In the last two hours before dawn, the aircraft carrier Constellation was also busy. Major General Rodhart and Kimmel were in the hangar together, responsible for supervising and inspecting the preparations for carrier-based aircraft.

The secret design of the US aircraft carrier - the open hangar is not lost. The so-called open hangar means that the hangar deck bears a part of the longitudinal tensile force of the hull, rather than the flight deck. Some racks are placed on the hangar deck, and a flight deck is laid on it, and a rolling shutter door that can be opened and closed on the side is arranged. The hangar is all alive. The advantage is that it can be warmed up directly in the hangar, and when the bomb hits the hangar, the explosion shock wave can directly break through the fragile side walls and release it directly outside the hull. Maintenance and construction are also very easy.

Now, in the hangar of Constellation, 24 various fighter jets and torpedo aircraft are being prepared, and 4 of them have been lifted to the deck. Although it is an aircraft carrier of more than 7,000 tons, the hangar is really not large, because some of the hangar area was used to store torpedoes and bombs. Looking at the ammunition depot with only a rolling gate in front of the hangar, Major General Rodhart felt a little painful...

Tons of bombs and torpedoes are piled up directly in front without any protection. Fortunately, Americans, as rich people, also know how to throw things. According to the Americans' explanation, if an aircraft carrier is attacked, a large amount of ammunition and torpedoes can be directly thrown into the sea through the rolling gates on both sides...

So, the first carrier-based aircraft attack in history kicked off. The rolling gates on both sides of the aircraft carrier hangar were opened, and a large amount of air with the smell of sea water rushed in. All personnel began to inspect the carrier-based aircraft for the last time. Some of the aircraft began to warm up, while the other aircraft began to load ammunition. After everything was ready, one aircraft was sent to the deck through two elevators.

Overall, the entire preparation process is still very fast, after all, the ammunition depot is right next to it... and a total of 24 aircraft are equipped with two elevators, which is definitely a luxury. The only problem is that the power of the elevator is somewhat coffee table, and the speed is relatively slow.

At the same time, the flight deck was also busy, and groups of ground crews pushed the planes sent from the elevator to the designated location. Fortunately, the current aircraft is not very heavy and is only 2 tons of ammunition is loaded.

"Rise the windshield in the front of the aircraft carrier, and the sea breeze is a bit strong!" An officer said, looking at the shaking plane blown by the sea breeze. This also follows the design of the aircraft carrier in World War II. The weight of this aircraft is, even in World War II, it is not enough to see in front of the great power of nature......

Imagine that even if there is no wind at sea, the aircraft carrier will have to sail against the wind, and then as much as possible, the wind on the deck reaches 25 knots or even higher. If calculated in 30 knots, the wind speed on the deck will be as high as about 55 kilometers per hour... Then, let alone aircraft with an overall take-off weight of only 2 tons in War 1, even attack aircraft and carrier-based aircraft with a take-off weight of more than 6 tons during War 2 may be blown away by strong winds. Therefore, before the aircraft performs deck positioning operations and queues, the windshield in the front of the aircraft carrier is upright and only put down before flying.

The preparations on the hangar and deck were much faster than expected. After all, the people who came were all elites from the German Navy and the US Navy. Although they had not participated in actual combat, they had not been rushing these things on aircraft carriers and shores all day long, so the speed was still very fast.

After all the aircraft are positioned, the ground crew will temporarily fix the aircraft before departure, which involves another facility on the deck, which is something called a tether hole, pushing the aircraft to a fixed position, and then fixing the aircraft to the tether hole with a rope and hook, and then releasing it before taking off.

After working hard for an hour, all the planes were neatly arranged on the deck. The front was a reconnaissance plane, and then the J-3s as fighters. The back was a bomber, and the last was a torpedo aircraft with the farthest takeoff and run.

Before dawn, the Gneisenau rapid battleship first released four seaplanes, and half an hour later, the Schánhorst and another camouflaged cruiser also released six seaplanes to conduct reconnaissance. However, what the Germans did not expect was that while other steps were proceeding step by step, an unexpected situation made the Japanese alert.

"There seems to be a submarine there!" In front of the huge Japanese fleet, the lookout hand of the Rising Maru transport ship discovered something that was exposed to the water in the distance! Under the rising sun, the thing shone with a strange luster, but due to the light and distance problems, at least four people on the ship witnessed the situation at the same time, and after a few minutes, the thing disappeared from the sea. Soon, the Japanese crew, who were highly nervous, reported the news to the Japanese fleet.

"Our outpost discovered the submarine! It was about 3,000 meters ahead of the fleet!" When reporting, the captain of the Risheng Maru directly removed the suspected two words "submarine" from the suspected submarine, whether intentionally or unintentionally. This news was like pouring a basin of cold water into a pot of boiling oil!

"What is coming is finally here!" Sanro Yuzu felt his heart thumped. "Order, let the Takachiho seaplane mothership take off all the planes immediately to conduct reconnaissance! Order the fast merchant ships in the fleet to leave the fleet and immediately disperse the siege! The fleet enters the first-level combat readiness state! Prepare to take on the battle!"

Therefore, because of an alarm, the Japanese fleet unexpectedly entered a state of combat readiness. However, there were too many questions about this alarm in later generations. First of all, the Germans expressed inexplicability, because after the German Navy checked its combat records, it was not found that German submarines had appeared in this area at this time point... After the war, at least three of the surviving Japanese claimed that they had seen the submarine. In the end, what was more recognized in history was that the Japanese were wrongly exposed to the water to breathe as a submarine. In fact, this kind of thing is very common. Not only whales on the water may be used as submarines, but whales underwater may also be misjudged as submarines by sonar!

But no matter what, the South Indian Ocean War officially kicked off. Because the Japanese already thought they were exposed, the previous radio silence was also broken, and the fleet began to frequently communicate with radio. As the radio waves spread, the German fast battleship Gneisenau, located 50 kilometers north of the Japanese fleet, first received the radio signal from the Japanese fleet!
Chapter completed!