stonecrandall Chapter 312
Chapter 312
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“Quick, hurry and save people!”
Suzuki Kantaro was stunned by this scene. It took him a long time to react. He hurriedly ordered the fleet to come over and rescue the soldiers who fell into the water.
The troop transport ship sunk by the mine was called Saikyo Maru. It was a large merchant ship with a tonnage of more than 20,000 tons. Because of its large internal space, it was requisitioned by the Foot Basin Navy and used as a troop transport ship to perform this mission! There was a regiment on this troop transport ship, more than 2,000 soldiers, plus crew members and sailors. The total number of people on Saikyo Maru was close to 2,600!
After all, Saikyo Maru was just a merchant ship, not a warship, so it was built At that time, they had hardly considered the issue of armor and protection.
Therefore, after being hit by the mine, the huge power of the mine directly sank it in two parts.
The 20,000-ton troop carrier broke directly in the middle and split into two parts, sinking into the depths of the sea!
The surrounding Japanese soldiers were stunned by the explosion.
They had never seen such a shocking explosion.
The fire from the explosion and the towering water column made them lose consciousness.
They stood on the deck like wooden sticks, with their eyes wide open, and watched this scene stupidly.
“Quick, quick, come over, come over and save people!”
Until the commander on the ship shouted loudly, until the stirred-up water column fell back to the sea surface with a splashing sound, until the cries for help and cries of thousands of soldiers were heard, the other soldiers in the combined fleet reacted, shouted and lowered the boat, and rushed towards the scene of the incident with all their might, trying to rescue their companions who fell into the water.
In the navies of various countries, there is a course that specifically focuses on self-rescue and survival at sea.
At this time, Lieutenant Commander Yamamoto Fifty-roku, who was riding in a lifeboat and anxiously searching for his companions on the sea, remembered the words that the instructors had once seriously warned them when they were studying at the Imperial Naval University:
Remember , at sea, once a warship sinks for some reason, the soldiers who fall into the water must swim out of the area where the warship is in the shortest possible time, otherwise, the whirlpool caused by the sinking of the warship will suck all the people nearby into the seabed, and the huge suction will make you sink into the abyss of hundreds of meters, and there will be no chance of survival!
Although the Xijing Maru is not a warship, it is an ultra-large merchant ship with a tonnage of up to 20,000 tons. If such a ship sinks, the whirlpool caused may be even larger than that of a warship. Therefore, if the soldiers who fell into the water near the Xijing Maru cannot be rescued in the first time, most of them will probably be sucked into the seabed by the whirlpool and buried with the Xijing Maru!
“”Hurry, faster!”
Yamamoto Isoroku urged the driver. He was extremely anxious to reach the scene of the incident as soon as possible. The earlier they arrived, the more time they had to save people!
Like Yamamoto Isoroku, there were many anxious people in the Combined Fleet. The nearby battleships Hiei and Nagato approached the scene of the incident at the first opportunity, trying to rescue the soldiers who fell into the water as much as possible.
However, they seemed to have forgotten one thing. Before figuring out the reason why the Saikyo Maru was sunk, it was a very dangerous move to approach rashly like this!
Boom!
There was a loud bang, followed by another column of fire and water shooting up into the sky.
The Hiei, which was in the front, shook violently.
A huge gap was blown near the waterline on the left side, and a large amount of seawater quickly poured in.
Thousands of tons of seawater poured in within just a few minutes.
The Hiei tilted to the left at a speed visible to the naked eye, and as the seawater continued to pour in, the angle of the Hiei tilted more and more.
The soldiers on the ship gradually stood up and slid off the deck like dumplings, falling into the sea, splashing water!
“It’s a mine!”
The accident of the Hiei hitting a mine finally woke up the commander of the Combined Fleet. Suzuki Kantaro’s eyes widened, and he grabbed the handrail on the bridge and growled,”Someone actually laid mines here!”
