Konpeki no Kantai::Volume1 Chapter5

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Konpeki no Kantai Volume 1 Chapter 5

Chapter Five: The 8000 Kilometer Undersea Strike of the Fugaku

1

The Deep Blue Fleet greeted the new year 17, seven days after having sortied from the Hawaiian Islands.

Rear Admiral Maebara Issei, for the first time in a while, saw the faint outline of an island upon the sea, though not with his naked eye. When the periscope of the Fugaku lifted out of the sea on the morning of New Year’s Day, it was in the field of view.

The morning sun was just rising, precisely behind the volcanic island. The glittering, golden dawn shone brightly, as if it were shooting him in the eyes...

The view from the scope vanished in the great waves of the ocean, only to reappear.

"You take a look," said Maebara Issei, urging the captain of the Fugaku, Irie Kuichi.

When Captain Kuichi peered through the scope,

"That must be Clipperton Island," he said.

The French island of Clipperton is a volcanic island floating in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is located at ten degrees north latitude, one hundred and ten degrees west longitude. From Hawaii, it is 5000 kilometers to the south-east. Without consulting a map of the seas, we knew that America was not far away. The coast of Mexico to the northeast is less than 1000 kilometers away.

"Our voyage is on schedule," said Maebara.

The Deep Blue Fleet ran at marvelous speed through the East Pacific, reaching fifteen knots on and under the water, covering 360 nautical miles (670 kilometers) per day.

"Yes. We are still sixteen hundred nautical miles from our target, but the real battle is about to begin," said Irie.

Sixteen hundred nautical miles is about three thousand kilometers.

"We are in enemy territory," nodded Maebara. "From now on, we will have to go underwater day and night."

"Yes sir."

Captain Irie put his mouth to the speaking tube and gave the order: "Lower the periscope."

"Lowering periscope."

"Maintain depth at 50, speed at seven knots. From here on out, the use of underwater recharging equipment is prohibited during daylight hours."

Captain Irie made this announcement as previously arranged.

The underwater recharging equipment charged the battery while the submarine was underwater by taking in air to run a generator. In other words, it was a snorkel developed by our own country ahead of the German Navy.

"Understood. Maintain depth at 50 meters, speed at seven."

"The course will remain the same until further notice."

"Command center affirmative. Maintaining course for Panama."

The voice of Lieutenant Colonel Shinagawa Yajirou, the senior officer, echoed from the command center directly below the control tower.

The ship showed an immediate and sharp response to the tilt of its dive planes. The Fugaku I-601 entered a diving stance, its bow heading underwater. Despite being an revolutionary and giant submarine, the Fugaku’s had outstanding performance moving underwater. This was due to the unprecedented cocoon-shaped structure of the hull.

No, in fact there was a precedent. It was not of this world, but in a prior life. In other words, at the end of the last world war, Japan built the I-400, a ship that could easily circumnavigate the globe......

Displacing 3445 tons empty, but when fully loaded said to actually displace up to 5523 tons, these I-400s were equipped with a unique tube enclosure that could house two to three Seiran attack seaplanes.

Unfortunately, these huge submarines were greeted by the end of the war on August 15, Year 20, without having accomplished anything in the war. However, judging by the admiration given to them by the Americans after the war, our country’s submarine construction technology outstripped theirs.

* In olden days, "Seiran" was the common name for a sudden storm from a clear sky.

As if to make up for the overly late entry of the I-400 class submarines into the war, the members of the Deep Blue Society built yet more powerful new submarines, the I-500, I-600 and the I-700 classes, and introduced them in time for the start of the war...

...This was precisely what the Deep Blue Fleet was all about!

The fearsome power of their attack had already been seen in the Battle of Hawaii on December 7th. The terrible sight of battleships being sunk in the blink of an eye by a simultaneous torpedo attack crushed the enemy Admiral Kimmel’s spirit. And it was what made Admiral Kimmel surrender at once...

But for this mysterious fleet, such things were a piece of cake.

2

It was top secret. The very existence of the fleet was limited to Prime Minister Ootaka and a few others under him. For that reason, the results of their battles were not reported at all. They were quite literally a shadow fleet......

But if I could not go into details, this story would not be able to move along. For the moment, keeping things to the absolute minimum, the Deep Blue Fleet's composition was:

I-601 Fugaku (Flagship)

I-501 Suijin

I-502 Kairyuu

I-503 Soukai

I-701 Otohime (Tender)

The above consists of five ships.

Well......

There were no special events celebrating the New Year, as they in midst of a military operation. The commander, the captain, the navigator and other key personnel of each ship simply stood in front of a Shinto altar placed in an appropriate spot within the ship and clapped their hands in prayer.

Instead, the crews of each ship, numbering from around 110 to 200 each, were allowed to eat whatever they wanted for the day.

In preparation for several months of sailing without stopping at any port, the ship's interiors were packed full of boxes of food everywhere. Canned fruit, yokan... if it could be preserved, they had it all. Everyone celebrated New Year's with smiles on their faces.

Admiral Maebara descended the chimney-like tube from the conning tower, which was filled with four to five people. Once he descended, he was in the command center, which was the battle control center for the Fugaku, where Commander Shinagawa was working hard.

