If Hideki Tojo and Isoroku Yamamoto had seen President Roosevelt's plan of attacking the Hawaiian Islands under the name "Operation Overlord" in his drawer, they would probably have been frightened. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Because the forces that the "unprepared United States" can devote in "Operation Overlord" are probably 10 times stronger than that of fully prepared Japan!

Lieutenant Admiral Mikawa Gunichi, who commanded 16 cruisers and destroyers with powerful torpedo firepower to pounce on Midway, would probably have a feeling of death if he knew how many American ships there were in the waters near Midway on the night of 8 February.

Although he has the best sailors and the best ships under his command - at least 2 Shimakaze-class destroyers are the best in the eyes of the Japanese.

But his enemy, Richmond. Kelly. Vice Admiral Turner, however, has a fleet of old men who are larger than he imagined. Among them, there are 140 flat-deck destroyers from the First World War alone, as well as eight Farragut-class destroyers and six Porter-class destroyers, both of which are slightly newer than the flat-deck destroyers, both built during the war.

In other words, the Mikawa Army has 7 elite Japanese heavy mine-loaded destroyers in one hand, and Vice Admiral Turner has no more destroyers, no less, exactly 22 times that of the Mikawa fleet!

Of course, the 140 flat-deck destroyers in Vice Admiral Turner's hands are now not officially called destroyers, but have become "high-speed attack transport ships", "high-speed attack minesweepers", "high-speed attack military auxiliary ships", "high-speed escort ships", and so on.

These flat-deck destroyers are similar in performance to the Japanese Isokaze-type destroyers, and they are all products of a similar age. Now 2 of the 4 Isokaze-type destroyers are still first-class destroyers, fighting for the militaristic cause of the Japanese Empire (the other 2 were sunk by the Americans).

However, most of the 267 flat-deck destroyers of the "old dumplings" of the United States in World War I have now lost the name of destroyers, and they are not qualified to be incorporated into the front-line combat fleet, so they can only go to escort formations, minesweeping formations, and landing formations to exert their residual heat.

Of course, these WWII dumpling ships were of course modified accordingly, most of the ships had torpedo tubes and some of the main guns (usually two or three main gun turrets in the stern), and only some of the ships that served as escort ships retained the torpedoes and all the main guns.

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

In addition to these 140 "old dumpling ships", Vice Admiral Turner had a 51.7th cruiser/destroyer group in his hands.

The group has five heavy cruisers, including the San Francisco, Indianapolis, Quincy, Vincennes, and Wichita, five light cruisers including Atlanta, Savannah, Honolulu, St. Louis, and Helena, as well as 14 old destroyers that are a little more advanced than the flat deck class.

The commander of the 51.7th Destroyer Group was Rear Admiral Wright of the U.S. Navy -- the same Rear Admiral Wright who had been taught a lesson by the combined European fleet's mine-struck ships with oxygen torpedoes during the night battle of the North Atlantic in the winter of 1942!

If such a fiasco is to be left in the navies of other countries, at least it will have to sit on a cold bench for the rest of its life, but the situation in the United States is special, and all kinds of dumpling ships are lined up to serve, and as a result, there is a shortage of naval officers with actual combat experience, so a defeated general like Rear Admiral Wright sat on the cold bench for a few days and was reactivated.

"Sir," said Rear Admiral Wright to his superior, Vice Admiral Turner, on the afternoon of 8 February, when he had received news again that the Japanese fleet was heading for Midway, "and it looks like there will be a fierce battle tonight, for the Japanese are good at night attacks, and they have long-range 'spear' torpedoes, which are a very difficult enemy to deal with." The 51.7th Brigade may not be able to complete both the task 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 in the face of it. In his heart, he even complained a little bit about Spruance - how much trouble would it be to send hundreds of planes to bomb up? Why let the landing formation and its own 51.7 brigade take the risk?

"Don't worry about the landing formation, all the ships in the landing formation are converted from flat-deck destroyers," Turner said to Rear Admiral Wright with great certainty, "and they know how to protect themselves." ”

Ships converted from flat-deck destroyers to carry out the task of landing on Midway were practically a last resort. Because no one knows what to expect near Midway? At present, the US intelligence services do not even know where the main forces of the Japanese Combined Fleet are, so naturally there is no guarantee that a large-scale fleet decisive battle will not break out at Midway.

