The Rise of the Third Reich

If Hideki Tojo and Isoroku Yamamoto saw the operational plan for attacking the Hawaiian Islands called "Operation Overlord" in President Roosevelt's drawer, they would probably be frightened out of their minds.

Because the troops that the "unprepared United States" can invest in "Operation Overlord" are probably 10 times more powerful than Japan that is fully prepared!

Lieutenant General Mikawa Junichi, who commanded 16 cruisers and destroyers with powerful torpedo firepower to attack Midway Island, would probably have felt a sense of relief if he knew how many American ships were in the waters near Midway Island on the night of February 8. The feeling of death.

Although he has the best sailors and the best ships-at least two Shimakaze-class destroyers are the best in the eyes of the Japanese.

But his enemy, Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner, had a larger fleet than he imagined. Among them, there are 140 flat-deck destroyers that survived from World War I alone. There are also 8 Farragut-class destroyers and 6 Porter-class destroyers - these two destroyers are a little newer than the flat-deck type. Built during the interwar period.

In other words, the Mikawa Army has 7 elite Japanese heavily mined destroyers in its hands, and Vice Admiral Turner has no more or less destroyers, which is exactly 22 times that of the Mikawa fleet!

Of course, the official names of the 140 flat-deck destroyers in the hands of Lieutenant General Turner are no longer destroyers, but have become "high-speed attack transport ships", "high-speed attack minesweepers", "high-speed attack auxiliary ships" and "High-speed escort" and so on.

These flat-deck destroyers have similar performance to Japan's Isokaze destroyers and are both products of the same age. Currently, two of the four Isokaze-type destroyers are still first-class destroyers, fighting for the militaristic cause of the Empire of Japan (the other two were sunk by the Americans).

As for the "old dumplings" of the United States in World War I, most of the 267 flat-deck destroyers have now lost the title of destroyer, and they are not qualified to be included in the first-line combat fleet. They can only serve in escort formations and minesweeper formations. , the landing formation used its remaining heat.

Of course, these World War I dumpling ships that can only use the residual heat have been modified accordingly. Most of the ships have removed the torpedo tubes and part of the main guns (usually the 2 or 3 main gun turrets at the stern), and only part of them are used as The escort ships retained their torpedoes and all main guns.

At the same time, all ships were equipped with anti-aircraft artillery, turning the old guns from the First World War into 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns and 20mm Oerlikon machine guns.

In addition to these 140 "old dumpling ships", Lieutenant General Turner also has the 51.7th Cruiser/Destroyer Group.

The group has five heavy cruisers: San Francisco, Indianapolis, Quincy, Vincennes, and Wichita; Atlanta, Savannah, Honolulu, St. Louis, and Helena 5 light cruisers and 14 older destroyers that are slightly more advanced than the flat-deck class.

The commander of the 51.7th Cruiser Group is Rear Admiral Wright of the U.S. Navy - the same Rear Admiral who was taught a lesson by the torpedo ship of the European Combined Fleet using an oxygen torpedo during the night battle on the ice in the North Atlantic in the winter of 1942. !

If such a disastrous defeat were left in other navies, at the very least, one would have to sit on the bench for the rest of his life. However, the situation in the United States is special. Various dumpling ships are lined up for service. As a result, there is a shortage of naval officers with actual combat experience, so Rear Admiral Wright like this The defeated general sat on the bench for a few days before being reactivated.

"Sir," on the afternoon of February 8, when Rear Admiral Wright received the news again, confirming that the Japanese fleet was heading towards Midway with murderous intent, he said to his boss, Lieutenant General Turner, "it looks like there will be an attack tonight. The Japanese are good at night attacks, and they also have long-range "Lance" torpedoes, which is a very difficult enemy to deal with. The 51.7th Group may not be able to complete the two tasks of repelling the Japanese formation and protecting the landing formation at the same time. "

Major General Wright, who had suffered from the "German Spear" in the North Atlantic, did not dare to take the "Japanese Spear" lightly now. In his heart, he even complained a little about Spruance - how much easier would it be to send hundreds of planes to blow up? Why risk the landing formation and your own 51.7 brigade?

"Don't worry about the landing formation. All the ships in the landing formation are converted from flat-deck destroyers," Turner said to Major General Wright very confidently. "They know how to protect themselves."

Using ships converted from flat-deck destroyers to carry out the mission of landing on Midway Island was actually a last resort. Because no one knows what they will encounter near Midway Island? Now that the U.S. intelligence agency doesn't even know where the main force of the Japanese combined fleet is, there is naturally no guarantee that a large-scale fleet decisive battle will not break out at Midway Island.

If Spruance's 50th Task Force fails in the decisive battle, then according to the pre-planned plan, the 50th Task Force will take self-preservation as its first goal and will not take into account the life and death of the 51st Task Force.

