The explosion of the "Oklahoma" and the subsequent sudden rush of ships from the opposing fleet shocked Kimmel with great surprise. His ship "Pennsylvania" had already received four shells, none of which were fatally wounded, and the combat effectiveness of the battleship was not seriously affected. But the problem is that now the position of the "Z fleet" is extremely unfavorable. More precisely, it was the engagement distance that was extremely disadvantageous for the "Z fleet".

Kimmel saw with his own eyes that at least three shells hit the Tang battleship on the opposite side, but these three huge shells did not cause any damage to the opponent at all, the battleship did not reduce its degree, and the nine main guns of the three main turrets continued to fire. Obviously, it was a battleship of the latest model of the Don Army, and at a distance of 14 nautical miles (the actual distance exceeded 14 nautical miles), a 356-mm armor-piercing projectile could not penetrate the opponent's main armor belt at all. If the fight continues at this rate, there is not much hope of victory for the "Z fleet". It is necessary to close the distance, if it is 1o nautical miles, maybe those three armor-piercing shells will be enough to make the opponent incapacitated!

In addition, Kimmel also observed that except for the battleship at the front, which was severely damaged by nearly ten shells, the other battleships in the Don fleet were all the same after being hit by shells. That is, armor-piercing shells fired by other battleships could not penetrate the armor of the Don battleships! And the explosion and sinking of the "Oklahoma" already shows that the armor-piercing shells of the Don Army have a mortal threat at this distance!

Seeing this clearly, Kimmel immediately made a new decision. The fleet was increased to 24 knots, and at the same time turned to the left, while trying to get around to the front of the battle line of the Don Army, and at the same time to close the distance between the two sides! At the same time, he also issued an order that the destroyers located in the northwest of the fleet (which began to deal with the destroyers of the Tang Army, and the cruisers and destroyers in the "Z fleet" were killed to the northwest) immediately prepare for a surprise attack and delay the actions of the Tang fleet.

The actions of the American fleet were immediately revealed by Yan Shiqi. Although he didn't see the American escort battleships (which had not yet been killed), he immediately guessed that the American battleship formation wanted to seize the advantageous position to the west. Then a destroyer and cruiser charge will definitely be arranged.

"Prepare the cruiser formations with the destroyer formations."

Yan Shiqi sneered, "After the American destroyer came out, the cruiser formation immediately went forward to intercept its destroyer. Destroyer formations carry out lightning strikes. ”

"Now?"

Gu Yongyun was a little surprised, this actually put the cruiser and destroyer between the battleships of the two sides.

"Yes, now!"

Yan Shiqi didn't hesitate, "The battleship formation is ready to add, prepare to turn left." The Yankees want to seize our 'Ding' prefix, it depends on whether they are fast enough! ”

There was no big problem with the decision of the two, but Kimmel ignored one point, the maximum degree of his battleships was 24 knots (now the rearmost "Tennessee" was blown off due to a bomb in the ship's department, and the propeller on the far left was blown off, and the degree could only be kept at about 2o knots) and the maximum degree of the five battleships of the Tang Empire was 31 knots, and the slowest "Dignity" was at the back of the fleet, and it would not delay the degree of the four battleships in front! In the case of a degree inferior to the opponent. If you want to grab the prefix "D". This was almost impossible, and at the time of its turn, the battleships located at the front of the battle line were bound to be subjected to concentrated shelling.

In fact, it is exactly what it is. It's just that it was not the "Maryland" that was the first to be subjected to concentrated shelling, but the "Fury". By the time both sides began to make a left turn and struggle to gain a favorable position, the "Fury" had already rushed out of three nautical miles, sandwiched between the battleships of both sides. At this time, the battleships that were still fighting each other at the beginning were temporarily disengaged, and the American battleships did not forget to fire a few rows of shells at the "Fury" when they turned. As a result, in the space of several minutes, the "Fury" received five more shells, one of which hit the bridge of the commander's ship. Although this shell did not have the main armor that was able to penetrate the bridge (the thickness of the armor of the commander's bridge was generally second only to the thickness of the frontal armor of the main turret. Or equivalent) But the powerful shock wave shook almost all the officers and soldiers who were already wounded inside. The captain of the "Fury" also died at this time, and he was replaced by the major gunner on the battleship.

