Chapter 523 Tiger! Tiger! Tiger Twenty-Seven
When the morning of December 17, 1941 arrived, the Rising Sun Flag was already flying over Lihue, the capital of Kauai. The Taiwan Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army, supported by two Army aircraft carriers, occupied the island in the afternoon of the 16th.
Lieutenant General Paulus, the head of the German Military Advisory Group, who had drifted on the sea for more than 20 days, finally stood on solid and stable ground. At 10 a.m. on the 17th, he was visiting several Japanese Navy tanks parked at the dock with his "official photographer" Lieutenant Rudolf von Ribbentrop.
Are there tanks with "ships"? Of course there are. The Japanese Navy stipulates that their tanks are "one" or "two", not one or two. By the way, the tanks of the Japanese Navy are not called "chariots", but "internal fire boats".
After seeing the Army aircraft carrier, Paulus and Ribbentrop Jr. are now open-minded again. However, it is not the Navy tanks that open their eyes - the two Germans have never heard of the Army having aircraft carriers, but it is very common for the Navy to have tanks. The current German Marine Corps is also equipped with a number of Type 3 tanks that were eliminated by the Army, and the Armaments General Administration has also issued an order to develop amphibious tanks.
However, the idea of using submarines to transport tanks for sneak attacks still made Lieutenant General Paulus and Lieutenant Ribbentrop's eyes light up.
The German Navy has many submarines, with a total of 400 large and small ones! If they can be used to transport tanks to sneak attack the British mainland, wouldn't it be possible to send an armored division to the British mainland overnight!
However, the Japanese Navy does not have so many submarines or tanks. There are only 30 "internal fire boats" transported to Kauai Island now, and they will take 15 submarines to sneak attack Kamehameha Battery and Randolph Battery on Oahu Island.
According to the investigation of Japanese intelligence agencies, the frontal defense of Kamehameha Battery and Randolph Battery on the coast of Honolulu is relatively "loose", no anti-tank trenches are dug, and no anti-tank weapons are deployed.
Who would have thought of digging anti-tank trenches on the beach in front of the forts with 14-inch and 8-inch guns? As long as those guns are not destroyed, the enemy's landing ships and landing craft will never get close. If even the armored forts are destroyed, then the enemy must have many powerful battleships, and what role can anti-tank trenches and anti-tank guns play?
Therefore, using submarines to transport tanks to land in front of Kamehameha Fort and Randolph Fort is definitely a revolutionary genius idea.
And the special type 2 internal fire boat used by the Japanese to realize this genius idea also looks pretty good. The hull and turret are welded with steel plates, and the front and back steel plates of the boat are tilted to increase the bulletproof effect. The firepower of the special type 2 internal fire boat is not weak either, with a 37mm tank gun and 2 7.7mm machine guns. Compared with a light tank with a combat weight of only 9.15 tons (on land) and 12.5 tons (on water, with pontoons), this firepower is definitely not weak.
In addition, the pontoon of the Type 2 internal fireboat is also carefully designed. It can be disassembled. After installing the pontoon, the Type 2 will become a small boat with tracks and road wheels, which can sail at a speed of 9.5 kilometers per hour and can travel up to 140 kilometers. If on the shore, the maximum speed of the Type 2 internal fireboat is 37 kilometers per hour and the maximum range is 320 kilometers.
Just as Paulus and Ribbentrop were carefully observing a Japanese naval tank, someone suddenly shouted: "Air raid! Air raid! Hide quickly..."
Paulus and Ribbentrop could not understand Japanese, but saw the Korean coolies unloading cargo from two Japanese freighters and the Japanese soldiers guarding them running towards the air-raid shelter, and they knew what was going on.
However, the two German military advisers did not go to the pit, but ran into a coconut grove not too far from the bay at the risk of being bombed, raised their binoculars and began to watch the bombing.
There were a lot of American planes attacking, enough for 140 or 50, and they came in groups to give people a feeling of covering the sky and the sun. However, there were not many Japanese planes intercepting the invading enemy planes in the air, only 10 Japanese Army Type 1 fighters. These Type 1 fighters have been specially modified and can take off and land on Army aircraft carriers. In fact, they are a kind of Army carrier-based fighter. Except for its inferior range to the Navy's Zero aircraft, its performance is almost the same in other aspects. Even its appearance looks similar, so it is often confused by its enemies.
"10 Zeros, Major McBell, leave it to you!" Lieutenant Colonel Ort, who commanded the incoming US fighters, also mistook the Japanese Type 1 fighters in the sky for Zeros. He gave orders to Major McBell, who was the commander-in-chief of the fighter formation, through the airborne radio, and then began to observe the situation on the sea.
