afterglow

Chapter 513 The right wall of Tianshi is in danger! There are always more solutions than difficulties

6月14日，拉包尔时间下午16：35，所罗门群岛布甘维尔岛以东140㎞海域……

A slender submarine was sailing slowly on the sea, and several U.S. submarine soldiers on the control tower were holding telescopes to watch out for the surroundings.

Shortly afterwards, a small black spot appeared in the sky far ahead. Everyone immediately increased their vigilance, and two minutes later determined that it was a Ming army aircraft.

The submarine had to dive urgently to avoid being discovered by enemy planes.

This is the seventh combat patrol of the USS Swordfish (SS-193) submarine since the beginning of the war. She set sail from Pearl Harbor in early May and went to the Solomon Sea to perform patrol missions.

Before this, the poor reliability of torpedoes caused complaints from the submarine force. For example, the Swordfish returned empty-handed six times out of seven times.

The only battle that achieved results is embarrassing to tell - that time two months ago, because she did not want to miss out on the results due to torpedo failure, the Swordfish simply floated to the surface and used a 3-inch deck gun to sink a blue tanker. Fang merchant ship.

But this time it was different. The command issued a temporary measures pamphlet, explaining that the reason for the poor reliability of torpedoes was the problem of the depth-fixing device, and recommended that all submarines that did not receive the new batch of torpedoes simply set the torpedo sailing depth to Zero's native method.

Due to the limited number of torpedoes in the new batch, the Swordfish was only allocated eight, and the remaining 14 were still Mk torpedoes in the Pearl Harbor inventory.

The torpedo remained at a depth of 9 to 10 feet and headed straight ahead at a top speed of 45 knots.

There is no doubt that the Swordfish chose the Tianshi Youyuan as a priority attack target.

Ten minutes later, Major Iliff raised the periscope again to observe and confirm the position, course, and speed of the Ming army's aircraft carrier and escort warships.

At 17:05, Major Evely ordered to float to periscope height.

When Zhou Changfeng learned that the Enterprise was heading south, he specifically reminded the Tianshi Youyuan to be more vigilant. The officers and soldiers didn't quite understand why.

However, this was enough to greatly increase the confidence of the submariners. Major Ivley, the captain of the Swordfish, was determined to achieve a total sinking tonnage of 20,000 tons during this patrol mission.

It was getting late at this time, the setting sun was setting in the west, the sunset glow dyed half of the sky red, and the sparkling sea was full of colors.

This situation surrounded by powerful enemies can be described as full of murderous opportunities. Major Iliff knew that he only had one chance, and it was extremely risky.

17:41, the straight-line distance between the two sides is less than six kilometers.

A few minutes later, he was pleasantly surprised to find an oncoming fleet about ten kilometers away to the right. In addition to cruisers and several ships of unknown type, they included an aircraft carrier.

In the previous month, when the main force of the fleet was on an expedition to Hawaii, the Amaichi Ugaki had been performing patrol missions in the Solomon Sea - she had been operating here since she cooperated with the 1st Marine Brigade in clearing Guadalcanal.

The submariners judged that this fleet belonged to the Ming army, and the aircraft carrier was undoubtedly the Tianshi Youyuan according to the intelligence.

"It must be the enemy's. That's not the case with the Enterprise."

During this month, the two sides had two smaller-scale confrontations. One of them, the Enterprise launched a surprise attack and tried to sink the Tianshi Youyuan in one fell swoop with a full-deck attack. However, because there were Guadalcanal Airport and Bougainville Island, Under the cover of the Ming Dynasty Air Force units at the airport, the Tianshi Youyuan only suffered minor injuries.

The Swordfish immediately sounded the battle alarm, and Major Iliff ordered to turn five degrees to the left and increase the speed. He hoped to find a suitable ambush position.

"According to the battle briefing updated on the 8th, the only enemy aircraft carrier operating in the Southwest Pacific is the Tianshi Youyuan."

At 17:47, the torpedo calculator completed the calculation of the launch elements. Two minutes later, he simply ordered "launch torpedoes" and "dive to 300 feet."

At this time, the Tianshi Youyuan was escorted by warships in the front, rear, left and right, with several destroyers in front, the Yuanjiang light cruiser on the left, and four patrolling carrier-based aircraft hovering in the sky.

Six new batches of Mk14 533mm torpedoes drilled out of the bow torpedo tube one after another, with a fan-shaped trajectory that perfectly coincided with the Tianshi Youyuan's next route.

Two minutes later, the Swordfish's sonar crew heard a sudden increase in propeller noise and wake noise.

The Swordfish fine-tuned the bow pointing of the boat to ensure that the incident angle when the torpedo hits is not 90° perpendicular to the target, reducing the probability of a dud.

The sonar soldier lowered his head and said loudly: "The enemy ship's propeller is accelerating and the rudder is deflecting. Maybe they have discovered (the torpedo)."

