"There are a lot of planes in the past two days, it's really strict."

"Normally, according to the estimates of the headquarters, the British fleet will arrive in the next few days."

At noon on a clear sky, the Ming army submarine Spring Equinox C17 lurked in the sea area 130 km east of the island of Hawaii.

Because the US planes in the sky never stopped, the submariners could not find a chance to float, and even the periscope did not dare to stick out of the water for a long time, and the entire submarine moved slowly underwater at a low speed of 2 knots.

Counting the days, the British aircraft carrier should be almost in Hawaii after more than ten days of sailing.

This is completely consistent with the current situation - US patrol planes have become extremely active in the past few days, and from morning to night, a large number of PBY Katerina seaplanes have searched for Ming submarines in the waters near Hawaii.

At 12:47, there was a faint column of smoke on the sea east of the vernal equinox C17, presumably emitted by the chimneys of low-speed ships.

A quarter of an hour later, the target's mast came into view, and after a few moments, its hull was revealed.

"Merchant ships, about 5,000 metric tons, with a speed of nine knots."

"Boss, are we going to ambush us?"

"It's just a ship, it's not qualified, and now the task of sentry is in the first place."

The American merchant ship, named Carroll, did not know that it had been spared by the sea wolves lurking here, and continued to sail through the waters at the most economical cruising speed.

At 13:25 p.m., the Vernal Equinox C17, which had risen to the surface to sail and recharge, was discovered by a US military TBD ravaging torpedo plane.

"Enemy planes! One enemy plane, in the direction of three-three-five, is coming towards us! ”

The lookout post on the submarine's control tower shouted loudly as he climbed back down the ladder.

The ravaging torpedo machine swooped straight towards the Ming submarine, and the captain immediately ordered it to dive to 40 meters to take refuge.

The ballast tanks of the vernal equinox C17 poured into the seawater, the diesel engines also quickly shut down, and the electric motors drove the submarine to the sea at maximum power.

When the submarine was completely submerged, the bullets fired by the US planes also crackled down, and a series of slender water columns splashed on the blue sea.

The Ravaging Torpedo Machine, which did not carry depth charges, was unable to do anything about it, and immediately sent a telegram to report the situation to the base.

At 16:20, the destroyer USS Bulmer, which was patrolling near the island of Hawaii, came up with a menacing attack, and at this time two Catalina seaplanes were already circling in the sky.

After careful consideration, Captain Equinox C17 ordered the dive to continue to a depth of 80 meters.

The spring-graded ocean-going submarines, which were designed and finalized in the 20s, are much more technologically backward than today's Lixia-class, with a safe diving depth of only 70 meters and an extreme depth of only 100 meters.

The first thing that came to mind was the noise of the destroyer's propellers, then the sound waves from the active sonar hit the hull of the submarine, and then, the depth charges were quickly thrown into the water by the destroyer......

Such a sound can be described as creepy to the ears of sonar soldiers.

About half a minute later, a dull "thump" sounded, and everyone could feel a slight shaking of the submarine.

Six minutes later, the Bulmer dropped five more depth charges.

This time the attack was more accurate, the depth and explosion point were closer than the last time, and the large shock caused a torpedo man to fall and crash headlong on the hard steel frame next to him.

Several pipe valves also began to seep water, and the fine stream of water quickly overflowed.

As a last resort, the captain had to order to continue the dive to a hundred meters.

Seeing that everyone was stunned, the captain urged him to hurry up, and the submariners began to act.

Depth charge attacks affect destroyer sonar, and it takes a few minutes after each explosion to regain undisturbed detection, during which time must be used to maneuver evasion.

The massive water pressure applied to the submarine, which was completed ten years ago, and the squeak of steel seemed to tell everyone that it had stretched itself to the limit.

Five minutes later, the Bulmer dropped eight more depth charges.

Equinox C17 put excess debris and even a pot of spare engine oil into the torpedo tubes, and after the explosion, they all shot out, trying to get by.

The sailors of the Bulmer cheered loudly, thinking that they had won the battle.

However, the wary captain questioned the sonar crew, and after learning that he did not hear the sound of the wreckage distorting and bubbling as it sank, he immediately instructed the ship to continue cruising nearby.

Sunset and moonrise, sunrise and moonset.

The game lasted for seventeen hours, and the game of cat and mouse evolved into a life-and-death duel.

It was not until noon the next day that the Bulmer departed because it had received an order to return to port.

Cramped, dim, hot, smelly, and at any moment, the high-pressure environment can be exhausted.

Everyone collapsed, and many didn't even have the strength to get up.

The vernal equinox C17 had almost run out of power, and although the submariners who survived the disaster did not want to risk floating up to recharge during the day, they had no choice now.

Three lookout posts climbed the control tower and watched the surrounding sea vigilantly with binoculars.

