Iron Cross

Late at night, despite his old age and frailty and the high winds and waves on the North Pacific Ocean, 61-year-old Hori Teikichi insisted on taking a transport boat to visit the pilots who were about to go to the expedition on one aircraft carrier after another. Matsuda Chiaki, who accompanied him, advised him not to work so hard, and if he had any instructions, he could just convey them through the captains of each ship and the flight team leader.

Hori Teikichi shook his head: "Mr. Matsuda, if you only think of yourself as the superior and they are your subordinates, you can do this. But many of these young people are only 20 years old, and some are even under 18 years old, not many years older than my grandchildren... I only take a few kilometers of transport boats, but they have to fly hundreds of kilometers to attack. They may be crushed to pieces and never come back. If you send your children and grandchildren to the expedition, will you still feel hard?"

The staff officers behind him who didn't understand suddenly fell silent.

Chiaki Matsuda sighed: "The commander loves his soldiers like his own sons. I have learned a lesson!"

When Hori Teikichi turned around and climbed up the last aircraft carrier Kasagi with great effort, all the pilots who were going to go to the expedition were already waiting in line on the deck.

"The commander came to visit us in person!"

"Wow", all the pilots stood up straight.

"Thank you for your hard work!" Hori Teikichi shook hands and saluted the pilots, while distributing white cloth strips with "must win" and "seven lives to serve the country" to them, and even personally helped the youngest ones wrap them, and everyone returned the salute respectfully.

Seeing Sato Chikannobu, the youngest pilot in the fleet, who was two months away from turning 18, and looking at his tense and serious face, Hori Teikichi patted his shoulder and said, "Sato-kun, are you a little nervous about the night raid mission?"

"Report to the commander, I'm not nervous! I'm the best at night flying in school, and the instructors all praised me for having cat eyes! Besides, we have Commander Suzuki to lead us. He said that we just need to follow him closely. He has fought Pearl Harbor once and has experience!"

Hori Teikichi smiled and said, "I really envy you. You have a commander who is familiar with the situation to lead you. This is my first time here, and no commander is willing to lead me..."

Everyone was stunned, and then they all laughed.

Lieutenant Colonel Shingo Eijo, the captain of the battleship of the support fleet, said: "We have set up the stage. Can you please take a photo with us?"

"Okay!" Hori Teikichi strode over and found his seat to sit down. Dozens of pilots immediately lined up. The photographer's spotlight flashed, and Hori Teikichi, Matsuda Chiaki and all the pilots took a group photo together.

"Before departure, we dedicated our favorite song to the commander, thanking the commander for making a movie for us, and thanking the commander for seeing us off!"

Under the command of Xinxiang Yingcheng, nearly 90 pilots who were about to attack (two per ship attack and ship bomber aircraft) sang the loud "Song of the Eagle" together:

"Young and passionate, seven buttons and anchors;

Today, flying with colorful clouds, dreams and hopes soaring into the sky;

Ignite the vitality, the wrist is the anchor and the iron heart flame;

Chengyi went out to cross the ocean, fighting in front of the enemy;

Admire the predecessors, and hear the battle exploits and the blood surges;

The belief of victory is training and attacking, the Yamato spirit is invincible;

Prepare at the risk of life Science and training, the wings of victory and the wings of will;

Sunk the enemy ships heroically, I want to send a photo to my mother! "

(Note: There is a more literary translation, you can search Baidu if you are interested; I also complained about the domestic anti-Japanese war dramas, and criticized "My Captain, My Regiment" by name. If you don't understand Japanese military songs, don't hold a singing competition. You also put all the navy's songs on the army's idiots, which made me embarrassed)

In order to expand the recruitment of pilots, the Japanese Navy expanded the recruitment of Yifei (basic class), Cfei (accelerated class), and Te Cfei (basic speed class) in addition to the original Jiafei (officer class)-Sato, who was less than 18 years old, was directly promoted from Yifei to Te Cfei because of his outstanding performance. In order to encourage more young people to apply, Toho Company accepted the commission of the military and filmed "Space Decisive Battle" in 1943 as a propaganda film for the recruitment of naval pilots. The content reflects all the scenes of the Pacific naval battle.

The sample film was shot before Hori Teikichi returned from Europe. He just wanted to add a few more scenes of the Combined Fleet's westward expedition and release it. However, after watching it, Hori Teikichi thought it was not deep enough, especially the scenes were not good, and the grand momentum was not captured. Then the American planes were either blurry shots taken by military reporters, or pretended to be army or German planes. He thought it was too fake and asked for a reshoot - hoping to complete it within 3 months, and promised to give full support.

The Combined Fleet got a large number of American planes during the westward expedition, not only F4F\\F6F\\SBD\\TBF, but also B-17\\C-54, etc. In the face of Hori Teikichi's statement of full support, the reshoot scenes were more grand and real. Hori Teikichi also asked some German pilots to play Americans, and selected a group of American prisoners of war to play other scenes. All aviation teams and aviation schools fully cooperated, and the top pilots of the Combined Fleet, including the cleaning trio and Akamatsu Sadaaki, performed stunts in the film. After the "Tenchu ​​****", the powerful Hori Teikichi passed a reform bill to grant military ranks to aviation students, and the movie also absorbed this part.

