New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

Just when the captain of the plank pinned his hopes on the destroyer Yukikaze, a supplementary soldier named Harada who had just been assigned to the Yukikaze as a sailor was honestly scrubbing the teak deck of the warship.The destroyer Yukikaze is a lucky battleship. From the beginning of the war to the present, she has never been hit by the enemy, and the soldiers serving on her have never been killed.If it hadn't been for an unlucky guy who was blown up to death when he was going home to visit his relatives, he would never have had the chance to get on this auspicious sign.

After wiping a section of the deck, he raised his head and found that he was standing at the bow of the ship.So he looked towards the distance: the distance is the boundless dark sea, and the half moon in the sky casts pale moonlight on the undulating waves.The moonlight can be seen shimmering on the tip of the waves, which makes the sea and the sky distinguishable.

Suddenly, he saw a thin silver line appearing on the sea surface, this silver line stretched forward quickly, and shot straight towards the bow of Xuefeng.

"Enemy attack! Torpedo!" Harada shouted.

American torpedoes are not like Japanese 93 oxygen torpedoes. When they are sailing, the gas released cannot be integrated into the sea water, so they have a more obvious track.However, in the dark night, it is not easy for the sailors to find it by relying on their own eyesight.So when Harada found it and screamed wildly, the torpedo was already very close to the destroyer Yukikaze, and it was too late to take any evasive action.Harada watched helplessly as the torpedo hit the bow of the Yukikaze, and then there was a loud noise...

After the loud noise, Harada was surprised to find that the Yukikaze hadn't been blown into two, and it didn't even shake violently.He was a little surprised, but the flames rising nearby made him understand immediately that the loud noise was not made when the destroyer Xuekaze was hit by a torpedo.Although he saw the torpedo hit the Xuefeng with his own eyes, it was obvious that the torpedo had malfunctioned and did not explode.

However, the enemy's submarine would not even launch a torpedo. Not far from the Yukikaze, the Taihe Maru was constantly burning and exploding.At the same time that the torpedo that did not explode hit the Yukikaze, another torpedo also hit the transport ship Taiwamaru and detonated smoothly.And the ship filled with hydrogen peroxide and ammunition immediately caught fire after being hit like this.The hydrogen peroxide quickly produced a large amount of oxygen in the fire, which made the fire more and more unstoppable. After a while, the whole ship was plunged into a sea of ​​flames, and then the fire detonated the ammunition loaded on the ship.The transport ship had a huge explosion right in front of Harada, and then the torn apart hull sank almost instantly.

The Yukikaze started to turn faster and rushed towards the direction of the torpedo - anti-submarine is the basic task of a destroyer.At this time, the sound of explosions came from another direction one after another. Obviously, there were also US submarines in another direction. The current Japanese transport fleet has fallen into the siege of US submarine wolves. Facing such wolves Group, just two destroyers are definitely not enough, but it is impossible for Japan to come up with more destroyers.

It was a long night of fish. When the sun rose from the sea level again, the original formation consisting of 9 transport ships and two destroyers had only two ships left, one was the destroyer Yukikaze, There is also the wooden boat requisitioned from China with only 800 tons.The rest of the ships, including another destroyer, were sent to the bottom of the sea by American submarines.

There is no way to do deck cleaning on the destroyer Yukikaze today, because the deck is full of people.After the convoy was attacked last night, the Yukikaze first threw depth charges at any possible position for a while, and then after estimating that the enemy had left, they risked turning on the searchlights to rescue the sailors who fell into the water.

The Snow Wind is not a big ship. After picking up 160 sailors who fell into the water, her originally small deck was already crowded with people, and there was almost no place to stand.The captain once proposed to transfer some sailors to the surviving small wooden boat.But this decision was opposed by almost all rescued sailors.They all expressed that they would never leave the destroyer Yukikaze, even if they died, they would die on the Yukikaze.The legend that the Xuefeng is "auspicious" has already reached the ears of these army sailors.

Captain Terauchi Masamichi shook his head. He knew that within the navy, there was already a legend that the Yukikaze would suck the luck of his teammates. It was said that the Yukikaze was protected by a strange force and would not be attacked no matter what. Shen, but the other friendly ships with the Xuekaze will all become the scapegoats of the Xuekaze. Is there any boat that can go out with me for a spin and then come back safely.Masamune Temple asked himself, if these sailors are in the state now, they will definitely not leave the Yukikaze even if they are killed.

