Japan Stunned by America's Iowa Class Battleships—And Their Kongō Ships Were Outranged скачать в хорошем качестве

Japan Stunned by America's Iowa Class Battleships—And Their Kongō Ships Were Outranged

Japan Stunned by America's Iowa-Class Battleships—And Their Kongō Ships Were Outranged February sixteenth, nineteen forty-four. Truk Atoll, Caroline Islands. The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Intrepid launches reconnaissance flights over the Japanese Gibraltar of the Pacific. Admiral Raymond Spruance aboard the USS New Jersey commands Task Force fifty-eight. Sixteen-inch guns loaded, radar screens alive, the American fast battleships USS Iowa and USS New Jersey steam at thirty-two knots toward fleeing Japanese warships. The goal is decisive: demonstrate that no Japanese vessel can outrun American firepower. Lieutenant Commander Hideaki Suzuki gripped the bridge rail of the Japanese destroyer Nowaki as shells from the American battleships screamed overhead. The massive geysers erupted three hundred yards to port, then two hundred yards to starboard. Impossible. The American ships were invisible beyond the horizon, yet their shells were finding his ship with terrifying precision. "Distance to the enemy?" Suzuki barked at his navigator. "Thirty-five thousand seven hundred yards, sir. Beyond our visual range." Suzuki's hands trembled. The Imperial Japanese Navy had trained for decades in night fighting, optical rangefinding, and close-quarters combat. But these American battlewagons were hitting his destroyer from twenty point three miles away. In broad daylight. Without even seeing his ship. Another salvo shrieked overhead. This time the shells landed fifty yards on either side of Nowaki's hull. A perfect straddle. One shell to port, one to starboard. The American gunners were correcting their aim with each shot, walking their fire toward his ship using some invisible guidance system. "Emergency speed! All engines ahead flank!" Suzuki ordered. Nowaki's machinery spaces erupted into frantic action. Steam pressure redlined. The destroyer's four Kampon boilers screamed as they pushed the ship to thirty-five knots. It wasn't enough. Aboard the USS Iowa, Fire Controlman First Class Robert Chen watched the green radar scope in the ship's plotting room deep below the waterline. The Mark thirteen fire control radar painted a perfect picture of the fleeing Japanese destroyer, updating the target's position every few seconds. The ship's Mark eight rangekeeper, a mechanical analog computer weighing over two and a half tons, calculated firing solutions automatically.