"Salute!"

"Wow, everyone looks like they are having fun," Maebara called out in a friendly manner. "But don't eat too much, or you'll wind up under the care of Dr. Akasaka."

Maebara looked around the control center, which was crammed with instruments. The planesman, Petty Officer Kusaka, was staring at the depth gauge.

"How's it going? She may be a huge ship, but she seems pretty easy to handle."

"Ah, yes sir!"

Planesman Kusaka, perhaps because the commander had spoken to him directly, straightened his small body as if he had been snapped at.

"Yes sir. I think it performs amazingly well. The helm functions smoothly, with hardly any trouble at all."

"It's because of the new lubrication systems in the ship," Maebara informed him.

Continuing, he said "But, the problem is rapid submergence. We have trained well, but when the time comes for the real thing to happen, the fate of the ship and the crew will rest on your skills in controlling the ship."

"Yes sir."

"Yes sir."

Not only these men, but all of the carefully selected crew of the Deep Blue Fleet were outstanding.

According to the design specifications, the ship was capable of fully submerging inside of sixty seconds. But, as the result of intense training, they had been able to reduce the time to fifty seconds. Which was a miracle, considering the giant submarine displaced over five thousand tons...

Next to the planesman sat the helmsman.

"Lieutenant Terashima, let me switch with you for a bit."

Maebara sat down, gripping the stick.

The turning performance wasn't bad. The compass swung around at once. Returning to their heading, he handed the position back.

The hands in charge of air and pumps were next over.

Next to the conning tower was the radio room. Next to that was a cramped underwater listening post. Then there was a radar and backward scanning room. This corner was the mouth and ears of the Fugaku.

Maebara passed through a watertight door, making his way into the bow of the ship. The officer's, the non-com's and the enlisted men's rooms were all in a line.

Calling out to each of them as he went down the corridor, he descended.

At the bow of the ship was a torpedo room. It was next to the magazine. The torpedo tubes and the torpedoes themselves were decorated by shimenawa.

"Salute"

"Congratulations, gentlemen."

"Congratulations."

A cheerful reply came from everyone at once. The extremely high morale probably came from their having sunk the aircraft carrier Lexington and two battleships.

"All of you, at ease," laughed Maebara. "We're off the hot seat for now."

"We're utterly bored and having nothing to do but polish torpedoes," said Lieutenant Terajima Chuusaburou, the torpedo chief.

"Haha, there aren't many fleets in this Pacific Ocean at the moment," said Maebara. "But if the attack on Panama succeeds, we'll let you shoot at the merchant ships to your heart's content."

"Merchant ships?" questioned one of the fresh-faced NCOs.

"Idiot," scolded Maebara, but his eyes were smiling.

Continuing, he said, "Come on now, listen up. The main purpose of submarine warfare, as has been said many times before, is the disruption of trade. As they would say in boxing, it's a body blow. It is strategically important that we weaken the enemy in this way."

As Maebara said this, he looked around the neatly organized and scrupulously clean torpedo room. As one would expect of Lieutenant Terajima, who was getting up there in years. The torpedo-room staff was top notch. It looked like even the subordinates could be relied upon.

"Lieutenant, might I have a word with you?" Maebara invited him into the torpedo chief's office.

"Yes, sir."

It was about the size of a restroom, but at least it afforded some privacy. For a submarine, that was a luxury.

"It's a little messy, but come on in."

They sat facing each other, their knees almost touching.

"You've been studying, haven't you?" said Maebara, looking at the mountains of manuals and specialty literature piled up all around the place.

"After all, this ship is carrying a new type of torpedo, so what we learned in school about torpedoes will not be enough," answered Terajima.

"Yes, of all the Imperial Navy, our Deep Blue Fleet is the only part equipped with the 62cm oxygen torpedo. You've seen with your own eyes just how powerful it is," said Maebara, his eyes smiling.

"Yes, sir."

"It was what our Deep Blue Society was thinking, but with one blow it turned into proof positive..."

All of the Fugaku's torpedo tubes were clustered in the bow. There were, in fact, twelve of them in all. By using sleeves, they could also be used to fire 53cm torpedoes as well.

"Except that we didn't do that in Hawaii......" continued Maebara. "We had heard that the American fleet's ring formation was exceedingly effective, especially against a submarine attack. The 62cm torpedo, with its fifty-kilometer range, was conceived as a way to rip through that wall of iron."

"Yes, sir. I would really like to see what the power of a simultaneous torpedo attack from four ships in a row, this ship and as well as the three I-500s, would be like."

"Haha, perhaps we shall see that," Maebara said, his eyes smiling. "However, as we think up new weapons and new methods of warfare, the enemy will come up with new ways to defend themselves and fight. In other words, warfare is destined to be a competition between spear and shield."

"Yes. It is a complete contradiction in terms."

