Chapter 386 Oil Depot and Dock, Blow Them All Up!

At 13:30 on December 7, 1941, Hawaiian time, the aircraft carrier Hiryu

"Report to Rear Admiral Yamaguchi! Currently, the six aircraft carriers in the fleet have dispatched a total of 364 carrier-based aircraft, and the total loss of the two waves of attacks is 54! The third wave of attack is ready! Please give the order!"

As soon as these words came out, Yamaguchi Tamon, who was still resting with his eyes closed, opened his eyes, and then looked at Captain Kaku Tomoo with a look full of praise.

"Good! Very energetic!"

"Pass my order! Let the samurai go immediately! Hurry up and launch the third wave of attack! Whether it is the oil depot or the dock of the ugly country, blow them all up!"

"Although I hate the army idiots, they have a policy that I personally agree with! Kill them all! Loot them all! Burn them all! Wherever the combined fleet goes, there must be no grass left!"

In the process of announcing the order, Yamaguchi Tamon had already entered a state of madness, and even threw a few drops of saliva from the corners of his mouth when he roared.

However, no one at the scene cared about his loss of composure, because the state of others was really not much better than that of their own commander.

No one else, because the gains of this operation were too great, and the entire Pacific Fleet was almost severely damaged by the raiding fleet.

"Hi!"

"I will notify the captains of each formation right away, and by the way, send a copy of the plan to Vice Admiral Nanyun!"

Five minutes later, the Hiryu sent the plan of Yamaguchi Tamon to the nominal commander-in-chief through the flagship and signal lights, and then notified the entire fleet.

After receiving the information handed over by the communications staff, Nanyun Chuichi's face instantly turned liver-colored.

"Huh?"

"Who does that guy think he is? A junior actually wants to command me? A short-sighted guy? He actually wants to launch a third wave of attack!?"

Nanyun's uncontrollable anger is very understandable, because there has never been a precedent of juniors commanding seniors in the IJN.

The first two waves of attack were fine. After all, no matter what, he himself was not as experienced as Yamaguchi Tamon in air force operations, and letting him take temporary command could be said to be a performance of considering the overall situation.

But now the mission has been completed beyond expectations, and the other side still wants to launch a third wave of attack?

Impossible! Absolutely impossible! If I give up power again, wouldn't I be regarded as a coward who is easy to bully by all the senior naval officials?

Moreover, even if the third wave plan succeeds, only a small part of the credit after the war will be credited to me. But if it fails, he will have to bear the infamy of the whole country.

Of course, Chuichi Nanyun will not do such a thankless task.

"Tell Yamaguchi that the warriors of the younger country need to rest. They are no longer able to launch another attack!"

"And my mission is to bring the entire fleet back to the mainland safely, so that the kid will not make trouble for no reason, otherwise I will let him recall the years of Etajima."

Hearing this, the communications staff immediately executed the order of his commander and sent the above words intact.

In fact, in addition to not wanting to take the blame, Nanyun really has his own ideas.

First of all, the take-off and landing of carrier-based aircraft is a very complicated matter. Under normal circumstances, you have to fly a batch of planes out and then take back a batch to continue the bombing mission.

Situations like today where two batches are dispatched one after another are very challenging for the efficiency and basic skills of the deck ground staff, and even the elite among the elite are about to reach their limits.

If the third wave is dispatched now, it will most likely be night when the carrier-based aircraft are recovered.

Even if their naval aviation has the ability to take off and land at night, accidents will definitely happen at that time, causing precious aircraft and pilots to be buried in the sea in vain.

Secondly, every pilot of the six aircraft carriers has gone through several hours of flying and high-intensity combat, and almost all of them are driving fatigued.

Another dispatch will lead to low offensive efficiency, and it will inevitably hit most of the complete Pearl Island air defense. In this way, there is no need to carry out high-risk and unknown-return operations.

Although it is true that I am a battleship faction, the battleship faction also needs carrier-based aircraft to assist in combat.

What's more, the cost of more than 300 fighters is almost equal to the cost of one-third of a Yamato-class battleship. My country is so poor, only ghosts will go crazy with you, Yamaguchi Tamon.

Finally, the entire IJN only focused on combat forces, extremely neglected supplies, and did not understand the importance of bases in the vast Pacific Ocean.

As long as they were fighting, the primary target must be the enemy's combat fleet. They simply ignored things like supply transport ships and never paid attention to destroying transportation lines.

Otherwise, with the number of their submarines, they could definitely play a battle with the Americans. After all, in the naval national policy of a certain 7+ game, the Japanese line emphasized submarine tactics.

In other words, in the original plan, the raiding fleet had no idea of ​​bombing strategic facilities such as oil depots and naval docks.

The boss himself said that once the war started, they would concentrate their firepower to attack the enemy's main fleet, so as to ensure that the key barrier in East Asia would be invincible.

