Chapter 54: The Sea of ​​Blood

Under the undulating sea surface, 5 meters deep was already dark at night. An elongated round body like a giant moray eel swam forward gracefully and agilely at a speed of more than 20 meters per second. The tail propeller that powered it had only a slight buzzing sound and a very small number of bubbles in the high-speed operation. A thin line that almost escaped in the sea water extended from the middle of the propeller and followed it back to search for thousands of meters. A black diving body larger than a blue whale quietly floated under the water for a depth of nearly 20 meters. The sight was wandering, and within ten kilometers nearby, there were many similar situations, which looked quite shocking.

Unlike the quiet, weird and vicious underwater world, the world on the sea is boiling, noisy and full of blood and death. The 12,000 tons of steel body is eroded by the deadly flames. The rolling smoke from the port side of the cruiser is like a broken bottle leaking out of soy sauce, but it seems to be affected by gravity from the opposite direction of the earth's center, spreading upwards and rushing to a height of hundreds of meters; those originally neat and mighty three-unit masters

The cannon was like a wild dog with a sharp hit on his head, tilted his eyes and drooping his tongue, looking like he was about to die; some of the more than 1,200 well-trained crew members returned to heaven at the moment of the explosion, while others were still suffering in the flames and smoke, struggling, and looking for a way out with panic. Many people hurriedly put on life jackets or jumped directly into the Atlantic Ocean, which was only 10 degrees Celsius without any preparation.

The sudden explosion of a friendly ship shocked the US officers and soldiers who were all focused on chasing the wonders of the night sky. Except for the ship commander and the steering personnel, the others could only watch the light cruiser exploded one after another and sank down quickly. Someone mistakenly issued a torpedo warning because of the mottled light and shadow on the sea. After a scramble of guns and cannons, they found that it was just a false alarm, but the real crisis was not resolved. When some light cruisers and destroyers closely guarded their aircraft carrier to avoid the cruiser whose tragic fate could not be changed, the other two destroyers tried to stick to cover the heavy cruiser with special missions and accelerated their departure.

Their intentions have not been achieved, and a violent explosion broke out again. The second victim was the 30,000-ton Essex-class aircraft carrier "Oris Canny". The impact caused by the 220 kilograms of strong ** caused the huge hull to rise to the left in a strong tremor. The spacious flight deck and the lower hangar reached a maximum inclination of more than five degrees. A hns-1 reconnaissance contact helicopter located at the rear right corner of the deck fell into the water with a temporary loaded anti-submarine bomb. The hull tilt quickly reciprocated elastically under its own structure and gravity. Although no more non-combat losses occurred, the scene in the flight deck and the hangar were already a mess.

Judging from the experience of the Pacific War, a torpedo may not cause fatal damage to the Essex-class aircraft carrier. People were still surprised by the external explosion of the "Oriscany". Doom finally came on the "culprit" that caused hundreds of American sailors to be killed and killed and brewed a greater tragedy - the heavy cruiser Boston. When the crew members on the watch alert and on duty did not find any obvious abnormality at all, the left side of the ship's bow suddenly splashed high. This was not a fountain performance in the park. The thick gray-white smoke mixed with flames instantly swallowed the bow of the ship, and the violent shock instantly spread throughout the ship. Many people fell on the deck without any defense. Two people fell into the water, with minor injuries. The hull hit by the explosion even swept to the right.

The two flagships were hit hard one after another, and the lively sea surface finally heated up under the scorching fire, only one step away from the boiling state. The escort destroyer on the left wing of the fleet screamed sharply like a wild cat with its tail stepped on. Many 5-inch main guns and machine guns on the side were dead and poured shells into the sea two or three hundred meters away. Water columns of large and small splashed in a large area, trying to detonate the fuse-sensitive torpedoes, or change the direction of the torpedoes through explosion shocks. If the day is fought and the light is good, it is possible to find the torpedo trajectory to be intercepted and knocked down in this way. However, night battles are unknown to the enemy situation, random shelling will only intercept and intercept and knock down the normal operation of the sonar equipment.

"Loss pipe situation! Report the loss pipe situation!"

In the armored bridge where the internal and external structures have not been damaged, the naval officer with two horizontal bars on the epaulette yelled at the communication microphone in a hurry. His white naval uniform had severe pleats and light brown stains. His right cheekbones were broken, and the blood was not left much, but a blue bag suddenly bulged.

"How is the situation?" A thunderous voice came from the just-opened hatch. A unique acidic smell of gunpowder smoke and an inexplicable burnt smell poured into this safe space where the smoke had not yet been filled with gunpowder smoke. However, this voice was like a heart-rest with magical effects. The panic atmosphere suddenly settled down, and the officers who looked embarrassed seemed to have found their respective positions again.

The officer with two bars quickly carried four bars on his shoulders, and the captain who was at least one round of the older captain gave way: "The loss has not been returned yet! Sir! You and General Jetlica..."

The captain, who was over 50 years old but still as strong as a ox, said in a muffled voice: "Hmph, I was almost thrown into the sea. It's really deadly. It must be a torpedo rather than a mine. Our situation is not very optimistic!"

