Beat!

This is a unanimous decision made by Yan Shiqi and Kincaid within five minutes, resolutely fight to the end, and must not easily retreat.

When Yan Shiqi made this decision, he did not forget to report the battle situation to Yan Guozhong again, and asked the shore-based bombers and fighters of the HNA to rush over before dawn to help the Third Task Force take out the Third Task Force of the US Army and provide air defense cover.

Yan Shiqi's idea was very straightforward, the third task force only had four battleships, and now two battleships of the other side had been killed, and the third battleship of the other side ("Indiana") was also dying. Even if he can't take out the other three battleships in the artillery battle, as long as he can drag out the battle until dawn and let the shore-based bombers of the HNA deal deal with the enemy's warships, then the result of the total annihilation of the third task force will be to take out the opponent's six battleships, which is still a victory, and a huge victory. Of course, at this point, Yan Shiqi also has more certainty. The "Chengdu" is almost finished, but he still has three battleships to fight, and the situation will not be much worse than that of the opponent, now it will be up to who can hold out to the end. If he can force Kincaid to retreat, then he can take advantage of the fleet's advantage and the destroyers that remain in the rear and have not yet come in handy to finish Kincaid, and victory will be his.

After making this decision, Yan Shiqi did not let the "Chengdu" out of the formation, but readjusted the deployment on the battle line. The "Guangzhou" continued to deal with the "South Dakota", the "Kunming" turned to the "Massachusetts", and the "Guiyang" and "Chengdu" concentrated their efforts on taking out the "Alabama". According to Yan Shiqi's idea, the collapse of the "Indiana" would create a fatal hole in Kincaid's battle line, and from here on, Task Force 3 would be victorious.

Kincaid's reason for making the decision is also very simple, if he escapes, he will not be able to compare to his opponent in degree, and the opponent has more destroyers. If he chooses to retreat. It is necessary to sacrifice the cruiser and let the cruiser intercept the opposing destroyer. In addition, the convoy has already rushed over, if he chooses to retreat at this time, then he will not be able to cover the convoy to reach Kuah Island, and as long as the fleet of the Tang Empire is delayed, then the convoy will be able to reach Kuah Island. After dawn, as soon as the bombers arrived with fighters. Then he doesn't need to continue fighting, and if he withdraws at that time, he can ensure that most of the escort battleships will retire safely, and maybe he can keep a few battleships.

Of course, Kincaid did not forget to send a telegram back to MacArthur, asking MacArthur to arrange the bombers and covering fighters as soon as possible. At the same time, contact the transport fleet in the rear, let them take advantage of the chaos to rush to Kuah Island and send supplies to Kuah Island as soon as possible, while the other warships that did not participate in the battle for the time being all rushed to escort the transport fleet.

Kincaid is not as harsh as Yan Shiqi. After learning that the three main turrets on the "Indiana" were destroyed. And after the battleship had been heavily tilted to the right and completely incapacitated, Kincaid pulled the battleship out of the battle sequence. Return to the anchorage at Indispenseb Reef alone for emergency repairs, and then wait for the fleet to return together.

After withdrawing the "Indiana," Kincaid also adjusted the sequence of operations on the battle line, with the "South Dakota" continuing to deal with the "Guangzhou," the "Massachusetts" turning to the "Kunming," and the "Alabama" going all out to deal with the "Guizhou," temporarily abandoning the "Chengdu" at the end of the opposing formation.

These orders were given while the artillery battle was underway, so the artillery battle did not stop because of this. At this point, both sides are desperate, but who can have the last laugh. It's hard to know for sure.

At this time, there were still five main guns in two turrets on the "Canton" that could continue to fight (the No. 2 main gun in turret B failed, and in order not to affect the firing of the other two main guns, the gunner did not repair this main gun for the time being). There are also six main guns in the two main turrets on the "Kunming" that can be used. There are also six main guns in two turrets on the "Guiyang" that can be used. "Chengdu"

Although there are still three main guns in the C turret that can be used, the accuracy rate is so low that there is no need to have any hope.

