After speaking, Kimmel shook his head sadly, suppressing the pain and regret in his heart. He had had countless opportunities to save the Pacific Fleet from fire and water, but he missed them one by one. At this moment, regret is hard to catch up with.
He stood quietly for a moment, calmed down, turned around calmly, and ordered to immediately report to the Navy Department and the President's Office the truth about the attack on Pearl Harbor.
When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Secretary of the Navy Noske was in the Navy Department's office on Constitution Street. A lieutenant colonel was waiting for him to sign a thick stack of documents.
It was already noon, and Knox felt hungry, but he couldn't put down the work at hand. At this moment, Chief of Naval Operations Stark rushed over without knocking, holding Kimmel's hand that was not from the exercise. telegraph.
"God, this is impossible!"
Knox jumped up and screamed when he saw the telegram, "Did you make a mistake? Are you talking about the Philippines?"
Because not long ago, the Japanese landed in the Philippines and defeated MacArthur, so Knox believed for more than ten seconds that the telegram was sent from the Philippines.
After more than ten seconds, Knox dialed the direct line of the White House.
At this time, President Roosevelt was having dinner with his assistant Hopkins and chief adviser Laughlin Corey, and Knox read the entire telegram over the phone.
"There must be something wrong?"
Hopkins looked shocked and said with suspicion, "Mr. President, I don't think the Japanese will attack Pearl Harbor. They are negotiating with us. How could they suddenly do this?"
Roosevelt was shocked in his heart, but remained calm: "This computer may not be wrong. The Japanese are good at doing this kind of unexpected things. The Soviets and the Chinese have suffered like this. It is the Japanese who do this kind of thing." characteristics.”
Roosevelt thought for a moment and said calmly: "If this telegram is true, then the matter is completely beyond our control." After saying this, he felt much lighter.
But Laughlin Corey was trying to figure out the last words the president said...
After a while, Hopkins dialed Kimmel's phone directly: "The president asked you if we have any reinforcements near Pearl Harbor."
"No, sir! All our warships were trapped in the harbor and were attacked by Japanese torpedoes. All the fighter planes were parked side by side on the runway and were destroyed before they could take off. We have no reinforcements." Kimmel's voice was filled with despair. , his eyes were even more desperate, looking at Pearl Harbor not far away which had become a hell on earth.
At this moment, Kimmel saw an F4F Wildcat fighter jet appearing above [Battleship Avenue], but he immediately thought it was a fighter plane that took off by chance from the base. It would soon be like other fighters that were killed by the Japanese as soon as they took off. Shot down, the glimmer of hope that had just risen in his eyes dimmed again, and he continued, "At this time, the nearest [Enterprise] is still more than 200 nautical miles away from Pearl Harbor. Since [Enterprise] is transporting Army fighters to Midway Island After returning home, there were only torpedo planes on the ship and no fighter jets, so it was too late..."
Suddenly, Kimmel saw the F4F Wildcat swooping down like lightning, shooting continuously at the water on the side of the battleship "Utah", firing a large barrage and then quickly pulling up to break away. It was so fast and its technique was superb. , which made his hope surge.
Then, in the seawater more than ten meters away from the side of the battleship [Utah], three powerful water columns exploded in succession, soaring nearly a hundred meters into the sky. The powerful shock wave spread in all directions. The rising F4F looked like An extremely agile civet rolled 360 degrees from above the USS Utah battleship to the other side.
"Buzz!"
The water column brought up by the shock wave slapped on the battleship "Utah", and the battleship shook violently, blocking the shock wave caused by the torpedo explosion for Wildcat.
"Oh ho!"
Several officers and soldiers standing next to Kimmel roared and waved their fists at the same time.
"Well done!"
Kimmel slammed his fist on the table and yelled.
"Oh ho!"
The sailors of the battleship [Utah] were elated by the waves that covered their faces. They saw with their own eyes the No. 214 F4F Wildcat that came like lightning from the sky. It used incredible diving shots to kill three torpedoes dropped by the Japanese. The foot they stepped into hell was pulled back.
After escaping from death, the morale of the sailors on the battleship Utah was greatly increased. All the machine guns and cannons on the ship were used. Those sailors who were lucky enough to survive in the bilge even took out their rifles.
The temporary commander roared loudly and pushed the sailors: "Quick, quick, quick, the warships are launched and break out of the harbor. Everyone is guarding the air. The machine gun fire on both sides suppresses the Japanese torpedo planes. If you don't want to die again, Give me all your strength to feed, fa..."
"Yes, sir……"
"Understood...sir..."
The sailors who had circled around the line of death and came back frantically organized defenses. They knew that the temporary commander's push was not malicious, but to improve the morale of the crew.
"What's going on? Are you injured?" Hearing Kimmel's roar, Hopkins on the other end of the phone quickly asked, "Hey, hey..."
"We have reinforcements, sir!" Kimmel watched as the No. 214 F4F Wildcat rolled to the other side of the battleship [Utah], recovered, made a beautiful pull-up jump, fired a burst, and shot down another Then, he saw more Wildcats and Tomahawks joining the defense battle, and said loudly, "We have reinforcements. The Japanese have not defeated us. There are still Chinese soldiers flying in the sky." American fighter jets, guard Pearl Harbor with American warriors!"
