On that day, officials from various cities in the United States monitored the implementation of emergency measures to prevent air raids and sabotage from morning to night. New York City Mayor Fiorello? Determined to protect Manhattan "from a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor," LaGuardia carried out a civil defense mobilization. The police gathered himself and the other Axis people together and took them by ferry to Ellis Island, across the harbor, to be taken into custody. In front of the photo news window in Times Square, crowds of weeping spectators and uniformed sailors all day long delivered a speech to the audience gathered around them: "We will soon defeat them." "Throughout the United States, young people are flocking to sign up for the military, and there are long queues at the entrance of Army and Navy recruiting stations.

On the west coast, where the invasion could have been made, anti-aircraft artillery batteries were hurrying into positions in Hollywood Hills, Long Beach, and Seattle. The two large aircraft factories, Boeing and Douglas, are now obvious targets for enemy bomber attacks. Armed with iron forks and carrying shotguns on their shoulders, peasants patrol the deserted beaches of Puget, ready to crush enemies attempting to land. A police officer reported that an aircraft of unknown nationality was scouting the coast west of San Jose, and the alarm was sounded just after 6 a.m. from Los Angeles to San Francisco. William, who was in charge of the defense of the West? Audrey? General Ryan, "concluded that the planes took off from an aircraft carrier." He denied that it was a false alarm, saying that his fighter had scared him away.

Telephone exchange desks in various western jurisdictions of the United States are overwhelmed, and frequent reports have been received of people secretly keeping watch on American nationals and deliberately destroying their belongings. In Washington, the embassy is guarded by a large number of police, and Ambassador Nomura and his staff are now effectively hostages. Across the country, many Americans of true ancestry have teamed up to pay to make statements in newspapers or send telegrams to the White House to make clear their loyalty to the United States, but this is not enough to stop people from smashing the windows of their stores, nor is it enough to stop "patriotic" American citizens from boycotting their own stores and all their goods.

The U.S. political axe was very soberly aware of the possibility of air raids and incursions at any time, night light control was introduced, and the distribution of gas masks went on for several months. Roosevelt agreed to these measures in order to adapt Americans to the conditions of war, to the restrictions on individual liberty and consumption, in order to mobilize the nation for a long and hard struggle.

In Britain, the sound of blaring sirens and whiring bombs is a daily occurrence. The news of Pearl Harbor let the British know that the Americans were going to fight alongside them. But this new sense of camaraderie among the English-speaking peoples, which did not include the Republic of Ireland, contemptuously rejected Churchill's call for reunification. Churchill also sent a telegram of appeal to China: "The British Empire and the United States have been attacked by Ben. We have always been friends, and now we face a common enemy. ”

Churchill demanded that the United States and Britain work together to take action against Churchill in the Pacific, but the British Chiefs of Staff did not approve of Churchill's plan, fearing that it would be premature to put pressure on their new allies across the Atlantic immediately after the debacle at Pearl Harbor. Churchill did not listen to their advice, and said cheerfully: "We have to be careful when we courting her, but now that she is married, we will not talk to her like that." Lord Halifax, the British ambassador to the United States, sent back a telegram: "Your Excellency's visit may be unbearable to the host. The telegram actually conveyed Roosevelt's reservations, and Churchill flatly objected, replying: "It would be a disaster if we had to wait another month before taking joint action to deal with the new unfavorable situation in the Pacific." I hope to leave tomorrow evening......" Forty-eight hours later, Roosevelt reconsidered and agreed to his visit.

In fact, before the United States was officially at war with Germany, Roosevelt was reluctant to receive the prime minister, and he did not mention this issue when he made a radio address to the nation, calling on the American people to unite and "go to the national crisis together." Once again, he waited for Strassel to act, knowing that he could not risk a divided debate in Congress on whether the Atlantic or the Pacific was important.

At this time, there was also a disagreement in the German High Command. As a result of the defeat of the Italians in the Mediterranean, the German offensive against Britain came to a standstill, and strong opposition to an all-out war with the United States was placed before Strassell. This war was provoked by Ben, so they did not have to automatically declare war on the United States under the Four-Power Treaty of the Axis powers. What's more, apart from launching an attack on the United States in the Pacific, Ben did not help much militarily; Even when Berlin received a report from the German chargé d'affaires in Washington on 10 December, warning that "the United States would declare war on Germany within twenty-four hours," he felt hurt in his pride and did not make the decision to declare war on the United States.

At this time, he was carrying out the first phase of the "Imperial Operation" - to occupy the territory of the Allied Powers in the southwest Pacific. Once again, the Philippines was shrouded in haze and fog, and bombers launched a massive attack on the Philippines, while a small landing force occupied the islands of Bataan and Camitin near the northern shore of Luzon. Guam, a lonely and poorly defended U.S. outpost, was brought into the army's field of vision.