* Long, long ago, a Chinese arms dealer said, "This spear can penetrate any shield," then pulled out a shield and proclaimed that it could defend against any spear. Hearing that a customer asked, "Well then, what would happen if I were to poke that shield with that spear?" At the customer's words, the dealer gave up and from this historical event we have the expression, "spear-shield" or "contradiction." What we have here is a play on words; a twist on an old saying. It was a cynical commentary on the old game of cat and mouse between offensive and defensive weapons.

"For that reason, ongoing research has come to be important. It is also important to have the industrial strength to put it to good use immediately, both in actual fighting and on the home front. In the previous world, we were defeated because of that. We must learn from these lessons and proceed with caution this time around......"

Maebara's voice went serious, but then it brightened and he continued, "Be that as it may, hitting and sinking the aircraft carrier Lexington and the battleships Arizona and Oklahoma by the direct hits of four torpedoes fired at once... that took a lot of skill."

"No, that wasn't because of our skills, but rather the incredible performance of the torpedoes."

"Haha, you need not be modest."

Maebara smiled with amusement. "Somebody with normal skills would not be able to deal with them. They are 62cm torpedoes."

"It may have been a fluke."

"Don't be so cautious. But that's fine. We must not be prideful..." said Maebara.

"Sir. It is true that adjusting the 62 is requires care. That's because the currents, the density of the seawater, the temperature and so on must be accurately calculated."

"In any case, the secret of the 62 must never be revealed to the enemy. You must be very diligent with the maintenance so that if a torpedo misses the mark, it will always self-destruct," Maebara warned.

"Yes sir. I will speak firmly with my subordinates, and as always will check for myself too," answered Lt. Terajima.

"That is what I came to warn you about," said Maebara.

The 62cm torpedoes were also equipped with a magnetic detonators. What's more, you could call them the world's first self-guided torpedoes.

The 62 was equipped with a simple acoustic detector in the warhead. With that, it detects the engine noise of its target and uses that to adjust its steering as it rushes towards the enemy. Therefore, however much the enemy ship zigs and zags to try and dodge the torpedo attack, the 62 torpedo bites.

"But, if things go wrong, it can snap back at our side. It would be a real problem if such a thing were to happen, so special attention must be paid to the maintenance of the rudder controls and the setting of the timer for activating the detector," said Lieutenant Terajima.

If we take the example of the attack on the Lexington, the Fugaku had fired twelve 62cm torpedoes at the target at a range of thirty kilometers. The twelve torpedo tracks, each thirty seconds of arc apart, formed a fan towards the estimated position. Because the enemy carrier changed course frequently and repeatedly as a countermeasure against submarine attacks, the five on the left side and the three on the right side were off. But the remaining four detected the sounds of their target's engines at a thousand meters and rushed towards their target furiously.

Since the oxygen torpedoes created no wake, the enemy ship was probably not aware until they were hit. What's more, some of the torpedoes exploded as they passed beneath the ship because of their magnetic fuses. It sank at once.

"I shudder to think of what the enemy would do if they had something this sophisticated," said Terajima.

"No, when you consider America's industrial might and scientific capability, they will very likely catch up to us in the not-so-distant future. But at first they will leverage their vast resources against us," said Maebara.

"Yes. I think so too," said the gifted student of the Advanced Submariner Course.

"I think of America as a giant. If the battle drags on too long, they will inevitably defeat us."

That was also the conclusion of the members of the Deep Blue Society. It was not a good idea to let the giant get serious.

"And that is why they are so hard to fight," said Maebara. "As his Excellency Takano said, if we attack the American mainland, the giant will surely wake up. In other words, don't let them get an upper cut."

"Do you think there is any chance of an early ceasefire?"

"I don't know. But I think there is a chance. And yet, if our country becomes the target of hatred, a ceasefire will be a long time coming. It will be very difficult, but we will have to fight as if it were a sport, His Excellency Takano said."

"But that is what we the Japanese people are worst at."

"True. Because there is no leeway in our way of thinking," said Maebara.

3

Maebara turned on his heel and proceeded down the corridor to the stern of the ship. It was a passageway, but for a narrow submarine such a thing was revolutionary. And from the start, there were boxes and bags filled with provisions piled up even here.

In the stern was the engine room. The Chief Engineer, Lt. Hijikata Saemon, was eating zouni together with his oil-covered subordinates. When Admiral Maebara suddenly appeared,

"Salute!"

When the order was given, some of them with mochi in their mouth, and their eyes glazed over.

"Congratulations, gentlemen."

Maebara was friendly here too.

"Congratulations to you too, sir."

"It's unfortunate that you guys never get a break."

Smiling as he said so, his eyes looked around the engine room.

It was a dreary sight, but even here there were shimenawa ropes strung, giving the place a New Year's air to it.

"I believe you will have heard announcements from your senior officers about it, but we are finally entering the enemy's territorial waters. For that reason, the underwater charging system is limited to after sunset. Oh well."

"Yes, sir."

Lt. Hijikata nodded.

"How are things going?" he asked, referring to the hatch at his feet.

"It looks to me like things are going wonderfully."

Beneath a triple-hatched inspection hole there was a submersible pump room. In this room, giant pumps lined up in series impelled seawater to the rear of the submarine.

This, most particularly, was the greatest secret of the I-500 and I-600 class submarines.

