The unexpected actions of the two American destroyers were indeed suspicious, but Major Flins, who was the main force of the fleet's search, obviously did not hesitate at all, and immediately pounced on them, and at the same time opened heavy fire with the 150mm main gun in the bow and the 100mm secondary gun on the ear battery...... This time, however, the two American destroyers unexpectedly began to fire fiercely back back, and the few pitiful 75mm naval guns began to fight back violently.

To Fallins' surprise, the two American destroyers had already begun to move rapidly as soon as the guns rang out...... However, due to the previous low speed, it obviously took time to quickly increase the speed, and as a senior naval officer, he obviously realized that this was an excellent opportunity to strike.

The dark night is obviously the biggest factor influencing the artillery, in the hazy night, even at a distance of four or five thousand meters, the observation target is very vague, to a large extent, the artillery fire at the moment of the opponent's fire is the best reference for sighting, but ...... This obviously has extremely high requirements for the command officer who shoots on the battleship.

The Bremen was up to 28 knots at the moment, for a battleship of only 2,200 tons, caused huge ups and downs and roll, even with the addition of high and low planes and steering planes on the gun mount, but still required the operator to carry out complex operations, in order to offset this huge shooting error, when the first round of artillery battles began, a curtain of water around the battleship, the battle immediately entered the white heat, but the results were not quickly achieved.

Araphava is a protruding strip of islands at the northeastern outlet of the Cook Strait, and in fact, the entire area is made up of a variety of small islands. This forms a long sea trail that is more than thirty kilometers long and located within the strait. These waterways are generally less than a few hundred meters wide. Many are full of reefs, and of course, they are not unnavigable.

Major Fili finally chose to sail the destroyer into this waterway, naturally because he had full consideration, one could use the island at the mouth of the waterway as a cover to avoid the search of the Germans, and at the same time, he could also use his familiarity with the waterway to get rid of the pursuit of the other party. Compared with the Germans, American destroyers often operate in these waters, and they are far more familiar with the waterways that surround the islands than the Germans.

Only here will large tonnage become a burden rather than an advantage...... However, to the annoyance of Major Fili, they were spotted by the Germans before they could enter the waterway to take refuge. And the other party completely ignored the danger that rushing into this waterway mouth might bring, and quickly chased after him.

Just a fight. He recognized that this was the first German battleship to engage in fire with him, and the opponent's firepower was obviously enough to crush him, and he obviously would not stop at the same place as a fixed target, and the exit from the waterway was obviously an even more unacceptable result, "Immediately go at full speed and enter the Arapava waterway!" Inform the Telly that it is ready to attack any enemy ship that enters the mouth of the waterway with a stern torpedo! ”

4000 m ......

3800 m ......

The distance between the two sides is also rapidly narrowing, the intensity of the artillery bombardment is also rapidly escalating, except for the smallest caliber three-pounder guns on the battleship, all the guns of more than 50mm caliber have joined the engagement, and finally, the basic principles of war, the thickness and quantity of the barrel finally determine the effect of the battle!

At 2:11 a.m., 6 minutes after the exchange of fire between the two sides, the Bremen lightly patrolled the 8th round of shelling of the left ear battery, and fired a very accurate low elevation hit, this 105mm 9-kilogram high-explosive shell accurately crossed the airspace, penetrating the side armor of the bow of the destroyer Durreton with huge kinetic energy, although it was only a 9-kilogram shell, but it was enough to easily tear through the front armor belt of the American destroyer less than 20mm.

The explosion was not violent, but it directly damaged the thin horizontal armor belt and the wooden lower deck of the Ddullon, and ignited a deadly flame, in the darkness, this fire was enough to illuminate the entire battleship, and there was no doubt that it was a mortal threat! Half a minute later, a round of fire from the 75mm twin rapid-fire guns in the tail of another American destroyer, the USS Telly, also accurately hit the bridge of the Bremen.

A black cloud of fire rose from the lookout in front of the bridge of the Bremen, and several German sailors were directly torn apart by the explosion, the violent explosion was quite loud, enough to kill and injure the naked soldiers, but it did not cause any serious damage to the battleship, and the armor of the Bremen light cruiser completely withstood the test, and the small-caliber guns could not cause any fatal damage at all.

This scene obviously dealt a considerable blow to the morale of the American destroyers, and then the destroyer Durleton, which was exposed to the firing boundary of the Bremen because of the bullet, was almost devastated, and in less than 30 seconds, the Bremen launched four rounds of rapid fire, smashing at least 40 shells of various types of 150mm caliber and less into the flames of the enemy ship.

