.“ The remnants of the "Tama" were still floating on the water, and the Japanese soldiers who had fallen into the water were struggling on the surface of the sea, but the cool waters did not make them realize that the Australian Navy had not been wiped out by the mighty Imperial Japanese Navy at the beginning of the war. But the two battleships that had just sailed past here clearly flew the Australian flag, and their cruisers were reimbursed with a heavy blow, was this a fantasy?

On the sea not far away, the "thunder" was still coming one after another, and the two Australian warships were outflanking the only remaining Japanese ship at an angle, and the fire on the three warships flashed from time to time, and the cannonballs frequently stirred up tall columns of water in the waves. Both sides wanted to hit each other and did not want to be hit by the other, so each desperately made tactical maneuvers at top speed. In the stormy seas, they became knights running fast on the rolling hills and constantly shooting sharp arrows at each other, most of the "arrows" were lost, but the side with the blue flag on the scene had a great advantage, and the difference in fire density, accuracy and mobility between the two sides was obvious.

In the firing command post of the "Melbourne", an officer in a British white navy uniform gave instructions in German:

"Bearing, 41 degrees 20 minutes; Shooting angle, 9 degrees 25 minutes; Volley one! ”

The officer next to him quickly wrote down a few numbers on a piece of paper, then grabbed the phone and communicated the firing data in English to the commanders of the main turrets.

After a quick adjustment, the ship's 12 203mm guns erupted in flames of vengeance, and 12 armor-piercing shells spun over the crests of the waves, through the rain curtain, towards the battleship, with black clouds and stormy waves as the background, and two thick straight chimneys were spewing thick black smoke. If the perspective moves forward with one of the armor-piercing shells, you will soon be able to see the sixteen sunburst flags raging by the storm, see the black holes of the 12 cannons of the 6 main turrets on the ship pointing straight to this side, see the huge hull of the other side on the cusp of the storm, see the hateful faces of the Japanese officers in the portholes, and see the expressions on their faces turn from conceit to consternation. The four largest guns on the ship suddenly opened fire, and at this time, an armor-piercing bullet from the Australian battleship "Melbourne" crashed into the command tower of the Japanese ship "Kurama", and the steel armor that was not strong enough was torn apart.

The officers inside didn't have time to react at all, and the flames of the explosion and the fragments that spun and scattered at high speed turned the tower into a purgatory of blood and fire in less than a second.

At the same time, the 12 main guns of the "Kurama" - 4 305 mm primary guns and 8 203 mm secondary main guns were still stubbornly resisting, although the explosion just made the battleship violently shake a little, but after learning that the main guns were unharmed, the ship's artillery commander Yamashita Ryuo stared at the Australian battleship in the rangefinder with his already blood-red eyes.

"Azimuth, 320 degrees 12 minutes; firing angle, 7 degrees 53 minutes; The first level of the main gun fired a salvo one.

Two salvos of the second main gun! ”

The reloading time of different caliber guns is different, the rate of fire of 203 mm guns is usually 2.5 rounds per minute, but 305 mm guns are usually less than 2 rounds per minute, if you let the 203 mm guns stop and wait for the 305 mm guns to fire a salvo, this will inevitably affect the rate of fire of the whole ship, and the trajectory of 365 mm shells and 203 mm shells is not the same, so it cannot achieve the effect of the salvo of the main gun of the dreadnought. For this alone, the Japanese ships suffered a big loss in front of their opponents.

In the mind of the Japanese gunnery officer, despite the numerical superiority of the opponent, there were only two cruisers, one heavy and one light. The caliber of the main guns was also only 203 mm and 152 mm. And his own is a "cruiser", which is equivalent to the battlecruiser of the German Navy, not to mention the power of the 305-mm guns on the ship. The armor-piercing shells of the 203-mm gun alone can make the opponent look good, because the armor of the cruiser has never been able to withstand armor-piercing shells of this caliber, and the timing of this "only one shot" may appear at the next time the fire is fired.

"The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th secondary guns are ready!" The officer holding the phone said excitedly.

"Fire!" It was as if he had been waiting for this moment for a long time, and the command of the commander of the main gun seemed to have exhausted all his strength.

With a few booms, eight 203mm armor-piercing shells left the chamber with a huge amount of kinetic energy, and the target was only 3,100 yards away, but 3.95 seconds later, they landed in the undulating waters, and the shells fired from different turrets were far apart!

During this time, the sea conditions were very bad due to the sea conditions. Although the two Australian ships also fought a little hard, even if the hit rate of the main guns was only one percent, they could hit each other once every 3 minutes, and if the accuracy was the same, it would take the opponent 6 to 7 minutes to hit them, not to mention that there was a considerable gap in the shooting accuracy of the two sides because of the performance of the battleships.

