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Text Chapter 989 Let¡¯s have a decisive battle!  Navy (3)

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    The spring sunshine still cannot bring warmth to both sides of the fierce battle.

    The war of 1941 became increasingly cruel.  Churchill's lightning offensive in the Iberian Peninsula helped the British army gain the strategic initiative. Although his old rivals were slower to respond, they had a group of higher-quality soldiers.  Under various disadvantages such as the railway being bombed, the hub being interrupted, and the road across the Pyrenees being cut off, Guderian still relied on the rolling iron wheel and led 20 divisions to quickly bypass the most difficult area in the middle, led by Nava  La entered the peninsula and used the intelligence provided by the Spanish Falangists and the Blue Division to capture Pamplona in just five days, officially opening the door to a deeper advance.

    Unlike Spain¡¯s stumbling, Rommel, who turned around again, made rapid progress in the endless desert.  On April 12, the day Yugoslavia surrendered, 7 divisions of the German-Italian East African Army, with the cooperation of 250 tanks and 500 fighter planes, and Patton's Third Army broke out at Fort Boualarid east of Algiers.  Fierce fighting.  Facing the sophisticated German army, although the US military gradually adapted to the war, the "inferior" M3 series tanks created Rommel's glory.  In two days and two nights of fierce fighting, Patton's Second Armored Division was almost completely annihilated!  More than 300 M3 series tanks were destroyed by the German Panzer IV tanks and 88 guns. More than 3,000 US troops were killed and 6,000 injured. If it were not for the rescue of the B-25 bombers from Oran and the British Eighth Army, I am afraid that the first  The losses of the Third Army would be even greater.

    With the German army entering Spain on one side and the precarious situation in North Africa on the other, Britain and the United States fell into the biggest crisis since the war began.  In order to alleviate the problem of troop strength, Churchill frantically sent more troops to Spain. Roosevelt also mobilized almost all merchant ships and used about 1,000 transport aircraft of various types to send troops one after another to Europe.  But he also encountered Yang Qiu's embarrassment in Central Asia, which was the long transportation line.  Too much consumption.  Before the country's manufacturing capacity has completely reached its peak, it has to rely on flesh and blood to stop the German army.  Similarly, the fall of Yugoslavia also exposed Greece and Turkey to the gunfire of the German army. The former carried out national mobilization with the support of Britain and the United States in an attempt to block the entry of German troops, while the latter also carried out national mobilization for the first time because of fear of being invaded.

    When the huge Mediterranean millstone slowly started to turn on, the war in Central Asia also reignited.  In order to delay Japan's defeat, the Soviet Ural Front concentrated 500,000 troops and launched another fierce attack on Kostanai and the Irgiz River.  China's Central Asian Theater Command is also competing with each other.  Mobilize 6 armored divisions, 30 infantry divisions, 5 Polish divisions and 20 Central Asian coalition cavalry divisions. With the cooperation of fighter planes and heavy artillery, they will hold the defense line and wait for the counterattack.  At the same time, the Persian Army also dispatched 12 divisions to launch an attack in northern Iran, trying to contain the Soviet army's effective strength.

    While there is a stalemate on land, the Chinese navy is advancing furiously in the Pacific.  After landing on Majuro Atoll on April 8, it successively landed on Mili Atoll, Jaluit Atoll and Erin-lapu-Lapu Atoll.  By April 14, the xn23 battle group had captured the weakly defended Butaritari Atoll in the north of Gilbert, and also occupied the undefended Baker Island and Howland Island in the south, and attacked the more heavily defended Atoll.  Bombings were carried out on Tarawa and Nauru islands.  Destroyed the last Japanese sea and air power here and surrounded Gilbert.

    At the same time, another "heavy artillery" XN21 battle group of the Chinese Navy in the Southwest Pacific was not to be outdone, and the Japanese army was unprepared.  Suddenly, two light cruisers and twelve destroyers were gathered to protect ten troop transports. They set off from the Palau Islands and landed on Biak Island in Wutou Bay, north of New Guinea.  Four thousand soldiers and engineers occupied the island without any resistance, officially bringing the war to New Guinea.

    As the strongholds in the southwest Pacific continue to collapse, connections between the Philippines and Japan are completely interrupted.  The Japanese base camp was in panic.  Coupled with the Chinese Air Force's continuous "Rainbow Bombing", heavy losses in the mainland and all external communications were interrupted, the Japanese Navy was embattled on all sides. Under this situation, Yamamoto Isoroku and the navy's top brass were determined to make a desperate move and fight with their last resort.

    The atmosphere of a decisive battle at sea has become more intense with the tension in Ryukyu direction.

    In such an atmosphere, the nerves of the Haruna battleship formation 210 nautical miles southwest of Nauru Island became increasingly tense.

    In the drizzle, it was pitch black inside the battleship Haruna, and the hatch of the command tower on the island was tightly locked. However, through the thick curtains inside the portholes, the sailors on duty at night could vaguely detect the dim lights inside.  Captain Susumu Kimura had a bad time during this period. First he was slightly injured in the Battle of Wake Island, and then he had to bear the injury for the safety of Truk. He led four cruisers to join the Kumano heavy cruise there.  However, before the battleship's wounds were treated, Truk was attacked by an air attack, and he had to lead his troops to retreat to Rabaul.  With the decisive battle approaching, the base camp asked him to leave the two light cruisers Oi and Kiso to strengthen the Rabaul Sixth Fleet, and bring the battleship and three heavy cruisers back to participate in the decisive battle.  More importantly, during this trip, he also had to protect thirty-three cargo ships carrying 90,000 tons of heavy oil.Go back to ease domestic oil tensions.

