The Bismarck Sea was certainly not a ghost ship, on the contrary, by 7 o'clock in the evening it was almost full, with a total of 798 men, from the captain Lieutenant Commander Simmons down to the pilot. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Since receiving the evacuation mission, Simmons pondered what to do to transfer the entire ship's 800 people to the docked Duluth light cruiser (Cleveland-class) as soon as possible, the common method is to rely on lifeboats or transport boats to ferry, but he thinks it is inconvenient and slow, and must find a new way.

The only advantage is that the ship only needs to dock with the Duluth, and after a few hours of hard thinking, Simmons, who is an outdoor enthusiast, suddenly came up with a good solution - a steel cable!

Arrange the steel cable on the railing of the flight deck on the starboard side and let the lifeboat carry the other end of the steel cable, and with the cooperation of the officers and men on the opposite side, hook the railing of the lower deck of the Duluth, and erect a steel cableway, so that the two ships can maintain a width difference of more than 100 meters, and travel in the same direction at low speed and in parallel, so as to ensure that the steel cable is in moderate tension and will not cause a collision between the two ships.

Because the height of the flight deck is higher than the height of the cruiser's deck, swinging along the steel cable can easily slide outside the cruiser's railing under the action of gravity, he asked people to try, as long as someone answers, about a few tens of seconds can swing one person over (a steel cable can support more than 10 people), the only requirement is that the person who swings over must be bold, don't look at your feet, otherwise you will be scared stupid by the rough sea water and fall down.

Of course, it is not easy to do this at sea, although he can still arrange a lifeboat between the two boats, and he can rescue him in case he falls halfway. At first, he didn't think of it as a primary tool, but just wanted to give some of the lads who were brave enough to move too late to have an extra option.

However, the surprise attack of the Japanese army disrupted everyone's position, and he knew that as long as he was found by the bomb, the weak small body of the Bismarck Hai would not be able to avoid the situation of ship destruction and death, and the slow Casablanca-class wanted to escape It was simply wishful thinking, so he discussed with the Duluth for emergency evacuation, turning southward on the one hand, and finding a suitable place to stop the ship on the spot to quickly transfer personnel.

In order to speed up and improve safety, the staff officers who had the idea of another trick -- since the steel cable swing had been established, why did the personnel swing through it one by one? Wouldn't it be faster to imitate the cable car and pass it in batches?

So the maintenance ground crew used a lifeboat to urgently modify a hanging gondola, equipped with cables at the front and rear ends, and swung it through by gravity and height difference, while letting the officers and men on the Duluth pull hard, although the gondola swaying seems to be a little risky, but it is much easier than swinging it alone. Although it was heavy in the past, it was not slow to pull it up from high to low, and although the hanging basket was retracted from low to high, it was not difficult for the officers and soldiers left behind to pull it up because it was light.

At the moment of death, whether the sailors were afraid or not, they finally gritted their teeth and swung to the opposite side through the steel cable gondola, and the officers and soldiers on the Duluth also tried their best to rescue their comrades, at most the two ships arranged a total of 4 steel cables (usually these steel cables are used to tow other ships), each steel cable is strung with 5 people at a time to release quickly, and finally most of the sailors are swinging to the opposite side by simple cable car.

Fortunately, these two warships were not discovered by the first attack wave, and the two warships boldly stopped their ships, neither turned on their lights, nor counterattacked the air, but only methodically used this method to transfer manpower, and only transferred the vast majority of personnel in about one hour -- at the moment of escape, the American GIs emerged with extraordinary strength and courage, and even the most frightened people closed their eyes and swished through the air.

At 20:24, just over an hour, all the crew members were safely evacuated by taking advantage of the gap between the first and second Japanese attack waves, and then the Duluth cut the steel cable and released the lock of the two ships - this was the last situation that the four Japanese pilots saw.

Originally, according to McCain's unified deployment, each ship had to leave a few people to control the warship at the end to attract the enemy's attention, but Simmons didn't want his men to die in vain, so he stuck the rudder with two iron rods to keep course. He himself rode to the Duluth in a lifeboat with the last of the evacuees, and when he stepped onto deck, everyone applauded Captain Simmons for his wise decision to save the lives of all 798 people on board.

Everyone said goodbye to the Bismarck Sea with complicated expressions, and the Duluth soon ran northeast at a high speed of 32 knots in the Cleveland class, and the Bismarck Sea, which was stuck in the rudder, still drifted south unhurriedly at a speed of 18 knots to attract the attention of the Japanese army.

Now this escort aircraft carrier has become a trophy for 4 pilots, a unique and unique trophy!

The whole story was put on the screens of Japan and the United States after the war, the Americans filmed the first half, called "The Great Escape", and the Japanese filmed the second half of the capture of the aircraft carrier by Toshio Ota and others, called "Top Gun", which incidentally included the story of the cleaning trio.

