After Rear Admiral Lee decisively issued a series of combat orders, three battleships, two light cruisers, and eight destroyers, led by the USS Washington, suddenly accelerated and rushed towards each other at a high speed of 27 knots. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The number of his own warships was thirteen, and the opponent's was sixteen, and his own side was inferior in numbers, but Major General Li did not hesitate in the slightest.

The sudden increase in the speed of the fleet greatly accelerated the encounter between the two fleets, and in less than an hour, the radar room reported the distance between the two sides every ten minutes according to the order of Rear Admiral Li.

Fifty nautical miles······ Forty nautical miles······

It wasn't until the radar room reported that the distance between the Japanese fleet and the Japanese fleet had been reduced to about 20 nautical miles, and Rear Admiral Li wiped his glasses in his hand and gave the last order before the battle.

"The capital ship has a left rudder with a course of 180 degrees, the ship's guns are turned to starboard, and the course of the other battleships remains unchanged."

After Major General Li finished speaking, he put on the gold-wire glasses in his hand and grabbed the railing in front of him with both hands to keep his body stable.

The three battleships made an emergency left turn on the sea, and the huge hull made snow-white spray on the sea.

The course of the Japanese fleet was from north to south, and the course of its own fleet was from east to west.

After the two sides encountered, the capital ship of the Japanese fleet was facing the port side, which could give full play to the full power of the bow and stern main guns.

However, our own fleet can only give full play to the power of the main guns in the bow of the ship, and is in an extremely disadvantageous situation.

In the process of making an emergency turn, the three battleships turned their starboard side against the enemy ship, and at the last moment before the battle began, this unfavorable situation was reversed.

"Enemy ships were spotted at 112 degrees on the starboard side at a distance of 18000 meters."

At this time, it was already 4:05 a.m., the sky was still overcast, but the light was much higher than before, and the lookout post reported the location and distance of the enemy ships in time.

Major General Li leaned forward slightly and looked at the two main gun turrets on the front deck.

Both turrets are triple mounted with 406 mm guns, and one triple turret is mounted on the aft deck.

The two forward guns were pointed to starboard, and with the input of coordinate parameters, the muzzles continued to turn to the right and then went up.

"Rumbling ······"

The dazzling flames occupied Major General Lee's line of sight, and the thunderous noise pierced through the bulletproof glass of the bridge and slammed into Major General Lee's eardrums, making a buzzing tremor.

Black smoke erupted from the muzzle of the gun, tumbled, swelled, and swirled around the starboard side of the battleship.

Before Major General Li could inquire about the results of the shelling, four huge white water columns rose into the air more than 100 meters from the port side of the battleship, soaring to a height of 50 or 60 meters.

Major General Li glanced at the four dazzling columns of water.

The enemy was shelling us, but the gunnery was too bad to hit the Washington.

In the nearby sea, a total of 18 main guns on the battleships Indiana and Massachusetts also spewed terrifying flames, pouring steel and death on the Japanese fleet.

The deafening sound of artillery fire continued to echo across the vast sea, like a thunderstorm that had just stopped.

On the sea between the battleship formations of the two warring sides, the engagement of light warships on both sides was even more thrilling.

The absence of the battleship's formidable main guns meant that the two sides had to close the distance before they could exchange fire.

Light cruisers and destroyers on both sides cut through the waves and bravely rushed to each other.

On the dim light of the sea, eight bright pillars of light burst out without warning, and the pillars of light shot from the west to the east, sweeping across the dark sea.

One of the pillars of light swept over an American destroyer, then spun around and locked firmly onto the destroyer.

The searchlight was like a magnesium light on the stage, making the destroyer as dazzling as the emperor's superstar, and quickly aroused the inhumane onlookers of the "audience".

First five or six white columns of water popped out of the water and surrounded the destroyer, and then a blaze erupted from under the boiler compartment in the middle of the hull, and black smoke erupted from the lower left of the chimney.

The U.S. destroyer, which had suffered heavy damage in the boiler room, still stubbornly fired back, but just after firing two shots, a white wave suddenly burst out of the stern, and a shell hit the part of the aft under the surface of the sea, causing the tail rudder to fail.

A silvery white spray flowed from the black sea, rushing straight under the main guns on the foredeck of the American destroyer.

Seriously stalled and steered the destroyer, allowing the torpedo to hit itself.

The Type 93 torpedo warhead, under the power of 490 kilograms of explosives, the destroyer's hull burst out of flames, and was violently thrown off the sea, countless strange-shaped objects flew into the sky, and the main gun in the bow of the ship, along with the turret, rotated across the sky and fell into the sea.

After the explosion, the front third of the destroyer's hull was shattered, and the remaining two-thirds of the hull plunged to the bottom without hesitation.

Almost at the same time, in the northernmost part of the battlefield, another American destroyer was also locked by the Japanese searchlight, but it could only circle and circle on the sea.

The destroyer was hit by the first round of Japanese fire, and the rudder was struck and spun on the surface of the sea like the hands of a clock.

The second and third rounds of fire fell, and the hapless destroyer's mast broke and slid to the surface, causing a raging fire on the bridge and billowing smoke around the hull.

From a distance, on the bow deck, a group of humanoids wrapped in flames ran wildly to the edge of the deck, climbed over the railing, and plunged headlong into the sea.

With a series of explosions, the destroyer's superstructure was wiped out, and the hull slowly sank.

In the first round of confrontation, the Japanese army relied on daily hard training to achieve two results.