Cruisers and destroyers on both sides also quickly slaughtered. The cruisers in the American army were charged together with the destroyers, mainly to provide artillery cover for the destroyers. The cruisers of the Don Army did not act together with the destroyers, and the eight heavy cruisers rushed to the north of the battleship formation and bombarded the killed American destroyers with their main guns to prevent them from torpedo attacks. And the counterattacking destroyers met it.

In terms of artillery fire, the American light cruisers practically did not have much advantage, with their 6-inch guns (actually 155 mm caliber. 6 inches is 152 mm) is not stronger than the 155 mm guns on the destroyers of the Don Army, at most it is flat, that is, it is only numerically superior. And the real decisive role was played by the 8oo mm guns on the heavy cruisers, which could easily take out the American light cruisers and destroyers at a distance of 12 nautical miles, while the 6-inch shells could not hit so far!

Thankfully, the American battleships were dealing with the "Fury" and the other five Tang battleships in the transfer, not the eight heavy cruisers. Similarly, the five battleships of the Tang Army were also firing frantically at the American battleships, throwing the task of intercepting the American destroyers to the other battleships. Only the secondary guns of the "Fury" were struggling to intercept the American destroyers that had already approached.

At 4:45 a.m., the U.S. fleet made a left turn to close the distance by two nautical miles. By this time, the five battleships of the Third Task Force had taken advantage of the front and were already concentrating their firepower on the "Maryland", which was running in the front. Kimmel also knew that it was unlikely that he would get closer again unless the Maryland was sacrificed. And this time, he can only fight six to five, and the "Maryland" is still one of the two strongest battleships! In desperation, Kimmel could only order the fleet to stop advancing and restore the battle line.

During the five minutes that the US battleships resumed the battle line, the "Maryland" became the key target of the five Tang battleships. In three volleys, the "Maryland" received at least eight huge shells. Deadly eight giant bombs. Three of them hit two turrets in front of the "Maryland" and destroyed half of the ship's main guns. Two more hit the bridge and destroyed the command center of the battleship. And when the "Maryland" turned (the first to start turning) and was about to aim its side at the Tang fleet, its port side was hit three times in 20 seconds, and the last huge bullet hit the base of the C turret, blowing up the entire turret out!

Although the "Maryland" has not yet sunk. But it's basically not much different from sinking. The last D turret (the ship is four twin 4O6 guns) was seriously affected, and it could only turn 75 degrees to the left, that is, it could not deal with the "Guangzhou", and could barely aim at the "Dignity" at the end of the Tang fleet, and the shelling distance at this time was not 12 nautical miles, but 14 nautical miles!

At this point, the two sides really became six to five, and the order of engagement changed again. "Canton" against "West Virginia". The "Kunming" dealt with the "Nevada," the "Guiyang" against the "Pennsylvania," the "Chengdu" against the "Arizona," and the "Dignity," which ended up, had to deal with both the "California" and the "Tennessee." In fact, this belligerent order has already determined the victory or defeat of both sides. Except for the "West Virginia", which still has the ability to fight with the "Canton", and the "California" and "Tennessee" have an overwhelming advantage over the "Dignity", the other three American battleships are by no means the opponents of the three cutting-edge "New Provincial Capital"-class battleships!

Just after five o'clock, the violent explosion on the "Maryland" lit up almost the entire sea area. The ship, which had been hit by several huge battleships only a few minutes earlier, was completely destroyed. Although the ship's damage management personnel did their best to repair the wounds, they did not stop the fire from spreading. And the most fatal thing was that because the captain of the ship, as well as the officers of the staff of the battleship, were all killed, no one gave the order to close the main ammunition depot of the D turret. And to fill the ammunition depot with water (this will lead to the fact that the D turret will also lose its combat effectiveness. And at that time the D turret was still firing at the "Dignity") The fire that ignited in the compartments of several floors below the C turret quickly burned to the main ammunition depot under the D turret. The explosion of the ammunition depot, followed by a violent explosion in the engine room, ultimately killed the ship. After the explosion, the "Maryland" struggled for more than 10 minutes. It sank at 5:18 p.m.

