The searchlight of the US ship bloomed with a dazzling glare in the darkness, and in the shooting command room on the upper bridge of the "Luger", Major Sebastian, an experienced shooting commander, quickly took out sunglasses from his jacket pocket and put them on, then measured the direction of the target with the mechanical rangefinder in front of him, and then issued a firing command: "The horizontal firing angle is 015 degrees 30 minutes, the elevation angle is 5 degrees 30 minutes, and the front main gun fires a salvo!" ”

Previously, under the guidance of radar detection data, the guns on the ship had been preset to shoot the elements, and the gunners only needed to fine-tune the firing angle. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoAt this time, the guns of the American ships came like a storm, and two shells hit the "Ruger" in the first round of shooting. Fortunately, the one shot that hit the bridge was bounced off by the protective armor, and the one that hit the foredeck and exploded did not damage the front main gun turret and main gun, and the forward main gun of the "Ruger" was adjusted as scheduled. Major Sebastian completed the calibration as quickly as possible, and then fired the four forward guns directly through the fire control system.

At a distance of 2,200 meters from the "Honolulu," the first round of artillery fire fired by the Irish heavy patrol was quite accurate, with two shells landing on the starboard side of the US ship, no more than twenty or thirty meters from the ship's side, and two more crossed the deck and fell on the other side of the battleship over the bridge and chimney.

Seeing this, Major Sebattisian immediately made a decision and directly fired a second round of artillery fire without making any adjustments, and this round of artillery fire actually hit 50%! In the blink of an eye, the bridge and the wall of the amidship of the US ship burst into flames of explosion, and the blow that hit the bridge was quite fatal, and the four officers and four sergeants in the battle bridge were killed on the spot, although this light cruiser had a reserve command room on the rear bridge, but no one expected such a bad situation at the beginning of the battle, so the "Honolulu" temporarily fell into a state of no command.

Of course, the previous main gun fire alone could not bring out the full combat power of the battleship, and the "Ruger" soon began to turn to the left, and when the front main gun fired a third round of artillery fire, the rear main gun began to join the battle. Immediately afterwards, Captain Farrell ordered a torpedo attack, and six 533-mm torpedoes burst out of the launch tube on the starboard rear side, and after a few moments, six parallel torpedo trails appeared on the surface of the sea. Although some crew members of the "Honolulu" discovered the incoming torpedo attack and alerted the reserve command room through the ship's communication line, it was too late, and the US ship hastily evaded it, and finally suffered a torpedo, and the powerful T-4 torpedo blew up half of the bow of the American light cruiser into the sky. As the sea water poured into the ship's holds, the speed of the battleship slowed down suddenly, the deck tilted rapidly, and the guns on the ship were still firing vigorously, but they had lost their original sharpness, and the increasingly chaotic artillery fire could hardly pose a real threat to the Irish heavy cruisers.

At this moment, the two ships were only separated by more than 900 meters, and the former was like a knight who won a duel, looking at the defeated with a cold and arrogant gaze, although there was a little pity in his heart, the sword in his hand still fell mercilessly...... After two volleys, the US ship accelerated its sinking in a violent explosion, and the survivors on board jumped into the water one after another, and the hand-to-hand combat between the two warships lasted less than five minutes from the time the "Honolulu" fired first. The one-on-one battle once again presented a one-sided situation, but the Americans did not expect that their own cruiser would be knocked out by the opponent with a single blow when the output efficiency and shooting position were superior. Because of this, on another American cruiser, the USS Nashville, the officers were still expecting to flank their opponents with friendly ships, and the flashing explosive flames on the sea were believed to be the "Honolululu" smashing the opponent with a torrential fire, and by the time they realized that the situation was not good, the Irish heavy cruiser had readjusted its posture and met the second opponent with full confidence.

At a distance of 2,000 meters from the enemy, the Irish returned the favor by turning on all the searchlights on the ship, pointing out the direction of the target for their own guns, and by the way, they interfered with the opponent's observation with strong light. Relying on a high-precision stereo rangefinder, an improved unified command system for the whole ship, and a well-trained crew, the "Luger" completed the observation and aiming correction at the fastest speed, and then directly fired the first salvo of all the main guns, and all the shells were scattered around the US ship "Nashville," and the splash of water glowed with snow-white and crystal luster under the light of the searchlight.

The Brooklyn-class, equipped with five triple main turrets, could only fire at frontal targets with six main guns, and when it found that the enemy ship was fully committed to itself, the American ship hurriedly turned around, and the three main turrets on the foredeck also rotated.

Before the "Nashville" returned fire, the Irish heavy cruiser fired a second salvo very quickly, but this time it did not have the previous explosive luck, and the shells were still scattered around the US ship, and the closest impact point to the side of the ship was also five meters away.

