afterglow

Chapter 462 Search; first discovery by the enemy is crucial

Major Song Xinyuan was immediately sent to the hospital. After identifying the symptoms of severe cramping in his right abdomen, the military doctor suspected that it was a sudden kidney stone or gallstone obstruction. The following X-ray images also confirmed this.

"Is it important? Do I need a knife? Can I wait until the battle is over?" He asked several questions in rapid succession.

"It doesn't matter, let's stop the pain first, then drink some medicine and observe for a few days."

First a shot of atropine was given to relieve spasm, and then a shot of morphine was given to relieve the pain. The unbearable severe colic finally subsided, and Song Xinyuan felt like she was covered in cold sweat and almost collapsed.

There was such an episode when the army was about to go on an expedition. The pilots of the Taiwei Youyuan carrier-based aircraft detachment couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

On that day, the three formations of the Ming fleet all set sail one after another, advancing toward the southeast according to the predetermined plan. The mighty fleet finally disappeared at the end of the sea level...

Radio monitoring teams at the Guam base and several capital ships successively intercepted many communications.

Currently, radio communications in Hawaii, Midway Island, and Wake Island are extremely frequent. Several commonly used frequency bands are very active and filled with various communications.

There was also another situation that was noticed by the thoughtful intelligence officers. There was a telegram with a weak signal that was missed by most people. Only Rabaul and Saipan intercepted it.

This telegram came from the waters around Johnston Atoll (1300 kilometers southwest of Hawaii). Based on the very small part of the content that can be interpreted, it can be guessed that it came from a task force.

In other words, there may be at least one US military fleet heading towards the South Pacific, and their purpose is still unknown.

At this time, various types of warships ordered to be incorporated into the TF-30 and TF-31 task forces were already on the way, and dozens of warships rushed to the "Victory Point" to assemble.

From Seattle to Los Angeles, all West Coast cities suspended civilian broadcasts, and ordinary channels were now switched to temporary wartime broadcasts.

In Hawaii, the Army and Marine Corps troops stationed on the island of Oahu are on high alert. The air defense positions are filled with unpacked artillery shells ready to be fired, and the radars are turned on around the clock.

The Honolulu government announced a market shutdown, suspending all but essential departments to maintain operations.

Police and gendarmes patrolled the streets in cars or on foot; docks, power plants, and water plants all implemented blackouts; major hospitals added a large number of beds, and even empty beds were placed on both sides of the corridors; people parked at intersections With trucks painted with red crosses, nurses called on citizens to volunteer to donate blood.

This posture made many people nervous, but gradually they became familiar with this atmosphere of preparedness and became a little excited.

A few days later.

In the early morning of February 2, the sea west of Palikir.

The first formation encountered abnormal sea fog. Thick fog surrounded the ship, as if it was sailing into a fairyland on earth.

The visibility dropped to less than half a kilometer, and the destroyer Dongming almost collided with the battleship Longshuo. To avoid an accident, Song Zhongkai ordered the searchlights to be turned on.

There are many reasons for the formation of sea fog. Dense sea fog is generally advection fog, which appears in sea areas where cold currents pass. But here is the South Pacific, and all the warm currents passing through the equator are warm currents.

Song Zhongkai believed that what he encountered was just radiation fog, which was caused by cooling after the disappearance of solar thermal radiation. It usually appeared in the latter half of the night and early in the morning and would dissipate soon after dawn.

The fleet was about to reach the coordinates to adjust its course, but the dense sea fog restricted the use of semaphore communication and signal light communication.

The only way left was to use radio communication, but that would risk exposing the fleet's position.

Song Zhongkai, who looked solemn, ordered in a deep voice: "Prepare to send low-power medium wave signals."

"Order."

The characteristic of medium waves is that they propagate close to the earth's surface, with only a small part emitted to the ionosphere. During the day, sunlight makes it easier for the ionosphere to absorb electromagnetic wave energy, so it is difficult for medium wave communications to propagate to long distances.

Even if it has to break radio silence, the Ming fleet will use the method with the lowest probability of being intercepted.

However, everyone's previous judgment was correct. What we encountered was indeed just radiation fog. As the sun rose, it quickly dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At this time, the distance to adjust the coordinates to change the current course was less than four nautical miles, so we were lucky.

The semaphore signal sent by the flagship was successfully notified, and the fleet of dozens of warships began to turn together.

On the vast blue sea, the fleet was bathed in the morning light, leaving countless arc-shaped snow-white tracks that were thousands of meters long.

