At twelve twenty o'clock, that is, when Yan Shiqi was about to turn the fleet again and start sailing westward, he also felt a little strange. Task Force 32 under the command of Kincaid should have arrived in the area of engagement, but where is Task Force 32 now?

"Let the fleet turn." Yan Shiqi's nerves were already highly tense, "In addition, modify the route and adjust the route to the south by 5 nautical miles, maybe Kincaid is less than 2o nautical miles away from us!" ”

The four battleships began to turn again, this time the "Canton" was in the front, and at the same time the course of the fleet was about 2o degrees to the south, that is, the fleet was sailing not to the west, but to the southwest. Within five minutes, three more formations also began to turn to work, and all took a new course. In fact, at this time, even the northernmost Sector 224 ship-by-ship formation was already a full 35 nautical miles from Kuah, while the 33rd cruiser formation was about 37 nautical miles from Kuah, the 31st battleship formation was about 38 nautical miles from Kuah, and the 34th cruiser formation was nearly 4o nautical miles from Kuah.

Task Force 32 was already in position at 12:05 p.m., but the radar on the ships was still missing. Kincaid ordered the fleet to go south three minutes later. At this time, the 32nd Task Force was only about 2o nautical miles south of Kuah Island, and the 3rd Task Force should be about 2o nautical miles south of Kuah Island, and he was already maneuvering in place. Now that the fleet is sailing south, it will be able to seize the advantageous "T" prefix for the shelling position and take the 3rd Task Force by surprise. At that time, regardless of whether the 3rd Task Force turns or withdraws from the battle, the situation will be for the 3rd Task Force to concentrate the artillery fire of the six battleships on the two battleships at the front of the 3rd Task Force as soon as possible, and to destroy half of the opponent's combat strength before the opponent has yet to adjust, so that the victory will definitely belong to the 32nd Task Force.

By twelve thirty-five o'clock. Both sides have completed the turn, and the battleships are being added. In fact, there is a mistake in judging the situation at this time.

Yan Shiqi still believed that the 32nd Task Force was to the south of it, so he moved the fleet south again to try to make contact with the enemy as soon as possible. Kincaid, on the other hand, still believed that Task Force 3 was patrolling the waters about 2o nautical miles from Kuah Island, and did not anticipate that Task Force 3's position would be much worse than he expected. … ap．bsp; By 12:55 p.m., the 33rd Cruiser Squadron of the Third Task Force had reached the south of Kuah Island, about 37 nautical miles. At the head of the line is no longer the "Hanlu", but the cruiser "Xiaoxue", and the radar on the battleship is running. **Mount Manahu is about 15 degrees west-north, and the angle continues to shrink.

At the same time, the battleship "North Carolina" sailing in the forward part of Task Force 32 was about 2o nautical miles from Kuah Island, and it was directly south of Manaxiu Mountain. In other words, in fact, the distance between the "Xiaoxue" and the "North Carolina" is only about 17 nautical miles, and this distance is still getting closer. What's more, the "North Carolina" is no longer on the line between the "Little Snow" and **Manaxiu Mountain. And there is an angle of about 10 degrees. This angle is still increasing.

The course of the "Little Snow" is 25o degrees, while the course of the "North Carolina" is 185 degrees.

According to Yan Shiqi's plan, the turning time of the fleet this time was one to five minutes. Within ten minutes, the distance between the two warships would be reduced to about 12 nautical miles, and this encounter would never be missed again.

At 12:59 p.m., an extremely strong "flashing point" appeared on the radar screen of the "Xiaoxue," and the radar operator immediately judged that it was a capital ship and immediately reported the news. Two minutes later, Yan Shiqi received a good report from "Xiaoxue", and at this time, the distance between the two sides was about 14 nautical miles, and they were still approaching.

For this target, which suddenly appeared to the north of the fleet. Yan Shiqi was a little puzzled, it stands to reason that the 32nd Task Force could not appear in their north at this time, but in the south, but the problem is that this is by no means a radar wave reflected by the island, the radar operator has proven that this target is within fifteen nautical miles from them, and now the fleet is nearly 4o nautical miles away from Kuah Island!