So some pilots who deviated from the route would rather drop bombs on the army barracks in Pearl Harbor, or even bomb schools, rather than try to attack crucial targets such as shipyards, oil depots, and submarine bases.

Let's not talk about anything else, just talk about the Vesta.

After the Arizona exploded, the repair ship was affected by the shock wave, and the captain was blown into the water.

But even so, the pilots of the First Air Fleet were unwilling to make the final move, thus letting go of the strongest nurse in the naval battles of World War II.

Soon, Yamaguchi Tamon on the bridge of the Hiryu received a reply from Nanyun. The crazy major general smiled disdainfully and then threw the letter in his hand into the trash can.

"Short-sighted? The raid on Oahu is a gamble on the fate of the country. We must win, and it must be a full-on win. Only in this way can we buy time for our brother country."

"Now Pearl Harbor is isolated and helpless, and you Nanyun just stopped because you were afraid of losing carrier-based aircraft and pilots! Traitor! He is a complete traitor!"

"I have the oral order of Admiral Yamamoto! Pass my order! Punish the traitors! Let Kusaka Ryunosuke and Genda Minoru take over the command of the First Air Fleet immediately! All responsibilities and consequences will be borne by me alone!"

Is it crazy?

It is indeed crazy.

But it is a traditional custom of the Japanese to overthrow the superiors, not to mention that today is not the first time that Yamaguchi has pointed out Kusaka Nanyun. Who made him really have the hint of Yamamoto's seven times eight.

In fact, at the beginning, the reason why Yamaguchi Tamon attempted to bomb the oil depot and the dock was very simple.

After two rounds of attacks, there were neither land-based fighters that could take off to meet the enemy nor aircraft carrier battle fleets whose whereabouts were unknown on Oahu.

He still had some bombs left, so why not clear out the inventory?

But after seeing Nanyun Chuichi's reply, a bold and cognitive idea suddenly flashed through the old devil's mind.

It seemed that as long as the dock in Pearl Harbor was blown up, the Ugly Pacific Fleet would have to be pulled back to California if it wanted to repair the ship. Wouldn't this back and forth buy a few more months?

Facts have proved that Yamaguchi Tamon's idea was not wrong at all.

In the later Battle of the Coral Sea, the Yorktown was urgently repaired in Pearl Harbor to obtain the title of unsinkable and join the battle again.

If the Yorktown was missing in the Battle of Midway, it would be hard to say who would be the final winner.

After making up his mind, Yamaguchi said to the staff officer waiting on the side:

"A country thief easily sneaked into the rich man's manor, but only touched some silver tableware and ran away in a hurry. This is what our Vice Admiral Nanyun did."

"Don't worry about him, immediately let all carrier-based aircraft take bombs and move out."

"The third wave of attack will focus on attacking the enemy's docks and oil depots. If you really can't find the target, you can bomb the remaining surface ships in the naval port."

Hearing this, the communications staff immediately passed the combat order to the entire fleet. And Kusaka Ryunosuke and Genda Minoru also responded very strongly on the Akagi.

An hour and a half later, a total of 155 carrier-based aircraft in the third wave took off from their respective aircraft carriers in an orderly manner.

Their target is the strategic facilities on Oahu Island.

······

It turns out that the third wave of the attack in the book was not very smooth.

The reason is one word, that is, poverty.

After the second wave of attacks, the entire assault fleet only had 310 250KG high-explosive bombs in stock.

Even if all of these gadgets hit the target and 800KG armor-piercing bombs were added, they could only destroy one-tenth of the Ugly Navy dock under ideal conditions.

Fortunately, Fuchida Mitsuo had some real skills. After he found it difficult to blow up the naval dock, he immediately led his team to the oil depot on Ford Island.

There were several aviation fuel tanks there, which were enough to make the subsequent aviation forces lose their combat endurance in a short period of time after being blown up.

As for why they didn't choose to blow up heavy oil?

It's very simple, because the damage effect is not very good.

Each oil tank over there is surrounded by a pile of soil, making the foundation of the oil tank itself lower than the surrounding land. Even if the fuel leaks out after being hit, it will be confined to burn in the trench first.

Secondly, there are firebreaks surrounding the oil tanks, which can play a good isolation role.

Finally, there are pipeline equipment under the oil tanks, which can pump out the oil stored in the threatened oil tanks in an emergency to isolate the possibility of explosion.

Moreover, most of the oil depots in the port area store heavy oil that burns less violently than gasoline, and will not produce the effect of deflagration, which is relatively difficult to spread.

Instead of going to the trouble of bombing the other three oil depots, it is better to concentrate on Ford Island.

Of course, due to the influence of wind direction and wind speed, the actions of Mitsuo Fuchida and his team were not smooth. The black smoke caused by the aviation fuel greatly reduced the hit rate of the dive bombers in the formation.

After the entire third wave was completed, the effect can only be said to be like bombing, better than nothing.

The real bombing of the dock depends on the performance of the Eighth Master Air Force in 1942. (End of this chapter)