May 27, 1918.
A fleet composed of two destroyers, a frigate, and a supply ship raced across the rolling blue waves of the Indian Ocean beneath a deep-blue sky, heading into the heart of the ocean.
"Report to the captain! Islands sighted ahead. They should be the Chagos Islands."
A sailor approached Heimert, captain of the East African destroyer Kagera, and made his report.
Heimert raised his binoculars and carefully surveyed the waters ahead. Sure enough, a broad stretch of land appeared in his field of vision.
Through the binoculars, the islands appeared quite small, stretching north to south in a chain of reefs. They were exceptionally desolate. Along their shores, aside from dark yellow beaches, dense tropical trees grew in lush profusion.
Further south of this green-covered island, other islands could be seen, with a tiny islet between them that was nearly imperceptible to the naked eye, blurred by the distance.
However, based on the markings on the nautical chart, Heimert determined that it was a reef island. Of course, that was all they could observe for the moment.
On the chart, this reef island was actually one of the western reefs of the Egmont Islands, which were themselves an important part of the Chagos Islands.
Heimert said happily, "The Chagos Islands should be ahead. Fleet, continue thirty degrees south of southeast."
The reason Heimert could determine that this archipelago was the Chagos Islands was not only because it matched the chart's features, but also because of their arrival time. The Chagos Islands lay nearly three thousand kilometers from East Africa's eastern coast.
Moreover, they were deep in the heart of the Indian Ocean, with no other large island groups nearby, so this could be confirmed as the fleet's destination.
Of course, although they had reached the Chagos Islands,