For the defenders of the Malay Peninsula, there is no chance of letting up. The harbor was bombarded, and the infantry began to move forward, threatening the colony's defensive strongholds. Armed with light tanks and bicycles, the commandos quickly broke through the weak defenses on the Malaya-Siam border, choked the Kra Peninsula, and opened the strategic highway on the west coast and the railway line to Johor, the back gate of the fort in Singapore. The British attempted to hold the border line, but were defeated by the fierce attack of the Japanese army, and in a pouring rain, the British infantry was driven back by the Japanese tanks. Allied planes took off from a nearby airfield and carried out a bombing raid on the Yue army, but Yue himself then launched a large-scale air raid, inflicting huge losses on the Allied forces.

The only hope of halting the advance of the Japanese army into Malaya was pinned on the Indian Eleventh Division, which had withdrawn from the Siamese border in order to occupy the swampy positions and guard the city of Sitra and the main road to the south. At the same time, the Japanese army was launching a second assault from the invading beachhead at Kota Bharu on the west coast of Malaya. The Indian troops belonging to the Central Malaya Defense Area under the command of Lieutenant General Heath were subjected to a large-scale air attack by the planes and gradually retreated into the jungle. The situation was critical, but General Percival's command was still filled with an air of confidence. Although the RAF's Buffalo fighters had lost almost two-thirds of the first day's fighting, he still believed that the British ground forces had a three-to-one advantage enough to stop the advance of the Japanese army towards Singapore.

Whether or not the goal of stopping the offensive of the Japanese army can be achieved depends largely on whether the task force (Force Z), consisting of two large capital ships and four destroyers, can successfully intercept the escort ships of the Japanese army. At this time, Vice Admiral Phillips commanded the fleet to sail northwest for this task, and he circled around the island of Anambas before heading straight to the Gulf of Siam. The sky was covered with thick clouds, and sometimes it was drizzling, and enemy planes could not detect them, and victory was very promising. At noon, a Katarina seaplane of the Royal Air Force flew in to report confirmed information: "The army has landed north of Songkhla. "Phillips intended to end the battle quickly and retreat east before the army had time to gather forces for a massive assault on the British. He estimated that the task force would encounter no more than two old battleships, and he would order the sailors to open fire and sink them. He confidently predicted that he would not have to wait for 18 hours before he would drive the invading troops on board to the shallows of the beachhead, but he did not expect that in the middle of the afternoon, a patrol submarine of the city would discover the task force, and after receiving the report from the submarine, the fleet immediately launched a large-scale sea and air search to find his warship.

At dusk, two surface flotilla, consisting of seven cruisers and two battleships, headed south at full speed, and the pilots searched the darkening waters of the Gulf of Siam in an attempt to launch a torpedo bombardment attack before nightfall. They flew a long circle, and were ordered to withdraw without finding the British [***] ship, and it was already nightfall. At about 5 p.m., the seaplanes aboard the cruiser had also spotted the British task force. And when the plane appeared, these ominous little black spots on the horizon were also spotted by the lookout on the battleship "Prince of Wales". Phillips concluded that the battle was imminent. He abandoned his plan and decided to continue sailing north before dark in order to fool the enemy, and ordered the destroyer "Tenedos", which was running out of fuel, to sail south and wait until the next morning to make a radio message requesting fighter cover.

Shortly after 8:15 p.m., the task force turned south, and a group of cruisers came within range of their guns. Phillips gave the order to fight, and at the same time he received a telegram from his chief of staff from Singapore, justifying the wisdom of his decision to change course. The telegram reminded him that, according to intelligence, the enemy had a flying convoy in southern Indochina: "They can attack you within five hours of your discovery, depending on whether you are discovered today." ”

Despite this clear warning, Phillips was determined to destroy the cruiser Zoben in front of him, and under the powerful artillery bombardment of the "Prince of Wales" and the "Counterattack", two cruisers were sunk, and three of the accompanying transport ships were also sunk, and the sea was covered with the corpses of the Zoben soldiers, and the officers and men of the "Prince of Wales" were in high spirits when they saw all this. At this time, Rear Admiral Palize sent another telegram: "It is reported that the enemy has landed in Kuantan. "Phillips believed that the enemy must have begun a second large-scale invasion in the semi-mid-rise of the Malayan coast. In order to keep the British forces already engaged in the battle in the north from being cut off, urgent intervention was necessary.

For the remaining hours of the night, the task force sailed westward along a zigzag course across the Gulf of Siam, shaking off the submarine that was closely behind. That evening in London, Churchill and his advisers met in the wartime basement of Whitehall. They debated for an hour, arguing about what to do with the "only key weapon in our hands" in the Far East, now that it has lost its deterrent effect. Churchill suggested that the Prince of Wales and Counter Strike should be sent to strengthen the defense of the West Coast of the United States "as a noble gesture" to bring "the English-speaking nations together." Admiral Pound wanted to transfer the warships back to the Atlantic. There was no agreement, and the meeting lasted until late at night, with no result, and it was finally decided to "leave the problem until the next day", but Churchill did not know that by waking up the next morning, the task force would be destroyed.