Yamashita Ryuo was in frustration, and the herald officer shouted excitedly again:

"The No. 1 and No. 6 main guns are ready!"

"Fire! Fire! Yamashita roared like a red-eyed gambler, and if he couldn't sink or drive his opponent away in a short period of time, the ship, which had lost its command, would be hit by more shells in a straight line. until they are sunk or surrender voluntarily.

However, after 3091 seconds, the main gun commander was disappointed again, although the power of the 4 365mm guns was great, but it only had the unsatisfactory accuracy of the previous dreadnought era, and at this time, the two sides were engaged in a mobile artillery battle at a distance of more than 3000 yards, and their range advantage was not visible at all, except for the continuous splashing, their only effect was probably to keep the other party's mood in a tense state.

"Hurry up...... Hurry up ......"

In the command tower of the "Melbourne", General White whispered softly, more than half of the reason for the sinking of the Japanese ship "Tama" in one fell swoop was that the distance between the two sides was less than 1,500 yards and the other side lacked vigilance, but the shooting with the "Kurama" was not so easy. Although the armor of the "Melbourne" is strong, it cannot be compared with the real German battlecruiser, and the reasonable structure can save it from the danger of being fatally hit by the opponent, but at such a close distance, every shell fired by the opponent's main gun may cause great damage to the battleship, and the wingman "Gibson" is only a 6,000-ton light cruiser, and its defense is not much stronger than the "Tama" that has just sunk.

But since the shell just now beautifully took out the command center of the Japanese ship, White changed his previous silence and became slightly excited, watching the Japanese ship not turn left and right to perform tactical maneuvers like just now, he was even more hopeful to wait for the arrival of the next salvo of the main guns, because it was destined to be an exciting moment.

Shooting in the command post.

The German-speaking officer, however, remained extremely indifferent, and based on the previous impact points and the latest measurements, he ordered: "Bearing, 40 degrees 50 minutes; Shooting angle, 9 degrees 13 minutes; Volley one! ”

The Australian officer next to him immediately grabbed the phone and shouted in a slightly trembling voice:

"The azimuth is 40 degrees 50 minutes, the firing angle is 9 degrees 13 minutes, and the salvo is one!"

Just a few seconds later. Several fireballs were clearly raised on the Japanese ship, some on the port side, some on the starboard side, and it seemed that the 152mm main gun of another Australian ship had also captured the target.

There was a sudden jubilation on the two Australian ships, and there was no suspense in the artillery battle after that, the gunners on the Japanese ships were still resisting, but a battleship lacking mechanical power could only be passively beaten, and the two Australian ships took advantage of the advantage of speed and ground to quickly find the best offensive position, and there were more and more places on fire on the Japanese ships, and the artillery fire that returned fire was gradually weakening. At last. "Gibson" bravely rushed to 2000 yards on the starboard side of the "Kurama" and fired a volley of torpedoes. At 3:07 p.m., the cruiser "Kurama," which had served in the Japanese Navy for 17 years and had participated in Japan's military operations such as attacking Qingdao, invading Southeast Asia, occupying the Philippine Islands, and capturing Australia, finally ended its guilt-filled roar. It slowly sank to the bottom of the sea, 32 nautical miles southeast of Australia's Bass Strait, and was buried with 672 officers and men including Rear Admiral Yasuzo Ogura.

Won the naval battle at a small price, General White and his sailors were naturally high morale, which can be said to be a battle between the warships of the pre-dreadnought era and the post-dreadnought era, although on the surface the Australian side won a bit of luck, but after all, the "Kurama" is already an outdated warship with an old dragon clock, which also illustrates the gap between the Japanese and German navies from one side - it is an indisputable fact that the Japanese Navy has the best first-class battleships and battlecruisers, but it is limited by financial and material resources, They had to maintain the size of the Navy by relying on constant accumulation and refurbishment, like the old rich man, and warships more than 15 years old were common in the quasi-main and non-main ship sequences of the combined fleet.

Even the famous Kongo-class battlecruisers were already in the technology of more than ten years ago.

As the other of the world's two major military powers, although the German Navy only built the "Wilhelm the Great", a 420,000-ton quasi-super battleship, there are only four King-class battleships that are more than 10 years old, and the Bavaria-class, Graff-class and Caesar-Frederick III class are all new ships that served before and after the German-American War; The battle cruisers have only three Dervlinger-class that are slightly behind in terms of performance, and the Mackensen-class and Brandenburg-class are currently the world's first-class battle cruisers; Although the aircraft carriers have two 14-year-old ships, the "Lisa" and the "Prince," they are only active in the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean, and the six Ernst-class heavy aircraft carriers in the ocean-going fleet are enough to send all the Japanese aircraft carriers to the bottom of the sea, and the six German-class medium aircraft carriers and the 18 Olg-class light aircraft carriers built after the German-American war as Zeppelin improvements are also new warships in service in the last four years.

