Chapter 40, Return of the United Fleet (Part 2)
Tokyo Bay, Yokosuka Fort, temporary anchorage of the U.S. Halsey Expeditionary Fleet
This naval fortress that once guarded the imperial capital has been decorated with the Stars and Stripes since the end of last year, turning it into a forward base for foreign invaders. However, the harsh air raid sirens still sound as always: it is just an incoming enemy. From American aircraft to Japanese aircraft.
Well, but, in fact, the enemy aircraft that came to Yokosuka to bomb the American fleet were also pure American products...
"...Attention! Attention! Bearing 020, defense area 143, distance eighty miles, eighty mainframes!"
On the hill outside the Yokosuka garrison, in the newly completed ground radar station, David Clinton, a rookie radar soldier who had just completed training a month ago, stared at the light spots and sawtooth ripples on the two radar screens very carefully, shouting loudly reported to the observer.
"...The height is 30,000 feet." The relatively skilled height surveyor quickly reported the height.
"... Command post, bearing 020, defense area 143, eighty miles away, thirty thousand feet in altitude, eighty large machines, please confirm your identity."
The observer rested the Bakelite microphone on his chin and recounted the data again, while the cartographer marked the data on a map board on the wall.
——The radar of this era can only indicate the relative position of aircraft in the air, which is a light spot on a circular display, and has no ability to identify friend or foe. Accurate identification can only rely on the naked eye. If it is in foggy days or at night with poor visibility, it is almost impossible to distinguish friend from enemy by echo alone.
However, before the cartographer could finish marking the data, a heartbreaking siren suddenly sounded outside the door - obviously, it was the enemy who came this time! Next, Captain Johnson, the duty commander of the radar station, grabbed a submachine gun and suddenly opened the curtain and rushed into the room: "...Get out quickly, get out of here, boys, the Japanese plane is coming towards us! Get it! Good reports and maps, don’t forget to put on your helmet and go!”
In an instant, there was a flurry of excitement. The radar operators and civilian staff followed Captain Johnson and rushed out of their simple wooden house with their notebooks and maps in their hands. Outside the door, there were more soldiers carrying heavy ammunition boxes, panting and running towards the anti-aircraft gun emplacements with camouflage nets set up.
However, these things had nothing to do with the radar operators. They were just busy fastening their helmet straps and rushing towards the Japanese air raid shelter dozens of meters away. Several radar operators who were not on duty had already taken the lead and hid in. Wave to them desperately.
"...Hide inside and don't come out. Protect yourself and your documents. Don't act like a hero! It will only cause chaos for the anti-aircraft artillery!"
After Captain Johnson finished speaking, he turned around and ran towards another air raid shelter, "...good luck, boys!"
Just as the radar operators were crawling into the air-raid shelter, the US anti-aircraft guns on the ground were already firing one after another. Not far away, rows of air defense balloons had already been raised in the town's port area. However, all of this is basically useless work, just to embolden oneself.
Just as most of the anti-aircraft guns currently equipped by the Japanese army cannot reach the B-29 "Super Flying Fortress" flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters, the US Army's 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns and 40mm imitation "Bofors" anti-aircraft guns can also There is nothing you can do about the high-flying B-29 "Super Flying Fortress". Even the range of the 90mm M1 anti-aircraft gun is not enough. Only the 120mm M1 anti-aircraft gun can pose a certain threat to the B-29. It is a pity that the number of such large-caliber anti-aircraft guns even in the U.S. Army is very small, and it is even less useful on the frontline battlefield...
etc? Is the incoming Japanese bomber a B-29 "Super Fortress"? Did I make a mistake?
That’s right! The incoming enemy plane is the B-29 "Super Fortress" bomber! Pure American product!
Therefore, the ripples on the radar screen of these enemy aircraft are exactly the same as those of the US military's own aircraft. If you are not careful, a misfire accident will occur.
——After sending aircraft carrier formations to sneak attacks on Japan many times, but always being attacked head-on by the Japanese navy, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, which was almost driven crazy by the pressure of public opinion, started to act recklessly from the beginning of 1944, and started to "play" against the Japanese archipelago. "One-way bombing", that is, letting the B-29 "Super Fortress" four-engine heavy bombers take off from Midway or Pearl Harbor, bomb Japan, and then fly to the Vladivostok military port in the Soviet Union to land.
