Chapter 132, Battle of Galapagos Islands
Eastern Pacific, equatorial waters, Republic of Ecuador, Galapagos Islands
The surging waves were mixed with droplets stained red by blood, and echoed with the roar of steel and gunpowder.
Athletes from both sides of the Pacific and giant steel ships weighing millions of tons are involved in a passionate collision of life and death here!
A brief but fierce naval battle has just come to an end in this famous volcanic archipelago, home to exotic flowers and plants, and rare birds and animals. The Japanese naval combined fleet, which has been roaming the Pacific for many years, finally came to an end in the Galapagos. In the waters of the Sri Lanka Islands, it tasted the bitter fruit of a defeat for the first time in a long time.
Compared with General Halsey, who was always bold and eager to fight fiercely, Lieutenant General Aubrey Fitch, who took over as commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet after him, seemed much more cautious. Even when the situation in South America was in turmoil and the Pentagon sent telegrams three times a day, he still leisurely laid out a complete and meticulous combat plan instead of ordering the fleet to weigh anchor and cross the Pacific as soon as his head got hot.
On the other side, Lieutenant General Aubrey Fitch's opponent, Japanese Navy Admiral Nobutake Kondo, who commanded the South American expedition fleet, was quite arrogant because of his consecutive victories, thinking that his fleet could fight all the way from Australia to Australia. South America is unstoppable, and the scale of the ships on paper is also spectacular. It must be unrivaled in the world. But he forgot that after several expansions in a short period of time, the "Haiguo Athletes" under his command were also severely watered down, with a large number of recruits of insufficient quality. Although by the time of the expedition to America, even these newcomers had accumulated a lot of voyage and combat experience, the previous battles were actually about killing dogs and ravaging various weak chickens - those majestic Yamato-class Battleships have been basically used for long-distance escort and shore bombardment in the past year. They have not fought a decent sea battle at all, and even daily training is not sufficient.
In addition, because it is fighting in the waters of South America, the Japanese naval expeditionary fleet that came all the way across the Pacific is after all a long-distance and exhausted force. It is not as convenient as the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet with its back on the mainland and convenient supply. Moreover, the U.S. military is already fighting its last battle, and its morale and fighting spirit are close to their peak.
As a result, during the battle in the waters of the Galapagos Islands, the seemingly evenly matched navies of the United States and Japan quickly became the one-sided spoiler of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. In other words, the Japanese naval combined fleet is dancing a dance of death in the spider web compiled by Vice Admiral Aubrey Fitch.
Under Vice Admiral Aubrey Fitch's ingenious planning and Admiral Kondo Nobutake's reckless actions, first the battleship formation of the U.S. Pacific Fleet deliberately showed weakness during the night firefight as an outpost, luring the Japanese battleship formation to pursue them. There was a disconnect with the Japanese aircraft carrier mobile fleet in the rear, which was unable to fight at night. Immediately, in the early morning light, Vice Admiral Aubrey Fitch ordered all fifteen American aircraft carriers participating in the war to conduct a "full deck attack" before the Japanese aircraft carrier naval aviation fighters arrived to provide cover over the battleship formation. , launched an indiscriminate bombing of the Japanese battleship formation led by Admiral Kondo Nobutake. In just half an hour of fighting, the overwhelming American dive bombers and torpedo fleets successfully sunk the Japanese Navy's newly built Yamato-class battleships No. 6 "Ezo", No. 7 "Tsushima" and No. 10. The No. 11 ship "Satsuma" severely damaged the No. 11 ship "Wakasa" and slightly damaged the remaining four Yamato-class battleships. In addition, the Japanese had five heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, 15 destroyers and nine auxiliary ships, which were sunk in this round of air strikes and the previous night artillery battle... What's even more terrible is that Kondo Nobu Admiral Takeda was also killed in the air strike and failed to transfer command in time, which led to the subsequent chaos and paralysis of the Japanese fleet's command system in a short period of time...
——The original version of the Yamato-class battleship that has not been corrupted or modified by Miss Kanji, a group of rookie sailors who lack experience in naval warfare and damage control and cannot even close watertight doors, plus an arrogant, self-willed and unlucky man. Admiral Nobutake Kondo eventually led to such a tragedy.
At the same time, the U.S. military also learned from the wolf pack tactics of German U-boats, and successfully lured five Japanese aircraft carriers that were eager to catch up with their own battleship formations into their own pre-arranged submarine ambush circle, and then sunk the Japanese aircraft carriers on the spot with a barrage of torpedoes. Three ships severely damaged one Japanese aircraft carrier. Immediately afterwards, the U.S. shore-based air forces stationed in Central America and Venezuela were also ordered to mobilize in large numbers, crushing the counterattack of the remaining Japanese aircraft carriers, and successfully sunk the Japanese aircraft carrier "Amagi" that had been severely damaged by the submarine with one additional shot. ", and also dispersed the Japanese destroyers that were responsible for covering the aircraft carrier and were trying to organize anti-submarine operations, allowing the U.S. Pacific Fleet and most of the submarines that had completed the hunting mission to calmly withdraw from the battlefield,
Moreover, even so, Lieutenant General Aubrey Fitch did not let the victory go to his head. After the disastrous defeat of the Japanese South American Expeditionary Fleet, Aubrey, who had just won a new victory, faced the intact Soviet Red Flag Pacific Fleet that followed, as well as our own naval fleet that was also scarred and running low on ammunition and fuel. Lieutenant General Fitch did not recklessly fight another battle, but immediately chose to give up and retreat. Before contacting the Soviet fleet, he led the U.S. Pacific Fleet to withdraw from the South American waters and returned singing a triumphant song. The west coast of the United States.
