At 9 o'clock in the night of September 7, 1910, New Zealand, which had already declared its entry into the war as the Commonwealth, was suddenly attacked by the Spee fleet, and an old Australian destroyer and four small offshore gunboats stationed in Wellington Harbour did not have time to make any response, that is, they were swept away by dozens of times more powerful heavy artillery fire, and the counterattack attempted by the harbor battery was also destroyed by the fierce bombardment of the 13.5-inch main gun on the Queen-class battle patrol.

The weakness of the defense of the entire harbor even surprised Admiral Spee, the only battery with a little resistance was also the old terrace gun, which was simply unable to resist the fierce fire of the new warships, but the harvest of the attack on Wellington Wellington was very amazing, in just 2 hours of raid, not only all occupied the port, but also sank nearly 70 hostile merchant ships in the harbor, and the Germans installed a large number of explosives in the port when they left, destroying the port including conveyors, cranes and other large devices.

In addition, the kerosene mixing boilers on several new warships also received fuel supplies that could not be completed at sea, and the most satisfying thing for Admiral Spee was that outside the port, according to the coordinates given by the Chinese, he successfully captured a stateless merchant ship again, in this cabin, he got the main and auxiliary artillery shells, propellants, and even armor-piercing shells and high-explosive shells of the 13.5mm main guns of the Queen-class battle cruiser, and after spending nearly 4 hours of replenishment, the German fleet took advantage of the night to throw down a sea of fire in Wellington Harbor.

As the Cook Strait passed, an accident occurred, when the first series of heavy cruisers of the Gneizenau sailed through the dark and dreary strait, and the lookout unexpectedly noticed a flash of light in the misty distance. The vigilant captain, Rear Admiral Sillet, immediately ordered to be put into combat readiness, and after reporting to Admiral Spee, the heavy cruiser with a displacement of 12,000 tons immediately turned to the right with the cooperation of the light cruiser Emden.

Less than five minutes after Admiral Spee received a report on the Gneizenau's re-tour. The first blow was dealt to the heavy patrol of the Gneizenau, and the vigilant lookout officer unusually alertly spotted the trajectory of three swooping torpedoes in the moonlight, and for a time the whole strait went off like a fryer......

Rear Admiral Sillett immediately ordered the heavy patrol to turn to evade the torpedoes, and at the same time, fired two flares at suspicious targets in the distance, and the violently burning flares instantly exposed the two American-flagged warships flying in the darkness at the end of the dense fog. However, the flare effect of this era is limited to this, just a few seconds later. The other party disappeared from view.

"American battleship! 4 chimneys! Launch long-range white-headed torpedoes! Intercept immediately, and never let the Yankees be our tail! Admiral Speen immediately figured out from the fleet staff the opponent who would attack him, and it was clear that he had unveiled his strategic plan in advance...... The opponent in front of you. It is clear that it was not an American battleship. Otherwise, the other side will greet him with a whizzing salvo of heavy artillery, not 3 torpedoes that have missed.

The encounter between the two sides was 30 kilometres from Wellington Harbour, east of Arapawa Island, northeast of Cook Strait, which is only 15-18 kilometres wide, and was obviously suitable for making dumplings for the adversary, and Admiral Spee's greatest concern was not the enemy's firepower at all, but the observation of flares fired in the dark. These are clearly two American destroyers, and American light destroyers - the Paulding class!

And he was most worried. It is the other party to give up the attack, far away from the final fleet, although the battleships in the Spee's fleet are all relatively new German warships, especially the two Queen-class battle cruisers, which can be called super armaments that integrate firepower, speed and integration, but even the 26-knots speed of the Queen-class battle cruiser is obviously impossible to get rid of the tail of the 30-knots destroyer, let alone the two Scharnhorst-class heavy cruisers at 22 knots.

The two U.S. destroyers are cruising detachments belonging to the U.S. First Pacific Fleet, and they are Paulding-class destroyers that were mass-produced just two years ago, with a displacement of only 750 tons.

This is directly related to the fact that the United States currently has no rivals in the Atlantic, but in the Pacific Ocean it has to deal with strong pressure from China, after all, even the most arrogant American military personnel have learned that there is no chance of any fluke after learning about the naval firefights in the two wars with China, especially the latest Cuban crisis, and because of China's strong rise in the Pacific, the United States is not able to build naval bases in Australia and the west coast of the mainland. And offshore destroyers are undoubtedly a good branch of the military at a low price.

While Admiral Spee's decision was made up to eat the little tail, two American destroyers were also rushing through the strait, and the commander of the destroyer USS Durey, who was in command of the formation, was Vice Admiral Fili of the US First Pacific Fleet, who received the news of the attack on Wellington Harbour on the radio and immediately rushed from the direction of the Tasman Sea.