If Spruance's Task Force 50 loses the decisive battle, then according to the pre-drawn plan, Task Force 50 will have self-preservation as its first goal, regardless of the life or death of Task Force 51.

Therefore, the kind of slow-moving large transport ships and landing ships are not suitable for the Battle of Midway at all, and the only suitable one is to use a high-speed attack transport ship modified with a flat deck class.

However, these small ships have limited capacity and cannot carry much personnel and equipment. As a last resort, Vice Admiral Turner, who was in charge of the landing operations of the 5th Fleet, had no choice but to collect all the "flat-deck class" possessed by the entire Pacific Fleet.

I didn't expect to be able to show off my skills on the night of February 8 -- these flat-deck classes still retain the destroyer's power system, and they can theoretically run more than 30 knots. Can't beat it, can't you run?

After agreeing with Rear Admiral Wright, Vice Admiral Turner immediately reorganized the landing group of 140 flat-deck ships (most of which had high-speed attack transports on board the landing force's soldiers and supplies). They were divided into 14 formations, which were called the 1st - 14th convoys.

Each convoy had 2 convoys and 12 flat-deck class ships for other purposes, and one of them was placed as the flagship in the lead position of the convoy, and the other was in charge of the rear of the convoy -- this arrangement was to use the sea-to-air search radar on the escort ships to detect the Japanese ship formation in time and evade it.

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

By the time the Americans were ready, it was 6 p.m. on February 8, and by this time Mikawa Junichi's fleet had approached Midway. However, instead of immediately rushing into the battlefield to kill, he sent five Zero scouts to search the waters near Midway to see if there were any American battleships there, and to determine the exact location of the American fleet.

After receiving a report that "no American battleships were found" and a report on the location of the American fleet, Mikawa ordered to prepare for battle. At 7 p.m., the Japanese ships threw all the flammable materials on the deck into the sea for a final check and rearmament of the ammunition. At 8 o'clock in the evening, the sky was completely dark, and the main force of the Japanese 8th Fleet, led by the heavy cruiser "Bird Sea", lined up in a single column with a distance of 1,200 meters, and raised the white identification flag on the mast (although the Japanese Navy is also generally equipped with electric scouts imitating German radars, but the performance of these Japanese electric probes is unreliable, so the cat-eye warriors still play an important role in night battles), and at a high speed of 28 knots, they murderously broke into the waters of Midway Island due east of Midway!

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, with superior performance) spotted two US ship formations heading towards each other at a speed of 18 knots.

"2 formations, both at a speed of 18 knots, of which there are more than 20 ships in the formation on our left, and from the analysis of radar signals, there are 5 large ships among them; The formation on our right side had more than 10 ships, all of which were small ships of more than a thousand tons, which were supposed to be destroyers. Shen Chongde asked the Sanchuan Army, "Commander, who do we attack first?" ”

In fact, one of the 2 formations was an escort formation, and the other was the 51.7 brigade. At this time, the Americans' radar also discovered Mikawa's fleet, so the 51.7 Group wanted to cover the escort formation away, so it would move towards the opposite side.

"Order the 3rd Destroyer Squadron to go and cast torpedoes on the formation on the right, and the main force to engage the enemy's main formation on the left."

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

After a few more minutes, Shen Zhongde reported again: "Commander, the enemy's right Y formation has turned and accelerated to escape in the direction of Midway, and it seems that the 1st Destroyer Squadron has been discovered. ”

"Let the three teams deal with it, there are 2 island winds, there is no reason why they can't be beaten." The Sanchuan Army asked again, "What about the enemy's main formation?" ”

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

"Order the ships, follow the flagship, and go at full speed!" The Mikawa Army ordered loudly, "All ships, prepare to launch torpedoes!" ”

The 93 oxygen torpedo that needed to be prepared before the launch - the oxygen was improvised by an oxygen generator and poured into the torpedo.

"Hay!"

As soon as the staff officer's answer fell, Mikawa Junyi's pupils suddenly tightened, and it turned out that he saw more than a dozen dazzling fires in the darkness ahead! Then there was the rolling roar of thunder.

"It's fired!" As soon as Mikawa Jun muttered in a low voice, "22,000 meters to open fire, these Americans seem to be scared by the 93 torpedoes of the Imperial Army!" ”