Rear Admiral Fit, as the commander of the battleship Kentucky, obviously made the most fatal mistake in this pursuit battle on the west coast, and the root cause of this mistake was directly related to the main US fleet stationed in Brisbane, nearly 8,000 kilometers away.

Edward, who just arrived in the South Pacific? Vice Admiral Albert was actively arming the interception, and had received some important information from the Chileans to support his earlier determination, but the Royal Navy had received another piece of information quite different from that of the Americans, which had received information from the interception of a Portuguese coal carrier that had sold coal to the German fleet that the Germans had entered a vast no-man's land in the southern Indian Ocean.

This made Lord Dieters, who had just arrived in Australia, very angry, and the Invincible battle patrol formation searched thousands of miles from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, but now it has found nothing, but the information provided by the Portuguese is obviously not impossible, the Germans are rounding the main channel of the Indian Ocean, and the purpose is very clear, that is, to take advantage of the Royal Navy in the South Balance Ocean, to attack the Indian Ocean region with relatively empty strength.

Of course, other disturbing news has also come from time to time, and the Chinese Navy, the most powerful navy in the Pacific Ocean, has from time to time revealed some true and false news in an identity that does not choose sides, but all the information points to an important judgment...... The Speese fleet is looking for an opportunity to return home to fight.

Therefore, the command of the US West Coast Fleet in San Diego never thought that it would be attacked by a German fleet at its doorstep, and the sortie of the battleship Kentucky under the command of Rear Admiral Fit was largely a military exercise during a warm-up period, and the opponent was being identified. The Americans believe that it is most likely a camouflaged German shipbreaker, not a fleet!

After discovering the target, Rear Admiral Fit unexpectedly noticed that the opponent was fleeing so fast, and he immediately ordered the two Smith-class destroyers to speed up the pursuit, preferably to force the opponent to speed closer to his flagship Kentucky, you know. Although the battleship Kentucky is known as a thick-armored iron tortoise, the attribute of turtle speed is the focus of the American Navy.

As a large battleship of 14,000 tons, this Chishaji-class battleship has a 13-inch, but only 35-diameter twin main guns, as well as 8-inch, 35-diameter secondary guns, as well as up to 15 5-inch high-speed guns, and the armor has reached an impressive 14 inches, but in terms of speed, it can only run at 17 knots...... The reason why it stayed in the West Coast port was that compared to the speed of the dreadnought at 21 knots, the speed of the former dreadnought was indeed a shortcoming.

At 10:22 a.m. on the 12th. After nearly two hours of pursuing the target at a speed of up to 35 knots, the two Smith-class destroyers in charge finally spotted the light cruiser of the Emden camouflaged by the hull through the thick morning fog...... Of course, the Emden that appeared in front of the Americans, in addition to the original three chimneys, added two more fake chimneys, and also covered the front and rear 210mm and 150mm main guns with camouflage, only exposing the side chord of the four 120mm secondary guns.

But that's the firepower. Obviously, it is not only the 900-ton Smith destroyer that can be fought against, and the Smith-class destroyer can be regarded as a large number of home defense destroyers received by the US Navy before the war. A 90mm gun, a 6mm heavy machine gun, and a triple 450mm torpedo tube were installed, but the thin iron armor was as defenseless against the high-explosive shells of the 120mm rapid-fire gun as shirtless.

The disguised light cruiser of the Emden did not show enough combat effectiveness and remained in a state of escape, which somewhat encouraged the American destroyer to approach further. And gave the signal to stop the ship for inspection, of course, the Emden did not hesitate to respond with a counterattack from a side-chord gun, but the poor accuracy of the shells only encouraged the Americans to attack**.

Constantly change directions. At the same time, firing at each other at a long distance, seeing that the opponent's guns were not small, the two American destroyers began to approach the front of the right flank of the Emden light cruiser in a flanking position, and at the same time constantly compressed the distance in an attempt to force the opponent to turn, so that the battleship of Kentucky behind them could buy time to catch up and shorten the distance.

At 11:07, the destroyer Linsen, which quickly intercepted the opponent, found the opportunity, ran to the front of the side of the Emden, and fired 3 MK2 torpedoes in a row at an angle of 10 degrees, of course, the Linsen destroyer did not expect to be killed in broad daylight, especially in the limit of the torpedo range, the news came, the flagship and the backup have rushed to the left behind the Katarina Strait, as long as the opponent is forced to turn, there is a chance to catch the turtle in the urn!

In this era, the conventional practice of warships to avoid torpedo attacks is naturally to turn to open the distance, and then use the enlarged space between the torpedo angles to avoid, for the Linson this kind of 3 torpedo salvos with small angles, the more direct method is to accelerate through, but the Americans have obviously seen through this early, and firing torpedoes in front of them is obviously to force the other side to turn, not to accelerate.