On the opposite side, the "South Dakota" upper C turret continued to fight, and all three main guns were able to be used. All nine of the three main guns in the three main turrets of the "Massachusetts" continued to fight.

Six main guns in the two main turrets of the "Alabama" can be used.

Judging from the comparison of the number of main guns that can be fought by the two sides, Yan Shiqi has an advantage, he has 2o main guns to use, while Kincaid only has 18 main guns to use. But actually.

There was no hope for the three main guns on the "Chengdu", so Kincaid actually had a slight advantage. But now the problem is that the aviation gasoline in the fuel depot of the seaplane "Alabama" is still burning, and this battleship is completely exposed to the night sky, making it an ideal target for the enemy's shelling, and the gunners on the "Chengdu" can even carry out blind shelling based on the fire on the opponent's battleship!

The battle has reached this point, and the two sides may have fought hard to be lucky. At this time, the distance between the battle lines of the two sides was only 5 nautical miles, although Yan Shiqi readjusted the route, but this distance was difficult to pull away, and the degree of the "Guangzhou" was also difficult to increase. And the distance of 5 nautical miles, for the warring sides, this is simply a fatal distance, 4o6 mm armor-piercing shells can tear through 5oo mm of armor steel plates at this distance, while Type 23 4o6 mm armor-piercing shells at this distance The ultimate armor-piercing thickness is 52o mm, and the thickness of any armor steel plate on both warships is less than 48o mm. In other words, the armor-piercing shells fired by both sides can penetrate almost 100% of the opponent's main armor belt, and as long as it hits one shell, it is very likely to be fatal. Now, it's up to you to see who hits the opponent's lethal position first!

Although the small-caliber shells did not pose any threat to the armor of the battleship, they were able to suppress the damage management personnel on the enemy battleship, so that the other side could not repair the wounds on the battleship, so as to control the repair work of the enemy ship.

Yan Shiqi is full of confidence, he has seen the victory, from the initial disadvantage to the current advantage, he has taken a big step, and now all that remains is how to firmly grasp the final victory in his hands. But Yan Shiqi forgot one thing, that is, on the other side of him, the "South Dakota" landed Kincaid was also full of confidence. Other than that. The "South Dakota" was not completely incapacitated, and the three giant guns still posed a great threat.

In fact, on the entire battle line, the "Kunming" was the most difficult to fight. The battleship had already lost one turret when it took out the Indiana, and now it was up against the Massachusetts, which had three turrets. That is, the "Kunming" had to meet the 9 main guns of the "Massachusetts" with 6 main guns.

The battle was fought until 5:52, when the "Indiana" had just left the battlefield.

The bad luck of the "Kunming" came. A ground shell fired from the B turret of the "Massachusetts" accurately hit the bridge of the commander of the "Kunming", together with the destruction of the main sight above. Dozens of officers and men on the bridge were all killed. In addition, the two turrets on the battleship that were still in operation lost their unified command and could only rely on their respective secondary sights to continue the operation. Although the distance of 5 nautical miles is not far, and the secondary sight can still indicate the target for the giant gun, it is difficult for the battleship to form an effective salvo, and it is even more difficult to accurately hit the enemy with the shell.

In the ensuing twenty-minute artillery battle, although the "Kunming" fought back. Hit the opponent four shells. However, in ten rounds of salvo fire, the "Massachusetts" hit a total of 12 shells of the "Kunming", with a hit rate of nearly one and a half percent. Among the 12 shells. Two destroyed "Kunming"

No. C turret. The other hit hit the part below the waterline of the "Kunming" ship. Destroyed the ship's upper left steering gear and the left side of the propeller shaft. In addition, three shells "patronized" the superstructure in the middle of the battleship, and the other six shells all hit the battleship below the waterline in the amidships. The battleship lost three-quarters of its power, the left half of the compartment was flooded, and the battleship was flooded to 35oo tons in two minutes, and it was no longer possible to maintain the original degree. The counterattack of the "Kunming" only knocked out the ground A turret of the "Massachusetts" and the navigation bridge under the bridge of the battleship commander. and the center of operations was destroyed.