At this point, the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Aubrey Fitch, at the slight cost of losing one heavy cruiser, three destroyers, one submarine and more than 120 aircraft, was in the Galapagos Islands. The sea area destroyed three Japanese battleships, four aircraft carriers, five heavy cruisers, Three light cruisers, fifteen destroyers, nine auxiliary ships and 220 aircraft, and killed Admiral Nobutake Kondo, the supreme commander of the Japanese fleet, suddenly emerged in a bleak atmosphere where thousands of horses were silent, and won an exchange. No less than the overwhelming victory of Japan and Russia in the Battle of Tsushima! !
More importantly, a total of 30,000 Japanese naval officers and soldiers were killed in the Battle of the Galapagos Islands. Although most of them were rookies, there were also more than 10,000 who had been on the ship since the war at Pearl Harbor. Veterans who served. For the Japanese Navy, which is frequently in urgent need of human resources, the above-mentioned losses are absolutely heartbreaking and painful. If it does not take at least one year, it will not be able to recover at all
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
However, despite this, a brilliant tactical victory like this cannot offset the overall strategic failure of the United States.
——The overwhelming and glorious victory won by the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet in the Battle of the Galapagos Islands. From a strategic perspective, it only temporarily curbed the collapse of the U.S. military on the southern front. It was far from truly turning the tide. Defending is still a long way from attacking.
Three days after the Battle of the Galapagos Islands, Wang Qiu boarded the nuclear-powered battleship "Lenin", the new flagship of the Soviet Red Flag Pacific Fleet, and sailed into the Galapagos Islands where the smoke had cleared and the people were deserted. While searching and rescuing drowned people in the sea, the internal fighting among Ecuador's political forces also came to an end. Under the deterrence of the Japanese naval combined fleet and Soviet nuclear bombs, the pro-American government was overthrown by force. The peace faction came to power, announced its withdrawal from the war, restored neutrality, and joined the "Armed Neutrality Alliance" organized by the Argentine Peron government
Seeing that another piece of land on the South American map changed color, and most of the entire South America had changed sides, Wang Qiu couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement.
"...It's unimaginable! In just over two months, most of South America, from Ecuador to Argentina, has escaped the control of the United States. If we exclude Colombia and Brazil, which are in civil war and have too much to take care of themselves, there will still be With Bolivia being besieged on three sides and facing imminent subjugation, the United States currently has only one die-hard brother in South America, Venezuela, who can still somewhat share the worries of the American boss..."
He shook his head and muttered to Political Commissar Guo, who was writing furiously next to him, "...Isn't the whole thing collapsing too fast?"
"...This is one of the characteristics of the collapse of a great power! Xiao Wang, the more majestic a super power is, the faster it collapses."
Political Commissar Guo raised his head from his desk and replied calmly, "...When faced with a crisis and eventual collapse, the situations of big countries and small countries are different. Generally speaking, small countries are weak in strength, but internally The interests involved are also relatively simple, the structure itself is relatively simple, and the resilience and resistance to pressure are strong. Unless it faces a devastating catastrophe from the beginning, it usually declines little by little
On the contrary, a big country, especially a superpower, involves very large and complex interests, and the beginning of its decline is also very hidden. Problems in one place can be made up for elsewhere, even if the most critical lifeline foundation is broken. There will also be problems with clever posters who will continue to prolong the life of the country through various methods of tearing down the east wall and repairing the west wall. Most outsiders who are just looking at the situation will not even be able to see it at all.
It has to wait until its decline and decay accumulate to a certain extent, and all the forces that maintain the country's continued operation are broken, breaking through the critical point of what it can withstand, and no matter how clever the posters are, it can't cover it up, and then its ruin will suddenly appear. The Son is revealed to everyone.
To give a more specific example, in life, we often see some 'successful people' in society who live in luxury houses, ride in luxury cars, go to luxury hotels with beautiful women in their arms, are well-dressed, and domineering, making them The neighbors were envious. But then suddenly one day, a large group of police broke in and took him away from home naked - it turned out that this guy had already gone bankrupt and owed hundreds of millions in bank loans. He tried his best to piece together the connections and still get the interest from the bank. When he was finally at the end of his rope and couldn't even pay the interest, the bank finally stopped guaranteeing him and asked the court to arrest him. The neighbors didn't realize it until this moment, and then spread the news everywhere that the boss of such and such collapsed yesterday! In fact, this boss has already collapsed financially, and he just delayed letting everyone know until yesterday
In the same way, in the current world war, the United States of America, which possesses the strength of a superpower, has slowly lost its once extremely rich financial resources through endless failures again and again, and there are still more than one The influence and deterrence accumulated over the past century have finally reached a desperate situation of being besieged on all sides - the current large-scale rebellion of South American countries and the general collapse of the American front are just the symptoms of various failures that have accumulated to a certain extent and exploded. In fact, as early as the outbreak of World War III, the United States and its allies were almost dragged to the critical point of collapse..."
——Having said that, there is still a big difference between the two concepts of "someone collapses" and "someone dies".
If the goal of World War III is only to defeat the United States, then the red camp is already a sure winner. Even if armistice peace talks were held now, the United States would definitely recognize its status as a defeated nation and hold its nose and agree to a series of unequal terms that would be humiliating and humiliating, just like Germany did when the First World War was declared defeated. However, if the goal is to completely kill the United States, this... I can only say that comrades still need to work hard...
In fact, even though the collapse of South America is so obvious, the White House still has not given up its attempt to turn the tide and regain the New World.
And President Truman, who seemed to be so worried that he was vomiting blood due to losses, did still have the capital to continue wrestling with Stalin. ——Because, the latest batch of large-scale killer weapons produced by the Oak Ridge Factory in a hurry has been completed and shipped out of the factory not long ago...