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Chapter 57: Old and Young

As the captain of the destroyer of the DDG101 "Gridley", Major Westhofen gave people the first impression that he was serious and was very serious in dealing with people.

At the age of eighteen, before entering the Anabolis Naval Academy with a letter of recommendation from the governor, Westhofen's ideal was to become a surgeon like his father. A car accident took his father's life and changed his family background. In order to allow his two younger brothers to enter college, he gave up the opportunity to go to Harvard and applied for a full scholarship from the federal government with all the best scores, and was later admitted to the U.S. Naval Officer's School.

Compared with the students of the same period, Westhofen is two years older.

The age gap made him very unsociable in school and became more and more withdrawn. But this did not prevent him from graduating with the first place in the grade and becoming a US Navy officer.

Seven years after graduation, Westhofen took up command for the first time, serving as captain of the ffg40 "Haliburton" and was promoted to Navy Captain.

With his performance, Westhofen boarded the destroyer three years later and became the major captain of the "Kidd".

Good luck ended here. With the sale of the Kidd to Taiwan, Westhofen left the command post. According to the US military's practice, officers like Westhofen who served on warships for more than ten years will be reused when they return to the office. However, the scandal that broke out after the sale of the Kidd ship made him sit in the office for eight years as a major. The major who was promoted to the same period as him had long been a colonel.

It was not until three years ago that Westhofen had the opportunity to "start again".

Five years after the USS Gridley served, he welcomed the second captain. The captain was even more unlucky than Westhofen: he broke the big tui on the first day of boarding the warship. Because the former captain died in a car accident half a month later, many people regarded this brand new destroyer as an unknown object.

Westhofen seized the opportunity and took the initiative to apply to serve on the Gridley.

His application was soon approved to become the acting captain of the USS Gridley. Half a year later, a command from the Ministry of Defense made him officially become the captain.

For more than two years, Westhofen has worked diligently and has been very cautious in dealing with things.

The efforts finally paid off. The personnel transfer order has been sent to the Pacific Fleet Command. After completing this mission, he will be promoted to Navy Lieutenant Colonel and serve as the formation tactical commander on the "Washington".

If it weren't for the battle that took place in the Jeju Strait two days ago, he had now arrived on the USS Washington.

When the USS Gridley departed from the San Diego Naval Base in California, Westhofen received an order to go to the Seventh Fleet and be incorporated into the USS Washington aircraft carrier battle group. Although the formation tactical commander has not yet left, the coalition forces need an experienced officer to be responsible for the combat coordination of US and Korean warships, which is very likely to allow Westhofen to take office early, and the USS Gridley gives deputy captain Captain Harry.

Two days ago, when we were about to arrive at the Jinqing Strait, the new order changed the voyage of the "Gridley".

The destroyer turned south and rushed to Naha at full speed to meet with the soon-departing transport fleet. Westhofen temporarily served as the commander of the escort formation.

The sister ship DDG97 "Halsey" was also accompanied by the "Gridley".

Before arriving in the eastern waters of Jeju Island, two South Korean Navy's "Ulsan"-class frigates joined in and took on the forward anti-submarine mission.

At this time, Westhofen encountered some trouble.

The two Korean captains seemed unhappy with his arrangement, thinking that the frigate should stay near the formation, rather than acting as a bait for hunting dives in front of the formation.

The Korean captain's dissatisfaction is not unreasonable.

The naval battle two days ago has proved that the "Ulsan" class's anti-submarine capabilities are very limited. When encountering submarines with advanced capabilities, especially conventional submarines, there is no chance of survival. Putting two frigates in a formation is to let them serve as bait to attract submarines.

In fact, that's what Westhofen thinks.

If there are enemy submarines on the route, it is much better to lose two frigates than to be attacked by a "wolf pack" in the fleet.

You should know that the transport ship is loaded with combat supplies from the First Land Warrior Division, and the five strategic pre-set ships are even more important. The cabin is filled with the main combat equipment of the Second Land Warrior Division.

There must be no mistakes!

Allen dispatched the "Gridley" to strengthen the escort force and allowed Westhofen to serve as the formation commander, hoping that the experienced "old and young major" could deliver the goods safely.

Although the Korean captain was also a major, he had no say in front of Westhofen.

The closer you get to Tsushima Island, the less calm the sea surface.

Not only four warships were covered, but also four P-3c anti-submarine patrol aircraft, as well as more than a dozen anti-submarine helicopters deployed on Jeju Island and southern South Korea. In order to assist the US-South Korea coalition forces, Japan also dispatched several frigates to patrol the Tsushima Strait.

Of course, these frigates will not participate in combat operations and will only operate in Japanese territorial waters.

This arrangement made Westhofen decide to go to the Tsukuma Strait, turn to Busan on the north side of Tsukuma Island, and then go north along the South Korean coastline.

It was just what just happened that changed his mind.

