New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

The ship that appeared on the sea was undoubtedly a Japanese warship. As the ship got closer, even without binoculars, the 16 rays of the rising sun flag waving on the mast could now be seen clearly.Apparently the boat had spotted them too, and found white people on them.So when approaching them, the ship slowed down significantly.And began to launch the boat from the side of the ship.

This is an old-fashioned warship with four funnels, and it is very close now. The seven single-mounted cannons and eight torpedo launch tubes on it are clearly visible.When Ron was free, he flipped through the yearbook of Japanese warships and recognized that it was a 7100-ton Sichuanuchi-class light cruiser.But which one it is, I don't know.

Due to the launch of the boat, the speed of the warship slowed down.Several Japanese sailors with guns boarded the small boat, and then the small boat was lowered to the surface of the sea with the sound of the elevator motor.Although several Caucasians are hiding in the cabin now, it must be useless, Ri himself must have discovered something.Among other things, no sailboats should be found in this area.

The small boat rowed towards the small boat, and a Japanese soldier on the boat shouted in substandard English: "Everyone in the cabin come out—we saw you! Put your hands on your head!"

In the cabin, everyone looks at me and I look at you.Obviously there is no way out for stubbornness, and everyone is not very interested in being a martyr.So, everyone put their hands on their heads and filed out honestly.

Tom shouted: "We are Americans, and we demand to be treated in accordance with international treaties."

The Japanese soldier who shouted on the small boat obviously understood, with some disdainful expressions on his face, he turned his head and said something to the sailors on the boat, and all the sailors laughed wildly.Amidst the laughter, the boat got closer and closer.

The fate of being captured is inevitable, almost everyone thinks so.

At this moment, the whole boat suddenly shook violently, and then Ron saw a huge red and black fireball rising from the Japanese cruiser opposite, and then there was a deafening loud noise, Then there was another sound.

Under the water not far away, the U.S. Navy submarine She Shuiyu just fired six torpedoes at the target in one breath.Half an hour ago, under the cover of heavy rain, this submarine surfaced quietly, so that the sailors could also take a bath. There would be no enemy planes in the heavy rain. As for enemy ships, they were much more conspicuous than the gray-blue submarines , the captain has full confidence: he can find them first.

The fact is also the same. Just when the heavy rain was about to end, the submarine found a target-a Japanese cruiser. The submarine dived urgently and was ready to attack.However, this ship was not an easy target. Her speed was too fast, at 25 knots, while the She Shuiyu was only a little over ten knots underwater, so it was definitely too late to seize a suitable ambush position.The captain, Lieutenant Commander Juno, almost gave the order to give up.

Just then the boat slowed down, turned the rudder, and came straight ahead of them—a small boat attracted her, and took her on a road of no return.

"God! Virgin Mary! Thank you!" Juno quickly crossed himself on his chest, and then clasped the handle of the periscope with both hands, "Are the torpedoes ready?"

"Torpedo One is ready"

"Number two is ready"

……

"Very good! Baby, that's it, slow down." Before Juno's eyes, the Japanese cruiser was getting bigger and bigger. Juno felt that he was sure to hit all the six torpedoes in front of it. "Torpedoes No. [-] to No. [-] are launched sequentially!"

The distance is very close, and the speed of the enemy ship is very slow, so that there is no need to use the common fan shooting to increase the hit rate.Looking at the periscope, Juno saw one torpedo after another rushing towards the prey with white trails.Since there were no escort ships, he didn't have to drill into the deep sea as soon as he fired the torpedo as usual.He can enjoy watching in the periscope, and such opportunities are not many.

The first torpedo hit the bow of the enemy ship, but the torpedo did not explode.The second hit too—still didn't blow up!

"Damn it! Those bloody arms dealers should be hanged! . . . God! Jesus!"

Perhaps the prayers had an effect, the third torpedo that hit the midship finally exploded, and then the fourth - still didn't explode, then the fifth hit the midship again and exploded, and the sixth, a hit that lived up to expectations. It hit an enemy ship and broke into two parts on the enemy ship. The first half sank, but the second half was still floating on the water—it still didn't explode! (This is the case in history. At the beginning of the war, the explosion rate of American torpedoes was only about 20.00%.)

All six torpedoes hit, and only two successfully detonated.But these two heavy torpedoes not only tore a huge wound in the hull, but may also damage the keel of the enemy ship.The boat caught fire and began to list to the left.In the periscope, you can clearly see the chaos on the enemy ship, and countless ant-like sailors running around in a panic and futilely. Ri himself may still want to save the warship, but obviously, the ship is hopeless.