"Old Yan. Do you want to turn? ”

Yan Shiqi glanced at his partner and said, "Let the 33rd formation turn to the right and confirm the target, and the other formations turn to the left, if it is confirmed that it is the 32nd task force, then we have to distance ourselves a little!" ”

Gu Zhenyun did not object, if the fleet turned right, it would be towards the American fleet, even if both sides entered in columns, the last distance was so close that they could not avoid a strong opponent, the only way was to turn right, complete most of the circle turn, and at the same time open the distance, increase the area to maintain the advantage in distance. But the problem is that the four cruisers of the 33 cruiser formation are equivalent to going to die.

All four cruisers immediately turned to the right after receiving the order, and the radar on the "Xiaoxue" kept an eye on the approaching target. By the time it was past two o'clock, the radar on the cruiser "Frostfall" in third place had also detected the battleship "North Carolina", and at this time the radar on the "Xiaoxue" had already detected four targets, and the news was very fast, this must be the 32nd Task Force, because those four targets were battleships, not cruisers and destroyers!

It is even more unlikely that it is a interference signal reflected by the Manaxiu Mountains!

At one past five points, when the distance between the two sides was close to 11 nautical miles, "North Carolina"

The radar on the ship also showed the "Xiaoxue" to the south, and the battle alarm was immediately sounded. Kincaid gave an order at this time, and the fleet immediately increased, rushed up, and killed the oncoming Tang Empire fleet.

Kincaid did not hesitate, although the battleship "North Carolina" detected only four small targets (the "Cold Dew" at the end of the 33rd cruiser is at 11 o'clock), but in Kincaid's opinion, the opponent will inevitably send the cruiser to the front when the number of battleships is insufficient. But Kincaid still has a little doubt, are the four battleships of the Tang Empire to the south of the cruiser, or to the west?

At this time, the route of the 32nd task force was only 5 nautical miles away from the route of the 33rd cruiser formation, which Kincaid took into account when giving the order, if the battleships of the Don Empire were behind the cruisers. Then it's too late to turn around now, unless Yan Shiqi abandons the four cruisers and runs for his life alone. If the battleship is on the east side of the cruiser, that is, on the right, the distance between the two sides is also about 5 miles, and no commander will use the cruiser as a shield, at most the cruiser will be used as a radar sentry ship, and the distance between the battleship formation and the cruiser formation will not exceed 5 nautical miles. Otherwise, the sentry ship will be beaten by the opponent in front of the target.

Yan Shiqi did let the four cruisers be the target, or to drag the American fleet, he needed time to turn the four battleships 25) degrees, and at the same time pull the distance between the two sides to more than 1o nautical miles.

It would take about twenty minutes, and if four cruisers were not allowed to rush up, then in ten minutes he would have to encounter the American fleet.

At one o'clock and six minutes, the four main guns in front of the "Xiaoxue" opened fire first, and at a distance of a little more than 1o nautical miles, the radar calculated the distance of the enemy ship with an error of about 15o meters. The azimuth error is about o.1 degree. Although this accuracy is still a little worse, it is enough for the shells fired by the main guns to land near the enemy ship. Because 2oo mm armor-piercing shells could not threaten enemy battleships at all, and even armor in secondary parts could not penetrate them. Therefore, the "Xiaoxue" fired all high-explosive bombs, mainly to destroy the surface facilities of the enemy's warships. Within five minutes, all four heavy cruisers in the 33 cruiser formation opened fire in 6 refills.

At nine o'clock, the six main guns in front of the "North Carolina" began to return fire. At this time, the distance between the two sides was about 9 nautical miles. At this distance, the radar on the battleship can already calculate the approximate distance and direction of the enemy ship, but the US ship does not have a supporting radar and artillery aiming command facility, so the "North Carolina" shelling is very slow, it takes about three minutes to fire a salvo, and the accuracy of the shelling error is a bit outrageous. By 1:15 a.m., "Washington"

Number. The four battleships "South Dakota" (flagship) and "Indiana" all opened fire on 6, while the "Massachusetts" and "Alabama", which followed behind, did not rush to join the battle group.