Because the Soviet Union did not declare war with Japan, the Soviets would not return the aircraft and pilots to the United States. Instead, they would treat them as "illegal immigrants." The B-29 aircraft would be kept for their own use on the Western Front, and the pilots would be stuffed into Detainees were held until the end of the war before being released. But even with such a tactic of fighting a dog with no return, in order to slap the Japanese Empire in the face, Americans with deep pockets are desperate to fight.
Because such bombings are never coming back, it is also extremely painful for the US military to cut flesh and blood, and they can only do it occasionally and dare not do too much. There are only a dozen to twenty bombers in each sortie, and there are even single-plane sneak attacks. To the huge war machine of the Japanese Empire, it is probably no more than a mosquito bite, as long as it has practical significance in terms of propaganda and mobilization... But over time, the Soviet Union gradually accumulated more than 300 B-29 "Super Flying Fortresses". After deducting the losses on the Western Front battlefield, there were about 200 B-29 "Super Fortresses" left by the end of 1945.
Therefore, after the establishment of the Hokkaido Soviet Republic, the Soviet Union sent all the remaining 200 B-29 "Super Fortress" bombers as "military aid materials" to the "Japanese Red Army" in Hokkaido to disgust the United States. guy. In order to allow the Japanese army to get started as soon as possible, the Soviet Union also thoughtfully provided instructors and a full set of ground support teams, plus a large number of sarin gas bombs, cloud bombs and incendiary bombs...
Relying on the then very advanced Norton sight, the B-29 "Super Flying Fortress" could accurately drop unguided ordinary bombs into a circle of fifty meters in diameter at an altitude of 8,000 to 10,000 meters. Of course, this also requires good Such accuracy can only be achieved based on the weather conditions.
Unfortunately, it is broad daylight now, and the weather in Tokyo Bay today is also very sunny...so the Americans are out of luck.
——Before the F6F "Hellcat" and P-51 "Mustang" fighter jets ordered to intercept took off from the ground and climbed to a sufficient height, the Japanese bomber formation had already turned several peripheral radar stations and barracks into a sea of flames. For a moment, only the "sizzle" and "sizzle" of incendiary bombs sounded horribly in the sky, large swaths of dazzling fireworks fell from the sky, and American soldiers covered in fire screamed and rolled all over the ground.
Next, the bomber group approached the water in the port area, and the intercepting "Hellcats" and "Mustangs" also fought with the escorting Zidian fighters. The tracer bullets of aircraft cannons and the smoke clouds from the explosion of anti-aircraft shells filled the sky for a while, giving the sky a cruel color of war.
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Tokyo Bay, Yokosuka Anchorage, on the USS Enterprise, the flagship aircraft carrier of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Halsey held up his binoculars with an expression on his face and watched one after another aircraft carrier-based aircraft being ejected into the air to greet the incoming aircraft. attacking Japanese bombers.
——In the late World War II, it was difficult for carrier-based aircraft to take off from a stationary aircraft carrier, but the aircraft could still be ejected using a catapult.
The sky above the entire harbor was filled with smoke and fire, and a huge plume of smoke had risen from the ground airport in the distance.
Above the pier on the shore not far away, there were many silver-white balloons floating, tied to the ground with wire ropes. This is an air defense balloon used to defend against low-altitude bombing by enemy aircraft. If the aircraft accidentally hits it, the aircraft will be destroyed and everyone will be killed. It was a relatively common air defense facility in the early days of World War II.
However, this kind of tethered air defense balloon can only deal with low-altitude raids by dive bombers and strafing by fighter jets at best. It is of little use against the high-altitude bombing B-29 "Super Flying Fortress". Therefore, both the warships on the surface and the US Navy and Army officers and soldiers on the shore were desperately dragging out smoke cans one after another, releasing clouds of smoke, hoping that this would somewhat interfere with the sight of some enemies.
