At that time, Task Force 32 had two destroyer formations, of which the 324th destroyer group, consisting of eight Benson-class destroyers, was commanded by Major Burke. In the other formation are six of the latest Fletcher-class destroyers.

Originally, Burke was supposed to get eight Fletcher-class destroyers, but because the ship's production was seriously insufficient, he could still only continue to command the eight Benson-class destroyers. And for Major Burke, it may not be how bad the performance of the destroyer was, but how good the torpedoes that were equipped on the destroyer at that time.

The "Benson" class destroyers were commissioned in 22, a year before the United States entered the war, with a full load displacement of 2ooo tons, initially equipped with five 127-mm guns, one was removed before the war, and only four remained, and all of them were equipped with turrets. In addition, the ship's main armament was a five-pack 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tube. Compared with the destroyers of the Tang Empire and Japan at that time, the torpedo armament of the "Benson" class was not strong, with only one torpedo tube, while the destroyers of the Tang Empire and Japan both had at least two torpedo tubes.

In fact, the design of the "Benson" class was not successful, so before the outbreak of war, the US Navy was ready to go all out to build better "Fletcher" class destroyers. But the problem is, "Fletcher"

The production of destroyers, which could not keep up with the needs of the war, had to restart the construction program of the Benson-class to meet the Navy's need for destroyers before the Fletcher-class destroyers reached mass production (during World War II, although the destroyer was not the most important warship, it was the most produced warship, and it was a veritable all-rounder at sea). It is also because of this that the construction of destroyers of the "Benson" class continued.

The eight Benson-class destroyers under the command of Major Burke were all refitted with one turret removed. In fact, the torpedo capabilities of the destroyer remained unstrengthened. To a greater extent, the "Benson" class is more suitable for escort operations than for fleet operations. At the beginning of the fleet shelling. Burke saw the battleship being beaten passively, and he waited for Kincaid's order to lead the destroyer charge and buy time for the battleship. The artillery battle lasted for nearly two hours, and Major Burke led his destroyer formation to stay outside the battlefield, at this time another destroyer formation was already cooperating with the cruiser against the cruiser of the Tang Empire, and he was still waiting for orders. Of course, Burke did not forget a little. That is to put torpedoes in the torpedo tubes on the destroyer, as long as he receives the order, he can immediately rush towards the enemy fleet and attack with torpedoes, which can at least pose a certain threat to the opponent, and maybe if he is lucky, he can also kill the opponent's battleship.

Kincaid ordered the order to arrive at 3:05, and Burke, without hesitation, immediately led eight "Benson"-class destroyers and rushed through the rear of the battleship "Alabama". Then there is a sharp turn. When the eight destroyers reached the left of the battleship formation, the formation turned again, and the eight destroyers were like eight beagles. He pounced on the four beasts on the opposite side.

Almost at the same time, the 32 destroyer squadron in the third task force also received the order, and the eight "City" class destroyers immediately pulled out of the queue and pounced on the battleships "North Carolina" and "Washington". The eight battleships of the "City" class did not attack alone, behind them, four "Trotto" class cruisers in the 33 cruiser formation were providing them with artillery support with 2oo mm heavy guns.

Yan Shiqi immediately noticed the actions of the American destroyers, and he also kept a hand for himself, that is, the 34 cruiser formation. Now that eight American destroyers were preparing for a torpedo attack, Yan Shiqi immediately ordered the 34 cruiser formation to intersperse and kill the American destroyers. Meantime. The 31 battleship formation sailed in a straight line and passed behind the 32 destroyer formation from the torpedo attack site. Of course, Yan Shiqi did not forget one point, that is, he concentrated the ground firepower of the four battleships on the "North Carolina" and "Washington" to assist the 32 destroyer formation in the torpedo attack.

Kincaid also immediately sensed that the focus of the opponent's attack had shifted to the two "North Carolina" class battleships, and he immediately issued a new order, and the four "South Dakota" class all concentrated on shelling the four cruisers where the opponent had killed, and at the same time let the two "North Carolina" class quickly evade the torpedo attack, and the cruiser formation between the two battleship formations immediately moved forward. Block the opposing destroyer. But this group of American cruisers first had to face the four cruisers in the opponent's 33 cruiser formation.

