After discovering the opponent, both sides realized that the battle could not be avoided, unlike the decisive battle between aircraft carriers, the key to the victory or defeat of the guns between the battleships was not who attacked first, but who grabbed the advantageous position first, and one of the simplest and most basic principles of engagement was to go around to the front of the enemy's route and spread out a queue, so that all the battleships could concentrate their artillery fire in a certain direction, so that they could concentrate their fire on the enemy, and at the same time make the enemy unable to concentrate their forces to return fire.

Both Chang Jianxin and Samoville understand this truth, and they both want to fight to grab a favorable position. For Chang Jiexin, he had to stand between the British Home Fleet and the port of Puffmouth, so that Satmoville could not enter the port of Pontsmouth. For Samoville, he had two options, one was to break through the interception of Task Force 3 and enter the port of Portsmouth, the other was to fight a decisive battle with Task Force 3 and defeat Task Force 3 and enter the port of Portsmouth, and the other was to fight a decisive battle with Task Force 3 and defeat Task Force 3. Whichever choice he makes, Satsumville must first pass Task Force 3, so for Task Force 3, he has only one option, and that is to fight Task Force 3, and preferably defeat Task Force 3.

In the first round between the two sides, Summerville suffered a dumb loss. When he learned that the cruiser "Birmingham" had been sunk, he knew that Task Force 3 had come prepared, and his judgment had been wrong. Soon, the results of the contest between the first performance of the ships of both sides, namely speed, came out. As Task Force 3 began to pick up speed, Summerville could only watch as his opponent circled in front of him. Of the battleships under his command, only five of the "Queen Elizabeth" class battleships had a speed of more than 24 knots, and the other three battleships were all only about 21 knots. In other words, Satsumville either left the three battleships behind and forcibly broke through, or took the three battleships and the third task force to fight a decisive battle.

This is an extremely difficult choice. Although Summerville did not participate in the battle in the Pacific, he did. In the Battle of the Coral Sea, Kincaid made a low-level mistake by dividing his battleships into two formations, which allowed Task Force 3 to seize the opportunity to annihilate a smaller formation at lightning speed, and then concentrate on defeating the other four Iowa-class battleships. That is, if at this time the division of forces defeated four more battleships of the "Iowa" class. In other words, if the troops are divided at this time, it will give the enemy a chance to break through. In addition, the five "Queen Elizabeth" class battleships are no match for the five "New Provincial Capital" class. In a real fight, the 3rd Task Force could calmly take out the five fast battleships first, and then deal with the other three.

With this possibility in mind, Samoville had no choice. He could only concentrate on a decisive battle with the 3rd Task Force, trying to defeat the 3rd Task Force before dawn and enter the port of Puffmouth before the bombers of the other fleets of the Tang Empire arrived. But the problem is that the British fleet still has a huge disadvantage in speed, it is impossible to force a breakthrough, and it is impossible to gain an advantage in speed, if you want to defeat the opponent, you can only concentrate your forces and form a battle line as soon as possible. Fight the enemy.

At 2:15 p.m., Summerville gave the order to turn around, and the fleet was changed from north-west to south-west, and the order of the fleet was readjusted, in the order of which they were: "Queen Elizabeth", "War Wey", "Barham", and "Warrior". The Gold Coast, the Iron Duke, the Rodney, and Nelson. Judging from this arrangement, Satsumville also made two preparations. If you can't beat the opponent in the end, you can also let the three battleships in front of you retreat first, and make the choice of abandoning the car to protect the commander. In addition, two of the most powerful "Nelson" class ships were lined up. It is also mainly used to concentrate firepower to take out one or two battleships of the opponent first, so that the superiority in strength will be more obvious. It's easier to fight.

In addition to allowing the battleships to quickly form a battle line, Sarmoville placed the cruiser formation in the left flank of the battleship formation, that is, in the southeast direction, and the destroyer formation, which had been prepared for torpedo attacks, was placed in front of the battleship formation. At this time, the 3rd Task Force had formed a standard battle line, and then followed the British Home Fleet to the southwest, the opportunity had been grasped by the opponent, Summerville had no other choice, he had to let the destroyers charge first, disrupt the opponent's battle line, and then take the opportunity to set up a queue, so that he had enough time to let all eight battleships concentrate their firepower on the opponent!

