Australian Storm 1876

   Chapter 877 Showing the enemy to be weak

  According to the intelligence in the hands of the US military;

There are two main islands in the Hawaiian Islands. One is the main island of Hawaii, which is dominated by civil ports and cities. The population of the island is about 210,000, of which the urban population is about 67,000. The city is built by the port and winding up the mountain. In the extension, an infantry regiment and two shore artillery positions were garrisoned, plus a marine police area with more than 470 soldiers, totaling 2,890 troops.

The   shore gun positions are equipped with 4 305mm shore guns, 6 203mm shore guns, and several 152mm rapid-fire guns. The Marine Police District is equipped with 12 "mosquito" type offshore patrol boats.

The other is Oahu Island, a military base of the Pacific Fleet. The total population of the island is 162,200. The main military port, Pearl Harbor, has a fortified fortress defense, equipped with more than 20 large-caliber shore guns, without paying a heavy price. It is difficult to break through this strong fortress.

  The primary target of the Schroeder fleet is Hawaii Island. After the fleet arrives, it will concentrate its firepower to destroy the fort, and use the fierce naval artillery fire to annihilate all the active forces of the enemy, and cover the landing force to forcibly land in the bay.

   After the army has landed one after another, occupy the port and advance to a deep attack. Then the accompanying cargo ships entered the port of Hawaii one after another to unload.

  Schroeder's fleet will free up its hands. First, it will blockade around Oahu Island and Pearl Harbor, attack the enemy's active forces, and after consolidating the occupation of Hawaii Island, find opportunities to capture Oahu Island

   same time period

  Oahu, Pearl Harbor Military Base

   After more than ten days of long-distance voyage, the expeditionary strike formation led by Li Jie arrived smoothly all the way.

  After the arrival of the fleet, the tense and busy work of supplying coal, oil, water and vegetables immediately began. Due to the huge size of the fleet, it will take about two days to complete all supplies.

At this moment, 11 faster troop transport ships and several weapons and ammunition transport ships are entering the port one after another. They are the most valuable assets that the fleet needs to protect. They are carried by all officers and soldiers of the Royal Guards 3rd Division with a total of 21,200 people. , even if the fleet suffers heavy losses, the safety of large troop carriers must be protected first.

The slow cargo fleet behind    will not arrive until about six o'clock tomorrow morning.

   The third detachment is a mixed formation, with four "Flower Moon" class cruisers as the main force and a mixed formation consisting of 8 destroyers. They are protecting the cargo fleet at the rear and heading towards Pearl Harbor.

The first to arrive were the first battleship detachment, the second "Courage" class cruiser detachment and the fourth destroyer detachment. The naval port was busy at the moment, and the conveyor belt on the coal wharf kept charging coal into the battleship's coal tank. Dragons are transporting clean water, while dock cranes are hoisting various materials.

   Sailors drove trucks and tractors, carrying loads of supplies, and there was a lively scene.

  Lieutenant General Li Jie led a large group of officers to stand on the pier and look at the busy scene in front of him, with a relieved smile on his face, quite leisurely and casually chatting with the base commander Ma Chang who came to greet him. Hearty laughter broke out from time to time.

At this moment

   Lieutenant General Duan Qirui, deputy commander of the Royal Guard, and Major General Zheng Fusheng, commander of the 3rd Division, led a group of army officers over. Li Jie hurriedly led people to greet them, and the two sides exchanged military salutes.

Lieutenant General Duan Qirui's face was still a little sallow, he patted Li Jie's arm with a wry smile and said, "Dude, this time I sat down on the boat and I sat in the dark. We have reached the place, but it seems that our feet are still ups and downs when stepping on this pier, which really makes our group of landlubbers suffer."

   His words made the surrounding officers laugh out loud. These officers of the army were somewhat out of breath, and generally had not recovered from the seasickness reaction and were not in good spirits.

Li Jie also laughed and joked; "Brother Qirui, I remember that during the second Boer War in South Africa, you were the head of the military observation team. It was a three-month sea journey, which was much farther than this time. "

   "The hero doesn't mention his bravery back then, that was more than 10 years ago, and he's old now!"

   "Hahahaha... Brother Rui's words are too bad. You are not even 50 years old and you dare to say that you are old. I'm already 60 now, shouldn't I have gone back to take care of my life long ago?"