According to common sense, the target has changed course significantly, and the attacker needs to re-observe and estimate the advance to obtain new artillery fire parameters, which takes a lot of time, so in a close-range battle, experienced shooting commanders often choose to "follow the feeling", that is, use intuitive judgment rather than observation data to adjust the shooting elements of the naval gun. The halt in the artillery fire after the second salvo of the "Ruger" lasted less than half a minute, and at this time the US ship had already turned sideways, and the hull was close to parallel to the "Luger", and the distance between the two was about 1,600 meters, and each other's naval guns were pointed at each other majestically, but the effect of the shelling could not be determined until after the shells fell.

The sound of artillery was like a war drum, rumbling on the sea, and when the eight 203-mm guns of the "Luger" opened fire, the "Nashville" on the opposite side also appeared with flickering cannon flames. The smoke of gunfire cleared, and the shells fired by both sides whizzed across the sea, stirring up waves of water.

All of the 15 shells fired by the US ships were close, and two of them landed close to the port side of the "Ruger," and all the shells of the Irish heavy cruisers hit far away, and some of the shells hit several dozen meters from the "Nashville." At first glance, it seems that the firing accuracy of the two ships is far apart; in fact, two shells of the "Luger" hit the deck building of the US ship, and they passed through the chimney and the rear bridge observation platform respectively, and finally fell into the sea and exploded.

Ideally, the Brooklyn class would be fired at 7 volleys apart. 5 seconds, compared to 12 seconds for the "Ruger", the main gun armor-piercing shells of the Irish heavy cruisers are very threatening, and the 152 mm caliber armor-piercing shells of the Brooklyn class can also penetrate most parts of the "Luger" at close range - the reason why the commander of the "Honolulu" engaged the enemy ship head-on before the friendly ship approached, the efficiency of the attack must be the key reliance, the same reason applies to the commander of the "Nashville", and the American ship continued to turn after firing, for no other reason, the crew had already discovered by this time" The "Honolulu" is sinking, and not only have they lost their flanking momentum, but they are also facing an opponent who is more powerful than expected, and it is only sensible to avoid the enemy's edge.

Regardless of whether the enemy ships were tactically evasive or strategically retreating, the situation on the battlefield had changed, and Colonel Farrell did not hesitate to lead the "Ruger" in full pursuit. As a result, in this chase that lasted more than half an hour, the Irish heavy patrol spent 84 rounds of main artillery shells and hit 1 round, and the American light patrol fired 186 rounds and hit 3 rounds, with little difference in efficiency, and the key point was that no one caused fatal injuries to the opponent.

After damaging the enemy ships and driving them away from the area where the convoy was located, von Heinke and Farrell felt that they should take the initiative to end the battle and return to the convoy as soon as possible in case of accidents, but they were surprised by a new situation detected by the ship's radar: another enemy fleet of unknown size had been spotted in the northwest!

Before the clean sinking of a US ship, the morale of the whole ship of the "Ruger" was greatly boosted, and the crew was not afraid of fighting, but the issue that the commanders needed to consider was not only morale. The fact that this night was followed by enemy submarines, then by enemy light cruisers, and now by a second surface fleet, and the short interval between the front and rear shows that this was no accident. Since the enemy has set its sights on this convoy, the previous attack is probably only for the purpose of finding out the truth of the escort force, and the real means are still to come. On the other hand, on the side of the escort fleet, the light cruiser "Herta" was seriously injured and could not provide effective escort support for the fleet, and the remaining few destroyers and minesweepers were acceptable for anti-submarine warfare, and if they ran into the enemy's large warships, they would not play a role at all.

Fearing this, Rear Admiral von Heinke sent a telegram for help in a hurry, in which he reported that if he was unable to stop the enemy's attack, he would disband the regiment and let his ships flee for their lives.

The situation was urgent, and the Allied Fleet Command and the German Naval Staff soon sent a telegram back, making it clear that the convoy should continue to retreat in the direction of Europe. Neither telegram mentioned reinforcements, but surprisingly unanimously ordered him not to band the regiment unless he was compelled to do so, and there seemed to be some hint between the lines, but Rear Admiral von Heinke had no idea of the whereabouts of his support fleet, and only hoped that he would not fall victim to luring the enemy.

After discovering the enemy fleet, the "Ruger" turned east and reduced its speed accordingly in order to continue to monitor the enemy's tracks, and the newly discovered enemy fleet was about 22 knots, and if it had maintained this speed, it would only be possible to catch up with the Allied convoy codenamed "Frederick Caesar" at dawn, which made von Heinke very anxious, but it was not long before the situation suddenly changed - radar found a fleet in the northeast sea. If this is an enemy fleet, the escort fleet will inevitably be wiped out under attack from both sides, but if it is your own fleet, the situation is completely different.

Not long after, the "Ruger" received a coded telegram signed by the S fleet on its communication frequency, asking for a report on the previous battle, but Rear Admiral von Heinke did not know what was going on, so he cautiously recounted the battle in the reply, and did not mention the actual situation of the escort fleet.

(End of chapter)