After the Battle of the Sulu Sea, the remaining warships of the US Far East Fleet were busy. It was so busy that they carried the captured British and Japanese prisoners of war to Hawaii by civilian boats. So what were Shelly and Magiffin busy with during this time? The first is naturally ship repair. The other party is so fierce that even if the battleship escapes with nine deaths, it will inevitably be stripped of a layer of skin.

Although Germany had docks in the Far East that could repair warships, they lacked other materials and equipment, and to put it bluntly, the maintenance equipment in Kaiser Wilhelm's land was more like the 4S shop in later generations, rather than a garage for thorough repairs. It's okay to scratch the bottom of the boat, but if you want to repair the turret, replace the armor, or something, you should wash and sleep.

As a result, the remaining few warships have been in a sub-healthy state. And because of the limited number of beds, the battleships need to come one by one. Even more tragic is that the Americans do not have enough human resources. The Japanese high-explosive shells wounded more than 30 percent of the surviving personnel. And counting the dead, missing, and wounded in battle, the manpower that can be used on a U.S. warship is only about half of the standard allocation.

And if you want to find skilled boatmen in such a remote place, you can imagine how difficult it is. The Germans are not obligated to help you find a boatman! As for replenishing ammunition or something, let alone that. The Americans didn't expect their fleet to lose so quickly, and after the Battle of the Sea of Sulu, it took 1 week to get the U.S. Navy to find all the supplies on the west coast and prepare for departure!

How long is a week? It's not a simple 7*24 hour for the military! Compare it with the Japanese Navy, three days after the Battle of the Sulu Sea, four Asama-class armored cruisers of the Japanese Combined Fleet had arrived in Hong Kong, two of them entered the dock for maintenance and repair, and the other two for simple replenishment. On the fifth day, the two battleships Fuji and Yashima had entered the dockyard in Nagasaki for repair and maintenance, and on the seventh day, the four Asama-class armored cruisers were ready to kill Samoa.

On the ninth day, Shiki Kayama and Heihachiro Togo had already left the Ryukyu Islands, arrived in Hong Kong on the twelfth day, and then marched to American Samoa with four well-prepared cruisers! By this time, the prince had just spoken to Roosevelt about the proposal for a temporary German takeover of Samoa.

Of course, the responsibility for all this should be the business of the American high-level, and according to the recollections of Scheer and others, the remnants of the US Far East Fleet, Magifin and Shirley, were still very conscientious. After the USS New York was crudely repaired, it rushed to Morro Bay to rescue the American marines who had landed. And on the way, he took out 2 Japanese camouflaged reconnaissance ships.

The Columbia, on the other hand, went to American Samoa to help the local Americans move to German territory. After all, Ma Jifen and others were also worried that the Japanese would gain an inch and continue to attack south. And the other two battleships? Well, until the Japanese occupied American Samoa, they were not able to get out of the shipyard.

As for the other Russian armored cruiser, the Bayan, since the end of the naval battle in the Sea of Sulu, the Russians have received a telegram forwarded from home, asking this armored cruiser to stay in the port of the Germans honestly, and it is okay to disarm if necessary, anyway, don't get involved in the affairs of the Americans, the battle is like this, and the Russians have obviously given up.

"We're in the Far East with our broken fleets trying to save the children and property of the United States, while the bigwigs in Washington are arguing over things that don't matter! Our number one enemy is Britain and Japan, and the number two enemy is the guys in the White House! After the war, Brigadier General Shelley's article "The Enemy in the White House" caused an uproar in the United States.

As a front-line naval officer, Shelley accused the U.S. Navy and the U.S. government of dereliction of duty in pre-war preparation, planning, strategy, and tactics, as well as the problem of being slow to respond and looking ahead after the Battle of the Sulu Sea. Especially after exposing the fact that the Germans were willing to help the US government, but the US government was hesitant, this article pushed the American evidence and public opinion to the peak. And further promote the further proximity between virtues, of course, this is a later story, so I will not mention it for the time being.

As a result, the only two large warships of the current American fleet were turned into transport ships. And to the surprise of the Americans, it was not the Japanese who came, but the Japanese who came too fast! It's only been a few days! As soon as he got up the next day, he received a notice from the Germans that the Japanese fleet had appeared in the waters near Samoa, and that the cruiser Columbia, which was on a transport mission, had been sunk, and that more than 700 civilians had been killed.

"The Japanese actually occupied American Samoa?" Magiffen looked surprised. "What you Germans didn't do at the beginning, the Japanese did so easily?"

"Isn't it easy? Samoa is less than 3,000 square kilometers in total, and it is divided into two main islands and seven small islands, half of which are from our Germany and half from your United States. The Japanese Army, with 4 cruisers and a brigade, was directly pushed, and the whole process lasted less than 2 hours! One and a half hours was the landing of personnel. Scheer said, his tone so logical.

"How can they move so fast? It's only a few days from Japan to Samoa? Shelly also rushed over at this time, and he also didn't believe that this information was true.

"You two! Is it good that the British are allies of the Japanese? The guns of the Japanese battleships were exactly as good as the British, and the Japanese fleet did not need to go back to the mainland for repairs at all. 4 Asama-class armored cruisers went directly to Hong Kong for repair. ”

"I don't know anything about the losses you inflicted on the 4 armored cruisers of the Japanese fleet in the Battle of Sulu, to be honest, after replenishing the ignition coal and ammunition, you will be able to overturn the remaining bit of your battleship, with the help of the British, the recovery speed will naturally be fast." Scheer said.

"Damn, what do we do now?" After Scheer's departure, Shelly and Magiffin began to discuss the future of the U.S. Far East Fleet.

The once formidable U.S. fleet can now only mobilize three warships, one is the armored cruiser USS New York, another is out on evacuation mission, and one is parked at the shipyard for repairs. The armored cruiser Bayan of the Russians simply did not want to attack under the pretext that the repairs were not completed. This matter has reached this point, and there is nothing to fight, and a Japanese Asama-class armored cruiser can easily kill all the remaining three battleships, which is still a hair!

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