The other destroyer, the Preston also quickly plunged forward and made a posture of continuing the torpedo attack, which seemed to have a deterrent effect, and the opponent finally chose to turn left to open up the distance and avoid the torpedo attack area after seeing the scary torpedo trajectory, and at the same time turned to bypass Catarina Island, trying to use the island to avoid being flanked.

Rear Admiral Fitt was also very satisfied with the news from the front, and at the same time ordered the fleet to sail into the mouth of the strait, ready to catch this damned enemy here...... Just as he was thinking about how to return triumphantly, an alarm bell suddenly sounded in the command room of the battleship, and an officer rushed in and reported nervously and loudly, "General, there is a fleet flying the German flag ahead!" ”

The Katarina Strait is actually a wide sea area with a distance of 50 kilometers between the two narrow islands, but the waters near the islands are obviously not suitable for large warships to sail, and the area that can be navigated is only more than 30 kilometers, so this is obviously a very good interception battlefield, but at this moment, for Rear Admiral Fit, he has realized that it is obviously himself who is intercepted.

However, he was obviously full of confidence in the strong protection ability of the battleship Kentucky, and it was only more than 100 kilometers away from the coastline, although there were 3 enemy ships on the sea level, he immediately gave the order to meet the enemy, "Turn the rudder 15 degrees to the left, turn to sail outside the strait, immediately prepare for battle, confirm the enemy ships, send a telegram to the command, and let the battleships patrolling nearby rush to reinforce it!" ”

The officers of the lookout rushed out, and the entire battleship immediately entered the white-hot preparation before the battle, the original plan to crush the opponent's naval battle, but unexpectedly turned into an unclear, but it seems to be a troublesome confrontation of forces, of course, the full trust in the four powerful 330mm main guns of the battleship Kentucky and as many as 40 weapons from 200mm to 6mm on the battleship, so that the officers and soldiers are full of fighting spirit.

Sailors and soldiers began to enter the gun emplacements one after another under the command of the officer, after all, it seemed that the other side had three warships, even if they had their own weapons of great destruction and carried the famous iron turtle shells, but obviously they could not be careless......

Rear Admiral Fit stood at the lookout window and stared at the enemy ships in the distance, the other side was obviously prepared for this engagement, and took the lead in occupying the T-shaped top of the battleship Kentucky to turn to the direction of the battle, although it was still not clear the opponent's military disposition, but since it was the German fleet...... Then it is very likely that the Spee fleet is searching for capital ships in the South Pacific!

If he turned to meet the enemy like this, he would obviously be in the hands of the other party, and it was said that the Spee fleet was a powerful fleet that also had battleships, which made him immediately frown...... Although the battleship Kentucky is a thick-armored iron turtle, when it comes to firepower, there is indeed a big gap compared to the dreadnoughts that are rampant on the oceans today......

"General, the range is 13,000 meters, and the enemy ships observed may be two large warships, the model is unknown!" At this time, new observations came.

Barely waiting for Rear Admiral Fitt to give a new command, an exclamation came from the ticking telegraph room, "Report, there is an urgent telegram from the Preston, the destroyer Linson has been attacked by the German battleship that is being driven, the hull is seriously damaged, and it is sinking!" ”

Wipe...... This news made Rear Admiral Fett almost vomit out a mouthful of blood, the two destroyers were not in a hurry to press each other just now, that is, ten minutes before and after, they were about to be sunk by the other party, this change is too fast, and the Princeton is only a destroyer of the same level as the Linson, since the Linson was dealt with by the opponent at once, it is not a good situation to think about!

Major General Fit immediately made up his mind, it must be the damn Germans who dug a hole here, but he jumped in inexplicably and turned to meet him, with the thick armor of the Kentucky, it was not easy for the other party to defeat him, but it didn't look like a good idea, after all, it was obviously a big hole in front of him, so ......

"Turn, prepare to cross the strait and turn along Catalina Island!" With Rear Admiral Fit's order, the Kentucky quickly turned again with billowing black smoke, giving up the plan of a head-on battle, and then did not forget to issue another order, "Order the Preston to immediately search the north flank of the enemy and inform us at any time!" ”

In the next half hour or so, Preston did not send back any other news except for several reports that it was engaged with the small enemy ship, and the German fleet immediately behind the Kentucky also advanced at full speed, and quickly narrowed the distance to 12,000 meters, and began to attack with the bow main gun.

For more than half an hour, only a handful of rounds of mutual fire between the two sides, let alone hits, but the Americans found from the observation of the opponent's artillery flames that the opponent's main gun was obviously not weaker than the 13-inch main gun of the Kentucky, and this discovery strengthened the decision of Major General Fit.

The entire Catalina Strait is actually limited in length, more than 50 kilometers wide, but less than 30 kilometers in length, and when the Kentucky crossed the strait and saw the corner of Catarina Island on the north side, it was startled by a few shells that suddenly fell head-on. (To be continued......)