.Chapter 58 Submarine Ambush

When the "Stingray" class on the second cordon was discovered, it was located on the short side of the elliptical route and was at the far end of the route. Therefore, the side side was aimed at the direction of the US joint fleet, and the US joint fleet was discovered more than 100 kilometers away. Ranking of overhead historical novels

Before ten o'clock, the submarine floated to the depth of the periscope and sent a telegram.

Because the US submarine was not discovered, the boat did not escape after diving to 650 meters in an emergency, but sailed forward for more than ten nautical miles at full speed, then quickly reduced the speed to eight knots, then slowly turned around and aimed the boat's head at the approaching US joint fleet.

This series of tactical maneuvers have made all-electric submarines occupy a very advantageous position.

At that time, the US warship intercepted the telegram sent by the submarine and made accurate judgments. The escort warships moving forward also dispatched anti-submarine helicopters.

Unfortunately, the Fourth Fleet did not dispatch anti-submarine patrol aircraft again.

After the last false alarm, the US military seemed to relax its vigilance.

In fact, this has nothing to do with the Fourth Fleet's anti-submarine combat staff. Because the anti-submarine patrol aircraft also belongs to the carrier-based aviation force, the anti-submarine combat staff has no right to directly mobilize them and must issue instructions through the aviation combat staff. At that time, the aviation combat staff was arranging the second round of reconnaissance operations that night, so when it was clear that there were Chinese submarines ahead, the US military did not take action in a timely manner.

The result is that the anti-submarine combat staff can only mobilize anti-submarine helicopters on the escort warships.

Compared with the anti-submarine patrol aircraft carried by aircraft carriers, anti-submarine helicopters are much slower.

By the time the US anti-submarine helicopter arrived, the "Stingray" class fully electric submarine had left the dangerous waters and slowed down.

In other words, the submarine was already in an absolutely quiet state at this time, and the sound made was flooded by the ocean background noise.

The US anti-submarine helicopter searched for more than an hour before finally flying away. It was not until half past 11 that the US aircraft carrier dispatched two anti-submarine patrol aircraft to conduct a second search of the sea areas that appeared in the "stingray" class. Obviously, this practice of making up for the failure will not have any results.

What's even more sad is that Reagan and Nixon didn't know that there was danger ahead until this time.

According to the combat records of the US Joint Fleet, Reagan and Nixon were still arguing about reconnaissance operations at that time. Nixon insisted on sending reconnaissance aircraft near Digo Garcia. Reagan believed that there was no need for this and only allowed to send reconnaissance aircraft to Digo Garcia south and east.

Although it is impossible to confirm whether the anti-submarine combat staff of the Fourth Fleet reported the situation in a timely manner, based on the situation at that time, even if it was reported, Reagan might not have time to pay attention to it.

Of course, the US anti-submarine warfare staff are still fulfilling their duties. Ranking of fictional historical novels

According to the US military's combat records, before midnight on the 26th, he arranged six anti-submarine patrol aircraft to prepare for a third search of the waters ahead.

Unfortunately, this batch of anti-submarine patrol aircraft failed to set off in time.

According to Reagan's arrangement, the second batch of reconnaissance aircraft will take off on time at midnight, one-third of reconnaissance aircraft will continue to expand its search range westward, and two-thirds of reconnaissance aircraft will fly northward to search for the waters east of the Maldives Islands. Because the Fourth Fleet is in front and Nixon is unwilling to act as Reagan's instructions, he can only use the Fourth Fleet fighter jets when arranging reconnaissance aircraft.

The result is that the first thing to do is to let the reconnaissance planes take off.

This time, the US military dispatched 72 reconnaissance aircraft, which was equivalent to twenty-four aircraft per aircraft carrier.

Because it was not a combat dispatch, and the Fourth Fleet undertakes the main combat mission more than a month ago, when it attacked the Chinese Navy's West Indian Ocean Fleet, the air service personnel did not use the catapult at the maximum efficiency when releasing the fighter jets, but at the best efficiency. In other words, the catapults on the US aircraft carriers were ejected at a speed of one every two minutes.

You should know that in combat situations, the electromagnetic catapults on the "American" class aircraft carrier can eject fighters at a speed of one every twenty seconds. However, under this intensity of use, the life of the electromagnetic catapult is only 1,200 times, and reducing the catapult frequency to one every two minutes allows the catapult to cool enough time, and the service life can reach 2,400 times, which is twice as high.

Obviously, this is not a good thing.

It was not until 0:20 that the anti-submarine patrol aircraft arranged by the Fourth Fleet's anti-submarine combat staff were sent to the flight deck.

