Chapter 106 A piece of meat sent into the mouth of the enemy

Kurita on the "Yamato" saw it clearly, and hurriedly sent a signal to the "Musashi" to inquire about the situation. The "Musashi" reported that it could only maintain a speed of 22 knots, so Kurita hurriedly reduced the speed of the entire fleet to 22 knots in order to lead the "Musashi" forward together. The twisting of the steel plate has brought great trouble to the "Musashi". It is like a swimmer swimming with a plank on his head. The further he swims, the greater the energy consumption and the slower the speed.Gradually, the "Musashi" could not even guarantee a speed of 22 knots, so that it fell behind the fleet. This in turn caused the bow to sink.

In this attack, the "Yamato" was also hit by two bombs, and the hull tilted. The old battleship "Nagato" lost a turret and a boiler room. Other cruisers and destroyers also suffered damage to varying degrees.The desperate Kurita sent another distress telegram to the aviation unit, but like the previous telegram, due to communication problems, he failed to receive any reply. Kurita couldn't imagine it, and ordered the 18-inch main guns on the "Yamato" and "Musashi" to be loaded with three-type incendiary bombs.Type 3 incendiary bomb is an experimental anti-personnel shell. Once this shell explodes in the air, it can instantly turn into more than 600 small incendiary bombs. When it falls to the ground, its power is even more amazing, and it can almost burn everything.During the Battle of Guadalcanal, Kurita was ordered to bombard Guadalcanal Airport with three-type bombs, which achieved very remarkable results.

The three-type bomb is mainly used to attack ground targets, but it can also be used to destroy low-altitude aircraft under special circumstances. Before the second wave of attacks, the gunner of the "Musashi" asked the captain, Rear Admiral Inoguchi Toshihei, for permission to launch the three-type bomb , Inoguchi, who is famous for his gunnery command in the United Fleet, immediately rejected this request. The reason is that the Type 3 ammunition wears out the barrel a lot and will damage the barrel. Once it is used, it is difficult to guarantee the shooting after breaking into Wright Gulf. precision required.

Now Kurita can't care about Wright Bay and Brett Bay anymore. He only knows that if effective air cover is still not available, both "Yamato" and "Musashi" will be in a desperate situation. At 2:30 pm, more than 50 US planes launched the fourth wave of attacks.After they flew close, the "Yamato" and "Musashi" loaded with three types of ammunition opened fire at the same time. Amid the roar of the giant guns, the battleship shook violently like an earthquake. The magnitude of the vibration when hit by a bomb. The thunderous Type 3 bombs failed to block the U.S. aircraft, and the "Musashi", which had lost its maneuverability, was attacked from various angles. Shrapnel scattered like steel cornflowers towards the bridges. The tower was destroyed, many officers were killed on the spot, and Zhukou was injured.

This kind of blow was placed on other warships, which would have sunk to the bottom long ago, but the scarred "Musashi" can still continue to sail, but the speed has dropped to 12 knots. The "Musashi" can't keep up with the main force no matter what, and it is impossible for Kurita to reduce the speed of the entire fleet to 12 knots, otherwise the slow ones will drag down the fast ones, and the bad ones will drag down the good ones, and they will die together.In desperation, he had to let the "Musashi" withdraw from the combat sequence accompanied by two destroyers.

Too late.At 3:10 p.m., the fifth attack came. More than 100 fighter jets and torpedo planes formed a huge lineup, rushing towards Kurita's troops like dark clouds. The "Musashi" has long been powerless to fight back. At this time, it wished to have two more legs and escaped like flying, but the more I tried to escape, the more I couldn't escape. The "Wasps" had already given the injured "elephant" to the rescue. Completely stared at. The last and most violent attack of the day came on the Musashi.The continuous strikes of more than ten torpedoes and bombs caused the bow of the "Musashi" to sink into the water, and the hull could only continue to creep forward at a speed of 6 knots. At the same time, the sinking and tilting became more and more serious.In the five attacks launched by the U.S. military that day, 60% of the carrier-based aircraft focused on it. This "unsinkable warship" that took five years to build has become as fragile as a piece of paper.

At 3:30 p.m., the fifth attack finally came to an end.In order to save the "Musashi", Inoguchi ordered three of the four engine rooms to be injected into seawater, leaving only one machine to operate and sail. as appropriate. About three hours later, the bow of the "Musashi" was completely submerged in seawater, and all machinery stopped operating. Only the two front forts were still floating on the water like small islands.Captain Inoguchi gave the order to abandon the ship, and while there was still a foothold on board, he summoned the principal officers and performed a miserable farewell ceremony.

Inoguchi used to be a believer in the big gun doctrine, and believed that his "Musashi" could be invincible at sea. However, after personally witnessing the fate of the "Musashi", he admitted in his farewell telegram to Toyota: "It seems I was totally wrong, air combat is the main direction of future wars.” Before the crew could evacuate in time, the "Musashi" capsized suddenly to the left like a sleeping person who turned over suddenly, and half of the officers and soldiers on board, including Inoguchi, were killed.Because of the sudden incident, the statue of the emperor who was to be transferred as usual sank along with the ship.

When the Musashi disappeared, Kurita's forces were still advancing. At this time, they were approaching the San Bernardino Strait. The route became narrower and narrower, and this terrain meant the possibility of being ambushed by submarines. Also getting bigger and bigger.Kurita looked around from the bridge. The sea was white and the waves were surging. It was really difficult to spot and identify the submarine's periscope or torpedo track from inside. Just at this time, the Combined Fleet Command sent another warning telegram: "It is speculated that when reaching the surface of San Bernardino, the possibility of the enemy using submarines is very high, so be more vigilant."

Kurita called back: "Thank you for the care of the headquarters, we have worked hard." Although the words are bold, if there are really a large number of submarines ambushing in the San Bernardino Strait, what are you going to do?There are only two U.S. submarines in the Palawan Strait, and three 10,000-ton heavy cruisers have lost their temper. At this time, the speed of Kurita's troops had been reduced to 18 knots, which was the speed of the fleet's sea battle half a century ago.In addition, Kurita's force originally had 15 destroyers, but now there are only 11 left because of hauling and escorting the injured large ships, which also greatly reduced its ability to defend against submarine attacks.Of course, the most important thing is that Kurita does not know whether and when the next US air strike will come-as long as there is another attack, the fleet will no longer be able to bear it.

As they walked forward, the hungry officers and soldiers became more nervous, each of them was like a bowstring stretched tight, ready to guard against a fatal blow from underwater or in the air at any time.The staff officers couldn't hold back at first, and they made comments to Kurita, thinking that if there is still no air cover, then this unit is equivalent to "a piece of meat sent into the enemy's mouth." Kurita is also in a state of anxiety, and the suggestions of the staff officers are exactly what he wants.At 3:55 p.m., Kurita's troops stopped advancing, turned around and marched westward. At the same time, Kurita also sent a power to the United Fleet Command, explaining the reasons for the temporary retreat, saying that he was only temporarily retreating outside the US air strike circle. If you succeed, you will attack again.