4 September 1928, southeast of Australia.

Due to its location in the southern hemisphere, the seasons here are the opposite of those in Japan, and when autumn is about to begin, winter here is coming to an end, and the sea temperature is around 18 degrees Celsius, which is a very comfortable time of the year.

Today, however, the vicinity of Bass Strait is overcast, with black pressure and low thick clouds, which make people feel depressed, and the high winds make the waves on the sea bigger and bigger. I saw a seaplane swaying in the wind and constantly reducing its altitude, and then it began to make contact with the irritable sea, and after jumping a few times, it finally landed on the surface of the sea, and quickly "swam" to a warship not far away with its own power.

On the mast of the battleship, sixteen striking flags of the rising sun fluttered wildly in the wind, and about 500 yards away from it, another battleship with a gray tile, a more majestic body, and a chrysanthemum insignia also hoisted this flag that was hated by countless people, but it had a name that seemed to be very loyal: Kurama.

Since the "Nagato," "Kawachi," and "Hiei" were transferred back to their home waters due to tensions in the Far East, the only capital ships of the Japanese Navy's 4th Sentai remained in Oceania were the "Kashima," a quasi-dreadnought-class battleship, and the Japanese Navy's so-called cruisers "Kurama" and "Ibuki," as well as many heavy cruisers, old armored cruisers, destroyers, gunboats, and patrol boats. The Kashima is usually in the Coral Sea, the Ibuki is active in the waters west of Australia, and the Kurama and its wingman Tama are on patrol in the waters east of the Bass Strait. As for the other light and heavy cruisers and light ships of the Japanese army, most of them operated in the waters off the coast of Australia, and the ports of Mount Molloy, Melbourne, Perth and Darwin were also designated by the Japanese as special ports for Japanese ships.

By the time the light cruiser Tama hoisted the seaplane, the wind became more and more fierce on the sea, and a storm was about to come. The signal lights of the "Kurama" flashed and flashed, but the order was not to return to the port to avoid the wind, but to continue patrolling to the east!

The commander of the two-ship alert patrol formation, Rear Admiral Ogura Yasuzo, the commander of the Kurama, gave such an order because of the Japanese occupation of Australia. In order to pass through the naval blockade of the Japanese Navy, the ships of the Australian and New Zealand governments-in-exile often take advantage of dark nights and stormy weather to sail, because Australia has an extremely long coast, even if the Japanese Navy sends all its ships, it is impossible to completely block the entire coastline. So this cat-and-mouse game can only be played by stepping up mobile patrols and coastal guards.

Half an hour later, bean-sized raindrops began to hit the sea. The wind led the waves to twist the world at sea, and the thousands of tons of ships were easily lifted and lowered by the waves, and the waves crashed heavily against the steel hull, and in this way, the "Kurama" and "Tama" sailed towards the depths of the storm.

As Japan's first class cruiser - the Tsukuba class of armed strength, the "Kurama" class was started in 1905 and put into service in 1911, with a displacement of 15,000 tons, 1,600 tons heavier than the Tsukuba class, equipped with 2 twin 305 mm guns and 4 twin 203 mm guns, with a maximum speed of 21 knots. Just in terms of a "cruiser" that was set to be in the same way as a battlecruiser. The 100-180 mm waterline armor, the 125-small 80 mm turret armor and the 200 mm conning tower armor were too weak. The British Invincible-class battlecruisers of the same class of the same era are the best example, with 100-150 mm waterline armor, 180 mm turret armor and 250 mm conning tower armor, the "Invincible" naval battle was easily penetrated by the German battle patrol's 280 mm armor-piercing shells and detonated the ammunition depot, which shows the weakness of its defense.

But. Since the Japanese invasion of Australia, the Kurama has not encountered a decent opponent, initially shelling targets off the coast of Australia, and then intercepting armed merchant ships attempting to enter Australia, and has achieved a fairly good record. It was precisely for these reasons that the Japanese Navy was relieved to leave these warships whose performance was obviously not up to date with the times in Oceania, and transferred the best capital ships back to the mainland one by one to "confront" the German Pacific Fleet.