Five minutes later, the three aircraft carriers each dispatched two anti-submarine patrol aircraft.

It will take another five minutes before these six anti-submarine patrol aircraft can reach more than 40 nautical miles ahead of the fleet.

By midnight, the Fourth Fleet had sailed westward for two and a half hours at a speed of 33 knots, equivalent to sailing 82 nautical miles, or about 150 kilometers. At this time, the "Stingray"-class submarine that had previously discovered the US Joint Fleet had been waiting patiently for two and a half hours in the northwest direction, and the distance with the US Joint Fleet was shortened to within 40 kilometers.

Shortly after the US anti-submarine patrol aircraft took off, the "Stingray" class submarine launched the torpedoes from six torpedo tubes without reservation.

At that time, all heavy torpedoes of the Chinese Navy were electrified.

After using the first generation of fuel cells, even a 533 mm heavy torpedo can sail 60 kilometers at a maximum of 75 knots, or a 120 kilometers at a medium speed of 50 knots, with a range of 1.5 times that of the previous heavy torpedoes using Otto fuel. If it is a 650 mm heavy torpedo, it can sail 80 kilometers at a maximum of 80 knots. The complete collection of burning oceans

These two kinds of torpedoes are more than enough to deal with fleets forty kilometers away.

Sixteen minutes later, at 0:43 am on the 26th, a violent explosion occurred on the outside of the balancing hull on the right of the Fourth Fleet, which was located in front of the right of the USS America's aircraft carrier. Then a second explosion occurred at the front of the main hull. In an instant, the super cruiser with a displacement of more than 24,000 tons turned seriously right. Three minutes later, the sea water swallowed the entire balancing hull on the right. Things happened so suddenly that before the captain could order, the balancing hull sank.

One minute later, a multi-purpose destroyer behind the Bainbridge was attacked. The torpedo avoided the balanced hull on the right side of the destroyer and exploded under the main hull, and there were two explosions that occurred almost simultaneously. The super destroyer with a displacement of 18,000 tons was directly blown into two pieces and sank in less than two minutes. None of the 184 officers and soldiers of the ship escaped.

Obviously, by this time, Mu Haoyang did not want to take risks.

In fact, when planning this combat operation, he did not think about taking the last fleet of the Chinese Navy to take risks.

Sometimes, relatively conservative play is more stable.

Volume 2 Prelude to Crazy Chapter 59 Hesitation

Chapter 59 Hesitation

For the US military, what happened in the early morning of the 26th was not just as simple as losing two large warships.

It was not until this time that Reagan learned that he had intercepted a telegram from a Chinese submarine more than two hours ago, and the sending location was near the waters where the fleet was attacked. Compared with the encounter on the afternoon of the 25th, there is enough reason to believe that the one he encountered was also a Chinese submarine.

Although at this time, Reagan made an accurate judgment that the US joint fleet broke through the two submarine cordons of the Chinese Navy, instead of entering the ambush circle of Chinese submarines, otherwise the attack in the early morning would not be so simple, but the next judgment would not be that simple. Ranking of overhead historical novels

What anti-submarine warfare staff are most worried about is being besieged by Chinese submarines.

Even if Reagan's inference is correct, it also shows that there are many Chinese submarines nearby, and these submarines are likely to have received news and are rushing over. Judging from the sudden attack in the early morning, if similar situations occur again, the losses of the US task force will be even heavier.

Of course, Reagan didn't think so.

In his opinion, the submarine threat is still secondary.

The subsequent investigation proved his point. When the USS Bainbridge was hit by a torpedo, it did not start the anti-submarine detection system, so no approaching torpedo was found. An anti-submarine destroyer about ten kilometers ahead of the USS Bainbridge detected the torpedo and issued an alarm, but it was not received by the USS Bainbridge. Because Reagan ordered the radio to be kept silent, the anti-submarine destroyer used a directional communication system to issue an alarm, and the USS Bainbridge communication officer was killed, so it was impossible to determine why the cruiser did not receive the alarm. From this, it is inferred that the US Joint Fleet had sufficient anti-submarine power, but it was not good at using it.

In addition, the anti-torpedo methods of the USS also have been proven.

For Reagan, the biggest problem is that the US joint fleet has been exposed, and the squadron's reconnaissance planes are likely to be rushing over.

In the fleet combat, it is only one step away from losing.

More importantly, by this time, the reconnaissance planes he sent still did not discover the Chinese fleet.

After two o'clock, Brigadier General Nixon raised objections again and asked for a full-scale search, especially near Digo Garcia, in case of sudden attacks.

Unfortunately, Major General Reagan once again rejected Nixon's proposal.