All U.S. soldiers on the shore who were not tasked with air defense were running into the air raid shelters as fast as possible. Around them, whether they were Japanese private houses requisitioned as barracks or simple wooden houses built by the U.S. military themselves, they were all painted with yellow and green camouflage. Paint, and tape in the shape of a rice stripe was affixed to each glass window. In addition, all ship-based and shore-based anti-aircraft guns are firing loudly regardless of caliber. Even if they can't hit the plane, it's good to scare the enemy or make a sound to embolden themselves. This has been the case for many air attacks. Experience and countermeasures developed later.
——No way, for the U.S. Pacific Fleet stationed in Tokyo Bay, such large-scale bombings are already commonplace.
Since landing in Japan and stationed in Tokyo Bay, the Halsey Fleet and the subsequent U.S. Air Force and Army Air Forces have indeed had several forward airfields that can cover the entire Japanese archipelago, and can dispatch bombers at any time to destroy any Japanese island. City. But on the other hand, various Japanese aircraft can also bomb the anchorages, oil depots and warehouses of Halsey's fleet in Tokyo Bay and Sendai Port at any time - as far as Halsey knows, the nearest forward airport of the Japanese army is set up in the north. Utsunomiya is only over 100 kilometers away from the Yokosuka Castle in Tokyo Bay!
With such a short straight-line distance, not to mention today's cutting-edge bombers, even the old biplanes from the last world war can be used for air strikes.
When Halsey's fleet entered Tokyo Bay for the first time last year, the entire command system was paralyzed because the capital, wartime headquarters, and emperor had just been bombed by atomic bombs. The Japanese troops everywhere were still in a state of confusion as they had just received a sap. At that time, the U.S. fleet had not been harassed much. By the time Halsey's fleet made a long trip to mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and entered Tokyo Bay again this year, the Japanese Red Army had already emerged... As a result, Halsey's fleet, which was originally planning to rest in Tokyo Bay, suddenly I was driven crazy by the endless air raids.
——The various "land attack" and "ship attack" blast aircraft independently developed by the Japanese Empire, and the B-29 "Super Flying Fortress" and "IL" series aircraft assisted by the Soviet Union rushed to the enemy almost day and night. Reporting from Yokosuka. Even some old-fashioned canvas-covered biplanes from more than 20 years ago were rolled out by the crazy Japanese and painted with gray and black camouflage, and let a group of grandfathers fly them for night attacks. Because this biplane with a canvas and wooden frame structure flies slowly and low, and has few metal components, radar often cannot detect it, and it actually allowed the Japanese to succeed several times...
Although most of Japan's elite pilots are on the Nanyang front line, the pilots who stay in the mainland are relatively unskilled. If they are allowed to attack American warships with strong anti-aircraft firepower under a hail of bullets like the Pearl Harbor attack, then it will be a disaster. of broiler. But the Japanese commanders obviously understood this very well and did not force their rookie pilots to attack the warships. Instead, they changed the main bombing targets to radar stations, merchant ships, military camps, airports and docks with relatively weak defenses. Supplies, especially oil depots, made it difficult for the US military to guard against them.
What's even more terrible is that the military supplies that the Soviet Union provided to the "Japanese Red Army" were not just various aircraft and fuel bombs, but also a large number of V1 and V2 missiles produced using technology captured from Nazi Germany... Among them, the V1 missile It is a cruise missile with a range of 240 kilometers. It looks like a small plane. Due to its slow speed, it can also be intercepted by fighter jets and anti-aircraft guns. V2 missiles are true ballistic missiles that can fly at four times the speed of sound and cannot be intercepted by World War II-era technology - and the Japanese army has been using them to attack the Yokosuka garrison anchorage!
As a result, there has been no night since February this year at the Yokosuka garrison where the U.S. Pacific Fleet is stationed that the air raid siren has not sounded, disturbing all the officers and soldiers. Although the accuracy of these two missiles is very low and the failure rate is high, if there are too many of them, even a blind cat can encounter a dead mouse. The day before yesterday, an escort aircraft carrier full of aircraft was accurately hit by a V2 missile on the deck because of poor character, and exploded into popcorn on the spot...