At dusk, the radio monitoring teams of many battleships in the first formation, including the Yongle, intercepted a telegram from the US military. However, the specific content was unknown and could only be judged to have been sent by a submarine.

Through cross positioning, it can be roughly determined that the submarine is in the direction of the third formation, but the specific location is unknown.

The destroyer fleet and transport fleet have obviously been exposed, but the other party should not be aware of the existence of the first and second formations yet.

"That's not a bad thing. Maybe it can lure out the enemy fleet."

"It will get dark soon and they won't have time to send a plane."

"There are fish that have slipped through the net and escaped the sentry. I'm afraid it's not just this submarine. Maybe we will be discovered tomorrow."

On the bridge of the battleship Yongle, the staff members were talking to each other.

"Send a warning to the third fleet." Song Zhongkai gave the order after thinking about it.

He was worried that the third formation had not intercepted the telegram, so he decided to give a warning just to be on the safe side.

After a while, an incomprehensible message was sent through the medium wave transmitter.

"I heard there are fish activities near Yinghuo, good night."

Yinghuo and Yu are both code names, and Good Night is a code word that means "don't call me back after reading this".

The third formation received the reminder, and in fact they also monitored the transmission sent by the unknown submarine.

Now, the two destroyers have separated from the fleet and began to search the surroundings for traces of submarines.

When night falls, the submarine will surely rise to the surface, using diesel engine power to accelerate and catch up while charging and breathing.

However, now that there is no sea search radar, it is almost impossible to find a small submarine on the vast ocean at night with the naked eye.

After a night's work, nothing was discovered. The two destroyers returned in vain and returned to the team after dawn.

It is now 2:16 on February 10, Honolulu time, and the three formations are about to enter their scheduled positions.

From north to south, there are now the first formation, the second formation, and the third formation. The first two formations are about a hundred kilometers apart, but the third formation, which includes the destroyer fleet and the transport fleet, is further south, with The second formation is more than 250 kilometers apart.

The second formation is the furthest, less than 1,100 kilometers away from Tarawa Atoll.

What the officers and soldiers of the Ming Navy did not know was that a PBY Catalina seaplane was flying from the northeast, only more than a hundred kilometers away from the fleet.

The seaplane piloted by Lieutenant Baldwin was unremarkable. The crew members got up at four in the morning to have breakfast and carry out long-range search missions.

When listening to the mission briefing, the captain on duty told everyone that the Chinese were not far from here, and at least one fleet was heading to Tarawa.

At that time, a total of thirteen seaplanes took off together to search in different directions. Now after almost five hours of flight, they have flown close to one thousand kilometers, and the mission is about to end in one hour, because according to the requirements, they only need to fly as far as one thousand two hundred kilometers.

Although the crew members were talking and laughing, in fact no one dared to relax - not only must they pay attention to the enemy fleet that may appear on the sea at any time, but they must also be careful of the Ming army's large seaplanes.

The Type 32B four-engine seaplane flies faster than the Catalina and has more powerful onboard self-defense weapons.

If the other party wants to cause trouble, Katarina will be in a predicament that she cannot defeat or escape.

Three Catalinas have been shot down in the past month.

"Where will they be? If the briefing predictions are correct, they must be within twelve hundred kilometers."

"Who knows? I just want to go back early. The canteen's jam tarts and cold-cut beef tongue are limited. If I go back late, I can only eat fried luncheon meat."

While the co-pilot and navigator were muttering, Lieutenant Baldwin suddenly saw a few small black spots appear on the windshield.

At first, he was wondering why it was stained inexplicably, but the next second he realized that it was not a material at all, but a fleet!

"Damn it! Stop talking and look at two o'clock, fleet!"

Three minutes later, the Catalina sent a message back to the Tarawa base: "Discovered the enemy's main fleet, 245 nautical miles away from the base in direction 560."

After receiving the search news, the eyes of the officers and soldiers in the base almost lit up, the atmosphere suddenly changed, and everyone became excited.

However, we currently only know the general location of the Ming fleet, but not the specific situation, so the base called back and requested more information.

The PBY Catalina driven by Baldwin was tens of kilometers away from the Ming army fleet, so naturally the number and ship models could not be clearly seen.

"No, we can't wait like this!"

"Sir? What do you mean?"

"We should weaken the enemy as much as possible, so... let those B-17s go to the sky!"

The naval aviation commander at Tarawa base couldn't wait any longer. He ordered all B-17s that could take off to be immediately dispatched to refuel with bombs, and then fly directly to the position of the Ming fleet.