At 16:32, one of them suddenly said, "Look to the north, there is a mast." ”

The two people next to them also turned their gaze, and indeed saw the mast and a faint black smoke.

In a few moments, the bridge and chimney emerged from the distance where the sky and the sea met.

"That chimney... Belch... Am I looking away? There seems to be a black line. ”

"Upright?"

"Wide chimneys, vertical black lines, oh my God, this is not the Saratoga!"

The stakes were high, and the captain personally climbed the control tower.

What was witnessed afterwards was exactly what I had guessed, and it was the Saratoga that had been missing for many days!

The captain stares into the distance and quickly analyzes the best decision to follow.

After a brainstorming session, he decisively ordered: "Send a message to report the enemy's situation!" Five minutes later, dive to periscope depth, ready to tailgating. ”

The distance between the vernal equinox C17 and the target is more than ten kilometers, and the target is sailing in a northwest direction, and the speed difference between the two sides is too small, and it is difficult to catch up and seize the ambush position.

Instead of that, try trailing tracking.

In fact, the greater trouble lies in the fact that the US military is likely to be detected by the US military in sending telecommunications, and they will inevitably be more vigilant, and they will not even be able to follow them quietly.

According to the original plan half a month ago, the British fleet and the TF-31 task force converged on May 20 at point S, 500 km east of the island of Hawaii.

However, because the Ming fleet had already slipped away vigilantly, Chester-Nimitz temporarily decided to let the TF-31 approach Hawaii first, and the main Ming fleet had to respond to the battle with a posture of half-luring and half-coercion.

So, he planned several simultaneous operations.

First, the Saratoga lifted its radio silence and wandered in the waters off the island of Hawaiʻi.

Second, the air forces of Oahu and Maui organized a modest-scale air raid to destroy and suppress the Ming army's airfield on Kauai.

Third, the army units should prepare for the landing, at least pretending to be ready for action.

In this way, the Ming fleet could be forced to take the initiative to respond to the battle, otherwise the Kauai Island, which had come all the way to capture, would become a lone army, and it would not be long before it would be recaptured by the American army.

In the early morning of May 21, the Army Air Corps took the lead in the raid.

Twenty-six P-40 fighters and seven cutting-edge P-38 Lightning heavy fighters took off from Oahu's Wheeler and Hickam airfields, and pounced on Kauai.

[Picture]

The sky was clear and breezy and cloudless, and the US planes, which had no clouds as cover, were intercepted by Ming fighters who had scrambled into the air.

A fierce air battle broke out over Kauai Island, but the P-38 formation did not get involved in the battle, and they flew straight to Weiyuan Airport, and then opened heavy fire with 20mm cannons and 12.7mm machine guns in the nose.

A Type 36 fighter jet that was gliding on the runway was destroyed, and the plane, which had been hit by the bullet and was under the control of the loss, rushed off the runway, turning into a burning bonfire on the land.

Fortunately, the anti-aircraft weapons of the ground forces of the Ming army are a grade better than those of the US military, and the combination of the Trinity 12.8mm anti-aircraft machine gun and the Trinity 20.8mm anti-aircraft gun can effectively deal with enemy aircraft at low altitudes.

A P-38 fighter with its left wing broken rolled sideways, dragging black smoke and crashing northwest of the city.

It eventually crashed just a few dozen meters away from the headquarters where the perimeter wind was located, and a churning fireball rose up, and the splashed aviation gasoline caused a small fire, which took the officers and men half an hour to completely extinguish.

At 9:45, the second wave of U.S. air strikes followed.

This time it was the Naval Air Force, 18 F4F Wildcat fighters and 13 SBD dreadnought dive bombers that once again bombed Weiyuan airfield.

More than 20 500-pound bombs seriously damaged the runway, as well as surrounding facilities and sheds, and the biggest problem was that one of the bombs blew up the wooden shed where the machines were parked, and blew up three bulldozers on the spot.

As a result, the Kauai Ming Army had only two usable bulldozers left, and it was undoubtedly quite inefficient to fill the large craters by manpower.

"How can you be led by the nose? The 10,000 soldiers and horses on Kauai Island are not muddy, and they are waiting to see what happens. ”

The center of the Ming fleet had different reactions after learning of the Saratoga's appearance, and some people proposed that the 20th Air Attack Fleet, which had not been exposed so far, launch a surprise attack on the Saratoga, but Song Zhongkai resolutely opposed such a plan to know that there were tigers in the mountains and favored the tigers.

He asked Zhou several times before whether he could hold Kauai, and the latter replied that if the U.S. military did not increase its troops in Hawaii, Hawaii alone would never be able to defeat Kauai.

In addition to the 9th Infantry Division, which was already short and disabled, the other main force stationed on Oahu was the 7th Infantry Division, but the Americans could not have poured out.

