"Enemy ship No. 1 is at 036 at azimuth and 13100 at a distance; The second enemy ship is at 033 in azimuth and 13600 at a distance; Enemy ship No. 3 azimuth 032, distance 14400; The fourth enemy ship is at 030 in azimuth and 15000 in distance. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info"

The atmosphere on the American battleship became more and more solemn, no one was seen moving on the deck, and the sailors in full gear on the open-air gun positions were all waiting for them, especially on the starboard side of the battleship, the officers held binoculars and couldn't stop looking at the sea in the distance, and the heavy expressions on their faces made the ordinary sailors extremely nervous.

The same was true of the sailors on the battleships, and on freighters, which were at best lightly armed and had negligible defenses, the crews had apparently put their lives on the roster of no control over them, allowing the hop of fate to leap from one grid to another, and no one knew which one would end up in it—life or death.

A short time later, the two leading Allied warships opened fire again. On the heavy rain on the sea, the red yellow firelight accompanied by clouds of black smoke suddenly appeared on the starboard side of the dark gray battle line. The time left for the American and British officers and soldiers to prepare was very short, and only a dozen seconds later, the terrible shells whistled in, and the deafening explosion instantly hit people's eardrums. Several shells landed near the port side of the "Wyoming", others on the starboard side, and the American officers standing in the command room were immediately shocked: the first salvo after the enemy reopened fire turned out to form a straddle fire!

In this era before missiles, the most important factor in fleet artillery warfare in addition to the power of artillery shells was the accuracy of shooting, because the distance between the ships on both sides was relatively long, coupled with the influence of wind and waves on the stability of the hull, the difficulty of aiming naval guns was often much greater than that of land artillery battles. Combat ships in service are usually equipped with six or more main guns, and when they fire a salvo, the impact points of each shell do not overlap, but are relatively evenly dispersed over a certain area, which is called scattering. When the scattering area can cover all or most of the target ship, it means that the enemy ship is enveloped in your own firepower, which forms a straddle fire.

"Turn 10 degrees to the right and go full speed!"

Under Harold Stark's command, the clumsy elephant unleashed an earth-shattering roar as it swerved, trying to protect the weak flock of sheep around it through its own efforts. In the command room, protected by heavy armor, many officers turned to face the starboard front. Under their gaze, the shells fired by the "Wyoming" stirred up a high column of water in the distant sea with great inertia, and from some angles the German fleet seemed to be wiped out in an instant, but the crew in other positions was very painful, because they saw that their shells did not even touch the skin of the German warships - compared to the accurate shelling of the Germans, the performance of the main gunners of the battleship "Wyoming" was regrettable.

Just when people thought the battlefield was going to be one-sided, God stretched out his miraculous hand. Although the first shot of the two German Trenchers achieved excellent impact points, the shells were always close to the target. The massive American battleship struggled stubbornly between the waves and the water column, and its slow speed and presence in the middle of the fleet made it very clumsy in tactical maneuvers, but every time it returned fire, the Germans were still terrified.

When the guns of the US ships approached their own battleships, the "De Fllinger" issued the order to "move with us," and the two German battle cruisers sailing at high speed turned sharply to the right in unison with the routine of many exercises, and when the next wave of shells from the American battleships fell, they left the American shells far behind.

Bell bell bell ......

As the alarm bell sounded before the salvo of the main guns, William Marchar and his men stood quietly from the best vantage point on the "Derflinger", which was heavily armoured, and watched the waves of shells cross tens of thousands of meters to ravage the helpless American and British merchant ships - seemingly pitiful, but it was they who transported thousands of tons of war materials and thousands of combat troops to the Azores, so that the fierce and brutal struggle continued.

"The target is on fire!" This sentence popped out of several mouths almost at the same time, and William Marchar, who was standing in the front position, naturally saw the bright color of the sea in the distance for the first time. For the next few seconds, no one spoke in the command room, but when another burst of almost as bright light jumped on the distant sea, finally someone couldn't help but shout: "Great! Hit the target again! ”

With a single smoke, the two German battle cruisers fired several more salves at maximum speed, and the heavy explosions caused by the shells hitting the steel hull were constantly transformed into fireballs that lit up the night sky, and the reports from the firing observation room also confirmed that the target was hit by a bullet and caught fire, and its speed was significantly reduced, and the frequent turning evasion that had been done before was no longer there. The German officers on board were very excited about such a report, and optimism quickly spread, as if they had already seen the sinking of the "Wyoming" with their own eyes.

However, at 5 minutes, 10 minutes, until a quarter of an hour later, the orange flames fired from the guns of the American battleship could still be seen visually. The 12-inch naval guns on the "De Fllinger" still poured shells at it at a rate of fire three times in two minutes, and with the calibration of the firing elements and the slowing down of the opponent's speed, shells hit the opponent in almost every salvo, and the fire generated after the explosion continued to rise and extinguish.

