Just when the plank captain was pinning his hopes on the Yukikaze destroyer, a replacement soldier named Harada who had just been assigned to the Yukikaze as a sailor was diligently scrubbing the teak deck of the warship. The Yukikaze destroyer was a lucky ship.

The battleship, from the beginning of the war to the present, has never been hit by the enemy, and the soldiers serving on it have never been killed. If an unlucky guy hadn't been blown up when he went home to visit relatives, he would never have had a chance.

Come up to this auspicious place.

After wiping a section of the deck, he raised his head and found that he was now standing at the bow of the ship. So he looked into the distance: in the distance was the boundless black sea, and the half-moon in the sky cast its pale moonlight onto

On those undulating waves, you can see the moonlight shining on the tips of the waves, which makes the sea surface and the sky distinguishable.

Suddenly, he saw a thin silver line appear on the sea. This silver line quickly extended forward and shot straight towards the bow of Yukikaze.

"Enemy attack! Torpedoes!" Harada shouted.

American torpedoes are not like the Japanese 93 oxygen torpedoes. When they sail, the gas they release cannot be integrated into the seawater, so they have a more obvious track. However, in the dark night, the sailors rely on their own eyesight to

It is not easy to discover it. So

When Harada discovered it and screamed wildly, the torpedo was already very close to the destroyer Yukikaze, and it was too late to take any evasive action. Harada watched helplessly as the torpedo hit Yukikaze

On the bow of the ship, there was a loud noise...

After the loud noise, Harada was surprised to find that the Yukikaze was not blown into two pieces, and did not even shake violently. He was a little surprised, but the firelight rising nearby made him understand immediately. The loud noise

It was not issued when the destroyer Yukikaze was hit by a torpedo. Although he saw with his own eyes that the torpedo hit the Yukikaze, it was obvious that the torpedo malfunctioned and did not explode.

However, the enemy submarine did not launch a torpedo. Not far from the Yukikaze, the Taiwa Maru was burning and exploding. At the same time, the torpedo that did not explode hit the Yukikaze.

, another torpedo also hit the Taiwa Maru transport ship and detonated successfully. After this ship containing hydrogen peroxide and ammunition, after suffering such a blow,

A fire broke out immediately. The hydrogen peroxide quickly produced a large amount of oxygen in the fire, which made the fire more and more unstoppable. After a while, the entire ship was plunged into a sea of ​​​​fire, and then the fire exploded the ammunition loaded on the ship. This

The transport ship had a huge explosion right in front of Harada, and then the torn apart hull sank almost instantly.

The Yukikaze began to accelerate and turn, rushing towards the direction where the torpedoes were fired - anti-submarine warfare is the basic mission of a destroyer. At this time, the sound of successive explosions came from another direction. Obviously, in another direction

There are also US submarines on board. The current Japanese transport fleet has been surrounded by a wolf pack of US submarines. Facing such a wolf pack, a mere two destroyers are absolutely not enough, but Japan can no longer come up with more

Destroyer.

It was a long fish night. When the sun rose from the sea level again, the original formation of nine transport ships and two destroyers had only two ships left. One was the destroyer Yukikaze.

There was also the 800-ton wooden ship requisitioned from China. The rest of the ships, including another destroyer, were sent to the bottom of the sea by American submarines.

Today's Yukikaze destroyer can no longer do deck cleaning work because the deck is full of people. After the fleet was attacked last night, Yukikaze first threw deep water at any possible position for a while

bombs, and then after estimating that the enemy had left, he began to risk turning on the searchlight to rescue the sailors who fell into the water in the shipwreck.

The Yukikaze is not a big ship. After picking up 162 sailors who fell into the water, her originally small deck was already crowded with people, and there was almost no room to stand. The captain once proposed

, some sailors were to be transferred to the surviving small wooden boat. But this

This decision was opposed by almost all the rescued sailors. They all said that they would never leave the Yukikaze destroyer, even if they died, they would die on the Yukikaze. There was a legend about the Yukikaze being "auspicious".

, have already reached the ears of these army sailors.

Captain Masamichi Terauchi shook his head. He knew that within the Navy, there was already a legend that the Yukikaze would suck away the luck of his teammates. It was said that the Yukikaze was protected by a strange force and would not be hit no matter what.

Shen, but other friendly ships that are with the Yukikaze will become the scapegoats of the Yukikaze, so to speak.