"Oh, my brother's forgiveness, I didn't choose to say anything." Duan Qirui shook his head with a smile, clasped his fists to express his offense, and then withdrew the smile on his face, and said solemnly; "I would like to represent the royal guard. All the soldiers of the 3rd Division of the Army would like to express their solemn thanks to the Royal Navy's expeditionary strike formation, thank you for your loyal escorts along the way, and thank you for your hard work."

   After he finished speaking, he raised his hand in a solemn salute, and the third division commander, Major General Zheng Fusheng, and all the army officers all saluted.

  Lieutenant General Li Jie and the naval officers behind him raised their hands in return. This is a friendship built up by fighting side by side.

  After the solemn thanks, the following time was more casual, and the officers scattered in twos and threes and went to work.

  Lieutenant General Li Jie and Lieutenant General Duan Qirui walked side by side to the pier and looked at the vast bay of Pearl Harbor surrounded by mountains, and couldn't help but admire them sincerely;

"It's a really good place. Not only is the scenery beautiful, but it's also an encircling bay. The port is wide and the water is deep. When a fleet of my size is parked in the port, it only occupies less than 1/10 of the water surface." Li Jie's eyes Showing a sincere look.

   Among tens of thousands of islands in the entire Pacific Ocean, Pearl Harbor's superior conditions can rank first.

He turned around and said to Lieutenant General Duan Qirui, "There must be a few bad battles here in the Hawaiian Islands, the main fleet of the Imperial Fleet is not moving so fast, and the Tasmania must be brought aboard no matter what, then The boat hasn't been installed yet, so it won't come in a short time.

   The fleet under my command will last for at least 20 days. If I send you here, I will complete the mission. Next, I will lead the fleet to attack continuously, and even go to San Francisco for guerrilla warfare. It is up to you. "

   "Don't worry, my 3rd division is not a vegetarian. Citizens want to take the island of Hawaii without leaving 70,000 or 80,000 people behind."

   "I know, you are a famous defense expert!"

   "Hahahaha... That's the situation, and frankly, I'm better at attacking."

   "Uh...you...hahaha..."

   Li Jie was really pretended to be there by him, so he could only point to Lieutenant General Duan Qirui with his hand silently, and laughed loudly.

   means you are almost done, leave a way out for others!

At this moment, Major General Ma Chang, the commander of the base, walked over quickly, holding a telegram in his hand and said in a deep voice; "Commander Li, Commander Duan, this is the enemy situation report just sent from the island of Hawaii. The reconnaissance plane of the reconnaissance plane found an enemy fleet approaching during the patrol, and arrived about 4 hours later."

"Oh…"

   Li Jie hurriedly took the telegram and looked at it carefully, then handed it to Lieutenant General Duan Qirui, and thought for himself.

   "How are you going to fight this battle?" Lieutenant General Duan Qirui put down the telegram in his hand, frowned and looked at Lieutenant General Li Jie with an inquiring look.

"Interesting, there are a few old ships here. Is this a test of my appetite??" Lieutenant General Li Jie did not answer his words immediately, but pondered to himself while walking with his hands behind his back; But the strength of a large formation is not weak, if the freighter scatters and flees rashly, it will be difficult to catch up, and my 3rd squad is not here, it is indeed difficult to swallow it in one bite!”

   After thinking about it for a few minutes

   Li Jie suddenly looked back and said to Lieutenant General Duan Qirui, "Brother Qirui, how about we work together?"

"Appreciate further details?"

   "I think so, you see..."

  Lieutenant General Li Jie looked around on the pier, walked quickly to a place with many stones and squatted down, took out the stones and drew a few circles on the ground to indicate the locations of several major islands in Hawaii.

   Then he took out 6 big pebbles and a bunch of small pebbles and set them aside, and deliberately found 4 white pebbles to represent the 4 cruisers of the Pearl Harbor base, and said after setting them up;

   "According to the position of the enemy fleet, it can be determined that it is a large formation of ships that set off from San Francisco at the first time after the declaration of war and arrived day and night.

This mixed fleet of ships protects a large number of troop carriers and cargo ships. The goal must be to occupy the Big Island of Hawaii (not the Hawaiian Islands, but the largest Hawaiian Island in particular), and use this as a foothold to initiate follow-up attack.

   It is simple to make such a judgment;

  Hawaii is like a fluffy and delicious bread, while Oahu is a hard rock, as long as you are not stupid, you know what to choose.

   At present, this large formation of enemy ships is heading straight for the island of Hawaii, obviously unaware of our arrival, otherwise it would not be so reckless, and this is our chance.

   In view of the large number of enemy ships and the large number of cargo ships, it will not be good for our ships to attack in full force. Enemy fleets will certainly try their best to stop them, covering the cargo fleet from fleeing in all directions.