"Sir, do you want to turn the stern of the boat around? There are still two torpedoes." It was the first officer who spoke.

"No, the ship is sunk!" Juno said, leaving the periscope, "I'm going to take two of these damn torpedoes back and show those bastards!"

Seeing the captain leave the periscope, the first mate immediately took over, tsk-tsk while watching: "Haha, it's over, little Riben is over!"

"Let me see too." The bosun also came running.

"Sir, let's go up and let everyone see."

Although the enemy ship had already tilted severely, and definitely had no ability to fight back, but out of caution, Juno decided to let the submarine float up after a while.

The sudden change not only surprised everyone who was already preparing to spend their days in the prison camp, but also stunned the Japanese sailors on that small boat.After a while, these guys realized that they frantically turned the bow and rowed back, as if they wanted to help.

But the current situation is not what a few people on a small boat can do.The tilt of the cruiser became more and more serious, one side of the ship had already touched the sea surface, and the deck was almost perpendicular to the sea surface.From Ron's side, it can be seen that the bottom of the boat painted with yellow-brown anti-rust paint is all exposed to the water, reflecting a special reddish-brown halo in the setting sun, and the bottom of the boat is full of large patches Black spots, those are the blue and black barnacles parasitic on it.

The heel of the boat seemed to pause, but everyone understood—she was hopeless.The order to abandon the ship has been issued, except for the captain (he tied himself to the rudder to prepare to die, the deputy captain and several other officers also decided to sink with the ship.) A large number of sailors are holding life buoys, or wearing life jackets , or nothing, scrambling to jump into the sea, and then swim away from the warship.The farther away from the warship the better, otherwise, after a while, the huge vortex formed when the warship sinks will suck the people who are still nearby to the bottom of the sea.

The warship swayed, and then began to turn over. This process was very slow at first, but once it started, it became faster and faster, and finally the whole ship was turned upside down on the sea surface, causing waves tens of meters high.Even the small fishing boat with Ron and the others was shaking.Then it began to sink from the bow, and there was a crackling sound and a whistle like a train whistle from the ship-the former was the sound made when some structures in the ship began to break, and the latter was the sound of the air flowing from the ship. It is emitted when being forced by sea water to rush out of some gaps in the ship.In this ominous sound, the stern of the ship was raised high, and the two huge copper propellers were raised high, shining in the setting sun.Then, with a loud noise, the ship broke in two from the middle—the keel, which had been damaged as early as when it was hit by a torpedo, was finally overwhelmed.The stern of the boat slapped hard on the water, causing another huge spray, and then, almost instantly, the ship disappeared on the surface of the sea, leaving now only a huge eddy in her place.

When the battleship sank completely, Ron saw a submarine sailing at a low speed on the water in the direction she had just blocked.

"God, I love you so much! That's our boat!" Pato yelled.

"Quick! Take out the flag!" Tom added.

Marcos climbed onto the mast and waved a star-spangled banner vigorously at the submarine.The sub also noticed this and started coming towards them.

Just then, there was a sudden shot, and Marcos staggered and fell from the mast.

Marcos fell on the deck. Fortunately, the boat was small and the mast was not high, so this didn't hurt him too much.Marcos covered his shoulder with his hand, and bright red blood flowed from there.

The gunshots were still ringing, and the Japanese boat that had rowed away just now was firing at them.Everyone was lying on the deck at once.

"Quick, Curtis helps him into the cabin! The others take up arms immediately!" Ron yelled.

Curtis crawled on the planks and dragged his brother with one hand to crawl towards the cabin.

The hatch on the deck was opened, first a few Springfield rifles, and after a while, a Browning automatic rifle (the name of the US military, it is actually a light machine gun) was handed over to the man who had already been lying on the deck. In the hands of several people.

The distance between the two sides is actually very far, coupled with the shaking of the ship, in fact, the bullets fired by everyone are basically flying randomly.But the flag just now and the small-scale gun battle now attracted the attention of the US military on the submarine.

"Sir, look there!" said a sailor, pointing in the direction of the boat.

Over there, less than 1000 meters away, a small fishing boat and a Japanese sampan were fighting fiercely.

The Japanese army didn't have machine guns. Ron and the others, who originally had light machine guns, should be able to easily suppress their opponents, but they lack people who are really good at using machine guns.That light machine gun kept spitting out tongues of flame, but where the bullets went, really only God knows.

