The god of the Japanese Navy, Marshal Togo in the port of Tahiti, was staring at the charts with great distraction, and he did not have the superpowers to foresee a great conspiracy thousands of miles away, and what made him so attentive was the telegram sent back by Rokuro Yatsushiro half an hour earlier, the Japanese cruiser fleet cruising near Clipperton Island had encountered the American fleet.

"From the south, it should be the Atlantic Fleet going to the west coast of the United States through the Panama Canal! 10 battleships, 3 cruisers, 12 destroyers, the Americans used all the battleships that they had just recovered from the British! So who are the British sailors on it, or the Americans' own sailors? Dongxiang thought while muttering, the composition of the crew has a lot to do with the combat effectiveness of the fleet.

"According to the time, that fleet will stay in Norfolk Harbor for no more than 24 hours!" Vice-Admiral's Vice-Admiral Shoo Shimamura, then deputy commander of Japan's Second Fleet, did not directly answer Marshal Togo's question, saying that 24 hours was enough to replace all the sailors, but only if the sailors had returned to the port by Christmas.

"It is said that after the U.S. Atlantic Fleet handed over those warships to Britain, 80 percent of the officers and men were allowed to take a week's Christmas break. Compared with the past, Vice Admiral Kato Masakashi, commander of the Second Fleet, spoke much softer, mainly thanks to the German aviation unit stationed in Qingdao, and Kato was ridiculed by other generals for suffering the first defeat of the Japanese Navy in nearly two decades, and his path to promotion was greatly affected.

"Anyway, the fleet has appeared! If the US Atlantic Fleet is annihilated, the US Navy will lose half of its strength, and now that there is no British and French navy, the situation in the Pacific Ocean will inevitably undergo fundamental changes, and the control area of our Navy will be greatly expanded, and it can even advance to the west coast of the United States! Vice Admiral Shigeto Dewa, deputy commander of the First Fleet, was so optimistic that he even began to look forward to a bright future.

"General, please don't forget that the purpose of our coming here this time is not to fight for the Americans, but to restrain the support provided by the American Navy to the British. Now that we have tentatively achieved this goal, the US government has urgently recalled most of the warships sold to the British, and the German government is very satisfied with this! "Marshal Togo, who personally served as commander of the First Fleet, showed the calm demeanor of a veteran general, and the Japanese Government and the Admiralty also valued this and asked him to personally lead the fleet on a long voyage. For the Japanese government, the combined fleet of the First and Second Fleets represented the future of Japan, and these precious warships must not suffer any losses in the far central and eastern Pacific Ocean.

"What the marshal taught me is that I was rude just now!"

Judging from Vice Admiral Hashige's humble expression, Togo has a very high status among the Japanese Navy, after all, it was he who led the Japanese Navy to defeat the Polar Bears' fleet and make the Russian Navy collapse from then on.

"What we have to do now is to make the Americans restless, so that not a single one of their warships will dare to leave their west coast, and when the Germans have successfully finished the battle of the British, the harbors and islands here will be permanently 'managed' by our Japanese government! It's such a beautiful harbor, and if it weren't for the fact that it's too far from home, I'd want to live here for the rest of my life! Togo said as he slowly moved towards the bridge, the soft light of the setting sun quietly sprinkled on the sea, and even the blue-gray painted Japanese battleships in his field of vision were covered with a pleasant orange color.

"High, really high! The marshal is really scheming! The generals bowed to Togo's back one after another.

Heihachiro Togo, who has long been worshiped by the people, was in the same calm mood and expression, "Send a report to Rear Admiral Yashiro that the cruiser fleet is monitoring the American fleet, but it must keep a certain distance from it, and under no circumstances can it fire at the Americans first, and it must not enter the territorial waters of the United States!" ”

"Hey!"

In contrast to the tense but unflattering atmosphere in the eastern Pacific, the battle between the British and German fleets in the eastern Atlantic was brilliant and tragic, and although the number of warships on both sides was small, it was a small naval battle that could be written into a textbook.

