Chapter 581: The Battle of Wake Island

On the calm sea, an American destroyer cut through the waves. The sea breeze whipped the flags on the warship, making them snap. The sailors nervously looked up at the sky, their hands gripping the adjustment wheels on the cannons, waiting for the enemy to appear.

A few minutes earlier, the fleet had sounded the air raid alarm. An encounter with the Japanese naval fleet was now inevitable. The moment of the decisive battle had officially arrived. The U.S. Navy had gathered all the forces it could find to defend Wake Island to the death, and the Japanese Navy had also brought out its own veterans, preparing for a life-or-death struggle with the American forces at Wake Island.

“Planes! Japanese planes!” a sailor shouted, pointing at the sky to alert his comrades. He was standing on the high observation tower, which was located near the top of the destroyer’s mast.

This sailor was carrying high-powered binoculars. His duty was to watch the sea, provide early warning, and direct his comrades to attack the incoming enemy aircraft. The weather today was very good, with a clear sky and little wind, so he had spotted the dense formation of Japanese naval attack aircraft from a great distance.

“My God! So many?” a bearded old veteran murmured, looking at the sky, which seemed to be covered by a dark cloud. Above his head, at least 30 Japanese planes, showing no intention of diving, were flying towards the core of the American fleet.

“Open fire!” At the command, the cannons on the American destroyer began to roar. Shell after shell flew into the sky, exploding at a predetermined altitude, turning into one brilliant firework after another. The Japanese Zeroes weaved between these bursts of fire, as if they were toying with the American anti-aircraft gunners, which was very infuriating.

“Aim! Don’t panic! Keep firing according to your designated sectors! Don’t give the Japanese planes any room to dive! Quick! Open fire!” the anti-aircraft commander shouted from the open-air anti-aircraft command bridge. Beside him, an American soldier was frantically aiming a 12.7mm machine gun at a Japanese torpedo bomber.

The Japanese planes had no intention of a dive attack. Their targets were the important vessels behind these destroyers. They had no time to waste their energy on these small ships. Nagumo Chuichi’s idea was simple: to sink America’s last aircraft carrier in one fell swoop and to avenge the battle off the coast of the Philippines.

In the rear, on the bridge of the Japanese carrier Akagi, Nagumo Chuichi was analyzing the current battle situation with Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku. The entire bridge was a hive of activity. Many radios were clicking away, and some lieutenant commanders and commanders were analyzing the intelligence coming in from all sides.

“A floatplane launched from the battleship Kongō has spotted the American fleet in this area. Fifteen minutes ago, I ordered the first wave of the attack force to take off, to search for and attack in this sea area. The information just sent back from the lead plane is that they have confirmed the American fleet and are attacking one of its battleships,” Nagumo said, pointing to the map as he briefed Yamamoto on the current engagement.

In fact, Yamamoto Isoroku’s flagship, the flagship of the Combined Fleet, was the new battleship Nagato, launched by the Japanese Navy in 1922. However, because Yamamoto had seen the future combat capability of aircraft carriers in the battle where the German carrier fleet had challenged the sea power of the British Empire, he often moved his command post to Nagumo Chuichi’s Akagi.

Soon, Yamamoto had grown fond of the spaciousness of the aircraft carrier. The flat and wide deck was very refreshing, and even better, the carrier could easily provide a larger command room and an officers’ lounge for Yamamoto’s use. Compared to a battleship, its software and hardware were in no way inferior.

He knew that at this very moment, several of Japan’s battleships had already begun to search and attack, approaching the American fleet. However, it was clear that the reaction speed and advance speed of the carrier-based aircraft were superior. His battleship fleet had not yet sent back any news, while the carrier-based aircraft under Nagumo Chuichi’s command had already begun their attack.

“Nagumo-kun, in future naval battles, the carrier fleet will certainly have a place. The future of the Imperial Navy will depend on aviation fleet commanders like you,” said Yamamoto Isoroku. He was a typical bureaucratic commander. He was a genius at coordinating and predicting the course of a campaign, but to have him directly command a fleet in battle was not his strong suit.

The entire Combined Fleet was now in a bit of a mess. The landing fleet was approaching Wake Island, but the battleships that were originally supposed to support the landing had been dispatched to other sea areas by Yamamoto’s order, to search for and attack the American fleet. As a result, the landing force had suffered heavy losses on the beachhead and still had not achieved the expected results.

Nagumo Chuichi’s carrier-based aircraft had performed well, redeeming some points for the Japanese Navy. His planes were attacking the U.S. naval fleet. Relying on the excellent performance and long range of the Zero fighter, the Japanese Navy had launched its attack earlier than the U.S. Navy.