This time, Reagan did not do anything wrong, because the first thing he had to consider was not to find the Chinese fleet, but whether to fully modify the combat plan.

There were enough reasons to convince him that the U.S. joint fleet could no longer operate in covertly.

At 2:30, an anti-submarine patrol aircraft flying from the north proved his judgment, because the patrol aircraft not only used sea search radar, but also turned around urgently about 350 kilometers away from the US joint fleet. By the time the US warships reacted, they had already flew out of the interception area of ​​the air defense missiles.

Reagan had no choice but to arrange early warning aircraft and carrier-based fighter jets to launch and expand the air defense range.

Now, the choice before Reagan is: move forward, or backward.

If you advance, you have to bear the huge risk of fighting without knowing the whereabouts of the Chinese fleet. If you retreat, you will inevitably lose Digo Garcia.

Judging from the situation at that time, what Reagan should do most was to make a decision as soon as possible, rather than weighing the pros and cons.

If the US Joint Fleet continues to advance, it must expand its search range and stay outside the strike range of the Chinese shore-based aviation force as much as possible. Although the situation is very weak against the US Joint Fleet, the US military has a considerable military advantage, so it can retain an aviation strike force that is comparable to the task force while strengthening its reconnaissance efforts, thereby gaining the opportunity to compete with the task force.

In fact, because the US military has six aircraft carriers, three of which are the "American" class super aircraft carriers with similar performance to the "Tarshan" class, the US military has a relatively outstanding advantage in the application efficiency of carrier-based fighter jets, and still has a relatively obvious strike advantage after a large number of reconnaissance aircraft were dispatched.

Choosing to retreat is not necessarily a bad thing.

In this case, Mu Haoyang would have no choice but to let the landing fleet set out and launch combat operations to attack Digo Garcia in advance. The task force had no choice but to maneuver to the waters of the Maldives Islands to provide cover and support for the landing fleet.

In other words, as long as the landing battle begins, the task force will lose combat flexibility.

In other words, the US military will have greater confidence in judging the whereabouts of the task force.

Judging from the situation at that time, the worst result was indecision. You should know that when Reagan was hesitating, the US Joint Fleet was still sailing west at a speed of 33 knots, and there was no secret of whereabouts, and the opportunity for Mu Haoyang to wait was also coming.

Unfortunately, Reagan was a little undecided at this time.

In fact, this has something to do with his service experience, as he was the fleet's aviation combat staff before becoming the commander of the aircraft carrier battle group.

This position is required to be as meticulous as possible.

In some aspects, Reagan is very similar to Yang Yufang. When considering fleet combat, they try to think carefully and will not take action before considering it. At some point, this is a manifestation of stability. In special circumstances, it is a waste of time.

Obviously, General Jordan asked Reagan to command the joint fleet, probably because he felt that he was very steady.

In the next few hours, Reagan neither made a decision nor continued to discuss with Nixon, but was thinking alone.

If he is a decisive person, this is not a big problem.

The problem is that he is not a decisive person.

In the early morning... the first batch of reconnaissance aircraft returned, and at this time the second batch of reconnaissance aircraft had reached the maximum reconnaissance radius, and none of them sent a message back.

In other words, the second batch of reconnaissance aircraft did not gain any results.

… Half, Reagan approved the third round of reconnaissance operations and asked the Third Fleet to send reconnaissance aircraft.

The reason is very simple. The first two batches of reconnaissance aircraft were dispatched by the Fourth Fleet, and the first batch of reconnaissance aircraft had just landed on the aircraft carrier after returning, and some of them were still on the flight deck. The three "US"-class aircraft carriers were not very efficient in dispatching, and the reconnaissance aircraft could not be lifted off for the time being.

Nixon accepted the order and modified the reconnaissance plan without authorization.

According to his deployment, in addition to dispatching thirty-six reconnaissance aircraft to the west and north at Reagan's request, the three aircraft carriers also sent four reconnaissance aircraft to concentrate on searching the northwest direction.

Nixon's move almost saved the United States Fleet.

You should know that the task force was northwest of Digo Garcia, with an exact location about 700 kilometers west of Male Island in the Maldives Islands.

Judging from some information released after the war, if Mu Haoyang adopted Gong Jifei's suggestion in the early morning and approached the US joint fleet to the southeast, then before dawn, at least one reconnaissance plane sent by Nixon to the northwest would be encountered before dawn, at around six o'clock.

Fortunately, Mu Haoyang did not adopt Gong Jifei's suggestion and still allowed the task force to stay outside the search range of the US reconnaissance aircraft.

In fact, the third reconnaissance operation of the US Joint Fleet was not smooth.
To be continued...