Iron Cross

While Cunningham was making the final decision, the Massachusetts, which had persisted for a long time and had eaten a total of 7 bombs and 3 torpedoes, finally reached the end.

After Egusa Takanoge eliminated the heavy cruiser escorting the Massachusetts, other ships could not fill the gap for a while. The Japanese attack aircraft group immediately swarmed in. 8 ship bombers dropped bombs to attract anti-aircraft firepower, and 6 Nine-Seven ship attack aircraft seized the opportunity to attack the enemy. The Type 91 aviation torpedoes under the belly were launched. Although the Massachusetts avoided 4 of them with its excellent steering skills, 2 of them still hit the damaged starboard side that was flooded with water. Along with the huge explosion gap, seawater continued to pour in, a large number of boilers stopped, the speed suddenly dropped to 7 knots, and the inclination increased to 14 degrees. Three minutes later, another torpedo was hit on the starboard side, and the water intrusion made the ship worse. The 37,000-ton cutting-edge battleship finally couldn't hold up and capsized.

The Malaya has also come to the end of its life. This old ship, which was funded by the Commonwealth of Malaya and participated in the Battle of Jutland, was defeated by the power of 4 bombs and 3 torpedoes. First, the ship The bow tilted downward, and then slowly entered the water. When the ship's stern was raised high, the propeller at the tail was still spinning hard. Finally, this giant ship equipped with a 381mm caliber main gun and a displacement of 31,000 tons capsized 5 minutes after the Massachusetts. Also declared sunk.

At the same time that Malaya sank, Warspite, which was in the center of the formation and flew the admiral's and flagship flags, was besieged by all aircraft. The two light cruisers Brooklyn and Savannah on the left and right wings (both belonged to Brooke) Lin-class) stepped on the back foot of the Philadelphia, blocking a total of 5 torpedoes for the flagship, struggling desperately and sinking; the heavy cruiser USS Wichita (the only ship of this class) continued to pounce on to fill the position, but was so desperate It was no longer possible to save Warspite's fate. Instead, he got himself involved first because there were too many enemy planes in the air. The ship was hit once by torpedoes and bombs each, because it had been hit by torpedoes and bombs in the first round of air attacks. It was hit by a bomb and eventually sank due to too much water.

This is a completely conceivable result: after the fleet formation was disrupted and the group of F4F fighters covering it were completely destroyed, the entire fast column was almost undefended, and the fleet was able to survive the attack of more than 200 carrier-based aircraft until now. It's a miracle. At this time, they were still 103 nautical miles away from the first guerrilla detachment of Takagi Takeo who was rushing towards them.

At 9:53, Cunningham and Peters scrambled to climb into a lifeboat to escape. Three minutes ago, they witnessed the sinking of the last battleship and flagship of the fleet, the HMS Warspite. At this point, all the battleships in the fast fleet led by Admiral Cunningham, including 1 light aircraft carrier, 5 battleships, 3 heavy cruisers, and 3 light cruisers, were sunk. The combined fleet caused a sudden loss to the British and American navies. More than 200,000 tons of ships were lost, but the price they paid was minimal: counting the losses of 21 aircraft in the first attack wave, Japan paid a total of 33 aircraft, plus 1 lost in the fleet escort operation. The overall battle damage rate was only 12%.

Although among these battleships, except the Massachusetts, which was considered a cutting-edge battleship, the rest were either second-tier or old. However, after witnessing the casualties of thousands of sailors, Cunningham still could not restrain his emotions and burst into tears sadly. The headquarters staff who were sitting in the same lifeboat with him didn’t know how to persuade him. All in all, the future was now gloomy:

The fast fleet is destroyed!

The slow fleet stopped!

The army troops are on the run - and they will be chased madly by the Japanese army!

Finally, after losing the support of this group of troops, Egypt and its troops were completely destroyed!

Without Egypt and its fleet, does the British Empire still have a future?

When the plane dumped all the ammunition, Jiang Caolongfan led the team to leave with satisfaction. Except for the entire large-scale fast column, which was still running towards the coast, there were only three destroyers left on the sea desperately gathering people.

After the news was sent back to the ships of the combined fleet, everyone was excited, and the sound on board was endless.

"Sir, we have to hurry up, otherwise these transport ships will escape soon..."

"Where are they going? How far away is the First Guerrilla Detachment from them?"

"The heading is about 275 degrees and the speed is about 19 knots. The guerrilla detachment has increased the speed to 28 knots, but the distance is still at least 170 nautical miles. I am afraid that it will not be able to catch up in the short term. We must rely on aviation."

Horikichi nodded, thought for a while and then asked: "Sail to the west? Is there a port nearby?"

"No."

"Then why are you running west?"

"This..." Cao Luren thought for a moment before reacting, "You mean they are going to land?"

"No matter how fast a transport ship can run, it can't be faster than an airplane. Only by landing can we escape our pursuit." Horikichi looked at the chart, "East Africa is now the territory of the British. The Americans probably want to find any shoal and land on it. , if we continue to flee in the sea, we will all sink them.”

"Oh... Then we have to speed up the time, otherwise the enemy will be able to seize the beach in another 2 hours, and the bombing effect will be greatly reduced by then."

