.“ Target distance...... 6300 yards! ”

"Target Distance...... 5900 yards! ”

"Target Distance...... 5500 yards! ”

When the distance between battleships relied on radar ranging rather than manual visual measurement, the progress of the times was evident in the war machine, and under the incomparable technological superiority, under the call of the German battle flag, the German officers and men fearlessly advanced against the enemy......

The rumbling cannons still resounded across the sea, and shells ranging from tens of kilograms to hundreds of kilograms shuttled across the sea at extremely high speeds.

However, as the distance closes, every shell has the potential to kill the opposing officers and soldiers, and the sparks of fire continue to bloom on each other's decks, bridges and even cabins, and the high-speed rotating shrapnel can easily make a large area bleed, and under the huge noise, the metal is submerged ** and the shouts before the end of life are masked alive.

With a loud bang, a certain secondary gun of another battleship was blown away by a magnificent blow, and more than a dozen soldiers who were sticking to their positions left together. After a while, the mutilated limbs fell back to the deck and water with fragments of various objects, and the disgusting smell of blood mixed with the strong smell of gunsmoke, a smell that was more unpleasant than poisonous gas but possessed of violent magic, and the soldiers around them fell into an even more frantic state, their eyes were red, their teeth clenched, their mouths were constantly cursing their opponents with all kinds of vulgar and vicious words, and their hands kept repeating the loading and shooting action that could kill the opponent.

Suddenly, a violent oscillation caused many people in the command tower of the "Wools" to stumble and almost fall to the ground. Lutejans stood steadily, and when the hull regained its calm, he said calmly:

"Report the damage!"

A moment later, a report came from the ship's damage management department: "One shot was fired at the port side waterline, the No. 4 heavy oil storage tank was blown through, and the hull and boiler room are fine!" There are no anomalies in the main artillery! ”

Hearing this report, most of the officers on the ship breathed a sigh of relief - the oil tanks were set on both sides of the hull in order to reduce the power of the opponent's shells during battle, although the current situation would cause the battleship to lose some of its fuel. But it did not have any effect on the overall combat capability of the battleship.

"The main guns continue to maintain the current rate of fire, the whole fleet continues to maneuver to the right, and the 2nd destroyer detachment is ordered to launch a torpedo attack!"

Lütthetheus still gave a new battle order succinctly, and not long after this order was given, a very splendid scene appeared on the sea not far away--the light cruiser "Amuberg" on the left side of the "Wools" suddenly exploded loudly, and the whole battleship was raised abnormally upwards in the center of the rear position of the bridge, and those who had experienced naval battles knew that the unfortunate light cruiser was torpedoed. It still looks like a powerful torpedo. After a few seconds, the hull began to fall, and the hull was clearly split in two, at which point the ship's cannons let out a final roar, and it was not long before the cruiser, completed around 1920, had sunk to the bottom of the sea at the speed of an emergency dive, but it never had a chance to resurface.

"General, our torpedo team sank an enemy cruiser!"

In the control tower of the "Atago", which had been blown out of a huge gap, a scarred Japanese naval officer excitedly pointed to the sea in the distance, and his expression was completely congratulating his top commander in the field, Vice Admiral Xiang Yaichi.

At this moment. Wearing a white large-brimmed hat, wearing a white navy uniform, and white leather shoes, but his whole body looked like he had fallen into a coal pile, but there was not even a hint of joy on his face. The reason was not that his own fleet did not perform well, but that the German fleet in front of him resisted stubbornly and the firepower was far more ferocious than he expected. Although the opponent only had one battle cruiser and some light cruisers and destroyers, the artillery fire was extremely accurate. Just a quarter of an hour earlier, the bridge of the "Atago" had been hit by the 343-mm armor-piercing shells of the German war cruiser, and if it were not for the thick armor of the "Atago" conning tower and the protection of Amaterasu, Mukai and his staff would probably have reported to Emperor Taisho by this time.

