea received a strong boost – Vice Admiral Halsey, the commander of the carrier group, strongly endorsed it.

Angry, he openly rebuked the cowardly atmosphere and said: "Is this still the Pacific Fleet? War is not a coward game! If you want to win this war, you should not lack courage. ”

Historically, William Halsey was called a "brute bull" for no reason, he was a hot-tempered guy with fierce eyes and a positive and aggressive style.

One of his famous quotes reflects his temperament even more - "Kill Japs! Kill Japs！ Kill more Japs！」

In his memoirs, he wrote: "Many of my ancestors were navigators and adventurers, who admired freedom and violence, who loved spirits, who spoke rudely, and who did not want to be restrained."

The facts are consistent with what he says, and one of the members of the Halsey family in the eighteenth century was even a pirate ship captain.

As a teenager, William Halsey was a troublemaker, fighting everywhere, and often came home covered in bruises, bruised nose and swollen face.

At first, he did not get good grades in medical school, and his personality may not be able to become a qualified doctor, and then after entering the Naval Academy, although his grades were still at the bottom, he became a popular rugby player.

It was at that time that Chester Nimitz met him, and forty years later, the two would be fighting side by side again.

Interestingly, William was three years older than Chester, and he was an older senior, with more experience and experience, and his father was also a naval colonel, so William was better than Chester in every way.

It is dangerous for a commander-in-chief to be shallow and unrecognized, but President Franklin doesn't care about that, or is now so urgent that he can't afford it.

William Halsey, who likes to do things intuitively and do whatever he wants, is undeniably talented, but such a man is only suitable for a general!

On the other hand, Chester Nimitz has good self-control, thoughtfulness and composure, making him a talent who is fit to make a big deal out of it.

It is said that the new official took office with three fires, but Chester only put two.

One was to evacuate the defenders at Midway and Wake Island, and the other was to repair the Saratoga through the night.

From a macro point of view, the series of changes around March of the 40th year of Zhichang are a continuation of the past and the future, which is an important node in the middle of the war.

The first naval and air battle gave both the Ming and American militaries a deeper and more direct understanding of each other.

Both sides are aware of the importance of pre-discovery of the enemy, and reconnaissance and search are the first priority; In addition, dive bombers are extremely difficult to defend against penetration, and they are the key weapons to defeat the enemy, so we should strive to develop more powerful dive bombers.

The U.S. military found that conventional 500-pound and 1,000-pound semi-armor-piercing aerial bombs could not effectively damage the armored aircraft carriers of the Ming army, and the Naval Ordnance Bureau urgently issued the task of developing 1,600-pound heavy armor-piercing aerial bombs.

The Ming army realized that the survivability of ordinary wooden-deck aircraft carriers was poor, especially light aircraft carriers. The intensity of the war will only get higher and higher, and a strong armored aircraft carrier should be the general trend.

Strategically, thanks to the hard work of its own navy in the Battle of Tarawa, the Ming can still maintain an offensive posture.

The United States, on the other hand, had to do everything in its power to defend Hawaii, and the Army's 7th Infantry Division had been assembled in Seattle and loaded on ships to further strengthen Hawaii's defenses.

Australia was determined to regain lost territory, and with a new group of troops formed two months earlier reorganized and sizable, Marshal McTall agreed to launch an offensive when the 1st Infantry Division arrived in Sydney.

March 8 is a holiday for working women.

"Alas, I heard that the place is inaccessible, full of miasma, and there are dragons, I don't know how long it will take to come back......"

Now that it's time to separate, Xia Xiaoshi still involuntarily recited a few sentences in pieces.

In the small front yard of the house, Zhou Changfeng gently pinched the delicate nose of his infant daughter.

Hearing this, he raised his eyes and smiled and said to his wife, "What does that poem say?" Three hundred and sixty days a year, most of them go on horseback. On the bright side, in ancient times, transportation was inconvenient, and it might take a year or two to come back after the expedition, but now it is very good. ”

"Well, Zhou Kexing, you must be careful."

"Our army has not had a dead general so far, don't worry, I'm definitely not the first, hahahaha."

"......" Xia Xiaoshi pursed her lips, rolled her eyes and said, "What you said is really ugly." ”

Zhou Changfeng, who was smiling, drew his saber, flicked the blade, and then put it into its sheath, "The next time I come back, it should be Solomon's sand." ”

Xia Xiaoshi was slightly blessed and did not speak.

The first routine convoy to Moresby this month was already on its first voyage, one of which was loaded with recoilless guns and camouflage items allocated to the 1st Marine Brigade.

The airfield on Guadalcanal has been completed, and planes have been arriving from New Caledonia to station, and some Ming military reconnaissance planes have reported being intercepted by enemy planes.

The operation to purge the US troops entrenched on the island will be carried out at an opportune time in the middle of the month, and Zhou, as the commander-in-chief, must be in place.

(End of chapter)