"Two aircraft carriers!" He immediately found two Japanese Army aircraft carriers on the sea, "They are two light aircraft carriers, dive bombers first, and then torpedo bombers! Let's go and sink them!"
Lieutenant Commander Ort was a pilot of the SBD Dauntless dive bomber. He assigned tasks to several dive bomber and torpedo attack squadrons under his command, and then took the lead with a squadron of SBDs to swoop down on the Japanese Army aircraft carrier "Akitsu Maru". In just 3 minutes, 18 SBDs completed the bombing and smashed 3 1,000-pound armor-piercing bombs on the poor Army aircraft carrier. All 3 bombs penetrated the wooden flight deck, and one of them exploded in the empty hangar (the Type 1 fighters on the aircraft carrier were transferred to the Lihue Airport). Another one drilled into the engine room and blew up the diesel engine on the ship. The last one fell to the bottom of the bow, resulting in a large hole at the bottom of the bow of the "Akitsu Maru". The seawater rushed in uncontrollably, and the 11,800-ton aircraft carrier soon sank into the sea at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Three minutes later, misfortune befell the "Shenzhou Maru". This 8,000-ton army aircraft carrier was hit by two 1,000-pound bombs and two torpedoes. The hull broke into two and sank into the Pacific Ocean.
After the American planes cleanly destroyed the two army aircraft carriers, dozens of black spots appeared in the northeast sky. These should be the carrier-based aircraft sent by the Japanese aircraft carriers. Lieutenant Colonel Ort, who had just made a great contribution, thought that the credit of sinking the two aircraft carriers was enough, and there was no need to take risks for the transport ships and oil tankers on the sea, so he issued an order to retreat. All the American planes in the sky that had not yet dropped bombs dropped bombs and torpedoes and fled before the arrival of Japan's Zero planes.
An air raid ended in less than 10 minutes, and the Imperial Japanese Army's dream of aircraft carriers was completely shattered.
…
“Baga! Two aircraft carriers were destroyed in just 10 minutes, the Army is stupid!”
In the “Yamato Hotel”, General Isoroku Yamamoto cursed as soon as he heard that two Army aircraft carriers were sunk by the Americans.
This Army aircraft carrier is also an aircraft carrier! Although it is a little less equipped with carrier-based aircraft, it can still be used as an escort aircraft carrier as long as it is modified. Now it is sunk by the Americans so easily, which is really unforgivable!
Ugaki Matoi, Chief of Staff of the Combined Fleet, also said with some resentment: “Why is the Army building aircraft carriers? Isn’t this nonsense? If the Army is willing to hand over these two aircraft carriers to our Navy, there will be no such end now.”
Yamamoto nodded in agreement. The Army is a bunch of fools who can only make nonsense. Things like fighting still rely on the Navy!
“Where is the First Mobile Fleet?” Yamamoto Isoroku asked again at this time, “Can we get the American aircraft carriers?”
Now the First Mobile Fleet and Yamamoto’s main force have separated. Nanyun left two light aircraft carriers to be incorporated into the First Fleet where Yamamoto was. Together with the original light aircraft carrier of the First Fleet, the First Fleet now had three light aircraft carriers. The First Mobile Fleet was left with only six large fleet aircraft carriers.
"Commander, the First Mobile Fleet is northwest of Kauai, about 80 nautical miles away from Kauai."
"Then let Nanyun chase the American fleet as soon as he finds it!" Yamamoto Isoroku paused and said, "Order the First Submarine Force, the Second Submarine Force and the Third Submarine Force to immediately deploy east of Hawaii Island, and report immediately if they find a US transport fleet!"
"Hai!"
...
"What? Two aircraft carriers of the Army were sunk?" Nanyun Chuichi was also surprised to hear the news, "Aren't there 24 Type 1s on Kauai? How did it end up like this?"
"Commander, how can the Army Air Force compare with our Navy Air Force?" Genda Minoru explained on the side, "He They have no idea of covering the aircraft carrier at all. "
"That's right!" Nanyun Chuichi gritted his teeth, "These stupid army guys are building aircraft carriers, it's really stupid..." He looked back at Genda, "We must avenge the army aircraft carrier now! Send out all the "Comets" and find the American aircraft carrier. "
Genda Minoru immediately said: "Commander, 4 Zero fighters have been sent to follow the American fleet, and they should be able to find the location of the American aircraft carrier soon."
The 4 Zeros sent by Genda were a 4-plane formation led by Little Hersman. They had just taken off to serve as direct cover and were sent to Kauai by Genda. They were not asked to fight with American aircraft in the air, but to quietly follow and find the American aircraft carrier.
"Good, great." Nanyun Chuichi thought for a while and said, "But the radios on those Zero aircraft are not very useful, so I'd better send 3 more "Comets" to follow them. "