.“ Bastard! Didn't they see that the flag of the United States of America was on top of our mast? Couldn't they understand the terms of the German-American Non-Aggression Pact? Bastards, a bunch of bastards! ”

On a light cruiser flying the Star-Spangled Banner, the captain of the ship, with neatly combed hair and a clean and straight uniform, made no secret of his anger at this moment, his warship was being attacked by German warplanes. The first bomb landed next to the battleship could be explained as a technical error, but the bombs fell one after another, and a torpedo had just arrived, which in any way does not make one deny that the other side was intentional.

After only a few seconds, the battleship shook violently with a loud bang, and almost all the officers in the command room fell to the ground, and the originally fierce anti-aircraft fire on the ship suddenly became dumb. The relative silence after the loud bang made the captain and his officers feel bad, but looking at the porthole at the front, the foredeck of the battleship was no different, so one of the officers hurriedly opened the door, and a strong pungent smell suddenly poured in, and people could not help coughing violently.

"Close the door!" The captain shouted, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and covering his nose.

At this moment, an embarrassed officer came in from outside, and he was so frightened that he even forgot to salute the army.

"Captain, turret No. 5 in the stern has been punctured, and the fire is spreading to the ammunition depot!"

"What?" Everyone's eyes widened.

At 3:21 p.m. on December 27, 1919, after an extremely violent explosion, the 4,900-ton American light cruiser "Calvin" disappeared into the sea, and only 37 of the more than 300 officers and men on board survived.

In the sea between the bay of San Matthias and the Gulf of Grande in southeastern Argentina, fierce naval and air battles are still ongoing.

Eight "Sea Hummingbird" light fighters hovered over the battlefield, and in the hollow area were 48 biplane attack planes, bombers, and torpedo planes.

On a Camel DD light bomber, the bombardier stared closely at the improvised optical sight in his seat, and in the restless sea, a destroyer painted in yellow and green came into his sight. In that large and complex fleet below. Most of the white and silver-gray ships are American ** ships, and the Argentine warships are painted in a similar blue-gray paint, but the Brazilians paint their warships in completely different colors, which is also very convenient to distinguish from the air.

After the bombardier decisively pressed the bomb button, the entire plane seemed to be pulled upward, and after reducing the burden by 400 kilograms, the pilot's piloting was much easier. At this point, the bombardier poked his head out of the cabin. I saw that the sea around the destroyer, which was desperately turning to the left, was shaken by the splashes that burst in an instant, and after a little counting the number of splashes, the bombardier shrank his head back with some disappointment, the difference between the hit rate of medium and high altitude bombing and low altitude bombing was indeed not small, and all the bombs were lost! After dropping the carrying ground bombs, the bombers began to fly in the airspace where the fighters were circling, while waiting for the other bombers to return to formation.

On the sea, the situation of the Brazilian destroyer, which had just been bombed, was not optimistic. Below deck, especially in the cabins near the waterline, sailors wearing only vests or simply shirtless are soaking in the sea water to plug leaks and bulkheads where they are broken. A large amount of seawater is gushing in.

Half an hour after the start of the air strikes. The captain of the Brazilian destroyer "Dragon Cardor" announced the abandonment of the ship. Under the watchful eyes of many officers and men, the 850-ton destroyer finally slowly sank to the bottom of the sea. Fortunately, it was the early summer in South America, and the officers and soldiers adrift on the sea at least did not have to endure the torment of the cold. Although the sun is blazing, the battle site is much hotter.

"Torpedo salvo!"

On one of the Swordfish torpedo planes, the pilot and squad leader raised his right arm in a gesture of attack, and around him, the other three torpedo planes all aimed their noses at the Argentine cruiser in front of them.

Quietly, four light torpedoes of 324 mm left their parent planes, and after a perfect descent in the air, they plunged headlong into the deep water, and after a few guesses resurfaced, the ground speed of the aircraft and the power of their own engines gave them a speed of nearly 40 knots. A large number of bubbles formed a terrifying white death mark behind them, and the four torpedoes formed a frontal attack more than 50 meters wide, and in the blink of an eye, they were seven or eight hundred yards away from the target.