In addition, Germany's investment in non-capital ships is also obvious to all. However, most of the warships that are more than 10 years old will be sold to allies or neutral countries at low prices, and the domestic naval shipyards always introduce newer and better designs in a timely manner to win new orders, such a policy is not only conducive to maintaining the strong vitality of the German Navy, but also stimulates the domestic naval shipyards to continue to pursue technological updates, but the strong financial resources they rely on are simply beyond the reach of Japan.

The "Melbourne" Boxer-class battle cruiser can be said to be a microcosm of the combat effectiveness of many heavy cruisers in the German Navy, and the destroyers and submarines sold by Germany have always been sought-after goods in the arms market.

After dropping a few lifeboats at the drowning Japanese, the two Australian ships quickly pursued the transport in the direction from which the transport had left, and up to this point, their mission had only just begun.

After learning that the "Kurama" and "Tama" had been sunk by the Australian fleet, the Japanese navy's top brass was greatly shocked, and they immediately ordered the ships operating in the waters near Australia to immediately concentrate on the Bass Strait, but because the storm quickly swept through the entire southern part of Australia, the Japanese seaplanes and land-based planes were unable to take off for patrol, so they could only reluctantly send surface ships stationed in Port Adelaide and Melbourne to search for the traces of the Australian fleet.

The wind and rain were a little weaker, and the night soon fell, escorted by four Australian ships, the transport fleet successfully arrived at a small port in the Great Australian Bay, the local guerrillas were already ready to pick up the ship, they and the sailors on board worked together to unload the supplies and transport them away, the four transport ships brought a total of 15,000 British Lee Enfield rifles, 1,200 Lewis light machine guns, 300 Vickers heavy machine guns, 4 million rounds of ammunition and a large number of other equipment, the entire unloading process was originally planned to be completed before dawn, But at half past two in the morning, the Gibson spotted a Japanese gunboat in the nearby sea and opened fire to sink it, and the Australian fleet had to return early for fear of attracting other Japanese warships and land forces due to the sound of the cannons, and the guerrillas took more than three-quarters of the supplies, and with the help of these equipment and ammunition, they finally survived the most difficult period.

On the way back, the sky was getting brighter and the rain was stopping, but the Australian fleet did not take the Bass Strait route again, but sailed westward to the German-controlled waters of the western Indian Ocean. However, when it was about to break away from the area controlled by Japan, the Australian fleet encountered two Japanese ships performing other tasks very accidentally, this time the opponent was the Japanese Navy's Furutaka-class heavy cruiser "Furutaka" and the kamikaze-class destroyer "Kamikaze" composed of a patrol fleet, the "Kamikaze", the old destroyer's combat power is negligible, but the Furutaka-class is the Japanese Navy's first-class heavy cruiser.

In the battle, which lasted nearly an hour, the "Melbourne" and the "Guying" fought from a distance of 10,000 yards to more than 4,000 yards, and to be exact, the "Melbourne" chased all the way to more than 4,000 yards.

"Furutaka" was put into service in 1926, with a displacement of 10,000 tons, equipped with three twin 203 mm guns, originally used to deal with the lack of warships or weak naval strength of Asia-Pacific countries, and it was the first attempt of Japanese shipyards in heavy cruisers, so the ship is smaller, although it can carry 2 water reconnaissance aircraft, but the firepower, defense and other aspects are not outstanding, and the speed is only 33 knots, so the two ships showed a huge gap at the beginning of the battle. The Australian ship made the opponent taste the wrath of the Australians with double the firepower, and finally sank it more than 360 nautical miles west of Australia, and the "Gibson" also led another Australian destroyer to sink the "Kamikaze", and the crew death rate on the two Japanese ships was more than 70%, and the "Melbourne" was also hit by shells fired by the opponent at close range, and the stern part of the equipment was damaged, and the speed was also reduced to 30 knots.

After hearing of the sinking of the "Furutaka" and "Kamikaze", the Japanese navy top brass was furious and sent the "Kashima" and "Ibuki" ships to lead the remaining cruisers of the 4th Sentai to pursue them westward, but the Australian fleet, which was covered by the German Navy, soon disappeared off the coast of East Africa. Although the Japanese military was furious, it had no choice but to swallow its broken teeth into its stomach at the critical juncture of the negotiations in the Far East, but it was not known that this was only the beginning of the doom of the Japanese navy.