Chapter 2653 Before the Battle
A moment later, when Sasaki and his party arrived at the officers' mess of the Asagiri, Sturdy began to explain the combat mission. Generally speaking, the number of escort destroyers in a medium-sized transport fleet will not exceed 3. If this is a high-level ship, For a standard fleet, there may be some armed transport ships in it. The threat of these transport fleet warships may not be great. But if faced with a submarine attacking on the water, these armed transport ships are somewhat powerful. After all, the submarine's small body can be overwhelmed by several 100MM-level artillery. Therefore, faced with these nails that may be hidden in the transport fleet, the Yamamoto fleet must be responsible for removing them!
"In tomorrow night's battle, the two battleships Asagiri and Yamagiri must perform separate missions. Among them, Asagiri will launch the attack first. They will directly face the attacks of American destroyers and armed merchant ships, and the threat of destroyers at night There will be a huge increase, so I hope Mr. Yamamoto can deal with it seriously."
"After the Asagi launches an attack, the U.S. transport fleet may not necessarily disband the formation, because they know that behind them is the Panama Canal area, where the U.S. squadron is, so they are most likely to still evacuate in the opposite direction in the formation. At this time , it is necessary for the Yamagiri to launch an interception attack. Note that at this stage, there may still be hidden nails in the American fleet, so Mr. Nagumo must be careful." Sturdy signaled to Nagumo Chuichi.
"We will pay attention." Nagumo Chuichi said. It stands to reason that Nagumo Chuichi could not serve as the captain of a battleship. After all, during the war, he was just a destroyer captain, but as one of the few who survived the last battle between Su Xiong and the Japanese fleet, There were many Japanese captains, and he was also a destroyer captain who sank a German submarine. (It was not actually sunk.) Nagumo Chuichi received an exceptional promotion. After serving as a captain on a light cruiser for more than a year, I came to this former dreadnought battleship. So far, although there is no particularly outstanding performance, it is still quite satisfactory.
"Okay then, Colonel Sasaki, the rest is up to you. The two battleships have helped you extract the defensive power of the fleet as much as possible, so the rest of the attack on the transport ships will be left to you. , I hope you can make the encirclement net better. There is a high probability that the American transport fleet that was attacked twice and dispersed will immediately evacuate towards the port. You can make your own plans for the rest. But I want to remind you that We must set aside a warning force. After all, we don’t know the specific patrol route of the U.S. destroyer fleet at night. If a destroyer fleet enters the battlefield at this time, it will be more troublesome for us." Finally, Lieutenant General Sturdy reminded again road.
It was the Japanese fleet that carried out the attack this time, but the people who planned and implemented the details and key parts were the British. The most important plan formulation, aerial reconnaissance and intelligence liaison were all controlled by the British, especially the first one. Two days of concealment and aerial reconnaissance during the day made the Japanese realize the British royal family's grasp of details.
First of all, the two battleships must be camouflaged. After all, targets hundreds of meters long can be easily discovered if they are not camouflaged. And the British did a great job. The main guns cannot be stowed away. The British It was covered with a large number of wooden boards and canvas, and through camouflage color, the entire bridge and the front of the hull were integrated.
The stemline of the ship looks very high. Before setting sail, the British made a "visual change" in the length of the ship after learning from the experience of hull camouflage. As a result, if American reconnaissance planes observed from the air, the two Japanese pre-dreadnought battleships transformed into two large ocean-going cruise ships.
However, in terms of aerial reconnaissance, the British are also remarkable. Unlike most people who imagine that they just throw the plane out and then report the target after discovering the target, the British reconnaissance is very meticulous and avoids the chance of exposure as much as possible. , in terms of aerial reconnaissance, Yamamoto gave a very detailed description.
"The British also camouflaged their seaplanes. From a distance, the low-flying seaplanes almost blended into the sea level. They were also very careful when flying, keeping the altitude very low to avoid being discovered by American destroyers at sea. , at the same time, they are more accustomed to detecting targets through technical means rather than with the naked eye. The three-person seaplane carried specialized radio personnel responsible for collecting radio signals. They also carefully planned the route, and adopted a more responsible route Avoiding being tracked by possible American aircraft. The British used their aviation power very sparingly. They seemed to just want to find the approximate location of the American destroyer and did not care about the merchant ships." Yamamoto wrote in his sailing diary road.
In fact, Sturdy's reconnaissance was more important to determine the location of the American destroyer squadron in order to choose a good ambush location in the final period. As for the target of choice? Yamamoto and others asked, but Sturdy never gave a direct answer. He just said that everyone would understand when the time comes. And when it was time for dinner, a very brief telegram with only a few codes solved all the mysteries.
"Your Majesty Lieutenant General, we received a strange telegram. The frequency band used is our confidential frequency band, but the source of the transmission is in the Panama Canal Zone!" an officer said with some confusion.
"Bring it to me and see." Lieutenant General Sturdy said. After a while, Lieutenant General Sturdy wrote something on a blackboard: "Area 3, KJ16 transport fleet, arrival time is 5 am."
"How did you know these contents?" Yamamoto was really shocked.
"It's very simple. If you want to find the most detailed information, then the best result is naturally tracking. Therefore, the Royal Navy dispatched a series of ships to specifically track this American transport fleet based on intelligence. Because it is a foreign national, The Americans didn't care. During this intermittent tracking process, we recorded their navigation data, such as speed, formation composition, etc. On the last leg, our fifth tracking ship saw what was going on. The KJ16 transport fleet passing through the Panama Canal, as you know, the Panama Canal uses a water bridge lock, which is very troublesome to pass through, so we have plenty of time to complete the final layout."
"It would be great if we had this intelligence system," Yamamoto said.
"Haha." Sturdy laughed in his heart. He knew that there was only one such opportunity, and the British could not go too far!
Two updates today~~~! Please subscribe and reward~~~! !