About forty seconds later, a dull sound came from the earphones, and the others also felt a slight but obvious shaking.

Does this mean the torpedo hit?
At 17:51, the USS destroyer discovered the incoming torpedo and immediately used flares and lights to warn.

Tianshi Youyuan then maneuvered with full starboard rudder to avoid four torpedoes, but there were still two that could not be avoided.

The violent vibration caused some people to fall heavily against the bulkhead, and some people fell down the stairs without being able to stand firm, and their heads were badly bruised from the fall.

Fortunately, only one of them exploded, and it was located at rib No. 49. The huge power of the 533㎜ torpedo was not something that the Tianshi Youyuan's underwater protection system could withstand, and one of her right hulls was blown open. The hole was huge, and the damage control unit claimed that the breach was big enough to fit a tank into.

What's more terrifying than water intrusion is the high-energy bubbles produced by underwater explosions. They ignite combustible materials in the cabin and trigger a fire.

Soon, the spreading fire threatened the adjacent aviation gasoline storage tank. As more and more damage control team members arrived, the fire was temporarily contained.

Although the boiler room was more than ten meters away from the torpedo explosion point, it was still affected. A total of nine leaks of different sizes appeared, and seawater spurted out from them.

The sailors stuffed all the leak-proof felts and support rods they could find, and even threw away the bedding and clothes, but the water damage continued to intensify.

The pressure of more than four meters underwater cannot be underestimated. In order to resist the water pressure, the sailors' physical strength was exhausted very quickly and they had to take turns to fight.

An hour later, the seawater in the boiler room was already waist high, and the drainage pump operating at full power could only slow down the water inflow.

At 20:07, several large heavy oil boilers stalled one after another, and the steam turbines that lost steam supply immediately stopped, and the power supply naturally and quickly stopped.

Emergency generators have limited power and can only maintain the most basic equipment operations.

Under the dim red light, the seawater was close to chest height. The buoyancy and resistance made movement extremely difficult. The exhausted sailors could no longer maintain the sealing of the water inlet points. The crowds of people huddled together were constantly being dispersed by the incoming seawater...

Some people on the lower deck of the hangar smelled a strange burning smell. At first they thought it was coming from below, but it didn't take long to realize that it was a fire on the middle deck!

After preliminary inference, I am afraid that some flames burned along the cable ducts that ran through various decks and cabins.

Major power outages make damage control operations extremely difficult, often coming one after another, leaving sailors exhausted.

At this time, the captain was unwilling to let the situation get out of control. He said angrily: "This is unreasonable! How can there be any reason to be sunk by a torpedo? You have to drag it back!" He ordered all the people on the lower deck to evacuate and concentrated on controlling the middle deck. fire, and additionally filled the left bilge with water to balance the center of gravity.

This decision means that the Tianshi Youyuan has completely given up the possibility of relying on its own damage control to restore power, and everything is to ensure that it does not sink.

At 21:35, Tianshi Youyuan, which tilted 17° to the right, gradually recovered to 9°, and there was no risk of capsizing for the time being.

Next, the light cruiser Yuanjiang threw out a steel cable and began to tow the Tianshi Youyuan forward.

Later in the night, the cable connection was completed.

The Tianshi Youyuan, which had restored partial power supply, then activated fire extinguishing devices on the two cabins on the middle deck where the fire was out of control. With the help of halon fire extinguishing agent, the fire was finally stopped from expanding.

The mentally and physically exhausted captain breathed a long sigh of relief, and immediately ordered the lights to be sent out and the signal flags to be hung, indicating that "the fire on this ship is under control."

Two days later, the fleet, which sailed at a very slow speed, returned to Rabaul by luck.

During this period, the fleet was pursued by two US submarines, and the Tianshi Youyuan was struck by a mine again. However, because the lower compartment had already been filled with seawater, the situation did not worsen.

Since the problem of submarine torpedoes has been initially resolved, US submarines active in various parts of the Western Pacific have made a lot of gains in the past month.

Some officials in the Ministry of War and Naval Administration noticed this situation - the number of merchant ship losses in the statistics increased significantly.

Even if it is limited to a certain point, such as the Guam-Wake Island-Midway route, the frequency of successful submarine attacks on transport ships has increased significantly.

On May 5, the destroyer Susong was escorting the merchant ship Liangcheng to Wake Island when it was suddenly ambushed by a U.S. submarine. The Liangcheng, which was fully loaded with military supplies, was hit by three torpedoes and capsized completely four minutes later. The crew had no time to evacuate and were buried in the sea.

On May 5, the oil tanker Dacheng and the destroyer Songyang were attacked in the waters east of Saipan. The clumsy Dacheng was sunk by a US submarine, and only about 9 people escaped with their lives.