The middle-aged officer with two bars was about to say something optimistic and humorous. The telephone used for communication in the ship rang. The captain's thick and wide right palm grabbed the microphone almost immediately: "I am Colonel Angelo... Is the situation serious? Oh? That's really disappointing..."

After the tone of the Eppaulin changed from anxious to low, the tone suddenly sank, and his tone was extremely firm: "Close the fireproof compartment of the No. 1 and No. 2 ammunition depots, immediately! All personnel evacuate and close the emergency passage within two minutes!"

After putting down the phone, the hard captain lowered his head and closed his eyes with a sad face. After a moment, he turned his head to look at the officers around him, took a deep breath, picked up the phone and asked for the loss pipe center, repeated the order just issued to the loss pipe team, and then ordered in extremely painfully: "Immediately inject water evenly into the two bottom cabins of starboard 16 and 18 to keep the ship balanced, and be sure to report the tonnage of the water injection to me at any time!"

Just hung up the phone, and the strong vibration that had never diminished from the previous time was accompanied by a loud and deafening sound. In an instant, the whole world seemed to be twisted. People only felt that the sky was spinning and had nowhere to gain a foothold. Those who grabbed the handrail would inevitably hit the bulkhead hard, and those who completely lost their balance were even worse. The flesh and blood body and the hard floor or bulkhead were bumped hard without buffering.

In this era when football games are already quite popular, people are familiar with the titles and functions of forwards, midfielders, defenders and goalkeepers. Captain Angelo's movements after falling to the ground fully demonstrated a goalkeeper-like second reaction. He climbed up quickly regardless of the pain in the grounding part, moved sideways for three steps, and looked out the porthole. The scene that caught his eye at this moment surprised him as if he had witnessed the purgatory depicted in "The Divine Comedy"... What a tragic phenomenon! On the boiling sea, flames soared into the sky actually rose one after another, expanding and dissipating, just like the flames of fresh egg yolks.

The light shone on the ships that were shaking, exploding, burning, squirting, capsizing, sinking, and the rumbling sound reminded the fiercest summer storm. A few minutes ago, the one who was unfortunately shot was a poor cruiser, a strong aircraft carrier and this heavy cruiser that could barely withstand a torpedo strike a secondary position. In just a blink of an eye, it seemed as if the fleet had entered the fire scene, and there was leaping flames everywhere, and the rising smoke everywhere. Those that reflected the dark light were no longer clean sea water, but a fire filled with oil and blood!

"God... what's wrong with us?" The captain stood in front of the porthole. The officers spoke loudly while supporting each other. The telephones hanging on the bulkhead rang monotonically. After the hatch door was opened, all kinds of messy sounds poured in from outside. But at this moment, he heard nothing. The sad tune of Scottish bagpipes in his mind was inexplicably circling in his mind. He often heard at the British Allied Base and Scottish Port during the war in Europe. With victory one after another, he was confused about why the British chose such sad military music. Only at this moment, he seemed to understand and realized that the cruelty of war was treated equally by everyone, but some people tasted it early and some people tasted it late.

I don't know how long it took, the strong-looking U.S. Navy colonel finally felt someone pulling his sleeves. The shouts of "Sir" and "Sir" had already made his eardrums a little hurt. He turned his head ignorantly and saw that his first mate's face was covered in blood.

"Poor Old Henry, are you okay?"

"Thank God, I thought you were stunned!" The first mate of the ship with a pair of sky blue eyes wiped a handful of blood and sweat mixed with liquid on his face, and said: "The right-wheel engine room is in full swing, and the damaging team is sprinting from the bow to the stern of the ship. The situation looks very unoptimistic. If the personnel are evacuated and the compartment is closed, we will lose at least half of the power and we have to count on the rudder to operate normally."

"Right-wheel engine room..." The colonel patted his forehead, feeling it hurt, and his thoughts could not be concentrated.

"Or let everyone try their best to plug the leak regardless of danger, so that there is still a chance to regain the momentum." The first mate proposed the second option.

"No, you can't take that risk." The colonel said in a voice from the heart, "People will withdraw first, close the waterproof compartment, and let the damage management team find a way. Uh... Damn, right engine compartment, why is it the right engine compartment?"

The first mate ignored the question behind him. He eagerly walked to the phone to convey the order. The officer carrying two bars on his shoulder said in a daze on the other side: "The sea is full of torpedoes, they come from all directions, and we fell into an unprecedented big trap!"

The colonel also ignored the words of the subordinate. He drove his numb and heavy legs toward the cabin door, walked through the cabin door, climbed up the gangway along the extremely familiar passage, and grabbed his body with both hands. He felt extremely difficult to come to the combat bridge, with the best view of the entire ship - unless the warship was retreating in panic.

"Sir..." the colonel called out in great fatigue. At this time, his commander, the senior brother of the same school and the official commander of this special fleet, stood alone on the railing. His hat was not on his head. His white hair was short, but he still swayed like a rice wave under the influence of the sea breeze and air waves. His entourage, a young lieutenant with a smart mind, lay on his back down on the hollowed steel table of the battle bridge.