Earlier, in the darkness of the night, the two American destroyers were completely unaware that there was another large fleet sailing silently in the 15-kilometer-wide strait, but Major Fili, who was familiar with the sea conditions, chose to sail close to the coastline for safety reasons, but accidentally saw the projection of the German heavy cruiser Gnezenau in the distance at the end of the moonlight.

Paulding-class destroyers, with a slender hull and a speed of up to 29.8 knots, are undoubtedly the U.S. Navy's maritime light cavalry, responsible for searching and patrolling in the direction of the Tasman Sea, and the recent news of the German fleet in the Indian Ocean has also made the U.S. Navy strengthen the alert of Brisbane, and 12 destroyers belonging to the fleet patrol all over the entire Tasman Sea!

Major Fili immediately ordered a telegram to the fleet commander to confirm the position of the German fleet, and after turning around at a large angle and escaping into darkness, he did not choose to immediately withdraw from the northeast of the strait, but turned to the right side of the strait, trying to make full use of the darkness and bypass the German fleet, so that he could follow the German fleet and see the whereabouts of the other side.

The entire Indian Ocean to the South Pacific Ocean has long been disturbed by this German fleet, and for more than two months, dozens of Allied merchant ships and small warships have been devastated, but in the end, the information gathered to the fleet command is only fragmented intelligence, and today it is difficult to seize the main battleship of the Germans here, which is a major opportunity to completely annihilate the opponent.

As the clock flickered, both sides were playing hide-and-seek near the 70-kilometer-long strait from north to south, and Admiral Spee showed astonishing patience, and did not relax his vigilance for a moment against the cunning opponent, he carefully let the light patrol out, and cast a huge encirclement net on the channel, as a senior naval officer, he was convinced that the United States would not leave the battle, and the other side would inevitably make the next step of the temptation.

At 2:11 a.m., the Bremen of the second formation of a light patrol was traversing and searching when it accidentally spotted the remnants of the American destroyer fleet that was rapidly departing in the dark, and the two sides immediately entered a fierce exchange of fire, thus opening the first battlefield confrontation between the German and American armies.

However, this is obviously a battle of unilateral superiority, even the tonnage of the Bremen, which is the smallest tonnage in the German light cruiser, is far more than the sum of the two American Paulding-class destroyers, and in terms of the key main and auxiliary gun configurations, the Paulding-class destroyer only has 4 75mm main guns, and the Bremen light cruiser has 9 150mm, 100mm, and 60mm guns of various calibers, and also has light armor that can protect small-caliber naval guns.

At the first moment of the German shelling, Major Fili had already made up his tactical plan, that is, to run desperately, and when more than ten shells fell, the only counterattack he made was to launch a 510mm MKII torpedo at the stern of the ship, and then ordered to reload, as for the artillery counterattack...... That's absolutely pointless.

The 75mm guns were enough to pick up the pirates and the merchant ships of the hostile countries, but it was absolutely impossible to defeat the large cruisers of the Germans, and instead of counterattacking and exposing their positions in the dark, it was better to use speed to shake off the opponents, and he was very convinced that the Paulding-class destroyers had high speeds that were definitely enough to easily shake off the light cruisers.

Obviously, Major Fili's response was completely correct, the Bremen fired four rounds of rapid fire at the target in the moonlight in succession, but it was completely nothing, but a few minutes later, it was startled by the torpedoes flying on the sea, but fortunately, the Bremen was very good at high speed, and immediately deflected rapidly, but it was also frightening.

It's just that with such a large-angle turn, the hull of the ship is deflected to an inclination angle of more than 30 degrees, and the side guns and main gun positions have completely lost the opportunity to shoot, and after dodging the torpedo, the hazy shadow of the enemy ship in the distance has long disappeared...... But that's easier said than done.

The ensuing large-scale recourse that lasted for more than half an hour, the German fleet still found nothing, and just as Admiral Speey frowned and considered whether to quickly distance himself and find a way to get rid of the American destroyer, he was once again smashed by the lucky fruit a little inexplicable.

After losing the American destroyer on the right flank, the Bremen was obviously unwilling to let the opponent escape, but within half an hour almost circled the coastline of the right flank, but had no clue, but when it came back, the lookout officer rushed in like crazy to report, and found a suspicious target 30 degrees in front of the left.

Major Fili commanded the battleship to pounce on it, only to find that the suspicious targets found were indeed two American destroyers...... It's just that at this moment, the American destroyer was stupidly waiting at the mouth of the waterway south of Alapawa Island, even if it saw that it was catching up, it did not leave, did not fire a counterattack, and did not even send a torpedo! (To be continued......)