The British battle squadron had been clearly divided into two parts, and at the forefront was a squadron of cruisers consisting of the heavy cruiser "Buffalo" and the light cruisers "Knight" and "Doson", which were advancing at a speed of 25 knots almost frantically towards the Hillpel raiding fleet; Pulled farther and farther down by the cruiser fleet was the battleship fleet of "Florida", "Utah" and "Bend", among which the front of Churchill's flagship "Utah" was billowing smoke, and countless sailors on the deck were working hard to extinguish the fire.

"Report to the commander, our ship was hit by a heavy armor-piercing shell from the enemy, which penetrated turret No. 1 at an angle of 25 degrees and exploded between the supply channel of turrets No. 1 and No. 2. We have filled the No. 1 and No. 2 ammunition depots in time, and at the moment there is no danger of detonation, and the speed of the battleship is not greatly affected by this, but our No. 1 and No. 2 turrets are temporarily incapacitated! ”

The ship's damage report didn't sound as bad as it sounded on the deck, with smoke and fire enveloping the two front guns, and Churchill and his officers thought the ship was about to be blown into the sky, but luckily the Germans didn't wear that deep, perhaps because the shells didn't have a large angle and penetrated the turret armor.

Taking the wet towel handed over by the adjutant, Churchill hurriedly wiped his face, the fat face had been blackened by the smoke, and after wiping it, it looked more like a black and white cat face.

"Damn! The armor of the American battleships is so poor! If it was hit by an armor-piercing projectile of this caliber at such a distance, the turret of the German battleship would probably bounce the armor-piercing projectile alive! ”

Churchill is telling the truth, in the two battles of the North Sea, it is true that German battleships were hit by 280 mm or 305 mm British armor-piercing shells but unharmed, you must know that the Germans can sacrifice a lot of firepower and speed in order to strengthen their armor, the Japanese Kongo-class battlecruisers are equipped with 356 mm main guns in caliber more than the guns of any German battleship in service, and the maximum speed of the Japanese Fuso-class battleships is 3-4 knots higher than that of the German capital ships.

However, Churchill seems to have forgotten that the armor of the American battleships was rotten, and the British themselves were no better off there.

As for the cruiser "Arrow", which lost all its combat effectiveness after being shot, it can be described as a blessing in misfortune, the German 305-mm armor-piercing shell has a good chance of hitting it in two with a single shot, and now it has at least some sailors below the deck surviving. The light cruiser, although its speed did not decrease, its course seemed to have gotten out of control, and it began to make circles at sea.

For the other three cruisers of the cruiser fleet, it took 25 minutes to penetrate the distance of 13,000 to 10,000 yards at a speed of 4 and a half knots, while the German battleships fired a salvo at a rate of 1.5 per minute, during which time the three British cruisers faced 6 salvos from two German battleships totaling 108 305-mm armor-piercing shells. Every wave of whistling German shells deeply stimulated the hearts of British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand sailors, whose warships had to pass through thick and round white water columns or water walls as high as tens of meters at any time, and the sailors on the deck were all drenched by the icy seawater, and some unlucky ones were directly swept into the water, and it was impossible for others to stop and rescue except for hurriedly throwing down the lifebuoy. In the icy waters of near freezing, those unlucky ghosts can only pray to heaven for protection.

The 152-mm guns of the British cruisers fired high-explosive shells and armor-piercing shells at 2-3 times the speed of the main guns of the German battleships, but the mixed gunners of the four countries hastily pulled the gun ropes without much aim, and as for the data of the rangefinders on the ship, by the time they reached the gunners, the positions of each side had already moved hundreds or even thousands of yards.

"God......

