Among the three simultaneous artillery battles, the battle between the "Guiyang" and the "Wuhan" and the "Maine" was the fiercest and the most tragic. The "Maine" became the best and most fruitful of the four "Montana"-class battleships, but its final outcome was not much better than that of the other three sister ships.

Before the turn began, the captain of the "Maine" discovered the most serious problem, that is, the distance to the enemy ship was too close. If the "Maine" also follows the "Montana", I am afraid that during the turn, the fierce artillery fire of the other side will be enough to finish the "Maine". During this period, the "Maine" could only counterattack with half of its firepower, and the accuracy of the shelling would be affected by the full speed of the battleship, and it was basically the same as not hitting it. If the captain were given the choice, he would probably sail straight south, trying to break through the enemy's interception in a matter of minutes, and then flee the battlefield. However, it was the commander of the "Montana" who led the fleet at that time, not the captain of the battleship.

From the analysis of the actual situation at that time, the three "Montana" class should indeed go directly south, and the distance of 7000 yards is only six minutes for a battleship with a speed close to 30. Even if the speed of the three battleships at that time was only about ten knots (this is the maximum speed at the time of departure), and the battleships had been accelerating, it was only a little more than ten minutes. On the contrary, if you turn around, it will take several minutes, and you can't escape after completing the turn, and you have to fight a decisive battle with the enemy ship, so the chances of victory are naturally much smaller.

Of course, it is by no means to say that three American battleships can escape Ascension by going directly south. First of all, when they go south, Chang Zhixin will adopt corresponding tactics to deal with them. Secondly, at that time, there were still more than a dozen destroyers of the 3rd Task Force that were not put into battle, if the American ships went south. Then the torpedoes carried on these dozen destroyers are enough for them all to sink to the bottom of the sea. What's more, since the third task force has arrived, the other task forces will not be too far away, and carrier-based bombers will arrive soon, and no matter how fast the battleship is, it will not be able to compare with the planes, and it will still be blown up and sunk. Perhaps it was precisely because of so many possibilities that the commander of Task Force 21 did not let the fleet break through, but hoped to kill a few of the opposing ships in the final battle, so that the fleet would not be sacrificed in vain. Of course, more likely. The commander of Task Force 21 thought that Spruance would send bombers to attack Task Force 3, so he had to hold back Task Force 3 and create an opportunity for Spruance to blow up Task Force 3.

The captain of the "Maine" will not think so comprehensively, he can only decide on the tactical actions of his own battleship. It was also after the initial order to turn at full speed to keep up with the "Montana" that the "Montana" came under heavy shelling, and the captain of the "Maine" immediately discovered it. With the turn, his fate would not be much better than that of the battleship in front, so he immediately gave another order to turn at half speed, that is, the angular velocity of the "Maine" was reduced by half. This allowed the ship to avoid two rounds of shells, and most importantly, at half-speed steering, the two turrets at the bow of the battleship were easier to aim at the target, allowing them to return fire more effectively!

At 6:43, the captain of the "Maine" had to adjust the course of the fleet at any time. to avoid falling shells. At that time, only the "Maine" was able to do this. At the time of the bombing, the "Maine" suffered the least damage, the integrated command system on the battleship was not damaged, and the captain was able to command the battleship to maneuver flexibly. In addition, the Gun Commander can command all turrets to fire at the same time. These two points are very important, and the other warships were quickly killed because they could not be unified in command, and they did not have much success in attacking.

Under the decisive command of the captain, the "Maine" avoided most of the shells fired by the "Guiyang" and "Wuhan" in the first six rounds of shelling. And several shells that hit did not cause fatal damage. At the same time, the "Maine" returned fire in the third round and also hit a shell of the "Guiyang", but this shell hit the frontal armor of the armor turret, and the angle of the hit was too off. The shells were bounced out by the armor, and they did not pose much of a threat to the "Guiyang". , the armor turret just did not participate in the next seven rounds of shelling. However, this shell had already made the captain of the "Guiyang" feel dangerous, so that the captain of the ship deviated the course of the battleship by 10 degrees to the south, trying to distance himself from the enemy ship. As a result, the "Wuhan" that followed closely behind was exposed in front, and the "Wuhan" took the place of the "Guiyang" and suffered a lot of shells.

The battle lasted until 6:48 a.m., when the "Guiyang" took the lead in the battle, and a 26 armor-piercing shell hit the hull in front of the "Maine" A turret, and the shell passed through the armor and then through several compartment partitions, and finally exploded in front of the A turret, almost blowing up the "Maine" bow above the water. However, this is not a key position on the battleship, and at most it only affects the firing boundary of the A turret in front of the project.

At this time, the "Wuhan" had already received a shell, and the light high-speed armor-piercing shell used by the US military hit the battleship between the B turret and the bridge, and most of the officers and men on the bridge were injured, and the shell also caused the angle of the B turret to turn to the right was affected, but the impact was not very great, and it was only five minutes after the B turret fired the next salvo.

In just a few minutes, the captains of both sides realized a problem, that is, at such a close distance, the armor-piercing shells fired by both sides were deadly threats, no matter who had thicker armor, as long as they were hit, even if they did not die, they would have to lose their skin. That is, whoever is able to hit more shells on the enemy's ships faster will be the winner. As a result, this led the captains of both sides to make different decisions.

The captain of the "Maine" decided at this time to speed up the steering and put the main guns in the tail into battle as soon as possible, there is no doubt that as long as the other six main guns are turned around, then the threat of the other six main guns to the two "New Provincial Capital" class battleships will be very huge, but the question is, after completing the turn, how much combat power does the "Maine" still have? The "New Hampshire" was destroyed at the time of the turn, and the "Montana" was no exception

Finish. If the "Maine" also turned at full speed, regardless of the head-to-head gun I, then the result would not have been much better. However, at that time, the "Maine" had actually turned nearly forty degrees to the left, and it was already too close to the other side, and if it did not turn at full speed, it would be even more dangerous. Suffice it to say that the captain of the "Maine" had to make this decision.