Surprisingly, each ship of the Deep Blue Fleet propels itself using this method of pumping water to form a jet. In other words, they advance not using screws, but through the reaction force from expelling a jet of water behind them, just as would an octopus or a squid.

After all, even propulsion using screws uses the reaction force from pushing seawater backwards, so the principle is exactly the same.

However, propulsion by means of pump-jets is highly efficient, since there is no mechanical energy loss from making the propeller rotate.

It's a simple thing, but the reality surpassed the concept. Of course, it was designed and developed by the members of the Deep Blue Society's Engineering Division.

"May I?" said Maebara, pointing to the Chief Engineer's office as he had back in the torpedo room.

"The place is a bit of a mess, but do come in."

The rooms were a little wider here, but in exchange the ceilings were lower.

"Commander, please watch out for your head," said Lt. Hijikata.

The two of them sat cross-legged, facing each other.

"Well, it looks like you've been studying hard too."

"Yes, sir. As you know, this is the first time we're dealing with this new propulsion method," answered Hijikata.

Picking up an engineering book, Maebara said "You're even studying books on hydraulics? That's excellent."

He continued, "Those are hard formulas lined up there, can you understand them?"

"Yes, sir. Somehow," replied Hijikata.

He was a top student, head of his class in the School of Engineering.

"This ship may have a safe depth of 130 meters, but I am working on calculating whether or not the pumps would work if we were submerged to a depth of 200 meters."

"And your conclusion?"

"It looks like we should be fine. Of course, we can't travel fast while submerged."

"That so? That's good to know," said Maebara.

In an ordinary submarine, when you pass 130 meters depth, it becomes impossible to flush the toilets to outside the ship. As can be seen from this, the pump capacity is closely related to depth.

"Even so, I think it's a magnificent invention," said Hijikata. "In comparison with screw propulsion, the battery consumption is much less."

And in the case of the Fugaku, like with ordinary submarines, there were batteries all over the place. What's more, they were not the second-class batteries found on ordinary warships.

In this respect, too, the Deep Blue Fleet was loaded up with a new type of battery, one that was exceedingly efficient.

"You can't say that the efficiency of underwater propulsion isn't due only to the adoption of water jet propulsion," said Maebara. "I couldn't believe it until I tested it for myself. I didn't think the soft rubber coating wrapped around the entire ship would be so effective."

"It was an idea inspired by dolphins and whales..."

"That's right. The secret to a dolphin's or whale's speed is in their skin..." said Maebara.

In other words, the resistance water presents to a body which moves itself underwater may be reduced considerably by covering it with a soft and flexible skin. This is the second secret behind the mystery of the Deep Blue Fleet's high speed performance under the water.

On the way back from the engine room to the command center, Maebara went up a ladder.

This led up to an inspection hatch in the tube which housed the attack seaplanes the Fugaku carried.

Even though it was New Year's Day, the aircraft maintenance crew was hard at work.

"Hey guys, don't work so hard. It's New Year's."

"Ah, Commander. Happy New Year's!"

"Yeah, congrats!"

"When are you flying out?"

"If all goes well, in a week."

The special attack aircraft, it's wings, tail and even its floats folded back, it's entire body painted ash gray, slept quietly.

Carrying one 800 kilo bomb, three 250 kilo dive-bombing bombs, or a 780 kilo, 45cm air-launched torpedo, it could take off from the surface of the sea.

As for its characteristics, it was firstly a night attack fighter. Secondly, it exceled in its flying range and speed, as well as in its ability to attack at low altitude.

That is, the Raiyou was an ambush aircraft. But, because it had excellent communication abilities, it was a capable reconnaissance plane as well.

The Fugaku carried two of these rather large special bombers.

On the other hand, the I-500 class subs carried three Haruarashi (Spring Storm) aircraft. The Haruarashi could be launched by catapult and could land on water with its floats. With one 250 kilo bomb in its belly, it could carry out a dive bomb attack. But once it has dropped its bomb, it transforms into an aircraft able to take on enemy fighters with one 20mm auto-cannon and two 13mm machine guns.

With this, the Deep Blue Fleet had an air force of two Raiyous and nine Haruarashis. In addition, the Otohime was equipped with two reconnaissance floatplanes, the Seiden-Kai. The above also means that it clearly had the function of a mobile strike force, albeit on a small scale.

Note that in the previous world's war, the Seiran carried by I-400 class submarines was half kamikaze in character. They had floats, but they didn't use them in an actual attack. If they managed to make it back alive, they would ditch in the water. The crew would be rescued, but the plane lost.

It seemed that piloting an aircraft was not like riding a bicycle. It is said that after twenty days of not flying, it takes a full hour to regain one's instincts for flying. If you are attacked by an enemy aircraft during that time, you can wind up dead in an instant.

"Commander, I can't wait to fly."

"The day is coming soon," Maebara encouraged him.

Continuing his words, "We may have only one chance to attack the Panama Canal. Because the enemy will probably harden their defenses yet more."

"Yes, sir. I recognize that for the Americans, the Panama Canal is their most important artery."

