Chapter 1,685 The Attack Begins

Chapter 1685 The attack begins

In the last two hours before dawn, the USS Constellation aircraft carrier was also busy. Rear Admiral Rodhart and Kimmel were in the hangar together at this time, responsible for supervising and inspecting the preparations of carrier-based aircraft.

The open hangar, the specialty design of American aircraft carriers in World War II, has not been lost. The so-called open hangar means that the hangar deck bears part of the longitudinal tensile force of the hull, not the flight deck. Put up some shelves on the hangar deck, put the flight deck on top, and arrange rolling shutter doors that can be opened and closed on the side, and the hangar will come together. The advantage is that you can warm up the machine directly in the hangar, and when the bomb hits the hangar, it will explode. The shock wave can directly break through the fragile side walls and be released directly to the outside of the hull. Repairs and construction are also very easy.

And now, in the hangar of the Constellation, 24 various fighter jets and torpedo planes are making preparations, and 4 of them have been upgraded to the deck. Even though it is an aircraft carrier of more than 7,000 tons, the hangar is really It's not that big, because part of the hangar area was originally used to store torpedoes and bombs. Looking at the ammunition depot with only a rolling shutter in front of the hangar, Major General Rodhart felt a little sore...

Tons of bombs and torpedoes are piled directly in front without any protection. Fortunately, Americans, as rich people, also know how to throw things. According to the Americans' explanation, if the aircraft carrier is attacked, then a large amount of ammunition and torpedoes can Throw it directly into the sea through the rolling shutters on both sides...

Thus, the first carrier-based aircraft attack in history began. The rolling shutters on both sides of the aircraft carrier hangar were opened, and a large amount of air with the smell of seawater poured in. All personnel began to check the carrier-based aircraft for the last time. Some of the planes began to warm up, while others began to load ammunition. When everything was ready, the planes were sent to the deck one by one through two elevators.

Generally speaking, the entire preparation process is very fast, after all, the ammunition depot is right next to it... A total of 24 aircraft are actually equipped with two elevators, which is definitely a luxury. The only problem is that the lift is not as powerful as a coffee table and the speed is relatively slow.

At the same time, the flight deck was equally busy. Groups of ground crews pushed the planes sent from the elevator to designated positions. Fortunately, the current aircraft did not weigh much, and only 2 tons of ammunition were loaded. .

"Raise the windshield at the front of the aircraft carrier, the sea breeze is a bit strong!" an officer said, looking at the rickety aircraft blown by the sea breeze. This is also based on the design of the World War II aircraft carrier. The weight of this aircraft, even in World War II, is actually still not enough to see the power of nature...

Imagine that even if there is no wind at sea, the aircraft carrier has to sail against the wind, and then try to make the wind on the deck reach 25 knots or even higher. If calculated at 30 knots, the wind speed on the deck will be as high as about 55 kilometers per hour. ..... Then, don’t say that the overall take-off weight of World War 1 was only 2 tons.

Even attack aircraft and carrier-based aircraft with a take-off weight of more than 6 tons in World War II may be blown away by strong winds. Therefore, before the aircraft perform deck positioning operations and queue up, the windshield at the front of the aircraft carrier is erected. Before flying, Just let it go.

The preparation work in the hangar and on the deck was much faster than previously expected. After all, the people who came were elites from the German naval aviation and the US Navy. Although they had not participated in actual combat, it was not the same thing all day long on the aircraft carrier and on the shore. Twice, so the speed is still very fast.

After all the aircraft are positioned, the ground crew will temporarily fix the aircraft before departure, which involves another facility on the deck. This thing is called a mooring hole, which pushes the aircraft to Secure the position, then use ropes and hooks to secure the aircraft to the mooring holes and release before takeoff.

After working for an hour, all the aircraft were neatly arranged on the deck, with the reconnaissance aircraft at the front, and then the J-3S as a fighter jet. Behind them are the bombers, and at the end are the torpedo planes with the longest takeoff and rolling distance.

Before dawn, the fast battleship Gneisenau first released four seaplanes, and half an hour later, Scharnhorst and another camouflaged cruiser also released six seaplanes for reconnaissance. However, what the Germans did not expect was that while other steps were proceeding step by step, an unexpected situation occurred, which made the Japanese wary.

"There seems to be a submarine there!" In front of the huge Japanese fleet, the lookout hand of the transport ship Risho Maru spotted something emerging from the water in the distance! Under the rising sun, this thing shone with a strange luster, but it was not clear due to the problem of light and distance. At least 4 people on the ship witnessed this situation at the same time, and after a few minutes, this thing Disappeared from the sea. Soon, the highly nervous Japanese crew reported the news to the Japanese fleet.

"Our outpost has discovered a submarine! It is about 3,000 meters in front of the fleet!" When reporting, the captain of the Risho Maru, whether intentionally or unintentionally, directly removed the word "suspected" from the "suspected submarine". And this news is like pouring a basin of cold water into a pot of boiling oil!

"What's supposed to come has finally come!" Hyakutake Saburo felt his heart skip a beat. "Order, have the Takachiho seaplane carrier take off all planes immediately to conduct reconnaissance! Order the fast merchant ships in the fleet to leave the fleet and disperse immediately to break out! The fleet has entered the first level of combat readiness! Prepare to engage in battle!"

So, because of an alarm, the Japanese fleet unexpectedly entered a state of combat readiness. However, later generations had too many questions about this alarm. First of all, the Germans expressed their confusion because, after the German Navy checked its own combat records, there was no German submarines were found in the area at this time…. After the war, at least three of the surviving Japanese claimed to have seen submarines. In the end, it is more recognized in history that the Japanese mistakenly mistook the whales that surfaced for air for submarines. In fact, this kind of thing is very common. Not only whales on the surface may be mistaken for submarines, but whales underwater may also be misidentified as submarines by sonar!

But no matter what, the South Indian Ocean War officially kicked off, and because the Japanese already believed that they were exposed, the previous radio silence was also broken. Frequent radio communication began within the fleet, and with the spread of radio waves , the German fast battleship Gneisenau, located 50 kilometers due north of the Japanese fleet, first received the radio signal from the Japanese fleet!

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