"But...... Admiral, you have to weigh it clearly, there are still 1,000 or 2,000 (U.S. troops) in the mountains of Kauai, and they are all organized and organized, and if Oahu sends troops to land and attack from front to back, the situation will be ...... It's dangerous. He Wu, the captain of the Yongle, said with a bitter smile.

Ouyang Zhanghua, who was on the left wall of Ziwei, was also quite entangled at the moment, and the current situation was too depressing.

The U.S. military, whose core objective is to defend Hawaii, does not want to take the initiative to attack, and the aircraft carrier can hide within the combat radius of shore-based aircraft, as long as it can make the Ming army sigh and withdraw its troops back to the division, it will be considered a success.

The combat radius of shore-based aircraft is too wide, which greatly restricts the actions of one's own aircraft carriers.

The choice is hard, and the risk is huge; chose to retreat, and was too unwilling.

He looked at the blue sea outside the window and hesitated for a long time, and finally made up his mind: "Give it a try, if you don't try, you will withdraw the army, no matter what." ”

On the same day, after informing him of his ideas, Song Zhongkai approved it, and Ouyang Zhanghua immediately issued a series of orders.

"After the order, this fleet will turn to the direction of 135, and plan to maneuver to the southeast of the island of Hawaii to search for British ships that have come to help, and the 20th Fleet will decide on its own route to follow."

The C-22 Air Strike Fleet, to which the two Ziweiyuan-class armored aircraft carriers are subordinate, is now 330km southwest of Kauai and is reinforced by three destroyers and one super destroyer.

The C-20 Air Raid Fleet, to which the Tianshi Zuoyuan and Taiwei Zuoyuan belonged, was farther west and had not been discovered by the U.S. military.

Ouyang Zhanghua believes that the assembly point of the British and American fleets should be in the waters east of the island of Hawaii, which may be a fan-shaped area with a radius of two to three hundred kilometers from the northeast to the south.

The Saratoga will most likely turn around and join the British fleet after appearing in the north.

Whether you can track the enemy's traces depends on luck, but what can barely comfort yourself is that this is also a disguised "encirclement and reinforcement", which is much easier than looking for a needle in a haystack.

The air raid fleet galloped across the vast Pacific Ocean, leaving a trail of passages.

This is the last attempt.

If it didn't, the expedition to Hawaii would have been suspended, or rather halted when the British fleet had come to help.

At noon on 22 May, the weather was clear, but there were no more white clouds in the blue sky than in the past few days, and the 22nd Air Raid Fleet was still an hour away from its intended position.

At 12:33, a submarine on a sentry mission suddenly sent a telegram saying that an unidentified fleet had been spotted at a distance of 85 km in the direction of 140 on the island of Hawaii.

Ouyang Zhanghua immediately ordered the battle alarm to be sounded, and every battleship rang with a tinkling and rapid bell.

As a result, half an hour later, the submarine sent another telegram, reporting that this "unknown fleet" was a merchant fleet, with 7~8 merchant ships plus 3 destroyers.

A false alarm!

At 13:55, the radar crew of the Ziwei Youyuan detected the appearance of a target in the sky more than 40 kilometers north of the fleet.

Several anti-aircraft lookout posts watched there for a long time, but saw nothing but white clouds.

At 14:20, the unidentified target still existed, and the Ziwei Zuoyuan also detected it.

The navigator then assigned two fighter planes to take to the skies and go into the clouds to find out.

But at this moment, a reconnaissance plane sent two hours ago suddenly sent back a telegram.

"Two enemy aircraft carriers and several destroyers were discovered, heading 275, speed 15 knots, coordinates ......"

The captain's staff officer, who learned of this, could not hide his excitement and shouted, "Found it!" Got it! The enemy ships are just to the east! ”

Ouyang Zhanghua maintained a calm appearance, and said lightly: "Each team is ready to attack." ”

The battle mount order came from the broadcast of the Ziwei Zuoyuan: "The Shaozai team is mounted with aerial bombs, Class A Type 1; The slaughtering team loads the torpedo, and it's over!"

As the order was given, the hangar was busy in the blink of an eye.

At 14:34, the two Type 37 ships climbed to the height of the clouds and began to search for anomalous targets nearby.

"What were they talking about? It's so noisy, I can't even hear it. ”

"I guess I found an enemy fleet."

"Really? Did you really run into it? ”

"The British fleet can only pass through this sea, of course...... Wipe! Front! Look ahead! ”

Diagonally in front of the two carrier-based aircraft, an SB2U Defender dive bomber loomed among the clouds.

The two pilots instantly knew the cause and effect - yes, this guy is hiding in the clouds and peeping!

The two then flew at it, and the spotted US plane deftly flipped down, dived and accelerated, and tried to flee north.

[I didn't have a good number of words, a little over, make up a few historical photos and have fun.] 】

(End of chapter)