The warships on both sides continued to be shot, and huge explosions came from the hull from time to time, which can definitely become a real desperate, after the two sides approached to 2KM, the fleets of both sides struggled to move forward in the rain of bullets, the high rate of fire, the accurate 10-inch guns and the slower rate of fire in the American fleet, but the powerful 13-inch guns gave the opponent enough trauma!

At the head of the team, the USS España was attacked by two battleships, Indiana and Iowa, and the entire superstructure was on fire, and some steam pipes were ruptured due to the huge shaking caused by the heavy artillery hits. The speed had to be slowed down, and the Indiana was not in good shape, as a 10-inch shell cut off one of its chimneys! Suddenly, a large amount of black smoke filled the entire hull. The Marseilles, which was in third place, was completely destroyed by the Kings and Madrid, and completely lost all but one of the 8-inch guns. The entire bridge had also been half destroyed, and the second half of the bridge was swallowed up by flames except for a few metal brackets that were still stubbornly erect. At the end of the line, the Oregon fared better, after all, the pressure from PISA was not great, and the firepower of the Kings to support them was not very strong.

In the close shooting, the fleets of both sides paid a very high price, and the first to withdraw from the battlefield was the PISA-class armored cruiser Cologne in the Spanish fleet, a 13-inch shell was very lucky to knock on the armor on the side of the transmission shaft of the Clone, and the 4-inch tail armor could not block the heavy blow of this 500+KG shell, which was thick in the penetration of the side line armor. The rest of the bullet slammed heavily into the Cologne's dome. The fuse then ignited the charge in the shell, and after a loud bang, one of the Cologne's propeller shafts was shattered, and the ship's speed was reduced to less than 12 knots, forcing it to fall behind.

The exit of the Cologne has changed the tide of the battle in a subtle way, and the Oregon at the end of the queue has finally been freed up to support its brothers! And now the King, which was in the Spanish fleet, was soon hit by 2 battleships, and the situation was extremely critical.

"Prepare to speed up, the exit of the Cologne, maybe it's also a good thing, we finally free up speed. Sent to the lightning strike unit. Let them prepare, and once our fleet is on the port side, let them attack. Yang Yonglin said that at this time, it has entered the most critical moment. Hours of fighting, and all the battles that preceded them, were for the lightning strike that was to come! After leaving the Cologne, the Spanish fleet was finally able to increase its speed to about 18 knots and then began to move away from the American fleet, and when the distance between the two sides was relocked at about 5kM, the Spanish fleet decided to accelerate through diagonally to form an illusion of wanting to seize the T-shaped cross.

The American fleet at this time did not react much to the distance of its opponents, and in Simpson's opinion, with the departure of the Cologne, it would have an advantage for itself, and in this case. The U.S. fleet can completely carry out a decisive battle after implementing a certain amount of self-rescue, after all, the distance is far, the hit will be reduced, firefighting and emergency repairs can still be carried out, and at this time, the speed of the U.S. fleet has also dropped significantly, and the entire fleet can only maintain a speed of about 13 knots, which is more than 4 knots lower than the opponent!

However, when the Spanish fleet tried to seize the T-shaped cross, the American fleet could not calm down, and the withdrawal of the Cologne gave the American fleet an advantage, but once the other side seized the position, the remaining three battleships could completely smash the Iowa at the head of the team to pieces. So in order to avoid this, the American fleet must also turn! The original position was that the American fleet was on the side near the land and the Spanish fleet was on the right, but if it turned, the Spanish fleet would turn to the side closer to the inner side of the port. And the American fleet is on the outside! In this way, because of the smoke of gunpowder and the obstruction of the Spanish fleet. It will be difficult for the Americans to find out what is going on at certain angles in the port. And this is exactly what Yang Yonglin needs! …,

After completing the turn, the two sides rearranged into two parallel battle lines, and by this time, the distance between the two sides had been re-extended to about 5 km, and at this distance, the effect of the artillery attack was better than nothing for the two sides with heavy artillery losses. Just when the Americans wondered whether the Spanish fleet was going to fight or to retreat, one after another Sturgeon-class torpedo boats were rushing towards the battlefield under the cover of smoke!

The high speed of the Sturgeon class up to 24 knots did not make the American fleet wait long, and soon the torpedo boats that rushed out of front and back of the Spanish fleet finally appeared in the field of vision of the Americans! The distance between the two sides at this time is less than 4KM? This is just a matter of minutes for a formation of torpedo boats with a speed of up to 24 knots!

