Chapter 2572 Exposed
"God, look at the sea, what is that? Why are there white marks on the sea?" In Lieutenant Toti's telescope, he could vaguely see several long white lines on the sea. This kind of thing is definitely not a natural phenomenon. After all, who has seen a very neat row of white lines? This is not normal!
"Captain Hellmann, can you come and take a look?" Lieutenant Toti woke up the German naval observer who was resting next to him. This is the ace lookout of the German High Seas Fleet. He once served on the flagship of the High Seas Fleet and later retired due to war injuries. Now, since the Americans have offered a high salary of at least US$500 per month, this guy is Have come to the distant Pacific Ocean.
"White trail?" Captain Hellman woke up suddenly, and then he immediately ran to the telescope and adjusted the optical lens skillfully.
"It's a battleship! A high-speed sailing battleship! Their speed is at least 18 knots! Send an early warning signal to the headquarters immediately!" In less than a minute, Captain Hellman determined the ship type and speed of the unknown fleet in the distance!
Doesn’t it feel very idle? Does it feel weird? In fact, it is normal. At night, many battleships are discovered not because of the battleships themselves, but because of the wakes of the ships when they sail! Especially when a large warship is sailing at high speed, the wake is even longer than the length of the warship itself. Imagine that under the black night, you stand on a high place and look into the distance, and suddenly a white trace more than 200 meters long appears on the sea. , and when there are not one, but several, how can this be inconspicuous? And this time the Japanese fleet chose to stay close to the coast. So, sorry, the whereabouts of others in Yamawu were discovered by the US military at the first time!
(This is not made up by the author. In fact, in the night battle of Battle 2, it was necessary for the fleet to control the speed and reduce the wake. In the Battle of Savo Island, the battle that made Mikawa Junichi famous, Mikawa specially Order the fleet to slow down and reduce its wake!)
As for why he can judge the speed and ship type of the fleet, he is really well-informed. After all, Captain Hellman has seen it hundreds of times in the war! The wake widths of different battleships are different, and the lengths of the wakes of the same battleship at different speeds are also different. These are all experiences that can only be understood but cannot be expressed in words! Sometimes it’s even just based on feeling!
"Are the ten targets all battleships?" Lieutenant Toti asked.
"At least they are all battleships of over 10,000 tons! Just write it like this." Heilman said anxiously.
"You should know how much trouble this telegram will cause if it is sent out." Lieutenant Toti was still a little doubtful of Hellman's statement. He really didn't expect that such a thing would happen tonight!
"I'm responsible." Hellman said anxiously. "As a soldier, you must take responsibility at critical moments. This is our obligation and our honor." At Hellman's insistence, Lieutenant Totti sent a warning telegram five minutes later. However, this telegram was not for Benson,
Instead, it was first given to the nearby Sixth Battleship Squadron and then forwarded to Benson by the squad commander!
Are you surprised? In fact, it is normal. The U.S. Navy has at least 30 destroyers and patrol boats responsible for maritime surveillance every night, and no less than 40 observation posts perform sea and land surveillance. There are hundreds of false alarms every night. If it were all given to Benson, then Benson would need a company of staff just to process this information. Do you find it difficult to understand? In fact, it is not difficult to understand. After all, whales or rocks moving at sea may be mistaken for submarines. In addition, the mental state is highly stressful, and various visual hallucinations are normal. Therefore, the general principle to solve this problem is to give it to your immediate superior first rather than directly to the most senior!
So, a few minutes later, the early warning telegram was delivered to the temporary commander of the Sixth Battleship Squadron, Colonel Lacey. But less than 10 minutes later, a patrol boat also sent out an early warning telegram. When two telegrams with the same content were sent out at the same time, Colonel Lacey could no longer ignore it!
"Order! All battleships immediately enter the first-level alert state! The destroyer squadron immediately moves to the northwest! At the same time, prepare to contact Admiral Benson and say that we have discovered what seems to be the main force of the Japanese fleet! The entire fleet is immediately ready to pick up the station!" Lacey The colonel's disposal was also very quick and effective. All the warships quickly left their original positions and moved eastward to distance themselves. Intelligence showed that the opponent had at least five battleships. In this way, Colonel Lacey It can be concluded that this is definitely not something that I can deal with! Therefore, his first reaction was to protect himself and delay for time!
"In addition, send a telegram to the Army. The Japanese fleet has chosen a route close to the sea. I hope the Army's artillery can release flares towards the target." The colonel then added an order. However, it is a pity that at this moment, the Japanese fleet's butcher knife was almost stuck to his neck!
Although the Americans had the first intelligence advantage, with the help of the British, through radio sideways, when an American destroyer hidden in the night reported to Colonel Lacey, the Japanese fleet also realized that it The location has been exposed!
"We're exposed," a British radio man said, putting down his headphones. "It is less than 3 kilometers away from us. It uses the rapid transmission method. The transmission time is very short, but it is enough to send an alarm. I cannot determine its precise location. "
"Are we going to send a destroyer to kill that peeper?" a Japanese officer said nervously.
"No need! Kill the American fleet in front of you first!" Lieutenant General Shanwu let out a sigh of relief. Now, artillery fire is needed to solve the problem! "Order the fleet to speed up, give up radio silence and blackout, and the destroyer force will move forward quickly to find the precise position of the U.S. fleet, and then mark it to the main fleet!" With the assault of the destroyer force, the seaplanes on each battleship of the Japanese Navy also They all flew out one after another. At this time, there is less than 8 minutes left before the two sides engage in battle!
"The Japanese fleet has accelerated! Immediately send a signal to the coastal artillery and ask them to use flares to expose the position of the Japanese fleet!" At this time, Captain Hellman and his observation post were still faithfully performing their duties and constantly tracking The location of the Japanese naval fleet was accurately marked on the grid map, and then this information was passed to the army's artillery positions!
As a result, before the Japanese fleet's rangefinder locked onto the U.S. Navy, the flares fired by the U.S. shore guns had already landed near the leading Japanese fleet!
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