In order to get rid of this bad situation of being passively beaten, both Admiral Halsey, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and Admiral Patton, who was ordered to succeed MacArthur and was urgently transferred to the Japanese battlefield to command the army, have been trying to organize bomber groups to launch air counterattacks, trying to Destroy your opponent's air strike capabilities by bombing enemy airfields. But the problem is that this is the motherland of the Japanese, and field airports can be built everywhere from south to north. Even if the US military invested tens of thousands of various military aircraft on the Japanese battlefield, it was still unable to seize air supremacy, let alone completely eliminate the threat of Japanese aircraft.
In short, today's Japanese army is fighting on its own territory, and the Soviet Union is behind it with vigorous blood transfusions. From fuel to aircraft to ammunition, there is a continuous supply. As long as the entire airport in Japan has not been destroyed, as long as the Japanese nation still has pilots who are willing to fight, it will I can keep fighting endlessly.
The U.S. military, on the other hand, has to go on an expedition. Every plane, every ammunition, and every barrel of gasoline must be transported across the entire Pacific Ocean. Therefore, the gap in national power between the two sides has been greatly flattened. If we insist on competing with the Japanese for consumption here, with the strong industrial production capacity of the United States of America, it is not necessarily impossible, but it will definitely be very, very painful, and even painful to the point of overdrafting the national strength and being unbearable...
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While Admiral Halsey was thinking wildly, the incoming enemy planes began to drop bombs from high altitude on the port area! I saw the wide belly door of the B-29 "Super Flying Fortress" wide open, and a series of aerial bombs were dropped as neatly as dumplings. After a while, ball after ball of orange and red fireballs began to rise on the smoky ground. They were small at first, but soon became bigger and bigger, rising faster and faster, and finally exploded in mid-air. Then, it turned into countless tiny sparks, falling down one after another, igniting a large area of houses and trees around it.
The air defense balloons tied by the US military on the ground also turned into accelerants that caused larger fires during air strikes. The airbags of this anti-aircraft blocking balloons were sewn from nylon cloth coated with a layer of rubber. The interior is filled with flammable hydrogen gas. Under the influence of the embers of the incendiary bomb, one anti-aircraft blocking balloon after another was turned into a burning fireball, carrying a heavy steel cable and crashing down from the sky, and causing more fire heads on the ground.
Although the Japanese bombers did not pay a price, there were constant unlucky bombers emitting thick smoke amidst the tracer barrages wildly sprayed by the cannons of "Hellcat" and "Mustang" fighter jets, rolling and stalling, and crashing. However, compared with the damage done to the ground, The huge damage is simply not worth mentioning.
Indeed, the U.S. ground air defense forces have advanced early warning radars, combat experience that has been repeatedly summarized and drilled, and a new type of radio proximity fuze - which causes anti-aircraft shells to explode seventy feet away from enemy aircraft, which is faster than instantaneous bombardment. Fuzes and fixed-range fuze artillery shells are several times more powerful, but unfortunately the range is insufficient. The artillery shells basically cannot reach enemy aircraft in the sky at an altitude of 10,000 meters. No matter how advanced the fuze is, it is useless.
After bombing the port facilities, the warships parked in the port area also became the target of bombing. Although the B-29 "Super Flying Fortress" was not suitable for bombing mobile targets such as warships, large aircraft carriers, battleships and other large aircraft carriers and battleships parked at the dock were blocked. The battleship took more than an hour just to heat up the boiler. Without power, it could not make any maneuvers. It was simply a fixed target for Japanese bombers. For a moment, the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier shook violently in the water column raised by the bomb, even throwing off a carrier-based aircraft on the deck that had no time to fly, and crashed into the sea amidst the screams of a certain ground crew.
As for the relatively small destroyers, torpedo boats and traffic vessels, they quickly started their engines and sailed out of their berths. Unfortunately, due to the haste of the incident and the lack of coordinated command, several collisions occurred in succession amidst the chaos. Admiral Halsey stood on the bridge of the USS Enterprise and saw two destroyers colliding head-on, and a torpedo boat being overturned by the water column of a near-missile bomb...
