Chapter 1036

The Eldridge, when I heard the name of this new destroyer, I immediately felt a very familiar feeling, as if I had heard of it somewhere before. But before I could figure out where I had heard the name of the destroyer, the launching ceremony of the new ship officially began.

The destroyer Eldridge seemed to have been pushed by an invisible hand, and then the whole hull slid into the water along the inclined berth. The huge ship, made of thousands of tons of steel, fell into the water in an instant, aroused huge waves of emptying, quickly righted itself, swayed violently for several times, and finally came to a steady stop in the water. This process of changing from static to static, from dynamic to static, although not long, still caused me a strong visual impact and spiritual shock.

Captain Henry turned and said to me, still staring at the water in a daze, "general, what's the matter? You've never seen a ship launch like this before, have you?"

I immediately shook my head and answered honestly, "Colonel Henry, it's the first time I've seen a ship launch with my own eyes. However, I heard that the ship was launched either floating or longitudinal. Why did the ship launch longitudinally? "

Seeing my blank face, Colonel Henry explained to me: "general, we take this kind of lateral slide into the water, using a shorter lateral slide, the ship uses gravity to roll laterally into the water, and then relies on buoyancy to straighten the ship and float in the water. This kind of side slip launching method is more suitable for shipyards where the water area is small, the slipway length is insufficient, and there is no open water for longitudinal launching. It is especially suitable for shipyards where soldiers build ships in bulk. "

After waiting for him to finish, I thought for a moment and asked, "Captain, this kind of lateral sliding will bring great vibration and impact to the ship. Will it cause deformation or damage to the equipment installed on the ship?"

As soon as my voice fell, before the translator behind me could translate it, Henry's face showed an expression of surprise. He said to himself in Russian: "general, it's not easy for you to find the defect of this way of launching. That's right. Due to the large vibration and impact of sideslip launching on the hull, the requirements for ship structure are higher, especially for outfitting structure when launching. Otherwise, it is easy to cause deformation or damage to the installed equipment on the ship. The Eldridge will stay in port for another day or two to replenish the ship, and let the mechanics check for any major faults. When it's ready, it'll leave for Philadelphia

I looked at commander Henry in surprise and asked, "Colonel, you can speak Russian?"

Commander Henry nodded and said with certainty, "yes, general. At the end of 1941, as a military officer of the negotiation group of the lease treaty, I went to Moscow and lived there for almost a year. It's not surprising that I know Russian

I grinned. I wanted to smile, but I couldn't, so I just said, "you've only been in Moscow for one year. It's really not easy for you to speak so fluent Russian. You... "When I said this, I jumped back to the place he just said the Eldridge was going to, and then asked in a hurry," Captain, you just said where the destroyer Eldridge will go in a few days? "

"Philadelphia!" Henry thought I didn't know where Philadelphia was, and he told me, "it's in Pennsylvania."

Philadelphia and Eldridge, two words that were not related to each other, immediately pieced together the fragmentary memory fragments in my mind and formed a term "Philadelphia Experiment" in the shortest time.

Yes, the Philadelphia Experiment.

On October 28, 1943, the U.S. Navy conducted a secret test of artificial strong magnetic field in Philadelphia, namely the famous "Philadelphia Experiment". In the experiment, the destroyer Eldridge and its crew were successfully put into another space. During the experiment, the experimenters started the pulse and non pulse devices to form a huge magnetic field around the ship. Then the whole ship was covered with a green light, and the ship and crew began to disappear from people's sight. At the end of the experiment, the ship had been transferred to Norfolk 479 kilometers away, and returned to Philadelphia after a few minutes.

According to some people familiar with the matter at the time, when the Eldridge reappeared in Philadelphia, something incredible happened to the crew on board. Most of the crew on the ship were disgusted and couldn't tell the direction, and some of them disappeared without any reason. What's more surprising is that five crew members were inlaid on the wall and deck, completely integrated with the steel plate on the ship. Later, some of the crew members who participated in the experiment were forced to retire. Affected by this experiment, they always disappeared without any reason in their life, and then appeared again, which surprised the onlookers.