The weapon of mines is not unfamiliar to the navies of various countries. Twenty years ago, the Chinese used this weapon to block the outlet of the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Bear, causing the Pacific Fleet to be completely destroyed.
But now the situation has changed. China has also begun to use mines as a weapon to deal with the Chinese Fleet, resulting in the loss of a troop transport ship and the damage of a battleship to the Combined Fleet!
“”Commander, what should we do now? Should we rescue the Hiei immediately?”
The Hiei hitting a mine not only woke up Suzuki Kantaro, but also other people in the Combined Fleet.
They all realized that they had entered a minefield laid by the Chinese!
Once a mine is dropped into the sea, it will constantly change its position with the fluctuations of wind, waves and tides. Therefore, in places where mines are infested, whether it is a warship or a civilian ship, if you encounter such a thing, you must go around it. Otherwise, once you are hit by a mine, the consequences will be unbearable for anyone!
The Saikyo Maru was hit by only one mine and was blown up on the spot. Two pieces, it sank directly.
Although the Hiei was a battleship, it had much more heavy armor protection than the Saikyo Maru, but even so, after being hit by a mine, they also tilted seriously, and the battleship was about to lose balance and fall upside down on the sea!
At this time, before it was determined how many mines the Celestial Empire had deployed and what kind of mines they had deployed, no one in the combined fleet dared to act rashly!
Just kidding, if a few more warships were hit by mines, their entire fleet would probably be destroyed!
“Pass on my order, tell all ships to slow down, retreat carefully, and leave the minefield!”
Suzuki Kantaro clenched his fists and issued the order to retreat with difficulty.
Although he was extremely unwilling, he had no choice at this moment. If he continued to stay where he was, once the mines were blown over by the sea breeze, their entire fleet might be in danger. So the best way was to retreat, leave the minefield, and then wait for the arrival of the local minesweeper. After the minesweeper cleared the mines in this minefield, they could continue to move forward.
“But what about the Hiei and Saikyo Maru?”
The captain was surprised to hear Suzuki Kantaro’s order to withdraw the troops, and he asked almost subconsciously.
“Let all the warships lower the remaining small boats on board, use the small boats to transport all the damage control personnel and equipment on each ship to the Hiei, plug the holes in the Hiei as much as possible, and then rescue the soldiers who fell into the water!”
For the navy, the loss of the troop transport ship was the army, but if the Hiei sank, it would be the navy’s assets that would be lost.
Moreover, the Saikyo Maru has now sunk, and most of the soldiers on board have fallen into the sea. The fate of the Saikyo Maru is already doomed, and now they can only recover the losses as much as possible.
The Hiei is different. The Hiei can still struggle and can be rescued. If they give up the Hiei now, this warship of more than 30,000 tons is very likely to sink, and the more than 1,200 officers and soldiers on board will probably suffer heavy casualties!
Should they risk losing 1,200 naval soldiers and a precious main battleship to rescue a sunken civilian ship and hundreds of scattered army soldiers who fell into the sea?
Or should they give priority to rescuing a 30,000-ton main battleship!
I believe that this choice will be made by anyone who is not a fool. , can easily make a choice!
Suzuki Kantaro is certainly not a fool, so when he faced the choice, he gave priority to the navy and put the safety of the army ibex aside!
After this order was issued, the Combined Fleet breathed a sigh of relief and sent small boats with personnel and supplies to rescue the Hiei.
As for the army ibex who was shouting for help on the sea?
At this time, the navy was busy with its own affairs, so who had time to care about the life and death of these army ibex?
The army general in charge of this operation, Lieutenant General Muto Nobuyoshi, saw that the navy did not save the army, and he was so angry that he cursed and scolded Suzuki Kantaro and the ancestors of the Combined Fleet!
Starting with the Saikyo Maru incident, the contradiction between the navy and the army began to become public, which laid the groundwork for the subsequent defeat of the war in the foot basin! _Feilu reminds you: Three things to read-