In addition to the minor damage to the "Atago", the Mukai fleet also lost the heavy cruiser "Myoko", the light cruiser "Kiso" and two fleet destroyers, the battle cruiser "Kongo", the heavy cruiser "Kinugasa" and some other ships were also hit by the shells of the German fleet. If this continues, not only will it be hopeless to attack the opposing landing fleet. On the contrary, it is very likely to be surrounded and annihilated by the opposing counterpart's defense fleet - most of the Japanese battleships that were tasked with luring the enemy were ships that had been commissioned before 1920, and they could not compete with the capital ships of the German attack fleet and escort fleet in terms of quality and quantity, and they could only gain a limited amount of time.

"Hit all the fire to attack the enemy's flagship, that damned battlecruiser!" Mukai was sure that the opponent was a battlecruiser and not a battleship because the opponent had a large body and ferocious firepower and had been maneuvering tactically at a speed of 30 knots, a speed that the best German battleships could not achieve at the moment!

"Hey!"

The officer immediately conveyed the order to Mukai, and in fact from the beginning of the battle, the main guns of the "Atago" and "Kongo" had been targeted on the German battle cruiser, and in the half-hour artillery battle so far had hit the opposing side at least five times, but in addition to several fires on the deck. The German battleship's speed and firepower did not diminish in the slightest.

After another round of medium-range firing, the 343-mm armor-piercing projectile from the "Wools" hit the "Atago" again, and the 410-mm armor-piercing projectile from the "Atago" also hit the "Wools" almost at the same time, this time the two sides were finally shaken by the powerful attack of the other side, the foredeck of the "Atago" was on fire, the No. 1 main turret directly lost its combat capability, and the condition of the "Wools" was not optimistic - the armor of the conning tower could not withstand the bombardment of the 410-mm guns at the medium range, As a result, the upper half, including the Hawkeye radar, was blown up, and although the captain's command room escaped, the officers, including Lüttejes, were collectively stunned.

Without radar guidance and timely command, the nine main guns of the "Wools" continued to fire at the Japanese fleet's ground flagship with all their might, even without the role of radar. The German Navy's marksmanship is still world-class. While the Japanese sailors were still busy putting out the fire, the German fleet shells once again came to its foredeck, and the fire forced Mukai Yaichi in the conning tower to close his eyes to avoid the glaring light, and when he reopened his eyes, he saw a mess of the foredeck and the No. 2 front main gun turret that could not shoot properly.

"Keep rushing!" Mukai Yaichi tore at his throat and ordered, at this time he had only one thought in his mind - as long as he led this fleet to break into the German landing fleet, the possibility of the Japanese army holding the Hawaiian Islands in the short term would be greatly increased, and it was even possible to thwart the German offensive in the central Pacific Ocean.

The order has just been delivered. The communications officer brought back bad news: "General, the right flank of this fleet was torpedoed by German destroyers, and the two ships 'Natori' and 'Matsukaze' were unfortunately sunk, and 'Utsuki' is struggling to support the right flank of this fleet!" ”

"Bastard ......"

He is well aware of the gap in strength between the destroyers of the Japanese Navy's ground fleet and the destroyers of the German Navy's ground fleet, and in addition to the small difference in speed, there is also a considerable gap between the two in terms of tonnage, firepower, defense, equipment, and personnel quality -- the graduates of Japan's naval academies and universities are divided into several grades according to their grades, and except for those who fail to graduate with unqualified grades, the first-class graduates enter the main battleships and battlecruisers of the navy, and the second-class graduates are assigned to the navy's aircraft carriers and aviation units. The third class corresponds to light and heavy cruisers. After that the fleet destroyers and submarines, the fifth class went to the escort ships and the naval transport department, and so on.

There are obvious differences in the quality of officers of various ships of the Navy, and the tactical quality and command ability of the destroyer commanders are not much better.

"General, do you want to send cruisers to reinforcements?" The communications officer asked inappropriately.

"Bastard! Bastard! Bastard! How could the main forces be mobilized to reinforce the flanks at such an important juncture?

Tell the captain of the Utsuki that if he can't hold our right flank, let him wait to apologize! Mukai Yaichi said indignantly, but only a few minutes later, the poor captain sank to the bottom of the sea with his own warship, and was forgiven. After defeating the Japanese fleet, he quickly launched a torpedo attack, and was torpedoed by the opponent at close range in the night battle. Even the battlecruisers with high speed of the "Atago" and "King Kong" felt their scalps tingle, and several Japanese cruisers had to desperately turn the rudder to avoid the torpedoes fired by the German destroyers, and precious time slipped away.