"Left full rudder!"

"Full rudder left!"

In order to avoid the terrible torpedo attack, the officers and men of the Argentine cruiser held their breath to fight the torpedoes. As soon as the opponent's torpedo fell, the captain gave the order to make a big turn, and with the support of the speed of 25 knots, the bow of the cruiser made a big cut in the sea, and the hull was still rising and falling in the sea, and the small flag in the bow of the ship had already been wet by the sea. The secondary guns and machine guns on the left side of the ship were desperately firing at the water, and the attention of the whole ship was focused on the four speeding torpedoes on the port side.

However, at this moment, another squad of 4 torpedo planes was quietly approaching the Argentine cruiser from the opposite direction, which was originally a tactic to attack the opponent's capital ship, but since the order of the superior was to attack these cruisers and destroyers with fast speed, flexible steering, and small frontal attack, the two torpedo squadrons had no choice but to deal with one target in this way.

Just when the Argentine officers and soldiers thought that they were about to successfully dodge the opponent's torpedo attack, suddenly a hoarse cry came from the starboard side:

"Torpedo! A torpedo was found on the starboard side! 600 yards away! ”

At 3:35, after being hit by two torpedoes at the same time, the 6,260-ton Argentine cruiser "Roca" sank irretrievably, and more than half of the 585 officers and men on board were killed or wounded.

During this period of air raids, most of the officers and men of the Union fleet had a feeling of living like a year, and even on the battleships that were not attacked, the atmosphere was extremely solemn, and people were frustrated with their inability to help their comrades in distress, and they also felt sad for their fate. On the US battleships "South Carolina" and "Michigan" and the cruisers "Biloxi" and "Dayton," the four central special observers were using their pens and brains to record the magnificent scene of fierce naval and air battles in front of them.

"The first wave of German planes arrived on the battlefield at about 3 o'clock, and during the attack, which lasted nearly 35 minutes, they dropped hundreds of ground bombs and torpedoes, and sank two cruisers and one destroyer. The battlefield was full of smoke, and it was impossible to tell how many ships were injured, but it was estimated that there were at least 10 or more, especially the Brazilian cruiser 'San Felis' with a displacement of 7,200 tons, which ate a torpedo dropped by a German aircraft, and was still struggling on the water at this time, but no one knew when it would sink. As the second wave of German planes flew into the battlefield, the German planes that participated in the first wave of attacks began to return home. Their combat positions were then taken over by latecomers, and the Germans seemed to want to drag us across with wheel warfare! I think at this time, the fleet commander must remain calm, and every decision he makes will most likely mean the life and death of the fleet! ”

"Bombs, torpedoes, these things make the officers and soldiers tense their nerves. I saw the ship's 5.9-inch, 4.8-inch, and 2.4-inch gunners firing desperately into the air, but very few German planes were actually shot down from the beginning to the end of the battle. Under the prestige of the German naval and air forces, the officers also seemed to be confused, a Brazilian destroyer almost collided with its own friendly ship while evading an attack, and there were occasional cases of a grenade fired from the main gun hitting a friendly ship, but no one seemed to care about so much. ”

"God forbid. The second wave of the Germans attack finally ended. The gunfire around the fleet subsided, but the sudden silence was very uncomfortable for my ears and brain. Another cruiser and a destroyer were sunk during the battle, and a number of ships were badly damaged. Fortunately, all seven battleships in the fleet were unharmed! According to previous estimates, if the Chilean coalition fleet had not turned, then we would have met them in an hour! As long as we maintain our current strength within this hour, then naval warfare will still be in our favor! It's just that so far we are confused by the strength of the German air forces, was it really that they defeated the invincible British Navy? ”