But now, they don't need to be more accurate.Submarines have spotted them.And drove over here, the 75 gun on the submarine deck also turned towards the small sampan of the Japanese army.With the sound of "boom", a large water column rose beside the sampan.

"Damn, missed!" The gunner was very dissatisfied.However, he has no chance of redress.The Japanese sailors who were shelled all jumped down.To stay there is obviously to wait for death.

"Come up and see what's going on with that boat," Juno ordered.

……

A few joyous Yankees were disarmed and taken aboard the submarine.Then, under supervision, he showed various documents and revealed his identity to the captain.Then they were locked in a small cabin, waiting for the submarine to verify their identities.

Just as Ron was climbing down from the hatch, he heard a man say to Juno, "Sir, what about these ri people?"

"The old way!"

What the "old way" was, Ron didn't see it with his own eyes, because there were still people coming down, so he had to climb down.But immediately, the dull and rhythmic shooting sound of the M2 machine gun came from the hatch that was not closed.

At about 8 o'clock, people who were temporarily confined in several cabins noticed that the submarine began to tilt and made a rumbling sound at the same time-this is the sound made by compressed air expelling sea water.The submarine surfaced again. On the one hand, it had to use the radio to report the situation and receive orders. On the other hand, it also had to start the diesel engine and charge the battery, and at the same time change the air in the cabin.This is also the characteristic of submarines.

In the days since, the submarine has been sailing eastward.Every night, it rises to the surface for air.But the telegram confirming Ron's identity never came.This is actually normal, and now they are in a mess, who can care about these things.

That night, the submarine received an order to search the nearby waters and rescue naval pilots who might have parachuted or made an emergency landing in this area.Because just today, the Navy and the Japanese fought a decisive battle-the Battle of the Coral Sea.

The sea was pitch black at night, so the search was of course impossible. We had to wait until dawn, when the submarine dived into the water and searched the sea surface with a periscope.

The early morning search went very well.In less than two hours, the submarine rescued the three pilots.They were from two Dauntless dive bombers.The search for the remaining pilot was much more difficult.Until the evening, still nothing.Perhaps, he has been rescued by other submarines or seaplanes, perhaps he has already encountered an accident.

In the early hours of the next day, Ron was suddenly woken up and told by a sailor.They can travel by seaplane to the fleet of the US Navy.Conditions there are better than here.

On the deck, Ron found that the sky had just dawned, the morning stars were hanging low, and the sea was still covered with a thin layer of light blue mist. There was silence all around, only the waves beating the submarine lightly, making the sound of rushing. .After a while, the sound of an engine was faintly heard in the sky.Immediately afterwards, two bright golden stars suddenly appeared in the sky.Ron knew that it was the plane-now at high altitude, the sun had come out, and the golden sunlight had already shone on them.Although the sea is still dark for the time being.

The sound of the engine became louder and louder, but the golden light that shrouded the plane had disappeared. The plane lowered its altitude and flew into the darkness again.Soon, the sound of buoys breaking through the water was heard not far away.The two planes landed on the sea one after the other.

Taking a rubber raft, several people rowed over...

At about 9 o'clock in the morning, the plane approached General Fletcher's fleet.Looking down from the plane, you can see the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, which was hit by a bomb and is still smoking in places.When the plane lowered its altitude and landed next to a cruiser, Ron could also clearly see that her C turret was completely blown up.From here, it is not difficult to see the tragedy of this battle.

Ron and the others were arranged on this cruiser.On board, he waved goodbye to Ram—the pilot of the dive bomber who was rescued yesterday—that guy was going back to the aircraft carrier to meet his comrades.Although they had only known each other for a day, they had already formed a friendship by discussing flying in the cramped and boring submarine cabin.Although Ron's identity has not been confirmed yet, Ram absolutely believes that he is not lying, and this guy is definitely a trump card, as can be known from his analysis of Japanese fighter planes and tactics.

The fleet was sailing northwest, and Ron knew they were going to Pearl Harbor.Two days later, he got a message that their identities had been confirmed, and as long as the fleet returned to Pearl Harbor, they could report to the Army Aviation Unit on the island and wait for assignment.Perhaps, considering their legendary experience along the way, the Army will give them a vacation and let them go back to the North American continent to relax.

At the same time, Ron also got a message that the commander of the fleet, General Fletcher, wanted to see him.