"Quite so. The enemy fears an attack by German U-boats. It seems they have put themselves in a rather high state of alert," said Maebara. This information came from a large submarine that had been sent ahead for reconnaissance.

"As a matter of fact, I had already received direct orders regarding the attack on the Panama Canal from His Excellency Takano before the start of the war. Since then, I have done a lot of research and learned that the enemy has deployed many patrol boats and destroyers, both on this side and on the Atlantic side near Colon and they are said to be on high alert. They've even stretched out anti-submarine nets. Even getting close to Panama Bay is next to impossible in a submarine. And here we are, having come all this way."

"In other words, you had no choice but to attack with our Deep Blue Air Force. You may leave it to us. We will accomplish our mission as we always do."

"I really hope so," said Maebara, clapping Lieutenant Ootake on the shoulder. "However, you must never do a kamikaze attack. Even if for example you managed to do Panama in, that would not mean an end to the war..."

"Yes, sir. I have been strict with my subordinates on this matter. This lot may be entirely like a herd of young colts, but I can guarantee they are daring and resolution, albeit a little overzealous," Ootake laughed.

"Anyway, it is an important operation. As you also know, the Americans bring most of their supplies to the Pacific by means of the Panama Canal. They transport most of the military supplies they produce through the Panama Canal to their Pacific coast. Of course, they have the transcontinental railroads, but they are no match for ships in efficiency. And especially important to us is the fact that their Atlantic warships, or ships newly built in the east can be quickly transferred to the Pacific Ocean."

"I understand perfectly."

Ootake bowed. "When you look at it from a long-term strategy perspective, the Panama Canal is a particularly big Achille's Heel for America."

"Quite so. Japan hasn't a tenth of America's power; we're too small a country. There is only one way that little people such as us can challenge a giant to a fight and come out on even terms. And that is by using our heads and attacking them at some vital point... His Excellency Takamo said that too," said Maebara, his voice serious.

If it got to where the Panama Canal could not be used, then to get from New York to San Francisco there would be no choice but to pass through the straits of Magellan. That was a distance of 11,348 nautical miles. That was 6,802 miles longer than the 4,546 miles going by way of the Panama Canal. In a freighter, that would wind up taking more than twenty days. In other words, what took one hundred freighters would now take more than two hundred. Naturally, that would also require more than twice the number of seamen.

Nevertheless, over the course of that long voyage, of course, there was a high probability of being targeted by German or Japanese submarines. If it came to that, the number of escort ships required could be enormous.

And that was why the Panama Canal was the Achille's Heel of the giant America. When it was cut off, America will find itself paralyzed on one side of its body.

Maebara continued, "Prime Minister Ootaka said this too. 'In the previous world war, we realized this too late.' 'The construction of the I-400 class submarine should have been completed before the start of the war.'... 'If we had launched this huge submarine carrier early in the war, we would have had a change to win.' It seems that His Excellency Takano thought up the idea of using the I-400 class submarine in that previous world. And that was the reason he was so passionate about building Deep Blue Fleet in this world."

"I understand. We will work to live up to your expectations, without fail," said Lieutenant Ootake, his eyes filled with determination.

"Your mission is a heavy one."

"Yes, sir."

"The building of the Deep Blue Fleet was carried out with funds and materials comparable to the construction of the 60,000 ton battleship Yamato. Precisely because of this, I also believe that we must work to meet, no rather exceed, that need."

In fact, the Yamato of the old world's war was a warship sunk without having achieved much in the way of results in the war. The extravagant warship was used in place of a hotel in places like Truk and Rabaul. Speaking of useless, the same was true of the warship Mutsu. Because of an explosion from unknown causes, the Mutsu sank in the Seto Inland Sea.

It was a huge battleship built without any operational plane. This was the result of a lack of foresight on the part of the Navy General Staff. It was a battleship built without fully reading how future battles would change.

Was this not a waste of talent? Naval warfare, before they knew it, was replaced by air battles. In the end, the Yamato was sunk in an attempted suicide attack on Okinawa, never having had the opportunity to fight in a decisive battle, big guns against big guns...

If you were to liken it to chess, was it not like exchanging a rook and a pawn? There was no way to win in this kind of situation. Again, the Americans had won the game by skillfully creating such a scenario.

But not this time around. Instead of the Yamato, Japan had an ace up their sleeve: the Deep Blue Fleet. How they used this trump card, of course, depended on the skill of Fleet Admiral Maebara.

"What do you think, Lieutenant Ootake? Do you have all the targets set in your mind?" asked Maebara.

"There's nothing to do every day but stare at maps. In fact, I brought along some clay and made a model of the terrain."

"That is awesome."

"We are trying to prepare for every possible case, and are filling our minds with countermeasures," he said. He had a meticulous character.

Lieutenant Ootake came from the Tsuchiura Naval Academy. He was a veteran who had even served as an instructor, so there was no doubt about it. We could rest assured that we were in good hands...

4

The voyage into enemy territory continued.

Propelled by batteries at seven knots during the day, and making fifteen knots at night using the snorkel, they proceeded on a course to the south-east. They averaged about 260 nautical miles per day. Five days after the Near Year, the Deep Blue Fleet arrived at 300 nautical miles west of Panama City. This was roughly 550 kilometers.