Therefore, those slow-speed large transport ships and landing ships are not suitable for use in the Battle of Midway at all. The only suitable ones are high-speed attack transport ships modified with flat decks.

However, these small ships have limited transportation capacity and cannot carry many personnel and equipment. As a last resort, Vice Admiral Turner, who was in charge of the landing operations of the 5th Fleet, had to collect all the "flat decks" owned by the entire Pacific Fleet.

I never thought I would be able to show off my skills on the night of February 8th - these flat-deck classes still retain the power system of a destroyer and can theoretically run more than 30 knots. If you can't fight, can't you run?

After negotiating with Major General Wright, Lieutenant General Turner immediately reorganized the landing formation into 140 flat-deck ships (most of which were high-speed attack transport ships with soldiers and supplies from the landing force on board). They were divided into 14 formations, called the 1st-14th Convoy.

Each convoy has 2 escort ships and 12 flat decks for other purposes, and one of the escort ships is used as the flagship and is placed at the leading position of the convoy, and the other is responsible for the rear - this arrangement is for Use the sea-to-air search radar on the escort ship to detect the Japanese ship formation in time and avoid it.

The 24 cruisers and destroyers of Rear Admiral Wright's 51.7th Group were lingering in the waters southeast of Midway in two columns, waiting for the arrival of the Japanese fleet.

By the time the Americans were ready, it was already 6 pm on February 8, and Mikawa Junichi's fleet had already approached Midway Island. However, he did not immediately rush into the battlefield and go on a killing spree. Instead, he sent five Zero water reconnaissance aircraft to search the waters near Midway Island to see if there were any American battleships there, and at the same time determine the specific location of the American fleet.

After receiving reports that "no American battleships were found" and the location of the American fleet, the Mikawa Army ordered preparations for war. At 7 o'clock in the evening, the Japanese ship threw all the flammable materials on the deck into the sea and conducted final inspection and preparation of the ammunition. At 8 o'clock in the evening, it was completely dark. The main force of Japan's 8th Fleet, headed by the heavy cruiser "Chomi", formed a single column with a distance of 1,200 meters, and raised a white identification flag on the mast (although the Japanese Navy is also generally equipped with imitation German Radar electrical detection, but the performance of these Japanese electrical detection is unreliable, so the cat-eye warriors still play an important role in night battles), at a high speed of 28 knots, they broke into the waters of Midway Island from the due east of Midway Island with murderous intent!

At 10:10 p.m., the radar on the heavy cruiser Chokai, the flagship of the Japanese 8th Fleet (the radar on the Japanese Kaohsiung-class heavy cruiser is the FuMo24 type imported from Germany, which has superior performance) discovered two targets heading towards the Japanese aircraft carrier at a speed of 18 knots. A formation of U.S. warships heading towards each other.

"The two formations both have a speed of 18 knots. The formation on our left has more than 20 ships. From the radar signal analysis, there are 5 large ships; the formation on our right has more than 10 ships. The ships are all small ships of more than a thousand tons, and they should be destroyers." Kamizhongtoku asked the Mikawa Army, "Commander, who should we attack first?"

In fact, one of the two formations is an escort formation and the other is the 51.7 Group. At this time, the American radar also discovered Mikawa's fleet, so the 51.7 Group wanted to cover the escort formation away, so it headed in the opposite direction.

"Order the third destroyer fleet to launch torpedoes at the formation on the right, and the main force will engage the main enemy formation on the left."

Mikawa Junichi immediately made a decision and sent seven destroyers headed by the powerful "Shimakaze" and "Nadakaze" to deal with the 14 "flat-deck" ships. He led the main force to attack the 51.7th Group commanded by Major General Wright.

A few minutes later, Kamizhongtoku reported again: "Commander, the enemy's formation Y on the right has turned and accelerated to escape in the direction of Midway Island. It seems that the first destroyer fleet has been discovered."

"Let the third team deal with it. There are two Shimakazes. There is no reason why they can't defeat them." Mikawa Junyi asked again, "Where is the enemy's main formation?"

"It's approaching us, 22,000 meters away!" A staff officer immediately answered loudly.

"Order all ships to follow the flagship and advance at full speed!" Mikawa Jun ordered loudly, "All ships, prepare to launch torpedoes!"

What needs to be prepared before launch is the 93 oxygen torpedo - oxygen is temporarily produced using an oxygen generator and poured into the torpedo.

"Hai!"

As soon as the staff officer responded, Mikawa Junichi's pupils suddenly tightened. It turned out that he saw a dozen dazzling fires in the darkness ahead! Then came the rolling roar of muffled thunder.

"They actually opened fire!" Mikawa Army muttered in a low voice, "They opened fire at 22,000 meters away. These Americans seemed to be frightened by the Imperial Army's 93 torpedoes!"