At this time, the 700 soldiers of the special naval landing force of the Navy, which is said to be the first time that the United States lost territory. They stormed Dungas Beach in Guam and then quickly marched to Agana. Together with a small group of US Marines, the local troops defending the island engaged in a fierce 25-minute battle with the Japanese troops. When Admiral McMillin, the governor of the island, learned that 5,000 Japanese troops were landing at the same time in many places around the island, he thought that any further resistance would be tantamount to suicide. Three long car horns announced a ceasefire. The two sides negotiated surrender by gesticulating, and an hour later, the Governor and his soldiers were ordered to take off their clothes, wear only a pair of shirts, and watch as the Sun Flag rises from the flagpole of the Governor's Palace. The army captured Guam at the cost of 20 dead men. Forty-seven U.S. troops were killed, and the remaining 300, including a Navy medical care team, quickly gathered together to become the first to take prisoners of war and experience the humiliating treatment of prisoners of war themselves.

When the sun rose again, 1,500 miles to the west, the Japanese army began to carry out the second phase of its plan of attack on the Philippines. The main obstacle to the assault by two escort assault teams was not so much the one-shot line laid out by a Philippine army brigade on the beach as the rough sea. The soldiers on 6 troop carriers, under the cover of artillery fire from 1 heavy cruiser, 2 light cruisers and 6 destroyers and 3 minesweepers, began to land. The attack of five US "B-17" bombers interrupted the landing for a time, one minesweeper was sunk, and the invading Japanese troops were driven to sea and fled for their lives. But near dusk, the strategic airfield of Apari fell into the hands of the Japanese army. The stormy seas also caused another assault force to abandon its plan to land in the northwest of Luzon that day. On the morning of the next day, the landing operation resumed, and more than 4,000 Japanese troops forcibly landed ashore, breaking MacArthur's "beach defense" strategy, firmly controlling the landing area, and preparing for a full-scale invasion in the future.

When a Walrus seaplane of the British task force skimmed the coast of Malaya shortly after dawn on 20 December, no ships carrying the landing force were found in the sea 100 miles off Kuantan. But Phillips still believed that the enemy would definitely land somewhere nearby. Pondering that the Tenedos had signaled to Singapore to provide emergency air cover more than 100 miles to the south, he ordered the task force to turn north and track down a suspiciously looking group of barges that the Counter Attack had spotted earlier.

It was a rash decision. Losing the cover of the clouds, the task force ploughed out winding channels in the calm and mirror-like sea, and observed the sea from the air, with the horizon clearly visible at both ends. The 100 pilots in the air eagerly searched the sea a hundred miles south of Anambas, and if the British [***] ships had followed the route reported by the submarine earlier, they would have been there at this moment. Towards ten o'clock in the morning, they spotted the Tenedos. For the next half hour, the Australian Navy's veteran destroyer, ducking in a column of water from dozens of bombs, hurriedly signaled that it was being dive-bombed.

The "Prince of Wales" received a distress signal from the destroyer, making Phillips aware of the imminent mortal danger. He abandoned his plans to track down the imaginary invading forces north and ordered the fleet to change course. As the task force began its final sprint toward Singapore, he broke the radio silence and asked for air cover.

At 10:15 a.m., the Walrus maritime reconnaissance plane of the "Prince of Wales" was first spotted by a patrol plane, which lured the pilots of the 22nd Air Force to pursue the task force. Some of the planes flew south to Singapore, and the fuel level had been lowered to the lower part of the dial, when the long-awaited signal was sent from the reconnaissance plane: "Enemy ship found 70 miles southeast of Kuantan." The pilots of the 50 torpedo bombers and 34 bombers who had been ordered to fly quickly north immediately lifted their spirits when they heard the news. On board the USS Kasaki, the crew was nervously preparing for a second attack when the first batch of planes failed to destroy the British [***].

Just after 11:10 a.m., radar monitoring the horizon on the anti-aircraft batteries of the battlecruiser "Counterattack" detected the signal pulse of the first batch of planes that came to attack, and a few minutes later, the lookout could see them about 70 degrees from the left bow. The trumpeter blew his horn and ordered the sailors to enter combat positions, and the loudspeaker shouted: "Prepare to shoot!" At 11:13 a.m., 20 attack planes from the "Tianshan" ship swooped down head-on, and all of a sudden, the shells fired by the antiaircraft artillery group bloomed one after another, and brown mushroom clouds bloomed in the blue sky. The huge main guns of the battlecruisers did not play any role at the moment, but every anti-aircraft gun and every machine gun was spewing angry flames at the planes that were raining shells and bullets in the air.

(To be continued)