"Our opponents are more tenacious than expected." In the command room of the "De Fllinger", William Martial did not mean to be depressed when he said this, on the contrary, there was a strange confidence in his calm eyes. After calmly examining the entire battlefield, he turned to Colonel Andreek: "Do you know how the Mongol cavalry defeated the heavy cavalry?" ”

The Colonel hesitated slightly, then replied with a high spirit, "I see, sir! ”

Marchar nodded, and then directed the fleet to adjust course and go to the rear of the American and British convoy at a high speed of more than 26 knots.

Time was the difference between life and death on the battlefield, and the German communications officer was able to relay orders from the bridge as quickly as possible, including the use of signal lights to convey them to the wingman. From the next round of shelling, the German fleet suddenly changed its aim, the front and rear main guns of the "De Fllinger" were clearly aimed at different targets, and the target of the "Lützov" was also transferred from the British battleships to those cargo ships. So in the next few minutes, the huge American and British flotilla continued to have ships hit, explosions one after another, the sea was full of smoke for a while, some cargo ships did not care about the flagship's orders and began to scatter and flee, the originally neat and orderly formation instantly became a mess, two American destroyers tried to go up to intercept, but were soon hit by the fierce artillery fire of the Allied fleet.

Seeing that the fleet was suddenly in a desperate situation, Stark finally couldn't stand still, and he hurriedly commanded the "Wyoming" to turn around and reduce the distance between it and the German fleet, and at the same time let the whole ship bombard the battlecruiser "De Fllinger", which was led by the opposing side, but when his shells approached the other side again, the German fleet suddenly turned around and headed in the opposite direction at high speed.

The rain became heavier and heavier, the vision became more and more blurred, and without warning, the artillery fire suddenly slipped from the high point to the bottom valley, and the speed had a great impact on people's eardrums and hearts. As the curtain fell, the four darkly painted Allied warships finally disappeared at the end of the ocean, and the catastrophe that the American and British sailors feared deeply passed by them, some of them rejoiced, while others had to lick their wounds in this terrible weather.

With a brief but piercing creak, the heavy steel door was opened, and the fresh, still bitter and sour sea breeze poured into the long-suppressed cabin. In the face of the still raging waves, General Stark's mood could not be calmed for a long time, and he walked slowly onto the open bridge, everything in his ears was so familiar, and if it had not been for what had happened before, these sounds would have calmed his mind, but now before his eyes was a scene that was not a disaster, but even more than a disaster—several cargo ships were damaged to varying degrees, and billowing black smoke was coming from their various shapes under the action of the sea breeze, and these smoke and dust were mixed in the raindrops, forming a large strange fog on the surface of the sea. The strange tactics of the Germans kept him at a loss, but he was most unsettled by that, as long as the Germans had enough courage and courage, they could arrange a battle cruiser to contain the "Wyoming" - the thick armor and careful construction of the German battleship would make it difficult for the old dreadnought to take advantage of it in a short time, and then the remaining three battleships could burst into the fleet and kill, and its first-class rate of fire and accuracy would become a nightmare for ordinary merchant ships.

Now, Stark has a whole bunch of tricky questions in front of him. On the one hand, several of the damaged ships seemed to be unable to continue on their own power, and the area was often infested with German submarines, and the four enemy warships could also take advantage of the bad weather to turn back. On the other hand, the treatment of the wounded had to be carried out quickly, and the specific statistics were not yet available, but the rich experience told Stark that the casualties in the fleet after such a battle were by no means a small number. While the Wyoming alone had many sailors wounded by shrapnel in unarmored positions such as anti-aircraft guns, the medical forces on the battleships were sufficient to provide them with the most timely treatment, but the situation on the merchant ships was probably not so rosy.

The staff officer quickly calculated the position of the fleet in conjunction with the situation of the supporting fleet, but without looking at these numbers, Stark had already imagined that the next night would be another test for the entire fleet.

As time went on, the most damaged freighter began to sink at an accelerated rate under the jolting of the waves, and the fire on a few ships looked like they were under control, but others were clearly out of reach. At this time, the transfer of personnel from the merchant ships that were about to capsize or be forced to abandon became the most important task of the escorting naval officers and crews. Watching the sailors and crews fighting with the waves while struggling to transfer their comrades on the ships that were about to be abandoned, especially some of the more seriously injured who could only be transferred by shaking stretchers, Stark's mood was very heavy, but it was said that a long life at sea could best exercise people's will and quality, Stark was obviously one of the beneficiaries, at this time he still firmly believed that he and his loyal comrades around him could get out of the crisis through hard work, and this belief was crucial for the entire fleet.

(End of chapter)