On the 90-meter hull of the destroyer Durretton, black clouds rose one after another after being shot, and the fire on the hull expanded several times in this short period of time, and the appearance of the entire battleship was clearly revealed, and the iconic 4 chimney structure of the Paulding class was also knocked out in the shelling, but the remaining chimneys were clearly visible.

"Report, 1500 meters from the mouth of the waterway...... Observed possible reef area! "Just as Major Frings was about to give the order to deliver the fatal blow to his opponent, the officer at the observation position suddenly rushed over and shouted almost into his ear amid the rumbling of cannons.

Major Frings was the first to realize the Yankees' true intentions in hiding here, which was a major problem that he could hardly overcome, and he immediately rushed to the observation position, and looked towards the mouth of the deep waterchannel in the distance, on both sides of which were obviously dark and rocky islands, into which the Americans were desperately burrowing......

The Paulding-class destroyer is nothing more than a 750-ton light destroyer, and the draft will not exceed 5 meters, while the German light cruiser, even the 2,200-ton tonnage of the Bremen, has a draft of at least 7.5 meters, after all, the cruiser was originally born for ocean voyages...... And now the problem before him forced him to make an immediate decision - to chase, or not to chase!

The short distance of 1,500 meters is a one-and-a-half-minute range for the Bremen, which has reached the limit of 28 knots at the moment, but the battleship does not stop when it wants to, and once it enters the waterway in front of it, which is only a few hundred meters wide, it is estimated that it can only reverse out for the sake of safety...... If the other party sent out a few torpedoes at that time, it would really taste like crazy.

"Right rudder...... 30 degrees, prepare for broadside engagement, continue the shelling, block the mouth of the waterway! In a matter of seconds, Major Frins decisively made his difficult decision to sink 2 destroyers, this small result obviously did not satisfy the honor of the German soldiers, he paused, and continued: "Report to the admiral, one enemy ship has been seriously damaged, and another enemy ship is capable of mobility!" ”

At 2:17, when Admiral Speece personally led the main fleet to the periphery of the waterway, the distance between the light cruiser Bremen and the two American destroyers had been stretched to nearly 6,000 meters, and the fire on the damaged American destroyer USS Dulletton was also extinguished for the most part, and only the flame in the bow was still faintly visible in the waterway.

Admiral Spee squinted at the depths of the waterway, this sea area, for the German Navy, is a completely strange place, although these waterways are plotted on the chart, but they will definitely not be regarded as a battlefield for warships, but the Yankees actually took advantage of this water, and finally easily avoided their advantage of comprehensive crushing, which ...... There is no doubt that the upcoming operation does not bode well.

At this moment, Major Fili, who had just escaped from the fire of the Bremen, was in a mess, and during the battle, the bridge of the Durreton was shot, fortunately it should have been a small-caliber shell, but it also made a mess of the entire command room, and his right arm was also injured by hitting the chart table, and the fire caused by the first round of hits of the opponent brought almost annihilation.

"Major, Crews 1, 2, and 3 are all dead!"

"Report, boiler No. 1 is damaged, repair may take at least half a day!"

"The foredeck main turret is destroyed and cannot be repaired for the time being!"

“……”

The successive bad news made Major Filip also have a headache, but fortunately, the other party was obviously unwilling to risk for the sake of two small warships, so he got a vital respite, and the damage management of the battleship was also being carried out in an orderly manner......

"Is there any news from the battleship Virginia, that bastard of Wilm, doesn't it mean that it is nearby......" In the face of the bad situation, although the destroyer Terry is still in combat power, Major Fili has also begun to think of more conservative tactics, "Keep it low, prepare to go around the island, go out from the other side, and continue to track the Germans after dawn!" ”

Boom Boom Boom ...... Boom Boom Boom ...... Boom Boom Boom Boom ......

At this moment, the mouth of the waterway, which was quite far away, was suddenly burned red by the skyrocketing flames, and this formation immediately surprised Major Filley, who was obviously immediately aware of his original judgment for such a scale of shelling...... Quite right, what I encountered was definitely not a small broken fleet, but the legendary main German fleet with many battleships.

But now he has to think about how to track down his opponent anymore, the overwhelming number of shells that fall is definitely a big problem in this narrow waterway!

"Accelerate, move forward! Report to Brisbane at once and discover the main German fleet! Major Fili immediately yelled at his subordinates, under the completely crushing fire of the other party, talking about how to resist, it was definitely a stupid question, to survive and live to think about other issues! (To be continued......)