afterglow

Chapter 626: Difficult Decisions, Exorbitant Costs; Neither You nor I Bring Money
"The Yongle is also joining the battle? That's great."

Zhou Changfeng was quite surprised to learn that the navy not only dispatched additional battleships, but also transferred one of the two most powerful battleships into the interception fleet.

"There's something wrong with the Kaihuang's engine room, otherwise it wouldn't hurt to transfer it to join the battle," Song Zhongkai replied.

The Kaihuang had previously attacked together with the Beiluo Shimen and Ziwei Zuoyuan as baits, but a mechanical failure occurred on its return voyage. Fortunately, the facilities at Pearl Harbor were sufficient for repairs, but it could not make it in time for the upcoming operation.

As for the second ship of the Yongle class, Xuan De, she has now been transferred to the western front to participate in the offensive against Induyang.

In short, the navy looked very powerful. The Longshuo and Yongle, together with the landing force escort fleet led by Zou Pu, were temporarily organized into the Type 50 Special Forces Fleet.

现在这支舰队合计有2艘特务战列舰成化号和正德号，又新增2艘高速战列舰龙朔号和永乐号；屏卫舰则有16艘驱逐舰、2艘超级驱逐舰、2艘轻型巡洋舰、3艘防空巡洋舰。

The two then discussed the situation of a possible naval battle and how to deal with it.

"...That's probably the case. No matter how things change, our plan remains the same. We will attack the north shore and split Maui in two. However, the enemy will definitely counterattack. I'm afraid that during this period, the enemy will reinforce and carry out a counter-landing, threatening our flank."

As he spoke, Zhou Changfeng stretched out his hand and drew a line on the map.

"If they carry out a reverse landing, the enemy fleet will only have one option, which is to take the northern route. It will not be difficult to intercept them." Song Zhongkai stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the map and said, "But... is it possible that this is just a cover?"

"A cover?"

"Well, it was a feint, pretending to land reinforcements, but in fact it was sending a fleet to attack Maalaea Bay at night."

Maalaea Bay is the bay where the Ming army landed on Maui. Dozens of large and small ships of the landing escort fleet are anchored there, as well as cargo ships coming and going.

Captain Mei Xuan of the Longshuo had been promoted to brigadier general, but he refused the promotion and insisted on commanding the Longshuo for a while longer.

He said: "Looking back at previous battles, the possibility of the US military launching a night attack is not small. Whether it is the Battle of Guadalcanal or the Battle of Oahu, the US military has boldly carried out night attacks, and it is not certain that it will not happen again this time."

Zhou Changfeng was silent for a moment, thinking, and asked, "Is the navy not strong enough? Can we send more warships to protect Maalaea Bay?"

A lieutenant colonel staff officer responded first: "The ships returning with the aircraft carrier fleet need to rest and replenish supplies. There are eight or nine destroyers and cruisers that can be ready for attack within two days...the heavy cruiser Qilianshan and the light cruiser Nujiang can also be used."

"Not appropriate. The enemy has two ways to attack at night. A small fleet like this can only guard one side at most." Song Zhongkai waved his hand and said calmly: "Use mines to block the waterway between Kahoolawe Island and Maui Island. It will just take two more days."

Kahoolawe Island is located in the southwest of Maui. If the US military wants to launch a night attack on the Ming fleet in Maalaea Bay, it can choose to go around the western open sea or cross the strait between the two islands.

Still waiting? This is already several days late as expected!
"Can aerial minelaying and ship minelaying be combined? Ground combat cannot be delayed any longer." Zhou Changfeng was somewhat displeased.

"Well... we don't know how much inventory the Air Force has left." The lieutenant colonel staff officer explained, "The strait is ten kilometers wide in a straight line. If we want to block it, we have to lay mines for six or seven kilometers in the middle, at least two kilometers deep. Two days is quite a stretch."

There are rules for laying mines. As a veritable amphibious expert, Zhou Changfeng naturally understands the requirements in this regard. After all, mines are also an important part of landing and anti-landing operations.

There are several levels of mine laying. The lowest level is naturally a single mine, which is a single mine; the next is a mine row, which is composed of a small number of mines arranged at equal distances, with a length of about half a nautical mile; then there is a mine line, which consists of one or several mine rows, and the length is usually no more than three nautical miles; finally, there is a minefield, which consists of multiple mine lines.

When conducting a blockade of waterways and sea areas, the density of mine deployment should ensure that the probability of triggering by enemy surface ships is not less than 70%, and the probability of triggering by enemy submarines is not less than 30%. Only in this way can it be considered effective.

There are not many minelayers available for deployment in Hawaii, only two Lei Chi-class minelayers with a standard displacement of 830 tons and capable of carrying up to 100 Type mines.

Several naval staff officers made a simple estimate and said that there were indeed difficulties. In addition, there were not many Ming-made mines in stock at Pearl Harbor, so they might have to use captured American-made mines to make up the number temporarily.