Even at night when visibility was very poor, the muzzle flashes were particularly noticeable, and they could be seen clearly from a distance of several nautical miles. Of course, this is only limited to the moment when the cannon is fired, if you want to rely on the lookout to determine the accurate distance of the opponent according to the opponent's muzzle flash, this requires the quality of the lookout is very high, in addition to judging the position of the muzzle flash. In addition to the distance, it is also necessary to calculate the course and degree of the opponent according to the change of the position of several muzzle flashes (these are extremely important factors in the shelling). In fact, at that time, the lookouts on both sides did not have such a high quality, so they had to rely on radar to guide the shelling.

This pointless artillery battle lasted until 1:28 a.m., by which time the "North Carolina" had already received three shells, the "Washington" had two shells, the "South Dakota" had better luck and did not get shots, and the "Indiana" had two shells.

These 2oomm high-explosive shells were no threat to the four battleships with thick skin, not even scratching their boots. And the last two battleships to take part in the shelling remained unshelled. The four cruisers in the 33 cruiser formation did not suffer shells (if they did, they would definitely be finished), and although shells continued to fall on the nearby sea, the shelling error of the American ships was too great to hit the fast-sailing cruisers.

The situation on the battlefield was completely clear, and by 1:30 a.m., the radar of the battleship "Canton," which was about 8 nautical miles behind the 33rd cruiser formation, appeared on the radar at a distance of 15 nautical miles, and immediately judged that it was an American battleship. Yan Shiqi issued three orders at this time, one was that the 33rd cruiser formation immediately left the battle to the right and prepared to confront the cruisers and destroyers in the rear of the American battleship formation. The second is to let the ship-by-ship formation of the 329 area immediately follow up and cooperate with the 33 cruiser formation to fight. The third is that the 34 cruiser formation immediately followed the 31 battleship formation and remained within 5 nautical miles to the right of the 31 battleship formation. The final order was to turn the 31st battleship formation 15 degrees to the right, with all the main guns pointing in the direction of port side, ready to shell the American battleships.

From this series of commands, it can be seen that Yan Shiqi is indeed an expert in artillery warfare. After the situation became clear, he immediately judged that the cruisers and destroyers of the American army were in the rear of the battleship formation. At the same time, the U.S. military is trying to close the distance. To secure victory, he must control his distance and never allow his opponent to close the distance easily. In addition to arranging the course of the battleship formation, it is also very important to prepare the escorting cruisers and destroyers to intercept the charging American destroyers and prevent the enemy from dragging them down with torpedo attacks. Of course, at this time, Yan Shiqi did not forget one point, that is, it was pointless to keep the radio silent after sending out the news of the encounter with the enemy fleet.

The telegram was sent at 1:35 and was extremely brief. After Yan Guozhong received this telegram, Yan Guozhong immediately forwarded the telegram to the Southwest Task Force, and at the same time added a clause, that is, let the Southwest Task Force go to search for several anchorages near Kuah Island, and never let the US transport fleet send troops and supplies to Kuah Island.

Yan Guozhong's other reason for issuing this name is very simple: the US Third Task Force is to the north and is still sailing south, so it is very likely that the transport fleet following behind the 32nd Task Force will arrive at Kuah Island ahead of schedule, and the Third Task Force has not intercepted this transport fleet. When Task Force 32 headed south, the dozens of transport ships were probably sending troops and war supplies to the island.

When Wei Dongbei received the news, the southwest dizzy fleet was still advancing 25 nautical miles from the Kuah Island belt. Wei Dongbei did not have any carelessness, and his mission was not to fight the 32nd Task Force, but to intercept the American convoy. Therefore, he immediately modified the course to let the fleet sail closer to Kuah Island, tried to find the American transport fleet, and then took advantage of the opportunity of the 3rd task force to entangle the 32nd task force to wipe out the American transport fleet in one fell swoop!