Hopkins was full of doubts: "Chinese?"
"Yes. Yes, sir!" Kimmel said loudly. Just now, the No. 214 F4F Wildcat saved the battleship [Utah], which played a key role in the defense of the entire Pearl Harbor. "Just now, the young man from China Man, saved the battleship [Utah] and saved Pearl Harbor!”
Kimmel had known Zhou Zhihan's name for a long time. When General Short signed the application form submitted by Zhou Zhihan to form the red and blue armies for confrontation, he was sitting in General Short's office drinking coffee. At that time, he was still talking about this man. There were questions about the application form submitted by the Chinese pilots. Looking back now, I am really glad that General Short stuck to his guns.
Hopkins looked at President Roosevelt and the president's chief, Laughlin Corey, with disbelief in his eyes: "A Chinese just saved the battleship [Utah] and is saving Pearl Harbor!"
Roosevelt and Laughlin Corey asked almost simultaneously: "Who is he?"
Hopkins hung up the phone and said word by word: "Chinese Air Force, Colonel, Zhou Zhihan!"
The No. 214 F4F Wildcat dived at full speed. It was too fast. After Zhou Zhihan fired several long shots to block the barrage, the fighter plane reached dozens of meters above the water in an instant. He knew the power of the explosion of these three torpedoes. It was enough to make him crash, so Wildcat No. 214 did not choose to continue to pull forward, but made a 360-degree roll to the other side of the battleship. With the help of the huge hull of the battleship [Utah], it blocked the torpedo explosion for him. shock wave.
This move was extremely dangerous. Wildcat No. 214 was rolling, its rotating wings only three or four meters away from the bridge of the USS Utah battleship.
Pulling up the jump to shoot down a Type 97 torpedo plane, Zhou Zhihan continued to pull up the speed. He had already rescued the battleship "Utah", and now he was going to save the "Arizona", which suffered the most casualties in the Pearl Harbor incident. 】Battleship.
To put it bluntly, Zhou Zhihan actually saved the battleship USS Utah and brought the battleship back to life in just a dozen or twenty seconds.
Then the anti-aircraft firepower of the battleship [Utah] also brought great help to other battleships.
Such is the trade-off in war.
Immediately afterwards, 12 Tomahawks and 12 Wildcats also joined the battle. They formed a two-plane formation and followed behind the No. 214 F4F Wildcat. They opened fire while rushing forward desperately, which really frightened the Zero fighter into dodging to both sides. .
During the forced breakthrough, two P40s were injured and smoking. Fortunately, they had just fired from a long distance, suppressing the Zero and unable to get closer. Although the fuselage was riddled with bullet marks, their rough skin and thick flesh were not seriously injured and they still had combat effectiveness. Relying on fierce punches, the Zero was helpless in a short time.
The P40 fighter jets resolutely implemented the tactics laid out by Zhou Zhihan. They used aggressive dives, attacks, pull-ups, dives, and attacks over airports around Oahu to cover more American fighter jets as they took off.
However, these fighter planes have no ammunition and can only escape after taking off.
12 Wildcats followed No. 214 Wildcat to launch defense over [Battleship Avenue]. Since the Japanese focused on attacking battleships, there were the most fighters in this airspace.
The Tomahawk can suppress the Zero's strengths by punching and dashing, but the F4F Wildcat cannot. In the confrontation with the Zero fighter, it is completely in a situation of being beaten.
The most terrible thing is that American pilots participated in actual combat for the first time. The skills they learned from Zhou Zhihan were impressive during training. But on the battlefield with live ammunition, their disadvantages were completely exposed. Regardless of mentality, courage, skills, With experience and willpower, they were at an absolute disadvantage against the Japanese veterans. After three or four minutes, more than half of them were lost. Some were shot down, and some were injured and were unable to fight and had to withdraw. Only a few veterans who had returned from the British Defense War were left. The bird is struggling to hold on.
However, their appearance completely disrupted the Japanese offensive rhythm.
Just then, the dramatic side emerged.
Just when Pearl Harbor was under attack, at about 8:10, a formation of 12 "Flying Fortress" heavy bombers slowly took off from the west coast of the United States.
These stupid "Flying Fortress" pilots should have seen with the naked eye that Pearl Harbor had turned into a hell on earth more than 20 kilometers away and quickly turned around and fled, but they just flew into the sky over Pearl Harbor with bombardment like idiots. and wanted to find an airport to land at.
Immediately afterwards, another group of fools flew 18 SBD Dauntless bombers and took off from the returning aircraft carrier [USS Enterprise]. As if they had made an appointment with the "Flying Fortress", they flew one after another over Pearl Harbor. .
And when these stupid pilots flew heavy bombers over Pearl Harbor, looking for a place to land, the surviving Americans in Pearl Harbor were still thinking in horror, God, the Japanese are really going to land!
Some people were stunned and asked, where did the Japanese get the four-engine bombers?
At this time, the Japanese did not yet have four-engine bombers.
However, compared with the clumsy bombers, the fearless bombers that recovered their senses also tenaciously launched a life-and-death duel with the Japanese fighters.