Horikichi shook his head slightly, showed a strange smile, and issued a strange order: "The second round of attacks is allowed, but only battleships are allowed to be attacked, and transport ships are not allowed to be bombed. I keep them and they are still useful."

"What?" Caolu Renyi couldn't believe his ears. He stammered, "Sir...sir...why are you doing this?"

"How about letting them go?"

"Sir, this is not a joke. Just now I ordered them all to be sent to the bottom of the sea without taking prisoners." Kusaka Renichi was not sure what Horikichi meant and anxiously advised, "Although the enemy fleet has been destroyed, we cannot If you show mercy to the enemy, even if these armies are now lost dogs, they may be the vanguard to attack us once they recover... Moreover, what will the German side think if they find out about this? "

"Give the order to Tsukahara first, he will understand."

After Kusaka Ryunosuke received the telegram, he said to Tsukahara 243 with a strange expression: "Commander Horikichi sent us a strange order. The chief of staff felt it was inappropriate but did not dare to dissuade him. I hope you can dissuade him. "

Tsukahara read it several times, thought for a while and then said slowly: "Inform Fuchida Mizuo that the second round of strikes will be carried out according to this order."

"Sir, did you see something?"

"Kusalu-kun, are you willing to take the equipment or send the enemy to the bottom of the sea with your own hands?"

"What's the difference?...Oh...no!" Ryunosuke Kusaka realized, "Sir, you are interested in the enemy's equipment and supplies?"

Tsukahara 243 nodded: "Sinking them will be a done deal, but the things above will also sink to the bottom of the sea. The only way is to let them go... Those are all transport ships that have no ports, and the enemy wants to land again. What will you do instead?" What to do?”

Ryunosuke Kusaka came back to his senses: "They can only forcefully seize the beach, and they can't unload bulk supplies."

"To be precise, apart from the equipment and supplies and the ships, what is being blown up now are actually our own trophies." Horikichi sighed to Kusaka Renichi, "Europe and the United States value personnel more than materials - this little material It’s no problem for the United States, but the empire is really poor..."

"But..." Kusaka Renichi didn't know what to say: sinking the transport ship would of course be a one-and-done thing, but after the transport ship was sunk, the things on the transport ship would also sink to the bottom of the sea; if they were spared for the sake of supplies, then the British and American officers and soldiers would There must be a large number of people left. What the commander said makes sense. The empire is really short of equipment and supplies. Finally, with a sudden change of heart, the desire for supplies overwhelmed the desire to eliminate all American soldiers, and I agreed to this opinion.

"The U.S. troops are not all released. After landing on the shore, they can continue to use planes to bomb them, but the destroyers must be eliminated to prevent them from causing trouble."

"Sir is wise."

"There's no such thing as wisdom, I'm just shrewd at best." Horikichi said with self-mockery, "I've finally been in business for a few years..."

As soon as this sentence came out, not only Caolu Renzhi, but also other headquarters staff members laughed.

Genda Minoru and Fuchida Mizuo were stunned by this order at first. After thinking about it, they thought that the commander was far-sighted and reasonable. Finally, Fuchida Mizuo added: "It's okay for fighter jets to strafe, right? It can't be sunk anyway." "Transport ship."

"Of course, that's no problem, and we have to hit them hard so that they don't have time to think about blowing up or sinking the ship."

"In this case, there is no need to launch a ship attack in the second round of attack, but we must invest as many fighter jets as possible and assemble spare fighter jets."

"The commander has other instructions. The ship is to mount bombs to blow up Socotra Island, especially to destroy the airport. Although there are no planes on it now, we must prevent the British from using this airport to cause trouble for us tomorrow and the day after tomorrow."

"Leave this task to Mr. Egusa." Mizuo Fuchida smiled, "I will continue to fight the Americans, and I will also let the American officers taste the feeling of broken legs."

At 10:38, Mitsuo Fuchida gave up his usual 97-type ship attack, climbed into the back seat of the 99-type ship bomb, and commanded 39 Zero Fighters and 37 99 ship bombs to start the second round of attack.

At 11:07, Takashi Egusa, who returned to the mothership, also heard about the interesting thing about attacking only battleships and not transport ships. His interest suddenly increased and he strongly requested to attack the US military as well. He would lead the team to attack Socotra Island. He handed it over to Major Shigeharu Murata. After hurriedly eating the plum rice balls, he took 34 Zero Fighters and 31 Ship Explosives towards the US landing site.

Murata Shigeharu really had no choice but to use the remaining zero battles, ship explosions and all ship attacks to deal with Socotra Island, but Ryunosuke Kusaka's next words made him dumbfounded: "Sir's order, Don’t use all the bombs in the ship attack, leave one squadron to carry torpedoes.”

"Torpedoes?" Murata Shigeharu was stunned and asked stammering, "Use torpedoes to deal with small islands?"

"Perhaps there is a ship?" Ryunosuke Kusaka smiled slightly, "It is a densely populated area with merchant shipping routes, and there are torpedoes to help. However, if an oil tanker is discovered... you know what to do."

Murata Shigeharu, known as the "Thunder Strike King", nodded repeatedly, showed a knowing smile, and left happily.