By 6:20 a.m., the "Kunming" had tilted eighteen degrees to the left, and the chief engineer in charge had to order a third of the starboard compartment to be filled with water in order to level the battleship. Because the communications center on the battleship was also destroyed, the "Kunming" withdrew from the battle without informing the flagship.

At the tail of the formation of the two sides, the encounter of the "Alabama" was similar to that of the "Kunming".

Twelve salvos of the "Guiyang". Of the 66 shells, 8 hit the "Alabama", three of them eliminated the two remaining turrets on the "Alabama", and the other five shells all hit the battleship below the waterline. The C turret of the "Chengdu" also fired 11 volleys. Only one of the 33 shells hit, and this one hit directly at the "Alabama"

on the bridge of the commander's ship. This luck is also a little too good.

Before the "Alabama" withdrew from the battle, a salvo was fired, two of which hit the bow of the "Guiyang", and the landing point of one shell was less than 1 minute away from the turret A, and the shock wave of the explosion shattered the rotation mechanism of the turret A, so that the turret was stuck in a position of 85 degrees to the left. Another shell concentrated in the port side engine room of the "Guiyang". As a result, the battleship lost a quarter of its power, and at the same time more than 5oo tons of water were flooded. In addition, another shell flew to the "Chengdu" by mistake and hit the power compartment behind the No. 2 chimney of the "Chengdu", as a result, the rotation and pitch of the C turret were reduced by half.

At the front end of the battle line, the "Guangzhou" commanded by Yan Shiqi had a certain advantage in the artillery battle with the "South Dakota", and almost pressed the opponent to fight. All five main guns were aimed at the last turret in the tail of the "South Dakota", and at 5:58 a.m., a huge projectile fired from the "Canton" turret accurately hit the "South Dakota" C turret, causing the battleship to lose its last counterattack power. But before that, "South Dakota"

Of the three shells fired in the last salvo, two of them hit "Guangzhou"

One of them hit the moving turret of the "Guangzhou", and the other hit under the bridge of the commander of the "Guangzhou", Yan Shiqi and Gu Zhenyun both fell in a pool of blood, and the commander of the warship on the seafaring bridge below (in fact, on the warships of other countries, the seafaring bridge is above the commander's bridge) were all killed.

At this time, Kincaid only had six main guns on the "Massachusetts" left in his hands to fight, and the third task force still had three main guns on the "Guangzhou", "Guiyang", and "Chengdu" to fight. And the distance between the two sides has been reduced to 4 nautical miles. At this distance, a good gunner can accurately shoot shells without almost any sighting equipment. Kincaid has no choice. If he continues to fight, he will definitely lose, his opponent already has an advantage in the number of battleships, and his only option is to retreat.

At 6:23 a.m., when it was slightly brightened, Kincaid gave the order to retreat. Almost at the same time, the captain of the "Guiyang" also received a telegram from Yan Guozhong that the bombers and fighters were already on their way, and asked them to withdraw from the battlefield immediately so as not to be accidentally injured by their own bombers. With Yan Shiqi's life and death uncertain, the captain of the "Guiyang" took over the command of the fleet and immediately ordered the fleet to withdraw from the battle.

This fierce night naval battle lasted nearly six hours, and both sides were exhausted, and many of the gunners, knowing that the battle was over, were immediately paralyzed in their posts, and their physical strength was severely overdrawn. Both sides of the war fought their last strength, but the result was still a defeat for both sides.

The battle did not end there, it was only the end of the night battle, and the day battle had just begun. It's just that in the daytime battle, it is no longer these sea giants who sing the leading role, but the aircraft carriers who are waiting for their chances, and the bombers and fighters who are about to rush to the battlefield!