Rear Admiral Maebara, aware of the enemy's heightened state of alert, for the sake of caution restricted even the nighttime use of the snorkel. For that reason, he was a little behind schedule, but they say that slow but steady wins the race. He watched carefully for his opportunity.

Early in the morning of the eighth, the Deep Blue Fleet had snuck in to 180 nautical miles.

However, the sea swell being high, Admiral Maebara, consulting with the flagship's navigator, Captain Kurata Ikunoshin, caused the fleet to head south towards the equator. They decided to take advantage of the no-wind zone called the 'doldrums' for launching their attack force.

On the twelfth, the fleet was off the coast of Marpelo Island, an isolated island in the middle of the ocean. From here to their target, the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal, it was approximately 600 kilometers. It was a 1200 kilometer round trip. That was just barely within the range of the aircraft they carried.

Rear Admiral Maebara called for Lieutenant Ootake so they could talk about this.

"You could take off with fewer bombs, or with an extra tank, but..."

At that,

"No. We're not taking fewer bombs. Instead, could we not make the recovery point as close as possible?"

Because that would make the distance that much shorter.

Captain Irie disagreed.

"Wouldn't that be dangerous?"

"If you think it is dangerous, please go ahead and pull out," insisted Lieutenant Ootake. He was willing to die.

Folding his arms, Maebara listened to the heated discussion between the two, but then deliberately said,

"Captain Irie, shall we not do what Ootake-kun says? What scares me are the reconnaissance planes and destroyers."

"Yes, sir."

"But, the Deep Blue Fleet has sophisticated electronic weaponry, along with my brains. We have nothing to fear."

"If the commander says so, then I have no objections. If it is so decided, we will be prepared and apply ourselves to the task."

"Okay then, it's decided."

"Lieutenant Ootake, I am sorry to have gone against you. Please work as much as you want," said Captain Irie, sounding relieved.

"Captain Irie, thank you very much. I will succeed and return without fail," replied Ootake, his eyes going damp on their own.

They gave each other a strong handshake. Maebara, putting his other hand on top,

"We will launch at 3am tomorrow morning. Get ready at once! Get moving!"

And so, the all or nothing operation finally got underway...

On the 13th, shortly after 2am, Admiral Maebara exchanged farewell cups of water with the four attackers.

"But make sure you come home. Don't overdo it. If you think that the attack cannot be done due to weather or for some unforeseen weakness, turn back," he ordered them strictly.

This was a way of saying that he valued human life over results in battle.

At 2:30am, as had been previously arranged, the flagship Fugaku made its regularly scheduled call. Rising close to the surface of the sea, the Fugaku extended its antenna. The three ships, the Suijin, the Kairyu and the Soukai, received this, but of course, there was a chance it would be intercepted. For that reason, they used a clever arrangement.

That method, characteristic of the Deep Blue Fleet, was an amusing cypher.

The land east of them was Colombia. Lively Latin music was flying through the radio waves. They took advantage of this.

That is, the melody and temple taken together point to the chart of Japanese letters. It was simple, but if anybody could recognize it as a cypher, he was the Devil himself.

Before long, the Fugaku's communications room received three cheerful sambas. Each of them was an acknowledgement chosen separately by each warship.

At Punta Mariato, near the mouth of Panama, a wireless station received one portion of the message. The night shift operator frowned at the lousy music and switched it off. He never dreamed it was the communications of a Japanese submarine fleet creeping offshore.

By 2:50am, their preparations were complete.

They observed the sea surface through their periscopes. The sky was clear. The sea was calm.

Admiral Maebara watched the second hand without a word.

At 3am, they once more raised the nighttime periscopes to look around, at the same time raising antennas and looking back the way they had come. In this they were doing far better than in the old war. What's more, the searched the sea and sky near them by means of short and long wave radio.

Maebara ordered, "All right. Surface!"

"Strike force, prepare to launch!" commanded Captain Irie sharply.

"Surface!" Commander Shinagawa ordered.

At 3:03, the Fugaku showed its heroic figure on the sea surface, parting the tropical waves.

In the hangar tube, already, flowing through pipes from inside the ship, warmed coolant and engine oil was supplied to the Raiyou. By doing this, they would be able to take off without warming up the engine beforehand. This method was also used with the Seirans.

"Open the hatch!"

Leaping up on to the bridge, Maebara gave the order. When he looked up at the sky, it was all shining with stars.

The head of the maintenance crew shouted the order to open the hatch.

Inside the hangar tube, they did their work in a hurry, but in an orderly fashion. This was the result of having practiced many times over and over again.

The big handle was opened by two maintenance workers. The disk-shaped hatch was made of solid steel. It took several people to push it outward. All this work was done in the dark, but fluorescent paint was applied in key locations.

"All right now. Open!"

Riding on a carrier atop a rail, the Raiyou was pushed out towards the stern.

"Don't get thrown overboard. Watch your feet!" shouted the team leader.

Still riding on its carrier, the Raiyou showed itself on the inclined stern deck.

