In the waters of São Miguel Island, with the reunited capital ships of the American and British fleets, the Allied fleet fell into the dilemma of fighting with 10 capital ships against 20 enemy capital ships, and Admiral Beinke and his subordinates seemed to have no way out except to rely on the island of San Miguel to fight a last battle. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Seeing the huge enemy capital ship group assembled in the sea east of San Miguel, with the strongest North Carolina class and Great Britain class sitting in the center, the less powerful Colorado class and Queen Elizabeth class on the right flank front, the powerful Lexington-class and Admiral-class arranging on the left flank front, and the dense light ships guarding their positions, any Allied soldier would feel deeply worried about the fate of his fleet.

After drinking the second cup of bitter black coffee, Admiral Beinke seemed to have a new understanding, and he issued a series of battle orders with a posture of being a bamboo in his chest. His fleet began to slowly retreat, and the commander of the American and British fleet, Admiral Shandley, who was observing the battlefield from the temporary flagship, soon found that the German battleships were leaving his sight one by one, and were hiding behind the island of San Miguel shyly.

The North Carolina-class and South Dakota-class battleships in the U.S. and British fleets had high speeds of 28 and 27 knots respectively, and the Lexington and Admiral-class battlecruisers were even more proficient in the race. In front of the large warships of 30,000 or 40,000 tons, those flying machines are as small as toys, but the bombs and torpedoes they drop pose a deadly threat to the giant ships at sea. Since the beginning of the Battle of the Azores, the U.S. and British fleets have lost 91 ships of various types, more than two-thirds of which are due to the enemy's air force, and only 3 of the 14 capital ships that have been sunk or seriously damaged are the result of Allied warships.

With the completion of the adjustment of the position of the US and British fleets, the main warships once again bombarded the Allied fleet with intensive and heavy artillery fire. Although the distance between the two sides was still more than 25 kilometers, this time the ships under the command of Standley were very accurate, and the two Bavaria-class battleships that were dragged behind were quickly surrounded by a column of water, and according to this trend, it would not be long before they could be severely damaged, but after a while, their silhouettes were getting closer and closer to the coast, and the main guns of the "Indiana" stopped firing, and then several battleships around them were silent.

Standing on the bridge watching the battle, Standley stared at a pair of bloodshot eyes, he looked around, although he did not say a word, but the momentum of not being angry and arrogant made his subordinates nervous. After a while, Admiral Yanel, commander of the battlefleet on the Indiana, stepped forward and explained: "The target is out of sight, and we cannot aim at it. If the shelling continues, you must either shift your position or send an aircraft to observe, there is no other way. ”

American and British warships of the cruiser class and above could carry and catapult seaplanes, but after many battles, the improvised aviation facilities and aviation equipment of many battleships were destroyed, and this was not the worst. At present, the land-based air units of the United States and Britain on Texel Island are still struggling to protect themselves, and they are simply unable to spare their hands to support naval operations, and the little energy left by the three American and British aircraft carriers is all used to attack the aircraft carriers of the Central Powers, and in the waters of San Miguel, the air supremacy on the battlefield is firmly in the hands of the Allied forces. The seaplanes carried by ordinary warships only have reconnaissance capabilities, and when they encounter enemy fighters, they can only flee for their lives.

Just as people expected, the two carrier-based reconnaissance planes that had taken off from the US and British fleets had just taken off, and the German planes that had taken off from the western part of the island of San Miguel pounced on them with ferocity, and the two seaplanes immediately fled in panic like mice seeing cats, and finally escaped from the enemy planes by relying on the protection of the fleet's anti-aircraft fire.

Aerial reconnaissance was not the only reconnaissance method that the US and British fleets could choose, and seeing that they could not succeed, the commander immediately dispatched two US destroyers to kill them from the front of the formation. They bypassed the minefields in the southern part of São Miguel Island from afar, reconnoitred the movements of the Allied fleet with the help of optical instruments, and then fed back their observations to their capital ships, the Allied fleet, which was sailing north in formation and maintaining a distance of about five kilometres from the coastline of São Miguel.

On the bridge of the USS Indiana, Standley said to General Yanel, who had worked with him for many years: "If I were the enemy commander, I would definitely not retreat at this time, let alone have no way out." ”

Yanel stared into the distance: "I agree with your judgment. In fact, my gut tells me that the enemy is definitely using the island of São Miguel to do something. ”

As he was pondering, Standley suddenly heard a thunderous roar in the distance, followed by several huge columns of water rising near the two destroyers sent to reconnoiter the enemy. So, he speculated, "Do you mean ...... The enemy is going to use São Miguel Island as a barrier and attack blindfolded us! ”

São Miguel Island is a strip-shaped island that is long from east to west and narrow from north to south, and judging from the nautical charts, it is like a simple individual bunker, and the Allied fleet can hide on the other side of the island and launch leapfrog shots at the American and British fleets, and the German troops on the island are their eyes; if the reconnaissance of seaplanes and light ships cannot be effective, the American and British fleets are like blindfolded, and they can only be passively beaten.