Because compared with other urgently needed military supplies, mines, which focus on defense, are relatively unimportant, and naturally they are not available due to limited transportation capacity.

Previously, the Air Force specifically emphasized the need to conduct offensive minelaying, and only then did the Navy agree to use up its transportation capacity to transport two batches of aerial mines.

"Then let's make this decision. Remember this." Zhou Changfeng glanced at the staff officer a few steps away and said, "Two days later, on the 15th, our Maui landing force will launch an offensive on time. The navy should fully cooperate. First, ensure the safety of Maalaea Bay and guard against enemy attacks. Second, prepare to intercept enemy reinforcements at sea with the mobile fleet."

"Secretary, that's it." The staff officer repeated his words again to confirm that they were correct.

From a strategic perspective, it is not difficult to judge the intensity of the battle for Maui. Now both Ming and the United States are increasingly willing to make peace, and the gains and losses of Maui are directly related to the bargaining chips for peace negotiations.

Capturing Maui is basically equivalent to taking over the entire Hawaiian Islands. Both sides are aware of this and naturally put all their efforts into it.

At this time, Ouyang Zhanghua also came into the room.

Seeing him coming, Zhou Changfeng asked somewhat unwillingly: "Senior Ouyang, have you done any deductions again? If we can seize air superiority, everything will be fine."

"Ziwei Youyuan was injured this time and cannot participate in the battle for the time being. Chang Geng and Qiming can go into battle with injuries." Ouyang Zhanghua said with a wry smile: "The result will only be worse."

Zhou Changfeng sighed, "If this continues, it might just be a stalemate."

Ouyang Zhanghua pointed to the sky with a cheerful face, "The Air Force wants to make another effort and try to launch a large-scale attack under the interference of chaff. The Navy's Chang Geng and Qi Ming can cooperate with them, while Tai Zuo and Bei Luo will be responsible for patrolling and guarding in the open sea."

The Grand Marshal's Office has always had the idea of ​​a decisive battle - to launch a powerful air force offensive in the direction of Hawaii at one time, including all available aircraft carriers, to completely seize air superiority at all costs.

However, the deduction results are not very ideal, at a level that is barely acceptable but almost unacceptable, and there are still certain probability issues.

比较正常的推演结果是己方会损失5~6艘航母、250~300架舰载机、700~800架岸基飞机。

Such a loss is unacceptable in Zhu Lingjing's view. Considering that the United States will have four Essex-class and five Independence-class aircraft carriers in service this year, and more than a dozen next year, there will be a huge gap in the number of aircraft carriers between the two sides. Reducing the bargaining chips for peace talks may put the peace talks into an unfavorable situation.

Based on the experience of several large-scale attacks in the past, it was expected that after the offensive was launched, the loss of aircraft would be at an average rate of nearly 100 per day, requiring the rear to make full efforts to transfer and replenish to maintain combat effectiveness.

Of course, this is a war of attrition mode, and the competition is about the replenishment speed of both sides.

The ideal strategy would be a surprise attack, catching the enemy by surprise and destroying as many American planes as possible on the ground.

During the Battle of Oahu, the Ming Navy launched a surprise attack on multiple airports on Oahu using an aircraft carrier formation. The attack was very effective and air supremacy was seized in one fell swoop.

However, it is almost impossible to replicate the surprise attack. Dozens of radar stations and field radar systems on Maui, Molokai, and the Big Island are monitoring the movements of Ming army aircraft in all directions.

Because of this, the Ming Air Force placed its hopes on a strong attack - replicating the "chaff interference combined with large-scale attacks" used in the Battle of Lanai, thereby greatly reducing the US military's radar guidance advantage.

Zhou Changfeng then called several Air Force officers and asked them about chaff jamming. "Can chaff work a second time if it works once? I remember you already have a countermeasure?"

"That's true. We already have countermeasures, but... we have to try the chaff interference again. There is no other good solution at the moment."

Just like the German army was worried that the Allies would retaliate after they were equipped with magnetic anti-tank grenades, so they painted their tanks with cement anti-magnetic coating. The Ming army was also worried that the US military would use foil strips to counterattack after suffering losses.

Therefore, measures to deal with chaff interference were basically completed last year.

The first is based on the Doppler effect. After the foil strips are dropped, their speed will gradually decrease, and the frequencies of radar echoes reflected at different speeds will also be different. Based on this principle, the military industry has developed an additional device that automatically ignores extremely low-speed targets.

The second is a filtering device, which uses a special filtering circuit to filter out foil strip echoes of a specific frequency. The disadvantage is that it will reduce the detection range of the radar.

Both methods are not very complicated. When we were conducting research and development last year, the theoretical demonstration and experimental samples were completed in just half a month.

Therefore, the Ming Air Force was very suspicious that the U.S. military, which had suffered a great loss, was very likely to have adopted similar countermeasures.

Before the battle was launched, Zhou Changfeng was worried that it would turn into a tug-of-war and hoped to end it quickly in one go. Unfortunately, the opposite happened and the actual situation was completely opposite to what he had expected. Up to now, the progress of the Ming army's landing troops is still limited and unremarkable.

If it were in the past, he would definitely choose to take a bold and reckless approach, but this time he really couldn't make up his mind to do so. If something went wrong, he might really destroy all his subordinates.

After leaving the Naval Admiralty in Pearl Harbor, Zhou Changfeng looked out at the azure sea, sighed, and was distracted for a long time.

Feeling depressed and unhappy, he took an off-road vehicle to the southwest of Honolulu city.

The sky is blue and the sun is shining. Sitting on the soft golden beach makes one feel as if they are in a trance, as if the place they are in has never been tainted by war.

What’s interesting is that there are some citizens relaxing on this beach, some swimming, some sunbathing, some barbecuing outdoors, and there are also a dozen vendors selling snacks.

The only thing that broke this peaceful scene was a few armored vehicles parked on the road not far away, and armed gendarmes patrolling.

Many people who migrated from the mainland came to this distant overseas direct-controlled state with the mentality of adventure. The timid ones would starve to death, while the bold ones would die of gluttony. The earlier they came, the more opportunities they had, and the various policies promised by the government were also quite tempting.

After the original American civilians evacuated one after another, their homes became vacant. These houses were all taken over by the government and the property rights were given free of charge to immigrants from the local area.

At the same time, the government also promised that if the house under the name was destroyed in the war, the original price would be compensated after the war, but shops and goods would not be compensated, and the owner would need to purchase insurance on his own.

Generally speaking, life in Honolulu is no worse than in the mainland of Ming Dynasty, and the local infrastructure is quite good. As for the rationing system, this is also expected.

The only thing that surprised the immigrants from the local area was the strict curfew - all lights and flames were prohibited at night, cars were not allowed to turn on their headlights, and they had to drive at a low speed. Violators would be severely punished.

Of course, this is also one of the few things that makes people realize that they are at the forefront of the war between the two countries.

Since he could no longer receive private letters after the battle began, Zhou Changfeng only saw the family letters that had been stranded for several days when he returned to Pearl Harbor this time.

He sat on the beach and read his wife's letter line by line. The beautiful small characters were very fresh.

After reading it, because he had no letter paper on hand, he wrote a reply directly on his notebook, then tore off a whole page and gave it to his personal soldier to mail.

After finishing the job, Zhou Changfeng patted his butt and got up to leave. He came to a dozen vendors beside the beach road, walked along and found that this place was really unique - iced cola, mung bean soup, hot dogs, roujiamo, sandwiches, and cold noodles appeared at the same time, which made people laugh.

An outgoing stall owner boldly greeted, "General, would you like to buy some to try?"

Who else could it be that we saw a general on Oahu who met both the criteria of "purple-framed military rank" and "a telescope hanging on his chest"?
The military rank insignias of the Army, Navy and Air Force have something in common. The major categories of military rank can be identified based on the color of the outer frame, such as blue for lieutenants, red for colonels, and purple for generals.

"Oh?" Zhou Changfeng looked around and ordered, "Give me a bowl of mung bean soup and a hot dog over there."

"How long have you been here, boss?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't deserve it. I just do some small business to make a living. I've been here for half a year." The stall owner deftly lifted the insulating quilt on the iron bucket and used a large iron spoon to scoop the cold mung bean soup into a glass.

"Judging from your accent, you are from Wuchang?" Zhou Changfeng said with a smile.

"Yeah, I heard there are a lot of opportunities here, so I came here."

At this time, the hot dog next to him was ready. Zhou Changfeng drank a sip of mung bean soup and took a bite of the hot dog. I think it could be called a strange story.

As a result, something embarrassing happened.

He realized he didn't have any money!
The bodyguards who were traveling with him looked at each other and touched their pockets at the same time, but no one had any money.

I just came back from the front line, how could I possibly put the money in my pocket?

The two stall owners immediately said that they didn't need to pay and just considered it as a tribute... oh no, it should be a thank you.

But Zhou Changfeng was determined to pay. He coughed twice and said awkwardly, "I'll pay what I owe. My soldiers will be punished if they buy things without paying. We can't let this corrupt the moral code from top to bottom."

Finally, he called over some state troopers who were patrolling the highway.

The three of them hurried over, clasped their fists and saluted, asking for instructions: "I am your humble servant, may I ask what your superior has to say?"

But Zhou asked right away: "Do you have any money?

Please advance the money for me."

Fortunately, these state troopers who were on routine patrol had money with them.

The fighting on the front line was not over yet, so Zhou Changfeng did not stay in the rear for too long. An hour later, he took a seaplane back to Maalaea Bay.

[Letu - A special SB-17 life raft launching aircraft modified from a B-17. 】

(End of this chapter)