The team leader signaled Lieutenant Ootake in the cockpit. Ootake operated the plane's hydraulic systems. As they watched, the floats housed inside the fuselage extended downwards. The plane's body lifted upwards. Once more they pushed the carrier, and the Raiyou floated off the ship's stern to the surface of the sea.

"Go for the second plane!" ordered the team leader.

The same procedure was repeated once more.

"Return!"

They pulled in the carrier and everybody ran into the hangar tube.

"Close the hatch!"

This was done in less than six minutes.

At the same time, the Raiyou, as soon as it was floating on the surface of the sea, started its engine, and while taxiing on the dark waters extended its folded wings with hydraulics. The Seirans used the same technique. From a state like birds with their wings closed, they opened left and right. The rudder was the same way. From its folded state, the tail fin was brought tightly vertical.

Thanks to the perfect maintenance, everything was in order. The Raiyou's two engines were advanced to full throttle at once.

The aircraft was heavily loaded with aerial torpedoes, but when the control stick was pulled back, the plane lifted from the sea surface.

As it ascended, Lieutenant Ootake pulled a lever. The two large floats, still wet from the water, were retracted and stored against hollows in the body of the aircraft. This, also, was something that made the Raiyou unique for a seaplane.

When he turned around, the second plane had also taken off safely and was following him.

Over the other way, the Haruarashis were taking off from the Suijin, the Kairyuu and the Soukai, each ship set one kilometer apart from each other. These took off from catapults, leaving from the front end of ship and flying up at once.

The nine Haruarashi came into formation surrounding the two Raiyou. This was a little after 3:25am.

They kept an altitude of 3000 meters and a cruising speed of 160 knots (about 300 km/hr).

One hour later, they climbed to 5200 meters and a speed of 256 knots (about 470 km/hr). They were getting close to enemy territory.

The first Raiyou was in front, the second pulled up the rear. The front seat radio operator used radar and rear-searching equipment to scan the airspace in front, behind, up and down. The Haruashi scattered left and right, up and down in a defensive formation.

To their surprise, they could see the twinkling lights of Panama City. Indeed, they had probably never even dreamed that Japanese aircraft could fly this far and attack them.

They avoided passing over Panama itself. When they made landfall on the South American side, the formation was flying at low altitude. Soon the starry sky faded. Dawn was near. The flight was right on schedule.

The enemy was caught off guard. It appeared their watchful eyes were directed only to the sea.

Flying the lead, Lieutenant Ootake, recognized the contours of mountain range he'd pounded into his head so many times and flew over them. Their target was near. It was just past 5am.

5

Now then, the Panama Canal was a canal built through a narrow land bridge connecting the Americas. The distance between Colon on the Caribbean Sea and Panama City on the Pacific Ocean was 65 kilometers.

At first, the Frenchman Ferdinand Lesseps undertook the construction, but it failed. The American government took over the project.

America halted the original plan for a sea level system and chose to use locks instead.

325 million dollars were invested in the project, a great deal of money for the time. After ten years of work, the project was finally completed in 1914.

Ships were raised and lowered by water moved into and out of double-gated locks with powerful pumps. In other words, you can probably think of it as like something connected to a ship dock.

There are three sets of locks. In order starting from the Pacific Ocean,

1 – Miraflores Locks, 2 locks.

2 – Pedro Miguel Locks, 1 lock.

And with those, the canal leads to the Gatún Lake.

......And on the Atlantic side of this lake...

3 – Gatún Locks, 3 locks.

These were chosen as the target of the attack.

Fortunately, a person who was involved in the construction of the Panama Canal had come to Tokyo and delivered a stack of plans fully a meter in height. After a top-secret study by experts, it was determined that the most effective target for destruction was the Gatún locks...

As objectives for the attack, the Pacific side's two locks had the advantage of being closer, but they had concluded that they could probably be repaired in one or two months.

In that case, we had no choice but to aim for the Gatún locks, which would probably take at least six months to restore. But, to destroy them, we would have to penetrate deep within Panamanian territory...

Leading the attack formation, Lieutenant Ootake told his beloved plane "Faster. Fly faster!" and stared ahead.

The throttle was wide open so he could fly a very low course, but the speedometer wasn't going up as fast as he would have liked. The norther side of the mountain range was covered by a deep morning fog.

"Hey, Miyagi, don't mess up our course, okay?" he repeated yet another time.

In the back seat, Miyaki Hikosuke answered in an exceedingly unsure way: "Maybe this will do the trick."

It was his first time on this course, after all. He had even made models and studied them, but the actual terrain was a different story.

"Hey, are the rest of you following?"

Miyagi looked around quickly, and shouted back "They're right behind us."

"Let me know if there is the least response on the radar!"

"Yes, sir!"

The Raiyou directed its radar forward, looking for peaks that might be hidden in the fog. Though Ootake had the topographical maps drilled into his head, there was no guarantee that the maps he had obtained were completely accurate...

The fog cleared a little. Beneath his eyes was a thick, hot belt of jungle.

The range was a northern extension of the great Andes Mountains.

The fog was growing thicker again. The hands of the clock were already past the estimated time for arrival on target.