   It's like starting a flock of birds, but in the end you can't catch a few.

   That’s how the battle at sea is. The speed of the ships is not much different. Under the circumstance that the enemy ship formations are fully obstructed, my expeditionary strike formation is unable to distract him, so I can only watch the fat slip away from my mouth.

   is not reconciled to anyone!

   So my plan is to show the enemy's weakness and attack halfway through.

   Take the lead in dispatching 4 cruisers in Pearl Harbor to lead their destroyers forward, making tactical maneuvers to obstruct the landing of the enemy fleet, delaying and disturbing the enemy, causing the enemy to misjudge.

under these circumstances

  The commander of the enemy fleet would definitely think that these 4 cruisers were buying time for the Hawaiian defenders and were doing futile interference actions, but they would be more determined to land quickly.

  Hawaii Harbor is an open harbor. The firepower of the fort on both sides of the highland is average, and it cannot withstand the bombardment of the enemy ship formation in turn, and its fall is almost inevitable.

  In the case of a large number of enemy ships, any resistance action of the port defenders would be tantamount to seeking death, and would inevitably be bombed into **** in the fierce counterattack of enemy ships’ artillery fire, but sacrificed in vain.

   Moreover, the port has only the strength of one infantry regiment, and it is basically impossible to make a strong counterattack.

  The reasonable choice is to let it land and be properly restrained.

  Shrink the troops inland, let the enemy land on the shore and continue to show weakness, wait for my ship formation to attack halfway, and then counterattack heavily after the heavy damage to the enemy ship, what do you think? "

"Commander Li, I am not proficient in naval warfare, but I have to be responsible for the lives of my subordinates. Please explain a few questions." Lieutenant General Duan Qirui did not agree, but asked cautiously; "The enemy fleet has 6 battleships. And 9 cruisers, there are many other battleships, and we only have 4 battleships and 6 cruisers, the strength is very different! Are you sure that you will deal heavy damage to enemy ships?"

"So I want you to buy time. I set the time for the decisive battle at 8:20 tomorrow morning. At this time, the 3rd detachment covering the cargo fleet has been rebuilt, and the cargo fleet has entered the port safely. Field." Having said this, Li Jie smiled proudly and explained patiently;

   "Battleships 4:6, on the surface, we are indeed at a disadvantage, but our single-ship combat effectiveness is stronger than the opponent's, and overall we have the upper hand.

   In terms of cruisers, we have an advantage of 10:9, and you don’t know that our 16 Frostwind destroyers are all large ocean-going ships with a displacement of 3200 tons, which can be included in the category of cruisers in Citi.

   In this way, we crushed each other with an absolute advantage of 26:9!

   In addition to the 4 cruisers in Pearl Harbor, I am sure that the enemy fleet and cargo fleet will be swallowed up in one bite and fight a beautiful annihilation battle.

   So after the 3rd unit is rebuilt, it is time to launch the general attack. "

   "Why do our destroyers count as cruisers?"

"This is a standard issue. The definition of cruisers in today's world is rather confusing. The British 18,000-ton high-speed warships are called battlecruisers, the Germans' 10,000-ton cruisers are called heavy cruisers, and the Americans' 2,000-ton cruisers are called heavy cruisers. Cruisers are called armored and protected cruisers, and those with more than 3,000 tons are called reconnaissance cruisers. In our Ocean Empire, under 4,000 tons are generally called destroyers. This is just a difference in the classification standards."

   "I understand if you say that, our destroyers can be used as cruisers in the Citigroup standard?"

   "That's right, this is the custom of the Chinese who always hide their clumsiness."

"Well, you convinced me." Lieutenant General Duan Qirui was also a decisive person, and he immediately made up his mind, and then ordered Major General Zheng Fusheng beside him; "I order you to immediately lead the armored battalion and a regiment of infantry, and transfer to the port of Hawaii. Landing, fully commanding the forces on the island to fight, shrinking the force, showing the enemy's weakness, waiting for the full-scale naval battle to launch a counter-offensive, annihilating the enemy who landed on the island in one fell swoop."

   "Yes, the task is guaranteed."

  The ships in Pearl Harbor were mobilized immediately. The troop carrier carrying the 2nd Infantry Regiment and the freighter carrying the armored battalion, together with 4 cruisers and 8 destroyers, left the port one after another, heading towards the Hawaiian Island.

   A strong atmosphere of war pervades the port, and everyone knows... the war is coming.

   (end of this chapter)