"Oh my God, the German fleet is here again! This is the third wave of attacks today, and what do they want to do this time? Is it the same as the previous two attacks? Oh no, I saw a dozen planes besieging the Brazilian battleship, the Grice, the hapless battleship that was damaged by a German submarine just before the war broke out. Is it still bad luck this time? God, it got shot, oh, another explosion, it must have been a torpedo, I think it's dead, the Germans are very good torpedoes! ”

By about 4:30 p.m., the German naval aviation had successfully completed three waves of air strikes on the ground of the Allied fleet, sinking and damaging many cruisers and destroyers of the enemy fleet. The side lost only 6 aircraft, and 3 of them were lost during a torpedo attack on the Brazilian battleship "Grice". After the end of the air raid, the Brazilians were pleasantly surprised to find that the "Grice" not only did not sink but could continue to participate in the battle, two German torpedoes dug two holes in its starboard side, and the influx of dozens of tons of seawater only slowed it down slightly.

At 4:52, the fleets of both sides were already able to see the black clouds formed by the smoke and dust over each other, and the southern sky was the first to hear a sunny thundercturn. With the assistance of school shooters, the Chilean coalition fleet actually began shelling at a distance of 30,000 yards, and although the first wave of falling shells only departed, they were all 0.6-ton 360 mm shells, which were undoubtedly shells of two Fuso-class battleships, and the Japanese Navy finally fired the first shot in this naval battle.

At this time, the American, Brazilian, and Argentine battleships of the Alliance fleet were equipped with naval guns of no more than 305 mm and 50 times the diameter of the gun, and the maximum range was less than 28,000 yards like the four German-made battleships. Despite this, the battleships of the coalition fleet returned fire in the direction where the shells were flew, and the shells, of course, all fell at a great distance from the coalition fleet.

At a distance of 25,000 yards, the German and Chilean battleships in the Allied fleet also began shelling one after another. Although the first few waves of shells were not fired frequently, the shells were closer to the target in one batch, and in the fourth salvo, the 305-mm and 360-mm heavy shells fell in the middle of the two fleets, and an American destroyer unfortunately became the first victim of the Allied shelling. Two 360-millimeter misses set off a huge wave in which the thin destroyer was almost overwhelmed, and the powerful explosion carved large holes in its hull below the waterline, and the destroyer fell behind two minutes later, which was also the first trophy of the Japanese Navy in this naval battle.

In the face of long-range artillery bombardment by the enemy, the artillery bombardment of the coalition fleet, which had lost air supremacy, was acceptable, but the hit rate was surprisingly low. After more than ten minutes of artillery fighting, the alliance side found that its losses were gradually rising, but the distance between them and the opposing fleet did not continue to close, and their commander realized that the opposing fleet planned to consume its own forces by long-distance artillery bombardment first.

Due to the comparable speed, the German, Japanese, and Chilean allied fleets were able to maintain a distance of 25,000 yards from the allied fleets composed of Pakistan, the United States, and Argentina, and at such a distance, the Japanese and German battleships had the highest hit rate, among which the "Fuso" and "Yamashiro" maintained a hit rate of about 6 percent in a salvo of 12 45 times diameter 360 mm guns, which means that on average, at least one shell could hit the target when the two ships fired a salvo together; Although the "Kai-2" and "King Albert" had 10 50-diameter 305-mm guns, due to the limitations of the turret arrangement, they could only use a salvo of 8 guns, and the hit rate was close to 5 percent, and the average four-round salvo could hit the target three times. The two Chilean battleships used a mixture of German and Chilean sailors, and could only use eight 50 times the diameter of 305 mm guns in a salvo, and the hit rate was slightly lower than that of the German and Japanese fleets, but ten salvos could also hit the other side five or six times.

In this case, despite the numerical superiority of the coalition fleet, this superiority was gradually lost under the suppression of the ferocious firepower of the opposing side. In order to reverse this situation in one fell swoop, the fleet commander ordered the fastest cruisers and destroyers to rush at each other with all their might, trying to disrupt the enemy's artillery bombardment with torpedoes and bodies.