Eight Hundred and Sixty-Six Birds Dying

It is really strange to say that the U.S. Navy did not know how to fight smoothly at the beginning of this naval battle. At a distance of more than ten kilometers, it fired first, and it was miraculous in the second round of shooting. sank a destroyer of the Japanese Navy.

Such a high hit accuracy, even the naval power Britain has never experienced it. The Japanese navy, which prides itself on being invincible in artillery battles, lost to the US Navy in such a muddled way. In today's words, it is-this unscientific.

But it may be that things go against each other, or that the U.S. Navy ran out of luck at the moment of the war, and it is more likely that the destroyer of the other side really has some kind of magical power... In short, miracles never happened in the United States. On the Navy.

Or, to put it less politely, the quality shown by the US Navy in subsequent battles can almost really reflect their usual training level.

The cruiser in order continued to fire and aimed at the Japanese destroyer Yukikaze that was sailing towards it. As a result, this shot, not to mention reproducing the magical effect of the two shots just now, did not even hit the shadow of the Yukikaze. The USS destroyer was off by at least several hundred meters, and the mood of the elated U.S. Navy fell to the bottom all of a sudden.

Immediately following the US ship, today's evil journey began-three cruisers fired in turn, and the shells of the main guns flew densely towards the two destroyers of the Japanese army, but these two destroyers seemed to have their own defensive shields. Not a single shell hit.

Then the U.S. Navy scrambled to avoid the torpedoes thrown by the Japanese Navy. As a result, they almost collided with each other, giving the Japanese Navy a vain victory. Although they escaped in the end, they broke out in a cold sweat from fright.

The Japanese destroyer on the opposite side suddenly changed its course and turned around to escape, which also made the U.S. Navy breathe a sigh of relief - anyway, our goal of expelling the opponent's warship has been achieved, and we have also created a record of sinking a destroyer of the opponent in two rounds of bombardment , it is enough to make a difference.

So these two Japanese destroyers named Shigure and Xuefeng miraculously swung around the periphery of the US main fleet, and returned to the main combat sequence of the Japanese combined fleet in the Marshall Islands without damage, and began their battle. A legendary journey to the Pacific Ocean.

The telegram was sent back to the headquarters of the United Fleet, and Yamamoto Fifty-Six felt that what he was worried about would eventually become a reality. The United States, which can't find any benefits from the German army, is destined to focus its attention on the Japanese combined fleet. And at this time, it happened to be the weakest moment of the Japanese Navy's combined fleet.

At this moment, the Japanese Navy only has the aircraft carriers Akagi and Kaga that are fully staffed and have certain combat capabilities, and then they can only start counting the pitiful battleships and cruisers in their hands. Under such circumstances, the best combat method Yamamoto Fifty-Six could think of was to rely on the Army fighter jets on the Marshall Islands to help kill the US Navy fleet.

His plan is very feasible, mainly relying on the aviation of the Army to contain the fighter force of the U.S. Navy, and then use the naval aviation with sufficient training in attacking the sea to surprise the U.S. Navy and disrupt the U.S. combat deployment. Then he relied on the battleship in his hand to cut into the US Navy fleet and achieved a decisive victory.

So while ordering the United Fleet to start preparing for the dispatch, Yamamoto grabbed the phone in his hand and ordered his subordinates to send a telegram requesting reinforcements from the Army Command of the Australian Theater, which could immediately reinforce the Marshall Islands.

However, when Yamamoto Fifty-Six boarded his flagship, the battleship Nagato of the Japanese combined fleet, and was talking with Colonel Fukuru Shigeru about how to attack the US fleet while taking advantage of the chaos, he received a response from the Army, and this response made Yamamoto Fifty-Six almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

It turned out that as early as ten days ago, in order to launch the combat plan to enter India, the army mobilized most of the combat power they could find. Almost one-third of the army fighters in the Australian theater were mobilized, and there was really no extra military support Naval combat.

And the plan to attack India has been criticized by the Japanese navy from the very beginning. In the end, I still didn't expect that the army would go so far as to go its own way. It directly put aside the navy and carried out this huge offensive plan by itself. It started in March Attack on the Imphal region of India.

This battle is still going on now, and the army claimed that its offensive is as strong as a bamboo, and Yamamoto Fifty-Six One is not good at commenting on this battle as far away as Southeast Asia, but this battle made the Japanese army in the Pacific Ocean. It is indeed an indisputable fact that the troops have been weakened. And these transferred Air Forces of the Army were an important reason why Yamamoto lingered in the Marshall Islands.