When the film was finally completed, it cost 39 million yen, equivalent to the cost of a light cruiser, and the entire main force of the Combined Fleet was mobilized. It can be said to be a unique blockbuster. But it was very successful, and it was much better in art than the "Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet" which was rushed. In order to strengthen publicity, the remade "Space Battle" not only introduced more star actors, but also modified the main storyline at the suggestion of Hori Teikichi:

The film mainly tells the story of two young students, one poor and one rich, who join the navy as pilots. The poor one is named Matsushita and the rich one is named Takahashi. Takahashi and Matsushita have not gotten along well since they were children. Takahashi, who comes from a well-off family, often bullies Matsushita, and Matsushita occasionally plays pranks to retaliate against Takahashi. The two applied for the Navy Flight Preparatory Course with different purposes: Takahashi was eager for excitement and wanted to be a hero, so he became a fighter pilot; Matsushita was eager to get ahead and became an officer, so he became an attack aircraft pilot.

The two were still at odds with each other in the flight school. Not only did they have affairs everywhere, but they also continued to have sparks in subjects such as kendo, judo, and sports. They even quarreled with each other in the flight team to compete for credit and promotion opportunities; even though their common commander They and their seniors repeatedly told them to unite, but the two were still at odds with each other. However, during a sortie, the commander crashed first to cover everyone's escape. The Panasonic aircraft was injured after completing the attack. He prepared to return to the team with difficulty, but was closely pursued by US fighter jets. After running out of ammunition, Takahashi clearly had the option of returning alone, but in the end he decided to do so. Die together with the US plane and cover Panasonic's retreat. After returning, Matsushita received a medal and became an officer, but Takahashi couldn't even find his body, only a suicide note and some relics. In the cemetery, Matsushita placed his medals and rank epaulettes in front of Takahashi's tombstone, and returned to the team without hesitation to embark on a new journey. After becoming an officer, he faced the newly recruited preparatory students who joined the flying team on the first day and taught them how to fly. “Unite!”…

There are actually many places in this film that Horikichi embarrassed the filming crew:

First, he drastically reduced the scenes of "serving the emperor", and except for a few links, most of them were omitted;

Secondly, it is required to show that the US military pilots are very brave and not afraid of death, but have a strong liberal style, which is not a metaphor for unity - but this is contrary to Japan's consistent propaganda that the US military is greedy for life and afraid of death;

Thirdly, the film clearly shows the strong industrial strength of the US military - when the US fleet appears, it is always accompanied by mighty supply ships and transport ships. The soldiers never have to walk, they are all in jeeps or trucks, and they can also eat ice cream ( In fact, the American prisoners ate ice cream from the Yamato Hotel). When the Japanese fleet came out, there were very few warships, and supplies were very difficult. The soldiers, including the pilots, relied on two legs. Not to mention ice cream, even gasoline was not guaranteed during the war. It can be guaranteed, which is a metaphor that Japan is too weak to persist for a long time - and this is contrary to Japan's consistent propaganda that the country will win in the end;

Fourth, when assigning missions, the commander repeatedly asked the pilots to pay attention to safety and return as safely as possible - this is also in conflict with Japan's usual promotion of fighting to the death to serve the country.

Even though there were so many embarrassing things in the eyes of the press and the film industry, no one dared to say no if Horikichi nodded and approved, so the film was promoted to a nationwide release. Not only was it released, but it was also required to be screened in every middle school and university, so that Students can watch it for free, and "The Song of the Eagle" (lyrics written by Saijo Yao, who also composed "Sakura of the same period") has not only become the most widely sung song among young students, but also become a popular song among Otobi, Bingfei, Tobibyi, etc. A resonant song for all HNA prep students.

Since the Army Aviation has no good promotional videos, and the preparatory students of the Army Aviation have no chance to become officers (the Army still selects officers from the non-commissioned officer academy, it is not that the Army does not want to change, but because if the Army Aviation can become an officer, then the armored force, artillery force, etc.) , cavalry, engineering and other junior colleges are all qualified to become officers. In addition, the enrollment of army officers is much larger than that of the navy academy, so the army rank system will not be changed). Therefore, the first choice of young students who want to be pilots is Hainan Airlines.

After the broadcast of "Space Combat", there were as many as 270,000 applicants who volunteered to join HNA, ranging in age from 14 to 20 years old. In the end, younger applicants were eliminated, with 16 years old as the threshold and a ratio of 10:1. It has absorbed nearly 12,000 pre-trainees. Special aviation graduates like Sato who are under 18 years old are not allowed to join the first-line flying team, let alone the carrier-based aircraft flying team. However, because of his talent, not only his night flying performance is particularly outstanding, but also other carrier-based capabilities are also very fast. In terms of speed control, except for his age, everything else meets the standards, so he is included in the first line. Horikichi only sighed after seeing the roster before setting off, but said nothing.

After listening to them singing, Chiaki Matsuda found that Horikichi's eyes were full of tears. He walked to the pilot queue and bowed deeply, "Everyone, have a good trip!"

"Sir, take care!"

At 3:30 in the morning, all attack groups had taken off. Xinxiang Yingcheng, who was leading the group, issued an order through the radio: "Fly a circle around the flagship to complete the group and say final farewell to the commander!"

Under the cover of night, Horikichi led all the officers of the headquarters to stand at attention and salute on the deck, watching the fleet leave... Everyone including the pilots knew that Horikichi gave the first attack wave a "death attack" order—— You must complete the mission even if you die!

He usually doesn't give such an order, but this time for Pearl Harbor, he had no choice but to give it...

ps: It’s the middle of the month, please give me some monthly passes...