Chapter 1038: Americans’ Weapon of Revenge

Just a dozen hours after Captain Genda Minoru felt that the Japanese Empire was powerless to defeat the giant United States, Japanese Army General Yamashita Tomoyuki now felt the same way on Oahu Island, more than 11,000 kilometers away from Palembang.

As the commander of the Japanese Army Hawaiian Front, he felt for the first time that the Hawaiian Islands might not be able to be defended. Because thousands of American fighter planes taking off from aircraft carriers and Niihau Island also roared towards Oahu Island. Unlike the ammunition dropped in many previous air raids, the Americans used unconventional ammunition in the bombing on June 4th, Hawaii time - mustard gas bombs and anthrax spore bombs (the Japanese did not know that the US military had dropped anthrax spore bombs) dropped by hundreds of B-24 and B-17 bombers taking off from Niihau Island.

General Yamashita Tomoyuki, despite the opposition of his staff, insisted on standing in a shelter on the top of the command post inside the mountain, wearing a gas mask, and watching the ground-to-air battle outside with a telescope from the inward-facing observation port. Although the American air raid was fierce, it could not overwhelm the firepower of the defenders of Oahu, and the infantry were hiding in perfect and solid fortifications. Even if the opponent dropped tens of thousands of tons of bombs, there would not be too many casualties. But what the Americans dropped now was not ordinary bombs, but poison gas bombs that would emit yellow poisonous smoke!

General Yamashita has received reports that American planes dropped mustard gas bombs, which have caused damage to some unprepared anti-aircraft gunners, and they were killed and injured heavily by the poisonous smoke. Now the army hospital on Oahu is full of wounded people burned by mustard gas, with blisters all over their bodies, wailing in pain, and some have been blinded by the poison, desperate and helpless to the extreme.

Yamashita Fengwen, who has a good understanding of the gas warfare in the European battlefield during the First World War, knows that the current gas attack is just the beginning! The climax of the real gas warfare will appear after the landing operation officially begins.

The poisonous smoke of mustard gas will cover the Japanese positions day and night (the poisonous smoke in World War I often lasted for several hours), until the Japanese officers and soldiers wearing gas masks were killed and injured...

And the US military now completely ignores the threat of Japanese biological weapons in their major cities on the west coast, and brazenly uses chemical weapons on Oahu, which shows that the Americans have now made the greatest determination to use all means to defeat or force peace with Japan in the shortest time.

Of course, the samurai of the Great Japanese Empire are not afraid of anything! Even if the Americans have terrible nuclear fission weapons, the Japanese samurai can defeat them.

But...what is the meaning of such a war for Japan?

General Yamashita Tomoyuki is a core figure in the Japanese Army. Of course, he knows that the Americans have now asked for peace with Japan, and the conditions are not bad, just asking for the return of the Hawaiian Islands.

Is it worth it to sacrifice the lives of more than 200,000 army officers and soldiers for the broken islands of the Hawaiian Islands 6,000 kilometers away from Tokyo?

The Japanese Empire is no longer a small country with only more than 300,000 square kilometers, but a great country with more than 5 million square kilometers. Why should we fight endlessly with the Americans for the Hawaiian Islands?

Thinking of this, Yamashita Tomoyuki turned his head and said to a former staff officer of the front headquarters wearing a gas mask: "Go to the military headquarters and tell the Americans that mustard gas was used on the imperial soldiers on Oahu... Now Pearl Harbor and Honolulu have been covered by the mustard gas of the US military, and our imperial soldiers have suffered heavy casualties!"

Just when Oahu was attacked by US biological and chemical weapons, the night had fallen on the sea surface in the north of Kyushu Island, thousands of miles away from Oahu. A steel-cast sea beast quietly surfaced under the cover of night and slowly sailed towards the direction of sparse lights in the distance.

This is an American "Little Shark" class submarine with an underwater displacement of 2,424 tons and a displacement of 1,526 tons when floating, which is almost equivalent to a small destroyer.

Since the US Navy has been at a disadvantage for a long time in the two-front war, this "Little Shark" class submarine was manufactured in large quantities and became a powerful equipment for the US Navy to conduct anti-submarine operations to attack opponents. Especially in the Pacific battlefield, due to the serious lack of anti-submarine and anti-mine capabilities of the Japanese Navy, American submarines have the opportunity to show their prowess. Whether it is attacking with torpedoes, laying mines, or simply floating on the sea and attacking with deck guns, it always causes heavy losses to Japanese ships, and it is hard to defend against.

However, this American submarine that has quietly slipped to the northern part of Kyushu, Japan, near the densely populated coastal area of ​​Fukuoka Prefecture, is not here to disrupt trade. They are the secret weapons used by the US Navy to attack the Japanese mainland!