But now, the cover of the army aviation that should be near the Marshall Islands has become a luxury, so a decisive battle with the US fleet in the Marshall Islands has become a joke. If the Japanese combined fleet can win, why do they have to hide in Marshall? Wouldn't it be enough to just kill the U.S. Navy directly?

Standing on the deck of the battleship Nagato, Yamamoto Fifty-Six was trembling with anger. His carefully arranged Marshall strategy to lure the enemy into a decisive battle came to naught because of the Army Aviation Corps leaving without saying goodbye. Fortunately, Yamamoto's concentration is amazing, if it were someone else, he would probably have started yelling.

The news is not completely blocked at any time, especially in Japan. It is not uncommon for the navy to help with publicity when there is a problem with the navy, or it is not uncommon for the navy to help the gossip when the army has a joke, so even in the Marshall Islands, the Japanese navy knows the army In the Battle of Imphal in India, many dumbfounding jokes were made.

The attacking troops drove sheep and cattle, rode bicycles, carried a few days' rations, carried a rifle, and went out with not much ammunition. Their slogan was "Shoot Imphal, sit down Eat Mountbatten", the 31st Division in charge of the attack was forced out without even completing basic combat preparations.

And the 15th Army Commander General Mutaguchi who was in charge of commanding the frontline operations turned out to be: "If there is no supply, you can't fight? How can it be done! The Japanese army can endure any hardship. There is no food to be taken from the enemy. .I don't believe we're any worse than those cowards in the Navy!"

The combat plan drawn up with this attitude is simply horrible in the eyes of experts. The Japanese Army did not evaluate the Chinese Expeditionary Force who persisted in fighting in the northern part of Myanmar, nor did it take into account the resistance of the British Army. From the point of view, the squadron is vulnerable, and the British army in India is even more turkey. As long as his troops drive all the way, these troops will collapse and surrender.

But Mutaguchi's subordinates are not so optimistic. Many people think that this is an unwinnable battle, and many soldiers in the army feel pessimistically that they are going to die.

Before crossing the Chindon River, the pessimistic head of the 31st Division of the Sixth Army, Sato, instructed his subordinates: "Everyone, we will start crossing the Chindon River tonight. Before that, I have something to explain to everyone , please listen! As long as there is no miracle, your lives will be lost in this upcoming battle. But instead of falling under the bullets, most of you will starve to death in the mountains of Arakan. Please be mentally prepared!"

Of course, Yamamoto doesn't know these things now, and he is still annoyed by the transfer of aviation from the Army. In the end, Fifty-Six Yamamoto, who was furious, issued an order for the entire army to retreat, leaving behind the 30,000 Japanese troops stationed on the Marshall Islands, and retreated with the combined fleet to the Solomon Islands behind the Marshall Islands.

"Since you have done such a great job! Then don't blame me, Yamamoto Fifty-Six, for using your army as a backup in order to keep the navy! The entire combined fleet withdrew to Solomon, and the two destroyers Yukikaze and Shigure were assigned to the rear of the army. The 16th Destroyer Fleet and the 7th Destroyer Fleet" These were the last words Yamamoto Fifty-Six said before he fell ill in a fit of rage, and then the admiral fainted at his post.

The United Fleet, which lost the mainstay of Yamamoto Fifty-Six, fled in a hurry. After losing the two destroyer fleets in the rear, it barely retreated to the Solomon Islands. In addition to the two destroyers, the poor 16th and 27th destroyer fleets were completely wiped out.

This battle returned all the advantages of the Japanese Navy destroyer fleet to the U.S. Navy in the previous Marshall Islands patrol encounters. In terms of destroyer losses, the Japanese Navy came from behind. After this battle, the total number of sunken ships exceeded The U.S. Navy, combined with the Japanese Fleet, suffered even more losses than the U.S. Navy in a most reluctant war of attrition.

Such an intolerable thing happened in such a real way. When Yamamoto Fifty-Six painstakingly calculated that a Japanese destroyer should be replaced by at least a few American destroyers, the answer sheet given to him by the Japanese Navy was average. Lose 1.1 Japanese destroyer to sink 1 American destroyer...

Time was not on Japan's side, and it now appears that luck is not on Japan's side either. And Yamamoto Fifty-Six is ​​not in the mood to fight the U.S. Navy to the death now, because what he needs to face now is the fact that after he retreated to the Solomon Islands without authorization and abandoned Marshall, the letter of complaint from the Army flew to the base camp like snowflakes.

The combined fleet of the Japanese Navy is gloomy at this moment. As the saying goes, when a bird is about to die, its song also mourns.

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