While Yamamoto was somewhat chaotically maneuvering his massive Combined Fleet, the U.S. Navy was in a bitter struggle. All the carrier-based fighters from the USS Saratoga had taken off and were engaged in a dogfight with the arriving Japanese fighters. However, the number of Japanese planes was much greater than the American’s, and the Army Air Corps was unable to spare any forces to provide support in time. So the U.S. Navy could only rely on itself now.

To rely on oneself to deal with the increasing number of Japanese planes was clearly not an easy matter. After all, although the American fleet had three newly repaired battleships, these warships all had internal injuries. What was more fatal was that due to their age, the anti-aircraft firepower of most of the warships was not complete.

To put it bluntly, this seemingly massive American fleet had a bit of a thrown-together feel to it. In fact, eighty percent of the U.S. Navy’s strength was already here. It was not an exaggeration to say that it was a fleet that had been scraped together. It was just that this scraped-together fleet was about to pay the price for its desperate measures.

The battleship USS Nevada was the first to be hit by a Japanese torpedo, and its speed was immediately reduced. The Japanese planes in the sky, like flies that had smelled blood, dived down in a dense swarm. Just half an hour into the engagement, the Nevada had been heavily damaged by Japanese planes and was on the verge of sinking.

And not long after the Nevada was heavily damaged, the American battleship USS Tennessee was also hit by Japanese planes and burst into flames. The American fleet instantly showed its exhaustion, like a man puffing out his cheeks to look fat. Several of its important warships were in disarray, hit and set on fire. Even the Japanese pilots could not believe that they could so easily crush such a massive American fleet.

If the victory in the previous attack on Pearl Harbor had, to a certain extent, built up the self-confidence of the Japanese naval air arm, it was, after all, just an attack on fixed targets moored in a harbor and not a regular naval engagement at sea. But this time was different. The Japanese Navy and the U.S. Navy were in a normal engagement. The results achieved by the Japanese naval aircraft were genuine, with no padding whatsoever.

“There’s nothing we can do! The number of Japanese planes is too great. Their carriers outnumber ours by at least four to one. We don’t even have a chance to fight back,” an American commander said with a helpless sigh, lowering his binoculars with some unwillingness.

Not far from his warship, the battleship Nevada was slowly sinking, and the Tennessee had already exploded and was twisted, with flames reaching for the sky. The American fleet had no room to fight back at all. The morale that had been boosted a few days ago by the surprise attack on the Japanese squadron near the Philippines was once again beaten back to its original state by the ferocious Japanese naval air arm.

The anti-aircraft guns on the American destroyers and cruisers were firing frantically at the sky. The tracer rounds, even in the daytime, made the trajectory of the shells clearly visible. However, the number of Japanese planes shot down was pitifully small. Most of the time, the American sailors could only watch helplessly as their own fighters were slaughtered one by one by the Japanese Zeros.

“How can there be such a plane? Its maneuverability is so good, and its speed is so fast?” an American naval officer complained, holding his binoculars. “I’ve heard that the Germans’ Fw-190D is very formidable. Is it even more formidable than this plane?”

As he was speaking, another Army Air Corps P-40 fighter that had come to join the battle was shot down from the sky by a Japanese plane. The American plane, trailing a long plume of thick smoke, plunged towards the sea, crashing into the water and sending up a tall column of water.

“My God! Another one shot down!” he said, staring at the column of water rising from the sea, his terrified face filled with disbelief. He found it hard to believe that there was a plane more ferocious than the Japanese naval air arm’s Zero, and he did not believe that the U.S. Navy could defeat such an opponent today.

“Captain! A telegram!” an NCO ran over in a flurry and handed a message to the American officer. The contents made the American destroyer captain even more dejected. He looked back at the direction of his fleet, then gave the order to rescue as many men from the water as possible and then to disengage.

The content of the telegram was the news that the American flagship, the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, had been sunk. The commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet had been killed by a bomb dropped by a Japanese plane, dying at his post. And with the death of this commander, the battleship Nevada sank, the battleship Tennessee sank, and the other participating battleship, the USS Oklahoma, also could not escape its fate of sinking. A few kilometers after fleeing the battle area, it was spotted by Japanese planes and was sunk on its path of rout.

With the great victory of the navy, the Japanese landing force finally established a firm foothold on Wake Island. The American army’s defensive force, after holding out for several hours, was ordered to lay down its arms and surrender to the Japanese army. The Battle of Wake Island was thus completely over. At this moment, the Japanese Navy felt that it was invincible.

Published: 2025-09-08T03:28:13.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-01-07T18:19:20.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c581-battle-138390704

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