Chapter 2717 The Attack Begins

It seems that God is on our side this time. The weather is fine tonight and the moon is shining brightly. Order, according to the scheduled plan, the first armored cruiser squadron, the first battleship squadron and the attached fleet will set off immediately, and other battleships will cover the aircraft carrier squadron and enter the scheduled response area to wait for our return. "Looking at the darkening sky, Sims said.

"As you command," Magiffin said, bringing Sims photos of the last long-distance reconnaissance. "The Japanese finally became aware of our actions. They spent about a day evacuating the fleet on Tarakan Island, which reduced our profits, and they seemed to have strengthened the air defense in the port area. Four of our reconnaissance planes were shot down by the Japanese air force."

"Okay, let's not talk about this anymore. It is indeed a pity that the Japanese ship escaped, but this is just a trivial matter. It doesn't matter if there are more intercepted aircraft. They cannot pose a threat to us at night, and during the day, we evacuated." said Let’s talk about the key points, such as the target firepower arrangement we attack and the response to possible threats,” Sims said.

"The Japanese almost inherited the oil industry of the Dutch in Tarakan Island, and expanded it on the original basis. The main oil production area of ​​Tarakan Island is in the southwest of the island, and then the Japanese came here again. A refinery and oil depot have been built nearby. The refinery is located in an area close to the inland, at the edge of the range of our naval guns. In order to destroy it as much as possible, we need to use special long-range artillery shells. The oil depot is on the seaside, and can be handed over to the cruiser. ” said Maggie Fen.

"The oil refinery is not too far from the seaside. If our fleet bombardment array can be moved further forward, ordinary high-explosive bombs will be enough." Sims said.

"There will be certain risks. Look here, the place where our fleet is actually deployed is the front sea area between Tarakan Island and Kalimantan Island. There are many shoals here that are not suitable for large fleet operations, and our The plane discovered that the Japanese were deploying mines and a large number of torpedo boats. If they were too close, both mines and torpedo boats would pose a certain threat to us. So we must be outside this line. In addition, the staff and I After studying the hydrological data provided by the Dutch, we also believe that it is reasonable to go farther," said Magiffin.

"Some areas of the oil field are relatively far away, so we also need to use the attached ultra-long-range artillery shells, so we allocated all long-range targets. The port is the closest to us, and it is not too expensive except for the oil depot, some pipelines, and shore facilities. supplies, so we can assign the strike mission to General Fletcher Jr.’s heavy cruiser squadron and destroyer squadron. In this way, we can save some ammunition," Sims said.

"Also, are our seaplanes ready? Divide the seaplanes into two groups, one group is used to assist the battleships in correcting fire, and the other group assists in searching for Japanese torpedo boats. These little guys are very impressive in the narrow sea area. Annoying," Sims added after a moment's thought.

It takes at least 6 hours to sail from the final attack starting position to the place where the naval guns can fire.

The Americans still had some deviations in their calculation of time. Long-term high-speed sailing caused overheating problems in the power systems of some warships. Therefore, in the second half of the trip, the U.S. Navy's speed was actually slower than the planned speed. . And this ultimately directly squeezed the time that the U.S. Navy could use to attack. After all, the Americans had to leave before dawn. Otherwise, if they failed to escape the attack range of Japan's land-based aviation forces once dawn broke, they would be unable to escape. A sea and air battle will be inevitable.

Therefore, in the last period of time, the Americans optimized their attack plan as much as possible and assigned tasks to each battleship. When it was close to early morning, the American fleet led by Sims finally saw the moon in the moonlight. The ups and downs of Taragan Island were reached, and with an order, dozens of various seaplanes took off from the aircraft carrier, and the destroyers that arrived first had already begun to cover the minesweepers to clear the channel ahead. The US fleet decided to get closer. . But before the large-caliber naval guns of the American battleships landed on Tarakan Island, the battle at sea suddenly broke out!

The 10 destroyers were divided into 5 teams and lined up in a neat formation to sweep the mines in the designated sea area. There are two main types of Japanese mines. One is the floating mine, which can be thrown directly. It is easy for the mine body to float on the water. The deployment is also easy to sweep away. After discovering it with a searchlight, just shoot with a small weapon.

The other type is the anchor mine. The mine is fixed on the seabed with an anchor. Some mines are completely under the sea water. When a ship attacks from above, it will cause changes in the water flow, and this change will stimulate the water in the mine. An electro-hydraulic pressure fuse detonates the mine. The latter is difficult to deploy, and is generally used to defend submarines. The number deployed before is not large, but it is more difficult to remove. It is necessary to use the destroyer in the formation to carry a minesweeper saw to cut the mine anchor chain and then wait for the mine to float up before destroying it.

Because it is minesweeping, the route must be fixed. At the same time, in order to detect floating mines on the water, the destroyers responsible for minesweeping must also turn on their lights. Therefore, in this night, the minesweeper destroyers are as conspicuous as giant light bulbs. Now the question is, in this case, if the Japanese don't hit you, who will they hit?

A small group of torpedo boats quietly slipped in along the edge of the coastline. They made full use of the cover of the island background and the shallow draft of their own ships to quietly arrive about 3,000 meters away from the US minesweeping destroyer squadron. They wait quietly, like killers hiding in the dark night. Either they don't take action, but once they do, it will be fatal!

"Okay, we have reached the edge, it's time to turn." As the signal light on the leading destroyer came on, one by one the minesweeper teams began to turn the ship. However, at this time, when the destroyer squadron experienced some confusion due to the change of formation, At the same time, when the destroyer's wide side was exposed to the attack of torpedo boats, the Japanese decisively launched an attack!

The torpedo boat, which had been running at idle speed, began to accelerate and rushed towards the US destroyer in the distance. At this time, the destroyer performing the minesweeping mission was not very fast, and the Japanese penetration was very good. The nearest torpedo boat of the US Navy was only 2,100 meters away. ! In other words, this torpedo boat can mainly save up to 1,500 meters. For a torpedo boat with a maximum speed of more than 35 knots, 1,500 meters only takes one minute!

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