The SB2U Vindicator dive bomber has a limited combat radius, and currently only the B-17 can perform long-range bombing missions.

Twenty minutes later, when most of the bombers had completed takeoff and were preparing to roll, the base received the second telegram from the Catalina.

"...at least 10 large ships and about 40 small ships. 10:45 Honolulu time."

The base commander was so angry that he waved his fist and shouted: "What are they doing? Let them report the type, course, and speed of the ship!"

After confirming that the fleet did not contain an aircraft carrier, Lieutenant Baldwin and others chose to boldly fly directly over.

They flew straight to the third formation, picked up their binoculars to distinguish and count carefully, and did not stop until they were close to the range of anti-aircraft fire.

Five minutes later, the detailed information everyone at Tarawa Base had been thinking about was finally sent back.

「……敌方舰队有水上飞机母舰2艘、医院船1艘、驱逐舰大约40艘、巡洋舰大约12艘、运输船大约30艘。航向80，航速11节。檀香山时间11：25」

Due to various factors, Lieutenant Baldwin and others regarded the super destroyer as a light cruiser, and they did not have the energy or leisure to distinguish between a submarine carrier and a landing ship.

At this time, 11 B-17C heavy bombers were already on the way.

The third formation has been exposed, so there is nothing to worry about. Commander-in-Chief Zou Pu ordered the radio silence to be lifted and began to send messages to report his situation.

At 16:31 that afternoon, the bomber formation appeared in the sight of the Ming fleet.

"Ding Ding Ding-"

The bell rang rapidly, and the air defense control officers of each ship began to shout and give instructions.

"Air defense control!"

"Height 2,500, slope distance 7,800, normal!"

"Measure the angular velocity and determine the heading angle."

11 heavy bombers nicknamed the Flying Fortress approached the Ming fleet at an altitude of two thousand meters and carried out medium-altitude horizontal bombing.

Dozens of Ming warships opened fire one after another. The destroyer's 128mm naval gun and the light cruiser's 144mm naval gun pointed obliquely at the sky, spitting out rounds of anti-aircraft fragmentation bombs with timed fuses.

In an instant, the blue and cloudless sky was covered with black clouds, the Ming army's warships and artillery fired, and the US aircraft bombs dropped.

Aerial bombs fell heavily into the sea and exploded. Dozens of huge water columns emerged from the sea. The deafening sound of explosions and the sound of rushing water were endless...

The U.S. military fleet dropped a total of 44 500-pound aerial bombs, but the accuracy of horizontal bombing was still as low as ever, with no hits and only one near-miss causing minor damage to the light cruiser Yujiang.

A quarter of an hour later, on the bridge of Ziwei Zuoyuan, the main generals gathered in the conference room to discuss.

"The third formation was attacked by more than a dozen large bombers. But it's still the same, horizontal bombing, and finally there is a sound."

The officers all smiled and did not take the air raid that had just happened seriously.

The carrier-based destroyer "Zuoshu" team was saying with some worry: "The battle is probably going to start tomorrow. I wonder if we can find the opposite ship as soon as possible."

A polite lieutenant colonel staff officer stood up and walked to the small blackboard with a few pieces of manuscript paper. "The reconnaissance plan has been prepared. Let me tell you about it."

The reconnaissance plan formulated by the lieutenant colonel's staff can be said to be crucial. The enemy will be discovered first and destroyed first. Reliable and timely reconnaissance will directly determine the chips in the balance of victory.

He spoke eloquently: "First of all, please see, Fomalhaut is responsible for the first direction, flying one in the early morning and one in the morning..."

Simply put, this aerial reconnaissance plan is to use the second formation as the starting point, determine a 600° sector range with a radius of 150 km from the northeast to the southeast, and divide it into nine slightly overlapping small sectors.

The selected aircraft carrier and light cruiser are each responsible for one of the small sectors, and the other three light cruisers are responsible for zigzag shuttle reconnaissance.

The aerial reconnaissance operation was carried out in two phases, the first and second being three hours apart, to minimize the possibility of omissions.

"If you don't see a rabbit, don't let go of the hawk. Just hold on tight when the time comes."

"That's it. This time it can be said to be overwhelming. We will win!"

Zhou Changfeng was sitting on a seat on the right, and he also attended the meeting.

He didn't know why, but seeing the relaxed atmosphere in the conference room, he felt more nervous than ever.

Ouyang Zhanghua, who looked calm, patted his shoulder and said, "Zhou Taizhao, you don't look well. What's wrong?"

【Picture】

(End of this chapter)