On the other hand, Chang Jianxin was not a vegetarian, and when the radar of the "Nanning" detected abnormal movements in the British fleet, he immediately judged that Satsumville was going to fight with him. (Fastest update: n).

"British destroyers are approaching us." The operational staff officer has replaced the nautical staff officer as the new first deputy of the permanent recommendation, "Now that the British battleships have not yet completed their turning and formation, Satsummerville will definitely let the destroyers launch a torpedo attack first, forcing us to turn, or leave the battle line, so that he will have a chance to turn his battleship into combat condition." ”

Chang Jiexin sneered. "This is very clear, Summerville has no other choice, so let's take their destroyers first, let the cruiser formation press up, and the destroyer formation will stay in the rear, and when the British destroyers attack, let our destroyers harass Summerville, so that he can't quickly turn into the battle queue!"

The battle first began between the auxiliary warships of the two sides, at that time, there was still a distance of about 14 to 16 nautical miles between the battleships of the two sides, although this was already within the range of the battleship's main guns, but the accuracy of the shelling was very questionable, and both sides did not rush to fight, but sent auxiliary warships one after another, which can be regarded as a warm-up before the war.

The first to fire was the 1st cruiser formation, consisting of four cruisers, "Wudinghe", "Luohe", "Litanghe", and "Nanpanjiang". All four cruisers were cruisers of the "River" class, the first two of which belonged to the second and the last two to the third. The four cruisers were now equipped with triple 200 mm gun turrets, which was half the fire density of the twin 240 mm main gun turrets used previously. This can be regarded as an improvement of the Imperial Navy's respect for facts. In naval battles between cruisers, 200 mm armor-piercing shells are enough to deal with all cruiser-class targets, while 240 mm armor-piercing shells can only penetrate the cruiser's main armor, but cannot threaten the battleship. Therefore, the significance of the 240-mm gun in real combat is not very great, but because it is more bulky, the speed of shelling is reduced a lot. In addition, it was impossible to install a triple turret on the "River" class, and the density of fire was reduced considerably. Therefore, when the first two batches of cruisers of the "River" class returned to the shipyard for overhaul, they were replaced with triple 200-mm caliber main gun turrets, and from the third batch, this new turret was directly adopted, abandoning the flashy 240-mm main gun.

Five minutes later, the 2nd Cruiser Squadron, consisting of six cruisers of the "Tsunashi" class, "Lidong", "Liqiu", "Chuxia", "Bailu", "Autumn Equinox", and "Shocking", also entered the battle. In terms of firepower, the number of main guns of the "Trotto" class and the "Jianghe" class is the same, but the models are slightly different, and their firepower density is basically the same. Compared with the "river" level, the "solar terms" level is inferior in protection capabilities, as well as air defense capabilities. In the night artillery battle, in the face of the British Navy's 6-inch caliber naval guns, whether it is the "River" class or the "Temperary" class, it is difficult to block the 6-inch armor-piercing shells fired from 5,000 yards away. Therefore, the combat effectiveness of these six cruisers will not be much worse.

Ten cruisers formed two lines of defense on the port side of the battleship formation, that is, in the south-west direction. Like the battleships, these cruisers were equipped with dual-coordinate gunsight radars, which provided accurate shelling parameters for their guns. What's more, the artillery battles of cruisers, destroyers and other auxiliary warships generally take place within 10,000 yards, and within this distance, the detection accuracy of the radar is quite high, coupled with the 200 mm main guns with a much faster shelling speed, and the 120 mm secondary guns, its fire density is much higher than that of battleships. It was impossible for all British destroyers to block a direct hit of 200-mm armor-piercing shells, at a distance of 5000 yards. Even armor-piercing shells fired from 120 mm secondary guns can easily penetrate the thin layer of armor on a destroyer!