Yes, and this statement is not completely unfounded. At least Terauchi Masamichi has never thought about any other ship that he can go out with for a spin and come back safely. Terauchi Masamichi asked himself,

If they were in the condition these sailors were in now, they would definitely not leave the Yukikaze even if they were killed.

"Forget it, let them stay on the ship." Masamichi Terauchi thought, "Iwo Jima is not far away anyway."

…

This time the fleet was not able to transport anything at all. The only remaining wooden boat carried only some food. On Iwo Jima now, food is not the most scarce material and can be used to produce oxygen.

Oxidants and the steel bars and cement used to build fortifications are the most crucial. However, these things all sank on the road.

"It can only be transported bit by bit by small boats. The chance of being delivered directly by the fleet is too slim." Tadashi Kuribayashi thought this way. However, he also knew that the transport capacity of small boats was very limited. Before the arrival of the US fleet,

, it is really a big problem how much supplies can be transported to the island.

Kuribayashi Tadamichi can only rely on those small sampans that perform transportation tasks. These things are too small. The entire small ship plus the items on it are not necessarily much more expensive than torpedoes, so American submarines are reluctant to use torpedoes to deal with them.

.But their transport capacity was too little. Before Tadamichi Kuribayashi could save enough materials to build a bunker, the American bomber group appeared, and then the American fleet appeared soon after.

Just three days after the New Year, Spruance's fleet attacked the Japanese mainland. This was the first time that U.S. carrier-based aircraft attacked the Japanese mainland since the Doolittle Raid. The purpose of this attack was to hit the Japanese mainland.

Japanese aviation prevented them from playing a big role in the US military's capture of Iwo Jima.

In fact, the attack power of carrier aviation against airports is very limited. Because at any time, it is always easy for aircraft to find new ones. If the enemy pilots cannot be eliminated, it will not really solve their threat to the US military near Iwo Jima.

The threat of the fleet. Therefore, Spruance did not focus on attacking the ground at all. His real goal was to eliminate Japanese aircraft and pilots in the air.

In order to achieve this goal, and to reduce the threat to the fleet from enemy "kamikaze" aircraft, the cautious Spruance changed the proportion of carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier. Among his twelve fleet aircraft carriers, each

Each aircraft carrier only carries an average of 30 bombers, and almost all of the rest are fighters.

However, the effect of this trap was not good, and the Japanese counterattack was so weak that Spruance finally made the judgment that staying near the Japanese mainland was a waste of time.

Just as Spruance was teasing the Japanese near the Japanese mainland, Rear Admiral William Brandy led a fire support formation consisting of 6 battleships, 12 escort carriers, 5 cruisers, and 16 destroyers.

The waters of Iwo Jima.

…

On the morning of January 6, 1945, more than a month earlier than in history, the American artillery formation approached Iwo Jima.

The weather on that day was very good and the visibility was very high. Therefore, the observation post set up on Mount Suribachi spotted the American fleet from a very long distance and issued an alarm.

Kuribayashi Tadamichi came to the shooting port of a fortification on Mt. Suribachi, raised his telescope and looked toward the sea. He saw dozens of U.S. warships approaching in columns at high speed. He could see the hulls of those warships.

The snow-white waves set off by the first wave, as well as the black holes of the cannons on the US warships.

"Finally here!" Tadashi Kuribayashi put down the telescope and murmured.

The American warships began to turn at a distance of about 7,000 to 8,000 meters from the coast of Iwo Jima. The column turned into a horizontal formation, and the speed also dropped from about 20 knots to about 8 knots. If the speed is too fast, it will affect

to shooting accuracy.

"General, the enemy's bombardment is about to begin. You'd better go to the headquarters to coordinate the resistance." A major said to Kuribayashi Tadamichi.

Kuribayashi Tadashi nodded, and led the officer towards the headquarters that was buried deeper.

At this time, the U.S. fleet was already in position. In order to ensure the accuracy of the bombardment, the battleships had stopped and even dropped anchor. On the USS Tennessee, the 355 mm caliber gun barrel had been turned sideways, pointing at Iwo Jima.

At exactly 8:35 in the morning, the first shot of the battle was fired from the 355mm gun barrel of the USS Tennessee.

The salvo of 12 355mm guns caused the warship to move a long distance to the other side, and then returned to its original position under the drag of the anchor chain. At this time, the 14 127mm secondary guns on the battleship

Also started firing on Iwo Jima.

The shells fired by the battleship's main gun hit the island heavily after more than ten seconds, and then clouds of black smoke rose up. After a while, a deep and dull explosion was heard. At this time,
Chapter completed!