With the official start of German-Japanese diplomatic negotiations on exchanging land for land, the situation in the Far East was eased, and this atmosphere seemed to soon spread to the Japanese Oceania Dispatch Force and the 4th Naval Squadron stationed in Australia. In the command tower of the "Kurama", the officers talked and laughed. Even their always strict captain, Rear Admiral Ogura, was involved from time to time, and although the defense and speed of this cruiser designed with the guiding ideology of "rapid guerrilla forces" seemed to be behind the times, its seafaring performance was quite good, and the turbulence on the ground was not as serious as people imagined.

In contrast, the officers and men of the wingman "Tama", a light cruiser launched in 1921 with a displacement of 5,800 tons, continued the design idea of the high-speed lightning strike type of the Japanese light cruiser, with an astonishing speed of 36 knots and a multi-seat quadruple 610 mm torpedo tube. The naval artillery only had 7 140 mm guns, 2 127 mm anti-aircraft guns and some 25 mm anti-aircraft guns, and the defense was relatively weak.

At this time, in the stormy area, another fleet was moving in the opposite direction to the Japanese fleet, and in terms of size, this fleet consisting of 1 heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser, 2 destroyers, and 4 freighters was far stronger than the Japanese fleet, but the mood of the fleet from officers to sailors was vigilant and even a little nervous.

Eight ships form an almost circular formation, two of which are cruisers in the front left and front right, two destroyers are in the left rear and right rear, and two freighters are protected in the middle of the fleet.

"General, the 'Wallaby' has sent a signal that the leakage in the bilge has been controlled, and the speed can continue to be maintained at 16 knots!"

In the command tower of the fleet's only heavy cruiser, officers wearing domed white naval caps reported to their own captain, Vice Admiral White, the commander of the fleet.

"Very good, let them fix the vulnerability as soon as possible. I don't want any more accidents on the way back! At about 50 years old, Admiral White has immigrated to Canada since his father's generation, and White himself has served in the Australian Navy for a long time, going to Britain with the Australian fleet and participating in the Anglo-German naval battle. After giving the order, he once again used his telescope to observe the sea surface in his field of vision, which at this time had a very limited visual distance, which could serve as a cover for the fleet, but the disadvantage was that it slowed down the ship's sailing speed, and it was difficult to escape by evasion once it was discovered by the enemy.

Although this is not the first time that the Australian and new governments have sent ships into Oceania waters after their exile in Britain. But it was definitely the largest, because in the past, it was either fast ships, high-speed destroyers, or submarines that were used to transport supplies, and such a surface fleet had never been organized to cross the Japanese blockade line. The reason why the Australian and New Zealand governments-in-exile made such a bold move is: first, the Japanese army recently carried out a large-scale sweep operation in Australia, although the two divisions of the Japanese army were transferred back to the mainland, but the Japanese army joined the Indian colonial army this time, and the total number of troops involved in the sweep reached more than 90,000 people, which made the Australian underground resistance groups and guerrillas face a serious threat, and they urgently needed to receive arms and material assistance; To the relief of the Australian and New Zealand governments-in-exile, German operations in the Far East had kept a large number of Japanese naval vessels at bay. An unprecedented number of Japanese warships conducted alert patrols off the coast of Australia. On this side of the Bass Strait, there are only two mobile ships, the Kurama and the Tama, and a small number of destroyers and gunboats.

Most importantly, the Australian and New Zealand governments-in-exile had reorganized their navies with the help of the Kingdom of Britain and Germany, although the goal of the operation was to transport supplies to a small fishing port in the Great Australian Bay without being detected by Japanese warships. But this fleet was also prepared for a head-on clash with Japanese warships.

Sure enough, at 2:10 p.m., the lookout on the Australian ship spotted two unidentified ships in the sea in front of the right. The other party soon sent a signal to inquire about the identity, and the Australian flagship "Melbourne" replied that it was the second fleet of the Chilean Navy and was practicing ocean voyages.

At 2:12, the commander of the Australian fleet, Admiral White, gave the order to prepare for battle, and the light cruiser "Gibson" quickly approached the flagship. Two destroyers, the USS Cape York and USS Liberty, covered the four merchant ships and turned 20 degrees south-west and quickly headed deep into the rain.