Similarly, at this time, the "Guiyang" again deflected ten degrees to the south, preparing to continue to pull away. The captain of the "Wuhan" did not give the order to turn, but asked the battleship to reduce its speed to 11 knots, widening the distance from the "Guiyang" to avoid blocking the "Gui" boundary, and at the same time, it could also widen the distance from the enemy ships. That is, at this time, "Guiyang" and "Wuhan" were separating. de0325

By 6:54 p.m., the "Maine" had not received any results in returning fire because of the impact of the turn, but on the contrary, the shelling of the "Wuhan" and "Guiyang" had been much more intense. At 6:51 a.m., the "Guiyang" destroyed the "Maine's" A turret, and only three minutes later, when the "Maine" had completed its turn, a shell from the "Wuhan" accurately hit the B turret, causing the two main gun turrets in the bow of the "Maine" to lose their combat effectiveness. de0325

It can be said that the "Maine" almost followed in the footsteps of the other two sister ships, and received a devastating blow when turning. However, one thing is different. Before the "Montana" and "New Hampshire" turned around, the first main guns were basically destroyed, and as a result, when the opponent turned around, the opponent's attack focused on the hull, especially the middle of the battleship, and both were finally destroyed because the battleship hull was hit hard. But before the "Maine" turned, the two turrets in its bow were still combat-ready, and at the time of the turn. Only the bow of the ship was hit, and the damage to the hull was not serious. Therefore, when the turn was completed, the six main guns in the tail of the "Maine" were immediately put into battle, and it was these six guns that finally kept the "Maine" from being defeated.

At 6:57 a.m., just as the "New Hampshire" had been destroyed and the "Nanchang" and "Nanjing" were speeding up to catch up and were about to join the battle against the "Maine," a shell fired from the C turret accurately hit the "Wuhan" about one-third of the captain from the stern. near the waterline of the hull. This armor-piercing shell directly penetrated the vertical main armor on the sides of the battleship, and behind it was the heart of the battleship - the boiler compartment! The 3 boiler compartment on the left side of the battleship was completely blown up, and there was only one layer between the 3rd boiler room and the No. 4 boiler room next to it: >. plate, not an armored partition, as a result, the huge blast wave also damaged the 4 boiler, and the No. 4 boiler shut down after two minutes. In other words, this shell caused the "Wuhan" to lose half of its power, reducing its maximum speed to 18 knots. At the time, it seemed. This was not serious, the speed of the two sides at the time of the battle was only about 14 knots, and the two boilers continued to fight. But it was this shell that finally made the "Wuhan" miss all the next battles.

Later, after returning to the empire, the "Wuhan" underwent a complete overhaul, and it was finally determined that two boilers had to be replaced, as well as 3 steam turbines. At that time, the empire had stopped producing the "New Provincial Capital" class battleships, and the same class battleships exported to the Persian Empire used the same boiler that was originally used, which was different from the one used on the "Wuhan". And if you want to re-produce the boiler. It was necessary to place a new order and have to restart the production line of the boiler production plant, which was not only a huge investment, but also took a lot of time. As a result, the "Wuhan" remained in the dockyard until the end of the war and was not able to repair. For the Navy, which continues to fight. It's not really much different from being sunk.

Before the "Nanchang" and "Nanjing" caught up, the "Maine" also hit the "Wuhan" with three armor-piercing shells, but in addition to destroying the C turret at the tail, it did not hit the vital parts of the "Wuhan." And "Wuhan" did not withdraw from the battle at that time, but held out until the end of the battle.

With two more "New Capital" class ships joining the battle before seven o'clock, five minutes later. The "Nanning" and "Guangzhou" that killed the "Montana" were also killed, and the arrogant period of the "Maine" was over. In the face of frenzied shelling of four, if not six, battleships, the "Maine" ended quite tragically.

The battleship received more than a hundred shells, and nearly a third of them exploded. At seven o'clock. When the shelling stopped, more than 600 officers and men were killed by shells on the "Maine". It accounted for almost one-third of the ship's officers and men. In the end, before the battleship sank, about 700 officers and men did not escape, and only less than 600 officers and men escaped. The "Maine" was the one with the largest number of officers and men among the three "Montana" class battleships at that time. From this point of view, the end of the officers and men on this battleship was even more tragic than that of the other two sister ships.

There is nothing to describe the tail sweep of the "Maine", after all, such a one-sided battle may count as a battle, but a massacre. It was not until the smoke of gunpowder from the explosion on the "Maine" rose into the air, the battleship raised its white flag, and the officers and men jumped into the sea one after another to escape, that Chang Jianxin on the "Nanning" breathed a sigh of relief.

By this time, of the six battleships of the Third Task Force, only the "Nanchang" and "Nanjing" were unharmed, and the other four battleships were all more or less damaged, of which the "Wuhan" was in the worst condition, the "Guangzhou" was not much better, the "Guiyang" also had a turret problem, and the seaplane hangar of the flagship "Nanning" was blown to pieces. Later, Chang Jianxin had to arrange for destroyers to cover the "Wuhan" and "Guangzhou" to return first, while the "Guiyang", which had repaired its turrets, continued to follow the fleet.

By the time the duel between the battleships was over, the battle on the cruiser's side was almost over. The battle between the cruisers of both sides was much smaller than the battle between the battleships, but it was much more intense. Moreover, the performance gap, especially in terms of protection capabilities, is not very large.