The message sent by the anti-submarine patrol aircraft was very clear: there was at least one submarine in the Jeju Strait, and after the submarine was discovered by the anti-submarine patrol aircraft, it did not sail westward, but turned around and lost its trace at the eastern end of the strait, more than 20 nautical miles away from Tsushima Island.

The South Korean Navy has stepped up offshore anti-submarine patrols to prevent submarines from approaching Busan Port from offshore waterways.

Anti-submarine patrol aircraft set up a net of heaven and earth at the eastern end of the strait.

But a few times passed, and the submarine still did not appear.

There is only one reasonable explanation: after getting rid of the anti-submarine patrol aircraft, the submarine turned north of Tsubasa Island and entered Tsubasa Strait, perhaps somewhere in the north end of the strait.

Now, the route from Tsushima Strait to Busan is not so safe.

Westhofen had to consider that the submarine deliberately traveled violently in the Busan Strait, with the purpose of allowing the transport fleet to enter the Tsushima Strait.

The message sent by the anti-submarine patrol aircraft mentioned that when the submarine floated, it did not send a radio bo.

In other words, the submarine was either receiving information from communication satellites or was no longer mysterious.

No matter which case, it means that the Chinese submarines gathered nearby have likely gone to the Tsushima Strait and an ambush circle is set up at the northern end of the strait.

How many Chinese submarines are there near here?

Information already available shows that at least four Chinese submarines were active in the Yellow Sea, and four submarines operating in the East China Sea were heading north two days ago.

If the Volunteers were determined to destroy the transport fleet, they would definitely send all these submarines.

Facing eight submarines, Westhofen was not sure. Maybe he could sink several submarines in battle, but as long as one submarine broke through the anti-submarine network of the escort warship, he could sink enough transport ships within a few minutes, causing unbearable losses.

You must never be careless, even if you change the schedule.

Westhofen was not the kind of indecisive soldier. After making a decision, he issued an order to sail to the Busan Strait and go from the near-shore route to Busan.

As long as it is close enough to the coast, the threat posed by the submarine can be curbed.

Of course, this requires the arrangement of routes in mind, because there are hundreds of islands in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The nearshore waters are not only shallow in the depth of the water, but also densely covered with reefs. It is nothing to pass through the xiǎo type ship, but for large transport ships and strategic pre-installed ships with draft depths exceeding ten meters, the nearshore waterways are full of traps.

At this time, two open-circuit Korean frigates became crucial.

The Korean captain was not only more familiar with this sea area, but also used the sonar on the frigate to measure the depth of the channel and find the waterways that could pass for the large ships behind.

To be on the right hand side, Westhofen also asked four helicopters on the destroyer to take turns to patrol the right side of the fleet.

The South Korean Navy was also very active and sent all the nearby anti-submarine helicopters.

The P-3c that had been patrolling the periphery were all concentrated over the strait to provide peripheral anti-submarine cover for the fleet.

Wang Yuhan didn't know about these things, so the "Sea Snake" turned and rushed directly to Busan Port, but the other submarines that received the order were not so lucky.

At that time, except for the Type 040 that had entered the strait, two Type 039 and a Type 636 submarine were both at the western end of the strait.

When the fleet arrived at the waters near Hongdao, they were still more than 40 kilometers away.

This distance exceeds the maximum range of 533 mm heavy torpedoes. Because the fleet turns to the northeast, even if it is closer, the torpedoes will not come in handy.

The three submarines were not equipped with 650 mm heavy torpedoes, so they could only launch attacks with anti-ship missiles.

However, even if the three conventional submarines loaded the torpedo tubes into anti-ship missiles, they could only fire fourteen, which was far from the minimum standard of saturation attack. Before hitting the transport ship, anti-ship missiles had to break through the air defense firepower network of the two Aegis destroyers.

Because the Type 039 generally only carries four anti-ship missiles, and at least one torpedo tube must be loaded with torpedo tubes, while the Type 636 can only use four fish to launch anti-ship missiles at the same time, so three submarines can only launch at most ten missiles at one attack.

Regardless of whether ten missiles can achieve results, the three submarines faithfully implemented the orders issued by the Volunteer Navy Commander.

The problem is that the three submarines did not launch missiles at the same time, but chose to launch missiles at the most favorable time, that is, after the transport fleet entered the sonar detection area of ​​the submarine, they respectively launched missiles.

The first one to take action was the Type 636 submarine, because only this submarine was equipped with "club" anti-ship missiles imported from Russia.

At that time, the transport fleet had just bypassed Hongdao and was turning.

About five minutes later, the two 039 models successively launched three c-802s.

The submarine launches shè missiles cleanly and without dragging them. They just have little threat to transport fleets dozens of kilometers away.

At that time, the Gridley was at the end of the formation.

Westhofen seemed to guess that there was danger behind him. When the formation was turning, the destroyer slowed down his speed and chose a larger steering radius.
Chapter completed!