By this time, the battle had actually become more chaotic. The four battleships under the command of Kincaid were about 13 to 15 nautical miles away from the 31 battleship formation under the command of Yan Shiqi, and the distance was expanding one step further. And the formation of 31 battleships was two "North Carolina"

The distance of the battleships was about 12 to 14 nautical miles, which was just above the extreme range of shelling. In addition, the 34th Cruiser Formation had crossed the battle line in five minutes, and was in front of the 31st Battleship Formation, within 12 nautical miles of the four South Dakota-class destroyers in Kincaid Land, while Burke's eight destroyers were rapidly approaching. To the west of the battlefield, the 33rd cruiser formation was only about 1o nautical miles away from the two "North Carolina"-class battleships, and was once the focus of these two battleships, but the four cruisers were all flexible and maneuvering, so they were never hit. The 32 destroyer formation had already moved forward and was rushing towards the two North Carolina-class battleships. On the opposite side, six Fletcher-class destroyers were also added, while six cruisers in the American cruiser formation were also turning, ready to help the two North Carolina-class battleships deal with torpedo attacks.

The first to suffer was the 34 cruiser formation. When Yan Shiqi ordered these four cruisers to build an anti-torpedo barrier, the fate of these four cruisers was already sealed, and they were actually heading for Kincaid's four battleships. The cruiser "Erguna", which was located at the rear of the formation, was closest to the "South Dakota", and at 3:15 the distance between the two battleships was reduced to 9 nautical miles. At that time, the guns on the "Erguna" were aimed at the easternmost two destroyers in Burke's formation, and they did not notice the battleships that were already approaching. As a result, at 3:22 a.m., the South Dakota fired a huge bomb that concentrated the cruiser "Erguna" 7 nautical miles away, blowing the ship's turret directly away, and at the same time detonating the main ammunition compartment below, and the cruiser sank eight minutes later.

As a matter of fact. The Burke formation, which faced the 34 cruiser formation, also had a hard time. The eight "Benson" class destroyers are all very vulnerable, not to mention the 2oo mm heavy guns, even the high-explosive shells fired by the 12o mm anti-aircraft guns will make these destroyers unbearable. In just ten minutes of artillery battle, four Benson-class destroyers were destroyed, three of them sank quickly, and only one limped off the battlefield. The fate of the other four was not much better. Major Burke attacked with a torpedo, and only three of them were able to fire their torpedoes, and Burke's own ship was hit by a 2oomm armor-piercing projectile in the engine room before the torpedo was fired. He was almost sunk, and finally retreated in less than 8 knots.

The 15 torpedoes fired by Burke's formation were not completely empty, and although none of them hit the battleships, one of them accidentally hit the No. 2 ship of the 34 cruiser formation, the "Huangshui". The heavy cruiser was almost sunk, but fortunately, Kincaid had already ordered the battleship to turn around and try to catch up with Yan Shiqi's 31 battleship formation, so he did not fire a single shot at the 34 cruiser formation within fifteen minutes, otherwise, I am afraid that the "Huangshui" would be completely finished.

To the west of the battlefield, the two North Carolina-class battleships were not much better. Face the eight destroyers that came to kill. The main guns on the battleship looked a little too "big".

It is difficult for 4o6-mm armor-piercing shells to accurately hit high-sailing destroyers, and 127-mm secondary guns are difficult to form an effective barrage at a distance of 5 nautical miles. The most troublesome thing was that the cruiser formation left behind by Kincaid did not arrive in time. As a result, only six Fletcher-class destroyers stood in front of the eight City-class destroyers, and Kincaid later ordered six Fletcher-class destroyers to torpedo the 31 battleship formation. In fact, all six destroyers were out of the position of covering the battleships to varying degrees.