On the light cruiser "Knight", a group of Canadian sailors on the starboard side of the battle station screamed, and many of them even covered their mouths with their hands, and on their starboard side, the heavy cruiser "Buffalo", which could shoot directly in front with four main turrets and eight 152-mm guns, had just made a relatively neat salvo at the German fleet with great momentum, and in an instant it was shrouded in huge explosive flames, and the dazzling fire made it difficult to face it.

Due to the magnitude of the explosion, the shock wave quickly shook the "Knight" and "Posen" not far away, and the sailors felt as if their ships were suffering from a hurricane. When this shaking gradually weakened, the middle and front of the 10,000-ton heavy cruiser was nowhere to be found, and the German armor-piercing shells exploded inside the battleship after penetrating the armor of the front of the battleship, instantly detonating the ammunition depot under the two main turrets in front of it. However, if you look closely, you will find that most of the splashes are not provoked by the sailors who are struggling to fall into the water, but when various things are thrown into the air by violent explosions.

In this instantaneous explosion, only 36 of the 1,135 sailors of the "Buffalo" survived, but after the baptism of icy water, only 7 survived.

From the air, the detonation of the USS Buffalo looked more like a fireworks show on the sea. Four Exocet III flew swiftly past the British cruiser fleet, one of which was to take over the calibration position of Lieutenant Schweil and his plane, and the other three were targeting Churchill's few battleships.

The sight of the torpedoes under the belly of the Exocet III reflecting a faint but breathtaking glow in the setting sun also made Churchill with the telescope in his hand feel bad, and the smoke-emitting battleship was undoubtedly the most striking target, and the oncoming wind made the sight on the ship very bad.

"Left full rudder, turn east!" When he shouted loudly in a somewhat hoarse voice, the fat on Churchill's face was trembling slightly, and his temples were almost beads of sweat. The winter chill was no longer visible on the "Utah", the smoke and fire were heating the air on the surface of the battleship, and the command room was certainly stuffy, but Churchill was more worried about the German planes coming from the west after the turn of the robes, which gradually lost altitude in the setting sun, and the sea below them turned orange due to the sun, which provided excellent cover for the torpedo track.

The secondary guns and machine guns on the starboard side of the "Utah" fired desperately at the approaching German planes, but even in the remnant sun, the sailors still had no way to face it, and the choking and dazzling smoke came from time to time, they basically squinted and aim, and most of the shells were far away from the target.

When the round things fell from the German plane into the water and splashed one after another, the sailors on the "Utah" ship were completely panicked, all the secondary guns and machine guns on the starboard side began to shoot at the sea, small-caliber shells and bullets fell on the sea like raindrops, the waves shining with orange sunlight made it impossible for the sailors to shoot accurately, and the looming torpedo track on the sea surface kept extending to the battleship.

As the German planes pulled up and finally roared over the USS Utah, the huge and clumsy battleship was struggling to turn, and the thick black smoke rising from the battleship looked like a large chimney had been stabbed. In about 1/40 of the time, the "Utah" barely turned half of its body, and the torpedo was also approaching.

"There! Over there! ”

At close enough, the British sailors finally saw the torpedo hurtling beneath the surface, its white tail marks like the marks of a Grim Reaper's scythe as it slashed through people's necks. Auxiliary guns, machine guns, machine guns, and even rifles in the hands of some sailors were desperately firing torpedoes at this moment, and Churchill should have rejoiced at this time, because the sailors on this battleship were the last pride of the British Navy.

With a muffled "boom", a large splash rose less than 20 yards from the starboard side of the battleship, and the united British sailors seemed to have finally moved the heavens, although the shrapnel flying at this distance still caused many of the sailors who were exposed on the deck to fall in a pool of blood.

"Ah...... There's still there! ”

Before the sailor could turn the muzzle of his gun towards the creeping torpedo, the violent explosion and oscillation caused many to fall to the ground. Three German torpedo planes fired three torpedoes, which most British sailors saw, but a few more would crash into the battleship after evasion, and even Churchill, who had been in the navy for decades, could not be sure. In fact, in addition to the two torpedoes that had just hit the battleship, the other one almost grazed the stern of the "Utah".

