Chapter 29: A Dozen White Bone Spirits (Part 2)
The first torpedo hit was the flagship "Saikyo Maru" of Kasumi, two torpedoes accurately hit this substitute cruiser, which is actually a passenger ship with guns. In an instant of fierce explosion, Kasumi was bounced up and heavily collided with the driving platform, and then there was no next. The entire bow of this 2,900-ton passenger ship was blown off, and it began to sink within minutes, with the stern rising higher and higher.
The Japanese landing fleet seemed to have not reacted yet, several destroyers were making a hard turn to the right, preparing to drive away a large group of unknown ships rushing from the north at high speed, while the remaining transport and escort ships, some still did not know what had happened, others intended to approach the sinking "Saikyo Maru" to rescue people on board.
Within minutes of the first explosion, several ships in the Japanese landing fleet began exploding, with smaller ones blowing into several pieces and larger ones faring little better, splitting apart or capsizing, churning the sea into a chaotic mess.
"Fire... Fire..." On a Japanese destroyer, the deputy gunnery officer was waving his command sword, directing the sailors at the gun positions to aim at the speeding boats and fire, but except for a few gun positions that managed to fire a few shots, most of the gun positions were not yet fully prepared. Firstly, these speedboats were moving too fast, they could no longer be called ships, the sailors saw several speedboats had already left the water surface, it was as if they were flying; secondly, these boats threw out two torpedoes when they were still nearly a thousand meters away from the fleet, then made a beautiful turn, drawing an S-shaped trajectory and escaping swiftly.
These speedboats escaped, but the white trails on the sea surface rushed towards the fleet at a speed of over 30 knots. Nearly 90 torpedo tracks drew beautiful white lines on the blue sea surface, and due to the difference in angles, these white trails were parallel, intersecting, like a large net several kilometers long covering the landing ship fleet.
The Japanese landing fleet had lost nearly half of its ships within minutes, and the remaining vessels were desperately turning to avoid these deadly white lines. However, the lines were too dense, not only in the north but also occasionally appearing in the south, closer to the landing fleet, with some almost within 200 meters. Many ships did not have time to turn around before being hit and exploding, then sinking in pieces.
The sailors on the troopship and the soldiers of the Imperial Guard were all frightened out of their wits by the sudden blow, grabbing onto anything that would float and jumping into the sea, not caring if they could swim to shore or not, just wanting to get away from this doomed ship.
The torpedo boat's attack was much less efficient than the submarine, but it had a large number of them. The first to bear the brunt were the few destroyers that rushed up, and more than half of the torpedoes came at them. Of the 4 destroyers, only one turned slowly and followed another destroyer to avoid the torpedo attack, while the remaining three were all blown up, with at least one hit by 3 torpedoes.
When all the torpedoes had disappeared from sight, only one destroyer and two torpedo boats were left on the surface, as well as three transports that were sinking. The other ships had vanished, replaced by a sea of wreckage, oil slicks, flames, and men.
The last three ships turned eastward at their fastest speed, fleeing back the way they came, trying to leave this deadly waters. But heaven did not comply with people's wishes, those fleeing torpedo boats circled around and came back again, like a group of vultures competing for corpses, rushing towards them, several thousand meters away almost instantly arrived in front of their eyes. This time these boats were divided into one large and two small groups, corresponding to the destroyers and torpedo boats, under not too intense cannon fire, approaching within 500 meters before launching torpedoes and then turning around.
This time the torpedoes were more dense and crossed, almost every angle had a white death line. 3 Japanese warships twisted their bodies at a speed of 20 knots, but were still hit one after another, crushing and sinking. The entire Japanese landing fleet was annihilated, not even a single boat escaped.
The torpedo boats slowed down, dispersed in a straight line, about 100 meters apart, and began to sail in a net-like manner on this sea surface. As long as there were objects and people floating on the sea surface, whether dead or alive, they would be swept away by heavy machine gun fire, and 12mm bullets would tear most of the objects to shreds. The Japanese army and sailors floating on the sea surface could clearly see that some sailors on the enemy's speedboat were vomiting while firing the heavy machine gun, but immediately a soldier next to him would take over the machine gun and continue to sweep.
From the first torpedo explosion to the last Japanese ship sinking into the sea floor, a total of 51 minutes were used. 22 ships of the Japanese landing fleet, nearly 8,000 Japanese naval and land officers and soldiers, a navy admiral, and a royal prince all sank to the bottom of the sea, not one person survived. From start to finish, the submarines in the south did not show their faces, after all the ships were sunk, they retracted their periscopes and disappeared from the surface of the sea, leaving the remaining cleanup tasks to be carried out by torpedo boats.
"The Japanese fleet was annihilated 30 nautical miles south, with a total of 22 ships of various types, including 2 cruisers, 3 destroyers and 4 torpedo boats. Our ships suffered no losses, with only two lightly damaged, and have returned to port." In the command center in Keelung, Liu Fei, who had been anxiously waiting, finally received the statistical report from the returning submarine, and after reading it, he burst out laughing and lit a cigarette, half-reclining on the sofa in the command center, laughing as he smoked. The several Chinese and foreign staff officers beside him all crowded over to read the telegram, immediately erupting into cheers.
"Liu, you are a genius, your inventions and creations will change the history of the navy, I congratulate you." This is the congratulatory message from a retired German naval officer.
"Chief of Staff, we've won! Little Japan is finished!" This was the shout of a national staff officer.
"Congratulations, young master! Do we need to prepare a celebration ceremony? We can go and arrange it." This was the low inquiry of the vanguard member.
"Haha, congratulations to you all, these are also the fruits of your labor. Without you, I wouldn't be able to do it alone. Don't relax, we still have a bigger battle to fight." Liu Ye said to the Germans.
"We have won a victory, but the Japanese are not yet finished. Their main fleet is still intact." This was the reply to the Chinese staff officer.
"Let's celebrate... Let's celebrate... No, no need to celebrate. Immediately set up a blockade and don't let anyone who returned from the mission leave the base. We can't provoke the enemy too much right now, our strength is still not enough. Let them guess slowly for now, we can still win some time." Liu Yi said to everyone present, then immediately called back the assault team member who was walking out "Wait, come back. Tell the people at the base that we will hold a celebration party within the fleet, limited to internal personnel only. I and the staff will all go."
That afternoon, the victorious submarine and torpedo boat fleets returned without seeing cheering crowds, only to see staff personnel and Liu Fei at the dock. At the celebration banquet that evening, only the General Staff and some high-ranking generals attended, with the President delivering a brief congratulatory speech, while Liu Fei announced the discipline of temporarily blocking the news. Then it was eating and drinking, with Liu Fei leading the staff to toast table by table, making a big fuss until late at night before ending.