He was impatient.

(Was this the wrong course?)

Ootake came to a decision. Staring at the compass, he swung the aircraft's nose around to the north-west. Only the Raiyou's compass could be relied on entirely. And yhat was because it was equipped with a gyrocompass.

Leading the formation, Ootake headed briefly out to sea. It was the Caribbean, surrounded by the continents of Central and South America, and by the Antilles. The sun had already lifted above the waters.

The Caribbean Sea was a little cloudy.

Descending from their once higher altitude, they began to break out of the clouds. The sparkling Caribbean morning...

Miyaki shouted, "Captain! There it is!"

They could see the city of Colón. The sharply curved Limon Bay was filled with ships at anchor. This was the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal.

American warships were in the bay.

Ootake steeled himself.

"Let's go!" he said to his subordinates via the formation's radio...

At that moment, Seaman Second Class Orson of the destroyer Darwin was leaning off the side of the ship and watching the sun rise over the Caribbean Sea. Having just finished the night watch, today he would have shore leave.

He was thinking vaguely about a young girl he had met downtown. The clouds before him looked like a girl's naked body. She was a beautiful mixed-race woman with dark hair. They had enjoyed wild sex, and when she came, her fingernails had dug into his back.

Just thinking of it, it made him swell inside his pantaloons. By himself his face slackening, Orson chased after the passing clouds with his eyes.

And then... Orson saw black aircraft appear through the clouds. Not one, but many. They were approaching rapidly. They planes had an unusual shape. For a moment, he wondered if they were some new model.

But, the next instant, he was stunned. Because he saw the mark of the Rising Sun.

"It's the Japs!"

Orson ran down the deck, shouting like a man possessed.

"What're you aiming at?"

The officer on duty, seeing him jump up to the machine gun, cussed him out.

"Ensign! Look at that over there. It's a Jap plane!"

While shouting back "Are you still sleepwalking?", the duty officer put his eyes to his binoculars. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor had come to his mind.

And yet, it couldn't be...

He was thinking, "The Jap planes can't fly this far!"

But, the binoculars brought the gray aircraft into view. He was so surprised he sat up straight. Just as Orson had said, the Japanese sign of the rising sun was there on the unknown plane's wing.

In any case, it was a plane he had never seen before. He made sure it wasn't a Zero. It had a swollen belly.

"Hey! Orson, stop!" shouted a sailor when he started firing the machine gun. "Isn't this just a drill?"

Anyway, by the time the captain came running to the bridge, the odd formation had already flown off to the south.

"Anyhow, contact headquarters!" ordered the captain.

But right that moment, as the morning touched the city of Colon, air raid sirens unexpectedly sounded off.

With a thunderous roar, the attacking force flew along the canal. There was no more worry about getting lost. But now they had been spotted by the enemy, it was only a matter of time before their interceptors would soar up to meet them...

"I could see it!" shouted Miyagi.

"Yep."

Ootake saw the huge locks. He flew above them, leaving behind a metallic echo, and saw the wide surface of Gatun lake sparkling in the morning sun. Flying over the lake, Lieutenant Ootake checked the terrain of his target. Raising the nose of his plane up the slopes of the opposite shore, he returned.

"Let's do this!"

Pointing the nose of the plane straight at the locks, he fixed them in his sight. The Raiyou flew level over the surface of the lake.

On the lake was a cargo ship from the Pacific Ocean. It was closing rapidly. The freighter was blocking his course.

(You're in my way!)

The shadows of people aboard were running around on the deck.

(Don't rush!) Ootake told himself.

Twisting the fuselage, he skimmed the masts. It was quite a stunt. Then he restored the plane's attitude.

In that very moment, he cried "Here goes!" and hit the drop button.

The 780 kilo aerial torpedo separated from the fuselage and kicked up spray from the water surface. Hiding itself beneath the water surface, it dashed for the target.

The Raiyou raised is nose just before the locks. It flew barely a few centimeters over them.

Gaining altitude, he turned around and flew above the second plane, covering it's back.

The freighters on the lake seemed to be taken aback and changed course.

The second plane did well too.

One after another, two 45cm torpedoes hit the locks!

6

The Gatún Locks were triple locks. Ships coming from the Atlantic Ocean are raised 8.5 meters in each lock to reach Gatún Lake.

When each ship enters the locks, huge pumps add water and raise the water level to be the same as the next lock up. When a ship approaches from the Pacific side, the procedure is reversed and the ship is lowered down.

At that very moment, a ship was entering the middle lock.

As soon as the heavy steel locks were blasted apart by the roaring column of fire and water, the lake water quickly became a torrent. The water rushed into the lower locks and overtook them, splashing up and down.

The torpedo released by the second aircraft struck right on the heels of the first one and exploded.

The cargo ship's fate was tragic. The waters rushing violently down from above pushed it into the locks below.

The shock of the impact caused them to collapse.

Washed away by the current, the mass of steel crashed into the locks below.

The waters of Gatún Lake, suddenly poured out from the destroy Gatún Locks. The enormous water pressure was more destructive than one could imagine.

<~~87% Completed~~>

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