    Originally, he wanted to pass between the nearest Marshall Islands and Micronesia, but with the total collapse of the Marshall Islands and the arrival of a large number of Chinese navy patrol aircraft, this road was no longer accessible.  The way back from the Philippines is also unsafe because of the attacks from Palau, Guam and Taiwan.  So after much deliberation, he could only take advantage of the Chinese Navy's open door and pass it from Tuvalu south of Gilbert, and then bypass the dangerous Hawaii and head to the Thousand Islands to return home.

    This is a dangerous road, but it is much better than Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, where Chinese bombers are densely populated.  "I hope I can return to China safely." Susumu Kimura quietly lifted the curtain. The slow oil fleet in the dark made him feel uneasy.  Just as he lifted the curtain, to the west of him, Yang Tiancheng's 239 destroyer formation was searching and advancing at a speed of 27 knots.  Although Comrade Xiao Yang has great ambitions, he has just been promoted from the frigate and has the rank of major, so he can only follow the command of the destroyer Songshan that met midway.

    Songshan is a Taishan-class destroyer (French Fantasy-class) jointly built by China and France. It is fast and has a large tonnage. It is more like the popular destroyer leader in Europe, so the cost is very expensive.  The Navy could not afford such a high cost at the time, so after building six ships, it canceled subsequent plans and built Qinling-class destroyers instead.  The cost of the Qinling class is 10% lower than that of the Taishan class, but its combat performance, seaworthiness, and endurance are not inferior, but its speed is slower.  The formation used a single-wing formation at this time, with the Songshan at the front, the five Qinling-class destroyers following in an inclined line, and the Wumengshan at the end.

    "Is it repaired? How long will it take?" Yang Tiancheng opened the hatch, came under the mast wearing a raincoat, and loudly asked the electronic soldier who was repairing the radar.  Shortly after setting sail, his radio and radar antennas were both struck by lightning and damaged.  This is fatal, because the formation now maintains radio silence, and even the navigation mast lights are turned off. Therefore, without radio and radar, the Wumengshan can only rely on the visual inspection of the lookout.  And if it cannot be repaired before receiving, it is likely that it will not be able to cooperate with the formation.

    "Hurry, Captain, half an hour at most."

    "Okay, be safe!" Although he was anxious, he could only choose to trust the electronics officer, but secretly scolded his sister in his heart, because the radar carried by the Qinling-class destroyer happened to be his family's industry. After his sister Yang Sisi returned from graduation,  So he took over the family business from Sanniang Lu Bicheng.

    After returning to the bridge helplessly, he was about to take off his raincoat when the navigator suddenly pointed forward: "Captain, look quickly."

    "What's wrong?"

    "It's turning, it seems to be speeding up!" As the navigation chief spoke, the destroyer Tianmushan on the left front began to turn right, and the speed seemed to be speeding up.  "What are you doing? Didn't you tell them that our radio is broken? Why isn't it sending a signal?" Yang Tiancheng gripped the railing angrily.

    He had reason to be annoyed, because normally, the Tianmushan in front of him should be informed of the turn and acceleration through the mast light signal. After all, the Wumengshan was at the end, and the radio and radar were also broken.  But this time, the Tianmushan seemed to have forgotten that there were comrades behind it.  This kind of mistake seems incomprehensible, but it is actually normal, because with the rapid expansion of the navy in a short period of time, most of the experienced captains have been transferred away. Many destroyer captains are like him, starting from frigates, or simply  People who come up from the Coast Guard are inexperienced and will get nervous and forget things once they go to the battlefield.

    "Do you want to send a light signal first?"

    "Forget it, let the lookout keep an eye on it, try to stagger the heading angle by five degrees, and keep up."

    The navigator nodded, immediately turned the steering wheel and moved away from the Tianmushan, and then accelerated in the hope of catching up closer.  But no one expected that the Tianmu Mountain would go faster and faster, and soon exceeded the five-kilometer night vision range "Asshole! Full speed! Pay attention to the sea surface." Yang Tiancheng was so angry that he almost wanted to fly over,  He grabbed the captain of the Tianmu Mountain and beat him up.  You should give me a signal and tell me what happened!  He was anxious, but he couldn't take the initiative to turn on the mast light to send a signal, because he might have discovered some target, otherwise the formation would not speed up for no reason.

    At this time, the rain was getting heavier and heavier, and the sea was blurry. After ten minutes of accelerated pursuit, there was still no trace of the formation, which made him panic.

    At this moment, several bright fireballs suddenly lit up from the port side followed by a dull sound of shelling.  At this time, Yang Tiancheng finally understood what had happened, but the problem was Only then did he realize that he had deliberately staggered five degrees because he was afraid of a collision at night, but the Tianmushan and the formation had obviously moved at a large angle.  Turn left, so his position was actually seven nautical miles away from the battlefield.

    "Damn, I ran in the wrong direction!".

    (To be continued)
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