Immediately afterwards, an even greater disaster occurred: a heavy aerial bomb accurately hit the escort aircraft carrier "Corregidor" anchored at the dock, hitting the ammunition depot or gasoline tank from the flight deck. In an instant, a loud "bang" was heard, and the entire aircraft carrier was bathed in a sea of fire! Before the sailors on the anti-aircraft gun emplacement on the aircraft carrier's deck could figure out what was going on, they were thrown into the sea by the shock wave. Then, the bombs and torpedoes loaded on the aircraft carrier were ignited one after another. Violent explosions sounded out one after another, and soon the aircraft was destroyed. The poor aircraft carrier was in pieces. The aircraft on the ship were thrown into the air like toys in this violent explosion. The skin, wheels, and fuselage fragments were twisted and torn by the shock wave. The unprepared sailors and pilots were blown away like rag dolls. Fuel, cloth, The human body fragments were all burning and flying outside.
Even the Enterprise, where Admiral Halsey was stationed, was unfortunately hit by two aerial bombs during this bombing, an elevator was blown up, and a fire was caused along the oil line. Fortunately, the well-trained US military damage control team members on the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier were dispatched urgently. They risked their skin being burned by the fire and being shattered by the air waves. They risked their lives to control the fire and finally did not let Halsey go up. Will lose his beloved flagship...
However, large-scale air attacks of this magnitude are just a daily situation that the U.S. Pacific Fleet has to endure at least once a week recently.
In fact, during the "rest" period at the Yokosuka garrison in Tokyo Bay, Halsey's fleet suffered much more casualties than during the previous more than three months of continuous operations. Due to having to avoid bombing every day, each large and small ship not only Instead of being properly repaired, the damage became even more serious. And all the sailors were also subjected to endless air raids, causing them to be frightened three times a day, unable to sleep at night, and their physical and mental strength were on the verge of collapse... Of course, it couldn't be worse than the army on the shore, at least on the warships there was no need to deal with it. Tian wears a gas mask and is worried about nerve gas bombs dropped by Japanese planes.
Therefore, looking at the telegram sent by the Chief of the U.S. Navy, Admiral Ernest Joseph King, ordering the Pacific Fleet, which has an "overwhelming advantage", to complete its rest and recuperation as soon as possible, and then wait for an opportunity to engage in a decisive battle with the Japanese Combined Fleet returning north, haha The expression on Admiral Ersi's face was either a wry smile or annoyance.
"... Damn it! Bullshit rest! What overwhelming advantage? I'm bombed every day from Monday to Sunday. It's impossible to survive this day! I want my fleet to fight the Japanese combined fleet in this state , is the Pentagon dreaming or seeking death? ”
Admiral Halsey resentfully crumpled the telegram into a ball of paper and threw it far away from the side of the ship. Then he turned and looked out of the porthole and found that the Japanese bomber group and escort fighter planes had gone away, and the flagship Everywhere on the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier was devastated. A large number of sailors who had been blown to pieces by the bomb blast were still lying on the deck motionless. It was not known whether they were knocked unconscious or killed...
In the harbor a little further away, there were more ships smoking crookedly, or they had turned over like dead fish, revealing their bottoms covered with all kinds of algae and shells. There was a thick layer of heavy oil floating on the water, and groups of soldiers were shouting and struggling in the water.
Faced with this miserable scene that seemed like another attack on Pearl Harbor, Halsey gritted her teeth and thought for a moment, and finally made a difficult decision.
"...No, we really can't stay in this place any longer. We must retreat to Hawaii as soon as possible, otherwise the entire fleet will collapse!" - So, amidst Admiral Jin's jumping and scolding, the Halsey fleet was launched on the third day of the year. On the 1st of the month, he resolutely weighed anchor and returned to sea, withdrew from the Japanese islands and returned to Pearl Harbor was resting and preparing for war... There was an uproar in American public opinion. The condemnation of Halsey as a "war-avoiding general" became louder and louder. They said that this brute only dared to take advantage of the absence of the United Fleet. A sneak attack, but not the slightest bit of bravery to fight the enemy. There was also joy in Japan, thinking that once the invincible combined fleet returned, the bullying and bullying of the United States and Britain fled in embarrassment. As the saying goes, when the king returns, evil spirits flee far away...