The "Fletcher" class has a full load displacement of 25oo tons and is available in two different variants, one is the reinforced torpedo type, that is, two quintuple 21-inch torpedo tubes are installed. The other is the reinforced anti-aircraft type, with only one five-pack torpedo tube, which increases the number of anti-aircraft guns, and its unified armament is four 127-mm high-level dual-purpose guns. Destroyers of this type are planned to enter service in 25 years. In order to catch up with the needs of the war, the first and second batches were only put into service at the beginning of 25 years and did not have time to transfer to the Pacific theater.

In order for these six destroyers to attack the approaching 31 battleship formation, they had to first pass the interception of four heavy cruisers of the 33 cruiser formation. Although the two "North Carolina" class battleships and the six American cruisers that were rushing were concentrating their firepower on these four cruisers, the problem was that the main guns of the four battleships commanded by Yan Shiqi were all aimed at the two battleships that had fallen behind, and the secondary guns were all aimed at the six destroyers that were approaching.

The battle scene was extremely chaotic, first two "North Carolina" class battleships were hit by huge bullets one after another. Then six Fletcher-class destroyers were also shot, and three of them quickly withdrew from the formation. The four cruisers in the 33 cruiser formation did not have a good time, the "Xiaoxue" quickly sank, and the "Hanlu" was also bitten off by a huge bomb, although it did not sink, but it also quickly withdrew from the battle. And the eight destroyers in the ship-by-ship formation of Area 339 rushed forward under artillery fire.

Perhaps they were the luckiest, only two destroyers withdrew from the battle due to injuries before the torpedoes were fired, and when they turned, they fired all four South Dakota-class battleships that were turning to kill, and the other six destroyers all torpedoed at two North Carolina-class battleships.

When the destroyers of the twin launches fired torpedoes and withdrew from the battle, it was the turn of the commander on the battleship to calculate the time of the torpedo's arrival. At the same time, the officers and men on the battleship also became nervous, except for the armor-piercing shells of the opposing battleship, the torpedo was the weapon that posed the greatest threat to the battleship. Even if the battleship had strong underwater armor, if it ate a few torpedoes, the battleship would sink.

There were 6o torpedoes fired at the two North Carolina-class battleships, and the degree of these 6o torpedoes was 45 knots, and the firing distance was about 5 nautical miles. In other words, it takes about 6 minutes and 4o seconds for a fish to cover this distance of 5 nautical miles, and in 6 minutes and 4o seconds, a battleship can sail less than 3 nautical miles, that is, less than 3o captains. In other words, the sector covered by 6o torpedoes was enough for two battleships to eat two torpedoes each.

The two North Carolina-class battleships had no choice, they had to turn around, reduce the area of bombs as soon as possible, and avoid torpedo attacks. But no matter how you turn around, it means that you will lose the ability to resist the attack of the opponent's four battleships. Yan Shiqi's purpose was achieved at this time. By the time the two battleships of the opposing side turned, he had already narrowed the distance to within 1o nautical miles, and if the opponent did not turn, then he could only wait for torpedoes, and if he turned, he would be shelled.

Yan Shiqi is also thinking about the threat of torpedoes fired by the other side, 3o torpedoes are not easy to mess with, but now there are two heavy cruisers in front of the battleship, and the distance of the American destroyer to shoot torpedoes is about 6 nautical miles, two cruisers can block about fifty percent of the torpedo range, and the four battleships if they maintain a high sailing, it is very hopeful to avoid torpedo attacks, and focus all their attention on the two "North Carolina" class battleships on the opposite side, and strive to seize the four "South Dakota" led by Kincaid Before the battleships arrived, they were completely destroyed. Yan Shiqi has about fifteen minutes, and within fifteen minutes, the four battleships can fire at least seven salvos, that is, 252 armor-piercing shells, even if there is only a 10% hit rate, this is enough to make those two battleships finished!

At this time, the battle entered the most critical stage, and the Third Task Force had a chance to equalize the force, but at this time, several unknown targets suddenly appeared on the radar on the "Guangzhou", which almost frightened Yan Shiqi to jump.