"Damn, I was caught up in the end! If it weren't for Iowa's slow running, we could have waited until nightfall to dodge our opponents' attacks! Dewey sighed as he looked at the shadow of the ship that was gradually becoming clear in the distance. The arrival of Iowa is a great reinforcement for the American fleet, and at the same time a burden, for no other reason, the speed of this cargo is a bit slow, and it should be 7% of the responsibility for being caught up this time!

But now is obviously not the time to study this, it is inevitable that the Japanese fleet will catch up with itself, the hatred between the two sides is irreconcilable, maybe there is no declaration of war between the US and Japanese governments, but this largest group fight since the appearance of steam ironclad ships is about to begin!

Since you can't run away, let's face it directly! With the change of signal flags on the mast of the battleship Iowa, the U.S. and Russian fleets began to turn around and sail towards the Japanese fleet with their backs to the sun! Both sides are in a decisive battle posture, the American and Russian fleets have two more ships, while the quality of the Japanese fleet seems to be higher! It's a close fight! At least that's what the Americans think.

The actions of the Americans also fell into the eyes of the Japanese, and the long-awaited engagement officially began, starting with the nine capital ships of the Japanese fleet in turn, starting with two second-class battleships Fuji and Yashimago, followed by four armored cruisers that Japan had acquired from the Traversers, from front to back Asama, Yakumo, Nisshin and Izumo, and then the first-class protection cruiser Kasuga and two second-class protection cruisers.

And the formation of the Americans is similar to that of the Japanese, and the Americans also concentrated their most elite warships in front! The strongest, naturally, was the battleship Iowa, then the armored cruiser USS Brooklyn, and the only thing that changed was the battle position of the USS New York. This battleship was the weakest of the large warships of the American and Russian fleets, and because it carried captured Japanese and British prisoners of war, it was moved to the back, in the sixth battle position. Majifen was temporarily assigned to the New York.

Behind Brooklyn were three Russian armored cruisers, Rurik, Bayan, and Parada. Behind was the USS New York, and at the end of the line was Shelly's protective cruiser formation, which did not change in formation, in that order, the USS Olympia, two Columbia-class protective cruisers, and two second-class protective cruisers.

"It is impossible for the main fleet in front to open the situation in a short time, our only chance is in the battle of protective cruisers, we have 5 battleships, and the other side only has 3! The tonnage is also an absolute advantage, if you can defeat the opponent's defender in less than 1 hour, then the battle will have a turn! Before going to the New York, Magiffin specially emphasized to Shelly that the reason is very simple, because in the battle between the first-class warships of the two sides, the American fleet is basically suppressed!

Although Dewey, Shelly and others were somewhat dissatisfied with Majifen's opinions, they all admitted that Majifen, who had rich combat experience, still had a very high level of tactics! He repeatedly stressed that there was a reason why elite warships had an impact on the entire battle situation in naval battles.

In the battle of Dadonggou between the Qing Dynasty and Japan, the biggest mistake of the Japanese tactics actually appeared at the beginning, if the most elite Japanese fast fleet entangled Munich and the two Zhiyuan with the strongest combat effectiveness at the beginning, at least the fierce Munich could not easily kill the weak ships in the Japanese fleet. It is true that the Japanese Rapid Fleet quickly dealt with warships such as Chaoyong Yang Wei, but at the same time, it also lost more elite warships such as the Sankei, which was not worth the loss from the point of exchange.

And now the biggest problem of the U.S. fleet is that in addition to Iowa being able to suppress Fuji in terms of attributes, it seems that Brooklyn may be able to block Hachishima, and the other 4 armored cruisers are properly useless in the face of 4 Japanese advanced armored cruisers! The two Munich-class ships will definitely not be able to defeat in the face of their own upgraded version, and it is only a matter of time before they fall, Essen thinks that the Rurik is not as good as Munich, and it may be faster to kneel, not to mention New York, to defend without defense, to have firepower without firepower, and to have no blood (tonnage).

In the face of a situation where a rout was almost imminent, all the Americans could do was to bring the New York and Olympia closer, and if necessary, 2 to 1, barely holding on to a tie. "If we are lucky enough, our armored ship force can hope to hold on to each other for more than 2 hours, and if it is longer, I am afraid it will not work. And the only chance to break the game is to see the battle of the protective cruiser formations! Dewey said this in the pre-war tactical arrangement. In this case, the American fleet finally ran into an adversary!

"From a tactical point of view, the Americans had done their best before engagement, relatively speaking, the Japanese did not do very well, they used inferior capital ships against the most ferocious presence in the American fleet, and then it turned out that the Fuji 2nd class battleship was indeed inferior to the American battleship Iowa, but alas, the Americans and Russians did not seize this opportunity." This is how a British officer who participated in the war after the war commented on the deployment of both sides before engagement.

Before the final arrival of the Japanese fleet, the American fleet completed the adjustment of formation and course, the two warships pulled out two battle lines, almost parallel to the south, this is a national war, both the Americans and the Japanese are cautious, the two sides slowly approached, the relative distance from 5000 meters gradually approached 4000 meters, 3500 meters until 3000 meters, Fuji fired the first shot of the war!

The barrels of the twin 10-inch guns at the beginning and end of the Fuji shrank back sharply, and with the sound of the gun, two huge fireballs erupted from the muzzles. Two 227KG shells roared towards the American fleet in the distance, and a few seconds later, two huge water columns exploded just 20 meters from the Iowa! Then, the other Japanese warships opened fire, and balls of flames jumped on the side chords of the battleships, and tons of deadly shells whizzed towards their targets.

And the Americans were not to be outdone, accompanied by bursts of violent vibrations, shells flew out of the muzzles. However, compared with the firepower of the Japanese, the American fleet had a numerical advantage, but its total firepower projection was at a disadvantage from the beginning. And the worse artillery skills of the Americans further amplified this disadvantage! But even so, the two sides were still inseparable at the beginning! For the two newly rising empires, both sides did their best. As a last resort, we will never back down!

Thanks to the book friend Fang Zhan 2004 for the reward~~~, and the book friend once didn't want to leave, knife cold, qsefth11, youbo, flydragon monthly pass support ~~~! (To be continued.) )