Clumps of coral drifted under the boat, and the submarine flew like an airship over a red forest. The jungle composed of coral became deeper and deeper, and the sea water became deeper and deeper. Those beautiful coral bushes were not only Out of sight.
The black bow of the boat hit the waves, making a monotonous splashing sound, "Okay, safe passage, remove the detectors and surveillance posts, we are ready to dive!" Major Brad stood on the front bridge and shouted loudly .
The crew members slid into the boat from the elevator entrance with sea water. Staff Sergeant Jerry stood soakingly in the cabin, taking off his clothes and wiping his body with a dry towel.
At this time, Captain Wilson poked his head out of the deputy captain's cabin: "Well done, we finally passed this dangerous sea area. The charts provided by the Australians are really clear!"
"What's the use? I hope I don't run into the Chinese. I almost scared them to death in the Atlantic half a year ago! The sea area in front of me is called this damn Gulf of Papua." Sergeant Jerry said, shaking his wet hands. Huge hair.
Since the war began, the "Shark" was the first U.S. submarine to be attacked by a Republican Navy destroyer. In the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa, it was lucky to escape the siege of three warships on the rocky seabed.
"Captain Shane pointed out in the battle report that the Chinese detectors can detect submarines suspended in the water. Their warships are equipped with active hydroacoustic detectors, rather than just relying on receiving the echo of the propeller. But sitting in the Navy office Those gentlemen don’t believe this fact!” Captain Wilson said.
"We don't care about the damn orders of the Admiralty. After seeing the Chinese, it's best to stay away!" Jerry wiped his lower body with a towel. "Those bastards in the Admiralty are better at using their brains than their brains!" I found a pair of half-dry trousers and put them on. There was no way, the submarine was always damp and the clothes couldn't be dried at all.
The "Shark" and the "Perch" sailed on the water all night, and in the early morning, they arrived at the northern part of the Morey Islands and entered the vicinity of the channel into the Gulf of Papua.
Suddenly, the alarm bell rang loudly in the boat. Sergeant Jerry woke up from his sleep and jumped out of bed. "What's going on?" His bunk was located at the bow of the boat near the sonar room. He stood at the head of the bed, He poked his head into the sonar room and asked.
"About 12,000 yards away from us, we found a large number of ships passing by. They must be enemies!" Lieutenant Morello, who was on duty at the bow of the boat, said.
The submarine was making an emergency dive. The deck inside the boat was tilted. The voice of the captain, Major Brad, came from the loudspeaker, "Dive to 35 feet, 1/5 idle, and raise the periscope! Damn it, we You have to report to the headquarters!”
The main force of the Nanyang Fleet formed a single column after a night of sailing, crossed the Torres Strait, and was reorganizing into a combat formation. At this time, the radio reconnaissance ship detected a set of radio signals from the southeastern sea area about 10,000 meters away. It was now close to dawn For a while, there was still light rain in the sky, and the entire fleet was awakened by the sound of sirens, and the officers and soldiers hurried to the combat posts.
The two destroyers and two frigates at the right front of the fleet left the group and rushed towards the position detected by the radio monitoring ship.
Due to the dense reefs on the seabed, it is difficult for hydroacoustic detectors to detect the location of enemy submarines.
"We have been discovered, speed up and leave this sea area!" General Chen Shiying, wearing pajamas, his admiral's jacket, and no hat on his head, entered the war room and then issued the order.
The fleet began to accelerate and increased its speed to 25 knots. Nothing could be seen clearly on the sea. The fleet was speeding towards the Coral Sea in the drizzle. Because it was still raining, the air force on the ship did not take any action.
Several destroyers and frigates randomly threw a few depth charges into the sea, and then quickly rushed over from behind.
At this time, both the Fletcher Fleet and the Halsey Fleet in Townsville and the Solomon Islands received news that the Republic Fleet had passed through the Torres Strait and entered the Gulf of Papua. Fletcher's fleet immediately began to fire, and at dawn At that time, he left Townswell. Halsey decisively gave up the attack on Rabaul and immediately ordered the fleet to turn around and return to the Coral Sea, hoping to find the Republican fleet for a decisive battle.
At the same time, a mobile fleet composed of two aircraft ships, the Shokaku and Zuikaku, led by Takeo Takagi, also hurried here from French New Caledonia.
Due to bad weather and thick cumulonimbus clouds in the sky, two groups of US fighter jets taking off from Cape York and Moresby airports failed to find their targets. Chen Shiying's fleet sailed to the southeastern waters of the Morey Islands , the sea was sometimes cloudy and sometimes rainy, and the fleet's fighter planes were unable to take off.
By around four o'clock in the afternoon, the fleet had entered the West Coral Sea, and the weather had become slightly better. A group of B17 bombers taking off from Australia accidentally discovered traces of the Republic Fleet operating on the sea.
Due to the obstruction of rain clouds, the fleet's radar did not detect this group of bombers flying at high altitude.
By the time the fleet forcibly took off fighter jets from the aircraft carrier, less than twenty B17s had already dropped bombs on the sea and sped away.
Fortunately, bombs dropped from an altitude of several thousand meters pose a very limited threat to fleets sailing at sea. Although the scene of more than a hundred aerial bombs exploding on the sea looks thrilling, none of them hit a big target. Like luck to hit the target.
"It's not a good thing that the enemy discovered our position first. There are seven American aircraft ships around us now, but their current positions are still unclear!" Chen Shiying stood on the bridge of the "Hengshan" and squinted. My eyes looked at the occasional flash of sunlight in the sky through the clouds. It was already 4 pm, and it would be dark in another two and a half hours. "Turn southeast, we have to leave the range of land-based fighters!"
As the order was issued, the fleet changed its course slightly and continued to sail towards the deep sea at a high speed of 25 knots.
On September 23, the main force of the East China Sea Fleet led by Cheng Yaoheng entered the Solomon Sea, while the Nanyang Fleet and the two U.S. fleets sent carrier-based aircraft to search for opponents on the sea, but neither found the other party.
The 17th Fleet led by Fletcher and the main fleet led by Admiral Halsey met in the south of Rossel Island, and the command of the fleet was transferred to Admiral Halsey. It took off from the "Saragato" Two patrol planes discovered a Republican Navy submarine operating on the surface and dropped aerial bombs on it.
Although the pilot came back and reported that the submarine had been sunk, Admiral Halsey was convinced that the submarine had escaped the attack because of a long series of radio signals subsequently detected in the area.
In order to prevent the Republic Navy from guessing its position, Admiral Halsey ordered the fleet to turn back when the fleet sailed to Tagula Island in the middle of the night. At dawn, they returned to the original place.
The current situation is very dangerous for both parties. If the party is discovered first, it may suffer a fatal attack.