"Damage management report, damage management report!"

Without waiting for Churchill to respond, the ship's officer shouted through the microphone to the damage control room below the deck, but there was no response from inside for a long time. From the porthole, the place where the water column rises is the middle and rear of the battleship, where there is the No. 3 turret and many boiler rooms, because the "Utah" does not have a strict design of watertight cabins, once the sea water pours into the boiler room, the boiler explosion is small, and the battleship loses power and can only be beaten.

Churchill did not speak, and the whole command room fell into a terrible silence for the rest of the room, as if everyone was waiting for something. After a few seconds, the explosion they feared most did not come, meaning that the torpedo had not directly detonated the ship's ammunition, at least. However, the floor that began to slope slightly to the right made Churchill's heart sink suddenly, and it seemed that the battleship was flooded in large numbers!

"Quick, send someone to damage the control room and take a look!"

Churchill opened the door and ran to the bridge, the fire in the front of the battleship was much smaller, but the smoke showed no sign of abating, and the unfamiliarity of the sailors with the structure of the battleship was very disadvantageous in this situation, and they were thankful that they were able to fill the ammunition depot with water in time. The starboard passage and battle position were littered with dead and wounded sailors, and the whole situation looked panicked but not chaotic, at least for the time being, no one was in a hurry to jump into the sea to escape. In addition to the crackling fire at the front of the battleship and the disgusting humming overhead, there were bursts of shells and sporadic explosions in the distance, and he listened intently to the movements below deck, hoping to get a general picture of the ship's damage.

Bang......

Before Churchill could hear anything, a distant explosion caught his attention. Without even using a telescope, he clearly saw a huge ball of fire rising from a smaller battleship in the distance, and under the combined blows of the 305 mm, 150 mm and 120 mm guns of the German fleet, the "Dosen", which had entered a distance of 9,000 yards, finally suffered a fatal blow. With his own experience, Churchill knew that in such a violent explosion caused by the combined action of German armor-piercing shells and the ship's own ammunition, the light cruiser would inevitably be torn apart, and the chances of survival of the 137 Canadians, 453 Australians and 76 Britons on board were slim.

Although the gunnery of this British fleet was a little unsightly, after entering the distance of 10,000 yards, the battleships of the Hipper fleet were still hit by British shells one after another, but compared to Churchill, Vice Admiral Hipper did not have to worry about how much damage the opponent's armor-piercing shells would bring to his battleships, and the armor of the King-class and Ostfreeland-class battleships, including the main turret, conning tower and shipside, could easily bounce off the 152mm armor-piercing shells fired from the British cruisers, Under the dense and accurate fire of the German fleet, the British cruisers simply did not have the opportunity to rush to a sufficiently close distance to launch torpedoes.

However, on the German reconnaissance cruiser "Munich", a British armor-piercing shell still caused a lot of trouble for the German sailors. The No. 3 turret in the stern of the battleship was blown away by a single gun, killing more than a dozen gunners on the spot, and to make matters worse, the seaplane boom arranged in the rear of the battleship was also damaged. For the first time, smoke rose from the side of the German fleet after being wounded by a bullet, and the "Munich" immediately turned its attention to extinguishing the fire and repairing it.

At this time, the British cruiser fleet remained only the last intact light cruiser "Knight". However, when the two German battleships aimed their guns at the British warship, which had repeatedly run into trouble and seemed to be possessed by a god of decay, it turned around and fled, much to the surprise of many German officers and men, including Hipper. Churchill's use of a cruiser to attack in such a situation was a last resort, but the cruiser turned around and ran away at such a distance can only be described as extremely stupid. Just after the "Knight" had completed its turn, the main guns of the German battleship barely adjusted, and a single salvo blew it up at sea. Having just regained command with the help of sailors, Riser made one of his wisest decisions, raising a white flag over the ship's mast.