On the narrow deck of this "Little Shark" class submarine, a twelve-unit MK.51 rocket launcher is installed-actually a rocket launcher.

The ammunition used by this rocket launcher is a 5-inch high-speed self-rotating rocket with high accuracy. It has four rockets with different ranges: 2500 yards (2286 meters)/5000 yards (4572 meters)/10000 yards (9144 meters). In addition, the warhead of this 5-inch rocket can also be selected. There are 4 types of warheads to choose from, namely high-explosive warheads, white phosphorus incendiary warheads, anthrax spore warheads and mustard gas warheads!

Before the Japanese attacked the west coast of the United States with bacterial weapons, there was no plan to install the MK.51 rocket launcher on submarines. This weapon was originally intended to be installed on landing ships to support the US military landing on the Hawaiian Islands. And at that time, the Americans did not design mustard gas warheads and anthrax warheads for rocket launchers.

However, after the Japanese bacteria invaded the US mainland, the angry Roosevelt was determined to take all means to retaliate.

So all kinds of strange "revenge weapons" were designed by the military industry, among which the strange combination of submarines + rocket launchers attracted the most attention. Because submarines are the only weapons in the hands of Americans that can get close to the Japanese mainland, and the power of 5-inch rockets is not small, at least much greater than 3-inch deck guns. And the speed of dropping ammunition is also fast, firing 12 rockets at a time, and immediately floating down and running away after one or several rounds of salvos, the opponent does not even have time to counterattack.

In order to increase the power of 5-inch rockets, the frenzied U.S. Navy Operations Department threw aside ordinary charge warheads at the beginning, and only equipped a few experimental "rocket submarines" with white phosphorus warheads, anthrax spore warheads and mustard gas warheads.

And the "Bab", one of the several test boats, is preparing to attack the coastal areas of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan tonight. This submarine with an underwater displacement of more than 2,400 tons is now carrying 120 rockets filled with incendiary agents, anthrax spores and mustard gas!

When the "Bab" rocket submarine surfaced and began to approach the target. The hatch on the rear side of the submarine island was pushed open, and the first mate Lieutenant William Walker on the boat came out with several sailors wearing life jackets, helmets, and carrying 5-inch rockets on their shoulders. They took two steps at a time on the shaky submarine deck and soon arrived at the side of the MK.51 rocket launcher fixed on the deck facing the port side.

"Quick, quick, quick!" Lieutenant Walker shouted loudly while checking the launcher with his hands and feet, and then turned the handle to adjust the launch angle himself. Because the space on the submarine deck is limited, the MK.51 rocket launcher installed on it can only adjust the firing angle, but not the left and right. Therefore, before launching the rocket, the submarine must aim the port side at the target. This way of attack is certainly not very accurate, but it is enough to attack densely populated coastal towns.

"Okay, load the ammunition quickly! Let the Japanese know how powerful the United States is!" Lieutenant Walker adjusted the launch angle and immediately called on the sailors to load the ammunition.

This time their target is Fukuoka City in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, a densely populated coastal city. The submarine will launch rockets from a distance of 8,000 meters from the coast (almost the urban area). It is impossible to miss, the question is whether you can fire more rounds?

4 white phosphorus incendiary bombs, 4 mustard gas bombs and 4 anthrax bombs were quickly loaded in place. Lieutenant Walker and his men quickly ran back to the submarine's island. The captain, Major Vladimir, who was watching the loading on the observation platform of the island, immediately gave the order to open fire.

As the electric current activated the rocket's propeller, 12 rockets roared into the air for the first time, dragging orange-red tail flames, cutting through the night sky, and flew to the coastal urban area of ​​Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, about 8 kilometers away. After just a dozen seconds, groups of orange and white flames suddenly rose in the wooden houses where the Japanese lived!

The first to fall were 4 white phosphorus incendiary bombs. The monomers were not only filled with flammable white phosphorus, but also with a large amount of adhesive, which could stick to the human body and wooden buildings and burn, and soon ignited a large area of ​​houses.

And then fell the more terrible mustard gas bombs and anthrax bombs! Yellow poisonous smoke and anthrax spores that could not be distinguished by the naked eye filled the air. Awakened by the sudden explosion and fire, the Japanese people rushed out of their wooden houses and rushed into the toxic air...

In the early morning of June 5 (Japan time), more than one "rocket submarine" launched a surprise attack on the Japanese mainland. Almost at the same time, towns along the coast of Fukuoka Prefecture, Kochi Prefecture, Aichi Prefecture, Shizuoka Prefecture and Miyagi Prefecture in Japan became the target of American revenge. And this was just the beginning of the American revenge!