On May 5, the destroyer Rinbu ended its mission of escorting three merchant ships including the Yuei and was sunk by an unknown torpedo on its way back to Wake Island.

On May 5, the minelayer USS Gaomi was hit on the stern by a torpedo launched by a US submarine in the Mariana Islands. The mine carried on the ship exploded and sank quickly within two minutes. Only three people were exploded. It was thrown into the sea by air waves and survived.

The activity of enemy submarines made the Ming Dynasty Navy quite vigilant. It once suspected that the Americans had invested in new torpedoes.

The Fourth Submarine Hunting Fleet of the Eastern Fleet was transferred to Guam, and the First Team of the 11th Maritime Patrol Detachment of the Naval Air Force was transferred to Wake Island.

But for the time being, these are just things that need to be worried about in the rear. For the generals on the front line, nothing is more important at the moment than achieving the planned goals.

The Ming army fleet that had previously pulled anchor and set sail and headed west caused the US military to misjudge - this was an important reason why they could not wait to counterattack Kauai.

However, the A-180 special agent fleet turned around after one day.

The main force of the fleet turned to Johnston Atoll, 1300 km southwest of Hawaii, to attract the attention of the US military.

The separated Taiwei Zuoyuan was supplemented by 7 destroyers, 1 super destroyer, 1 light cruiser, and 1 high-speed oiler. They temporarily formed a C- air raid fleet and headed straight to the north.

After a series of battles some time ago, the naval generals have basically figured out the situation. The battleships, cruisers, and destroyers are not worth mentioning. Only land airports and aircraft carriers are the most important.

Therefore, the core task of the surprise attack is to suppress the US military's airports on Oahu and Maui as much as possible.

In the past two days, the staff have been rushing to complete the general arrangements and determined the time and place for the two refuelings of the C-52 air attack fleet.

The first refueling will be 1500km northeast of Midway Island, and two low-speed oil tankers will arrive there in advance; the second refueling will be 1200km north of Hawaii, and will be handled by a high-speed oil tanker in the fleet.

The timing of the carrier-based aircraft formation's takeoff is the most controversial. Being too close to Pearl Harbor can easily be discovered by the U.S. military, while being too far away can lead to pilot fatigue and can only carry fewer aerial bombs.

After some debate, it was finally determined that the take-off area was 360 kilometers north of Oahu—this coordinate was only ten kilometers away from the historical mobile force's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

Ideally, the attack should be launched at dawn, but this requires carrier-based aircraft to take off and form formations from the aircraft carrier at night, which is obviously full of risks and uncertainties. What if a serious accident occurs?
So the takeoff time was changed to dawn, and the attack formation was expected to fly over Oahu at 7:30 in the morning.

Taiwei Youyuan called for a meeting of fleet commanders, and all teams were gathering together to discuss surprise attack strategies.

Based on the current intelligence analysis, the U.S. military was badly beaten under the copper and iron walls laid by Zhou when they counterattacked Kauai. The fleet, which consumed a lot of ammunition, must return to Pearl Harbor for supplies.

The preferred target of attack was of course the USS Saratoga, but it was not certain whether the aircraft carrier would be in the harbor, so the attack plans were all aimed at the airport.

The 7st Air Assault Team has 6 fighters, 6 dive bombers, and torpedo planes, and is responsible for Haleiwa Airport in the north.

The 2nd Air Assault Group was responsible for Wheeler Field in the center; the 3rd Air Assault Group was responsible for Ewa Marine Corps Air Station in the southwest; and the 4th Air Assault Group was responsible for Hickam Field in the southeast.

The Fifth Destroyer Group only has five fighter jets, which are responsible for cruising around, attacking U.S. fighter jets that come to intercept, and covering the remaining attack formations.

【Picture】

However, if the Saratoga is discovered, each team should decide on their own to change the target to ensure that at least two air raid teams attack it.

As for the remaining battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, they are all classified as secondary targets, unless there is really nothing to blow up before considering them.

The pilots are more worried about whether the surprise attack can be guaranteed. Once the US military early warning radar detects the incoming Ming army aircraft group in advance, the surprise attack will lose its greatest advantage.

However, there was no better choice at the moment. The arrow was on the string and had to be fired. Otherwise, it would be better to be quick and go home directly.

Zhou Changfeng has also considered this problem. The only feasible way at present is to make a feint to the west or southwest of Oahu to attract the attention of the US military.

However, Weiyuan Airport is still suppressed by the US military aviation, and even if every opportunity is exploited, only a few aircraft can take off.

He originally wanted to get some chaff to bluff, but due to the conditions on Kauai, chaff was out of the question.

But as the saying goes, as long as your thinking does not slip, there are always more solutions than difficulties.

After pondering for a while, Zhou Changfeng looked at the corner and suddenly thought of something, and said excitedly: "Tsk! There's something going on! Come here, go find some iron sheets."

"Ironhide?"

(End of this chapter)