Before the sinking of the "Maryland", the "Nevada", which had already suffered heavy damage, was basically finished. And it was the "Kunming" that solved the "Nevada". At a distance of 12 nautical miles, although the US army's huge projectiles had a 30 percent chance of penetrating the main armor of the "Xinshenghui" class, the 4oo-millimeter armor-piercing projectiles fired by the "Xinshenghui" class were 100 percent sure of penetrating the main armor of the "Nevada," and the hit rate of the shelling was greatly improved.

After only eight rounds of shelling, the "Nevada" tasted the might of the new battleships of the Empire. Seven out of 72 huge shells hit (nearly a 10% hit rate, which is quite high in an artillery battle) and four of them hit the vital point. The counterattack of the "Nevada" hit only three shells of the "Kunming", and only one shell penetrated the main armor and was in the apostle of the "Kunming". A large hole was left in the place where one-third of the bow captain was left, causing the "Kunming" to enter the water for several hundred tons in a short time, and killed dozens of officers and men nearby, wounding more than 100 people (many of them were shocked), and the "Nevada" withdrew from the battle at 5:20 a.m., at this time the battleship had been seriously tilted to the left (the left compartment was seriously flooded), and the battleship could only maintain 12 knots, and the left tilt was still intensifying. The "Kunming" also had a hard time, and the huge hole was just behind the ammunition depot of the B turret, in order to avoid the detonation of the ammunition depot. The captain had already ordered the ammunition depot to be filled with water, and the B turret was incapacitated. And in order to level the battleship, the battleship also filled the left side with water at the same time, which made the water intake of the battleship reach 12oo tons, and it continues to increase! But the "Kunming" did not withdraw from the battle, and after "sending away" the "Nevada", it aimed its guns at the "West Virginia" and assisted the flagship in taking out the opponent.

The "Nevada" was followed by the "Arizona", and the "Chengdu" was the opponent. "Chengdu" can be said to be extremely lucky. None of the first three salvos hit the "Arizona" (at this time, the subjective sighting equipment of the "Chengdu" had already been destroyed, and the spare sighting equipment was used), and as a result, in the fourth salvo (the fire was fired at 8 o'clock after 5 o'clock), it actually hit the bridge of the commander of the "Arizona" and killed all the dozens of generals and officers inside. And at the time of the fifth salvo (5:11), an armor-piercing shell hit the belly of the "Arizona", but this shell did not explode! In the sixth salvo (5.14 minutes), it hit the engine room of the "Arizona" again, and this shell not only exploded, but also detonated the shell that did not explode at first (the fuse of the first shell was mostly dislocated when it penetrated the main armor belt, and the shock wave of the second shell shook the fuse back and then exploded). It can be said that the luck of the "Chengdu" is good home, and such a thing will not even have a 1 in 10,000 chance in an artillery battle!

When the "Arizona" began to turn and prepare to retreat. Kimmel was almost desperate, and in less than half an hour of artillery battle, two battleships were defeated, and at this time, the "West Virginia" faced two opposing battleships, which can be said to be more than lucky. The flagship "Pennsylvania" also completely lost the upper hand, the "California" was already facing the battleship that had routed the "Arizona", and the "Tennessee" barely reached a tie with the last battleship of the Don Army.

Six to five has become four to five. The American battleships no longer have a quantitative advantage, and the qualitative gap is even more obvious. Perhaps, the wisest choice at this time is to escape, but how? The Don fleet is in the south, and if the "Z fleet" wants to escape, it can only go south, not north! If you want to escape, you have to look at the degree, the degree of the remaining battleships will not be able to pass the Tang fleet at all, and the degree of the two wounded battleships has fallen to about ten knots, should you leave them?

The advantage had been lost, and despair soon rose to the top of Kimmel's mind. The Don fleet has already won by quality, or is about to win!