The trajectory of history remains unchanged.
April 16th.
The two aircraft carriers met, formed a three-dimensional tactical formation, released reconnaissance aircraft, and the two submarines cruised 200 nautical miles in front of the fleet. The radio remained silent and sailed quietly towards Japan.
At night, Zhou Zhihan stood alone on the deck overlooking his hometown. Half a year had passed since he came to the United States at the end of November last year, and he missed his family very much.
Zhou Zhihan sat cross-legged on the deck of the Hornet, silently lighting a cigarette, letting the sea breeze ruffle his hair, and stared blankly at the hundreds of meters wide waves on the sea behind him that were plowed by the aircraft carrier.
I haven't been in a daze for a long time.
It's quite pleasant to have some time to just sit back and relax.
2-4 nautical miles to the rear of the fleet, two destroyers sent out normal time-specific signals. On both sides of the aircraft carrier formation were high-speed cruisers to protect the two wings of the formation.
Looking at the powerful fleet, Zhou Zhihan was envious from the bottom of his heart. When will China have such an aircraft carrier formation?
Two water reconnaissance planes ejected from the cruiser at night. Ten minutes later, the other two returning reconnaissance planes landed on the water and were recovered by the two cruisers.
Everything is normal, and normal makes people feel a little scared.
Now that the fleet is far away from the mainland and getting closer to Japan, everything must be done carefully. If there is a slight mistake, it may be catastrophic.
Lighting another cigarette, Karen's face appeared in front of his eyes. Zhou Zhihan smiled a little bitterly. In these years, Karen was the most embarrassed to come to China with him. The days to get together were numbered. After driving away the Japanese, they would I will take my family and move overseas with Karen, and then I will become a civil aviation instructor and compensate Karen and his family.
Zhou Zhihan didn't want to see brothers fighting, so he could only stay away.
Suddenly, a series of sirens sounded above the deck, and then a commander's voice rang out: "Attention all units, enemy conditions have been detected ahead. All personnel are in position and ready to fight."
Within ten seconds, all the sailors and pilots on the deck were in place, all anti-aircraft firepower was ready, and the crew got into the plane, waiting for orders to take off at any time.
The anti-aircraft guns and machine guns on the escort battleship were ready and ready. All personnel behaved in an orderly manner. Everyone held their breath and prepared for a battle with the Japanese.
...
...
...The commander's voice sounded again: "This is a drill, this is a drill, all personnel are off alert, all personnel are off combat alert..."
"cut....."
Everyone broke up, the gunners turned off the motors and safety devices on the cannons, and the pilots laughed and cursed and got off the plane. After this busy period, everyone couldn't sleep for the time being. They stood on the deck smoking and bragging, facing the sea breeze. , chatting about various romantic affairs...
"Colonel Zhou, I have good tea and coffee. Are you interested?"
Zhou Zhihan turned around and saw Doolittle standing behind him, so he smiled and said, "Of course I'm interested."
In Doolittle's room.
Doolittle brought coffee to Zhou Zhihan and Jack: "I also have a bottle of good whiskey here. Let's celebrate together when we land in China successfully."
Doolittle picked up the coffee cup and clinked it with the two of them, replacing the wine with coffee: "Jack, the bomber's machine gun has been removed, but I always feel that something is missing."
This issue has never been resolved.
"The machine gun of the bomber has been removed, and the muzzle is bare, which looks a bit strange." Zhou Zhihan picked up the coffee, smelled the aroma, took a sip, put it down and said, "The Japanese will definitely send fighter planes to intercept this bombing. , it can be seen at a glance that we do not have machine guns, and they will be more unscrupulous, so I think we should find a way to put something at the muzzle of the gun to scare the Japanese."
"I find it strange too." Jack nodded and said, "How about sawing off the muzzle of the machine gun and welding it in its original position to scare the Japanese?"
Zhou Zhihan: "This is also a good idea, but it will increase the weight."
Jack almost spit out his coffee: "Colonel Zhou, if you pick up this little weight, then I really have nothing to do."
Zhou Zhihan smiled: "Is there anything lighter than a machine gun that can scare the Japanese from approaching too closely?"
Doolittle held the wine glass and pondered, "How about putting a wooden stick on it and painting it black to look like a machine gun."
"This is also a way," Jack said. Suddenly, he shouted excitedly, "Yes, we can find bamboo tubes, make them look like machine gun muzzles, and paint them with black paint. The black holes will be like the muzzles of the guns. It’s guaranteed to be fake and real.”
Doolittle and Zhou Zhihan punch Jack lightly together, which is really genius.
Zhou Zhihan pondered for a moment and then said with a smile on his face: "How about this, Jack, we can make the muzzle of the gun a little thicker. The Japanese will think it is a large-caliber cannon, and they will not dare to approach too closely."
Doolittle praised loudly: "Oh! This is the best. We can use bamboo tubes to scare the Japanese to death."
"That's it." Jack was also very satisfied and smiled, "Tomorrow, I will add two bamboo tubes to each bomber. Oh... By the way, Colonel Zhou, do you want your Mustang to be there too? Two more at the back of the tail?”
Zhou Zhihan: "God! Jack, you are such a genius, I can't wait, but it's best if you be my rear machine gunner..."
At this moment, an orderly soldier came quickly and saw that Zhou Zhihan and Jack were indeed here with Doolittle: "Three officers, Lieutenant General Haxey asked you to go to his place. He has important information."
The three people hurriedly came to Haxxi's command room.
There were only a few people in the command room who knew the destination. The vast majority of the people, including the captains of the cruisers and destroyers, did not know the true purpose of the trip.
"Just now, the monitors said that at 12 o'clock local time in Tokyo, Radio Tokyo released a message saying that according to the British Reuters news, three American bombers bombed Tokyo, Japan." Lieutenant General Haxi finished speaking and looked at Three people, "What do you think?"
As he said that, an intelligence officer played the Japanese broadcast recording again. It was the same as what Haxey said, but he did not say where the three bombers took off from.
There was a brief silence in the room.
Jack frowned: "Did the Japanese discover us?" As he spoke, he looked at everyone.
Doolittle shook his head: "The British are really our good allies. At this critical moment, give us some seasoning to adjust our appetite."
Zhou Zhihan said: "This may be an article written by a British reporter to gain attention. The Japanese would never have imagined that we would use bombers to retaliate in kind."
"I hope so." Haxey nodded and thought for a few seconds, "The British have always said shocking things. They have hurt us now. Even if the Japanese people don't believe this is true, the Japanese military will definitely They will be vigilant, they are afraid of our retaliation in their dreams.
We should still be highly vigilant about this matter, prepare for the worst, and be ready to fight. "
Haxey's face was solemn, and he continued: "If the Japanese really know that we are going, then the entire aircraft carrier battle group will be in danger."
Everyone shuddered, if this was really the case, it would be terrible.
After a while, Zhou Zhihan said: "Perhaps, this news from British Reuters is beneficial to us. The Japanese may think that the bombers are flying to Japan from East Asia, so they will shift more defense centers to the Philippines.
A few years ago, Japan's land attack flew from Japan to China. They have reason to believe that it was US military land-based bombers that took off from the Philippines (1). "
Doolittle said: "The radio did not say which bomber it was, which shows that our whereabouts may be exposed, but the Japanese do not know that we are using B25. There is no precedent in the world for carrying bombers on an aircraft carrier. "
After a while, Zhou Zhihan said: "I have a bold plan. If it succeeds, we can hit the Japanese hard."
Huxey said: "Tell me about it."
Several other people also looked at Zhou Zhihan.
Zhou Zhihan: "This plan is a bit risky."