"Forget it, let them stay on the ship." Masaru thought, "Anyway, Iwo Jima is not far away."

……

This time the fleet failed to bring anything up at all, and the only remaining wooden boat was loaded with some grain.On the current island of Iwo Jima, food is not the most scarce material, but the oxidant that can be used to produce oxygen and the steel bars and cement used to build fortifications are the most crucial.However, these things all sank on the road.

"It can only be transported bit by bit by small boat. The chances of the fleet sending it directly are too slim." Kuribayashi Tadamichi thought this way, but he also knew that the capacity of small boats was very limited. Before the arrival of the US fleet , How much material can be transported to the island is really a big problem.

Kuribayashi Tadamichi can only count on those small sampans that perform transportation tasks. These things are too small, and the entire small ship plus the items on it may not be much more expensive than torpedoes, so American submarines are reluctant to use torpedoes to deal with them. .But their transportation capacity was too small. Before Kuribayashi Tadao had collected enough supplies to make a bunker, the American bomber fleet appeared, and then the American fleet appeared.

Just three days after the new year, Spruance's fleet attacked the Japanese mainland.This is the first time since the Doolittle Air Raid that the US carrier-based aircraft has attacked the Japanese mainland.The purpose of this attack was to hit the Japanese air force on the Japanese mainland, so that they could not play a big role in the process of the American capture of Iwo Jima.

In fact, the attack strength of carrier-based aviation on the airport is very limited.Since aircraft were always readily available for new ones at any time, the threat to the American fleet near Iwo Jima could not be truly resolved without eliminating the enemy pilots.Therefore, Spruance did not focus on the ground attack at all. His real goal was to wipe out the Japanese planes together with the pilots in the air.

In order to achieve this goal, and to reduce the threat of the enemy's "Kamikaze" aircraft to the fleet, the prudent Spruance changed the ratio of carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier. Among his twelve fleet aircraft carriers, each An average of only 30 bombers on an aircraft carrier, the rest are almost all fighters.

However, the effect of this trap was not good, and the Japanese counterattack was very weak.So much so that Spruance finally came to the conclusion that staying near mainland Japan would be a waste of time.

Just as Spruance was teasing the Japanese near mainland Japan, Rear Admiral William Brandy led a fire support formation consisting of 6 battleships, 12 escort aircraft carriers, 5 cruisers, and 16 destroyers. Iwo Jima waters.

……

On the morning of January 1945, 1, more than a month earlier than in history, the American artillery formation approached Iwo Jima.

The weather on this day was very good and the visibility was very high. Therefore, at a very long distance, the observation post set up on Mount Suribachi spotted the US fleet from a long distance.and sounded the alarm.

Tadamichi Kuribayashi came to the firing port of a fortification on Mt. Suribachi, raised his binoculars and looked towards the sea.He saw dozens of US warships approaching from a distance at high speed in a column.He could see the snow-white waves on the bows of those warships, and the black muzzles of the giant cannons on the American warships.

"It's finally here!" Kuribayashi Tadao put down the binoculars and murmured.

The American warships began to turn at a distance of about 7000 to 8000 meters from the coast of Iwo Jima. The column became a horizontal line, and the speed dropped from about [-] knots to about eight knots.If the speed is too fast, it will affect the accuracy of shooting.

"General, the enemy's bombardment is about to start, you should go to the headquarters to organize resistance." A major said to Kuribayashi Tadao.

Kuribayashi Tadamichi nodded, and led the officer towards the command post buried deeper.

At this time, the U.S. fleet was already in place, in order to ensure the accuracy of the bombardment.The battleships had come to a standstill, even dropped anchor.On the battleship USS Tennessee, the 355 mm barrels had been turned sideways, pointing at Iwo Jima.At exactly 35:355 in the morning, the first shots of the battle were fired from the [-]mm barrels of the battleship USS Tennessee.

The salvo of 12 355mm guns caused the entire warship to move a large distance to the other side, and then returned to its original position under the traction of the anchor chain.At this time, the 14 127mm secondary guns on the battleship also began to fire towards Iwo Jima.

The shells fired by the battleship's main guns hit the island heavily after more than ten seconds, and then billows of black smoke rose up.It was a long time before there was a deep, blunt explosion.At this time, the battleship had already leveled its gun barrel, and the gunners were busy loading it with shells.Prepare for the next round of shelling.