"Attack the torpedo boat with all fire, repeat, attack the torpedo boat with all fire!" When Simpson saw the rapidly approaching torpedo boat, his pupils quickly turned into pins and needles that heralded a crisis! And at the same time, the American fleet had to abandon the Spanish capital ships, with which it had been entangled for a long time, and began to concentrate fire on torpedo boats! “

"It's too late, disband the formation!" At this moment, Magifen suddenly crossed the Simpson and ordered directly. He was more realistic than Simpson, and he knew that after a long battle, the American fleet no longer had enough firepower to suppress these desperate torpedo boats, and the low speed could not avoid such a dense attack, so in this case, only disbanding the formation, can run a few ships!

Looking at Simpson's eyes full of anger, Majifen was unmoved and repeated the order just now! The Iowa, which spotted the danger, quickly turned left and headed out to sea! Indiana and Massachusetts, on the other hand, were unable to maneuver quickly due to the problem of combat damage, and a total of 12 torpedo boats in both directions were targeted by them in the first round!

The torpedo boats rushing out of front of the Spanish fleet attacked, they were divided into two waves, each wave was 3 torpedo boats, and when the American fleet fire hit 1KM, the three torpedo boats turned at the same time, and the Indiana was headed, and then 10 18-inch torpedoes roared out from the rotating launcher! AT A DISTANCE OF LESS THAN 1KM, A SALVO OF 10 TORPEDOES IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING! The Indiana, which had already been heavily damaged and had been seriously wounded, managed to dodge five of them, and the sixth and seventh torpedoes hit the poor battleship almost simultaneously!

The sixth torpedo hit the bow of the ship, and the huge explosion almost cut off the entire bow that had been broken, while the seventh torpedo hit the middle of the hull directly, and the high-pressure bubbles and water currents generated after the explosion directly tore a large hole 5 meters long and 2 meters wide in the side chord, and the turbulent sea water poured directly into the inside of the hull, flooding the two boiler compartments The entire battleship quickly lost power and slowly sank in the waves.

And just as the torpedo boats that broke in from the front attacked, the torpedo boats that entered from the rear also began to attack the Marseilles, and the Marseilles, which had more firepower, gave the Spanish torpedo boats the first blood! An 8-inch shell directly hit the launch tube of one of the torpedo boats numbered TB8, and the huge explosion directly tore the boat to pieces, but the fire of the Marseilles only ended there, and the other two torpedo boats still successfully fired 6 torpedoes, but under the interference and evasion of the other side, 6 torpedoes did not hit, however, it didn't matter, and then the second wave of attacking torpedo boats followed, and there were three more! Just after the first wave of attacks ended, the second wave of torpedo boats had already reached the launch position!

The Marseilles, which was struggling to evade, could not cope with this more violent lightning strike, and all the remaining guns were firing in vain, but with the 8 torpedoes fired, the fate of the battleship was decided! A torpedo hit the stern of the Marseilles, which was turning! A huge explosion shattered a propeller and rudder straight away! A large amount of seawater poured in from the breach in the stern, and the entire deck of the battleship sank rapidly, and soon it was level with the water, and the remaining torpedoes still crashed into the battleship, which was already uncontrollable, and in the end, the Marseilles weighed 3 mines, and it sank before the Indiana in a large number of waters! However, before sinking, the 8-inch cannon of the Marseilles miraculously sent one of the torpedo boats into the sea! …,

At this time, the last American battleship left on the battlefield was the USS Oregon, which had to face the attack of the remaining 6 torpedo boats, but fortunately it did not suffer much damage in the battle ahead, and the Cologne did not cause it too serious damage, which made it comfortable in the face of the attack of the torpedo boats, and in the face of relatively dense firepower, only 2 torpedo boats fired 4 torpedoes. And one of them was also destroyed by the Oregon.

However, the Oregon did not get out of the crisis after dodging the lightning strike, because now, with the evacuation of the Iowa, there is now only one warship at sea, and on the opposite side are 3 Spanish warships armed to the teeth, and in terms of tonnage, the other side is almost 3 times its own!

"Are we just going to watch the Oregon go down?" Simpson said with some desperation.

"If we go back now, then the American battleship formation will really disappear from the naval sequence!" Magiffen reluctantly looked at the Oregon in the distance, which was struggling to resist the pursuers, and said. "We now have a chance to withdraw from the battlefield before dark, and if we go back, the end result will be a total sunk, and everything that the U.S. Navy has left behind after more than 10 years of construction will be wiped out."

"Colonel Magifin, promise me, promise me to bring back as much of the fleet as possible." Simpson said after scanning all the personnel in the entire control tower. He looked very seriously, trying to remember all of them. Then, Simpson took a step back, pulled out his pistol and pulled the trigger at his temple! With a single gunshot, the entire command cabin fell silent. All of them observed a moment of silence for their commander, and at the same time for the already defeated US Navy.

Thank you book friends for the breeze, I'm a rookie, and the monthly pass support of 777 unchanged for thousands of years, and the subscription yesterday was still 400+. The author is already speechless. (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )