Chapter 179 It was we who sank the Yamato (Third update, please subscribe)
When the "Shark" launched torpedoes at the battleship "Yamato", it was in a formation composed of the battleship "Yamato" middle.
Well, that’s where you die.
Cruiser "Yagi", destroyers "Fuyutsuki", "Ryogetsu", "Yukikaze", "Isokaze", "Hamakaze", "Kasumi", "Hatsusho", "Asashiro" Just around it.
Didn't they discover the "Shark"?
In the following decades, many naval history experts discussed this surprise attack and this great miracle.
Many people attribute all this to chance - bad weather caused too much noise in the water, and the Japanese Navy's inferior sonar listening equipment failed to detect the "Shark" in the noisy background sound. Of course Plus a little bit of luck. If the "Yamato" hadn't burst into the sight of the "Shark", it would not have been an easy task to penetrate the escort circle.
Of course, there is another reason. The torpedo used by the Shark is the G7e torpedo made in Germany. It is an electric torpedo. Unlike ordinary torpedoes, it has almost no wake when it sails. This directly leads to the failure of the torpedo until the torpedo is launched. , no one in the special attack fleet noticed its existence.
However, only the officers and soldiers on the Shark knew that they had the belief that they would die when they launched the attack.
I am willing to die, as long as I launch the torpedo.
So what if it doesn't hit?
At least they tried, they tried hard, they used their lives to launch a torpedo at the Yamato.
Just like in the past eight years, the Chinese on land have used their lives and blood to fight the invaders...
At 8:15 a.m. on April 7, the station On the watchtower, Morita was concentrating on the possible appearance of US military aircraft in the sky when he was startled by a deep and violent explosion. At the same time, he saw a huge water column rising on the port side. It's over a hundred meters high. Then the mountain-like Yamato shook violently,
“There is a mine!”
Almost subconsciously, everyone thought they had hit a mine.
Before Morita could try to figure out what was going on, the second explosion followed, and the water column from the sky even splashed into the watchtower. Some sailors on the deck fell to the deck in violent shock.
"Mine! It must be a mine!"
The panicked sailors shouted almost instinctively - the U.S. military laid a large number of mines in the Bungo Channel area.
The sailors on the deck shouted loudly, and the damage control team was dispatched immediately.
And Yi Teng asked with a tense expression.
"Is it confirmed to be a mine?"
"It should be..."
As soon as the staff officer finished speaking, the third explosion was heard.
After the first round of attacks hit, the Shark launched a second round of attacks. Two torpedoes were fired, one of which hit.
The explosions of heavy torpedoes blew open the waterline bulkheads of the Yamato one after another. Thousands of tons of seawater poured into the bottom cabin in an instant. Although the damage control team tried to rescue, it was too late by this time.
After the turbulent water poured into the cabin from three huge holes on the port side, it quickly caused the hull of the "Yamato" to tilt.
The officer in charge of drainage called the bridge:
"The water intrusion has reached the maximum limit. In order to prevent the ship from continuing to tilt, water must be poured into the starboard engine room."
Captain Yukisaku Ariga ordered symmetrical water injection into the starboard compartment to restore the balance of the ship, and the speed was reduced to 18 knots.
"Submarine! It must be an American submarine!"
I have to say that sometimes people are always limited by fixed thinking. Because warships were often sunk by mines deployed by the US military in the Bungo Channel area, they stubbornly believed that what they encountered was mines.
After the third torpedo came, I remembered that the US military still had submarines.
At this time, the middle and rear part of the port side of the "Yamato" had been accurately hit by three torpedoes, and the hull tilted up to 16-18 degrees. Since the starboard injection and drainage area is already filled with water, water can only be continued to be injected into the machinery room, lounge and boiler room.
“Where are the American submarines?”
After the "Yamato" was attacked by a submarine, the entire escort formation immediately fell into chaos.
Just as they were exploring the location of the submarine with sonar, at 9:15, the "Shark", which had launched all four torpedoes on the bow of the boat, had already changed its course in the deep sea and turned the stern of the boat towards Aiming at the port side of the "Yamato", they made another almost perfect surfacing, attacked, and then launched two torpedoes in the launch tube of the stern cabin.
After launching the torpedo, Zou Tongjie shouted.
“Dive to 110 meters!”
The maximum dive of the Shark is only 100m, and 110 meters has already reached the limit of the Shark, but now it can no longer care about that much.
As they dived at full speed, the listener heard two loud bangs in succession - hit!
This time they were lucky. Two torpedoes hit the port side of the "Yamato" one after another. This was the most fatal blow. After being hit by five torpedoes in succession, the speed of the "Yamato" gradually decreased to 7 knots, and a large amount of water entered, making the Yamato destined to be unable to escape the fate of sinking.
Soon an emergency call came from the emergency wheel room:
"There is too much water here. We can no longer steer."
Then the voice of the wheel commander was cut off .
"Your Excellency, Commander..."
Captain Yukisaku Ariga looked at Lieutenant General Iteng Zhengyi with a sad expression, his face was solemn and his eyes were distracted.
Perhaps they imagined that the result of the "Yamato" was destined to sink into the sea, but in everyone's imagination, it would definitely go through a bloody battle, and they would bombard the United States with 460mm cannons Human warships will use their will to prove to the world the courage of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
But who would have thought that it would just... sink!
Just like the "Shinano", it was sunk by a submarine just after it went to sea!
This is simply a disgrace to the Navy!
They didn't even have the time to fire their guns or enter the battlefield in a hurry, and then they were solved...
The world's number one battleship!
It just sank like that...it was the kind that didn’t even fire a single shot!
Facing this result, Lieutenant General Iteng Zhengyi, the commander of the fleet, closed his eyes in pain. Now they have no way to save the day.
"Bow to the north,"
Admiral Ariga Yukisaku shouted. According to tradition, the dead should face north; Ariga also asked the dying "Yamato" to do this. However, the sailors in the emergency wheelhouse had drowned at their posts, and the warship began to slowly turn to port. The temporary first aid shelter at the bow of the ship has been destroyed. The hull of the ship was hit by five torpedoes, and its tilt exceeded 18 degrees.
Soon when the "Yamato" tilted to thirty degrees, the deputy captain Nomura called Ariga Kosaku.
"It's almost over," he said.
“Now it’s time for all crew to assemble on deck.”
Then, Ariga used a speaking tube to inform Ito that there was no hope of correcting the tilt. "Fleet Commander, sir, your health is precious. Please leave the ship with the crew, and I will stay alone."
Aruga then ordered all the crew to assemble on the deck, and then gave the order to the crew who were still on the second floor. Nomura on the bridge made a phone call.
“Vice Captain,”
Ariga Yuki said in a hoarse voice,
"Please leave the ship immediately and report the battle to the combined fleet."
Nomura protested repeatedly and asked to stay on the ship, but Ariga ignored it.
“I will stay on the ship. You must come back alive.”
“Captain,” Nomura insisted, “I will stay with you.”
"Vice Captain, this is an order!"
After saying that, he hung up the phone.
He then asked a sailor to tie him to a compass. Some sailors had begun tying themselves to each other to the compass boxes on the bridge.
"What are you doing?" Yuga shouted angrily.
"You young people, jump down and swim to escape! The Empire of Japan still needs your continued service."
And Ito also refused to leave the ship. He shook hands with Chief of Staff Morishita. His staff watched with mixed emotions as Ito walked away balancing his body on the sloping deck. Ito opened the door of the spiral escalator and disappeared. His adjutant moved and was about to follow, but Morishita shouted:
"Yaka! Young people must live and serve the emperor!"
At 9:25 a.m., the inclination increased rapidly, and the giant battleship, known as the most powerful in human history, finally fell sideways. The sound of water rushing in drowned the sailors and drowned out their "Hail!"
Soon "Yamato" was lying on his side, like a whale that couldn't move.
The corpses slid ruthlessly into the sea, and the lights were extinguished. The sailors struggled to climb up the almost vertical deck. From time to time they were slid down the deck, fell to death or fell into the sea water. After reaching the top, they climbed over the starboard railing and squeezed against the side wall of the warship.
Vice Captain Nomura felt his body being sucked into the sea by a huge force. He saw sailors "dancing" in the whirlpool in the clear water. Underfoot is a dark blue bottomless pit. The light above his head gradually disappeared. Just as he was about to die, he suddenly felt inexplicably lucid. He sank deeper and deeper in pain, and bright red flashes penetrated the sea water. A series of shock waves hammered him like a battering ram. It was really like "the sky fell apart" - the ammunition exploded underwater and Nomura was pushed to the surface. There were fireballs rolling on the waves. He rolled over and lay on the water. He thought, "Yamato" is over, the Imperial Navy is over.
On the destroyer "Yukikaze", Captain Masamichi Terauchi looked desperately at "Yamato" - Yamato means "Japan" - Japan, and just turned over and disappeared into the sea.
He sent a signal to the fleet's new most senior officer, Colonel Masayoshi Yoshida, on the destroyer "Fuyutsuki": It was recommended to continue to perform the mission.
The other party replied:
"We will decide the direction of action after rescuing the survivors."
The torpedo commander of "Yukikaze" wanted to put down the boat to rescue the survivors. But the temple stopped him.
"This mission is unusual," he shouted.
"This is a special attack operation. The Yamato sank, and we have to move on."
He sent a signal to Yoshida again, asking for reconsideration, and then ordered the sailors to rescue the survivors - —But only those who are still useful in the battle can be saved.
"Leave the wounded alone!".
It was at this time that a large number of planes appeared in the sky. They were US military planes... They got up early and rushed to a late gathering. When they arrived, the Yamato had already sunk. !
The US military pilot looked at the Yamato like a dead whale on the sea and immediately reported to the rear through the radio.
“Damn it, who got ahead of us!”
Mark Mitchell almost roared like thunder, a few hours ago, after receiving “Yamato” After receiving the intelligence of the "No. 1" attack, General Spruance, commanded by the Fifth Fleet, told him to let the enemy ships continue south and use the battleship's cannon to deal with them. However, Mitchell wanted to use this opportunity to prove forever that his pilots could sink the most powerful surface ship - although the naval aviation had claimed that they sank the "Musashi" in the Philippines, it was entirely possible The submarine sunk it. The sudden appearance of "Musashi"'s sister ship "Yamato", in Mitchell's view, "provides a great opportunity to prove the superiority of the aircraft-if any proof is needed."
But in Mi When Chel finally got the right to "attack the Yamato", he never thought that such a thing would happen.
The ripe peach was snatched by others!
Who took the lead?
It's the "Shark"!
However, the timing of the appearance of the US Air Force was just right, because at this time Japanese warships were constantly launching depth bombs. Although the "Yamato" sank, the US Air Force still launched attacks on the Japanese warships. Also helped the "Shark" on the seabed.
After all, when the US aviation arrived, the Shark was teetering under the constant bombardment of depth charges.
Going further down is an abyss, and going up is a dead end.
All we can say is that sometimes friendly forces are friendly forces, and friendly forces can also provide some help themselves.
It’s not help, it’s life-saving!
Even if they are on the Shark, the officers and soldiers are ready to die generously, but wouldn't it be better to survive.
Due to the attack by US military aircraft in the air, the Japanese warships no longer cared about the Shark on the bottom of the sea and devoted all their efforts to air defense operations.
During the successive attacks by hundreds of US military aircraft, Japanese warships were continuously hit one after another.
The Shark did not take the opportunity to leave. Instead, it took advantage of the Japanese warship's inability to care about itself and seized the time to load the torpedoes. It took almost an hour to complete the loading process again. At this time, the air attack on the sea had also come to an end.
The cruiser "Yagi", which was hit in many places, was sinking rapidly, and its deck was soaked in water. After an hour-long sea and air battle, the Japanese warship escaped and sank. Only the "Yagi" was still there. Persevere tenaciously.
Suddenly, a huge water column exploded on the starboard side of the "Yagi". The "Yagi", which was still struggling, quickly sank into the sea like an iron lump, while the American aviation forces in the air, Everyone looked at this scene in shock.
There is a question in everyone's mind - who sank the "Yagi"?
Similarly, people are still asking with doubts - who sank the "Yamato".
"Where did the torpedoes come from?"
For a while, the radio waves were full of questions from people.
At this moment, a submarine suddenly emerged from the bottom of the sea and rushed out of the sea almost violently. Amidst the waves and gunfire, the submarine rushed out of the sea desperately.
Where did this come from?
While people were almost looking at the submarine that had appeared out of nowhere in astonishment, they saw a crew member rushing out of the control tower, holding a flag in his hand.
Just like the legendary Italian submarine that emerged from the sea waving the Italian tricolor flag every time it sank an American warship, that flag was flying on the control tower.
"Little Japanese devils, do you see it? It was us, it was us... the Chinese sank Yamato! It was us who sank you..."
The sailors looked towards those who sank. The Japanese sailors in the sea unfurled the flag. He looked at them with tired eyes and roared loudly:
"Look! This is what you said-the guy who will never be your opponent! It's us here. Sink your Yamato!”
At this moment, the sea was boiling, and the people were also boiling. The planes roared over the submarine, and the pilots shook their wings as if they were flying. Salute to these undersea warriors... At this moment, the honor belongs to them.
It was also at this moment that the soldiers of Dadonggou closed their eyes, and it was also at this moment that the naval officers who sacrificed their lives on the Yangtze River closed their eyes.
Yes, it is at this moment that the navy soldiers from Dadonggou until now are relieved.
At this moment, the officers and soldiers on the Shark cried, they laughed, with tears in their eyes...
(End of this chapter)