"What? 4 pilots of our army captured an empty escort aircraft carrier? Ryunosuke Kusaka, who received the telegram, looked incredulous, but when he saw the name on the letter, he couldn't help but be happy, "It turned out to be Toshio Ota and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa...... There's nothing these guys don't dare to do! ”

Obviously, the chief of staff of the lieutenant general was very impressed with the cleaning trio.

"Send a few scouts, send a few of the best engineers over, and drive the ship back...... Let them turn on the lights, or they won't be able to find them! ”

On the Katsuragi, Chiaki Matsuda and a staff officer also laughed when they received such news, and everyone discussed: "A ship with planes, even if it is a cheap escort aircraft carrier, is at least worth 1 or 20 million US dollars, right?" Just throw it away, don't you? ”

Horikichi didn't smile when he knew the news, he just sighed silently.

"Sir?"

"This kind of Casablanca-class escort aircraft carrier only takes 6-8 weeks to build, and the United States can build more than 100 ships a year at full capacity, and in the eyes of the Americans, the officers and soldiers on it are much more important than warships." Horikichi sighed helplessly, "I'm wondering, when will Japan be so rich that it can throw away tens of millions of dollars without even blinking an eye?" ”

Everyone was speechless, it is impossible to change Japan, even if a boatload of people is all dead, they have to find a way to save the ship, maybe this is the reason why the commander lamented the difference in strength?

"Let them turn on the lights, or it won't be good to be injured by the third wave...... In addition, the invention code telegram demanded that the US warships surrender, as long as the lights were turned on and anchored on the spot, our army would be regarded as surrendered, not attacked, and would come to receive it after dawn! Resolutely destroy the enemy forces that refuse to surrender, and there is no need to show mercy! ”

Half a minute later, Horikichi added: "These pilots are very brave and have made great contributions to the empire, and they deserve to be commended." After the matter is completed, the first person will be promoted to two levels with a bonus of 100,000 yuan; The rest of the meritorious personnel will be promoted to the next level and will be awarded 50,000 yuan! Inform the whole army of praise! ”

"100,000?" Everyone's eyes widened: in this era when the admiral's age was less than 10,000 yen, 100,000 yuan was indeed a huge amount of money - enough to buy half a Zero.

"The boat they got is worth tens of millions of yen...... According to my heart, the reward of 1 million is not too much, but unfortunately too much money will hurt them and cause unnecessary controversy - so be it. ”

As a result, Toshio Ota, who was not mixed with officers until the final death in history, became a captain in the Navy in a blink of an eye (based on his exploits in the past few years, he had been awarded the rank of second lieutenant before departure, and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa was awarded a lieutenant because of the large number of shots downed), but now Toshio Ota didn't have the heart to think about these at all, he only hoped that the engineers and officers would come soon, so that the title of temporary captain could be removed as soon as possible - it was much more difficult to drive a ship on a pitch-black sea than to fly an airplane......

"A farewell message from the Alabama...... They were besieged by enemy planes and were hit by three torpedoes, and they could not hold out for long. "At sunrise Washington time, the staff officers reported to Nimitz and others with red eyes.

"William, what about them?"

"The flagship Franklin has abandoned the ship, and a group of people escaped, presumably saved by the destroyer......"

As soon as he was halfway through, a staff officer hurried over: "I just received a telegram from Chief Halsey that he and part of the crew have been transferred to the destroyer...... But...... But ......"

"But what? He's hurt? ”

"He's fine, but ......," the staff officer said, "...... Wheat...... General Kane is dead! ”

"What!" Nimitz, who heard the bad news, could no longer hold on, and fell headlong, and was soon taken to the hospital by ambulance, and everyone else, including Spruance and Turner, cried......

Truman and Dewey had been waiting for news in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and they couldn't help but burst into tears when they heard the results: Patton had just been lost, McCain had been lost today, a bunch of generals had been hospitalized, Nimitz had just fallen, and sadly, the dawn of American victory was still far away.

Lehi was silent for a long time, and finally persuaded: "Judging from the current war situation, the main force of the Pacific Fleet can basically not be saved, the situation in Hawaii will be quite dangerous, and the United States will inevitably lose in this war...... Regardless of Japan and Germany. ”

Both Truman and Dewey subconsciously shook their heads, not that they refused to make peace, but that the current peace conditions were not negotiable.

Truman told Dewey the terms of the last Japanese peace sue, and of course now that the war situation has undergone earth-shaking changes, he does not dare to hope that the original conditions will continue.

Dewey did not want to blame Truman for rejecting Japan's offer of peace—he would have rejected it as well, and before this battle, he even wanted to make peace with Germany and war with Japan to the end. In view of the current situation, Dewey believed that it should be realistic -- "It is sufficient to ensure the independence of the Philippines and the inviolability of the interests of American commercial capital in the Far East...... As for the Pearl Harbor incident, Japan no longer demands an apology, as long as the Japanese official makes a statement, it is a mistake of diplomats. ”

Of course, this is a lie, but it can't be said otherwise. But the two know very well that even if this condition is to be accepted by Japan now, it may be very difficult.

But is it harder than winning?