"Onboard (hooray), onboard (onboard) ······" Seeing the enemy's tragic situation, a series of cheers erupted from the Japanese destroyers who had won the battle.

When the Japanese army was cheering for victory, in the bridge of the battleship Washington, Rear Admiral Lee was also ecstatic, letting out a burst of suppressed laughter.

"The enemy's battleship could be a Kongo-class battleship?"

In the dim light, under the reflection of the muzzle flames, the general outlines of the warships on both sides could be revealed, and the US lookout posts decisively noticed something unusual.

When the Japanese battleship opened fire in the distance, the flames erupted from the two turrets in the stern seemed to be a bit far away.

The lookout post immediately reported the details of the battlefield.

Through this battlefield detail, the intelligence officer on the USS Washington immediately judged that it might be the Kongo-class battleships of the Japanese Combined Fleet that were engaged with their own side.

Major General Li soon received this important battlefield information, and his heart immediately welled up with irrepressible joy.

The design scheme of the Kongo-class battleships was originally a battle cruiser, and all four battleships were built in the 10s of this century, and have been in service for nearly 30 years.

For a long time, even after the modernization of the Japanese Navy and the fact that they were called battleships, it was still impossible to change the identity of the four battleships as old ships that had been in service for nearly thirty years, and it was impossible to hide their original appearance as battle cruisers.

A striking feature of the Kongo-class battleships was that the turrets No. 3 and No. 4 were separated by the main engine room at the stern, while other large ships with two main guns at the stern, such as the Bismarck, had two turrets next to each other.

This special layout of the Kongo-class battleships quickly revealed their identities during the battle.

Rear Admiral Li got the important information and immediately looked through the ship's manual.

There were four Kongo-class battleships with a displacement of 27,500 tons, and their main armament was four twin 356-mm guns.

Its own flagship, the battleship USS Washington, was a cutting-edge battleship that had just been commissioned in May 1941, with a standard displacement of 36,600 tons and three triple 406mm guns.

The battleships Indiana and Massachusetts, both of which were South Dakota-class battleships, joined the Navy in late April and mid-May this year, respectively.

The two battleships had a full load displacement of 45,000 tons, and the main armament was also three triple 406-mm guns.

The speed of the two warships is similar, the tonnage of their own warships crushes each other, the armor protection crushes the opponent, and the caliber and number of main guns crush the opponent.

This kind of battle in which you have overwhelming power, if you can't win it, you can simply throw yourself into the sea and kill yourself.

Rear Admiral Lee's confidence skyrocketed, and he said impassionedly: "God bless the United States of America, let the Japanese be so crazy that they dare to challenge us with Kongo-class battleships." ”

"They probably thought we were just a bunch of transport ships, and they misjudged and sent ourselves to our guns." The captain of the USS Washington said with a smile.

"Whatever the reason for this, they're going to be doomed unless they run away now." Major General Li said confidently.

Before Major General Li's smug laughter dissipated, he heard another piece of good news.

"Hit, we hit one."

"Where?" Major General Li almost stuck his head to the window glass.

"Seventy degrees to starboard."

Major General Li turned his gaze to starboard at 70 degrees and quickly used his telescope to find the target that had been hit.

The battleship was surrounded by churning firelight, and it shone brightly in the dim light of the sea.

The fire did not come from the ship's guns, but from the hull.

Major General Li exclaimed: "The boys are doing a good job, it won't live long." ”

Rear Admiral Lee was staring at the foredeck of the Japanese battleship Haruna, where flames and smoke erupted along the torn bullet holes on the deck, enveloping the foredeck main guns and around the bridge.

Under the bridge behind the main guns, armor-piercing shells tore through the steel plates and burrowed into the fire control command room.

An even more deadly blow ensued, and the flames on the hull pointed the U.S. battleship to its target, and another salvo hit, with the Haruna's stern turret No. 3 and the adjacent engine room hit almost simultaneously.

The shells exploded in a chain of explosions, shattering almost all the buildings in the stern, and the sea water poured into the hull and washed everything inside, and the bow of the Haruna slowly turned up and slowly sank into the sea.

"It's sinking, it's sinking, God forbid, they didn't even run away, what a bunch of madmen." Major General Lee applauded his first victory.

"Report, USS Massachusetts was hit at an oil depot with fuel leaks, request to retreat."

"Let the Massachusetts pull the distance and retreat behind the Washington to continue the fight." Major General Lee gave the order.

Following Rear Admiral Lee's order, the battleship Massachusetts turned its bow and retreated to the east side of the battleship Washington, using the Washington as cover to continue the battle.

As the Massachusetts performed evasive maneuvers, Japanese shells tracked its movements all the way to the battleship Washington.

Three unprecedentedly huge water columns rose into the air, hundreds of meters high, far exceeding all the water columns that Major General Li had seen before, and this anomaly immediately attracted his attention.

These columns of water were clearly caused by larger caliber shells, and the fourth battleship of the enemy was firing at itself, and what rank was this battleship?

When Rear Admiral Lee was suspicious, the object of his suspicion, the second ship of the Yamato-class battleship, the bridge of the Musashi, the captain of the ship, Arima Dasa, put down the binoculars in front of him.

"Saoga, that battleship is hiding, divert the target, and sink the one in front of him."

Receiving an order from Arima Daisa, on the battleship Musashi, three triple turrets adjusted their muzzles, and nine 460-mm naval guns pointed at the Washington in the distance.

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