A quarter of an hour later, the Earl Spee, who had also remained in the fleet, led a group of destroyers into the fray, and the addition of the Mackensen-class battlecruiser balanced the difference in the number of main guns between the two warring sides, and made the Japanese officers and men begin to feel that the situation was not good. At this time, the damage level of the "Wools" could already be classified as "heavy damage", and one of the three main turrets could not fire normally, but just now, Lutetheus, who had just woken up from a coma, and his subordinate officers were still directing the battleship to fight the Japanese fleet, half an hour later.

The battle cruisers "Hindenburg" and "Luzo" in the sortie fleet finally returned to their positions, and the addition of the two capital ships quickly turned the tide of the naval battle, and the German officers and men were excited to see that the Japanese cruiser fleet had finally turned around and retreated. With less than three hours left before dawn, the German fleet did not pursue the fleeing enemy, but entrusted the task of revenge to its own carrier-based aircraft.

Four hours later, a horde of German carrier-based aircraft found the embarrassed Mukai fleet in the sea more than 160 nautical miles east of the Hawaiian Islands, and the heavy air raids caused the Japanese to lose the super battle cruiser "Atago", and only the "Kongo" and the light cruiser "Yura" finally escaped.

On the other hand, the German battlefleet, with the cooperation of the air force, inflicted heavy damage on the Japanese decoy fleet, and the "Hyuga", "Satsuma", and "Settsu" were sunk one after another, and only the "Ise" escaped from the battlefield with its thick armor and good speed, so that the surface ships of the Japanese Navy in the Central Pacific could no longer pose a threat to the German landing force.

In a fierce naval battle, the German navy lost 2 light cruisers and 4 destroyers, and the battleship "August" and the battle cruiser "Wools" suffered heavy losses, and the two ships staggered back to the German naval base in Mexico escorted by destroyers. The Germans postponed the landing by one day in view of the fact that the naval battle affected the artillery preparations for the German fleet before the landing, but this did not give any respite to the Japanese troops stationed in Hawaii, and the battleships "Caesar William the Great", "Albrethette", "Geertz", "Fort Württemberg", "Caesarfeterik III", "Bavaria", and the battle cruisers "Count Spee", "Luzo", "Hindenburg" The powerful artillery fleet composed of the ship spent a day combing through the Japanese fortifications along the coast of Oahu, and German carrier-based aircraft also frequently bombed the Japanese barracks, warehouses, transportation hubs, and vehicles on the island. Before the landing operations began, the Japanese garrison lost two-thirds of its air defense, almost all of its coastal artillery, and one-third of its men, and the Japanese commanders quickly abandoned their plans to hold off the Germans at the beachhead and withdrew the remnants to three mountainous areas on Oahu.

In the early morning of 28 February, under the cover of destroyers and carrier-based aircraft, more than 3,000 German marines, 56 amphibious tanks, and more than 100 amphibious armor rushed to the southern beach of Oahu on more than 200 assault boats, light landing ships, and tank landing ships.

At 7:11 a.m., the first German battle flag was planted on the beach of Oahu.

At about 9 a.m., a regiment of German marines entered the city of Honolulu, thus announcing the end of the city's occupation by the Japanese. Although German shelling damaged some buildings in the city, German officers and soldiers were welcomed by the local population. With the help of local guerrillas, the German landing force soon raided the Japanese prisoner of war camp north of Honolulu, where 78 German pilots were able to return to the German combat trains, but some of the captured pilots were not so lucky, more than 20 wounded were killed in the Japanese prisoner of war camp due to lack of medicine and timely treatment, and nearly 50 were taken away by the Japanese who had evacuated to the mountains.

By 12 noon on the same day, the German landing force had fully occupied Pearl Harbor, and the follow-up troops were still being sent to the beach in an orderly manner, while the vanguard landing force advanced north of Oahu under the cover of tanks and armored vehicles.