Chapter 26: Mutsu's Attack, Ask for a Monthly Pass)
As mentioned before, after the signing of the Washington Treaty, countries around the world began major naval disarmament and restricted the size of each country's navy and the number of warships.
The United States and the United Kingdom can obtain 100% of their naval share, while the Japanese navy's share is equivalent to 60% of that of the United Kingdom and the United States, and France and Italy are even worse, with only 35%.
Under such circumstances, the Japanese, who wanted to invade and expand and expand their power in the Pacific, were naturally unwilling to accept that their naval strength could not match that of the United States and Britain.
However, they were unable to resist the hegemony of the United States and Britain at this time. They could only accept a naval share equivalent to 60% of the total tonnage of the U.S. Navy and were unable to expand the size of the combined fleet.
The Japanese were obviously not willing to give up. The Japanese Navy, which had a rather hard-headed mentality, chose to give up weekend vacations and adopted a high-intensity training method of "month, month, fire, water, wood, metal, and gold" in an attempt to surpass the U.S. Navy with high-quality sailors.
No one can say how effective this method was, but the overall quality of the Japanese navy during this period was indeed not low.
Even on a night filled with sea fog, relying on the light of the searchlight on the warship, the lookout soldiers on the mast of the Mutsu still saw the huge black shadow in the water.
"Unidentified objects were found underwater on the port side!" The lookout soldier immediately sounded the alarm through the microphone and sounded the alarm on the side.
Suddenly the sirens spread throughout the Mutsu, and the sailors who had been resting quickly got up. Although they did not understand what happened, they quickly entered the combat position and prepared for battle.
At this time, the Nagato and the surrounding cruisers and destroyers responsible for the escort also received the warning from Mutsu. Several snow-white searchlights were directed at the waters on the port side of Mutsu, illuminating the entire waters.
Under the strong light, the huge shadow under the water was seen by everyone in the fleet.
Because of the fog surrounding the sea, the searchlight also illuminated the surrounding fog. This made the waters on the port side of Mutsu as bright as day, and the huge black shadow under the sea was clearly visible.
A destroyer changed its course and sailed towards the illuminated waters, while Nagato and Mutsu also urgently increased their speed, hoping to sail out of this strange-looking waters as soon as possible.
Although the Japanese Navy has always been picky, in order to save precious gun barrel life, it rarely lets the battleships fire in normal exercises, but at this time, the officers on the two warships, Nagato and Mutsu, invariably let the main guns of the two warships be loaded.
Live ammunition was fired, and the six turrets of the two warships, a total of twelve 410mm naval guns, were pointed at the target waters.
Although they did not know what was under the water, these Showa officers believed that nothing could withstand the simultaneous fire of the two most powerful battleships in the world.
The destroyer quickly arrived at the target water area. The sailors on the ship looked down from the side of the ship and saw a huge black shadow clearly visible under the water. Even soldiers with good eyesight could see the shadow swimming around.
Just when everyone was wondering what was under the water and whether they should throw two depth charges down to test it, the black shadows swimming under the water suddenly started to swim faster.
The captain of the destroyer was immediately startled and quickly ordered the depth charges to be dropped.
The two depth charges were immediately thrown down, and the black shadow had already stretched out its huge figure.
"Boom! Boom!" Following the two explosions, the sea surface swelled slightly, but the black shadow under the water was not affected at all.
No, it should be said that these two depth charges disturbed the dark shadow under the water and caused it to quickly start to rise.
"What's going on?" On the destroyer, the captain rushed to the side of the bridge. Looking at the huge black shadow under the water and the boiling sea surface, his face turned pale with fright, and he hurriedly shouted: "Reverse at full speed.
, get out of here!”
However, just as he was shouting this, the black shadow under the water had already opened its terrifying bloody mouth.
"Wow!" A huge abyssal mouth suddenly bit the destroyer from right below, pushing the entire destroyer directly out of the water.
Then there was a sudden "click", accompanied by the terrible noise of metal twisting and the screams of the fallen sailors, and the destroyer was forcefully bitten into two pieces.
Everyone in the entire fleet was stunned by the fairy tale-like scene in front of them.
No one has ever seen such a terrifying monster, let alone a destroyer being bitten to pieces so easily.
However, when people are afraid, in addition to collapse, they will also go hysterical and crazy.
On the Mutsu, which was closer at this time, its captain was undoubtedly frightened out of his mind at this moment, but he did not collapse. Instead, he showed the crazy nature of the Showa man to the fullest and shouted loudly at the bridge.
: "Fire! Kill this monster! The Imperial Navy is invincible! It will never be frightened by a mere monster! Fire!"
The warning bell of the main gun salvo immediately sounded on the Mutsu, and the same bell sounded on the Nagato next to it.
Just a few minutes later, the 410mm main gun, which had never been fired on the battlefield in history, roared. Twelve bright flames instantly cut through the sea fog and darkness, illuminating the entire sea area in fiery red.
Hit the head of the huge monster rising from the sea with twelve cannonballs!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Explosions sounded one after another. In such a close range bombardment, there was no possibility that even the battleship's main gun would miss.
The flames generated by the explosion of the shells, together with the splashing waves, obscured everyone's sight and also killed all the survivors who had fallen into the water on the destroyer.
"Did we kill that monster?" an officer asked in a low voice, and this was everyone's question.
"Definitely killed! Even the Miying monster battleships can't withstand the volley of twelve main guns of the Nagato class! What's more, it's just a monster!" An officer was talking nonsense, trying to convince others, and also trying to persuade
Own.
However, this sea monster obviously didn't cooperate with him.
Seemingly irritated by the shelling, a low roar came from the filled smoke. At the same time, eight huge monster heads that were the same as those that had bitten the destroyer's head rose up on the sea one after another. The slender and
The thick neck is like eight sky-reaching sea pillars, covering the entire fleet.
"This is... Yamata-no-Orochi!!!" A sailor may have come from the countryside. After seeing the monster's eight heads, he immediately remembered the mythical stories his grandma had told him when he was a child, and he immediately thought of Japanese mythology.
The one in the middle is the Yamata-no-Orochi that brings harm to the world.
Apparently more than one officer and soldier in the entire fleet had thought of this. In an instant, despair and fear swept through everyone.
"Roar!" The sea monster's nine heads roared together, and instantly launched an attack on the entire fleet.