Before Admiral Yanel could speak, the rumbling of cannon was heard again, and although it was far less than the volley of battleship fire, it meant a terrible storm for the two American destroyers who had left the fleet. In the blink of an eye, large and small columns of water rose around them, and the drifting mist enveloped them.

Holding up the binoculars and observing them for a moment, Yanel deduced, "At least two capital ships are shooting at them!" ”

Standley frowned: "The more this is the case, the more it shows that the enemy's current intention is not to escape." They may be trying to use the island of San Miguel as a cover to continue the battle with us, or maybe there is another possibility - drag us here, let the bombers drain our strength, and when we are exhausted, rush out and clean us up. ”

Yanel agreed, and suggested: "Those two destroyers will certainly not last long, should we send Vice Admiral Hart's cruiser up and bite the enemy's tail tightly, and the battlefleet will move at full speed to bring the main forces of the enemy fleet back into our sight." ”

"If the enemy is bent on following us around the island of San Miguel, it will be difficult to catch up, but we can divide our forces into two ways to intercept it, and then form a flanking attack," Standley said. What do you think? ”

In such a large-scale naval battle, the factors affecting the course of the battle were numerous and complicated, and since Standley, as the commander-in-chief of the coalition fleet, had solemnly consulted his own opinion, Yanel had to consider it carefully, but the situation on the battlefield was changing rapidly, and the situation of the two American destroyers who had gone out to reconnoiter was already in a precarious situation. So, he said with an embarrassed face: "You make a decision!" ”

Making such an important decision based solely on subjective judgment made Standley obviously hesitated a little. At this moment, the Outpost destroyers sent back a report that they had shelled an enemy battlecruiser and a heavy cruiser, which was basically in line with Yanel's judgment just now.

Standley hurriedly instructed the adjutant: "Order Hart to immediately lead the 1st Battle Patrol Detachment to come forward and suppress the enemy rearguard ships!" ”

Thomas Hart was a brave and combative commander of the U.S. Navy, who was the commander of the Allied fleet's cruiser, commanding six powerful Lexington-class battlecruisers and nominally commanding the British Navy's battlecruiser detachment. Before the outbreak of the Battle of San Miguel Island, four British battle cruisers were sunk and one wounded, and two Lexington-class escorted the heavily damaged aircraft carriers back to North America, and the strength of Hart's cruiser fleet was greatly weakened, and in the first half of this naval battle, the Lexington-class battle cruiser "Constellation" was unfortunately sunk in an air raid by enemy aircraft, and the British battle cruiser "Anson" was moderately damaged, so far the United States and Britain battle cruisers that could be put into battle were four and a half, that is, the American ships "Lexington", "Saragato", and "Constitution", the British ship "Howe", and the wounded "Anson".

Receiving the battle order from the flagship, Hart did not hesitate to lead the four ships "Lexington", "Saragato", "Constitution" and the light and heavy cruisers to speed westward. In front of this cruiser detachment, two American destroyers attacked by enemy ships were maneuvering at speeds close to 30 knots to avoid enemy fire. The enemy warships that bullied the small ones seemed to be not just trying to get rid of the two pesky stalkers, they were venting their anger - despite the distance between the two sides, the artillery fire from the direction of San Miguel Island was so dense and fierce that it did not take long to severely damage one of the American destroyers, and its speed was slowed down by its injuries, and then it was destroyed, and the furious fire easily tore it apart like a fist smashed into a matchbox.

The other American destroyer was a little more fortunate than its doomed companions, and it was caught up in the Hart fleet to relieve the siege. As the figures of the three Lexington-class battlecruisers entered the firing range of the enemy battleships, the artillery fire quickly shifted direction, and huge columns of water began to appear around these white-gray battleships.

Equipped with an 18-inch main gun, the Lexington-class has incomparable firepower, but after all, they are "strategic deterrence weapons" built in the mid-to-early 20s, and the advantages of armament and power are not enough to cover up their protective weaknesses.

Lieutenant General Hart was about to take this opportunity to take advantage of the enemy's flag, but the situation in front of him changed drastically with the appearance of two phantoms - the other two Mackenson-class ships appeared out of thin air near the previous Mackenson-class as if they had come out of the sea. The two cruiser fleets were separated by nearly 20 kilometers at this time, which was not conducive to the use of heavy cruiser guns, and the real battle would be between the three Mackensen-class and the three Lexington-class.

(End of chapter)