When the muzzles of the main guns on the cruiser flashed, the battle officially began. A total of fourteen British destroyers were divided into two formations. Eight of them went straight to the front of the battleship course of the 3rd Task Force, and the other six entered from the rear, preparing to launch a torpedo attack on the battleship from both directions at once. The British also quickly got a taste of the cruiser's high-density shelling, and at the fifth salvo, at about 2:38 p.m., the shells fired from the "Litang River" hit a British destroyer first. The shell presumably hit the middle of the destroyer, detonating the fuel and small-caliber ammunition stored there, and the destroyer immediately burst into flames, illuminating the other two destroyers in the vicinity. Immediately, the cruiser on the opposite side first concentrated its artillery fire on the three destroyers exposed to the fire. By 2:44 p.m., three of the six British destroyers that had entered from the rear of the fleet had been crippled, and the first one hit by the shells had disappeared from the sea! And at this time. The British destroyers are still about 12 nautical miles away from the new Nanning, and the range of the heavy torpedoes used by the British Navy is more than 5 nautical miles, which means that they still have a long way to go for these British destroyers who are risking their lives to attack!

The fiercest battle was fought on the side of the 2nd Cruiser Formation, with six "Tsuna" class facing eight British ground destroyers. The battle began at about 16,000 yards and lasted until 12,000 yards, when the British destroyer dodged all the incoming shells, and its commander skillfully used the gap between the cruiser's salvos to turn around. So that the gunners on the six ships of the "Throttle" class could not borrow the results of the previous shelling for calibration. But luck was still not in favor of the British, and at about 12,000 yards, the shells fired by the "Autumn Equinox" and the "Stinging" hit the same destroyer almost simultaneously. But it was just a matter of luck, and in the next few rounds of shelling, the British destroyers were still approaching the line formed by the cruisers, and at the same time closing in on the five huge battleships behind the cruisers.

By about 10,000 yards, the power of the "Temperary" class heavy artillery began to come into play. At this distance, the lookout at the top of the mast could already see the shadow of the British destroyer, though it was still impossible for the lookout to direct the shelling. However, the lookout can determine the approximate location of the shell, which allows the gunner to correct the shelling parameters. For British ground destroyers, 10,000 yards is definitely a line of life and death, at this distance, the accuracy of the 200 mm heavy guns is quite high, and the rate of six rounds a minute is also very amazing. But the real test has just begun.

At a short distance of 10,000 yards to 8,000 yards, another British destroyer was concentrated by shells and forced to withdraw from the battle. Start at 8000 yards. The 120-mm secondary guns on the cruiser will come in handy. The Imperial Navy had eliminated all the 155-mm secondary guns on the cruisers, and all the 120-mm high-level guns were used. Relatively. The armor-piercing shells fired by the 120-mm high-level dual-purpose gun were much less powerful than the shells of the 155-mm secondary gun, but their shelling speed was four times that of the 155-mm secondary gun! Originally, the main purpose of the 120 mm high-level dual-purpose gun was anti-aircraft combat, so it attached great importance to the speed of artillery fire, and its firing rate of 20 rounds per minute was vividly called "heavy machine gun". This is enough to illustrate the role of 120 mm high and flat dual-purpose in close naval combat.

At a distance of 8000 yards, the threat of 120-mm armor-piercing shells is not very great, at most it is to open a few holes in the destroyer's body. But by 5,000 yards, a 120-mm armor-piercing projectile was enough to penetrate the main armor of a British Navy destroyer. That is, at this time, as long as it is hit, the destroyer will not have a good life, and the 120-mm high-level dual-purpose guns used to be used against faster and smaller bombers. It was naturally easy to deal with much larger and slower destroyers.

When the cruiser's secondary guns roared in anger, the battle heated up. Only then did the officers and men of the British destroyers realize that their actions could not threaten the battleships behind the cruisers at all, and that they were only sending them to death, and they were actively sending them to the enemy's guns. And the artillery combat capabilities that the British are so proud of have nothing to be proud of and proud of at this time!