Although the United States has made a lot of films and TV dramas based on the "Philadelphia Experiment", there are still many people who can think that the so-called "Philadelphia Experiment" is nothing at all, and cite a lot of data to refute those who believe in it.

To tell you the truth, I am also curious at the moment. If this experiment is not half a year away, I really intend to stay and see if this "Philadelphia Experiment" with different opinions really exists.

Seeing that the Eldridge in the distance was surrounded by small motorboats, and many workers or sailors boarded along the gangway, my idea of going aboard became more and more intense. After repeated ideological struggle, I finally got up the courage to say to Henry, "Colonel Henry, can I go to the ship to have a look?"

"General, would you like to see the boat?" After a moment's hesitation, Col. Henry asked cautiously, "this ship should be in a mess now. There's nothing to see."“ I just want to go up and see how the damage to the ship is when I slide into the water Of course, I couldn't tell Henry what he really thought. All I could do was to say, "just let me know. What do you think, Colonel?" He hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded decisively and said, "general, please wait a moment. I'll call for instructions." With my permission, he went to the table, put the telescope on the table, picked up the microphone and quickly dialed a number. Soon I heard him say, "Hello, operator? I'm captain Victor Henry. I have something important to ask the chief of staff. Please transfer me to the combat room immediately After the phone was connected, Colonel Henry said directly without saying hello or any prologue, "chief of staff, today I am accompanying a general from the Soviet Union to watch the launching ceremony of the destroyer Eldridge. Now she wants to go up and have a look, OK?" He didn't speak for a while. He just listened to the chief of staff's reply in silence. Then he said, "no, chief of staff, she's not a navy, she's just an army general. She just wants to visit the destroyer, absolutely not..." when I saw Henry's silence again, I felt a sense of foreboding, Did the chief of staff think I was going on the Eldridge to steal information from the US Navy? If I had known that it would be so troublesome, I would not have asked Henry to do so. As a result, it is difficult to ride a Tiger now. I saw that Colonel Henry's face was red. I should have been blamed by the chief of staff on the other end of the line. I was just about to say to him that I was going to give up the idea of going on board to have a look, so that he would not get into such an embarrassing situation. But he saw that Colonel Henry straightened up and said obstinately, "Comrade chief of staff, general o'shanina was my order to accompany chief of staff Marshall to the Norfolk Naval base to watch the launching ceremony of the Eldridge. Moreover, General Marshall himself put forward this matter. I think since he can trust friendly generals so much, why can't we also trust her? " With these words, he did not speak again. I only heard his breathing become heavy and urgent, as if he was very angry by the chief of staff who answered the phone. All of a sudden, Colonel Henry raised his voice and said sternly, "chief of staff, since you don't want to be responsible for this, let me be responsible for it. If anything goes wrong, I'll take full responsibility. " With that, he took the microphone away from his ear and quickly put it on the base of the phone. When Henry put down the phone, he turned to me and said, "I'm sorry, general. I asked the chief of staff to board the destroyer Eldridge, but he refused Although such an answer has long been in my guess, when I really heard him answer me like this, I was still slightly disappointed. I waved my hand and said helplessly, "Captain, since your chief of naval staff does not agree that I should board the Eldridge, let it be, so as not to embarrass you." After listening to me, Henry bowed his head for a moment, then looked up and said to me, "although the chief of staff doesn't agree with you to board the warship, I can go directly to the captain of the Eldridge and ask him to let you board the warship secretly. Come with me With that, he stepped out. I wanted to see how he could find the captain of the destroyer Eldridge, so I followed him out of the container converted observation post. When Henry got out of the house, he walked quickly to the jeep parked outside and asked the second lieutenant in the car, "do you know who the captain of the destroyer Eldridge is?" The second lieutenant didn't know why Henry suddenly asked, but he answered honestly, "Lt. Elman!"“ Do you know where to find him? " Continued Colonel Henry“ Yes, Captain The second lieutenant's answer was very straightforward. After hearing this, Henry opened the back door, turned to me and said, "get in the car, general. Now let the second lieutenant take us to lieutenant Elman."