At 2:15 a.m., the Japanese ship "Tama" again signaled that it would ask for the name of the Australian ship and the name and rank of the commander, and the Australian ship immediately prevaricated with a pre-prepared pseudonym, and ordered the Australian flag on the mast to be lowered and the Chilean flag to be raised; the four triple 50-caliber 203-mm naval guns of the "Melbourne" were quietly aimed at the target, and the two twin 152-mm front guns and two quadruple-mounted 304-mm torpedo tubes of the "Gibson" were also ready to fire at any time.

Perhaps seeing that the two Australian cruisers were German-made warships and that Chile and Germany were notoriously close, the Japanese ship was silent for a while after the Australian ship reported its name and commander's information. The distance between the two Australian ships was also imperceptibly reduced to less than 1,500 yards, and at this distance, the Japanese light cruiser was completely vulnerable to Krupp's 203-mm naval guns and armor-piercing shells, but the Japanese ship apparently had some scruples, so it did not continue to approach but turned 45 degrees to become parallel to the "Melbourne", while the other Japanese ship, the "Kurama", was sailing in the rain 4,000 yards away.

In the command tower of the "Kurama", Rear Admiral Ogura's deputy was hurriedly flipping through a thick book of materials, which was full of line drawings and general introductions of the naval warships of various countries, although the former naval powers Britain, the United States and Russia have declined, but at this time there are still nearly 100 kinds of cruisers in service in various countries, and the German Navy alone has 5 heavy cruisers, 9 types of light cruisers and 5 export-oriented cruisers, and there will be some differences in appearance between cruisers of the same class, it is precisely because of these reasons, The information in the hands of this Japanese officer is so thick.

"Found it! Got it! Kokura's lieutenant said aloud with relief, while Rear Admiral Ogura and the officers around him gathered around, "The twin chimneys separated by 18 meters, the stolen triple 203 mm turret, the forward bridge is 17.4 meters high, and the rear bridge is 11.8 meters high...... That's right, that's it! Fighter-class battle cruisers! ”

Hearing this name, the officers gasped, they had already heard the name of this kind of battle cruiser, because the Japanese Navy spent 3 million marks, that is, more than 12 million yen, to order one from the German Royal Shipyard at a high price of 3 million marks, that is, more than 12 million yen, but the German side has not yet delivered it, and according to the assessment of Ozawa Jizaburo and others who have visited the prototype ship, this so-called battle cruiser has advanced design structure and equipment, especially the triple Krupp 50 times diameter 203 mm naval guns are powerful, The high rate of fire and good accuracy, coupled with the German Navy's pride in the ship-wide unified firing command system and optical sighting equipment, even ships with larger caliber guns have to be very careful when facing such dangerous guys.

"With a displacement of 1.45 million tons, a maximum speed of 35 knots, a waterline main armor belt of 220 mm, a turret armor of 250 mm, and a command tower armor of 250 mm, using high-quality steel and a wide range of welding technology, it is expected that the actual defense power will be increased by more than 2 percent compared with the battleship using ordinary steel......" After listening to the deputy's interpretation, Rear Admiral Ogura couldn't help but raise his binoculars and look at the majestic battleship on the sea in the distance, he was thinking that it seemed that the Germans had never sold this kind of cruiser to Chile, But he suddenly found that the Chilean flag on the mast of the battleship and its wingman had been lowered at some point, and a flag with a blue background was slowly rising. Major General Ogura had just opened his mouth, and before the first syllable was uttered, he saw a deadly fire flashing from the muzzle of the opponent's gun!

The rumbling cannon sound reached the Kurama for a few seconds, and at this time Kogura and his officers were witnessing their wingman "Tama" quickly sinking to the bottom of the sea in a painful explosion, and after only one round of shelling, the Japanese officers saw the power of the Australian ship, and behind that powerful combat power was the advanced shipbuilding technology of the Germans, and it was still a battleship without radar!

After easily killing the Japanese ship in front of them, the officers and men of the "Melbourne" clearly knew that the real battle was coming in the face of an opponent whose tonnage and firepower were slightly stronger than their own, but what was to be happy was that there were not only many determined Australian, New Zealand, and British sailors on this ship, but also a group of excellent gunnery instructors from the German Navy.