"Sir..." The colonel called and staggered to General Jetlica. The red blood dripped from his right ear, like the spring water in a mountain stream, and the white navy uniform had already dyed red. The general's eyes looked to the left. A few dozen meters away, the light cruiser "Vincent" was no longer the steel dragon galloping across the ocean. Its stern was sloping into the water, its hull was tilted to the left, the bow was raised high at a crooked angle, and the sea around the hull was over.

They are the crew members who keep flapping their hands and feet to survive. They can see similar scenes every time they hold a swimming competition, but this time it is completely different. They are trying to get rid of the vortex of death - the warships they are familiar with and dedicated to their beautiful youth are sinking at a speed clearly visible to the naked eye. At this moment, it is so calm and peaceful, like a horse about to die of old age. It knows its return date, it is attached to but does not regret its departure, it is quietly waiting, waiting...

"Has God abandoned us? Is God no longer protecting America?" Colonel Angelo's dry lips were trembling like leaves in the wind. He turned to look to the other side. The injured "Oriscanny" was trying to escape from the sea of ​​disaster at full speed. In order to avoid torpedo attacks, it dragged its huge body into an S-shaped shape. The white track left on the stern of the ship proved its trajectory. In fact, with the defense design of the Essex-class aircraft carrier, an ordinary torpedo would not kill it.

As long as the damage is effective, it can reach the other side of the journey. However, the three ships escorted it, including the slow escort destroyer, had already fallen out at this time. The main body of the slender and elegant light cruiser exploded violently, and the bridge and deck were full of flames. Under the flames, there were figures running and diving everywhere. It seemed that its sinking progress would soon catch up with the poor "Vincent"; a torpedo had extremely great destructive power on the 2,000-ton escort destroyer, and the terror below the waterline

The human sabotage may be impossible to remedy by any damage technology. The hull that was stranded above the water was also burning violently, as if all the steel parts had turned into flammable dry pine. Some of the smooth and black bottoms of the ship were exposed from the water. More hulls that should have blown the sea breeze and bathed in the waves quickly cooled down in the sea. There was also a Fletcher-class destroyer who turned to avoid torpedoes or companions' wreckage. The complex situation on the sea allowed it to continue to sail to the right wing of the fleet, and it was now from "

Boston "passed behind, and with its anti-submarine equipment, it could quickly find out the location of the enemy submarine and launch an assault on one or both of them. Angelo subconsciously thought about these, but this was neither possible for him to decide nor could General Jetlica control the two destroyers of his own fleet be there? Standing on this bridge, there was no way to distinguish. The captain wanted to walk to the edge of the bridge and looked back and forth. At this moment, Dr. Mante rushed to the bridge and shouted regardless of the influence:

"If this warship cannot be saved, we should enable a backup plan to transport the secret cargo to a safe destroyer nearby."

This backup plan was decided before the fleet %%. As the main person in charge of the implementation plan, Jetlica and Angelo knew it in advance, but the incident happened too quickly and violently, and their thoughts were still entangled in surprise despair.

"What?" The captain turned around and looked at Dr. Mante, with a ferocious expression and a cold tone, as if the nuclear weapons expert in front of him was the culprit of this tragedy. Since the end of the tragedy was destined, perhaps only by removing the root of the sin can we comfort the soul of the deceased.

Amid the huge roar, the hull shook strongly again. The three people on the bridge barely held the railing without falling. Judging from the sound and vibration of the explosion, the death explosion caused by ammunition and fuel on the ship had begun, and more violent explosions were likely to cause it to collapse and sink quickly without control.

"If they are allowed to sink to the bottom of the sea with the ship, the consequences are more terrible than losing this fleet!" Dr. Mante shouted, "Even if the enemy cannot get them away, highly radioactive concentrated substances will pollute the sea. In a few years, hundreds of nautical miles around may become a sea of ​​death!"

"Then why should we ship these devil's weapons!" Angelo looked outraged.

At the critical moment, Dr. Mante was fearless: "If the plane carrying them was shot down, the ending would be the same - perhaps worse! We believe in the Navy, respect the Navy, and believe that the Navy is more capable of taking on this task!"

The last tactful compliment greatly resolved Angelo's anger, and the fleet commander General Jetlica finally turned around when he heard this. In just half an hour, the senior naval general seemed to have become aged in his teenage years. He looked at Dr. Mante with sadness, and also saw the flames and smoke rising from the middle and back of the hull. Two lines of clear tears couldn't help but flow down his cheeks.

"Col. Arrange the sailors to implement a backup plan! Transfer those two special cargo to the destroyer, the "Gatling" or "Sigsby" can be done, and then the single ship is at full speed to France. The fuel is enough. Don't turn back in the middle. If the Oriscany can maintain speed, it will be traveling together, and there is no need to escort it specifically."

Angelo lowered his head sadly. Just now, he glanced out of the corner of his eyes and saw a destroyer appearing on the back of the port side of the Boston. There was almost no light on it, as if it was a dark horse rushing into the battlefield to savior. Its arrival gave people hope and the last glimmer of hope.

...
Chapter completed!